Consultant, Lecturer, and Deprogrammer
In 1986 Ross left the staff of the JFCS and BJE to become a full-time private consultant and deprogrammer. He undertook a number of involuntary deprogramming interventions at the requests of parents whose children had joined controversial groups and movements. By 2004, Ross had handled more than 350 deprogramming cases in various countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Italy, typically charging around $5,000 per case. Ross claimed a success-rate of 75%; journalist Nick Johnstone, despite noting that Ross' moral credentials "seem shaky at best", credited him with having "rescued many people from harmful situations".
In 1989 the CBS television program 48 Hours covered Ross's deprogramming of a 14-year-old boy, Aaron Paron, a member of the Potter's House Christian Fellowship. Aaron refused to leave the organization, and saw his mother as "possessed by the devil". Most of the hour-long program focused upon Ross's efforts to persuade Paron to see the Potter's House as "a destructive Bible-based group" bent on taking control of its members' lives. The case resulted in the parties entering into an agreement that Potter's House would not harbor Aaron, entice him away from his mother, attempt to influence his behavior or take any action that would interfere with his mother's parental rights.
In 1992 and 1993, Ross opposed actions of the Branch Davidian group led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Ross had previously deprogrammed a member of the group. Ross was the only deprogrammer to work with Branch Davidian members prior to a siege involving the death of many of the group's members at Waco. Television broadcaster CBS hired Ross as an on-scene analyst for their coverage of the Waco siege. Ross also offered unsolicited advice to the FBI during the standoff. A later Department of Justice report on the matter stated that "the FBI did not 'rely' on Ross for advice whatsoever during the standoff." According to the report, the FBI "politely declined his unsolicited offers of assistance throughout the standoff" and treated the information Ross supplied as it would any other unsolicited information received from the public. Criticism of government agencies' involvement with Ross has come from Nancy Ammerman, a professor of sociology of religion, who cited FBI interview notes which stated that Ross "has a personal hatred for all religious cults." She claimed that the BATF and the FBI did rely on Ross when he recommended that agents "attempt to publicly humiliate Koresh, hoping to drive a wedge between him and his followers." She criticized them for doing so and ignoring the "wider social sciences community". Other scholars also criticized Ross' involvement. Ross characterized his critics as cult apologists who held the belief that cult groups "should not be held accountable for their action like others within our society".
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