I have to admit I don't know how to deprogram groups of cultists. I can't remember they ever taught us that at the Theology Council university. Or it must've been an elective I didn't take.
So, books to the rescue.
The first few volumes I picked up were no help, really. Bishop Ainslie's "Breaking down Will" doesn't tell much about reconstructing a faith after the breakdown. "Exorcism for dummies", from the famous "for dummies"-series was not quite on topic. Hedion University Press's "Programming for Scientists and Engineers" did not say anything about deprogramming. It made me wonder though, why they make a distinction between scientists and engineers.
Finally I found what I needed in the Theology Council's "Short guide to deprogramming in six parts". Why is it that whenever a book title says "short introduction to..." these turn out to be massive tomes with at least 2000 pages? I think the authors want to brag that their subject is actually so difficult that even a short introduction will take you years to read. Or maybe academic handbook authors are all sarcastic.
Anyway, I could skip the first two parts, "Tome I. Kidnapping the Cultist" and "Tome II. Isolating and Breaking Down the Cultist". Those are better left to MIO professionals. And our cultists are already under guard in the Refugee Center.
Also, I skipped the third part, "Tome III. Discrediting the Cult Leader". I don't think it applied here, Luna is their "leader" against her will. She didn't try to take advantage of these people or lie to them, so I don't see why I have to discredit her. Also, applying Tome III's recipes will land me on the wrong side of an airlock with the book stapled to my chest.
I started with "Tome IV. Presenting contradictions". This is about confronting the false beliefs with reality that contradicts it. Or accounts that contradict it. The book says it is best done by former cult members, and I am glad to say there were some non-believers in the group. They didn't speak out before, because they didn't dare to. But now, encouraged by me, they help. We talk in small groups to the others and expose the nonsense and the contradiction. When Luna feels better, she can contribute to this, by telling people she's not a saint. If she tells it herself, this is much more powerful than when I tell it, and it keeps me on the right side of the airlock.
It's going well, and some groups have already moved on to "Tome V. Encouraging Confession", which is about the cultists themselves voicing their criticism about the cult. After that there's only "Tome VI. Crossing Back to Orthodoxy", which is about the cultists starting to identify themselves with the deprogrammers and seeing themselves as opponents to the cult rather than adherents of it. It is only at this stage that they are ready to see their sins and do penance to rejoin the True Faith.
