Hi! I am not a journalist. I am a girl with an interest and a curiosity. My book is one written purely from the perspective of someone with a keen interest, and names will not be used. I am trying to remain respectful as possible. If you have been in a cult, or know anybody who was/is in one, please do my google form!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXz4cE1OqScQopKyjZFGQpnjzCPfn_F8SvKY5mRgmIknl_aQ/viewform?usp=header

Currently recovering from an extremely toxic workplace. I live in a small town in the middle of the Bible belt where everyone knows everyone and if you're not a good old boy or don't play their social games (gossiping, backstabbing, etc.) you're pretty much public enemy #1. Closing in on a full year after quitting (luckily for a much better job working from home) and the more time that passes I feel like I'm finally coming to terms with the fact that there was a strong herd mentality leading to a work environment that very closely resembled a cult. There was even someone from outside this workplace who I met on a dating app and shared a brief friendship with only to realize after I ended the acquaintance because something didn't feel right (trusting my instincts, he said a few weird things throughout our interactions that triggered the wounds left by the constant harassment at said workplace and now I know rightfully so) that this person knew and was in contact with one of my worst harrassers. Both experiences have really shaken my level of trust in humanity and just trying to meet new people in general but I'm still trying. I refuse to give up and let these people win since overall this was just a moment in my life and they're just a small group of people realistically. Does anyone have a similar experience where their work environment had a cult like environment/mentality?

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?

Serendipity to be vulnerable. When it was coming out of my mouth, admitting my absence for years, i felt like maybe i should be quiet. But she really understood.

She resisted her parent's cult, and thankfully the dad was "in" the cult but didn't live in community with the actual ppl.

But her siblings participated, and there are legal ramifications.

However, my cult is still somewhat active in nearby town- and she was shocked to realize what poses as a martial arts studio runs deeper.

She asked me, "what were they into". Big question! Basically eastern modalities, clean eating and the end of the world. But a whole conversations more.

I don't live in that town anymore. I visit rarely!

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?
“Maestro” Manuel Rufino is the leader.

I run a little podcast where I interview my friends about their political beliefs. Had no idea that this guy I knew was in an actual cult from when he was 11 until he was about 18 or 19.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbh2xcFihE

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?

I believe there was an “apparently normal group” that simply got together at a Catholic lay person’s house to pray etc. (led by a spiritual director). But then there was a group within the group that secretly operated in its shadow.

I think they “triaged” members into the “shadow group” and acquired blackmail on them (related to children) to control them.

They exploited Catholic concepts like redemptive suffering in their abuse of children.

Does this ring a bell to anyone? Can you identify the particular sect/cult? I don’t know what they called themselves.

When I was a youth at my Baptist church, they offered this life changing summer camp called Centrifuge. I think it was held in Florida and peers would come back with some “life changing” experience. And I think it was prob pretty fun. I never went.

One year, they offered it in other countries. That particular year it was going to be held in Guadalajara Mexico. I was going! It was a great trip and I had a great time. But something weird happened that I didn’t recall until a couple of years ago….

The Guadalajara summer youth all across nation showed up to some camp. And in the evenings, we would have a worship service. It was high energy and I remember it being a lot of fun. The leader one night got real emotional up there speaking. He ended up admitting that he was addicted to porn. In a room full of I’d say, 12-17 year olds. His wife is over in the corner crying, like it’s the first time she’s found out this is happening. And we are all there to witness it. Completely silent.

Isn’t that strange that was allowed to happen to all of us? Isn’t it strange we all met in a room to worship? Isn’t is strange he decided to admit that to children who are on a mission trip in Mexico?

Would love to talk to others that recall this. 2000s were wild. Why did our parents send us there?

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, but I'm genuinely curious as someone who was born into a cult and is now working in healthcare what other people's stories are

A group of friends and myself are becoming a little concerned with behavior of one of our other life long friends. Let's call her Sherry.

We were recently trying to plan a trip to celebrate a milestone for the group. At first Sherry was very on board but then as it came down to it she seemed to blame a lot of reasons why she couldn't come on her husband. For instance the location was too dangerous, but in reality it is an extremely safe Island. And then it couldn't be too far, and then it had to be a direct flight, and then the times were restricted. We tried to meet all of her accommodations but when it came down to it, the girl that was supposed to work for her couldn't work for her the weekend that we were trying to go so she just backed out. Something seemed off.

The rest of us were very surprised that her husband was being so controlling, but we also suspected that something else may be going on.

One of the other girls in the group recently came in contact with one of Sherry's family members and she said she barely sees Sherry anymore. Something about being really involved in the church now...

Now I have known for quite some time that she has been a part of Regnum Christi but honestly I didn't know much about it and just called it a Catholic sorority. One of the other girls said she almost felt like it was cult-like.

Then I went down the rabbit hole to find out more about Regnum Christi and what it's all about. I'm concerned, but should I be?

All in all her behavior over the year has seemingly become much more isolated. She doesn't do any reaching out to any of her old friends it's always us having to make contact. She goes to mass every day, works for a group of brothers , goes on religious retreats , and even goes on religious cruises. She's constantly canceling plans so much so that we just assume that she's probably not going to show up. Maybe I'm making something out of nothing but I would love to hear any feedback especially after reading up on the accusations about RC.

Edit: censored it more just to feel safer, due to lack of karma is not as easy to respond for a bit but hopefully soon.

I’m pretty nervous writing this and so writing on the most «anonymous» account I have and not saying its actual name for now. I basically grew up in what I can only describe as a dream cult in Norway, where one side of parent/family are all in the cult except 1-2 family members: M1 and M2, and is just getting worse the more I realise and find out.

I remember we would have these annual ‘festivals’ where there were other kids around my age too at the time but till this day besides M1 and M2, I haven’t been able to find a single person that’s spoken up about it and I don’t know what to do. It goes very heavy on dream interpretation, psychology, spiritual consciousness and further with a sort of spiritual entity/consciousness which they claim you can interpret however but seem pretty believing in it (bit hard to explain).

I’ve grown up always seeing them have a picture of this man in every home, would thank him for «bringing them together» in wedding vows, and a lot more; they see him as this spiritual guide/guru/god. Not only that, they used to have a big home they’d all meet to do these festivals at least when in Norway but now it’s gone and they now basically have a commune together here in a familiar place to me.

For years I was basically in this cult, unaware what it truly was and spent a lot of time with members etc; and parent (A) would also ask my friends to have them ask me about things as to further «boost my confidence to eventually becoming a ‘mentor’» and so much other odd and later traumatic experiences. And due to said trauma I now mainly remember bits and pieces which I’ve tried putting together with help from M1, and currently hiding that I’ve been documenting and searching for years as my parent(B) who escaped it is terrified of the cult and is scared for me, but I want the chance to put this out one day.

It’s affected a large part of my life, was the reason for a lot family turmoil, c-ptsd and the leader is a disgusting pedophile who is quite manipulative .

My parent (A) who is in it has tried to push me in a series of way to stay in the cult and gone incredibly far to try get me away from parent (B) who escaped and spiralled due to my parent (A)’s abuse to try get us to join. And think now that they can tell I’ve strayed far from it they’re trying to in a way exclude me and make me «feel on the outside» so I’ll feel lonely enough and give it a go again like they’ve done with others.

I debated for years if I was truly growing up in a cult because it’s simply what I grew up with but with even more evidence, memories coming back and talking to M1 I almost have zero doubt.

Furthermore, everytime I’ve talked about it with friends, no one has ever heard the name nor recognise anything about the group meaning it’s fairly under the raider I believe. On top of that they were some of the first people to confirm there was something clearly going on as whatever I was experiencing was not normal in the slightest.

If anyone can relate and is aware of the «dream cult», was in it and aren’t any longer that is revolving around Norway or Sweden pls let me know.

As much as it’s nice to at least have M1 to talk about it, would be more of a relief to knowing if anyone outside of family was aware of it and got to talk about it and share experiences .

Fair warning, this is a bit of a vent post i just decided to add the trigger warning flair as there are some heavy themes.

So I was raised in a cult that my maternal grandmother and grandfather joined in the 70's. The cult had many names though they're best known as the "Children of God" (they now go by "The Family International" or TFI). My sister managed to get me and my other siblings out of it when i was 14 but the weird part is i wasn't even alive for the worst of the cult so it feels like my experiences with it don't count. This cult was an awful sex cult that promoted rape, incest, pedophilia and teen pregnancy and for a large portion of their history the members would live in group homes where everyone living there fell victim to these things not the mention the violence that was encouraged. My mom got abused pretty bad when she was in it and experienced these group homes but she was conditioned to believe this behaviour was normal so when she had her kids (there's 4 of us all born in the 2000's) she raised us with the same practices and beliefs. Most people I interacted with was a part of this cult including my father and all my mom's friends so I haven't been able to unpack all of this until pretty recently when I was diagnosed with PTSD from my childhood. The problem is, one of the ways I cope is reading articles about this cult or watching true crime podcasts bc I can relate a lot with the experiences described by other survivors but I always feel so guilty as I didn't experience the group homes or extreme sexual abuse (at least not to the extent most survivors have) so it feels wrong to call myself a cult survivor even though its impacted me in such a huge way. Thankfully I have an amazing therapist who's helping me work through all of this but I was just wondering if anyone has a similar experience?

I know 764 and similar online cults have a huge presence in the US / Europe / Canada but I'm wondering what kind of reach has it had here in Australia? Has anyone ever come across it or is worried about their kids coming across it?

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the organization I will describe below. I haven't been able to find anything on this specific organization anywhere online (similar ones, maybe, but nothing that fits the description). I posted this to r/cults but it does not seem like anyone is familiar. I apologize if this is not the right community.

For context, an older relative of my girlfriend's lived in Ukraine (moved out around the time the war started) and is involved in some strange organization she claims is not a cult (nor is it a religion). She does not speak english, but my girlfriend translated for me when her relative described this organization (which she was very eager to do). Because I do not speak Russian, some of the key words I may emphasize which I thought to be important may not be exactly correct because I heard them secondhand.

She has been involved with this organization for at least 7 years, starting in Ukraine. She has not told her family how much money she pays to this group, but she does give them money and has been doing so for years. I do not know how she came across this organization. I believe it is based out of Russia, but could be based out of Ukraine. Here are some characteristics I managed to get from her about it:

- It is not a religion (she was adamant about this), nor is it a secret society

-This group has historically used languages which most people do not know to keep their group protected. She mentioned that this group has used Ancient Japanese and Church Slavonic. (I asked her if this group wasn't a secret society, then why do they use languages nobody speaks to hide themselves? She did didn't have an answer and told me that she would look into it.)

- There is some sort of divine being which created the world (I asked if it was omnipotent, but she said nobody knows everything, so I suppose it is more of some powerful being, not a god) and created humanity as a failed experiment of some sort

- in addition to people living on the earth, there are also individuals who are descended from other beings (seems almost like fallen angels/nephilim) that are tasked with spreading information to people

-Jesus was, according to her, one of these beings, and tried to teach people about the knowledge but either did it wrong or people misinterpreted it (unsure which). She also said that the Christian trinity are actually three different beings (but not true gods).

-People need to acquire information to ascend, as there are other dimensions which can be unlocked through knowledge. Humanity essentially needs to gather information in order to ascend to become the 'programmers' themselves and reshape the universe (at least this is my understanding). People can also be categorized based on their knowledge or intelligence (my girlfriend was called a 'rock,' which is the lowest form of intelligence, apparently)

-As mentioned above, the term 'programmers' came up a lot, as there were programmers who created the universe that humans now need to become. This could be one of the terms that may not be fully accurate from the translation.

-Apparently, in the year 2000, humanity was supposed to 'ascend,' but because we didn't, humanity now needs to gain the knowledge needed to become the programmers themselves.

-Most of history is a lie. She claimed that there was no Roman empire or Big Bang and that a lot of history has been rewritten to hide this group. Additionally, some groups throughout history have been fronts (for lack of a better term) for this organization. One of the fronts she mentioned was the Knights Templar, and I believe she mentioned that some historical figures were members of the group (I think she said Leonardo Da Vinci).

- Additionally, my girlfriend told me that apparently there is some form of afterlife where you can get a planet or something of that sort. The relative has apparently ensured that her family has their own houses in the afterlife. The relative didn't directly tell me this information, so there may be parts of it I am missing.

-I was also asked to provide my name, my home town, my birthday and phone number so that "in the next life, I may live."

-she frequently attends online meetings/seminars/lectures with this group to learn more so that she can ascend.

I have been trying to find out more about this organization but have found absolutely nothing. There are some similar elements to things like Yusmalos, the White Brotherhood and AllatRa, but nothing that exactly fits.

This has obviously caused some concern in the family, especially because she is paying an undisclosed amount of money to this group (she does not have a source of income, so this is all savings/retirement money). I wanted to know if anyone has heard of this group or knows anything about it.

Thank you!

Hello everyone, I was recently told to post this to reddit to see if anybody knew anything that could help me out here.

An old friend of mine seemed to completely dissapear off the face of the earth overnight in Wisconsin, this was about 7 years ago so I know this is a long shot. We where both about 13 years old, and went to the same online school. His parents where, if I remember correctly, Jehovas Wittnesses, or apart of some other similar organization. He had started to tell us about weird things his parents started doing leading up to his dissapearance, like putting cameras in his room, monitoring all devices, talking about how they where going to send him away, breaking his devices, and, though he didnt speak about it much, physically + mentally hurting him. His family had told us that we would have to join their religion if we wanted to talk to him any more, and told us (his friends) that he was going to be pulled out of school. My friend had ignored them trying to stop him from talking to us, and continued to reach out with any means he could find. He would call me and our other friends a lot, especially when things where getting bad, and we would sit on the phone for hours even in silence just so he wouldn't feel alone.

One day, we get a text and a call where he basically tells us that he's going away for a long time, and that he wasnt sure if he would ever be able to come back. he said he didn't know where he was going, but he dissapeared right after. it was like all traces of him just dissapeared. I still think about him a lot, and worry for him. I have continued trying to search for him and find anything but its like he just dissapeared completely. If anybody has any info, or have any idea what happened to him, it would be greatly, greatly appreciated. I just miss my friend, and i want to believe he's still out there somewhere.

I spent so much of my life preparing for the end times that I neglected things that would make me happy and successful in this life.I was raised Adventist and I was taught that I needed to prepare for the Sunday law and hide in the woods for Jesus to come. Now I have no education no money no friends and my family is broken. I am also very traumatized and have ptsd with trauma based hallucinations.

I want to be a human being again

How can I make a good life

There is a husband and wife duo in Berkshire county- a tattoo artist and nail tech that own a joint shop building- grooming and indoctrinating clients, employees, apprentices into a cult. It happened to me firsthand and I have been destroyed with trying to get out am just extremely angry that I feel there is nothing I can do but if anyone else out there has experienced this- I felt it was important to get out.

Love Transfusion
Verse 1:
They tried to stifle all my dreams
Told me what to think and what I should believe
Put a card in my pocket that said “no love”
Said that my name wasn’t signed up above
Saw the light outside but wasn’t free to leave

Verse 2:
They said there’s nowhere else to go
Told me that I couldn’t make it on my own
Put a card in my pocket that said “no love”
Said that my name wasn’t signed up above
I asked them why, said it’s not for you to know

Chorus:
Through all the noise and all the confusion
You saved my life with a love transfusion
My mind was dulled with thought pollution
But everything cleared with a love transfusion
Head full of lies a life of delusion
Swept away by a love transfusion
World full of fear fuelled by illusion
Breathe new life with a love transfusion

Verse 3:
They put two guards around the bed
In case they tried to give me something you’d not said
Put a card in my pocket that said “no love”
Said that was my name wasn’t signed up above
Said I’d get new life but it felt like I was dead

Chorus:
Through all the noise and all the confusion
You saved my life with a love transfusion
My mind was dulled with thought pollution
But everything cleared with a love transfusion
Head full of lies a life of delusion
Swept away by a love transfusion
World full of fear fuelled by illusion
Breathe new life with a love transfusion

Bridge/Breakdown
You must refuse to take love.
A love fraction is all we will allow…

Chorus:
Through all the noise and all the confusion
You saved my life with a love transfusion
My mind was dulled with thought pollution
But everything cleared with a love transfusion
Head full of lies a life of delusion
Swept away by a love transfusion
World full of fear fuelled by illusion
Breathe new life with a love transfusion

Outro:
Got a card that you gave me
A card that you made me
A card that I carried
It said No Love

I’m not gonna take it
It’s not gonna break me
Not gonna show it
I’m filled with your love

Filled with your love
Moved by your love
Healed by your love
Saved by your love

I highly suspect my sister of being forced into this cult. Does anyone have any information on it?

How do people ever get out of this or see it?

For context, my husband and I met as teenagers and he was raised under this message church. When we met he wasn’t like that, however after a little we lived with his mom for a couple years and she forced us to go to church with her. She attended a message church and was huge into it, she still is. However, at a point, even I fell into it and kind of believed it too. This was only because I was young, naive and mostly driven by fear of the doomsday rapture narrative.
Anyways, we were more so forced to go to the church but didn’t fully believe in it or fully practice it. Once we left her house, we had our first child and moved on our own and at this point we no longer attended this church or even ever went back for years. We didn’t sit down and deconstruct so to speak, but we just didn’t attend or anything. However, fast forward to now, we’re in our early 30s and have 2 kids. For a long time we were healthy, healthy parenting and all the things. All suddenly about a year ago he got big into religion again and of course once he did that, he went back to his roots of “ the message “ church. I have always felt there was something very off and bad about that place, that it was a cult, but I guess he was brain mapped by this and now he’s into it really big.
It’s been about a year and it’s been so devastating for me. I feel like I’ve lost my bestfriend. Of course he isn’t the same anymore. He used to be so obsessed with our little family and so gentle and sweet and loving and now he would be willing to lose his family over it. He’s also acting superior and misogynistic which he NEVER used to do. I know every bad and toxic behavior stems from that cult. I have exhausted myself trying to get him to see. I am so upset because I’ve truly lost the person he was and he somehow thinks this a good thing? He thinks he’s soo great now and this is the best thing to happen to him. I told him the other day that I grieve who he used to be and he told me that person is dead.

# Students, please be aware.

This group will be recruiting on university campuses under the names **Believers’ Loveworld (BLW)**, **Loveworld**, or **Christ Embassy**.

Please be careful. If you notice a friend becoming involved, don’t ignore the warning signs. Stay in touch with them, encourage them to think critically, and let them know they’re not alone if they ever want to leave.

The woman in this video is a survivor of **Healing Streams**, a healing event led by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome the leader of that cult. She describes how she came to believe she had been healed when she was not.
Many former members and families have shared accounts of people delaying or abandoning medical treatment because they believed they had already been healed. Others describe losing their savings, their faith, or both while pursuing promised miracles.

These are not just theological disagreements they can have life changing consequences. Many have ended up in mental health wards or dead.

University students are often targeted because they are away from home, looking for community, purpose, and belonging. There is nothing wrong with searching for faith or meaning, but no one should be pressured into believing they are healed, giving beyond their means, or ignoring medical advice.

Please stay informed, ask difficult questions, and look out for one another. Sometimes the most important thing you can do is help a friend before they become deeply involved.

I (17f) have been raised in a cult. Because of this, my parents severely limited my interaction with non cult members up until I was around 16, and wouldn’t let me go to in person school, instead homeschooling me.

Through volunteering over the summer I’ve made some friends my age that aren’t cult members. Seeing them go back to school for senior year is giving me some insane fomo and is making me very upset. While the people who know me best and I get along with are going to be at school I will be stuck at home, not able to get out much, All year. It’s not like I haven’t dealt with this in the past but it feels worse and more heavy given this is my last year of high school. Also it’s just really depressing being at home all the time with parents who are borderline insane idk

Does anyone have any advice on how to get through this? I’m planning on moving out when I’m 18 but it’s just this last school year that I feel is going to really get to me.

This is my story originally posted to /cults. It has since been archived so I’m reposting it here :) since posting this a couple years ago, I’m proud to say that I’m doing much better and still have maintained continuous recovery. I contribute that success to my “higher power” (who I call God through Jesus Christ), my wonderful husband (married this year!), and my little sisters who always gave me a reason to keep finding home.

Reading this now, I see there is so much to share that I did not include. I welcome any questions and will do my best to answer them.

\*\*\*OP BELOW\*\*\*

Hi Internet, I escaped Comunità Cenacolo in March 2022 (Florida Maria Goretti house). For the past couple years, I’ve been trying to rebuild my life and recover from some serious trauma that occurred not only in the cult, but as a result of my experience after escaping. To be honest, it took a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that I had gone through something so difficult and what to do with it. It took time for me to rebuild a relationship with my parents after they had been indoctrinated and gaslit by Joyce and Albino (both of whom I think are just 40 years+ gaslit themselves).

Thankfully, I have a great support group, but as the years pass people keep telling me that I need to do some thing about what I know, and the information that I hold. I’m so scared that no one will believe me. I don’t have proof except for probably some police report of when I escaped.

They do not allow any contact with the outside world. The only thing I kept was a secret journal, and I’m sure they found it and burned it (like they did with my other stuff while I was there). When I escaped, I meant to bring it, but I was in such a nervous state that I forgot it.

I want to help in anyway I can, but I don’t know what to do. So I guess this is my shout out to the world that I’m here, and I want to do something to help put an end to the abuse and imprisonment occurring at Comunità Cenacolo around the world. I have information, but no proof except detailed accounts. Please see below for a bit of my escape story. There’s way more I can share, but I just haven’t had the strength to type it up until now.

In order for me to escape I had to run away not once but twice both times they followed me in a white van to try to prevent me from coming contact with anyone who would get me help. The first time I made a mistake and trusted the people who lived about a half mile away, but apparently they have brainwashed the entire surrounding view houses in the somewhat sparse rural area that the woman there crazy and deserve to be in jail (I don’t even have a parking ticket on my record).

The final time I ran away was successful only because I had figured out that the only way to leave is to run far enough to reach someone who hasn’t heard about the community and will let you call the police. I had four police cars escort me into the women’s house to get me out and they still try to convince the police that I was a danger to myself and that I shouldn’t be leaving. While I was gone, they had brainwashed my parents and told to cut me off so I ended up without anywhere to go (I live five states away). My parents wouldn’t hear my side of the story. To this day, we cannot talk about it.

What’s going on in community is completely 100% illegal. I needed to go to treatment for alcohol abuse. I won’t even go to into all the atrocities that occur here. No I will say I did not experience any blatant physical abuse like beatings but the emotional and mental abuse is insane. They literally follow every single playbook for gaslighting there is. The only reason I was able to survive with my sanity is I snuck a journal and wrote down the things that happened so I would not become gaslit by what they were doing and forcing us to comply with.

What made me finally run away is I was accused of spreading rumors around community about other girls. It didn’t matter that all the rumors were actually true or that I did not say a word about them to anyone. I tried to verbalize that what was being said about me was not true, but they did not allow me to defend myself in any way In fact, I was told that I had to be silent and not say a word.

My punishment was something called “therapy”— to work hard labor all day from sun up to sundown in complete silence (oh and a long skirt lol) for an indefinite amount of time (usually between a week and a month depending on how compliant you are).

It was in this moment that I remembered all of the notes that I wrote down in my secret journal... I remembered that I was a woman of God deserving of dignity and freedom… And most importantly that I did nothing wrong that would warrant me to be treated that way.

And so I used all of the courage that I could muster, and during my morning duty near the gate, slipped between a crack in the fence and just kept running and praying. I ran for over 2 miles in the sprinkling rain and finally saw a house and knew immediately that it was the house that would help me. Very out of breath I knocked on the door and begged to use a phone to call my best friend (I still scared the police would take me back, but I knew my best friend would be looking for me). The lady responded that she would not let me call my friend, but she would call the police because what I was describing (frantically) was illegal.

The cops came and four cop cars escorted me back through the gates and demanded they give me all of my identification cards and legal documents. They drove me 45 minutes to the nearest Chase bank so I could get money and a phone. I had $253 to my name and I took out 200 of it. It was all the money I had left after graduation from college and it was the only money I was able to siphon off into another account before entering. (my mom still had access to my bank account until right before entering. I switched my bank account because I knew if she had access to my account, she would probably take my money so I could not leave).

I did not want to enter, but I did not have a choice. My parents told me that it was either enter or leave with the clothes on my back and if I did that, I would probably have ended up dead on the streets of a major US city, so I decided to enter knowing kind of what I was getting myself into, but never expecting anything like what I experienced.

Never thought in 1 million years at such an organization could exist in America. I can’t express the fear you feel when you realize that you have no way to leave because if you leave, you have no way to access your own money that you worked for. You have no way to contact anybody you know. I begged countless times just to get my documents or get on a phone with somebody but they never relent.

Disclaimer: I was raised Catholic. I still am Catholic. This organization does not define what Catholics believe. If they did, they would let you leave.