Nope, not remotely offended. I’ve studied cults and how they work; I was raised in one. I understand the vulnerability and manipulation aspect, and subsets, etc. What I guess I’m not conveying well enough is, even for all that, this one particular writing sample reads so much like a Southpark-style parody, it’s an…

So Anika was never in as deep as she is making it appear and did not go into the backroom sessions she is saying are untrue...because, maybe, she was smarter (at that point.)

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

As a professional editor (and amateur sociologist), what disturbs me most about this whole scenario is how ANYONE could read even two sentences of this man’s rhetoric and marketing materials and not instantly recognize his sophomoric narcissism and megalomania. Have average Americans become so delusionally…

Bill Wilson refused money
Bill Wilson encouraged members to stay anonymous
Bill Wilson made rule #1 that every decision had to be made on a group level
Bill Wilson discouraged any form of proselytizing
Bill Wilson didn’t make his position known until after his death
Bill Wilson said that any two alcoholics meeting was a…

And you sound like someone who needs to see a therapist, I say this from a really sincere place, go talk to someone who’s an accredited therapist and get an unbiased opinion of your situation. If its not a cult and your doing great there should be no issue. I wish you luck kiddo.

TL;DR: I am now a sentient Fleshlight.

Here’s the thing: I wasn’t sure, based on the article, what to think at first. However, having read your comment here and others by people getting defensive and decrying this article, I am now 100% sure this is a cult.

And it looked like she married the guy so he could get citizenship in the country or something and he probably was paying her for it.

Protip: paragraph breaks will make it seem a bit less like you’re in a cult.

http://giphy.com/gifs/arrested-…

Because mainstream western culture trains people not to think. And especially not to listen to that nagging little voice in the back of the head that tells us that something is wrong. The cult of Positive Thinking has infested western culture, teaches people that all that is required to be successful is to be positive…

You know who else went to Harvard? Many of the authors of the Salem Witch Trials! I feel safer already!

“So that’s a no, I take it?”

Actually, he got it from here:

He told women, she says, “to do stuff like get down on the floor,” or instructed them to go home and “stick fingers up their asses, or stick, like, a carrot up your ass.”

I think this is just coded language. She’s obviously trying to reach out to other Nickelback fans.

So much funny in four paragraphs. “whose palette contains thousands of years of mystic tradition...” Written like a true mystic. A 13-year-old mystic with a spiral notebook and a sparkle gel pen.

I’m surprised to hear him described as an “unlikely looking” guru, because he looks exactly like I’d picture a smug, middle-age self-defined guru who tries to control younger women.