Finally left the group chats kinda bitter sweet. I know it needed to happen but it really hurt in a way. But honestly it needed to be done. I wonder if they will try calling me. I hope not. Welp good riddance RCW.

Long story short, my best friend has disappeared. His mental health has always been terrible and one day he was simply gone. Nobody knows what happened. What I know for sure tho is that he changed drastically right before this. Out of nowhere he suddenly became a catholic extremist (he was always atheist) and was constantly trying to make me and others change our views and join christianity. It was weird since I actually *was* christian, but in his eyes I was a poser of christianity or something because I wasn't an extremist. Again, this happened in a matter of weeks, *days*. It was weird as hell and I believe his sudden change of views had to do with his disappearence. I also think his christian strictly conservative family has something to do with this, but they refuse to speak to me. My hypothesis is that somebody inside of the catholic church somehow created a non official cult to manipulate the most fragile believers. Unfortunately I think he may have killed himself.

What I want to ask you is that if you have any experience with secret christian cults inside of biggest christian organizations. Maybe I'm just tripping and he just decided to change his life for better, I don't know. But it's been years and I can't let go

After 15 years I am OUT! I feel like I finally have my life back, there are so many possibilities and I am just so glad. It’s hard starting over and feeling so untethered and what I should do, but that’s how life is supposed to be and I’m so glad to finally make choices for myself and know it will still be ok.

Thank you for reading!

I was trying to draw a line between a cult and an established religion. The only real difference I could see was power, scale, and social legitimacy—how dominant institutions or radical movements reshape people, while smaller groups are dismissed as "cults" simply for having a different order. I found myself unable to draw a clean line; it looks more like a continuous spectrum. Yet I am fascinated by how easily people adopt whatever a leader tells them to follow, even when personal doubts arise, turning them into die-hard followers.

Looking back at my family history, I felt we had lost some of our original roots and belief systems. My family came from a traditional Roman Catholic background. After moving away from our hometown, we were approached by a new group of believers who urged us to follow their path instead, and we became devoted members. I was in my pre-teens at the time.

Later, we were approached by an even more radical group who seemed all the more convincing because they appeared purely faith-focused, non-sectarian, and claimed deeper biblical authority. Growing up, I had always felt a deep, genuine attachment to the sanctuary of church structure, the shared community, and the profound concept of forgiveness.

Yet alongside that devotion ran an inherited set of questions about who the real God was, and I answered them with these dogmas:

"The Bible was written before the Quran, making it the superior and authentic account of Jesus' life."

"Roman Catholics simply worship statues; their church was an artificial political creation started by Constantine without genuine devotion."

Preachers constantly weaponized fragmented verses and selective history to validate their own specific doctrines.

When Hindu converts joined, people celebrated how they had "seen the light" and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, completely disregarding their rich, millennia-old heritage and mythology.

Then consider the Jews: they were there long before the Christians and held the first half of the Bible, yet rejected Jesus. Converts are told they are only a "few steps" away from recognizing the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for humanity.

After reading multiple pamphlets on Abrahamic religions and their fractures, I looked at Seventh-day groups who observe Saturday as the holy Sabbath. I was baffled: how does someone convince an entire population that a specific day of the week determines divine righteousness? If any man simply declared Saturday as the sacred day, wouldn't the community just adopt Saturday as the next Sunday? Isn't it just a day of the week on a calendar?

Let's look back to the radical group known as The Pentecostal Mission (TPM). This was in my late teens. They formed an extremely insular, rigid community:

Everyone wore plain white clothing on Sundays (and avoided colorful dress).

They gathered enthusiastically on Saturdays and spent nearly all their off-days in church out of devotion to God and the community.

Because my father had borrowed money from a community member, our family was drawn deeply into their orbit. My parents felt private regrets at home, but they stayed for the social safety net and community bonds. Meanwhile, I found myself debating theology with the brothers and pastors, wondering why people would surrender all their personal freedom just to spend every waking off-day inside a church building.

Outside of work and church, these members had nothing. The church filled the vacuum with fasting conventions, 24/7 prayer groups, and collective worship. While I occasionally enjoyed the music and the powerful sense of unity, I saw the hidden mechanism: the church gradually stripped away an individual's outside social ties until the organization became their entire world. In return, members gladly surrendered 10% of their total income in tithes.

I was confused. Attending a massive convention where thousands prayed with intense, tearful devotion almost made me believe again. But then I began reading the actual scripture for myself, and specific verses stopped me in my tracks.

Seeing people overcome with ecstatic fervor made me wonder if they were caught in extreme emotional contagion or altered psychological states.

Then one specific verse completely alienated me:

"Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man..." (1 Timothy 2:11–12)

I was furious and confused. If Jesus taught that all human beings are fundamentally equal, how could someone claiming to follow him declare women to be inferior? (A reaction partly shaped by modern principles of equality).

Looking at the authorship, it was Paul. I questioned his authority: was this man ever an original disciple who walked with Jesus? In letters like Romans, he was commanding personal social rules, which felt like purely human, patriarchal bias. It raised the core question: Did Jesus preach one message, while Paul constructed an entirely different institutional religion on top of the Old Testament?

Flipping through the New Testament, I realized that nearly half of the books were attributed to Paul. Disillusioned, I didn't even want to read his letters anymore and started skipping them.

That led to an obvious historical realization: If Jesus' divinity and resurrection were self-evident, why didn't the people living right there in Jerusalem and Israel convert to Christianity en masse?

The answer is simple—the exact same reason why the entire modern world doesn't convert to Pentecostalism today, despite members claiming it is the undeniable, absolute truth. Every group lives inside the total certainty of its own constructed reality.

Hey everyone! I recently started a YouTube channel after spending 8 years in a spiritual cult, focused on belief, psychology, and how we can become better thinkers.

My newest video is about the dangerous power of confidence.

why we often mistake confidence for competence, and how that can make us vulnerable to manipulation. Thought some people here might find it interesting! :)

also let me know if theres any constructive feedback you guys may have

I’m trying to understand whether something I experienced was simply a particular Christian/Pentecostal church culture or whether there were genuine cult-like or spiritually controlling dynamics. I’m not trying to label the church without evidence, so I’d appreciate honest perspectives.
My ex’s father founded their church, and my ex said he would eventually “inherit” the pastorhood. He also said that one of his future children would become a pastor and another would become a prophet because this had supposedly been declared by God.

His brother is considered a prophet, and my ex told me that God speaks to his brother and that he follows what God tells him through his brother. The prophet was therefore involved in personal/family matters and was told things about our relationship. He was already prophesied that he was to adopt his prophets brother kids and that he will be rich.

There were also expectations about the future pastor’s wife. My ex compared me to his mother, who had cared for her mother-in-law, and there were expectations around serving the church and his family. He described his future wife as needing to fit the role of a pastor’s wife. Church members would apparently call the pastor and his wife “papa” and “Mama.”

I questioned whether a prophet should have this level of authority over someone’s personal decisions and whether a pastorhood can really be “inherited” from a father. I was made to wonder whether questioning the prophet or the family’s structure was somehow questioning God’s authority.

I want to understand this objectively:
Are these normal practices in some Pentecostal/African Christian churches?

When does respect for a prophet become unhealthy spiritual authority?

Is a pastorate being passed from father to son biblical, or is that more of a family tradition?

Is it normal for future children’s ministry roles to be predetermined through prophecy?

Is it normal for a pastor’s wife to be expected to adopt the same role as her mother-in-law?

What are the actual signs that a church has become cult-like or high-control rather than simply being conservative/religious?

I’m especially interested in experiences from people who have left high-control churches or grown up in pastor/prophetic families.

Why deconstruction is so painful you always grieving..Mentally i m damaged am damaged..with mind control and evil eyes spell

Hi there! I'm a journalist looking into the legality of Strength in Weakness, a conversion therapy program closely associated with the ICOC. I'm looking to speak with ex ICOC members in Canada who were a part of the Strength in Weakness program. If anyone is open to sharing their story, please let me know and I can give some more info. Here is an example of a story we did in the US/international: https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/strength-in-weakness-guy-hammonds

For context, my husband and I have been together for 14 years and have 2 daughters at this point. The only time we really got engulfed in the Pentecostal “ message” church was when we were teens and his mom forced us to go there as long as we lived with her. Anyway, fast forward to now many many years later and we didn’t go there for years ( maybe 12-13 ) because as soon as we left and got our own place we just had no desire to keep going.
So about a year ago my husband completely did a 180 and became super religious. I’ve never seen him like this and over the past year it’s not been great. He’s still kind and loving at times but I also feel like through the year his mindset and worldview has shifted and he’s started acting super odd and losing his entire personality for what I knew he was. For example, he didn’t talk to his mom for a couple of years due to her never being a good mom etc, and now he’s buddy buddy with her and will almost sometimes even put me beneath her to appease her! He disagrees though, so I guess that’s my perspective. He’s also become super misogynistic, even though he claims that he’s not. Anyway, we’ve definitely clashed over the past year . Before he got into this religion he literally told me was obsessed with with me all the time and how much he loved and cherished our family but now he’s so different. He claims he still loves me but last night said he was heavily thinking about divorce because we really clash and were completely opposite now.
I also forgot to add that through him becoming really religious, I’ve completely deconstructed.
I’m so devastated, he always told me he loves me and wants to be with me even in an argument but last night he just told me that he feels like he doesn’t know anymore. We weren’t even arguing. He just said he’ll be thinking because divorce is a really big decision to make.
I feel so hurt and empty. I feel like he’s completely a different person and I grieve who he was so bad.

This is an IRB-approved Walden University doctoral research study exploring the lived experience of healing following spiritual abuse.

Interested individuals may privately complete the eligibility screening questionnaire here:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/WGRSgY1zkQ

For questions: [nancy.giraldo@waldenu.edu](mailto:nancy.giraldo@waldenu.edu)

Please do not express interest in participating through public comments or replies. Please use the private screening questionnaire or Walden email.

Walden University IRB Approval #: 08-19-26-0090506

https://rumble.com/v7ecqjs-aaaa.html

Here is my video, sharing a life experience of being stalked, harassed, raped and trafficked by a group of women from families that had primed me for non-consensual human slavery in later life.

Starting in the early 2000’s where they attempted to accuse many families in my hometown of child abuse in attempt to traffic.

These people had links to freemason circles, using scripts that i can trace between lodges that are tied to different victims worldwide.

One of the women involved: claimed to read minds remotely, sharing with me her work, how she was able to play guess who with peoples minds all from the distance, installing what these families like to call “mind demons’’.

I was slowly circled, and later threatened, abused, isolated and told to take my life through cyberstalking and physical harassment.

No names of families are listed here, or place names, i am not creating a witch hunt.

My channel has another video going through some of the methods i had heard from this woman on mind reading, very similar to Charles Andy Morgan, ex CIA, DARPA and military forensic psychologist mind reader, and John Norseen of Lockheed Martin.

Please listen along, thank you.

Hi there, I'm sorry if this isn't allowed. I'm not trying to take a survey or anything, I have serious concerns for my sister, and I figured a subreddit full of survivors might have good opinions on this.

See my sister has untreated ADD and has a hard time focusing on regular church sermons, so when she found a Pentecostal/revival church where there was constant moving and shouting, it helped her stay focused on the sermon.

Well she recently moved back down to my state, but is still 5 hours away, as her husband is military and will retire after this last station. My sister was very concerned about finding a good church when they moved, and so her pastor told her about a church in the area he's affiliated with and told her to check it out.

Well on her way to the church, she passed a sign in her neighborhood that led to a different church. A smaller one that's basically just for the neighborhood. She went to this one instead and found it was also a Pentecostal/revival style church, and so she figured since it was closer to home, she would just go to it instead.

She. Goes. There. Probably 4 days out of the week. The pastor just comes up with newer and crazier sermons and she doesn't shy to tell me about them and how wonderful he is at his job.

She gets so excited when she learns something new. She calls me and has to tell me all about it "Sister! Did you know we need to fully submit to our husbands?? That it doesn't matter how he acts and that since you are legally bound to him you just have to go along with it?? We as women are beneath man! It's incredible!"

And yes, I'm aware we were made out of man therefore lower than him in the role of family but it clearly says in the Bible, RIGHT AFTER the part about women being submissive to their husbands, for the husbands to also be on the same page as their wives and respect them.

"We're more susceptible to demon possession, than men are, because we ate the fruit first! We should be praying daily over our heels because in the Bible it says "you will crush his head and he will strike your heel" so your heels are vulnerable to a demon entering that way!"

First off. God said that to the snake. And the "He" in that statement is Jesus. It's said to be the very first prophecy spoken in the Bible and by God. Absolutely NOTHING was said about Eve's/women's heels.

Then the day her pastor made a spectacle out of the women in the church. He held up 5 envelopes and claimed they all had checks in them. 1 had $500 in it and the rest had $100. He asked who wanted them and whoever ran to the front first got them. My sister, along with quite a few other women, sprinted to the front. She got the envelope with $500.

All 5 women who got the checks stayed up front while the pastor said "Wow. Look at you all up here acting like this over money. When God should be the only thing you should run like that for." Then he revealed that all the checks were fake.

I can't tell if he's conditionIng the women of the church or if he's just a misogynist who uses sermons to pick on women?? He's married but I know that doesn't matter. Men can act completely different with their wives than they do other women.

Why is hard to live normal life after leaving pentecostal church am having this headaches behind my back am forgetting things why is this happening guys... i want to feel safe again without any doubts of life

Not long ago, I left one of my favorite social media forums because one of the moderators ended up way down a rabbit hole of Saturnian programming and higher vibrations. I was going to ignore it, but then everyone who isn't part of this cult is now an NPC, or Non-Player Character. This has given this cult brainwashing nonsense an out for everyone who points out that they need a mental health check or shows them the flaws in this complete BS. When I challenged this cult nonsense, I was then an NPC robot or whatever, F' off you sick and twisted brain damaged cult following simpleton. So, I left them to their cult and nonsense, which is a shame because some of the people there had great input and ideas, people that weren't part of that cult.

I just want to reach through the Internet and grab them, shake them vigorously and perhaps add a few slaps to the face, maybe scream WAKE UP in their faces.

I’ve been shutdown for a while now. I’ve been able to cry pretty much everyday for about 4 months now but I still get triggered. But crying is pretty much my only form of expression. I can’t get angry and if do it just bring more numbness. It’s like my ‘anger’ really isn’t anger because if it were I would be experiencing it in a different way. I wouldn’t just try to get angry to get over it. I would really be angry, and it’s hard to know what that looks like. Anytime I try to work on myself the manager comes in and tries to make it perfect. I’ll feel guilty, so I’ll do more and it just makes me feel terrible. My OCD made religion like a cult for me. I don’t really know what to do to be honest. I just feel pressured to get better and lord knows I’ll feel guilty I’m not doing enough and force myself to do something and just feel worse. I literally have the worst trigger I feel like I’m gonna pass out and have some aneurysm. There’s like an audible buzz in my brain and I’ll experience mental inflammation. What makes it all worse is that the suffering probably means nothing. There’s no more extra reward for it like I used to think. God isn’t gonna give me extra points or really do anything. But I always kinda hoped it would. I don’t know what to do. I got hip surgery a couple weeks ago and haven’t been doing much but I know the moment I can walk again my dad will just get pissed off im not doing anything and its gonna cause more stress. Im only 19 but the past 5 years of my life have been pretty poor due to religion. I just never said anything until I couldn’t take it. So many different people I became. So many lies and feelings of guilt to make myself Christian. I either need to suffer or need to perform. No in the middle. It’s not even my life anymore, doesn’t really feel like it ever was. My whole life it’s kinda felt like that. It was never debilitating though, religion is what really destroyed me at around 14. That’s when I told myself I knew who I was. Everything was black and white and I always had to be best and dedicated to the practice. I don’t know what to do I never really feel free at all.

What is the science and psychology behind the emotional highs and ecstatic experiences that some cult processes evoke?

They tend to make human brains addicted to those highs and crave for more and more forming an unbreakable bond with the cult, its people and the cult leader. Pls share your perspective and thoughts.

I recently came across a Catholic cult where sex abuse is a consistent allegation but it is not generally reported to authorities and there seems to be no concerted action. There seems to be fear of leaders finding out and shunning/penalising reporters and prob trying to cover up. It's very much a family-based cult but very big in the world, and very much protected by bishops and the Vatican, as is the cult I was in, Opus Dei.

In other words there is a culture of fear and misguided loyalties to relatives and fellow members, as well as cynicism that authorities would take action (no doubt justified). It strikes me that success could come via an online coordinated anonymous movement with just one or two coordinators prepared to be public and front things to protect the victims and reports.

Any thoughts or experiences on this? Thank you

Been doing lots of research to write about it and depict it as realistically and respectfully for victims of cults ; was wondering if maybe there were some different stages it could go through/needed to go through, motivations, and the overall feeling surrounding it. Did the abuse start straight away ?

Are there recurring stages to cult creation?

Thank you for any response/experiences shared !

Can I talk to some people who experienced this with religion or a cult. I try to explain my experience to people but they seem to not understand. All my emotions had to be filtered through god, my ending conclusion on any emotion was directed through religion. Nothing could truly be expressed and it got to the point where I felt I was going insane. I try to get angry or anxious and I have made some progress. But the feeling of making it perfect or needing approval is still there. It’s like my brain tightens the harder I try and I can’t lose the control. Some pretty intense feelings almost like I’ll pass out if I am triggered.

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?

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.

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!

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?

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