People Who Escaped From A Cult Share Their Experiences

Many people are brought up in a strict upbringing.

What some people don't realize until they are adults, however, is that their upbringing wasn't strict, but they were, in fact, brought up in a cult.

As such, their perception of the world isn't different, it's completely distorted.

Frighteningly, most people who are born into or raised in cults never manage to escape from them.

You can bet that the lucky ones who do escape have memorable stories to tell.

Redditor Dear_Position8323 was curious to hear the stories of former cult members, specifically their escape, leading them to ask:

"People who Escaped from a cult, what happened in there?"

Multi-Level Marketing Is An Understatement...

"I was in the cult known as 'Amway' for two months."

"I learned that they love to dress up in formal business attire and sit and listen to 'successful' people talk for hours."

"They put on this facade about how much they care about you and creating a friendship with you until you open your eyes and realize they only 'care' about you because you can help them earn more money."

"God forbid you miss a phone call, or else they think you aren’t committed to your business."

"They try to brainwash you into believing that if you listen to 3 audios of people talking a day, you’ll become successful."

"Once a week, you meet up (in my experience, it was in a hotel conference room) at like 7pm until 10pm listening to the same exact pitch, and they expect you to take notes every. Single. Time."

"Then every month they’ll host these gatherings called Night Owls where they’ll meet up at a location (for us it was Pizza Ranch), you pay $10 to get in, and you sit and eat and listen to the so-called 'successful' people talk until 3am."

"The moment I realized I needed to get out of the cult was when I was giving my pitch to a buddy of mine via text, and he said I sounded like I was using ChatGPT to text him."

"Needless to say if anyone ever approaches you asking if you’re open to making additional income, SAY NO."- DevinDelta

Wellness, Indeed...

"I was in a 'wellness community' for 3 years."

"They started by telling us to drink special green juice every morning, but it got darker."

"Eventually, they isolated us from family, took our phones, and made us work 18-hour days in their 'healing gardens'."

"The leader claimed she could cure cancer with meditation."

"Got out when I saw them forcing a diabetic girl to stop her insulin. Called my sister at 2 AM from a gas station payphone and never looked back."- FriendlyNsexy

When In Doubt, The Answer Is No

"No BDs."

"No Holidays."

"No Friday night fun, nor Saturday until after sunset."

"No dating."

"No 'unclean' meat."

"Holy Days like a week w no leavened products."

"Go to school with your sandwich made on motza and listen to the kids make you feel SO FN WEIRD."

"Men rule, women and children are beneath men."

"God first."

"At 18/19 I finally got out."

"54 now and my dad still thinks I turned from God and ruined my life."- SwanImmediate4211

Religions Should Not Be Built On Exclusion...

"Where my ex JWs at?"

"I left at 16."

"Then had my very first birthday party."- KitchenBreadfruit237

Talk About False Prophets...

"Not really escaped so much as it collapsed."

"It was a MegaChurch, and the pastor would do a sermon, then the recording was played in each branch of the church multiple times on every Sunday morning and evening."

"Backstory on how I got in:"

"I married young, he was saving himself for marriage and had never even held a girl's hand."

"He was from a Russian community, so I learned the language and immersed myself all in, even though it was an American church in the USA."

"He takes me to this church, and we get involved and do a pre-marital class together (totally legit so far)."

"The classes became awful."

"They pretty much insisted on successful marriages only looking one way, and they said that if we don't put out enough our dudes will cheat on us - and while that logic may track, the methodology is where I take issue - it was pretty much stuff your feelings and character to bow to your husband - don't question anything, you only get to this result on one path."

'Also, give us your money and live modestly even though our pastor is wearing fancy clothes."

'Then we started doing these 'Redemption' classes and buying the Pastors books.. "

"And men and women did them separate."

"Essentially, they would break you down and then offer you the one and only relief psychologically."

"Same with my first husband, my fiancé at the time."

'I held onto my identity and gave them so much push back when they would start group criticism sessions, I'd always bring in reality checks, and I eventually stopped going to the meetings."

"Our marriage fell apart - the church + his fam convinced him I was the problem, and oddly enough at the same time the entire MegaChurch also crumbled and the pastor was discharged for some scandal (I think because he published some horrific female subordination literature or something) and every branch of his church was sold off this was 2014."

"I have seen him now trying to make a comeback but I don't think it's taken off."

"As for me, I moved overseas and my therapy is galloping my horse across the rolling fields, and I am happily remarried and raising a lad."

"There's a documentary on it."

"The Rise and fall of Mars Hill"- Sigbac

Not Many People Realize Just How Easily They Begin...

"We turned into a cult."

"It happened so subtly and slowed, we had no idea."

"It was a gradual move to only hanging around with people in our group and a teaching not to trust those outside, to listen to the head teachers., to look with suspicion on any ideas or words that came from outside the group."

"When the police came to remove my underaged sister, that started the wakeup to see how far we'd gone."- Intagvalley

When It's Your Only Known Reality...

"I was in a band with someone who left a cult! "

"The band dissolved as a result."

"Everything was literally prescribed by the cult, leader, and the members of the cult that were senior to him, his clothing, his job, his lifestyle where he lived who he associated with, he couldn’t function in regular reality and slowly unwound after that."

'He is a really amazing guitar player it was a pixies tribute band back in the 90s days such a bummer!"- Local_gyal168

One Of The Many Reasons So Little Has Changed...

"I grew up evangelical."

"I was taught to tell school shooters I was a Christian so I could 'Die for my faith'."

"We were also severely over-sexualized."

"Girls were taught that men couldn't control themselves around women."

"Boys were taught that we were controlled by our sex drive."

"We were also taught how evil sex was."

"Don't get me started on the judgement."- readitareyoudeaf

If They Control EVERY Element Of Your Life, It's A Cult...

"Does the fundamentalist Christian’s count as a cult?"

"I’m still working through everything after that."

"Like can you have a life without shame?"

"And if so how?"

"Cuz that sh*t is deep."

"Also, when we say we value others but then actively take away opportunities or programs that would help them, how is that loving thy neighbor?"

"It’s a lot."

"Very glad I walked away."- laminatedcheesepizza

Brainwashing 101

"I was raised in one for school."

"Christian dominionism, Rapture theology, Young Earth Creationism, Biblical inerrancy - I was a Jesus Camp kid."

"I also attended Youth Group in a different flavor of evangelical cult, one that was starting to tip towards the Gothardites."

"It's complicated, but my mother was discovered to have cancer when I was 4."

"The Satanic Panic had done enormous psychological damage to her, as she was almost certainly autistic with an abnormally strong terror/disgust fixation on sin and hell."

"She did not want her children in a Catholic school, as she had been raised Catholic and was scarred by her obsessive confessing to trespasses."

"She chose a school that taught the A Beka/Abeka curriculum out of Pensecola Christian College."

"She died when I was 6, at which point the cult had already told me the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man."

"You can see out of heaven to see the suffering in hell, but as there is no unhappiness in heaven, if I didn't stay in the cult, my Mommy would see me burning in hell and be happy about it."

"When I was almost 8, I made friends with some kids in a different church."

"They were more afflicted with active purity culture than my cult school, which mostly just acted like anything involving sex didn't exist."

"We had to focus much more on fighting demons and protecting our hearts from Satan."

"I was told in both that abortion is not just murder, but literal human sacrifices to Satan."

"I was told in both that Democrats were literally blood-drinking, baby-murdering, child-trafficking monsters."

"My father, who didn't care much what I was being taught, pulled me out of the school in 8th grade, because he realized I needed to graduate from an accredited school to go to college."

"The fact that my foundational education in everything but reading was done completely inadequately if not just with outright lies was ignored."

"Because I was removed from the cult, it had a harder time holding me long term."

"It took a long time to realize it was a cult, though."

"My older sister was violent, and my father was neglectful where he wasn't exploitative."

"I used to pray daily for the Rapture because I was sure my sister was going to eventually murder me in a rage, and I didn't want my father to have to live with that."

"Somewhat ironically, my sister realized many of the teachings of the cult made no moral sense."

"It took me a lot longer to reach the same conclusions because she was so violent that I could not believe she would figure out morals and ethics."- saintsithney

Destined For A Different Kind Of Mission

"Ex Church of Christ here."

"Very strict on attendance, you are expected to be there for every service and if you aren’t or miss often, there’s unspoken/hush hush judgement about it."

"You are expected to not question the authority of the Elders nor the preacher."

"You are mostly only expected to answer the questions they pose in bible class."

"If you’re a woman, you’re expected to not speak hardly at all, even in bible class."

"You are expected to feel guilt about all of your sins and outwardly show that you do by coming forward at the end of the sermon/invitation to ask for the entire congregation's thoughts and prayers'.”

"You are expected to follow what the Bible says and ONLY what the Bible says."

"You do not do anything the Bible doesn’t explicitly say or give an example of early Christian’s doing."

"You are definitely not allowed to do anything the Bible expressly says not to do."

"You are expected to conform and be one of the Congregation."

"You are to dress, act, and behave like everyone else, especially to imitate the Elders as they are the 'Shepherds of the congregation'.”

"Men are expected to work in the congregation through song leading, preaching/invitation, leading prayers, serving the Lords Supper."

"Women are expected to be silent and do no work except teaching children’s Bible class, prepping the Lords Supper, and cleaning the building."

"You are expected to engage in worship through singing (acapella, everybody sings), praying silently/personally during prayer, and partaking in the Lords Supper."- Total-Improvement535

Brings To Mind A Very Different Sort Of Camp...

"Highly recommend the documentary film 'Jesus Camp' to see the indoctrination."- pipishortstocking

Back To Church We Go...

"On the first day of joining this particular church, when it can to giving offerings, the pastor demanded that the ushers lock the doors so that everyone contribute."

"Lol."- VendaMel

Way.Too.Soon...

"Nothing."

"Our leader got elected a second time, and this time it's gonna be great."

"Again."

The way one is raised will have significant, possibly detrimental effects on your life.

Impossible though it may seem, there is always a way out...