I’d like to post a picture of this portrait, but I think I’d be breaking copyright laws.
Unlike “school’s teachers,” who Xeroxed & redacted an entire published book, to hand out in class and claim, “These are transcribed lectures from a great teacher of the work!” I will refrain.
If you’re curious click on the work’s title: Sharon Gans Horn (False Profit). The art itself will pop up on artsy.net.
Here are some photos of “school’s” copyright violation:
How inspiring!
LET’S TALK ABOUT SECTS: The Theatre of All Possibilities / Odyssey Study Group.
This podcast covers OSG history from original narcissistic cult leader, Alex Horn’s, childhood to today’s new milenium “school.” I am learning A LOT about my little cult.
The headlines: cults bait with deceptive marketing, reel in with “love bombing” & switch with “help” that hurts; exploit human social and emotional wiring; assume that you’re broken & sell fairy dust to “fix you”; take $$$, time, energy, focus, & damage relationships.
Beware of: groups that redefine words, creating a pretentious, self-aggrandizing, code, posing as superior and exclusive; groups that file serial lawsuits against critics; groups plagued by news reports about seedy practices.
Healthy groups: welcome questions; don’t demonize people who leave; respect personal boundaries; don’t demand commitment at personal expense. #cultawareness
I think that all cults are, basically, the same. Cultic scholar, Margaret Singer, did not agree; but from what I see, while the outer trappings may vary, the inner bells and whistles are always the same.
Even so, I’ve never compared The Moonies to “School” or “The Study,” or whatever it is called now. However, this news article, The Bizarre Story Behind Shinzo Abe’s Assassination, discusses the tentacles that The Moonies have wrapped around certain politicians and Moonie recruitment tactics echoed back to my “School” recruitment:
Apparently, Moon “…devotees systematically misrepresent themselves and their intentions.” One source shared how a fellow PTA member at her son’s school “befriended” her, invited her to join other “friends” to watch films and tv shows at “the video center.” The films and shows increasingly featured religion.
“Twice this woman asked of her friend, ‘is this a religion that you’re trying to convert me to?’“ The “friend” denied it. But, a year into this alleged movie-club, Moonie members handed her a Bible and told her, that Moon was the Messiah.
She wanted to keep her friends, so she told herself that she’d quit if things got bad. Soon she was attending church lectures and peddling socks and handkerchiefs on the street to benefit charities, as required by leaders.
Of course, the charities did not exist. All profits enriched the church. Leaders required secrecy about church-related activities. Eventually, her husband helped her leave and deprogram. She told the reporter that, “…the church had reduced her to a state of infantile dependence. This is at the root of its doctrine. ‘They tell you not to think on your own because that was Eve’s original sin.’ ”
Sounds familiar, yes? The deception, the secrecy, the requirement for silence, the damning of independent thought, the slow boil of indoctrination into a corrupt dogma that poisons over time, the eventual feeling of dependence. I remember thinking, “If I don’t like it, I’ll leave…” when Robert invited me to try a “free five-week experiment.” Turns out that it wasn’t that simple.
It also turns out that Moon doctrine and strategy influenced “School” tactics.
I’m wondering the following:
If you’ve recently left the Boston branch, or are “breaking rules” by consulting the “evil internet” to find out if you’re in a cult (yes, it’s a cult), feel free to update, correct, or otherwise provide helpful, identifying, information.
Hello first real vacation since before Covid times!! New Orleans & The Kerrville Folk Festival in Kerrville, TX.
I keep hearing Robert claiming, “Those who leave the source, regret it, believe me!” Yes! Right now, I could be at an early-morning making new friends training & paying $350/month for “the privilege.” I could be at Whole Foods, seeking out my “new friends,” while the nausea I always felt when recruiting overtakes me.
Instead, I’ve been unnecessarily suffering some NOLA Jazz, powdered-sugar beignets, fish tacos and cocktails (none better). This week, in Texas, I’ll be hearing the most fantastic songs never heard by the general public, at late-night, early morning, Texas campfires. Sigh. All with my new book in hand 🙂
After exiting the hollow halls in 2011, the Big Easy was one my first post-cult trips. NOLA holds a special place in my heart. We’d planned to go back in 2020. Obviously, that didn’t happen. This year we are making up for the trip that Covid ruined. I’d intended to forget about all cult-related things. But exciting book-related things have thwarted that intention. Sigh… I’d better get back to “the source,” before I ruin my life. Or, maybe I’ll just go ahead and ruin my life without it.
Here’s the news …
Read reviews on Amazon and Good Reads. Want to help? Rate or review, yourself!
Welcome to the sneak peek series, which features excerpts and ideas from The Gentle Souls Revolution. Installment 1 outlined an emotional life hack that I call, The Guilt Experiment. This sneak peak explores a concept that I call, Cultic Identity Theft.
When it comes to describing cult indoctrination, language falls short. Phrases like brainwashing, thought reform & mind control focus exclusively on cognitive hijacking, without including body, heart, spirit and soul. For me cultic indoctrination is a wholistic hijacking: cults steal personhood. Cults poison the mind then, insidiously seep into heart, body and soul.
This is psychological and social violence. It evicts individual agency and fosters dependency on a false savior. Cults peddle false hopes. You lay down your money, and a never-ending theft unfolds. The hierarchy weaponizes your trust along with any uncertainty or fear you feel; your hopes and dreams; strengths, weaknesses, attachments and relationships. Cults betray and the top-tier narcissist benefits at everyone else’s expense. That is the nature of the beast.
In the midst of my personal misadventure, I clearly remember being stuck in commuter traffic, crawling toward the job I hated, with the thought, my life is no longer my own popping into my consciousness. It still took me another two years to leave. If you ever find yourself thinking something akin to, my life is no longer mine, the time to take your life back has arrived! I don’t recommend waiting another two years.
To learn more about reclaiming your life CLICK HERE to BUY The Gentle Souls Revolution. I’ll be posting more about reclamation soon.
For now, inhale, exhale. As always, I welcome your comments.
Last Thursday night, sources spotted 4 “disgruntled ex-students breaking rules!” The heretics met at an Irish pub called, The Burren, in Somerville’s Davis Square. Between Guinness, chips, and live music, they talked, like grownups! One source heard them wonder, “…when did ignoring each other in public to ‘protect the invisible world’ become normal? That’s a little bit culty, isn’t it?“
Speaking of cults, I have two exciting future cult-busting things to report:
1- Kacey, the brilliant host of The Cult Vault Podcast, interviewed me about my book, The Gentle Souls Revolution, on Friday! That conversation will be aired in early August. More to come on that!
2-Last weekend, a documentary filmmaker interviewed me as a “cult expert” (Ha! Who knew;-) He wants to document how his uncle became a deprogrammer back in the groovy 70s, when panicked parents hired people to snatch kids-turned-cult-members off street corners. I can’t wait to learn the whole story!
When he asked how I left “school” – I described myself circling a soccer field, over and over, pre-dawn, contemplating the demise of all good in my life, as echoes of Robert’s voice announcing… “… those who leave the source, regret it. Believe me!” reverberated in my rattled mind. (This was his go-to proclamation when “students” disappeared.) I looked at the sun rising, and thought, “… but that’s the source.”
So, full circle back to the 4 disgruntled(s). They look pretty miserable, don’t they? They left “the source” & look at how they are suffering through the unbridled, unmonitored conversation, the beers, the cheers, the food. Sigh …
If you’re among the “disgruntled”, or (alternatively) not – yet disgruntled, but considering it, break some rules. Meet your “school mates” outside the hallowed halls, or reach out to me, persona non grata. Maybe you’ll enjoy your free speech as much as “they” (cough) enjoyed theirs. 🙂
Happy spring! Esther
Hello Book!
I can’t believe it’s finished and published!!
AND, you can BUY it on Amazon 🙂
And THIS endorsement!!!
“A masterful storyteller, Friedman’s narrative has layers that render her book both instructive and entertaining. As dark as her experiences are, she injects humor, humanity and yes, ‘gentle spirit.’ Friedman reflects on her experiences, then steps off the page to teach us about cults, coercive control, and the dynamics of power and greed. She gives us a candid assessment of her own vulnerabilities, behaviors, realizations, disengagement, and lessons learned.
The Gentle Souls Revolution holds the reader beyond the final page. We come away with a better understanding of human nature, the predators who take advantage of vulnerabilities, and the possibility for renewed strength and independence in recovery.”
President, International Cultic Studies Association
Author of Whispering in Daylight: The Children of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and Their Journey to Freedom
Hello fellow “Disgruntleds” –
A holiday-season lawsuit has been filed against the Gans estate, naming several defendants. The case lays out “school’s” Ponzi scheme in plain language. Here’s the boiled down version, if you don’t feel like reading the 50-plus pages (like I did):
Accusation: it accuses defendants of violating human trafficking laws to benefit financially and otherwise through forced labor and services. It states that they knowingly used coercion, manipulation and various threats.
Motivation: the defendants are beneficiaries in Sharon’s Will. Her estate grants them membership interest in OSG,LLC. It conveys “a strong desire and hope for business to continue to operate successfully.”
Brief history: it explains how in 1978 the San Francisco press exposed a so-called theater group’s “child abuse, sexual abuse, forced labor and bilking of money.” Loyal members, including some named defendants, shuttered the stage and escaped east. In 1980, it morphed into a secret “school,” re-opening in NYC, eventually spreading to Boston, Mass; Copenhagen, Denmark; Condon, Montana; Pawling, NY.
The $$$: From 1980 – 2001, “school” took cash, only. In 2001, it incorporated as OSG, LLC (aka, Odyssey Study Group). It started accepting checks, too. It reported the cash, but not the checks. Some of the defendants oversaw finances and collected “tuition.” Conservative estimates, from NYC alone, calculate that OSG took in $14 million over 20 years.
RECRUITMENT:
Some defendants created and directed the following intricate, sophisticated and deceptive recruitment:
1)Target young, affluent, professionals.
2) Engage in conversation to identify those who are dissatisfied and searching for meaning, healthy and open-minded. If yes, say, “Let’s get together!”
3)Set up meetings. Vet further over time. Vaguely offer “tools that enrich lives, improve well-being, help people achieve success…“
4) Introduce to other “friends.”
5) Invite to a “class” (aka a “free five-week experiment.”)
6) Reel ’em in.
7) Bring to a class.
DO NOT mention the group, rules, “tuition,” demands, isolation, hierarchy, annual holiday hijackings, or future requirement to recruit others.
Sound familiar?
INDOCTRINATION: requirements, rules and surveillance:
A)Requirements: “3 lines of work.”
1) For self: experiments designed to “awaken” participants.
2) For others: help “classmates” to “know themselves.”
3) For group: contribute to “school.” According to “teachers,” the third line “benefit students the most!” Students who neglect this line do not advance.
B) RULES:
1)Secrecy -“protect the invisible world” from those who are “threatened by the work.” Secrecy hid the cult’s history.
2)Strict attendance – go to class twice a week, from early evening til late night or early mornings. Absences, even illnesses, are not excused.
3) Arrive early. Stay until dismissed.
4) No bathroom breaks, lest you miss critical info while peeing.
5) Non-fraternization – ignore fellow students if seen outside the “classroom.”
6) The hour of silence – “seal in the work” after classes; don’t speak for one hour.
7) No therapy – you have “school” ideas. You don’t need therapy.
8) Shun former students as pariahs and apostates.
9) Obedience – comply with “teacher” directives. Pushback, questions or contradictory advice are “hostile” and intentional efforts to “sabotage the work.”
10) Cede all personal decisions to the leadership. The “teachers” will eventually tell you how to live.
C)SURVEILLANCE: Minders introduced as “sustainers”—these long-term loyalists meet with newer members under the guise of supporting and answering questions, in confidence. Really they are mining, documenting and sharing personal information with “teachers.”
Isolation: Requirements and assignments devour more and more time. Leaders pitch their demands as “necessary for development.” They berate, badger, criticize and bully over alleged failures.
Teachers characterize non-members who expressed concern, as inferior, jealous, un-evolved saboteurs, who, “don’t get it” and are “threatened by the work.”
The demands build up to the late fall, early winter, Christmas party — a secret hijacking of the holiday season; touted as a gift to honor the teachers. The seasonal uptick widens the wedge between members and non-members.
The Tool Kit: secrecy, isolation, indoctrination, subjugation, shame, humiliation, degradation, sleep deprivation, gaslighting, negative information/collateral and economic abuse.
The more isolated members become from non-members, the more they fear expulsion and alienation from “school” and the more power and control the leaders wield over them.
Eventually, everyone is expected to recruit.
BENEFITS for defendants: “school’s” privileged inner circle had free labor & services though the third line of work requirement, including: construction; meal prep and services; house cleaning; personal assistant services; accounting; chauffeuring; massage; “opportunities for sexual and romantic relationships.”
One defendant owns a staffing company and “school” provides ready line of available workers. Teachers also have access to vacation homes constructed and upgraded by students.
Of course, the more newbies recruited, the more profit for top tier leaders.
Conclusions: Since leaving “school”, I’ve researched, read and spoken with cultic studies experts, obsessively. Still, I’m amazed by the power of social influence. We are wired to connect. In the wrong hands, trust becomes weaponry.
Our social levers set us up. Leaders lambast followers for “failures” and credit themselves for “successes”. They sabotage personal relationships, to then wield threats of alienation and expulsion. Under threat, many give up their lives for an undefined “mission.” These tactics work. That is why all cults use the same toolbox.
It was really something to see this legal filing lay out the bullet points of my five-year bilking so clearly. It helped me forgive myself for not seeing it sooner. I know that as a Boston, OSG person, I dodged a bullet. The satellite branch indoctrinated slowly and insidiously. It tamped down the shaming of those who got sick and missed class, or took bathroom breaks, or got therapy.”
I may have left sooner if exposed to the Gans-Horn hammer. Seedy, in-class massages, or messages like, “… use your sex to promote the School” might have sent me scrambling. On occasion a teacher would insert, “It doesn’t matter who you marry if you are working on yourself.” (barf).
Thankfully, I left before I wound up on a psych ward (very possible) or the cult sabotaged my marriage. I guess we’ll see what happens as this former “student” joins a global fight for justice against cultic abuse.
Fingers crossed for a happy 2023!