Rick Alan Ross

Rick Alan Ross (b. 1952) is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the nonprofit Cult Education Institute.

He frequently appears in the news and other media discussing groups some consider cults.

Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries.

Ross was born in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1956.

His mother worked for the Jewish Community Center and his father was a plumber.

He was raised and went to school in Arizona with the exception of one year that he was sent to the Camden Military Academy in South Carolina.

He graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1971.

After high school, Ross worked for two years at a finance company and at a bank.

In his twenties, during a period of unemployment, he got into legal trouble.

In 1974, he was charged, along with a friend, for the attempted burglary of a model home.

He pleaded guilty to trespassing and was sentenced to probation.

In 1975, he was charged with grand theft, again with a friend, for embezzling over $50,000 worth of jewelry from a shop where the friend worked.

All the stolen items were returned to the store; he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to four more years of probation, which was terminated early.

While he was on probation, he worked for a cousin's car salvage business.

Ross became concerned about extremist organizations in 1982 when he learned that a fringe religious group had encouraged missionaries to become employees at his grandmother's nursing home where they were targeting elderly residents for conversion to Messianic Judaism.

According to Ross, the missionaries were threatening Jewish residents, many of whom had survived persecution in Europe, that they would burn in hell if they did not convert.

Ross told this to the home's director and the local Jewish community and campaigned to have the group's activities stopped.

Following the incident at his grandmother's nursing home, Ross continued his involvement in the organized Jewish community and worked with the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix to write a brochure on the cult phenomenon in Arizona.

This led the Union for Reform Judaism to appoint Ross to two national committees focused on cults and inter-religious affairs and he also volunteered as a lecturer and researcher for the denomination.

In 1983, Ross started working for Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS) in Phoenix as the coordinator for the Jewish Prisoners Program, which he founded.

His work in the prison system covered social services for Jewish inmates, advocating for their religious rights, and providing education regarding hate groups.

In addition, he chaired the Coalition of Jewish Prisoners Programs, the umbrella organization for an international group of human services agencies providing assistance to Jewish inmates and their families.

He also served on the religious advisory committee for the Arizona Department of Corrections and was later elected as its chairman.

From his work in the prison system, Ross discovered that prisoners were a prime target for cult groups and through his role on the religious advisory committee, he helped develop a policy on proselytizing to inmates.

He also worked for Phoenix Bureau of Jewish Education, designing a curriculum and teaching.

In 1986, Ross left JFCS to become a full-time private consultant and deprogrammer.

Ross worked as a deprogrammer with the Cult Awareness Network (CAN).

Despite involving himself in many coercive interventions against individuals involved in new religious movements, Ross has no education or credentials in religion and no formal training in counselling or psychology.

In 1987, Ross deprogrammed two former members of the Branch Davidians in upstate New York, and in 1988 began receiving calls about the Davidian group led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas.

In 1989, the CBS television program 48 Hours covered Ross's deprogramming of a 14-year-old boy, Aaron Paron, a member of the Potter's House Christian Fellowship.

According to his mother, when she distanced herself from the church, Aaron began viewing her as "possessed by the devil"; he became suicidal and ran away from home, refusing to leave the organization.

Aaron's mother had made multiple calls to the police and, prior to filming, Potter's House entered into an agreement that they would not have contact with or harbor the minor, entice him away from his mother, attempt to influence his behavior, or take any action that would interfere with his mother's parental rights.

The program focused on Ross's efforts to persuade the boy to view Potter's House as "a destructive Bible-based group" which took control of its members' lives.

According to a review in The New York Times, the 48-hour intervention apparently persuaded Aaron that his mother was not possessed by the Devil and that Potter's House was not what it seemed.

In a closing scene filmed three weeks later, Aaron's psychologist assured his mother that Aaron was "back in the land of the living now".

Ross faced criminal charges of unlawful imprisonment over a 1991 forcible deprogramming of United Pentecostal Church International member Jason Scott; a jury acquitted him at trial.

In 1995, a civil lawsuit filed by Scott resulted in a multimillion-dollar judgement against Ross and his co-defendants.

Later, Ross and Scott reached a settlement in which Ross agreed to pay Scott US$5,000 and provide 200 hours of professional services at no charge.

Ross was the only deprogrammer to work with members of the Branch Davidians prior to the Waco siege; some scholars later criticized his involvement with the siege.

During an interview with the New York Daily News in 2004, Ross said, "I was young and foolish and made mistakes that I deeply regret. I did whatever the court required, completed my probation in 1979, and the guilty verdicts were vacated in 1983. I have gone on with my life and never again got in that kind of trouble."