Most people’s knowledge about cults may only go as far as what they’ve seen in films or read in stories. But for those who actually lived through being in one, the experience is as real as it gets.
Check out their firsthand accounts to see what we mean. These are responses to a recent Reddit thread in which someone asked what life was like as a member of an organization with shady practices, to say the least.
Many of these involved certain organized religions, while others are modern-day versions of cults where people are stripped of their freedoms and even isolated from loved ones.
#1
They praised the leader and regarded his word as fact no matter how outrageous his lies. He had several wives and treated them all badly. The whole cult wore red ball caps.
Image credits: Desperate_Arm_3853
#2
I used to be an American republican and then I left the cult.
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#3
Where my ex JWs at??? I left at 16. Then had my very first birthday party.
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#4
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.
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#5
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 that 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.
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#6
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.
Image credits: Intagvalley
#7
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.
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#8
I left the christian religion years ago and couldn't be happier! I found their incessant chanting, incantations and worshipping an unseen and supernatural being to extreme and delusional.
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#9
I was in an actual psychosis induced or shared psychosis cult where I was manipulated and love-bombed by the leader to get off of over five very strong antipsychotics and ssri’s cold turkey at the naive and rip young age of 15-16 to eventually run away from home for over a week with the plan of eventually heading towards Washington DC to assa$$inate Don. Tr. (if you need specification in this present day and age you’re not my kind of person anyway)
Long story short he made me believe I was something called a “grey angel” (half human and half angelic being) and had multiple past lives and we were soulmates and more, as well as the above. there was one other person involved and we almost committed some things that would have left me in regret for the rest of my life
Tip from all of this; TEEN GIRLS!!!! This is for you!!!!
Don’t listen to older men or boys who tell you they are the only ones who understand you and they are the only ones you can trust, they are isolating you from your friends and family and instilling a sense of trust for you to become vulnerable so they can learn more about you and use it against you also always take your meds on time lol.
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#10
So a few years back I had a sever drinking problem that landed me in the hospital with a .53 blood alcohol level then aspirated into my lungs. Ended up in a coma then the ICU for 2cweeks. Swore off drinking after that. My former church at the time convinced me to go to a place called "Teen Challenge ". I could fill pages of the atrocities I seen there. I gave up my huge 2 bedroom vaulted ceiling apartment, let my new truck get repossessed, singed guardianship of my son to his grand parents and so on. I left 3 months in it was so bad. Between the outright lies to the 2 year old spoiled and refroze food, road k**l served as food (car deer accident) . As I said I could go on and on. I ended up homeless drinking under a bridge after my ex wife came and got me. I'm now almost 3 years out, sober, got my son back, engaged, getting licensed in being a builder again and a full blown atheist. If anyone want to know I can give detailed examples of how horrible it is and was. If I would've dug deeper than the first page of Google I would've never went. .
Image credits: Prudent_Survey_5050
#11
Nothing. Our leader got elected a second time and this time it's gonna be great. Again.
Image credits: P_Riches
#12
Yeah, Amway. I joined it for 1 day and realized how f****d up it was and left. The suits, all the pyramid level talk. I realized what the “code” was and how to recognize another fellow Amway cultist. It was the mouthwash spray thing. Every single Amway freak had a mouthwash spray.
Freaky.
Image credits: 4GreenHoverTension
#13
Lots of singing and std.
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#14
Honey, at this point, if you’re American, we’re all in a cult.
Image credits: amsync
