The anti-cult movement started as a reaction to several spiritual movements in the 1960's. Many new religious movements and groups formed around this time in North America – it was the start of a worldwide social phenomena where the dogma and belief systems of traditional religion began to be freely questioned by some who sought their own spiritual understanding.

The first cult war:

• America
   
  This led to the American cult wars of the 1970's and the 1980's. After CIA research into ‘mind control’ techniques during and after the Korean War, proponents of anti-brainwashing as a cure for ‘subversive’ beliefs turned their attention to non-mainstream groups and new religious movements.
  
  The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was formed and for a long time, was perceived as a legitimate referral service - by which the public were placed in touch with violent deprogrammers. In the midst of kidnappings and the successful prosecution of CAN, scholars and anti-cult movements disagreed in not particularly civilised ways.
  
  Eventually, the American Psychological Association debunked the brainwashing concept stating in 1987 that “the theory of coercive persuasion is not scientific” and that it “lacks scientific rigor”.
  
  Finally in America in 1995, CAN itself went bankrupt and collapsed after being prosecuted by a young man whom they had kidnapped and attempted to deprogram.

The second cult war:

• Europe
   
  Europe is now providing a fertile ground for the anti-cult movement. This second cult war is proving more vicious than the first one because Governments are now directly involved.
  
  In France in 1996 and Belgium in 1997 for instance, parliamentary reports on cults were published. These however, relied largely on information supplied by their intelligence services and private anti-cult movements (with an obvious interest in the outcome).

• Australia
   
  The person who initially brought Cult Awareness Network to Australia was an ex-Kenja participant. She had been asked to leave Kenja for unethical behaviour. This precipitated the formation in 1992 of an Australian group called Cult Aware and now also Cult Information and Family Support Group/Services.

The words and actions of the anti-cult movement repeatedly proves they are not motivated by caring for individual rights, nor the value of personal choice and democratic principles and that their members are not inspired by tolerance and freedom of conscience.