Dear Readers,

It seems appropriate that I’m posting this message on July 4th, 2021. Ten years ago, in July of 2011, I decided, “hey, I need ‘school’ like a bullet in the temple” & moved on.

Best decision I’ve ever made!!

In July of 2014, I attended my first International Cultic Studies Association conference in Washington DC. I met ex-cult members from all over the world. These people had ‘joined’ (so to speak) ‘Bible studies’, ‘yoga schools’, ‘self-help seminars’, ‘business managements trainings’, blah, blah, blah. Like me, they all left cults. We were all telling the same. damn. story.

When boiled down to essential social & emotional needs, all of those “unique” groups, were exactly like ‘school.’ They seduced new members by claiming a super-secret-sauce for life! They exploited members using the exact same tactics. It’s like the group leaders all went to the same How-to-Start-Your-Own-Cult summer camp.

So, we all proclaimed gratitude for escaping & toasted our freedom under fireworks on National Mall.

Now, a decade after leaving, I help other ex-cult members recover as a career. I’ve written a book which is in the editing & publishing process. It’s time for me to try to be somewhat appropriate & focus exclusively on providing education and recovery tools. I’ll be posting those resources on my new blog, the GSR Healing Arts Blog, as well as sample content from the book.

This blog, Cult Confessions, has been critical to my recovery. Here is where I said fuck the secrecy – I told my story and in doing so, I reclaimed my voice. The catharsis was exactly what I needed. Reclamation of voice is reclamation of self. I cleared the ‘school’-instilled toxic clutter out of my psyche, so I could see ‘school’ for the dog & pony show that it is.

That is in large part thanks to you – readers, commenters and guest writers. Thanks you, all who shed light, lifted the curtain, exposed the Wizard, filled in the missing blanks, provided me with the context that I needed to understand that ‘school’ was/is a cult: the California history in the 60s & 70s; the physical and sexual abuse of ‘school’ back when it was “The Theater of All Possibility”; the cross-country exodus to the East Coast when San Fran kicked the ‘theater’ out; Alex & Sharon Horn; corporate headquarters in NYC; the amount of money that pours into the Horn coffers; Robert’s complicity; the secret arranged marriages; the heinous baby swapping history.

Knowing this truth– intentionally omitted by my ‘teachers’ –set me free.

I’ll leave Cult Confessions up, as a resource. I’ll post occasionally – especially if I get “school”-related intel.

Otherwise, I hope to see you at the new blog: GSR Healing Arts Blog