psychotherapy cult in southern california?
Date: March 03, 2007 04:46AM
I have been debating joining and posting this for over a month. I want to remain anonymous because I don’t want this to ruin my marriage like it ruined so many other parts of my life.
I knew Aysha Love years ago. Aysha would befriend young people, usually with very troubled family lives, and offer them what they were looking for: a mother figure who cared about them and loved them as they were and took an interest in them. She thought you were smart and special and told you so all the time. She treated you almost like you were her own child, except she spoke to you as an equal. Her home and her family seemed like everything you’d ever wanted and had been missing all your life. She was this unending fountain of love and caring. You could tell her anything and she wouldn’t judge you. She reminded me of the youth ministers at my church, except she was far more cultured and intelligent and didn’t try to get you to believe in Jesus.
But she also had no concept of right and wrong. She didn’t hold you accountable for what you did to yourself. She never tried to get you to see your part in creating your family’s troubles and reconcile with your parents, she never said you needed to quit using drugs because you were killing yourself and your future, she never said you had to stay in school because it’s harder to get a job or get into college with a GED than with a diploma, she never said you can’t have sex with every girl who’s willing because you are going to feel more and more worthless and miserable with each vulnerable human being you use for your own pleasure. She never helped you to move past your fears and social awkwardness to become a healthy adult. She never made you take responsibility for improving your own life, because she wanted you dependent on her forever.
She was also very beautiful and sexy and she knew how to use that. Every young male has a fantasy about a beautiful older woman teaching him how to make love and not laughing at him like the girls his age sometimes do. She not only took advantage of this, she made it seem mystical and holy and like you were someone really special for being chosen by her. But you knew in your gut and in your heart that this was wrong, that this was a middle-aged married woman with children about your age who was using a teenage drug addict to get off. When you confronted her about this or anything else, she accused you of unconsciously controlling her feelings and actions towards you. She could make you believe that you were the manipulative one. You’d blame yourself for the things she did, and because it was “unconscious,” you‘d have no way of stopping it. You’d be stuck in an endless cycle of guilt and shame.
I was in therapy for years because of this. I’ve learned what “emotional intelligence” really is and that she didn‘t invent the concept. The only “emotional intelligence” Aysha had was knowing how to manipulate other people’s emotions for her own selfish ends.
I feel sorry for her children. They didn’t have a chance.