(photo not mine)

hi im rediscovering a lot of lost memories and i think i was in a cult via ACE homeschool program.

i was only sent to christian schools after doing this homeschool program for about a year until my parents divorced. i would always get in trouble for asking too many questions in these basement schools but nobody helped me with the workbooks at home. father is super MAGA now and im no contact w all family. i don't remember much beyond learning a lot about christianity and some weirdly racist undertones to everything. like other people on the program im not good at math but i dont know if what we were isolated and taught about counts as a cult. i am now suffering from extreme dissociation as an adult and you can already put two and two together about the home life. in adult years i find myself in social circles that mirror cult like dynamics and i'm curious if this program had something to do with that conditioning ??

edit: as i write this i remembered we had a points based system for recalling stories from the bible or verses. girls and boys were separated and had seperate lunch and break times with uniforms. this stands out to me because i never went to a school with uniforms before and during these years we went to church weekly if not more along with having mass in school every day too. there was a prize room as well only one kid was allowed in at a time if they got enough points. i dont remember the name of these schools

edit 2: k-12 was mixed and older girls were expected to help tutor the younger ones. very sweet kids but looking at this with an adults perspective i'm HIGHLY concerned 😬😬😬

edit 3: to clarify i started off on these workbooks at home and then was enrolled in schools that also used them for many years

edit 4: (sorry i'm editing as memories come up) i vividly recall the entire "school" had maybe 50 students at max and this was consistent even in bigger cities

Hello,

This year i learned about narcissists. Found out about it when trying to figure out why i am creeped out with people smiling at me. Realised i was dealing narcissistic leaders. Narcissist smirk.

Which resulted harassment at work. Insane that they will use trainee to retrieve phone number from work to spoof call by one of cult leader. But trainee was not interested in joining the company.

Dropped out of university due to antipsychotic medication that disrupted my final year in mechanical engineering when I university student.

Off the antipsychotic since 2022. It very painful when learning about narcissists at 35 and rob a 4 year degree and 6 years of unnecessary antipsychotic.

Therapist is rough and very expensive.

Crazy narcissists. I learn that narcissists like power, status and attractive people. But try to destroy the person so that can own them as a property. Abusive relationship but as control method for high control group breeding selection. Superiors complex group.

The group ask my mother if i return to church yet. Bad comments that no one wants me. But they will date me if convert to their group. Delusional from extreme harm.

Learnt that i am physically attractive. A comment about my being butt fuck from Vietnamese girl that already have a boyfriend on escalator.

Explains a lot with the gay men and women from experience. Gaslighted about my appearance. Most likely suffered from body dysmorphia which have not have time for therapy due to slow process. Did not pay attention much as i thought people were being same. Only see people side if i wear face mask or not baggy clothing. Attractive bias which might understand why men feel invisible from women.

I want to ask if anyone misdiagnosed for medical conditions? For example I know these group do miracles healing such as cancer. But i do not see any miracles when they try to heal an old lady to walk again. Will not be surprised if there other Christians that do this by performing miracle healing in Jesus name. Some Christians are not like this.

Part of me think the schizophrenia was put on me to control me and try pressure to return to them and do miracle healing in Jesus name. Just need psychiatrist to remove the label on medical record.

The antipsychotic medication was off since 2022. So i do not need help getting off the medication.

Also they hold cult services near my home 2 minutes walk from community centre. They shrinking in size and speaking out kinda help them become angry with spoof calling and scam calling even made attempts to remove unwanted telemarketing calls.

Very desperate to keep Christian mask but i think people know something not right with the group. Since it very easy for people to spot narcissists when reading about it.

The new ministry 1033 just released tells you exactly where Bruce Hales is at. He's not even trying to hide it anymore. "If it walks like a cult, talks like a cult and sues like a cult - it's a cult."

Hi everyone,

We're working on a podcast about multi-level marketing (MLM) and the ways it can overlap with cult-like or religious group dynamics, recruitment tactics, group pressure, dependency, love-bombing, that kind of thing.

As part of our research, we're especially interested in stories from people who left an MLM and then ended up joining a religious community or group afterward whether that felt like a natural continuation of the same patterns, a reaction to it, or something else entirely.

If this happened to you, or you know someone it happened to, we'd love to hear about it. You're welcome to share your story here in the comments, send a DM, or just point us toward someone/somewhere we should look into. Everything can stay anonymous. We're just trying to understand the patterns and, where people are open to it, maybe talk in more depth for the podcast.

Thanks so much for reading, and thank you in advance to anyone willing to share their experience.

Specifically lighthouse baptist church of grand prairie. I definitely think i'm seeing some of the bite model in their statement of faith on texaslighthouse.com

What would your theory be on this?

Mine is that a religion that isn't controlling will generally fall into the generic category.

For example, we see thousands of new neo-pagans on TikTok, each worshipping a random deity. When someone decides to worship a deity that only exists on an island of 10,000 inhabitants, they aren't creating a new religion; they still consider themselves a member of the general "neo-pagan" community.

The same goes for New Age, Eastern knowledge, witchcraft, etc. Since the group doesn't control, it only generates a divergence inside the larger group.

In other words, even if a YouTuber creates a new belief and manages to get a group that believes in them, most of the viewers still see themselves as members of another belief.

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And who survives this? The highly controlling group. The cult.

Because they control so much, the group isn't a generic neo-pagan or just a distinct view of theology.

They are a group that actually sees itself as separate from the main group, even those with similar beliefs, and it's a group that doesn't shrink with dissent.

Someone who believes in a "universal feminine divinity" might go to New Age today, join TikTok witches tomorrow, then study Hinduism or play with crystals.

Someone who is in a cult that believes its founder is this feminine divinity isn't going to keep switching groups.

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So, in short, this is my theory. TL;DR

It's not that every New Religious Movement (NRM) is a cult, but most remain a personal or family faith, unable to retain or convert anyone (since the competition with established faiths is very high).

A cult, on the other hand, converts and prevents members from leaving. This is the format that has the best chance of growing, and that's why almost every successful new religious movement tends to be a highly controlled group.