Hi.

I remember that a couple of years ago, in the mainstream press, I stumbled upon a news story talking about how the history of a small American town was interlinked to that of a New Age cult of some sort.

You may be thinking about Clearwater and Scientology, but no, it was a completely different story, so read on. :)

This group of people who were part of this cult moved, along with their guru, into this little-populated town, or they literally founded that town, I don't know, but as years went by, they grew tired and disillusioned of the guru and eventually threw him out. The town still exists, and its inhabitants are the former members of the now-defunct cult they were once part of.

It was a very nice story, proving that people can indeed break free of a cult. It was a story with a happy ending, with the interviewees narrating of how they were now much happier without the cult leader around dictating the way they should live. It was particularly interesting because what happened was that once the cult disintegrated, the people did not go their separate ways. They didn't disband. They sticked together without the cult leader. They remained in the town, which still exists, meaning that it's not a ghost town.

Do you have any idea what this town is, or what the cult in question was named?

I remember the gist of the story very well, which is what I've just finished telling, but I can't recall any of the details. I was thinking that I'd like to read the story again, and maybe find out more, but I haven't been able to flush it out by googling because words like "cult" or "town" and so on are just too generic to do some kind of narrow search.

Does any of this ring a bell?

Thank you!

RichardD