Cults are actively recruiting in Victoria leaving thousands of victims in their wake with a popular church named
A trauma counsellor has revealed how cults — masquerading as harmless religious organisations — are recruiting thousands of members in Victoria, and warned the highly controlling groups are leaving a trail of victims in their wake.
A cult trauma recovery councillor has warned there are thousands of cult victims in Victoria who have escaped highly controlling religious groups, including “hundreds” linked to the scandal-plagued Christian megachurch Hillsong, as another expert reveals that cult activity is on the rise since the pandemic.
Elise Heerde, a survivor of multiple high-control religious groups in Victoria who now works with victims, has cautioned that such groups, often masquerading as harmless religious organisations, are leaving a trail of victims in their wake.
Appearing before the parliamentary inquiry into the recruiting behaviours of cults and the number of survivors in Victoria, Ms Heerde said: “From Hillsong specifically, based on different survivor groups, there would be about 300 victims, and thousands if we look at survivors across evangelical Pentecostal churches in Victoria and Australia”.
She warned that many more individuals remained trapped, unable to leave due to a lack of resources, or out of fear for their safety and security.
Ms Heerde shared her personal experience of being recruited into the church of Hillsong, where she constantly struggled with feelings of unworthiness.
While part of the church, she was groomed and sexually abused by a high-ranking member, who was later prosecuted.
She also revealed that she was taught to recruit others by love-bombing them and making them feel “part of the community”.
Recruiters were encouraged to save people’s contact details in their phones under the label “friend” to circumvent privacy legislation regarding the storage of personal data.
She also highlighted that several churches in Victoria were recruiting members by offering expensive education and employment courses, often targeting international students.
Recruited members were then coerced into giving up their time and finances “to do God’s work.”
This included a practice known as a “prosperity payment,” where individuals were pressured to donate up to 10 per cent of their income.
“There’s a lot of pressure to be generous, which can be a beautiful thing when done well and in moderation, but it’s taken to extremes,” Ms Heerde said.
“People are told they don’t need anything for themselves and should give everything to God.”
She said people were often poor and vulnerable but were targeted and lent on heavily to give.
She also warned that recruits, especially women, are being groomed for sexual assault in some of these religious organisations. She accused churches like Hillsong of using expensive marketing campaigns and mass messaging to “drown out the voices of victims”.
Ms Heerde, along with other cult survivors, is calling for the establishment of an independent body to oversee potentially dangerous groups and provide resources for individuals attempting to leave these organisations.
“We need a safe place for people to land where they can find what they need,” she said.
Ms Heerde also raised concerns about the ongoing practice of gay conversion therapy.
Gay conversion practices were banned in Victoria in 2021, but Ms Heerde said while classes and group sessions were no longer being run, “it is happening in one-on-one conversations all the time”.
Hillsong is now active in 30 countries and in 2024 the church claimed it had a weekly attendance rate of more than 20,000 people across Australia.
However, it has fallen into disrepute in recent months.
Last year the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) publicly revealed it was investigating Hillsong, and later made a public statement warning charities against using complicated financial structures to “hide serious wrongdoing”.
The Australian Taxation Office was investigating it also.
It came after Hillsong founder Brian Houston left the church following complaints about his alleged behaviour towards women.
He was accused of sending inappropriate text messages to one woman and spending 40 minutes in the hotel room of another female Hillsong member.
Mr Houston has denied any wrongdoing, saying he left the church because of the way it was handled, not the allegations.
Hillsong is still active across Australia, including chapters in Melbourne’s city, western suburbs and Geelong.
Cult Consulting Australia Director, Raphael Aron also appeared before the panel revealing that reports of cult activity had risen since the pandemic.
“One of the questions I get asked most is whether cults are still relevant,” he said.
“The reality is the cult problem today is probably more real than its every been real before. I say that based on the number of calls we are receiving. The number is increasing”.
He said there was a large number of known active cults “many of them Christian based”. He said there were also rising numbers of cults linked to the Asian population in Australia. He told the panel he also saw the Sovereign Citizen movement as cult-like and that it was an increasing concern.
“ we are facing a plethora of organisations that are causing a huge amount of harm.
There’s also thing slide multi-level marketing groups, which are cult like in their approach and then there is the cult of one.
“ It refers to one particle person, it might be a therapist it might be a psychologist, a natural healer, a psychic, someone who is gaining a level of control over that person which is totally uncalled for.”
The inquiry remains ongoing and is expected to wrap up in late 2026.
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