Gaining crazy wisdom through divine ignorance was easy, confided a former Johannine Daist Communion member between bites of a fastfood hamburger, attacked with an intensity that someone on a diet of raw fruit and vegetables for six years might share.

"Something snapped inside of me and I left", said Mark Miller.

Although the 29-year old former JDC member left the church two years ago cold turkey, he said he is only now seriously considering professional counseling.

"It wasn't until two years later that I even told my parents what had happened to me," said Miller, now a student at a Northern California college.

With increasing frequency, disaffected members of new-age religious groups are contacting deprogrammers to help them make the social and psychological adjustments back into society.

Deprogrammers vary in the variety of services they offer, the techniques they use and the term they use to describe their work.

Some professionals dislike the name deprogrammer, preferring instead the title of reprogrammer, exit counselor, transition therapist or conversion counselor.

Chris Hatcher, a clinical psychologist with the Langley-Porter Psychiatric Institute in San Francisco, described deprogrammers as usually ex-cult members in their later 20s or 30s who work with non-traditional religious groups.

Hatcher, an internationally recognized authority on cults, is an expert on Peoples' Temple, having closely studied the group and counseled surviving members.

Based on his research, Hatcher categorized deprogrammers into three divisions. Falling within the first category are those who kidnap cult members, usually at the request of parents or relatives. "These deprogrammers take on faith that all cults are negative."

When cults have brought charges of kidnapping or false imprisonment against parents, the court has held consistently in the deprogrammers' favor, according to Hatcher.

Reprogrammers fall into the second category. "They hold that not all groups are bad and that reconditioning is necessary," he said.

Hatcher put himself in the last category - mental health professionals contacted by former cult members.

Deprogrammer Lowell Streiker has come under professional criticism from time to time for his kamikaze-like tactics of reconditioning former cult members. He acquired a certain notoriety while deprogramming a large percentage of Peoples' Temple members after the mass-murder suicides in Jonestown, Guyana.

Streiker operates out of his Burlingame-based Freedom Counseling Center, where he said he has counseled 2,000 families. Former members of various groups come to him, according to Streiker, about "life adjustment problems".

When contacted, he said he has known 20 ex-JDC members and about 20 current members over a five-year span.

"Of all the groups I have dealt with in the past six years," he said, "this group has been the most forthright and honest. If you said the group owed you $60, I would go to the group and they would resolve the case."

In 1983, the church used Streiker's services. In February 1985, one month before a pending $5 million lawsuit against them was filed, the JDC asked him to "evaluate" the church, he said.

Streiker expressed satisfaction with the cooperation he said the church has offered him in his lawsuit related to mediation efforts.

"They've encouraged the party in the church to talk with me. I don't get that kind of cooperation with other groups," he said.

For many voluntary leavetakers, the fear of transferring trust to another person and the possible exploitation of that trust again, keeps former group members from seeking help, said counselor Susan Rothbaum.

Rothbaum, an East Bay social worker, and Josh Baran, a former Zen Buddhist monk and a self-styled public relations consultant, formed Sorting It Out in Berkeley in 1979, with the assumption, said Rothbaum, "that we were interested in spiritual growth."

Rothbaum and Baran say they have seen more than 2,000 clients from more than 250 groups.

"We don't do deprogramming - kidnapping. We do transition deprogramming," Rothbaum emphasized.

Three or four years ago a "rash" of JDC leavetakers sought assistance from the two counselors, Rothbaum said. "The JDC contacted him (Baran) and told him people are saying we're a cult. They asked him to mediate."

When contacted in Los Angeles, where he also has an office, Baran said "The JDC asked me to help resolve some of the problems. I talked to both sides of how they could right the wrongs."

Baran said his efforts did not meet either side's expectations. "Some leave-takers still felt they were not heard. Essentially, they felt they could not communicate with the leader clearly.

"It's a system of a perfect master at the top, incapable of human error," Baran said.

Since that incident, Baran said the church has contacted him "from time to time". Six weeks ago, a church representative called to ask him for his mediation services again because a number of people had left.

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Although he has not counseled any former JDC members face to face, Zeitlin said a number have called him recently. "They like to keep their distance. Leave-takers like anonymity. They are careful not to be exploited again if they perceive themselves having been exploited before."

Zeitlin said the group of ex-JDC members is "struggling" to seek a frame of reference. "The things reported to me are classic kinds of cultic situations. From what I've heard Da Free John is demanding more, having everything dedicated to him. He is collecting and hoarding large amounts of money and he is sleeping with his women disciples."

Zeitlin said he had heard of cases of rape within the inner circle. "It's not uncommon for leaders to seduce followers under false pretenses. They pretend they're celibate. They tell the initiates, this is the meaning to the path of spiritual growth. Then they change the meaning of that path".

JDC is a relatively small group, stressed Zeitlin. "He's pretty successful. He has a corps of people behind him. Some cult leaders thrive on the global sense of seeing a movement develop. He's very concerned about the acceptance of his books and ideas.

"He wants to make sure he will be remembered as a great spiritual master."

Marvin Galper is a psychotherapist who has been in the San Diego area since 1966 and who has extensively researched cults. Over the years, he said, he has treated a couple of former JDC members who were rank and file members and their treatment "did not allow me information on inner circle practices."

Galper said he has, however, heard of physical and sexual assaults on female JDC members from inner circle leave-takers.

People come forward, suggested Chris Hatcher, because "they gain some kind of closure from it. Some kind of self-esteem is restored."

Will the efforts of the individuals who are now coming forward have any effect on Franklin Jones on his island in Fiji?

"It will hit them", said Hatcher, "but probably like they're the victims of religious persecution".