The People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion (POWER), also called the People's Organised Workgroup on Ersatz Religion, was a British anti-cult organisation founded in 1976 based in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Some believe that POWER is a front organisation by large

new religious movements A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider re ...

(NRMs) meant to delegitimise other anti-cult organisations like Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR).Arweck, Elisabeth. ''Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), 129. POWER functionally disappeared in 1977 but caused major controversy within its roughly one-year lifespan. The organisation published a

brochure A brochure is an promotional document primarily used to introduce a company, organization, products, or services and inform prospective customers or members of the public of the benefits. Although, initially, a paper document that can be folded ...

called ''Deprogramming: The Constructive Destruction of Belief: A Manual of Technique'', which advocated for mass

deprogramming Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that seeks to dissuade someone from "strongly held convictions" such as religious beliefs. Deprogramming purports to assist a person who holds a particular belief system—of a kind considered harmful by thos ...

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

members, including methods like

sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...

, food deprivation, forced

nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...

kidnapping Kidnapping or abduction is the unlawful abduction and confinement of a person against their will, and is a crime in many jurisdictions. Kidnapping may be accomplished by use of force or fear, or a victim may be enticed into confinement by frau ...

, and " aggressive sex".Horsnell, Michael, "Alleged offer of brainwashing training: Yard's interest in anti-cult body," ''The Times'' (London), 4 April 1977. The exact party that founded POWER and their intentions are unknown. A 1977 '' Times'' (London) article attributed Michael "Mike" Heys (born c. 1952) as the founder of the organisation. Elisabeth Arweck and

James A. Beckford James Arthur Beckford (1 December 1942 – 10 May 2022) was a British sociologist of religion.Swatos, William H.; Kivisto, Peter''Encyclopedia of Religion and Society'' Rowman Altamira 1998, p. 44, . Retrieved 20 June 2010. He was professor emer ...

seemingly agree that a single person founded POWER, but they both are unsure of the person's intentions. The Acton ''Gazette and Post'' reported in June 1976 that Heys works with "a couple of part-time helpers" to run POWER. ''Times'' journalist Michael Horsnell writes that Heys reportedly began deprogramming because a girlfriend joined the Children of God. Heys was an unemployed lorry driver from Ealing, London, according to ''

The Sunday People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...

'' (London). In Beckford's book, he noted that some argued that

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

documents, obtained via the American Freedom of Information Act, prove that POWER was actually run by "one of the largest NRMs", but he dismisses the evidence as inconclusive.Beckford, ''Cult Controversies'', 230. Heys reportedly told the ''Gazette and Post'' (

Acton, London Acton () is a town in West London, England, within the London Borough of Ealing. It is west of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census, its four Wards of the United Kingdom, wards, East Acton, Acton Central, South Acton ...

) that " lts must be destroyed now, not at some vague date in the future". In their book ''Les Nouveaux Prophètes'', Jean-Marie Leduc and Didier de Plaige argue that POWER was a front organisation to discredit other anti-cult organisations. Leduc and de Plaige claim that ''Deprogramming: The Constructive Destruction of Belief'' was circulated in France by 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 business, or a new religiou ...

after being obtained through a secret conference of deprogrammers in 1977.Leduc, Jean-Marie and de Plaige, Didier, ''Les Nouveaux Prophètes''. Paris: Buchet/Castel, 1978. pp. 345–56. By the end of 1977, Heys and POWER disappeared from public view. Arweck and Beckford argue that POWER's incessance on deprogramming tarnished FAIR's public image along with other anti-cult groups.

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See also