WingedBlue Arts

Statistics of Extreme Manipulation








WingedBlue logo

Text and Artwork:
Copyright © 2009 Beth E Peterson.
All rights reserved.

How many people are effected by extreme levels of interpersonal manipulation? How many have been touched by ultra-authority? Although the following statistics give an indication, it is almost certain, given the secretive nature of manipulation, that the number of people, people just like you and I, is much higher.

Domestic Violence

Most research estimates

  • 3-4 million American women experience a serious physical assault by an intimate partner during an average 12-month period.
  • Nearly 1 in 3 adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood.
Estimates, however, substantially understate (because battering is usually not reported until it reaches life-threatening proportions) the actual number of families affected by domestic violence. In fact, some researches estimate that one of every two women will be physically battered at some time in their life. This does not include verbal, emotional or mental battery.

Short-term (6-12 week) psycho-educational batterer-intervention programs helped some batterers stop immediate physical violence but were inadequate in stopping abuse over time. Some batterers became more sophisticated in their psychological abuse and intimidation after attending such programs. 25 - 33% of adolescent abusers reported that their violence served to "intimidate," frighten," or "force the other person to give me something."

Involvement With Destructive Cults

An estimated 5 - 7 million Americans have been involved in cults, or cult-like groups. For every person who becomes a cult member, many more are impacted; parents, children, other family, and friends suffer personal and often economic loss.

The cult problem is so prevalent, the chances of a family member joining a cult are

  • twice as great than a family member catching chicken pox,
  • four times greater than contracting AIDS,
  • 90 times greater than contracting measles, and
  • 45,000 times greater than contracting polio.
According to Dr. Paul Martin (cult expert and director of Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center), "Compared to other social or medical problems, the havoc created by destructive cultism is the most understudied, neglected, and ignored mental health and social problem in the world... If the symptoms exhibited in former cult members were attributed to a virus, it would be considered a worldwide epidemic."

Two Deadly Flowers, One Root

Domestic violence and destructive cults are both the results of one root cause: extreme levels of manipulation. When you take the figures together of both domestic violence and destructive cults, you will find that extreme manipulation effects 8 - 11 million Americans each year. This is a conservative estimate: many cases of extreme manipulation are never brought to light. It is estimated that actual figures of domestic violence are ten times as great; the same is likely to be true of the prevalence of cultic involvement as well. 80 to 110 million Americans…. Out of 293 million. Roughly one third of our country's population is directly affected! Secondary victims include family, friends, significant others, and employers. Preliminary surveys suggest that 85 to 90% of Americans are or have been impacted by extremely manipulative relationships and groups.

We must understand the dynamics of manipulation if we are to dig out the root of these pervasive social ills. This is the purpose of the book, People Who Play God.