Martin Faiers (born c. 1954)Horgan, Denys, "Top Toronto Moonie smuggled into U.K. on brother's passport," ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' (Toronto), 21 February 1980. is a British

deprogrammer Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive be ...

and former official in the

Unification Church The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spi ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.Schwarz, Walter, "Yard seeks ex-cultist over kidnap," ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' (London), 30 October 1985. He was born in

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. His family members are publishers of '' This England'', a quarterly magazine about small-town and country

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. According to scholar Elisabeth Arweck, Faiers lives in southern France and works in the Spanish deprogramming "market." In addition to being a deprogrammer, he also organized for several years a UK organization called Council on Mind Abuse.

Unification Church and being deprogrammed

Faiers moved to Canada in 1976 for business purposes related to '' This England'', which has a large readership among British expatriates in

Commonwealth nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

. He joined the

in 1978. Faiers was director of the Unification Church's

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

training center, which made him ''de facto''

second-in-command Second-in-command (2i/c or 2IC) is a title denoting that the holder of the title is the second-highest authority within a certain organisation. Usage In the British Army or Royal Marines, the second-in-command is the deputy commander of a unit, ...

of the Unification Church in Toronto. It is unknown when he first came to the position, but on 8 February 1980, his family had Erica Heftman, an American

from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, deprogram Faiers. Around 10 February 1980, Faiers reportedly decided to return to

after discussing with Heftman. Faiers's family went to the Toronto training center to retrieve Faiers's

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

, but it was lost. Martin Faiers used his older brother Philip's passport to return to the United Kingdom. By at least 1984, Faiers moved to southern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

from Britain.Moon, Peter, "Moonies selling elk antlers as aphrodisiacs to Asians," ''The Globe and Mail'' (Toronto), 20 January 1984.

Deprogramming activities

In 1984, 22-year-old Andrew Dobie joined the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

in the United Kingdom while attending college. After inheriting GB£200,000, Dobie bought GB£90,000 of signed literature of

L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianeti ...

, the founder of

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data indi ...

, as well as GB£10,000 for

Dianetics Dianetics (from Greek ''dia'', meaning "through", and ''nous'', meaning "mind") is a set of pseudoscientific ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body created by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubba ...

and other

self-improvement Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...

courses through the Church.{{Cite web , last=Ryan , first=Sean , date=1985-11-04 , title=Family save son who paid cult £100,000 , url=http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/library-item.php?iid=2887 , access-date=2022-08-16 , website=www.xenu-directory.net Dobie's family spent GB£10,000 to hire Faiers in late 1985 to deprogram him after Dobie tearfully demanded another GB£53,000 to pay the

. In mid-to-late 1984, Faiers reportedly deprogrammed Sehra Mohammed (born Caroline Banks), a woman who converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

in Britain. Three people – Doris Bank, a

real estate agent A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

and Mohammed's mother; Keith Rose, a

company director A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

; and David Grey, an

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

person – were charged with " conspiring to forcibly abduct Mrs Mohammed against her will between June 1 and October 29, 1984," according to ''

'' correspondent Walter Schwarz.

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

sought to interview Faiers for his participation in the deprogramming, though he was not charged with anything.

References

Anti-cult movement 1950s births Deprogrammers Former Unificationists Unification Church controversies Scientology-related controversies People from Grimsby Living people

Unification Church and being deprogrammed

Deprogramming activities

See also

References