Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival
By Ginger Zyskowski
The life of a 32-year-old professional musician, university instructor, and mother of 3, is thrown into chaos when her young children are abducted and she is viciously kidnapped. Being held against her will, she is forced to live under the coercive control of the cult deprogrammer known as “Black Lightning.” Confined by her captors, she vows to do whatever it will take to reconnect with her children and reclaim her life. She gets caught in a web of conflicts and complications caused by lies spoken by her family, her kidnappers, and the FBI. Eventually, with determination, resilience, and courage, she reunites with her three sons and, together, they begin the difficult, yet rewarding journey of recovery after trauma. The author shares her harrowing true story here for the first time.
Description
STANDING OVATIONS
Kick off your shoes and find a good reading spot. Shattered, One Woman’s True Story of Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival will give you reason to pause. Every one of us can relate to some of the experiences told in this memoir, but the depth and breadth of Ginger Zyskowski’s life journey is astounding. Growing up with a domineering mother, visits to a “cult” with a friend, and then her horrific experiences being deprogrammed by the infamous Ted Patrick, who truly became her cult leader, are at once fascinating and rattling to read. The emotional trauma pops off the pages, and we cry for her pain and cheer for her victories. The author concludes with a thorough compilation of research that is enlightening to all readers. This compelling and inspiring true story of one woman’s journey is a tribute to the human spirit. Parents, sociologists, psychologists, educators, and general readers will find this book difficult to set aside.
~ Debby Schriver, President, International Cultic Studies Association ~
The so-called cult wars that emerged in America during the early 1970s produced a controversial and sometimes illegal industry called deprogramming. This intimate memoir by Ginger Zyskowski describes her traumatic kidnapping in 1978 by her parents and a deprogramming team that operated under crude basic assumptions about cultic brainwashing and how to cure it. In the author’s case, the cure was worse than the purported disease as she came under the well-meaning though abusive influence of deprogrammer Ted Patrick and her parents for many months after the intervention. We learn that Zyskowski’s meaningful dalliance with the controversial Divine Light Mission group hardly met Patrick’s definitions of hypnotic mind control. Moreover, her parents held rigid views of cults that amounted to a stereotype that they would not reject over time. This book is an absorbing complex trauma as well as a revealing perspective on a problematic new religious movement in America.
~Joseph Szimhart, a cult information specialist who wrote Santa Fe, Bill Tate, and me: How an artist became a cult interventionist ~
This book cautions the reader about the consequences of an unrestrained power. Presenting a riveting story of resilience, Ginger takes the reader on her journey of love, belief, family betrayal, and abuse at the hands of Ted Patrick – the so-called deprogrammer – and his minions. Against all odds, Ginger reclaims her life, her children, the love of writing, and the joy of music. I couldn’t put it down! Bravo!
~ Patrick Ryan, Cult Inverventionist ~
There have been scores of books testifying how victims had been lured into cults where, having apparently been subjected to mind control and unable to leave of their own accord, have been rescued and returned to their ‘normal’ selves by deprogrammers. But this is a story with a twist. Ginger Zyskowski tells us how her overbearing mother, a leading light in the now-defunct Cult Awareness Network (CAN), concluded that her daughter, having shown a mild interest in the Divine Light Mission (DLM) had been brainwashed, despite the fact that Ginger was leading what might seem like a pretty normal life, looking after her three sons whilst engaged in fulltime work – quite independently of the DLM. Imperiously, her mother arranged that Ginger should be kidnapped and deprogrammed by Ted Patrick, widely referred to as ‘Black Lightening’. We read how, under Patrick’s influence, Ginger became actively involved in the ‘anti-cult’ movement, but then having learned from Patrick and CAN about ‘cults,’ brainwashing and deprogramming, she came to recognize that she had indeed been victimized and coerced – by Patrick – and was able to deprogram herself out of his deprogramming cult and piece together her shattered self. A fascinating, page-turning story – with a twist.
~Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion, London School of Economics ~
“In her compelling memoir of abduction and survival, Ginger’s honesty offers a captivating glimpse into the resilience and hope that sustained her through unimaginable challenges.
~ Kaitlin Nachtigal, Editor ~
I Have Been…
I have been victimized
But I am not a victim. I have been shamed
But I am not ashamed. I have been guilted
But I am not guilty. I have been used and abused…
But I am not used up!
gz, 6/24/22
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