Podcast This Is Your Brain With Dr. Phil Stieg: Tell-Tale Signs That You Are in a Cult – Janja Lalich

Episode 019 – Tell-Tale Signs That You Are in a Cult – Janja Lalich
Release Date 6 March 2026

Website: www.lalichcenter.org

Cults and high-control groups influence beliefs and fundamentally reshape identity, decision-making, and autonomy. In this episode, Dr. Phil Stieg sits down with sociologist and cult expert Dr. Janja Lalich, Professor and author of Take Back Your Life, to explore the psychology behind cults. Drawing from decades of research as well as her own personal experience of spending a decade in a political cult, she discusses how indoctrination alters a person’s sense of self, why anyone can become vulnerable under the right circumstances, and the road to recovery after leaving.

Phil Stieg
Cults and coercive systems of control can shape how people think, feel, and make decisions. Often. From Jim Jones, David Koresh, and the Branch Davidians, to online conspiracy theory groups and family cults, these systems are more pervasive and psychologically damaging than many of us may suspect.

Today, we are joined by Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist and leading authority in cults, coercive control, and systems of undue influence. As Professor Emerita of Sociology at California State University, Chico, Dr. Lalich has spent decades studying how individuals get drawn into high control groups and how they manage to find their way out. Today, we’ll learn about what happens in the brain when belief, identity, and autonomy are manipulated, and what it takes to reclaim independent thinking after indoctrination.

Janja, thank you so much for being with us today.

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