The Tools of Integrated Course 1.7.10
Analysis of Mind manipulation - Field research
By Bob Passantino
Field research is varied and complex, so I will only comment briefly on some of its most common aspects. Field research means any research you can’t do within your own office or library. It includes going to a physical site, telephoning someone for information, checking public records, etc. Often cult apologetics researchers forget about field research because the library research is so easily accessible and usually also so overwhelming. But field research can add invaluable information to your research and in some instances it is the only source of information you have.
If you go to a physical site for research, plan ahead. Know what you are looking for. Write down the questions you hope the on-site investigation will answer. Under each question, list the kinds of things you should look for that will provide the information you need to answer the question. Be sure you bring your notes, blank paper and pen and, if appropriate, a tape recorder (with batteries and blank tapes) and camera (with film).
Once you are at the site, survey the area in a general way before you concentrate on the particular things you came to investigate. Make notes of things you will need to remember later, or things to follow up on at a later time. Write down everything of significance. Record or photograph as necessary. When you are ready to leave the site, review your investigation. Look over your notes. Correct any errors you notice immediately, before you forget. Check to be sure you haven’t overlooked anything before you leave. While the scene is still fresh in your mind, write down leads you would like to follow at a later time. Make a list of the information you were able to obtain, a list of what you couldn’t find, and a list of what you still need to locate or check. Telephone field research overlaps interviewing, so I shall just mention it here. Before you jump into your car and rush over to the local cult headquarters for information, think about whether you could accomplish what you need to better by phone. In fact, sometimes people are more apt to give you the information you ask for on the phone than they are if you show up in person. Maybe they assume phone calls are harmless.
Here are some good telephone contacts: reference librarians, personnel offices, authorities in the field, public officials, statistical offices like the Centers for Disease Control or the U. S. Weather Service, 800 information lines, etc. Public records are a big part of the field research domain. There are public records on births, deaths, marriages, adoptions, wills, passport applications, educational enrollment and graduation, employment history, name changes, home addresses and phone numbers, articles of incorporation, boards of directors, non-profit organization tax information reports, civil and criminal complaints, real estate transactions, address changes, etc. If you are diligent at using public records, you can find a wealth of information before you even contact the person or organization you are investigating.
How to discover a credible chronology
Let’s say you want to research the founder of a new cult. You know that the cult was founded in 1987 in Kansas City, and the founder mentioned in a speech that he was four years old in 1940. You want to learn everything you can about the founder. So far all you have is that he was born in 1936 and has lived in Kansas City at least since 1987.
That accounts for three of his fifty- three years. Start with his recent history and work your way back. Listen to his speeches. Read his books. Maybe in one speech he mentions he came to Kansas City right after he returned from his pilgrimage from San Francisco to Tibet, and in another speech he says he spent two years in Tibet, beginning in 1983. Now you know that he was born in 1936, he was in Tibet from 1983 through 1985, and he has been in Kansas City since 1986. You check with the county recorder in San Francisco and find out he applied for his passport in 1982 and listed his address as San Francisco. Now you know that he lived in San Francisco at least in 1982. And you know he hasn’t been out of the country legally before 1982. Check with the reference librarian at the San Francisco Central Library and see if his phone number is listed in the phone book for 1982. It is. Have the librarian check further back. His number is also
listed in 1981, 1980, and 1979. It’s not listed in 1978. You now know he lived in San Francisco from at least 1978 through 1982, in Tibet from 1982-1985, and in Kansas City from 1986 through the present. By using your public document access and critical thinking, you can build a chronology for the vast majority of people you need to research. Sometimes there’s no substitute for field research.
Libraries
Each of you probably has your own cult apologetics library, whether it consists of less than one hundred books or of close to 10,000 books. And it’s probably divided into at least two categories: primary sources and secondary sources. But there are other libraries that can be invaluable sources of research information.
Start with your local college or university library. Visit the library and ask the reference librarian to give you a tour of the reference section. You won’t believe the hundreds of different kinds of reference books available in the reference section of the average university library. There are books listing every accredited doctorate degree granted in the United States; all the religious denominations, sects and cults with their reported memberships; every major United States corporation, its officers and boards; all the major periodicals, with separate books for each type (sociology, religion, engineering, etc.); dictionaries tracing the historical developments of a particular language, etc. When you feel comfortable with the reference section, tackle the main part of the library.
Find out what special libraries there are in your area. If you have legitimate research needs, most special libraries will let you use them, although they may restrict you from taking out books. Many major corporations have specialized libraries dealing with their field of commerce. Hospitals have medical libraries. Courts have law libraries.
Museums have historical libraries.
Find out if any of the libraries you are interested in have electronically accessible catalogues. If you have a computer with a modem, you can access these libraries from your own computer and save a lot of time looking for the resources you need. We access the University of California library system by modem. We do our catalog search (for books and periodicals) by modem, print out the titles we want, and then go over to the university to pick them up. We know exactly what we want and where to get it.
Interviewing
As more and more cultic and occultic phenomena proliferate, cult apologists are going to spend more time interviewing. Sometimes interviewing is the only way to get information about a new cult which has produced no literature yet and about which nothing of significance has been written. Interviewing is also important for understanding exactly what people mean by what they say. In fact, we often misunderstand and even misrepresent people’s beliefs or arguments because their written words are ambiguous and we didn’t interview them to allow them to explain what they meant. Interviewing could be a whole lecture topic in itself, but a few considerations should be mentioned here.
The purpose of an interview is to obtain information from someone else. The information may or may not be reliable, but someone else has it and you need it. A good interviewer sets his subject at ease, moves from general questions to specific requests, doesn’t respond emotionally to the subject’s answers, reveals as little of his/her own information as possible, doesn’t ask leading questions that can obscure the subject’s intended answers, learns to distinguish between the subject’s opinions and facts, recognizes information he/she wasn’t expecting and follows up on it, and leaves the subject willing to talk more at a later time.
It is well worth the time to study a few good resources on interviewing and then to practice interviewing until you begin to understand how to implement these different techniques. I especially recommend Robert F. Royal and Steven R. Schutt’s The Gentle Art of Interviewing and Investigation, Jacob Fisher’s Faces of Deceit, and Horgan’s Criminal Investigation.
Networking
I have seen a serious and growing lack in cult apologetics over the last few years. We have all become so busy and there are so many more of us now that we don’t communicate with one another as we ought. Conferences like this are essential for us to maintain good working relationships with one another. We can all help one another. We can share information, resources, ideas and research. This is not supposed to be a competitive field. We have a unity of purpose, a unity of the Spirit, and a unity of faith that should bind us in close association, with helping those hurt by the cults and the occult as our mutual goal.
If we remember to work with integrity, respect one another’s projects, communicate clearly and frequently and share what the Lord has given us, we will multiply our research efforts almost exponentially.
Reporting
Once we have finished our research project, we need to report on it. The form of our reports will vary considerably. We might write an article, publish a newsletter, give a television interview, prepare a new speech, or contribute to someone else’s project. But all good research reports contain some key common elements.
First, good reports are complete. Partial facts can distort the picture. Incomplete information can prevent us from drawing valid conclusions from our research. Be sure your report contains the negative as well as the positive. Sometimes what you don’t find is as important as what you do. Consider what your report does not cover. What work would need to be done to answer some of the questions your report doesn’t answer? Be sure your report has complete documentation and footnotes.
Second, good reports are concise. Don’t take three sentences to say what can be said in one sentence. Long, repetitive, boring reports forfeit your readers’ interest and encourage them to draw faulty conclusions because they have forgotten what you said in the beginning. Eliminate unnecessary words, technical phrases, and parentheticals. Say what you need to say and then stop.
Third, good reports are clear. Short, clear sentences written with unambiguous vocabulary communicate effectively and accurately. Never leave your reader in doubt about what you mean. Avoid generalities when being specific is more clear and accurate. Fourth, good reports are accurate. Accuracy is essential to your trustworthiness as a researcher. Restrict your report to facts or to what you can prove. Don’t mix speculation or guesses with what you know for sure. Errors or omissions in reports raise doubts about the accuracy, reliability and ability of the reporter.
These are essential characteristics of any good report. When you couple sound, comprehensive research with good reporting, you are able to communicate effectively and accurately.
There are three other considerations to keep in mind. First, don’t let exclusivity prevent those who need to know from receiving the results of your research. It is reasonable for you to want the right to report on your research before anyone else does. But if one stall after another happens and you don’t report in a timely fashion, have the grace to let someone else make your report (with due credit to you for the research, of course). Did you know that at least 400 documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls have never been publicly translated and published, more than forty years after their discovery? The scholars with proprietary rights to them have not yet found the time.
Second, it is a good idea to submit your research and reports to your peers for evaluation, suggestions and criticism. This cooperative effort ensures quality-tested research and reporting. Better to have your colleague find out your argument is flawed than to wait till it has been published and the cultist finds the flaw!
Third, be mature enough to recognize when you don’t have adequate research from which to make an adequate report. Sometimes it’s impossible to come up with a sufficient amount of the right kind of research, and we have to realize that we can’t make as definitive a statement on the subject as we had hoped. Don’t publish an inadequate report. It doesn’t meet the need and it can mislead people.
CONCLUSION
In this far-reaching survey we have seen the good and the bad of religious research theory, techniques and application. We’ve learned how to tell the fantasies and the legends from the truth, and we have established some basic guidelines for responsible religious research.
I leave you with the challenge to follow in the footsteps of the early Christian research reporter, Luke: Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which are most surely believed among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account,…that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. ( This article is used with permission)
Analysis of Mind manipulation - Field research
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