Plot Synopsis

Using first-person interviews and re-enactments, DANGEROUS PERSUASIONS tells terrifyingly true tales of psychological manipulation, revealing how everyday people were brainwashed into making remarkable sacrifices and committing unthinkable acts. False prophets, criminal masterminds, and sociopathic con-artists who prey on the innocent are just some of the Machiavellian architects at the center of these shocking true stories. Each 60-minute episode tells the story of one person, including: former Scientologist Nancy Many, who joined the Church of Scientology as an impressionable college student in 1971 and soon became an undercover agent, immersed in espionage activities, waging a secret war against the Church's greatest critics; Christine Marie, a single mother who thought she had met the man of her dreams, only to realize that the self-proclaimed Mormon Prophet was anything but, coercing her into giving up her children and sleeping with other men to finance what he claimed was God's work; Colleen Stan, a 20-year-old woman who was abducted while hitchhiking and forced into sexual slavery for over seven years; Kerry Noble, a young father who lived happily with his wife in a small Christian community until charismatic community leader Jim Ellison steered him into a world of racism and mass murder; and Susan Hamlin, a wife and mother of four, whose manically controlling and violently abusive husband terrorized and brainwashed her into believing she was at the center of a satanic cult. DANGEROUS PERSUASIONS returned for its second season on Wednesday, April 15, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT on Investigation Discovery. In the Season 2 premiere, "A Scientologist's Escape," Mark signs a billion year contract with the Church of Scientology, convinced it will help cure his mentally ill brother. He climbs the ranks becoming one of its most elite officers, but Mark is increasingly exposed to the dark, violent side of the church.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT, Investigation Discovery premiered the Season 2 finale of DANGEROUS PERSUASIONS. In the season ender, "Revolution Isn't a Tea Party," Janja Lalich joins an underground political organization in 1975. She's soon trapped in a web of abuse, at the hands of leader Marlene Dixon. It's only when she's forced to bring her dying mother into the group that she begins to realize the corruption.