r/cults

u/ewk

u/theksepyro

u/TFnarcon9

u/Truthier

u/2bitmoment
**  **
u/tiny_porch_light

u/NegativeGPA

**———-**

Hi hello reader,

I would like to speak to you briefly about an experiment I’ve been running.

So, what about these folks?

(As a quick aside, all of them have a thing for defending genocide and the Epstein class… almost like they identify with the Epstein class and folks who mass murder and rape brown people and their kids or something. But I’m just a dude who notices people defending pedophiles and genocide and thinks that might mean something...)

This is what I believe to be true based off of my interactions and information I have come across and things I have heard and been shown from others. I have interacted with some of them over almost a decade, slipping under their awareness.

If you’ve been following my posts here at all you might also have gathered that I have had psychic experiences but that’s impossible so I must be crazy. These are just my ramblings and inferences based off of some data and also some mind reading information that is definitely impossible for me to have access to.

You can also see some of my posts where I make it clear that I have taken a keen interest in child predators.

If you want to prey on adults that is wrong but at least an adult can defend themselves and be aware of what is happening to them.

You can also read some of my posts where I make it clear that this is a prison planet run by pedophiles.

I take notice when folks go out of their way to act as prison guards for the predator class when we all know what is going on.

So without going into too much detail, I believe the people above are child predators. They aim to mislead and abuse others while appropriating spiritual lingo in order to obfuscate their predation.

Zen is just about cultivating awareness. And yet the communities this group run, which are supposedly about this practice, mislead people away from awareness. They appropriate Zen to gain influence over others. They prey rather than practice.

—

“Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.” -Bodhidharma, founder of Zen/Chan

—

The founder of their own practice contradicts their beliefs and methods. And yet the folks I listed at the top still have made it their mission to confuse people and mislead unsuspecting victims into unawareness.

They mindlessly label others as mentally ill without knowing anything about them. Just for the sake of abuse. I wonder how many young people u/ewk and the [r/zen](r/zen) mod team have told were mentally ill for no reason, risking their mental health? How many times did they hurt others with their very bad advice? Why does the [r/zen](r/zen) cult have such high rates of mental health issues themselves?

I recognize folks leading others into unawareness as a big red flag. Especially when you’re on social media where kids hop on and read stuff and post and are influenced and confused by your blatant deception.

None of the predators above have ever had a legitimate enlightenment experience and yet they abuse and mislead others away from these legitimate experiences.

The aforementioned aren’t enlightened. They’re schizophrenic predators.

They are not enlightened in any way.

You know how this looks, right?

To those listed, free to step down and go away and hide with the predator class.

I’m not a fan of child predators. At all.

(This is a repost and backup of a post Reddit is trying to censor.)

I spent my entire twenties inside it.

I found the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita in my early twenties and went all in. Took vows of celibacy, chanted, meditated two hours a day, driven by a deep search for truth. Six of those years I lived in an ashram in India as a brahmacari. I believed I was doing the most important thing a person could do.

A year ago something broke open and I was finally able to look honestly at myself and at the community I was in, and admit that I had joined a cult. That the thing I'd been chasing for a decade was already in me, and I'd spent ten years handing it to other people.

Leaving was harder than staying. I had no career, no savings, no relationships outside the movement, and no idea who I was without the identity. I flew back to Chicago, got my guitar and a motorcycle, and rode out to Arizona to start over.

The part nobody warned me about: the deprogramming didn't happen in my head. It happened in my body. Ten years of dissociation dressed up as transcendence. What actually brought me back to reality was physical — training, boxing, being outside, being in my body again. The thinking caught up afterward.

I don't have anything to sell here and I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. I just know how alone it feels in the first year out, and if anyone's in that stretch right now and wants to talk to someone who's been through the eastern-tradition version of it, my inbox is open.

I just watched this documentary and it was very interesting.

I just kinda don't understand how it all worked from "3D world" perspective: you know, bills, food, day to day operations.

So Miguel and Amy started selling healing sessions, probably collecting donations from streams, etc? He set up websites and collected all the money on his accounts?

Was the first big cabin his? Did he buy it or rent it?

Then, new members joined, and they donated savings and started more streams and online shops. Still, all money goes to Miguel?

So was Miguel the one running everything? Playing rent? Bills, buying computers and phones? Grocery shopping?

I know they were starving themselves, but they had to eat something and buy fancy food for Amy? So there was some allowance? Did they have access to Miguels accounts?

Amy was buying dresses and jewelry, and they also gave her jacuzzi and g-kart. It's nothing super crazy expensive, but still, someone made the purchase? Was it always Miguel?

And later, Miguel kinda left, the cult was moving, renting/buying new properties, and they had a car. So they had to have some access to cults money?

In the end, he emptied all accounts (330 000), but the rest knew the amount, so they had to have some access to it?

I (29f) don't even know what else to say. She's(35f) having a rough time right now and is easily manipulated especially in her current state of mind. She's been scammed out of thousands by job offers and online stores in the past and has recently started drinking again (she's a recovering alcoholic) if that helps to paint a picture on how dire this situation is

Okay so anyway she told me how healing it was to open up past trauma and grieve it and then she started telling me what the trauma was in detail and I was like "please stop" and I tried to ask questions but like I was obviously floored and freaked out when she said "dianetics from scientology" so she yelled at me and was very upset (understandable, I should've been more gentle)

This was her first "therapy" session with this man and the first session he introduces her to a form of hypnosis called dianetics? Oh and she said she has another session with him?! and he wrote a book so I think that means I can say his name

The book is The Human Compass by Jason Gentrup

Help is she in danger?

For the past 8 years I have worked as a professional caregiver for the disabled in supported living or group homes. This line of work is not for the faint of heart. Most of the people I care for have some sort of developmental disability. However, many are borderline normal people who just suffer from mental illness. My line of work is known for having slippery employers. However, the company I've worked at for over 5 years does some particularly weird things. I'll just outright tell you, it is a particular operation out of North Vernon, Indiana for the company ResCare. However, the company is now merging with another larger company called Sevita/Mentor. I want to note that it is this particular operation out of North Vernon Indiana that is the issue. I have no reason to suspect the whole company operates this way.

For starters, the way they go about recruiting is different from most employers. They'll hold "job fairs" which have no other employers other than themselves for people to talk to. They host community events to try and draw potential employees in. The events will be advertised as family friendly and have activities including face painting and animals. When they interview you, it will not be like a traditional job interview. It's more like they're attempting to sell you the job and convince you to join. They'll hire literally anyone they legally can. They've even been known to ignore the state age requirements to hire younger workers. (Kids in highschool) They mostly talk about the good their company does and how people will have the opportunity to do good for others. They'll also attempt to hire entire families and attempt to get people to encourage their entire families to quit their jobs and have the whole family come work for them. Again, all under the promises that they'll be doing good and helping others.

However, once they're employed and begin working in the homes or group homes, they soon realize it is anything but what was promised. Many of these homes or facilities are hidden away from the public eye. Unlike the nice professional looking office they interviewed at, the environments they expect their workers to work in will be dirty and in disrepair. One of the homes I was expected to work at had holes in the kitchen floor. Another didn't even have central air conditioning or heat. Some of them have mold. Some of these properties are suspected to have issues like radon but have never actually been tested.

The workers, including myself, will often be asked and expected to work long hours. Often, these hours will be 12 to 16 hour shifts at all times of day or night. One guy I knew was expected to work 16 hour days for 3 months straight with no days off. No weekends, no holidays, no time off to spend with their family, just work for months on end with no knowledge of when a day off will be. I personally have had to explain to my extended family many times that I would not be able to see them or spend time with them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other events.

To be clear, this is of course completely different from what workers are told they will be working when they get hired. They're usually told they will have plenty of time off and have a nice core schedule which is promised to them upon hire. But one way or another, they're strong armed into working these long hours with no time off.

The question most people have is, "how can someone realistically work this way?" The answer is they can't. Eventually, most of the workers develop serious health issues as a result of working to the point of exhaustion. It's difficult to explain if you haven't watched it happen to someone else, but it's like their body just starts breaking down. And, in case you're wondering, you're not allowed to nap or rest at work. Even if you've worked 16 hour days for a solid month, you're not allowed to fall asleep. If you get caught falling asleep, there are pretty severe punishments for you as an employee. Most employees are not permitted to go to the doctor either. I don't mean that they don't have health insurance. They do. I mean you are literally not allowed to take a day off to go to the doctor. Management will straight up tell you to cancel or reschedule your doctor's appointments until a time when it is convenient for them to let you take time off to see a doctor.

So, they'll work the employees long hours for months at a time without a day off. They'll deprive them of sleep. Then when they get sick, they won't allow the employees to see a doctor.

Finally, there's the issue of low wages or pay. The workers are generally given a low wage when can be decreased and stretched in various ways. The company is usually able to convince people this is okay because they're getting the opportunity to do something good or help others. Mind you, this is literally a billion dollar enterprise and a publicly traded company. The budget for our operation is in the 10s of millions of dollars. Whenever someone questions the low wages, a manager or even other brainwashed staff will repeat this mindless mantra about how they're there because they care about the clients we care for and the opportunity to do good.

The question I know most will ask at this point is, "why don't you just quit? Why would anyone stay at a job like that?"

This is where things start to get particularly cult-like. To put it simply, they don't make it easy for you to leave. They work on psychologically conditioning their employees from the day they start. Employees are required to go to regular mandatory meetings or trainings. However, these are not like normal meetings at most companies. You are not permitted to call in via zoom or conference call. All employees are required to physically show up in person for these "trainings." It doesn't matter how sleep deprived you are or how many hours you've worked, you are required to show up in person. At first it will seem as though these "trainings" have no point to them. They're not about anything in particular. They're essentially a tactic used to psychologically condition the employees and make them easier to control. It's a similar concept to being expected to attend church. It's a way for management to gauge how brainwashed the employees are. If they don't think the employees are well indoctrinated enough, they'll begin requiring more of these seemingly pointless "trainings." At this point, the trainings do begin to contain a fair amount of indoctrination. They sort of begin preaching about all the "good" ResCare does. They make a point of talking about the employees who have remained loyal the longest. And, they'll begin dishing out and assigning more menial labor as a sort of punishment. Things like mopping and shining floors that have already been cleaned or requiring employees to clean the toilets every hour. But here's the really cult-like part. They'll begin talking about people who have left the company as bad people. They'll talk about people who left as people who "walked out" on their clients, the people with disabilities. Some of them will discuss how they believe they are doing the Lord's work and how it called to them divinely. They'll attempt to make you feel really bad about the thought of leaving or even taking a day off. Many of the members of management genuinely believe they are doing this work because God called on them to do so. There's this weird underhanded assertion that quitting this job or working less goes against God somehow.

As I stated before, one of their tactics is to recruit entire families into working for the company. So, one thing that is often held above the employee's head is that they would be leaving behind their family if they were to quit. This is a legitimate concern. There are people I know who after quitting were unable to see their family members regularly since they could only see them through work or the company then encouraged the family members to work harder to fill their spot once they had left the company. Of course, the company would then make seemingly deliberate attempts to force the rest of the family to work holidays and special events to prevent them from connecting with other family members who had quit the company.

If they begin to suspect a good worker is going to leave, they will often begin finding ways to cut or lower their wages in an attempt to make the worker more financially dependent on them. In some cases, they will even offer the employee the opportunity to rent a home or apartment which is also owned by the executive director's family so they can hold their home or the threat of homelessness over the employee's head.

Unlike other companies that may give you a bad reference, the company will deliberately attempt to sabotage employees who attempt to leave. They may make up rumors. They may claim that you were undependable. They may also use those employees as a scapegoat or "fall" for state investigations. During these investigations the employees are suspended without pay indefinitely and are not hirable by any other healthcare company operating within the state per state regulations. The employee is effectively trapped at their job until the investigation is resolved, which happens entirely at the discretion of the company.

Most of the managment and higher-ups are all secretly related somehow. I haven't figured it out entirely, but many of the employees figure it out eventually.

I've worked at this company for a number of years and have often asked myself why I still work there. The more I think about it, the more I'm questioning if I'm in a cult. There are some company events coming up soon. I know I'll be shamed if I don't go to them. But, I'm seriously considering just not going and seeing how it ends for me.

Hey everyone. Throwaway account here. Just need to vent a bit, share where I'm at, and get some realistic perspectives from people who’ve dealt with compulsive sexual behavior or 12-step programs.

How things got out of hand I’m 23, and I’ve been in a relationship with my girlfriend for 6 years. I started watching porn around 14, but over the last two years it escalated into something way more disruptive. I ended up making fake IG accounts, jumping on video chat apps with strangers just to masturbate for external validation, and even crossing lines by bugging people I knew just to watch me finish. I’d lose 1–2 hours hiding in the bathroom on my phone instead of being intimate with my partner. Deep down, I know this was never really about high libido—it was pure emotional avoidance whenever I felt overwhelmed by college exams, stress, loneliness, or just boredom.

Joining SA & the red flags About two months ago I realized I couldn't keep living like that and joined Sexaholics Anonymous (SA). To give credit where it's due, the fellowship worked like an emergency brake: I immediately cut out the fake accounts, the video calls, and the boundary-crossing behavior, and I’m currently on day 10 of strict SA sobriety.

That said, some huge red flags have started bothering me:

• The ultimatum on my relationship: In SA, sobriety is strictly defined as no sex outside of heterosexual marriage. Because we're 23 and not married—despite being together for 6 years—my sponsor and several members keep pushing me to either marry her immediately or break up to "save my recovery."
• The "chaser effect" amplified by moral guilt: When I do have sex with my girlfriend, the next day I feel completely off and get intense urges to go back to screens. But honestly, half of that spiral comes from overthinking and beating myself up because SA tells me having sex with my long-term partner is a "relapse." If I push through that 24-hour guilt trip, I stabilize again.
• Gatekeeping recovery: Members in my meetings constantly trash other fellowships like SAA or SLAA, calling them "too soft," "watered down," or ineffective because they let you define your own middle circle/bottom lines.

My questions for you guys:

1. Has anyone here been in SA and felt that the rigid moral/religious doctrine created a cycle of shame instead of actual psychological healing?
2. If you walked away from SA, what was your next move? Did switching to SLAA/SAA help, or did you make real progress only after going to a licensed therapist (CBT / CSAT / sexologist)?
3. How did you learn to separate healthy, reciprocal intimacy with a long-term partner from compulsive screen-based escapism without having to go fully celibate?

Really appreciate any honest advice or shared experiences. Thanks for reading.

Does anyone have information about a group known as the Keysters? They follow a man named JJ Dewey, he runs a blog and has an amazon store front for his books of spiritual teachings. The group has yearly spiritual retreats. I remember one happening in Manti, Utah and another in Nauvoo, Illinois. I know there was one a few years ago in Boise, Idaho.

I was born into a family that follows him and his teachings, and I have some pretty traumatic memories associated with this group. Does anyone have any further information about this?

So for context, I was doing a deep dive into various cults that existed around the world with most of it focused on the usual suspects, People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, Aum Shinrikyo, and so on. But something intrigued me when was reading about The Family International, better known as the Children of God.

Namely, when I was reading the Wikipedia page about them, it mentioned that there was a commune here in La Habra that existed at one point with a citation from the Washington Post which is currently behind a paywall, and since the Internet Archive is down at the moment I can't check the full article but it's at [this link](https://web.archive.org/web/20120325012912/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/children\_of\_god/child1.htm) for reference.

Anyway, does anyone have any actual info about this commune? I'm morbidly curious and want to know if it's still here or if it's been redeveloped or anything.

Thank you in advance.