The true story of 'Devil on Campus': Where is Larry Ray now?

The true story of 'Devil on Campus': Where is Larry Ray now?

The Lifetime movie follows Ray's nearly 10-year wake of destruction from Sarah Lawrence College in New York to a home in North Carolina.

Anna Kaplan

Today

June 23, 2024

Lawrence "Larry" Ray has been at the center of journalistic reports and documentaries exposing how he was able to move into his daughter's dorm room and start a cult-like group for nearly a decade. And now, he's the subject of a Lifetime movie.

"Devil on Campus: The Larry Ray Story," airing June 23 at 8 p.m., stars Billy Zane as Ray, and follows the true story of his wake of destruction at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County, New York, and beyond.

"The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence," the first article about Ray, was published in The Cut in 2019, and detailed how he was able to gain the trust of some of his daughter's friends and roommates, and began abusing and manipulating them for almost 10 years.

In 2020, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York announced nine charges had been filed against Ray, including extortion, sex trafficking and forced labor. He was convicted of all the charges against him in 2022.

"Twelve years ago, Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room at Sarah Lawrence College. And when he got there, he met a group of friends who had their whole lives ahead of them. For the next decade, he used violence, threats, and psychological abuse to try to control and destroy their lives," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after Ray was convicted in 2022.

"He exploited them. He terrorized them. He tortured them. Let me be very clear. Larry Ray is a predator," Williams added. "An evil man who did evil things. Today's verdict finally brings him to justice."

Here's what to know about Ray's case, and where he is now.

Who were Larry Ray’s victims?

Larry Ray

Geoffrey Berman, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced an indictment against Ray on Feb. 11, 2020.Stephanie Keith / AP

Prosecutors alleged in a 2020 indictment that Ray moved into his daughter's on-campus housing during her sophomore year at Sarah Lawrence in 2010. After moving in, Ray began conducting "therapy" sessions and presented himself as a father figure to his daughter's roommates, prosecutors wrote.

During the sessions, Ray learned intimate details about their private lives, including their mental health struggles, according to the indictment. After "gaining their trust," Ray would subject victims to "interrogation sessions that typically involved verbal and physical abuse," the indictment stated.

Ray would demand false confessions from his victims through tactics like "sleep deprivation, psychological and sexual humiliation, verbal abuse, threats of physical violence, physical violence and threats of criminal legal action," the indictment stated.

In at least two instances, Ray threatened his victims with a knife, according to the indictment, and in a separate incident, he grabbed a male victim by the throat until he was unconscious, according to the indictment.

In the summer of 2011, some of the roommates lived with Ray in a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, and introduced him to several other victims, according to the indictment.

For almost 10 years, Ray abused the group and forced at least five students to send him a total of about $1 million, and later laundered those criminal proceeds, according to the indictment.

Ray also subjected one female victim to sex trafficking, and forced her and two other female victims to work on a family member's property in North Carolina without pay, according to the indictment.

What was Larry Ray’s sentence?

In 2023, Ray was sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to NBC News. He was also ordered to forfeit more than $2.4 million.

At the sentencing hearing, Manhattan federal court judge Lewis J. Liman called Ray's crimes “particularly heinous,” NBC News reported.

Williams, the U.S. attorney, said Ray was a “monster” in a statement issued after his sentencing.

“For years, he inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims. Students who had their lives ahead of them. He groomed them and abused them into submission for his own gain,” Williams said.

“Through physical and psychological abuse, he took control over his victims’ minds and bodies and then extracted millions of dollars from them. The sentence imposed today will ensure Ray will never harm victims again.”

Where is Larry Ray now?

Ray, now 64, is currently serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary McCreary in Pine Knot, Kentucky, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

His release date is currently scheduled for March 29, 2071, according to the bureau

https://www.today.com/popculture/movies/larry-ray-now-true-story-rcna157501

Sex Cult Survivors Accuse Sarah Lawrence of Negligence: 'They Failed Us'

Two former students are suing the college for not protecting them years ago from a 50-year-old

The New York Times

Colin Moynihan

December 7, 2023, 

Sarah Lawrence College for years has promoted itself as an experimental and progressive haven, a leafy enclave where students design curriculums and believe in what its president has called “the underlying goodness of others.”

“You are different. So are we” was a slogan the school used. Some students saw it as a declaration that they would be understood and valued.

Now former students are accusing the college of betraying them by allowing a 50-year-old ex-con to roam its Westchester County campus; spend nights in a dormitory where his daughter lived; and form relationships with students whom he went on to abuse.

That man, Lawrence V. Ray, was convicted in 2022 of extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy after a trial in Manhattan. Federal prosecutors said that he used cult-leader tactics for a decade while indoctrinating and exploiting young people.

Four roommates of his daughter, Talia Ray, fell under Mr. Ray’s control. One, Isabella Pollok, became his “trusted lieutenant,” prosecutors said, and was sentenced to prison. Now, the other three are saying in legal papers and interviews that the school bears responsibility for their suffering.

Claudia Drury, who testified during Mr. Ray’s trial that he forced her into prostitution, said she was speaking up to hold Sarah Lawrence administrators accountable after students were exposed to a figure who, she once wrote, delighted in “psychological, physical, spiritual and sexual abuses.”

“They failed us so badly,” Ms. Drury said. “There was a predator living in our dorm and they did nothing.”

Two former students, Daniel Levin and Santos Rosario, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Nov. 21 seeking unspecified damages and saying Mr. Ray had abused them emotionally, physically and sexually. They claim that the school was negligent and violated a federal law meant to combat human trafficking.

 

Sarah Lawrence has long said that it had no knowledge of Mr. Ray’s activities. In a statement after the suit was filed, the school said that Mr. Ray had committed “heinous crimes for which he properly has been held responsible, convicted and sentenced,” and added that the college had deep sympathy for his victims and hoped his sentencing had brought them resolution.

“We will not comment on any aspect of this litigation, beyond noting that we believe the facts will tell a different story than the unproven allegations made in the complaint that has been filed,” the college said.

The case. Lawrence Ray, who was found guilty of extortion, sex trafficking and other offenses that prosecutors said he perpetrated after moving into his daughter’s college dorm room, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Here is what to know:

A bizarre tale. Ray began spending nights at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County in 2010, after being released from prison on charges related to a child custody dispute. Soon after, he started “therapy sessions” with her roommates.

Years of abuse. According to the authorities, Ray acted like a cult leader, exploiting victims he met at Sarah Lawrence by alienating them from their parents and convincing them that they were “broken and in need of fixing.” His physical and psychological abuse continued for about a decade, as he kept exploiting a group of the students who had moved in with him at a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Victim and accomplice. Isabella Pollok, one of the Sarah Lawrence students who fell under the influence of Ray, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, after being accused by prosecutors of serving as the man’s “trusted lieutenant” in crimes he perpetrated. On Feb. 22, Pollok was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

A guilty verdict After a nearly monthlong trial in 2022, jurors found Ray guilty of 15 counts, including extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors claimed that he had used his sway over the young adults to extort money from them, to make them work without pay and to force a young woman into prostitution.

One of the enduring mysteries of the Ray case is how a man with a criminal history was able to escape meaningful scrutiny while spending nights on campus among students less than half his age.

Abigail Boyer, the associate executive director of the Clery Center, a nonprofit group that works to create safer campuses, said most schools aimed to balance students’ nascent independence with a desire to maintain a safe environment. The responsibility of school authorities for what occurs on campus is often determined by what they are aware of, she added.

“Who knew and what did they know?” Ms. Boyer said. “What type of information was shared?”

In 2010, Mr. Ray began spending nights in a dormitory called Slonim Woods 9 after a prison stint in New Jersey stemming from child custody charges. Over time, he studied cults and mind control, isolated his victims — who came to include young people who did not attend Sarah Lawrence — from their parents and intimidated them with threats and assaults. Several former followers testified that Mr. Ray coerced them into falsely confessing they had harmed him, and two said he directed them to have sex with strangers. Ms. Drury testified that she turned over $2.5 million in prostitution proceeds to Mr. Ray.

Mr. Ray was charged in 2020 after a 2019 story in New York magazine detailed his predations. He was sentenced last year to six decades in prison.

Cristle Collins Judd, the president of Sarah Lawrence, wrote in 2020 that Mr. Ray’s indictment raised “serious and troubling questions,” including “what interventions might have been possible.” Mr. Ray had stayed in Slonim Woods 9 “in a clear violation of the college’s written policy,” she wrote in a message on the school’s website.

More than 85 percent of Sarah Lawrence’s 1,700 students live at the school, where annual tuition is $63,128. Student organizations include a group that helps animal shelters, a literary magazine called Love & Squalor and a Shakespeare troupe composed of women and nonbinary students. The college prioritizes small classes and instead of pursuing traditional majors, students create programs of study with the help of advisers referred to as “dons.”

The dormitory where Mr. Ray showed up is among a cluster of two-story brick structures near the edge of Sarah Lawrence’s 44-acre campus. Each of Slonim Woods’ 11 buildings has its own entrance — a feature that Ms. Judd suggested could have helped conceal Mr. Ray.

“No reports about this parent’s presence on campus during that semester, formal or informal, were lodged by students sharing that small living space, by their student neighbors or by anyone else,” she wrote in her 2020 message.

But Mr. Levin and Mr. Rosario’s lawsuit says that several unnamed “students, community members and parents” contacted college officials to complain about Mr. Ray’s behavior.

Despite signs that “something was awry,” Sarah Lawrence failed to intervene or even notice, the lawsuit said.

Ms. Drury’s mother, Christian Drury, said that she spoke with Allen Green, Sarah Lawrence’s dean of studies and student life at the time, after hearing from her daughter that Mr. Ray was spending nights in the dormitory and had appeared to have begun a sexual relationship with one student.

“The whole thing made me very, very scared,” Ms. Drury said in a telephone interview. “He was trying to make his group, his little cult.”

She said that she asked that Mr. Ray be barred from the dormitory, but that Mr. Green replied that there was little he could do because Mr. Ray had a right to see his daughter.

Mr. Green, who is retired, has referred questions about Mr. Ray to Sarah Lawrence. He did not respond to email and phone messages describing Ms. Drury’s account.

Claudia Drury testified during Mr. Ray’s trial that she had complained to a philosophy professor, Nancy Baker, about Mr. Ray in 2010, saying he was sleeping inside Ms. Pollok’s room.

Ms. Baker, an emeritus faculty member, said in an interview that Ms. Drury had expressed only vague concerns about Ms. Pollok.

“She did not tell me there was a man sleeping in Isabella’s room,” Ms. Baker said. “Absolutely not.”

Ms. Drury also testified that in 2011 Mr. Ray forced her to send an email she likened to “a hostage letter” to Ms. Baker and Mr. Green. According to a copy provided by Ms. Drury, she disavowed statements she claimed to have made saying that Mr. Ray was “a bad, dangerous, manipulative and sexually deviant man.”

She also wrote that Mr. Ray had been “imprisoned unjustly,” that his ex-wife had persuaded her to lie about him and that she had made false allegations about him to police officers.

Although Mr. Green spoke with her briefly, Ms. Drury said, the references to sexual behavior and manipulation combined with her zealous defense of Mr. Ray and talk of an elaborate conspiracy should have prompted a thorough investigation.

Mr. Ray was then no longer on campus, but an intervention could still have spared students from being abused, Ms. Drury said, adding: “It wouldn’t have been too late for me.”

In her 2020 message, Ms. Judd wrote that “colleges cannot and do not act in loco parentis,” tightly regulating student behavior as many schools once did. She also noted that Mr. Ray’s charged crimes occurred after he stopped staying at Sarah Lawrence.

But, Ms. Drury said, those crimes became possible only because Mr. Ray had lived for months in Slonim Woods 9 in violation of existing rules. Mr. Levin and Mr. Rosario said in their lawsuit that Mr. Ray subjected them to manipulation, sexual abuse, food deprivation and sleep deprivation at the dorm.

Mr. Ray cooked dinners there, discussing philosophy and regaling students with fantastical, sometimes paranoid, tales about his life. His presence was hardly clandestine, former students said. Once, Ms. Drury said, Mr. Ray burned a steak, setting off a smoke alarm that brought firefighters and school security. And, she said, he walked through the campus openly.

“No skulking,” Ms. Drury said. “No attempt to hide that I could see.”

Another former student, Gabriel Chazanov, who lived in Slonim Woods 9 but did not fall under Mr. Ray’s influence, said college officials once told Talia Ray that her cat, Tiger, was living at the dorm in violation of the rules.

“If they’re paying enough attention to kick out a cat,” Mr. Chazanov said. “One would think they’d also notice the strange dude staying there.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/nyregion/sarah-lawrence-sex-cult.html

New Play Looks for Dark Humor Beneath the Sarah Lawrence Sex Cult Ordeal

A small production that involves faculty and graduates largely mirrors Lawrence Ray’s yearslong exploitation of vulnerable students. Some of his victims object.

Corey Kilgannon
The New York Times
May 13, 2023

Carson Marie Earnest, a New York City actress, recently came across a casting call for a “darkly funny, cautionary play in two acts, based on the true story of Larry Ray and the ‘sex cult’ at Sarah Lawrence College.”

“Oh my gosh, I know this story,” thought Ms. Earnest, who several years earlier had been shocked when the news broke in 2019 just as she was set to graduate from the school just north of the city.

“Everyone was talking about it,” Ms. Earnest said. She soon learned that a writing teacher at Sarah Lawrence, Melvin Jules Bukiet, had written the play with one of his former students, Finnegan Shepard.

“The circumstances were intrinsically dramatic,” Mr. Bukiet said. “It just felt like it wanted to be on a stage.”

And so “Runts” will open Monday at the Teatro Latea on the Lower East Side as part of the New York Theater Festival.

Mr. Bukiet called the play “loosely based” on reality: It is set at a verdant liberal arts college near New York City and the plot largely mirrors how Mr. Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm and then took over her suitemates’ lives for years.

The production has no formal connection to the college. But as it happens, six of the 10 people involved do, from the director, Oliver Conant, a graduate, to the lighting technician, who is a current student.

Understand the Sarah Lawrence Cult Case

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The case. Lawrence Ray, who was found guilty of extortion, sex trafficking and other offenses that prosecutors said he perpetrated after moving into his daughter’s college dorm room, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Here is what to know:

A bizarre tale. Ray began spending nights at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester County in 2010, after being released from prison on charges related to a child custody dispute. Soon after, he started “therapy sessions” with her roommates.

Years of abuse. According to the authorities, Ray acted like a cult leader, exploiting victims he met at Sarah Lawrence by alienating them from their parents and convincing them that they were “broken and in need of fixing.” His physical and psychological abuse continued for about a decade, as he kept exploiting a group of the students who had moved in with him at a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Victim and accomplice. Isabella Pollok, one of the Sarah Lawrence students who fell under the influence of Ray, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, after being accused by prosecutors of serving as the man’s “trusted lieutenant” in crimes he perpetrated. On Feb. 22, Pollok was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

A guilty verdict After a nearly monthlong trial in 2022, jurors found Ray guilty of 15 counts, including extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors claimed that he had used his sway over the young adults to extort money from them, to make them work without pay and to force a young woman into prostitution.

Mr. Bukiet wrote the play without consulting the Sarah Lawrence administration, which would probably prefer the story not resurface, and had no comment for this article.

Mr. Bukiet figures tenure will protect his job — “At least, I hope so” — but added, “I’m not going to stand under any windows outside the administration building. That’s for sure.”

Some of Mr. Ray’s victims objected to their travails becoming fodder for a play that bills itself as “darkly funny.”

Daniel Barban Levin, now a writer in Los Angeles who published a book about his experience, called the production an “insidious” revictimization. After suffering under Mr. Ray, he said, “It’s hard for me to hear that a Sarah Lawrence teacher, a representative of Sarah Lawrence, is taking more from us.”

“It’s enough to get tortured, but when people further exploit our trauma it only duplicates the experience of our lives being stolen all over again,” he said.

Mr. Bukiet said the real-life story was merely a “spark” for a dramatic exploration of “how susceptible people can be.”

Image

He avoided researching the details “because I didn’t want the reality of it to intrude on my imagination,” and said he was confident the play would deepen a viewer’s empathy.

At a recent rehearsal, the actors ran through scenes, beginning with the main character, Zander Bay, a tough guy with a shady past, showing up at his daughter Jane’s townhouse dorm and moving in. Mr. Ray had showed up in 2010 fresh out of prison and needing a couch to crash on.

Like Mr. Ray, Zander is a master manipulator who works his way into the minds of vulnerable students. Through counseling sessions and “family” meetings, he coerces them into sex, theft and prostitution.

Participants in the production said they expected Sarah Lawrence graduates would make up a good portion of the audience.

“All of us were drawn to this because it’s a therapeutic way to discuss the situation,” Ms. Earnest said, acknowledging that discomfort remains.

“I still feel a bit of that trepidation going into rehearsal,” she said. “I’m nervous about representing the story in the correct way, especially because I have that connection to the school.

“I don’t want to represent Sarah Lawrence negatively,” she added. “It was a great place and I’m glad I went there.”

Her familiarity with the college has helped her embody Jane, a role she auditioned for because of her fascination with Talia Ray: “How could someone let their father come in and do this?” she said.

Zander is played by Jack Coggins, a schoolteacher from Hoboken, N.J., whose son attended Sarah Lawrence. “I’m going from trying to be the ideal Sarah Lawrence parent to the most evil one you can imagine,” Mr. Coggins said.

He said Mr. Ray “was definitely in my consciousness” when he saw the casting call for a manipulative, Rasputin-like “bad dad.” He auditioned several days before Mr. Ray was sentenced in January.

“It helped that I knew Sarah Lawrence, because I could see how someone could become a wolf in sheep’s clothing and could stay anonymous for a long time without being discovered by the administration,” he said.

The director, Mr. Conant, said his son, who graduated shortly after Mr. Ray was on campus, liked the play. But his mother, Miriam Bernheim Conant, 91, who taught political theory at Sarah Lawrence for 40 years, was “appalled.”

“She said, ‘Isn’t this just dirty laundry?’” he said.

“From the school’s perspective, it might be regarded as that,” he said. “But I see it as a story about conformists following a con man, and that’s a story that looms very large in this country right now.”

Corey Kilgannon is a Metro reporter covering news and human interest stories. He was also part of the team that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. @coreykilgannon • Facebook



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/13/nyregion/sarah-lawrence-sex-cult-play-runts.html

Did the so-called Sarah Lawrence 'sex cult' members have a choice?

Opinion

A new Hulu documentary raises important questions about coercion — and culpability.

MSNBC
March 14, 2023

By Janja Lalich, professor emerita of sociology at the California State University, Chico

On Feb. 22, a federal judge in New York issued what is likely to be the final decision in the case of the so-called Sarah Lawrence cult. The sickening details of this case have garnered much attention over the past few years, spawning a viral long-form investigation in New York magazine and a subsequent documentary on Hulu that premiered last month. The reporting and eventual criminal proceedings were shocking and a little prurient (the Hulu doc referred to a “sex cult”). But they also raise important questions about coercion and culpability.

The reporting and the eventual criminal trials were shocking and a little prurient.

Earlier this year, Larry Ray, the man who manipulated, abused and controlled a group of young men and women for close to 10 years, was sentenced to 60 years in prison for crimes including extortion and sex trafficking. In February, a young woman named Isabella Pollok was accused of being Ray’s “lieutenant” by prosecutors who said she aided and abetted his physically and sexually abusive behavior toward her friends. (Pollock ultimately pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy charge and was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison.)

According to both of her defense lawyers and reporters, Pollok was a vulnerable college freshman when she met Ray, and within a year was drawn into a sexual relationship with him, a man decades her senior. Despite expressing remorse, shame and regret, the judge declared that Pollok had choices. But did she?

In the past few years, an onslaught of documentaries — some better than others — and a slew of podcasts have come out about cults and cult leaders. These have been accompanied by (a few) trials, resulting in accountability for at least some of these exploitative criminals.

Who are these people, who some might say are monsters among us? Yes, each cult is different and should be evaluated as such. Yet after 35 years of research and observation, including listening to and learning from survivors’ experiences, I’ve learned how to recognize classic patterns of social-psychological influence and coercive control. It seems not to matter whether the overriding and binding ideology is religious, political, wellness, world-saving, self-improvement, therapeutic or martial arts. In my book “Take Back Your Life: Recovering From Cults and Abusive Relationships,” with tongue in cheek, I noted these cult leaders think of themselves as unique when they all act as if they attended the same “Messiah School.”

Conversely, if the common denominator among cult members is idealism, narcissism seems to define most cult leaders. Self-serving and destructive, these types of malevolent personalities can cause great harm. Indeed, it is their modus operandi.

And yet, we wonder: How do these malignant forces get good people, smart people, to become co-conspirators in their vile behavior? It might seem unfathomable. But in my opinion, it’s quite simple. They begin by setting up a self-sealing system — that is, one with an end-justifies-the-means philosophy. Once you accept this system, anything goes. Here, the leader becomes a god-like, all-knowing authoritarian who offers you “the answer” but in turn demands unwavering loyalty. Through a plethora of influence and control tactics, members are indoctrinated to believe and to follow orders without question.

How do these malignant forces get good people, smart people, to be co-conspirators in their vile behavior? It might seem unfathomable.

The moral code that cult members enter with is altered to accept the immorality of the leader. And that comes with a big price — I call it “bounded choice.” The true believer now has no option but to obey, because not to obey means death, literal or figurative. To disobey means risking the loss of your sense of self, your identity, perhaps your family or children, your community and your chance at “salvation,” whatever that has been defined to mean. A “brainwashed” follower is left with an illusion of choice. But it’s not a real choice at all.

That mindset, that enveloping closed or bounded reality, is something that law enforcement, judges and the legal system are not set up to understand. (Nor is it easily understood by anyone who has not experienced it.)

Which brings us back to Isabella Pollok, whose actions and choices — or lack thereof — factor very heavily in the Hulu documentary. Pollok also seems to share a lot of similarities with Clare Bronfman, who was sentenced to 81 months in prison for providing financial support to the NXIVM sex cult, and who was also the subject of much intrigue (and documentary filmmaking). “I believed and supported someone who controlled me in ways I cannot understand. I will live with the guilt forever,” Pollok tearfully told the courtroom in February. “I badly hurt my friends, and I am ashamed and deeply regret it. I am truly sorry.”

It is awful that these women could carry out heinous and abusive acts toward fellow members of their “family.” And don’t get me wrong, what prosecutors said they did was awful. Nevertheless, they were also victims of a disturbed, dare I say sociopathic, master manipulator who used well-known tactics of coercive influence and control like fear, shame, humiliation, peer pressure, threats, sexual abuse and sleep or food deprivation.

Pollok, Bronfman and so many others who have endured such experiences lost their own critical thinking skills and their own sense of judgment. They became closed-minded pawns of evil masters. This is not to excuse their behavior, but it is a warning for America’s legions of true crime fans. These documentaries and podcasts may spark a plethora of emotions — horror, pity and even a misplaced (and frankly dangerously arrogant) superiority. Given what we know about the insidious power of cult leaders, what these stories really should inspire is compassion.

Janja Lalich

Janja Lalich, Ph.D., is a professor emerita of sociology at the California State University, Chico. She is also the founder and president of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/hulus-sex-cult-trial-movie-gets-larry-rays-head-rcna74279

CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/11-12/2023 (Liana Shanti, Documentary, Jesus Morning Star, Larry Ray, Deprogramming, The Vineyard Church)

Liana Shanti, Documentary, Jesus Morning Star, Larry Ray, Deprogramming, The Vineyard Church

Daily Beast: The Mysterious 'Sisterhood' Tearing Families Apart

" ...'When we all first met her, she was basically running the health program,' said Julie, an early follower who did not want her real name used. "At the time, she was our friend. It's not like how now she charges $300 to be able to speak with her for 15 minutes."

Liana began by posting advice on her Facebook page called Rawganic Vegan. Some of her first posts were recipes for kale salad, "morning brain boost" juice, and raw vegan banana pudding parfait.

Over time, Liana started adding spiritual advice into the mix. "She was peppering in things about how our relationship with food was related to our mother. And, oh, we had an attachment to milk… maybe we should look at our relationship with our father," Julie said. "She did have a really large community of followers. But there was this core group of people who were asking the deeper questions, who wanted to know—not just about, 'How can I lose 10 pounds?'–but we wanted to know what did this mean about my relationship to my mom? And what can I do in a conversation with my mother in order to heal my relationship to binge-eating."

Responding to this interest in deeper healing, Liana started releasing spiritual courses in 2015. One of the first was "Mother Wounds Healing," followed by "Father Wounds Healing," and "Healing From the Pain of Narcissistic Relationships." The classes cost $495 each and consist of several hours of downloadable audio lessons. Each course begins with New Age-y meditation music before Liana launches into a stream-of-consciousness lecture, delivered with the confidence of a therapist and the tone of a hypnotist.

Former Lemurian Sisters told The Daily Beast that these recordings put them in a trance-like state and changed the way they viewed their family.

"It's like the minor things that happen, like a parent yells at you. That's not something that's very traumatic, but in Liana's eyes, she makes it to be something that's highly traumatic and something that you'd be so hurt over and so damaged by," said Amber, a former Lemurian Sister who asked that her real name not be used.

"She's planting the seed for you to isolate yourself from your family," Amber added. "I started hating my family."

Amber discovered Liana when she was suffering from post-partum health issues in 2015. She was having panic attacks and couldn't sleep. Her body seemed to be revolting against her, and she felt that doctors weren't taking her seriously. "One doctor told me that I was a hypochondriac," she said. "And, I said, I don't—I don't want to feel these ways. I'm feeling these things, and I don't—I can't accept that."

She went searching for answers online and found Liana's health programs. She connected with the other followers and found the validation and support she wasn't getting from health-care professionals. These new online friends encouraged Amber to dive deeper into Liana's teachings.

"I could tell off the bat that if you didn't get involved in the spiritual stuff, you were kind of looked down upon," Amber said."

Korea Herald: Investigative documentary series tell stories stranger than fiction

Netflix released its third Korean documentary series "In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal," featuring four Korean religious cult leaders -- Jeong Myeong-seok of Christian Gospel Mission, better known as Jesus Morning Star, Park Soon-ja of Odaeyang Church, Kim Ki-soon of Baby Garden and Lee Jae-rock of Manmin Central Church -- who all claim to be saviors of humanity.

The eight-part documentary series presents the religious cult groups' origins, how they rose to power and little-known stories about the four leaders, featuring interviews with those who left the cults. The series was produced by MBC with MBC producer Jo Sung-hyun.

Much airtime was given to JMS and its leader Jeong, who is currently awaiting trial for sexually assaulting female followers.

New Yorker: A Rare Exploration of the Deprogramming Process, in "Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence"

"Though he was eager to impart life advice to his daughter's friends, he appeared to harbor little interest in establishing an official organization. Perhaps his thrall was all the more powerful for its intimate informality. After Talia's sophomore year, Ray moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a Manhattan high-rise with five students from Sarah Lawrence, including Talia and her then boyfriend, Santos, and a sixth, who would later join from Columbia University. In those close quarters, he deployed an arsenal of extreme control tactics: isolation, financial extortion, food and sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, physical and emotional abuse, and reality distortion.

The director of "Stolen Youth," Zachary Heinzerling, lucked out early in the production process when Ray, in an effort to clear his name, handed over audio clips that seemingly implicated him further. (Heinzerling also obtained video and audio files from Felicia Rosario, as well as evidence presented in court.) The more violent footage from the apartment is difficult to watch: Ray pinching Levin's tongue with a pair of heavy pliers and threatening to split it, for instance, or Santos's attempts to quiet an anguished Felicia by slapping his own face whenever she made a noise. But "Stolen Youth," which extends far beyond the events in the magazine feature that first exposed Ray, is a remarkable work, advancing the prestige true-crime genre's slow but steady reorientation toward centering survivors."

Julie Roys: Vineyard Pastor Resigns, Won't Cooperate With Probe Into Son's Alleged Misconduct

"Michael Gatlin, who for the past 25 years served as Lead Pastor of The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, has resigned, saying he cannot cooperate with an investigation into his son's alleged misconduct.

When the allegations surfaced last month, the church suspended Michael's son, former young adult pastor, Jackson Gatlin, and launched an independent investigation. The church has since terminated Jackson, who also refused to cooperate with the investigation, according to an update on the church's website.

Michael's wife, Brenda Gatlin, who served as super regional leader (SRL) for Vineyard USA, has resigned her position, as well, amid allegations both she and her husband knew of their son's misconduct, but did nothing.

In the update, the church acknowledged the new allegations, stating, "There are also allegations that Michael and Brenda Gatlin knew about this misconduct at the time and failed to act."

While the church updates did not disclose the nature of the allegations against Jackson, one woman claimed in a Facebook post that Jackson sexually assaulted her.

"I myself was assaulted by (Jackson Gatlin) as well," the post stated. "It was of a sexual nature. And the rest of the details will remain private."

Other women also took to social media in response to Jackson's suspension.

"I now know that the reason you called me 'little sis' was because of how affectionate you were with me in public," one woman wrote. "Clearly being an adult that was not okay. You passed as a teenager in your 20s so people often overlooked you.

"I sat and waited for anyone that I attended church with to speak up and no one did . . .Tonight I'm calling out anyone who knows anything, especially the leadership. If you were there you know, if YOU WERE THERE WE KNOW. SPEAK UP FOR THE VICTIMS."

The church said they are investigating whether Michael and his wife, Brenda, knew of the allegations when they occurred. One mother claims she told Brenda what Jackson "did" to her daughter:

"The pain and suffering my daughter has experienced in her life due to this man's actions are inexcusable. Honestly I am exhausted and tired of hearing about his poor parents and his poor wife. I'm exhausted from people caring more about the church and not about the victims.

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/7/2023 (Book, Cult Recovery, China, Religious Freedom, Larry Ray, Little Pebble, Obituary, Happy Science, Japan)

Book, Cult Recovery, China, Religious Freedom, Larry Ray, Little Pebble, Obituary, Happy Science, Japan

Esther Friedman: The Gentle Souls Revolution: A Secret Cult, an Open Rebellion, and Lessons in Protecting and Honoring Your Gentle Soul

"Have you been told, "you're too sensitive" or "you think too much"? Do you wonder what is wrong with me? Nothing, according to The Gentle Souls Revolution.

After a five-year cultic misadventure in a secret "school," author Esther Friedman wrote her cautionary tale. Memoir led to research on narcissistic abuse and a recovery template for empaths. With humor and compassion, Friedman describes how the cult exploited her empathy. She interviews former members from other cults and includes research from leading experts. We learn that all cults and cons market false hope by leveraging human nature to profit from the vulnerable.

This revolution teaches Gentle Souls to self-protect by accepting the existence of—and learning to identify pathological selfishness. Recovery requires valuing your proclivities and protecting them like priceless gems. When you do that, those vulnerabilities can become your greatest strengths. That is The Gentle Souls Revolution."

South China Morning Post: How powerful ancient Chinese cults threatened the regimes of the day, and even hastened the end of dynasties

" ... Today, the definition of cults has broadened to include groups that are non-religious in nature, such as the one depicted in Stolen Youth, but in the past they typically referred to groups that professed some kind of non-mainstream religious beliefs.

There must have been countless religious cults in China given its long history and its territorial and population size, but almost the only ones that got any mention in historical records were those that became sufficiently powerful to threaten the regime of the day.

One of the earliest religious cults to grow into a political and military force was the Taiping Dao, or Way of the Great Peace.

Its leaders were Zhang Jue and his two brothers, who were venerated as sorcerers and healers by their followers, which numbered in the hundreds of thousands all over China.

Zhang Jue launched his armed rebellion against the Eastern Han dynasty in AD184. Known in history as the Yellow Turban Rebellion after the headgear of the rebel troops, the revolt was eventually put down after a few years, but the Eastern Han was so severely weakened that warlords tore it apart and the dynasty fell in 220.

In the Tang dynasty, a woman named Chen Shuozhen, who claimed to be immortal, led an armed rebellion against the local government in 653.

She even proclaimed herself the Wenjia Emperor, making her the first woman in Chinese history to bear the title huangdi, a full 37 years before Wu Zetian, the only officially recognised "female emperor" in China, took on the title in 690.

Chen's rebellion lasted only a month before her troops were routed by government forces. She was most likely killed in battle but many of her followers believed that she escaped death and ascended to heaven like an immortal, or survived and lived incognito among them.

The most recent cult that shook the nation before the 20th century was the Bai Shangdi Hui, or God Worshipping Society, a syncretic form of Christianity founded by Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be Jesus Christ's younger brother.

In 1850, Hong led around 10,000 followers in an armed rebellion against the Qing dynasty and founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a theocracy with him as the supreme ruler.

The Taiping Rebellion grew to such an extent that the Heavenly Kingdom occupied almost all the territories south of the Yangtze River at various stages of the rebellion."

9Now:  What life was really like inside the doomsday cult run by the paedophile known as 'Little Pebble'

"His devotees call him Little Pebble; his victims know him as a paedophile.

William Costellia Kamm is the self-appointed leader of a notorious doomsday cult that formed its headquarters in 1987, based in a secure compound in Cambewarra, just outside Nowra on the NSW South Coast.

At its height, thousands of pilgrims from around the world travelled to the bush setting for a spiritual experience like no other.

On the 13th day of each month, the Virgin Mary would appear to William - her apparition only visible to him - and he would pass on her messages and warnings to the gathered and devout crowd.

Watch full interview here on 9Now

He declared his compound the Holy Ground, a new promised land for his followers for when the apocalyptic second coming of Christ would wipe out most of mankind.

At the time, Kamm was married and had four children but unknown to his wife, this self-proclaimed Messiah was planning on creating a royal harem, filled with 12 queens and 72 princesses - 84 mystical spouses to bear his children to repopulate the earth.

Little Pebble claimed God chose who his brides would be but as Detective Chief Inspector Peter Yeomans from the State Crime Command puts it, it was Kamm who did all the grooming, and his preference was under-age girls.

"He was using religion in such a way that just split families. So, it was just awful and it continued for many many years. I see it as grooming with the families to get to these children and it's just terrible," he says.

In the Hinrichs family, Kamm found the perfect target. He discovered them on one of his many pilgrimages to Europe where he would drum up business by preaching his particularly conservative and fringe brand of Catholicism, for which he would ultimately be excommunicated by the Church.

Amongst the faithful in Munich, disaffected by the so-called modernisation of the Catholic Church, Kamm found Ingrid Hinrichs and her family of pretty blonde daughters.

This struggling family had already suffered unspeakable abuse. In the attentive Kamm, they believed they had found a benevolent saviour."

Fox News: Cult leader who claimed to 'channel spirits' of Jesus, Trump and Freddie Mercury dies 

"A Japanese cult leader who famously claimed he could channel the spirit of any living or dead person has passed away at the age of 66. 

Ryuho Okawa, leader and CEO of the "Happy Science" cult, was rushed to hospital after collapsing in his home on Monday from an apparent "state of cardiac arrest." He finally passed on Thursday night, and his cause of death remains unconfirmed, according to Fuji TV.  

Okawa had remained a controversial figure for most of his life, claiming to have received "Messages of God" and to have the ability to channel the spirits of the rich and famous. Okawa would publish books based on what he said the spirits told him.  

His publications included addresses from the "guardian spirits" of Jesus Christ, former President Trump, Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He described his books as a form of "religious journalism."   

Okawa was born in 1956 in a rural area and graduated from the University of Tokyo. He founded the "Happy Science" cult in 1986 after he had an "epiphany" that he could speak with spirits, which told him that his mission was to "lead humanity to happiness."  

The group believed in Okawa's ability to channel spirits, as well as spiritual reincarnation and the construction of a global utopia.  

The cult claimed to have grown the group to include members in more than 110 countries and 700 related facilities both inside and outside the country. A New York Times report in 2020 cast doubt on the group's claims, including its boast of 11 million members, instead citing Okawa's first wife who said the group had roughly 30,000 members in 2011."

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

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Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/6/2023 (Larry Ray, Documentary, The Family, Australia, Buddhist)

Larry Ray, Documentary, The Family, Australia, Buddhist 

Hulu: Under his Spell: Sarah Lawrence Dad Turned Predator

"The case that horrified the country; a dad moved into his daughter's dorm at Sarah Lawrence College. For about 10 years, Lawrence Ray violated, extorted and sex trafficked her friends and others. See the disturbing recordings and hear from the survivors." Includes comments by Patrick Ryan and Steve Hassan.

The IndoctriNation Podcast: Reclaiming Stolen Youth w/ Felicia Rosario and Daniel Barban Levin 

"Felicia Rosario and Daniel Barban Levin are featured in the new Hulu documentary STOLEN YOUTH: INSIDE THE CULT AT SARAH LAWRENCE 

The film which is available now for streaming offers striking first-hand interviews with con man Larry Ray's victims and incorporates personal audio tapes and video recordings to tell the story of his grim 10-year influence over a group of young people."

Hamilton Spectator: Insiders called it a cult. To others, it was a family - until it turned on itself

" ... They lived in a mansion. They prayed together. They cooked and ate and did chores together. They worked side by side and shared their earnings and expenses. They cared for one another's children and vacationed together.

Some insiders say it was a cult.

They called it The Family, and a former pizzeria owner and martial arts teacher named Mohan Jarry Ahlowalia was it's unlikely charismatic leader.

For decades, the communal living arrangement seemed perfect. Ideal.

Until allegations of sexual and physical assault, death threats, human trafficking, extortion and gun violations tore the Burlington household apart. The ugly accusations pitted Ahlowalia's followers against each other.

Details of The Family's strange life became evidence in a long, complicated criminal trial that had Ahlowalia fighting for his freedom.

Thirty charges were laid against him. For three years the case meandered through the justice system. Eventually 14 witnesses testified at a trial that took 57 days spread over a year.

In the end, Ahlowalia was found guilty of absolutely nothing.

The judge eviscerated the Crown's case.

Key witnesses, she said, were discreditable at best. At worst, some may have colluded to frame their former leader.

The judge even suspected guns were planted in Ahlowalia's bedroom and car.

"This case turns on the credibility of the witnesses," Ontario Court Justice Jaki Freeman wrote in her judgment.

The Family, a seeming hub of nurture and love, had turned on itself."

Slate: I Was Raised by American Buddhists. Here's Why I Left

" ... For the fourth week in a row, a white ex-Catholic Buddhist sits down to teach us about humility. We, a group of six or seven teenagers, roll our eyes at each other. It's 2013, and we've just left the gompa—the shrine room—of a Buddhist center in Raleigh, North Carolina, to attend youth group. The mostly white adult members will stay in the gompa to listen to the teachings of the Nepalese geshe (an advanced title earned by high-level Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns). A different parent teaches youth group every week, but a surprising percentage of them grew up Catholic and converted to Buddhism in young adulthood.

Being raised Buddhist from birth put me in a unique position among white Americans. I've heard white peers, professors, and Uber drivers praise Buddhism for being the only "unproblematic" religion—Buddhists typically don't proselytize, the religion tends to accept and incorporate scientific discoveries, and there aren't teachings that discriminate against minority groups. But I've come to understand that when Buddhism is filtered through a Christian culture of indoctrination, it can have similarly harmful effects: obsession with purity, victim-blaming, and abuses of power.

A large percentage of American Buddhists are highly educated—among the subscribers of one of the most prominent Buddhist magazines (where I used to work), 42 percent have master's degrees and 15 percent have doctorates; 77 percent have at least a bachelor's degree. Yet, when I was growing up, it became a running joke among my fellow youth-group teens that nobody could seem to put together a curriculum. We kept repeating topics, and apparently many parents thought the lesson we most needed to learn—this group of soft-spoken kids, half of us homeschooled and all on the outskirts of popularity—was humility. These parents' model of humility, however, taught us more about deferring to authority than it did about not being cocky. Most of our conversations circled around the importance of not thinking we knew better than those around us, and how the people who hurt us were actually suffering just as much—or more—than we were. These lessons solidified in me a pattern of acquiescing to people who held power over me that followed me far into young adulthood.

During my elementary-school years, Tibetan monks lived with my family. My parents hosted them in part because offering alms to monks is one of the strongest ways to generate positive karma. Buddhists believe that the intentions behind every thought and action produce karmic "seeds" that later manifest as suffering or the absence of suffering. When, in the face of suffering, you act with intentions that balance compassion and wisdom, you purify the karmic seed so that it no longer affects your present and future circumstances. Once your karma is neutralized, so to speak, you may achieve enlightenment.

The monk who stayed with my family the longest—a few years—became integrated into my family's life. He woke up with us on weekends so my parents could sleep in, came to my and my sister's school events, and prayed in Sanskrit before every family dinner. He also really liked kissing me and my sister on the mouth, even though we would shriek and run and push him away whenever he tried.

We even had a kissing game: When the monk and my mom made thentuk (a Tibetan soup), they'd make one noodle longer than the others. If you got what became known as "the big noodle," you got to choose whoever you wanted to kiss and they had to let you.

I don't fully blame my parents for letting this happen. People commonly view religious figures—especially those who have taken a vow of chastity—as more "pure" than laypeople. (We've seen it play out with Catholic priests.) That the monk was Asian, had grown up in a monastery in India, and wore his maroon-and-gold robes every day contributed to this."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.