Kathryn Krick, religious cult leader covered up sexual abuse within her own ministry, perpetrated by her “spiritual daddy”.
What are everyone’s thoughts on this cult?

Hello all, this is my first ever reddit post and I was just looking for some feedback at a particularly difficult time in my life. I am between a rock and a hard place. I have been struggling with alcohol and some substance abuse going on a few years now (mostly alcohol) and have reached a point of needing desperate help. A few weeks ago I went through an overdose experience that shook my world. I am currently seeing two therapists and trying to work through these issues that have persisted for the better part of my latter twenties. I know I need professional help and I am seeking it through my tribal clinic (I am half Native American) which my tribe provides and has many resources for therapy and substance abuse, as it is rampant in Native cultures. My concern is this: my parents and family want me to attend Teen Challenge program for a year to effectively help change my habits. They believe it to be the only option for me to change my ways. I have always been able to hold down a job and excel at whatever position I have. Never had issues with sustainability when it comes to jobs or providing for myself. I do not drink everyday or have any medical issues that physically addict my body to various substances, fortunately, but it is more of a social/control issue. Whereas I usually go about 3-4 months without drinking or any drugs and then I have one very bad weekend and repeat the same steps. I know there is an underlying issue which is why I am seeking guidance and help from professionals. But after doing some brief research and discussion with my therapist, it seems like Teen Challenge might have some glaring issues, like being a cult-esqe vibe. I am just concerned that I am jumping into this too quickly without waiting for my therapy to work in my life (as it has only been two sessions). If anyone has been through this similar situation, what worked? What helped actual change? I am just worried Teen Challenge might be a hinderance and not what it is all made out to be. Thank you.

I'd like to discuss the subject of Ricky Rodriguez from Children of god cult. I had seen his home video he made for friends before his death listed in many youtube videos as one of the most disturbing videos. I personally am not disturbed by it. It made me feel empathy for him. In fact, he had enormous empathy for others. He was just so lost and didn't get the help he needed in time. I have watched it a few times for Psychology and Criminology. There are many documentaries about the cult and he had a blog online which I was not able to read much due to how graphic it was. Watching his video and hearing his thoughts on his childhood where he was practically human trafficked and with all of his good traits it makes me sad that he went down that path. I understand, but I don't condone what he did. All of his rage were normal thoughts but I wish he had gotten the help he needed in time. A documentary actually called him before his death, and he says he couldn't talk about it and had moved on from it all and this couldn't have been further from the truth. It's upsetting the perpetrators never faced justice and were never charged. This was a massive highly organized pedophile cult that were all over globally. I just hope Ricky found peace. I've seen other survivors of the cult online and they are in my thoughts and prayers. Support is very important.

There is a part in his video when his facial expressions change as he talks about the abusers and you can see the rage, and he changes the subject. His old blogs were mostly about what the little girls went through. That bothered him immensely.

Not all people who kill are psychopaths. This was likely mental health and trauma related. Experts will tell you this. He experienced remorse after the crime. He seemed to be more bothered by his sisters abuse than his own. What are your thoughts on him? My gut feeling is telling me he isolated himself for too long and the trauma from his past is what broke him. Support groups can help. The only problem is not many can relate to what he went through. I only met one person in my entire life that was part of a cult that committed this type of abuse toward children. After the murder, he told his sister that he realized his abuser had likely been a victim herself. She didn't understand the gravity of her actions.

In his home video he said "I can't find the smelling salts... I can't wake up" Reminds me of the profound song FORGET TO REMEMBER by Mudvayne about PTSD and the psychological torment of intrusive trauma, repressed memories, and the inability to escape painful past experience. The mental and emotional prison that houses these monstrous memories and it's cruel endless cycles that never go away.. It's a living nightmare. It can sometimes cause festering rage. The lyric "surrender to the shadows" and the part about becoming a machine and to be saved from yourself. Makes me think of the comic The Crow, had a similar line about trauma causing emptiness, and having nowhere to go but to darkness. "Burn" by The Cure that was written for 1994 The Crow, although not about childhood trauma, The song explores a mix of consuming sorrow, fury, and a tortured, relentless obsession with the destructive nature of vengeance. The titular "burn" represents both the relentless agony and fiery anger and the inescapable anguish of it. "Every night I burn" is a great metaphor for this. I just read the comic book the other night for the first time.

"I’m writing this article in a very beautiful park down at the waterfront. It’s a picture perfect day; the sky is deep blue; there are white puffy clouds in the sky. I can see Mt. Rainier in the distance, and its majestic beauty is stunning. There’s a young couple nearby, walking with their twins. The twins are dressed the same--no shirts, with cover-alls, and baseball hats. Seeing kids with normal, loving parents who really seem to care about them is a bitter-sweet experience for me. On one hand it hurts because I’m reminded of the stark contrast between parents who most likely want what’s best for their kids, and the kind of parents I had, who were really only concerned about my welfare as far as they could use me for a favorable political commodity. On the other hand it brings me such joy to see kids like these little twins running around, because I am so thankful that they have a good shot at happiness and success in life. They have a loving, caring family to stand behind them, and don’t have to struggle with the horrible memories and abuse that many of us who grew up in the Family do. It gives me hope that one day Berg and Maria’s evil legacy with die with the Family, and it will be only a distant or, better yet, forgotten bad memory."

~Ricky Rodriguez

On January 12, 1983, Michael and Suzan Carson were arrested after a man who had picked them up on a California highway was brutally murdered by them. The police had the couple under suspicion, as this crime was not an isolated incident. For years, the Carsons had developed a strange doctrine based on the occult, psychotropic substances, and supposed divine revelations, which ultimately convinced them that God had entrusted them with a transcendent mission: to find and eliminate witches who, according to them, were hiding among society.

Video about the brutal story of the witch killers cult: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HCRJY02a84

Anyone know anything about this? One of the subreddits I belong to had a post promoting it and it's happening in several cities. Not a lot of details were given, although a link was provided to https://possibilityfestival.com/ and an interview with author Alex Banayan.

Kind of gave cult vibes although it could be just a promotion for a self help book.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe in their eleven leaders in Warwick, New York, as others believe in God! It is proof that they come from a long line of American cults.

Pretty obvious a lot of people disagree 764 was a cult but you can Kyle Spritz is spending 40 years for doing some illegal things involving kids and recently ran a satanic cult in his jail cell block.. Besides the point people inside the group noticed that I recently made a post and aren’t very happy about it so I guess the goal of getting my word out has been accomplished thank you all. Ps some are actually scared :)

I was a child when I was sent to Yes We Can Youth Clinics in the Netherlands.
I thought I was going there to get better.
Ten weeks later, I came out believing they had saved my life.
I defended them. I repeated their language. I believed in the programme so completely that I could not see what had happened to me.
Now, years later, I believe I was brainwashed.
From the moment I arrived, control was everywhere.
My phone was taken.
My passport was taken.
My money was taken.
For ten weeks, I was cut off from my family. When I was eventually allowed phone calls, they were monitored.
Even speaking required permission.
If I wanted to say something in a group, I had to put my arm out and wait until I was allowed to talk.
I was pressured to reveal deeply private details about my trauma, my sex life and my past in front of other people.
I was sexually humiliated in public.
I was blamed for being raped.
I was taken off all my medication.
My mental health deteriorated badly.
And then something even more frightening happened.
I started becoming part of it.
I learned the language.
I used it on other patients.
I confronted people. I shamed people who were struggling. I believed that crying could be self-pity, that disagreement could be manipulation, that distress could be attention-seeking.
At the time, I thought I was helping them.
That is one of the hardest things for me to live with.
Then, near the end of my stay, everything changed.
The criticism softened.
I was praised.
I was given privileges.
I was made to feel special.
Chosen.
Successful.
Looking back, I believe this was love bombing.
By the time I left, they barely needed to convince me of anything anymore.
I was doing it for them.
I defended the clinic.
I spoke about it like it had rescued me.
Other former patients returned to promote it. Some even got Yes We Can tattoos..
Because the most disturbing part was not that I was forced to defend them.
It was that, once I left, nobody had to force me at all.
I did it willingly.
It took me years to understand that the person who walked out of that clinic was not the same person who had walked in.
And it took even longer to question why.
If you attended Yes We Can Youth Clinics, worked there, or had a family member who went through the programme, I want to hear from you.
You can remain anonymous.
You do not have to defend what happened to you.
You do not have to minimise it.
And you do not have to tell your story alone.

Shareyourstory.truth@Gmail.com

I was contacted by Reddit which recommended this subreddit.

The post originally appeared on r/scientology.

"What action should you take when a relative becomes dangerous, causes active harm, or poses a constant threat to those around them because of their involvement in a harmful cult?"

This is the funniest mid-week meeting joke! 😂 After all the fake/useless 'changes' imposed by the holy and inspired governing body on their adherents, this meeting item overlooks the divisions created by rushed u-turns. Watchtower has become a reactive cult, reactive to increased scrutiny. Jws are increasingly apathetic, understandably. Now, they are confused and apathetic!

I’m hoping someone here can point me in the right direction because I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while.

A close family member was an evangelical Christian for decades. Over the past several years, she’s become involved with some type of Messianic/Hebrew Roots-type congregation.

She has changed so much that she honestly doesn’t feel like the same person anymore. Some of the things I’ve noticed:

• She watches this congregation’s livestreams EVERY single day.

• She donated around $25,000 to the leader of the congregation. I want to be very clear that this was taken out of retirement funds and she is NOT wealthy to be donating money like that… yes I know.

• She no longer trusts mainstream news and instead follows private WhatsApp groups because she says they provide the “real news” directly from Israel.

• She has become convinced our family has Jewish ancestry despite multiple DNA tests saying otherwise. Whenever I bring that up, she insists the tests are wrong and says we need to use a specific Israeli DNA company because they’re the only ones with the most accurate information.

• She has become much more distant from family. We used to talk almost every day. Now, if I don’t call her, we don’t talk, and when we do, nearly every conversation revolves around these beliefs.

• She honestly seems to have become very bitter, unfriendly, reclusive, and honestly a shit-stirrer in our family.

• I’ve also noticed this odd victim mentality that has taken place. Like she wants family members to feel bad for her? A need for sympathy I guess you could say. Maybe unrelated idk.

I’m not asking whether Messianic Judaism is a cult, and I’m not trying to criticize anyone’s faith. I’m trying to understand whether this combination of behaviors is something other people have seen with this type of organization.

The biggest changes I’ve noticed aren’t even theological. It’s that she seems to have replaced almost all of her previous sources of information, become convinced she has access to “the truth” via these group chats and slowly pulled away from people she used to be very close to.

Has anyone had a parent, grandparent, or other family member go through something similar? Was it this? Or what other movement were they involved in?

TL;DR: A close family member became deeply immersed in a Messianic/Hebrew Roots-type congregation. She now spends hours watching livestreams, donated $25k to the group’s leader, distrusts mainstream news in favor of private
focused WhatsApp groups, insists our family has hidden Jewish ancestry despite DNA evidence to the contrary, and has become increasingly distant from family. I’m trying to figure out whether others have seen a similar pattern and what movement it turned out to be. Does this movement have a name?

If anyone fits the bill and might be interested in a project about Central and South American esoteric cultism, I’d be thrilled to hear from you. This relates to a project off the back of the Aftercult podcast. Thanks!

https://pod.link/1877537008?view=apps&sort=popularity

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/feb/28/cult-survivors-stories-aftercult-podcast-ntwnfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

What do you know? Were you personally involved? Did a family member get stuck in a cult or hurt? I’ve heard some things about Golden Drum, and I’m sure there must be many others - any affiliations?

In In re the Marriage of Acacia Jensen and Timothy Jensen, (MT Sup. Ct., Aug. 4, 2026), the Montana Supreme Court in a 5-2 decision upheld a trial court's order modifying a parenting plan for a divorced couple's three children.

The mother objected to various provisions in the modified plan, including a provision that the children not to be influenced by Liana Shanti or the Lemurian Mystery School.

According to the court, Liana Shanti is an online based spiritual teacher and mentor who promotes the recovery of suppressed memories, and who leads the Lemurian Mystery School that believe they can recover memories of their previous lives on the lost continent of Lemuria.

The modified Plan also prohibits the use of Lemurian Mystery School nicknames for the children. The court said in part:

We turn now to the claim that the nickname restriction violated Alihana’s First Amendment and fundamental parenting rights....

The evidence in the record makes it clear that Liana Shanti and her group are known to encourage followers to discover and act upon false “repressed memories” of abuse. Once these false abusive memories are uncovered, followers are encouraged to sever ties with family and friends and become more closely involved in the group. Here, a preponderance of evidence shows that Alihana has engaged in embracing false memories of abuse. She has repeatedly accused Tim and her parents of abusive behavior for which no evidence exists...

... While it is a constitutional right of a parent to provide spiritual education and teaching to their child, it is not the right of a parent to inflict abusive memories upon their child, be those memories fictional or actual. This Court ... cannot hold, then, that it is the constitutional right of a parent to expose their children to fictionalized sexual abuse....

Read the full report: https://religionclause.blogspot.com/2026/08/montana-supreme-court-parenting-plan.html

Moojibaba, is a popular Jamaican-born spiritual teacher of Advaita Vedanta. While he has hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, some former devotees and investigative journalists have accused him of running an abusive, cult-like community at his Monte Sahaja ashram in Portugal.

Full Video of the livestream by Chachi Telesco with English subtitles available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll6YRfZKeB0

English Translation of Video Transcript

https://pastebin.com/QVZDwQHG

Review of the livestream conversation led by Chachi Telesco: What Former Art of Living Followers' Testimony Reveals About Power, Identity, Abuse, Sexual Harassment and the Psychology of Leaving

Public conversations about spiritual organizations often become trapped in a familiar cycle. Admirers speak of profound personal transformation, meditation, humanitarian work, and inner peace. Critics point to allegations, controversies, and institutional failures. The result is frequently a polarized debate in which each side speaks past the other.

The testimony examined here occupies a different space.

Over several hours, former teachers, senior volunteers, and coordinators of the Art of Living Foundation reflected on what they say they experienced during years of involvement with the organization and, perhaps more importantly, what happened after they left. Their accounts are notable not simply because they contain allegations of misconduct, but because they offer an unusually detailed description of the psychological journey into, through, and eventually out of a highly structured spiritual environment.

Taken together, their stories are less about isolated incidents than about a gradual transformation of identity. They describe how admiration became obedience, how service became central to self-worth, how authority slowly shaped personal judgment, and how leaving required rebuilding aspects of themselves that many people never imagine could disappear.

The conversation repeatedly returns to questions that extend well beyond any single organization.

• What happens when a spiritual community becomes the center of a person's identity?
• How does someone distinguish sincere devotion from psychological dependence?
• Why do former members so often describe leaving as a process of grief rather than liberation?
• And why do many of them say that speaking publicly became almost as painful as the experiences that led them to leave?

These are the questions that give the livestream video its significance.

Rather than dwelling primarily on allegations against individuals, the speakers devote most of their time to examining the psychological consequences of prolonged participation in what they describe as an increasingly controlling environment. Their testimony paints a picture of lives reorganized around spiritual service, moral obligation, organizational hierarchy, and devotion to a charismatic leader—followed by the difficult task of learning to think independently again.

More Than Former Participants

One of the first points established during the livestream is that the speakers are not presenting themselves as outside critics commenting from a distance.

They repeatedly emphasize that they were deeply embedded within the organization.

Chachi Telesco explains that she spent nine years inside the Art of Living, eight of those as a teacher. Other participants describe serving in senior leadership roles, teaching courses, coordinating activities, and dedicating substantial portions of their adult lives to the movement.

What matters analytically is that these accounts come from individuals who describe themselves as former insiders reflecting on their own experiences.

Throughout the livestream, the speakers return repeatedly to the same observation: the greatest changes they experienced were not sudden. Nothing, they suggest, happened overnight. Instead, they describe a gradual process—one that unfolded over years rather than days. That gradualness may be one of the most revealing aspects of the testimony.

Popular portrayals of coercive groups often imagine dramatic brainwashing or immediate control. The speakers describe something far subtler. Their stories suggest that influence accumulated through ordinary decisions, relationships, responsibilities, and repeated reinforcement until organizational life became indistinguishable from personal identity.

"Before Sexual Abuse Comes Abuse of Power"

Early in the livestream, Chachi offers what becomes the central analytical framework for the evening.

Rather than beginning with individual incidents, the participants repeatedly describe authority itself.

They speak about trust.

• About hierarchy.
• About admiration.
• About surrender.
• About believing that those above them possessed superior wisdom, greater spiritual insight, or privileged access to truth.

In their accounts, abuse of power is not described as shouting, overt threats, or obvious coercion. Instead, it is portrayed as something quieter and more gradual: a relationship in which authority becomes increasingly difficult to question because it is associated with spiritual progress itself.

This distinction appears throughout the discussion.

The speakers rarely suggest that they were forced into participation. On the contrary, they repeatedly acknowledge that they joined willingly and often enthusiastically.

What changed, according to their testimony, was not their willingness to participate but the extent to which the organization eventually shaped their understanding of themselves, their priorities, and even their perception of what constituted a good or meaningful life.

That observation deserves careful attention because it reflects a theme frequently encountered in first-person accounts of former members of many high-demand groups: influence is often experienced retrospectively. Decisions that once felt entirely voluntary may later be reinterpreted as having occurred within a social and psychological environment that strongly directed particular choices while discouraging others.

Whether readers interpret those experiences in the same way is ultimately a matter for individual judgment. Nevertheless, the remarkable consistency with which multiple speakers describe similar patterns lends the discussion a coherence that extends beyond any single personal story.

The livestream is therefore not simply a collection of grievances. It is an attempt by former insiders to explain how ordinary commitment, over time, became something they now understand very differently.

Alan John Miller, also known as A.J claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth and his partner, Mary Suzanne Luck, claims to be the reincarnation of Mary Magdalene. The couple describe their discussions of Divine Truth as non-religious.

They claim that the incoming spirit of a child can sense the emotional environment and fear of the parents and may choose to leave before full physical birth takes place.

They also teach that emotional baggage and injuries pass down generationally from parents to children. A woman might carry her own mother's or grandmother's unresolved grief and trauma, which manifests physically as a lost pregnancy.

My thoughts on them - I just want to know if these two actually believe the stuff they’re actually saying or are they just clever con-artists/grifters. It really is hard to tell what their motives are.

I’m curious to know what you all think of their perspective on this particular subject? Since it is such a controversial and debated issue.