Thank you Dogsmother for the information about Kenya. And definitely agree with Apostate ( by the way, I love your posts, Apostate!)Please Dave: as leader you have a responsibilty for your people. Dogsmother bravely offered to go to Kenya to help get Joe.Putting more people in danger may not be the best solution, but it would be good to know that you have put the safety of your people paramount a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Praying for Joe and all those J.C.'s in Kenya who are in danger tonight. With deep sympathy for their families and friends.Yasmin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Aghast, I am sorry your mother has been caused distress, and hope she is feeling better. (By the way on a practical note, when someone first joins the forum, everyones' posts are individually moderated,and hence delayed for about the first ten(?) posts, to stop spam; after that the posts tend to go on faster:just thought that might explain the delay in your post appearing on the forum). Ag
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Haivng not been a JC, I can't talk about the experiences of that group, so wanted to talk about my own experience,leaving my childhood group, and hope it might be relevant. Those people who finally helped me see reality were kind and gentle.They let me talk about the good stuff in the group,and acknowledged that some stuff was good, and then helped me to look at everything else, at powe
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

No hatred here Casey. And i thought your post was very compassionate.Have a Merry Christmas, Yasmin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Sadkimmy, leaving a religious group can be very confusing and hard. There are therapists out there who specialize in this kind of stuff who can be helpful: some of them even do telephone consults if you don't live near them.And reading a lot about cults can help too.Good luck with it all,Yasmin
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Hi Jack Actually I would not worry too much about the landover site: I believe they are a parody site that is involved in poking fun at some of the more fundamentalist christian beliefs. "Pastor Fred" ( who explains it will take two years on the waiting list before you can get to attend a service in his church, and that the most important thing a christian can do after being saved is
Forum: Hate Groups

Hi Sallie, no I am not mocking you.Some cult groups are more severe than others.You obviously were in a very bad one. And I too was raised in a cult. I am also sure you are correct: iamworried will not be back.Your posts have probably made sure that iamworried is scared to post because they will be attacked, and that person has now lost a source of information. Things like abuse of money,havi
Forum: Destructive Churches

Hey Sallie,let's be kind to each other.If this is your church and you think it is being misrepresented, fair enough. But a cult can have a bible in one hand. The Branch Davidians/Waco fame, believed in the bible, and everyone moved to start a new church in a new city "because God told them too"And we all know how that turned out. From what iamworried says, this church is sep
Forum: Destructive Churches

Wow, Corboy, a lot to think about.Thank you. The idea of the three r's to balance responisbility makes a great deal of sense. At least in our group,at times people got very burned out from too much work without the balance of the respite/resources part. Sometimes they did get respect, sometimes they did not. Makes sense to always balance the three r's in ones own post-cult life too,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Maybe the reason for the different dynamics (loyalty versus decision making) is different backgrounds: I was raised as a child in the group, so I suppose the experiences and emotions of recruitment are not present in quite the same way.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

That's interesting Corboy.Loyalty is a powerful dynamic. I suppose for me, the essence of the experience is about decision making ability.If someone is revered as an enlightened leader, then you (as a group member), believe that what they say, and what they think, is better than what you say and think . And that you need to correct your thinking to think like them. Too much power ( in
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi Jupiter, sounds like you are doing great. Congratulations on your strength and endurance. Deciding things for myself was an issue for me in my group too: am so glad you are doing something YOU want to do. Making decisions for oneself can be scary, but also so much more fun. And it does seem a familiar theme for those of us born and raised in a group...great to hear things are going so well
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Thank you to the tech people! This is great.
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

On the cults, sects, nrm's topic there is a messsage from Michael saying culteducation.com will be down for some hours on October 12 while they permanently fix the spam problem. Just thought I'd pass it on in case some people haven't had a chance to read it.Yasmin
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

hi.Definitely sounds unusual. Generally, if someone is saying something extremely unusual i start to look for practical evidence that things actually happened.Marriages should be a matter of record.You might to look at marriage records, or want to get hold of the priest and ask him if he married the father or grandfather to anyone.If that part of the story is false, I would look closely at every
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Was just re reading the links someone gave you on the other thread: where SRA was mentioned. Don't know if it relates to this particular church group or not. However the basic deal here is that there is the possibility that people can be convinced to have false memories that their families abused them satanically, and hence the only way to be safe is to hide from their families.This
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Don't have any experience of LGats, but this is a question I have wondered about a lot on the cult front: who is responsible for actions adults take under group influence? Steve Hassan has a couple of articles on his website showing how susceptible almost all of us are to group persuasion. Towest: maybe you have been lucky, or maybe in similar circumstances you would have been one of the
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

I am very sorry for your family.I know nothing about the group you name, but there are certainly some groups who would expect a member to cut off all ties with their family.Often though, these groups would also expect the member to donate their money to the group, which you mention has not happened.Some groups might not want money at all though. i don't know what the behaviors are re money o
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

In reply to Fran on the JC forum:re the minor: I figured he of everyone (member or ex member) needed the most protection. And I would have stood up for that whether he grows up to be a Jesus Christian, a Mormon, a Buddhist or an aetheist. My family are still in my group. I may disagree with their religious views, but i certainly don't want anything bad to happen to them. Why would you thi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Sanebiker: so I suppose the question is are you an independent or do you ride with a club? Rather like religious groups, whole lot of different experiences in the biker world. Rich Urban Bikers, 1%....And the dynamics of some clubs, in my opinion can be similar to some groups.. Though some of your posts have been funny , I'm pretty sure you are here just to troll.( 30+ in one day! Wow!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Just a quick comment on a post Fran made on the JC forum,saying that the people on the Rick Ross forum were only worried about private information posted on ex members and had de humanized current members and taken away their rights: Pease re-read the posts. Actually a lot of people: Hello, Apostate, Jack Oscar Lam, me, in various ways supported anonymity for current as well as ex members.(My
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeusor, Why would Mr Mckay be worried? You did not post anything on him at all. And he has been trying to identify some of the ex-member user names for ages. He is probably grateful to you. i know your intentions were good, and you were worried and wanted to do something. But I have sent an email to Mr Ross, requesting he consider editng the posts.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeusor, this is a bit of a sore point for me. As a teenager many years ago I remember the damage the media did when they outed my group, giving way too much personal information. People aren't neccessarily going to be nice to that little 12 or 14 year old boy you "outed". Picking up the phone to death threats, broken eggs on the door step, graffitti on the gate, g
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hey Zeusor, Why? People on this board have a right to privacy, to being anonymous, if they wish to. Why take this right away? Yasmin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

That's ok.Thanks.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is starting to sound like an attack on "reincarnation believers" You are of course , completely entitled to your religious beliefs. So , at least on this forum, are the millions of Buddhists, , Hindus etc who have that as one of the tenets of their religion. Most peoples beliefs are weird to people of different religions.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Suspect, I cannot speak to your experience with Discovery, never having attended it. However your statement that "all good therapy makes you worse before you get better" surprises me.Most good therapy (for example, solution focused, cognitive behavioral), is based on making the client feel better and solve their problems. If you counsel an alcoholic and they feel so lousy aft
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

Cara, I am not quite sure what the letter you posted means.You said quote "I am sincerely sorry for what I have done": what is it that you think you have done that needs apology?Are you considering re- joining the group? This might or might not be useful to you as my interpretation of what you are saying may be completely wrong: during a certain stage of getting over leav
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Corboy, While groups can be extremely hard on children,and adjusting to normality can be difficult , not all children born in groups are destined to join other groups or neglect their children. Apparently 80 % of children raised in cults leave when they become adult. I've noticed a lot of children raised in cults after leaving and adjusting to the outside world, tend to join helping pro
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families