'I thought I was going on a quit smoking course but I ended up in a cult'
A Brit has shared his ordeal after he thought he was signing up to a course to quit smoking - but ended up joining a cult.
Lancashire-born Ian Haworth, 76, moved to Canada and his life took a surprising turn.
Then, aged 31, he was doing some shopping on a Saturday, in August in 1978, in the city, when he was approached by an attractive woman with a clipboard.
Under the impression she was doing a survey, he began answering her questions.
But Ian had no clue that he was kickstarting himself off on a path that would see him join a cult, and one that would define his life.
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Ian had been out shopping at the time, within days he would join a cult and give them all his money (CIC)“I was doing some shopping, it was a lovely Saturday in August, and I was approached by a very attractive lady with a clipboard and pen,” he told the Mirror.
“She asked if I could help and I said yes and she started asking some questions and I think they were designed to answer yes, then she said the way you answered these questions I think you’ll be interested in our community group.”
But even then, Ian said he was disinterested, but she challenged him and asked "isn't it about time you gave back to the community?".
He continued: “I admired her courage [to say that] and I was selfish and I felt, it is about time I did something … so I asked more and she invited me to a meeting.”
A few days later, Ian attended a meeting of a hundred people at a hotel in Toronto.
In this time in between, he did try and look into the group, but they changed name so often, that the name they approached him with, had no issues or complaints linked to it.
It has since ceased operating Ian said.
The Jonestown massacre took place the month after he escaped the cult - it, along with his experiences, led to him working to combat cults and the damage they cause (Getty Images)However, initially during the meeting, Ian found himself disinterested once more now listening to the personal stories of the group's members, and he would’ve left had it not been for the tempting spread of food available during the break.
When it came, he filled up and ate, before heading out into the corridor for a cigarette. When he was out there, one of the women from the group approached him.
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Ian recalled: “She said, ‘we didn’t know you smoke, have you ever thought about giving up?’
“But what she didn’t know was that I’d visited my doctor shortly before, he’d told me I’d be dead by 40 if I didn’t quit.”
Due to this, Ian had already begun looking into quit smoking schemes and told her he had.
She laid out the group's quit smoking scheme and promised a 95 per cent success rate. It was also much shorter than the ones he’d previously seen, and if it didn’t work offered your money back, so Ian thought he’d go for it.
“They had me hook line and sinker,” Ian said.
“They had me completely by the Saturday midday on the four day course. I was as good as theirs.
“I gave them all my money, $1550 which doesn’t sound like a great deal but for a single guy then was a lot more … I had changed completely.”
The money was handed over for more courses which Ian signed up for without hesitation.
Ian said he was hypnotised a number of times during the smoking course without even realising it at the time.
Then, the day after finishing he quit his job, and returned to the group, dubbed 'the Institute', for what he described as a “refresher course” that saw his commitment reaffirmed.
The next few weeks of Ian’s life changed it forever, he spent all of his time with the group, helping raise money, he recruited five more people, and even took part in their community outreach - something he described as a sham to improve their respectability.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d escaped after four days, two and a half weeks or two years, the damage is done,” he explained.
Ian’s time in the cult came crashing down when an expose was published in a local Toronto newspaper uncovering the cult.
“My neighbour had been worried about me, they’d noticed how much I’d changed and she rang me up and asked if I’d seen the article about the Institute.
“I hadn’t, I thanked her and said I’d get a copy. But she said ‘no worries, I’ll meet you in the lobby to give you mine.’”
Ian recalled how excited he was collecting the paper, until he read the horrifying revelations of the cult.
It detailed how the group controlled its members and stole from them, and left his world shattered.
He tried to confront the group over the article's claims, but found himself suddenly barred, and left trying to put his life back together again.
Ian recalled how he frantically rang up the five people he had recruited himself, warning them to the truth of the group.
He was let back into his job, and found his feet once more, but his experience with the cult stuck with him.
He had met the recruiter in the August, joined in the September, left in the October, and then in November of 1978, the Jonestown Massacre rocked the world.
It also opened his eyes to the dangers of cults, and he started the Council of Mind Abuse - a group aimed at combating them.
His time running the group in Canada was difficult, despite his successes helping people, he received a number of threats from various groups.
One person told Ian “your end is near” and another group had someone try to infiltrate COMA meetings.
Now married with children and living back in the UK, Ian runs anti-cult group - the Cult Information Centre.
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