The following excerpt seems pertinent to this conversation. My sense of meaning has become the family that I nearly lost by cutting myself off from them while in this exclusive, high-demand group. They say they are serving God, but they are really serving themselves at your expense. They will not stop until they control your heart, your thoughts, your finances, your children and your very being.
From
Cults in Our Midstby Margaret Thaler
QUOTEPsychological and Emotional DifficultiesWith their twenty-four-hour regimes of ritual, work, worship, and community, cults provide members with tasks and purpose. When these members leave, a sense of meaningless surfaces. Leaving the cult means losing friends, a mission of life, and direction. Former members also soon realize that they have lost their innocence. They entered the cult full of reverential amazement and with wide-eyed naivete only to discover that they had been deceived and betrayed. As a result, they may be pervaded with a feeling of mourning.
Former members have a variety of other losses to contend with. They often speak of their regret for the lost years during which they wandered off the main paths of everyday life. They regret being out of step and behind their peers in career and life pursuits. They feel the loss of a solid sense of self-esteen and self-confidence as they come to realize that they were used to or that they surrendered their autonomy.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2018 03:06AM by GoingRogue.