Random Stories of People Who Joined and Then Escaped Cults (14 items)

• (#1) Teen Rehab Camp Forces Slave Labor on Young Addicts

  "My younger brother was in [Teen Challenger] and they kicked him out for arguing with the leaders about religion and science and making people think too much and was preventing what the leaders were trying to do to the people there to make them 'productive members of society'.

  From what I can tell it was really a slave labor camp where they would work long hours all day and get almost no sleep and would be pretty much brainwashed into believing some really weird form of Christianity. Very close to Pentecostal. Most of the people there were court ordered and if they didn't finish or left they broke their probation and went to prison.

  They ate rotten or expired food and when any food was donated the counselors and leaders took what they wanted and left everything else for the 'students'. If you were obedient and bowed down like a dog they'd let you do the easy jobs like work in the kitchen or clean or whatever. If you were rebellious like my brother they would put you on hard labor. They would work for like 18 hours a day making these crosses out of wood from lumber companies where they would sell them cheap lumber they couldn't sell and sell the crosses outside supermarkets and malls.

  They made him work at a car wash one day for 12 hours straight in the middle of the summer in Mississippi. He has pretty bad scars from the sunburns. No sunscreen, no soothing lotion after, no tylenol. God will heal your pain and illness. A man cut his thumb off working in the wood shop making those crosses and they wouldn't let him have any medication. Just pray your pain away. A man died of complications related to liver cancer because they wouldn't let him go to his chemo treatments or take any of the drugs he was prescribed.

  The guy who was at the top drove a brand new Ford F150 and his wife drove a brand new Cadillac Escalade. His job at Teen Challenge was the only one he had and his wife didn't work. It is a corrupt organization that takes advantage of people that."
• (#6) Cult Leaders Know Where Members Are at all Times

  "My parents were in a cult called 'The Way' while I was growing up, they met just after they had both joined, so for the first 12 years of my life, it was all I knew and what I knew as 'normal.'

  Every Sunday we would go to someone's house (never a church because churches were bad for some reason), have a gathering of about 12-15 adults plus their kids, and mass would consist of one person speaking from the King James version of the bible about whatever the topic of the week was.

  I wish I could remember the lectures, but even as a child I never really believed in Jesus or God in general. I spent a lot of time feeling bad about that, but that's another story. I do remember having to sit very very still and not speak unless I was spoken to. The general rule for children was that they were better seen and not heard.

  After the congregation or whatever, people would spend about 30 minutes to an hour hanging out and during this time frame, if it was the beginning of the month, you had to fill out your 'calendar' and turn in your pay stubs.

  The cult had you turning in monthly calendars with exactly where everyone in your family would be at any given point (this was far before cell phones were common, talking early to mid 90's) for reasons I was never privy to. The pay stubs were to make sure that you were truly tithing your 10%.

  My entire family got kicked out when I was 12 because my 16 year old brother had stopped attending 'church' on Sundays with us and word somehow had gotten out that he was questioning the teachings and entire bible in general.

  I haven't talked to my brother much about this, but from what I understand they had him brought in for 'questioning.' Asking him why his belief was wavering and what exactly had triggered it. I remember him saying that he told them it was because in other churches people were allowed to talk and have fun and he didn't understand why that seemed like such a foreign concept to him as a church.

  The cult had us ex-communicated. I had actually made friends with a girl there and we had exchanged AOL usernames, I remember sending out a chain email and having her name as one of the many (probably like 3 realistically) I was sending it to, only to have a message come up immediately saying something about her blocking me or something. I asked my mom what it meant and she warned me to never try to contact anyone from there again.

  Not that bad by some really weird cult norms I'm sure, but last I had heard was somewhere up there was a sex scandal and maybe even something involving children. I'm just grateful that that's all I know about that weird collection of people."
• (#10) After the World Doesn't End, Redditor Gets an Education and Leaves

  "I was raised in the Family Radio Fellowship. It has/had ties to the Quiverfull movement and carries an apocalyptic message.

  For those of you lucky enough to not know, Family Radio was/is an evangelical Christian sect that has predicted the end of the world a couple of times.

  Family Radio didn't gain a lot of traction until about a month before its last prediction of May 21, 2011. However, I was born and raised in the movement, and was completely absorbed. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - in my life was to lead up to that day. It was considered a sin to consider living after the rapture, so we weren't allowed to make long term plans. As a young person, this usually meant dropping out of high school or not going to college. Yep. Kept us dumb enough to keep following them....

  I gave Family Radio (and their sister organization EBible Fellowship - which is still going strong) all of my money. I gave them my life. When the world didn't end, I got two jobs, put myself through community college, and am now almost done with university. I am pretty rare - most young people never got to earn an education. Many of the families sold their houses, as they planned to go on road trips to spread the Word. Plenty of families ended up with nothing, homeless and jobless. Some people were separated from their families. One woman joined the movement, and her husband realized how crazy it all was, he took their kid and vanished. I don't know if she ever found them after the prophecy failed....

  There is a lot of crazy shit. And a lot of sad stories. Sometimes, I still have nightmares about it. It was abuse, plain and simple - although I've worked hard to move past it and built a life.

  I just ask that you empathize with cult followers. I know, I know, how the f*ck can I ask you to do that? I feel like I have a unique viewpoint, because I know what it's like to be sucked into a cult and now I know what it's like to watch cult followers from the other side. There were assh*les in our movement, but we also had individuals who were genuinely lost and looking for a community - people who really thought they were doing good. Were they? Hell no. But they were brainwashed. It's just sad."
• (#4) Father Convinces Family and Followers He's a Powerful Priest

  "I was born into it. My dad is, or was, a priest for an East Asian religion. He claimed to be the only one authorized by the temple association to teach outside of China, and attracted a large following of students. These students are doctors/lawyers and aimless drifters, male and female, Christian/Jewish/etc. - and are all head over heels in love with him. As I grew up, I was surrounded by his students, who all proclaimed their undying love for their master's wife and children.

  I grew up extremely conservatively, never dated, never made friends with guys, barely had sleepovers, etc. Even now, I have a huge inferiority and anxiety complex, even beyond what is considered part of the normal experience for Asian children. When I was younger, around ten years old, all of my best friends were my dad's students, usually middle-aged women, and I relied on them hugely, especially when my father divorced three times and remarried twice. I idolized my father even though he was gone for 75% of the year, and barely present at home for the other 25%. I fully believed his story of growing up in the temple and mystical origins.

  When my dad remarried for the third time, it was to a Caucasian woman who didn't fully buy into his whole story. She thought there was something off, but she didn't pry into it right away. She ended up staying for us children (my sister and I, and later, my brother), for which I'm forever grateful. The next ten years were...tumultuous, to say the least. My father's following grew and grew, mostly in part [sic] to my new stepmother's business acumen. We went from barely scraping by on $30,000 a year to netting over $400k a year. The more successful my father became, the more arrogant, narcissistic, and emotionally abusive. He would claim powers of seeing people's auras, and told one girl that he could see the color of her panties. He broke couples apart to suit his own power games, and 'counselled' troubled children, despite the fact that he barely knew his own. There was physical violence, too, which I had to break up at the age of fourteen, when he struck my mother while she was holding my infant brother. Somehow she was the one who went to jail.

  Despite all this, I clung to the image of the man, the master, that all of his students saw, and thought that all of the fault was with us kids. If only we could be better children, more loving, more understanding, more patient, maybe we would see the master. It was only three years ago that I found out the truth from my biological mother. He never grew up in the temple. He never studied with his master.

  His entire origin story is just that - a story. That's when my eyes cleared and I knew better. Despite a huge number of texts and emails between me and him, condemning me and calling me a traitor, I severed the ties and left.

  All those students with whom I grew up? They cut me off. My family in China? They cut me off. That's fine by me. Now I have a burning desire to find a way to bring down his entire so-called temple."
• (#9) Redditor Asks to be Saved From Quiverfull Cult

  "I grew up involved with the Quiverfull movement, a type of Christian Fundamentalism that involves having a bunch of children, home education, extremely modest dress including headcoverings, the practise of 'courting' and 'bethrothals' (basically semi-arranged marriages taking place as soon as the girl was old enough to marry), and something called 'Christian patriarchy,' wherein the father is viewed as a sort of mini god.

  I grew up attending a small Christian school run by the local Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church, where every student was Quiverfull. We were required to wear extremely modest clothing (ankle length skirts, hemlines that covered the base of our necks, etc. We had wardrobe checks multiple times each day.)

  Each morning we pledged allegiance to the Christian Flag and to the Bible. It's been years, but I can still recite both pledges by heart. Then we recited the chapters of the Bible we were working on. Yes, I did say chapters. We memorized several books of the Bible (Jonah, all of Paul's epistles, most of Genesis, Daniel, a decent amount of Leviticus and I think the Gospel of Mark.)

  Our schoolwork was primarily books published by Abeka, BJU Press and ACE. Our textbooks claimed that:

  no transitional fossils had ever been found
  the Loch Ness Monster had been proven to be real and was a plesiosaur
  the Great Depression never happened but was just a myth made up by the socialists
  slavery was a win-win solution for all involved
  dinosaurs breathed fire
  the KKK were great dudes who got a bad rap
  the trail of tears was actually super great
  outer space wasn't real because if you blew on a pile of baby powder, a new planet wouldn't form (this was demonstrated)
  the Liberals don't believe in personal responsibility
  the world is about to be attacked by the floating Space Jerusalem

  We never covered much actual math, science, etc. Learning the truth about the government's plan to kill Holocaust the Christians [sic] was seen as much more important.

  For one year the girls also took Christian Charm. This was primarily about how God really, really cares about whether your chest is 10 inches largest than your waist or not. Girls were forbidden from standing with their feet parallel, 'like a man's', instead having to keep our feet at ridiculous and painful angles. We couldn't walk without being careful to 'glide gracefully' and avoid 'swishing' our knees. We were forbidden to not smile, but our smiles were never big enough, or they were too big.

  There wasn't much time for real schoolwork anyway, since we were all so busy being punished for having an ungodly facial expression, and forced to spend the rest of the school day standing on our tiptoes on one foot in the corner.

  In fourth grade my parents chose to pull me out and homeschool me. We joined a local homeschool group filled with Quiverfull homeschoolers. My parents had gone to a different church, one which was very Charismatic (we spoke in tongues, exorcised people, 'healed' with prayer) but not necessarily quite so extreme as the IFB school I had been sent to. However, as my father became more violent (he had a lot of mental issues and was an extreme hoarder), my mother (who was a borderline hoarder and very depressed, so much so that for the first ten years of my life she barely left her bed except to use the washroom) became more and more heavily sucked into this subculture.

  My parents had already gotten rid of most TV channels over concerns about evil spirits and only allowed us to read a few classic books, but after this my mom first stopped allowing us to read anything non-Christian, then banned novels altogether. We began being forbidden to see anyone who did not go to our church or homeschool group. Since my parents never really started teaching, and I had little access to books and at the time no internet, this left little to do all day aside from copy out Bible verses and stare out the window for hours. Time sort of stopped meaning anything.

  We became more into the Biblical patriarchy thing, where my father was seen as the head of our household and a sort of direct representative from God who women were to serve and obey in every way. You weren't supposed to express any kind of wishes or desire, but leave it up to your husband/father to make all decisions for you. (If you were his daughter, this included selecting your husband - girls were expected to be stay at home daughters, serving their fathers, until marriage). Biblical femininity was emphasized, which in this case basically meant long skirts and not having opinions or desires, except to serve whatever man God chose as the best 'helpmeet' possible.

  For a couple of years my mom, who was herself a nurse, stopped allowing us to take medicine, believing it to be witchcraft. She became more and more crazed about the idea of demons trying to attack her and our family.

  Unfortunately, I was born with a birthmark on my leg. She believed that this made me Satan. My father and mother both searched for ways to fix this. I've been exorcised, had oil poured over me, had everything I owned burned, etc. It apparently didn't work.

  After my father died we were at least spared his extreme violence, but my mother became only more unhinged and depressed. We shifted from being Quiverfull to being Charismatic - we'd been both for a while, but my dad's death pushed us all the way from one to another. She mostly gave up on her idea of me as Satan, but became absolutely obsessed with the idea of Satan attacking our family. This belief is reinforced by our church and all the Charismatic material she reads. She even abandoned our homeschool group, believing it to not be concerned enough about how demons are possessing everyone.

  Our church is obsessed with spiritual attacks, which are seen as stemming from absolutely everything. Anne of Green Gables? Witchcraft! Christian music? Actually sung by Satanists, filled with subliminal Satanic messages! Cabbage patch dolls? Demons who stay still when we look at them! (I'm 100% serious) The only way to ward this off is speaking in tongues, making prophecies, etc. A few people in my church believe they hear the voices of demons in their head, and said demons are chasing them. I've been there as we've all laid hands on people and prayed for them to be liberated from the demonic oppression in their lives.

  I still live with my mother and sister. I still go months without seeing anyone who isn't from my church. I still have no real education."
• (#2) Parents Hire Reform School to Kidnap Kids in Night

  "Not exactly what most people would see as a cult, but it's what it was.

  The Family Foundation School was based off of the East Ridge Cult. Many of the teachers and staff had been part of East Ridge. East Ridge was based off of the concepts of All Addicts Anonymous, which was essentially the beliefs used by Synanon in the 70s/80s I think. Essentially, this was a 'recovery' cult that made use of the twelve steps to brainwash people.

  I was 15 when I was sent to the 'school'. Most kids who went there had an escort service, essentially their parents paid people to kidnap them. I wish I was exaggerating, but escorts of this nature snuck into the kid's rooms in the middle of the night, woke them up, and if they don't cooperate, put them in chains and dragged them off to the school. I went willingly with my parents. I wasn't a particularly bad kid, but I was suicidal and depressed, and it badly affected my grades and ability to do school work. I had been hospitalized three times, so my parents were desperate and willing to try anything to get me help.

  So I went willingly. I didn't think it was going to be bad or abusive. I thought I was just going to get some intensive therapy on a longer term basis than my stays at the mental hospital. I realized pretty early on that there were a lot of techniques that were used that were not okay. I ran away after two weeks, and was found in about 10 hours

  I refused to submit to life there in the beginning. They verbally abused kids in front of each other, used exercise and deprived kids of food as a means of punishment and coercion, and the religious aspects were pretty horrifying. They used tactics such as 'exile' and shunning to get people to submit. I recall in my life skills class there, hearing about how brainwashing isn't bad, how it's good that they were reprogramming us to be model, productive citizens.

  Phone calls with family were always monitored and if you tried to say something about how you were being treated, they would tell your family that you're being manipulative and not to believe you. I only had alone time with my family once in the eight months I was there. I was allowed to go to dinner with them once. I remember the entire time thinking that I should tell them, but I knew they wouldn't believe me. Even to this day 13 years later, I don't think they believe me. I know they do, but there is still something that nags at me about how no one should trust me, since it was drilled into me there that I'm a liar and manipulative, and that no one should trust me.

  I got out because I got kicked out. I had a mental breakdown. I had been cooperating and following the program. But my aunt had been diagnosed with cancer at some point along the line, and it took her quickly. My parents wanted me to go to the funeral, school said no, so parents said that I couldn't go. I went silent for a few days and then I just started flipping out. Every day. I mean, I had anger problems, but I lost my shit and I flipped out on everyone. I don't remember it too well, but I spent a lot of time in isolation and I would literally just attack anyone who tried to touch me. I had no control and it was horrifying. I am honestly not an angry or violent person. The idea that I acted like this still haunts me.

  I thought I was going to go to a mental institution for the rest of my life because that's what they said would happen if I left. My mother sent a letter saying that if I was kicked out, that I wouldn't go home and they would send me someplace where I would be locked up 24/7. None of it mattered to me. One day, I saw my stuff was packed and I was terrified. I thought I was going to be sent to a mental institution. But my dad was there, and he took me home, and I cried.

  The effects of it, and what really happened there. Well. I didn't realize how fucked up it actually was, and that it was actually a cult that focused on 'You will die without us' until I was 19. I'm in touch with a few survivors. We're all at least still a little bit f*cked up. Sometimes the only thing I can do is laugh at how f*cked up it was. The good news is that the school announced that they were closing this past August."

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