The Korean doomsday church targeting Australians
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What led Nathan to first encounter the secretive Korean group on campus?
I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven AM. Two years ago, we brought you the story of a secretive Korean religious group accused of using deceptive tactics to draw in young Australians. According to one former member, the group took over his life, leaving him sleep-deprived and isolated, and teaching him that using his own judgment was dangerous. He described what happened to him as mind control. Since then, similar accounts have been heard by a major Victorian parliamentary inquiry, which has now recommended new laws targeting coercive control by high control groups. Today we're returning to our conversation with journalist Alicia Orr about one young Australian who spent years inside the Doomsday Church and what it took to get him out.
It's Sunday, September twenty seventh. This episode first aired in March twenty twenty four.
Alicia, you've been looking into a story about a young guy in Perth. Who is he and where does this story start?
Yeah, of course. So Nathan, uh, it's not his real name, we're using a pseudonym just to protect his privacy. He's a twenty-three-year-old guy from Perth. It was actually his father who put me in touch with him. He was studying at the University of Western Australia. He was in his first year of university, so he'd only been on campus a little while. It was yeah, it was just a normal day on campus for him when another guy came up to him. Yeah. Nathan assumed, as you would, I guess, that this person was a university student. they approached him and asked him if he would answer some questions as part of a sort of survey. So Nathan didn't really ask many questions about the survey. He thought he was just being helpful.
So he didn't realise that the answers he were providing then, they might be used in any sort of manipulative way in the future.
How did the initial “survey” become a tool for recruitment and control?
He thought he was providing data.
Hmm. And okay, so what happened exactly? What what kind of questions were in this survey that you're talking about?
So this survey there was a lot of questions in there just about his his background, his life, where he came from, uh his family, and especially it mentioned faith. And Nathan happily told him that he was Christian, you know, that wasn't like overly religious, but he grew up as a Christian. By the end of the survey, the two exchanged contacts, and this person was texting him quite often.
From that moment, you know, he kept trying to reach out to me for probably a couple of weeks.
So yeah, I spoke to Nathan about his experiences, uh, but in this audio we've had to just change his voice to protect his privacy.
And He sent a lot of text messages, even you know, sometimes I'd just ignore his text, but then he kept on persisting and he put a lot of effort into His text to me trying to kind of check up and see like how I was going.
Eventually he said that he um ended up agreeing to come along to some event. The details were vague. It was sort of a Bible study group. There was no specific mention of who'd put it on and it was held in a rented building in the city in Perth. But there was no signage or anything to indicate if it was a particular church or who was even funding it. And Nathan, he actually said that the group's interpretation of the Bible, it sort of piqued his interest. He They sort of looked at the Bible differently and Everyone was so warm and welcome at the event and After that he ended up signing up to do this eight month course. So Nathan was going along to these Bible classes, but these weren't your average Bible classes.
What is Shincheonji, and why is it described as a doomsday cult?
It was very extreme in Having to spend all your time focused on it. You had to um memorize different verses, read long sermons, or watch uh recordings of long sermons, and then they had to provide their reflections. You had to have your whole mind focused on this religion, these beliefs. It was only after this eight month course that Nathan heard this word Shinchionji. He found out he was part of Shinchyonji.
Okay, and so what is that, Alicia? Can you tell me more about it and where does it come from? So
Shinchionji, it has its roots in Korea.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led Nathan to first encounter the secretive Korean group on campus?
0:01–2:02
2
How did the initial “survey” become a tool for recruitment and control?
2:02–3:59
3
What is Shincheonji, and why is it described as a doomsday cult?
3:59–5:53
4
What mind‑control tactics did the group use to dominate members’ lives?
5:53–7:25
5
How did Nathan’s family notice his change and try to intervene?
7:25–9:26
6
What strategies finally helped Nathan break away from Shincheonji?
9:26–11:18
7
What consequences did Nathan face after leaving the group?
11:18–13:37
8
How are Australian authorities responding to Shincheonji’s activities?
13:37–15:44