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Acknowledgments ous others. IX Many individuals have made this book possible. Among the most obvi- ous contributors are the people whose work directly influenced and informed my investigations: researchers like Joel and Helene Mesnard, Jean-Jacques Velasco, Claude Poher, Roger Chereau, Martine Castello, Linda Strand, Jean-Francois Boedec, Jenny Randies, Linda Howe, Pierre Guerin, Antonio Ribera, Bettina Allen, Fabio Zerpa, and numer- This was a difficult book to research and to write. As in the investiga- tion of the cults that occupied me when I published Messengers of Deception, 1 was often repelled by the material I was compiling. I gave up twice, once when I discovered the truth about the Pontoise case, because I felt so helpless, and the second time when | hung up in disgust on a caller who accused me of being paid (by the government, presum- ably?) to conceal the “horrible truth" from my audience. The support I received from Janine, from my children, and from a tew trusted friends helped me resume the work. Fred Beckman and Dr. Richard Haines provided consistently valuable advice. Robert Emeneg-