Free Mind Foundation: Files on new religious movements collected by David McLeod as a member of the Free Mind Foundation

Fonds — Container: 1/1

Identifier: fmfo

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Box contains folders holding information on the following: 1. Newsletters of Free Mind Foundation (FMF); 2. Newspaper clippings, various newsletters, flyers, correspondence, and publicity for organisation FMF were monitoring. This includes; Centrepoint; Rajneesh; Divine Light Mission; Scientology, The family (Brotherhood); The family (prior conncetion to Children of God); Unification Church; Zenith Applied Philosophy; Christian Fundamentalists; Transcendental Meditation; Hare Krishna; Society of Practical Philosophy (SES); E-min; Shri Ram Chandra Mission; Exclusive Brethren 3. Empty folder: Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF) – no information within it. 1984 CFF changed it name to Cult Awareness Network CAN)

Note: Duplicate material throughout this collection has been removed.

Dates

Creation: 1974-1994

Access and use

Access is freely available in the J.C.Beaglehole Room for research and private study. For any use beyond this, please contact the J.C.Beaglehole Room (jcbeaglehole.room@vuw.ac.nz) in the first instance.

Background information

The Free Mind Foundation appears to have been established in New Zealand in 1982 and was part of a global network of groups collectively identified as an anti-cult movement, although some member groups preferred to be identified as 'cult-watching' or 'cult-monitoring'. Its kindred organisations include FAIR (originally Family, Action, Information and Rescue but changed to Family, Action, Information and Resource in 1994) in the United Kingdom, established in 1976 to support parents and families dealing with the issue of 'cult' membership. In the US and Canada were the Citizens' Freedom Foundation (CFF) and the Cult Project respectively, among others.