Re: what cult were you in?
Date: July 13, 2009 11:20PM
My parents were involved in "I Am" which merged with something else and became "Children of the Light."
Starting in Santa Barbara, circa 1969, continuing for 4 or 5 years, ending with an escape from Los Angeles in the dead of night.
Since the parents were heavily involved and ran the private school for the cult member's kids for several years, I do consider I was in the cult.
At age 9, they had me fasting and scraping paint all night long once. Clearly out of their minds... they did a "clearance" when I burst into tears the next day. I was also given a peanut butter sandwich.
Parents never really recovered IMO.
Primal scream, encounter group, and other flat out brainwashing techniques were used. Toward the end, it got very destructive and manipulative. No licensed therapists in evidence... but they did separate people from their families, and have them do months of fasting, no sleep, hard labor and stuff that amounted to sexual abuse. Ripoff theosophism meets Therapy Cult and creates evil baby, is one way to put it.
I'm leaving out a link to the book pitch in development, I'm not here to spam, I'm here to research the story I have to tell.
There's a terrible revenge book written and self-published by my Aunt, and not available anywhere, that mentions incidents to which I was not a witness. I think many of the other adults are dead, but I'd like to see if the other children are still alive and want to discuss what happened .
Greetings, other survivors, and cheers!
Best,
Richard Walker