Feb 7, 2022

This ‘nullo’ man felt more masculine and had better sex after getting his penis removed

This ‘nullo’ man felt more masculine and had better sex after getting his penis removed
This ‘nullo’ man felt more masculine and had better sex after getting his penis removed

Daniel Villarreal
Queetry
December 29, 2018 

When Gregg* was 29 years old, he had his penis and testicles surgically removed because he simply didn’t want them. He identifies as a cisgender gay man but also as a “nullo,” a modern term for a guy who has had his genitals removed. We talked with Gregg about his decision, the procedure, the nullo community and what his romantic life has been like since.

Historically, men like Gregg have been called “eunuchs,” but the castration of eunuchs sometimes happened involuntarily (to stop them from procreating or to keep castrati singers capable of high vocal ranges, for instance). These days, nullo dudes and other “smoothies” voluntarily choose to remove their genitals for personal reasons ranging from body dysmorphia to aesthetic ideals.

It’s unclear how many men identify as nullos. A 2014 study concluded that only 30% of nullos reveal their castration to their families and only 11% to their friends. The same study concluded that less than a third of castrated men identify as male after castration; most identify as gender neutral or agender (that is, without any gender whatsoever). A few eventually self-identify as female.

Gregg says there’s a “super niche” community of genital modification enthusiasts who use closed forums to protect their identities. New users must get referrals from active members and then submit a picture of themselves and sometimes their genital modifications. Some have genital piercings and tattoos, others have injected saline or silicone into their genitals or have had their testicles removed.

Most nullos tends to skew older, Gregg says, around their 40s, 50s and 60s. As such, he says most prefer text messaging rather than using web forums and social media sites like Facebook.

What’s the line between body modification, body dysmorphia and fetish?

I don’t really have an answer for you. Body modification just refers to an act or a process. It doesn’t really refer to the underlying drive that causes you to do something. [Often, it’s a] really core foundational identity reason that leads your body not to match your mind, making the act of body modification something beneficial to your mental and psychological health.

As a general rule, the more intense — intense might not be the right word — the more of a one-way door the body modification is, the more of a radical change it is to how your body operates, how you perceive it day-to-day, the more the people that you see doing that kind of body modification tend to be motivated by issues related to body dysmorphia or gender identity, versus things like aesthetics, social peer pressure, or just general sexual fetish modification.

I think that genital mods arguably would be one of the types of mods that would be as far down as you could get onto that spectrum, where you tend to see people who are overwhelmingly motivated by body dysmorphia and gender identity issues, because it’s so serious.

At the other end of that, you have something like a tattoo or ear piercing, which is hardly a one-way-door for your body, so tattoos in some ways are a body mod, but your body still works the way it previously does. It’s still shaped the way it previously was, and you know plenty of people who have said, “I got a tattoo and I regret it” or “I got this pierced back in the day and I took it out because it wasn’t really for me.” I’d argue the more trivial, if you will, that the body modification is, the more you tend to see an even mix of people doing it for purely aesthetic or experimental reasons. Versus something that’s super foundational and core to themselves.

How did you end up deciding to become a nullo?

Ever since I was a kid, my body didn’t really feel like it fit. I always looked at my junk and I was like, “Why is this here? This is kind of weird looking.” And I’d always tuck it when I was a kid, and be like, “Okay. I don’t know why this is here, but everyone says it’s supposed to be so it’s fine.”

And then I got older, started to go through puberty, still didn’t like it, but was like, “Oh this lets me cum, which feels great.” So ergo, I’m going to be using this thing from now on out, even if it feels a little bit wrong every time I use it.

But at the same time, I was becoming more active online, and I swear to God, this story is way too common among my BME friends. Everyone found it out from BME or some equivalent websites. BME was this website, back in the late ’90s early 2000s called Body Modification Evite, and some version of it is still around, I don’t know to what degree.

[BME] was this huge repository of interviews, stories, and galleries of people who’d done various types of body modifications, all the way from an earring or a small tattoo … to huge major body modifications like genital loss. I came across a couple stories of people who were nullo when I was in my early teen years, and I read this article called “An Interview With Tom Manelow,” an older nullo guy back in the late ’90s or early 2000s who I remember. I saw a picture of him when I loaded the webpage, and it was just this happy-go-lucky, normal looking guy who just looked like a Ken doll, and I was like “Oh, that’s what I want. That’s what I’m supposed to be.”

It was this weird moment of everything clicking, and being like, “Oh that’s why I feel the way I do, that’s how I want to be this way.” For me, that was the moment that, and it was really black-and-white, night-and-day, that moment.

Is that when you decided to do it?

Even then, it took me years to get to the point that I decided that I was going to do this. It took me growing and kind of maturing and becoming aware enough of myself and what I wanted, that I was willing to come out to some people and close friends about it.

At the same time, it was also a period of time when medical practices of genital modification via surgery were becoming more accepted, thanks to broader trans acceptance. Previously, you’d have to go to a cutter, or have to do it yourself and go into an emergency room and pray. Or you’d have to go to Thailand and I suppose also pray. It began to be something that some surgeons in the US were doing this if you followed some pretty strict standards of care.

I did my research, and I finally decided to come out to some friends about it, and at the same time since this was becoming a more legitimate medical route, and I ended up sort of starting that process off.

I started with a bunch of trans surgeons, emailed them all, explained my situation, and finally found a couple who were willing to work with me. Then I did the standard, psychological hoops —I had to go through multiple psychological evaluations with different therapists … to prove that I had thought through this, that I was able to give informed consent, and in fact informed enough to know the risks and long term affects of this — and a bunch of the usual things that you’re supposed to do before re-assignment surgery. Then I went and I had surgery in the Bay Area in late 2016.

What has your life been like since the surgery?

I’m 31 right now, and I was 29 when I had the surgery. I identify as like a cis-gender guy usually. I would say I basically identify as a guy who’s missing some of the usually associated parts that come with the package. I still prefer he/his/him. I identify as masculine — it’s actually honestly been great.

The benefit of being on replacement testosterone is that … I grew a full beard, I got chest hair, and I arguably feel more masculine and comfortable in my body across the whole range of attributes without a dick, then I did having one. Over the past six months, I finally got a gym membership and decided to see where this could go, and watching my body kind of fill out, has been a really rewarding experience.

The funny thing is, everyone I know who’s done this or is interested in doing this is so deeply in the closet about it to most people who matter. But I don’t know anybody who’s actually come out and faced any degree of discrimination at least in like a professional sense I have certainly dealt with it just in the dating world.

It is always a unique and difficult — well, not always difficult — but it’s always a unique conversation to have with someone who doesn’t know about this. I know plenty of friends — particularly if they don’t live in a big city with a vibrant pretty body positive community — have really bad luck dating, and kind of just become loners, because no one wants to sleep with somebody who has a body configured like that.

So I think that’s the main, actual form of discrimination, although I acknowledge that like people can have their own tastes about bodies, and that kind of is what it is, but at the very least it’s the main draw back for a type of social opprobrium that I think most of my friends have faced, because they stay so in the shadows that they haven’t really been out at work, or any other form where they can face worse problems.

I’ve read some sensationalized stories about nullos. There are people who treat it like a sideshow rather than trying to exploring the humanity of the people who become nullos. What is the risk of continuing to stigmatize, and push this community underground?

Well I think you called out the main one. That it drives people who are super motivated to accomplish this goal, further underground. And I think in doing so, it tends to push people towards more dangerous routes.

This a hearsay observation that my older friends have told me that I can’t vouch for myself, but in the late ’90s or early 2o00s, there was a relatively, I wouldn’t say vibrant but active community of cutters, guys who had some level of medical expertise who could do penectomies or various other major body modifications like that off the grid, without the need for medical approval. And what happened was there were a couple of guys that were caught in relatively high-profile cases, and they were prosecuted, and that kind of drove the whole cutter group out of business basically.

It stopped being something that you could kind of find people on forums or chatroom for. It became something where they were no longer doing this, unless you already personally knew them. The results of that was that a lot of people started doing this themselves because there literally was nobody else to do it, and it’s even more dangerous to be doing it yourself.

I don’t think the cutters are great, but I also, as a general rule, believe in harm reduction. And this was a process that forced people to go from a risky-to-dangerous option, to a much more risky and dangerous option by virtue of pushing that community even further under ground.

But to validate the flip side of this, I do think it’s real and I think it’s valid to say is that one side effect of pushing us farther underground is that you raise the bar for the amount of effort and dedication that a person has to have to accomplish this … a filtering function, to only have people who are dead set truly absolutely motivated to do this, that does serve a filtering function to make it harder for people who may be on the fence or may not be as emotionally invested in this for the same reason.

Having a doctor do it, makes it less dangerous — that’s totally true. Having doctors do it also lets them do it using modern practices and modern surgical techniques that makes the modification itself something that’s less dangerous.

In a perfect world, we’d be able to discuss rarer forms of body modification more openly and figure out best practices, making them more available to whoever wants them, after they go through a sort of protocol that makes sure that they’ve thought through it, that they understand the permanency, or other associated risks. That would really be the ideal situation, wouldn’t it?

On the question of where body modifications end and something like makeup or mascara or standard cosmetic surgery begins, I’d argue that there’s no physical distinguishing aspect to it: They are the same thing. They are changing whatever your body presents in one moment into presenting something different in another moment.

The question is, are you changing your body in a way that better aligns with what we accept as the ideal of beauty for your gender, and your race, and all these things that society knows about you? Or, are you diverging from that standard of beauty?

When somebody gets breast implants, a face lift, or *ss implants, nobody views that as body modification, because they view that body as being more normal. They view that body as better aligning with the ideal. So it’s not modification, it’s just helping you towards the goal you’re supposed to be at.

[The word] “modification,” in my eyes… I don’t think it’s pejorative, but I think it says you’re deviating form the norm. You’re modifying something and making it artificial. But the artificiality is just defined as being different than what you’re supposed to to look like according to somebody else.

Right. The fact that the other modifications are regularly called “augmentations” or “enhancements” shows a linguistic bias. But regarding discrimination against nullos, wouldn’t there be less if more nullos publicly came out? Or is it wrong to blame a stigmatized group for their own oppression?

Fundamentally, it’s a massive collective action problem. If everybody I knew as a nullo posted it publicly on Facebook and got over with it — and the reality was 90% of us are f*cking boring, and we’re fine — that would be great. We’d all be much happier for it. But if only one or two people do it, they face a lot of danger and risk, and the effect of that is nobody’s the first person to come through and do it.

On my side, I’ve been debating being much more open about it. But at the end of the day, everybody now knows in my life, with the exception of my immediate co-workers and my parents. All my friends know, everybody I’m socially connected with knows. I go to the nude beaches all the time, it’s fine. It’s great.

But I guess I’m kind of p*ssed because the only nullo who’s actually come out and done anything is this guy Gelding who did that Gawker article a few years ago. The article ended up focusing on the f*cking cannibalistic aspect at the end of it, and I’m p*ssed because that’s what 90% of people Google, and find out, and then ask me about it. I personally wish there were other people who were out there and were a counterpoint to provide a more balanced sample of what we’re like, and what our experience is like.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect members of a community to risk exposure and professional, social, or bodily harm in order for us to make us more visible to people who don’t know about us. I also acknowledge that it’s frustrating. People operate as best they can under limited information, and [people] who can’t get that information first hand have to make do with what they can find.

It sucks, and it makes me much less interested in being open about it, if the only question I’m going to be asked is, “How do you pee? Do you still cum?” all the basic things. I understand that they are intellectual questions, but it just feels super medical, probing, and kind of invasive.

Though… now that you mention it… sorry to ask, but…

It’s totally fine, and for the record, they’re totally normal questions to have. Like, it’s an odd thing where like I’ve done this a million times before, cause like every time you go on a first date with someone or you’re at a bathhouse, you have to have this conversation. So I’m fine answering it and it’s a human response to be curious about it. I totally get it.

Basically for the nullification surgery, they remove the testicles, the scrotum, and the penis, and they essentially just sew the skin up into a very tight vertical line which kind of fades away. If the surgeon’s great, there’s no scar at the end of it, and they relocate the urethra down to kind of between your legs

So basically, I p*ss like a woman does, and in terms of orgasm, I’m still on testosterone, so I still have a male sex drive, I still have orgasmic response. I can get off through getting f*cked or riding a guy through prostate stimulation. Or within my crotch, if you push under the skin, there’s still all the nerves that were severed from where my d*ck used to be, and they actually, over the course of several months regrow, throughout that whole area.

So the funny thing is, that internal stump which you can feel if you push around, or if you kind of just wiggle down there, feels amazing. And that can help me cum too. In terms of actually cumming, like 90% of semen is actually by glands around the prostate, which aren’t really affected by the surgery. So I still cum like normal, and produce normal amounts and all of that. It’s a little bit more mental than it is physical, but I still cum several times a day and it’s great. I quite like it.

Bloody castration cult discovered in London - what is Nullo?

What is the Nullo cult? (Image: Derby Telegraph)
A bloody cult with origins in Japan has been found in the UK, sparking fear amongst locals as the police continue their investigations. 

Robbie Purves
Nottingham Post
February 7, 2022

What is the Nullo cult?


A raid in north London has resulted in the arrest of seven men involved in a terrifying cult.

Part of the Nullo cult, the seven individuals have been linked to castrations filmed by their ringleader named 'The Eunuch Maker'.

The Metropolitan police spent three days at the Finsbury Park basement flat, collecting what a neighbour described as 'computers and laptops'.

It is alleged, that the removal of body parts were carried out in the basement and screened on a pay-per-view basis online.

A Norwegian man, known as The Eunuch Maker is thought to have undergone the operation himself.

The 44-year-old and six others have been arrested but released on bail.

It is the first Nullo group of its kind to be discovered the UK, but looks to have taken inspiration from the movement's founder in Japan.

What is the Nullo cult?


Nullo is shorthand for genitalia nullification, with those who follow the cult calling themselves 'nullos'.

The group in London is likely to have been inspired by the movement's 'poster-boy'.

Mao Sugiyama, a Japanese artist, had his penis and testicles completely removed and served to the highest bidder a decade ago.

He wrote on Twitter: "I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen (£800). I'm Japanese."

"The organs were surgically removed at age 22. I was tested to be free of venereal diseases. The organs were of normal function."

Ultimately, the meal was split between five diners at a 70-person banquet in Suginami, Tokyo and guests were charged around £160 per person for the meal garnished with parsley.

Sugiyama donned a traditional chef's uniform while carefully frying his organs on a gas cooker.

Seven men arrested after ‘castrations linked to Nullos cult broadcast live online’

Amputation of genitals said to have taken place in basement of London flat and broadcast on pay-per-view channel
Amputation of genitals said to have taken place in basement of London flat and broadcast on pay-per-view channel

Matt Mathers
Independent
February 7, 2022

Seven men were arrested after reports of castration procedures being broadcast live online.

They were held in Finsbury Park, north London, in December, when Metropolitan Police officers spent four days searching a home in the area.

Amputations were allegedly carried out in a basement flat and broadcast on a pay-per-view channel that was promoted via a Twitter account, The Sun newspaper reported.

The practise is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Between Tuesday 7 December and Friday 10 December 2021, officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime command conducted a search warrant at a residential address in the Finsbury Park area in connection with an investigation into an allegation of grievous bodily harm.

“A man, aged in his 40s, was arrested in relation to this investigation and is currently on bail. Six other suspects were also arrested and released on bail in connection with this matter.”

The other suspects are aged in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.

Speaking of the flat raid, a neighbour told The Sun: “It was all very bizarre, there were police outside the flat for a few days.

“They were putting everything in plastic bags — it looked like computers and laptops.”

Mao Sugiyama, a Japanese artist, is the most renowned nullo after he reportedly had his genitals removed, cooked and served to paying guests at a dinner.

Sugiyama, who is asexual, had the procedure done voluintarily in Tokyo, Japan.

It is claimed he seasoned his genitals with salt and pepper, adding a garnish of mushrooms and parsley, before serving them to guests who had paid £160 each.

Feb 6, 2022

Safer spaces: Protecting the dignity of consecrated people

Doris Reisinger, who said she was subject to abuse by a priest while in a consecrated community, in Münster, Germany, in February 2019. (CNS/KNA/Lars Berg)
Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Global Sisters Report
February 3, 2022

VATICAN CITY — Members of religious orders and other consecrated men and women take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the desire to live the Gospel in a more radical way.

It's a way of life embraced as a path to holiness by helping members configure themselves more closely to Jesus in a stable state of life recognized by the church.

"They are ready to give up everything," even their lives, and this readiness and dedication to follow Christ is "impressive" and "wonderful," said Doris Reisinger, a German theologian. But "it's so easily abused and exploited."

Reisinger, a survivor of abuse inflicted when she was a consecrated member of Familia Spiritualis Opus, also known as The Spiritual Family "The Work," is one of several people highlighting the need to protect the rights and dignity of consecrated women and men.

"People who live together, who promise poverty, chastity and obedience under the guidance of one superior or founder have no enforceable rights," she said. "This is so dangerous" because it is a situation "where cult-like communities can grow."

All members of every Catholic community must know their rights — that "you don't have to put up with everything" — and those rights must be enforceable, she said from Germany, where she is a research assistant at Goethe University in Frankfurt. She and others spoke to Catholic News Service by phone Feb. 1.

A Catholic expert in the psychology of religion and "deviations in the Catholic world" said it is easier for warped teachings or practices to develop in communities that are smaller and have an "excessive veneration" of the founder.

Raffaella Di Marzio is the director of the Center for Studies on the Freedom of Religion, Belief and Conscience and has taught at pontifical universities in Rome. She said it is natural members would feel different from other Catholics because of their more radical, evangelical way of life and committed vows to be more Christ-like.

But when this leads to a sense of superiority and "being closer to Jesus than others, then the charism becomes a charism of power, that is, the human temptation to be able to make others do what you want now takes over," she said.

This dynamic between a strong charismatic leader and faithful follower is "a two-way street" in that the leader wields a power that a follower is searching for and willingly submits to, and, if left unchecked, it can lead to even stronger ties to the leader, a fear of persecution and a rejection of dialogue or cooperation with "the outside," Di Marzio said.

"In this situation, anything can happen in that community," she said.

Bishops, who are responsible for diocesan institutes of consecrated life, should pay attention to even the smallest signs of anything "strange," Di Marzio said. In her experience, however, bishops have not been prepared to address the problem and decide to do nothing out of fear of scandal, she said. Instead, they could set up a small group of experienced experts in this field to advise appropriate action early on, before things "get worse."

And when there are accusations of psychological or spiritual abuse, she said, bishops should work with the community's leader and members, including those who left, to correct the situation. But accusations of physical or sexual abuse require immediate and "stern intervention, even at the cost of breaking up the community."

Mercy Sr. Sharon Euart, a canon lawyer and executive director of the Resource Center for Religious Institutes in the United States, said Pope Francis has shown he "has good insight" into some of these problems by enacting new regulations.

Critically, he altered Canon 579 so that bishops must receive permission from the Vatican to erect new diocesan institutes, she said. Before, a bishop only had to consult the Vatican. The new restriction is meant to make sure "there is proper discernment and the need to assess this charism, is it a new charism, and is there a need for this new institute."

The priority in setting up a new institute should be on how members will live consecrated life, not just the ministry it hopes to pursue, she said.

Pope Francis' 2019 motu proprio, "Vos Estis Lux Mundi," makes consecrated members mandated reporters to church authority for misconduct and acts of sexual abuse or assault, Euart said. Anyone aware of sexual abuse or an abuse of power or authority must report it to a major superior, bishop or the papal nuncio.

However, it is not certain whether every institute has incorporated these new requirements in their own policies and made them known to all their members, she said.

For example, would a current or new member of a community know who to go to with an allegation of abuse by their founder or superior general? she asked. "Is the Holy See structured in such a way and prepared to receive such allegations? Can church authorities accept the responsibility to follow up on these allegations? If not, then people are not going to report."

"Policies are important, but they are only valuable if they're going to be followed," Euart said.

When it comes to transparency, Di Marzio said it must include openness about a community's past.

An institute that was refounded or reformed after an abuse crisis is likely to want to simply start over, follow the rules and guidance of the church and "trust this time truly only in God" and not an individual for their salvation, she said.

While the order or institute would not want to highlight or dwell on the misdeeds of its founder or past members on its website or informational materials, she said, the church should have an updated and authoritative archive of everything that happened in the community from its very beginning, with reports based on evidence, testimonies, church-led investigations and findings that are open and accessible to potential candidates and the general public.

Euart said there is no panacea. "These structures or policies and procedures are not going to solve every situation, but if you begin with something like that, the message from leadership to community is, 'We care about it, we care about you and we will try to protect you.' "

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/religious-life/news/safer-spaces-protecting-dignity-consecrated-people

Kremlin Behind Moscow Patriarchate's Crackdown On Dissident Churchmen And Movement - OpEd

File photo of Russia's Vladimir Putin meeting with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. Photo Credit: Kremlin.ru
Paul Goble

Eurasia Review
February 6, 2022

The Kremlin is behind the Moscow Patriarchate’s crackdown on dissidents among the clergy and among Orthodox social movements, Aleksey Makarkin says; but the Russian church in some cases has gone ever further than the state because it fears that the state will begin to use its organs against the church and undermine popular support for the faith.

The Russian church was enthusiastic about the state’s intervention against Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups, the leader of the Moscow Center for Political Technologies says; and it welcomes the state’s help against Orthodox clergy and activists who step out of line but also fears where that could lead (ng.ru/ng_religii/2021-12-14/9_521_exile.html).

What this has meant, Makarkin says, is that now “church structures try to be careful even on those issues where earlier they displayed great activity.” They are uncertain just where the red lines for church behavior are as far as the Kremlin is concerned; and the most subservient are simply avoiding doing anything that might cause a problem for them.

“The government starts from the proposition that the church must control itself and not allow declarations which contradict the policies of the powers,” he continues. “If these things arise, then the church itself is required to address them. And when that doesn’t happen, then the state is forced to intervene and advance demands on the church leadership.”

One aspect of the situation is becoming especially fraught, Makarkin says. That concerns the role of elders to whom “many people from the government and force structures go,” a behavior the powers had accepted but are now seeing as a threat given the increasing outspokenness of these prominent features of the Orthodox landscape.

“Elders have become persons whom it is difficult for anyone to control,” he continues. “They aspire to the role of the highest spiritual authority.” If siloviki listen to them, that could be a problem; and so the government is moving against them and forcing the Patriarchate to provide assistance.

Given how important elders are in the religious life of the Orthodox, that sets the stage for a new wave of court cases almost certain to reduce the authority of the church and also spark more controversy between the traditionally subservient Patriarchate and the increasingly assertive Kremlin, the Moscow analyst suggests.

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at paul.goble@gmail.com .

https://www.eurasiareview.com/06022022-kremlin-behind-moscow-patriarchates-crackdown-on-dissident-churchmen-and-movement-oped/

When your faith makes you an enemy of the state

Leonardo Blair, Senior Features Reporter
The Christian Post
February 06, 2022

Part 4 of The Christian Post's series on China's human rights abuses under the spotlight of the Olympic Games details the accounts of Falun Gong practitioners who fled the country following the government's crackdown on the popular spiritual practice. Read part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here.

NEW YORK — It was July 20, 1999. Michael Yu, an accountant and Falun Gong practitioner, remembers well what happened in China.

Then-President Jiang Zemin had declared millions of Yu’s fellow Falun Gong practitioners a threat to the government. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Li Hongzhi, who founded the spiritual movement only seven years earlier, in 1992.

Thousands of Li’s followers, including officials in the Chinese Communist Party, were arrested that day, too, while millions of Li’s books and cassette tapes were destroyed, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions, explains in Bitter Winter, a magazine covering religious liberty and human rights, how the CCP branded Falun Gong an evil cult after the 1999 crackdown. Things haven’t improved much since then.

As of September 2017, Falun Gong was listed as the No. 1 most “dangerous” cult by the CCP, along with a number of church groups. Criminal law in China allows persons belonging to groups branded as cults to be punished with sentences of up to life in prison. Religions deemed to be cults are monitored by an office called the Public Security Anti-Xie Jiao Organization. The office is informally known as the "610 Office."

One freezing afternoon in January, while sitting inside the New York Food Court in Flushing, Queens, where the cuisine of the borough’s Asian heartland collides in a lavish display, Yu told The Christian Post how his practice of Falun Gong made him an enemy of the Chinese government and forced him to flee his homeland.

The 49-year-old remembered how he stumbled upon the practice in 1995 when he was a college student in Shanghai. At that time, “there wasn’t persecution of the practice.”

“Since I was young, I was interested in qigong and martial arts for health and fitness and supernatural phenomenon,” he said through interpreter and fellow Falun Gong practitioner Scott Li.

Qigong and Falun Gong

For about 20 years spanning the 1980s and ’90s, qigong had grown popular among hundreds of millions of Chinese in the officially atheist country. Qigong is described as a hybrid of traditional medical and self-cultivation practices developed in the early 1950s by members of the Chinese medical establishment to promote traditional Chinese medicine.

While some members of the CCP in modern China had criticized it as “superstitious” with links to religion and spirituality, defenders of the practice managed to make room for it and similar therapies alongside biomedicine.

In his writings, Li Hongzhi, who lives in upstate New York after fleeing China, compares qigong to “magic.”

“Qigong is not exclusively a product of our country. It exists in foreign countries as well, but they don’t call it qigong. Western countries, such as the United States, Great Britain, and so on, call it magic,” he explained.

Falun Gong is an offshoot of qigong, which Li Hongzhi describes as “one of the Buddhist system’s special qigong methods,” which “has its own distinct qualities that set it apart from the usual ways of Buddhist cultivation.”

“This cultivation system is a special, intense cultivation method that used to require that cultivators have extremely high character and great spiritual aptitude,” Li wrote.

Falun Gong claimed up to 100 million followers during the 1990s, but only about 7 million to 10 million remain in China out of a population of more than 1.39 billion, according to a 2020 report from the United Kingdom's Home Office. But some sources suggest Falun Gong's population in China could be as high as 40 million.

Yu described how he started a qigong club in college with another student to introduce more people to qigong for health and fitness.

“One of the student's parents was practicing Falun Gong and found out that they were more into the traditional arts, so the mother gave them the introduction to Falun Gong book. That’s how he came into Falun Gong,” the translator explained as Yu spoke.

Yu, who was around 22 at the time, did further reading on Falun Gong and realized that it answered a lot of his questions about life. He soon fully committed to the practice.

Persecution

He never imagined he would face a time when his faith in Falun Gong would become a liability.

The day after the mass arrests, on July 21, 1999, Yu said he went to a government office in Shanghai to ask why Falun Gong practitioners were being arrested. He said the police responded by arresting him too.

“Then the next day, July 22, they [the CCP] started broadcasting defamations and false things about Falun Gong to try to make it look bad. And they pretty much forced all the employees throughout the country to watch it," he recalled. "And asked them, 'Are you still going to practice?'” he recalled.

At the time, Yu was working as a financial manager at a company where government regulators held a position to monitor the workers' behavior to ensure they were compliant with the laws of the state.

“They used all kinds of tactics to try to pressure him to give up [his practice of Falun Gong], including asking his mother and family members to plead with him. They threatened him with firing and arrest,” Scott Li said.

When Yu resisted the pressure, he was quickly ostracized at work, which forced him to quit.

A few months later, in May 2000, he went to Tiananmen Square to do Falun Gong meditation in Beijing in protest. He was arrested on the spot.

“It was to send a message to the Chinese government that they should stop the persecution,” Yu said, noting that he also wanted them to “clear the name of Falun Gong.”

The police released him the same day after his arrest because he had not traveled with any identification. In July that year, he was arrested in Shanghai and detained for 28 days for meditating with other Falun Gong practitioners.

His refusal to give up the practice and refrain from engaging in any public display of Falun Gong landed him in a re-education camp from June 2001 until December 2002.

“Their intent is to make you give up the practice. If you don’t give up, they put you through extreme torture where you don’t want to live,” he said.

Even though there were times when he felt like giving up at the camp, Yu said he held on.

He remembers being beaten and made to sit on a tiny chair until his underwear was stuck to his flesh. He added that he was tortured in other ways in which he could barely walk afterward.

While he didn’t give up Falun Gong, the experience inside the re-education camp made him more careful with his practice after he was released.

In 2011, when he got the chance to come to the U.S. for a business conference for accountants, he decided not to return to China. He now enjoys practicing Falun Gong without fear.

Tom Tang

When Tom Tang, 45, was in high school in Guangzhou, China, he was a student leader who was so smart that everyone in his community expected him to end up at one of China's top universities.

His high hopes were dashed in 1996, however, when his scores on national exams turned out to be only good enough for a lower-ranked school called Zhaoqing University.

In China, explained Scott Li, performance on the college entrance exam is a “huge thing,” and Tang’s underperformance was a “big heartbreak.”

Tang became so depressed he began experiencing physical pain in his body. He also started contemplating the meaning of life.

One night, as he was leaving a class at the college, he noticed a group of people practicing meditation. It shocked him that people in the high-pressure society in which he lived could be so tranquil.

A classmate who was studying Falun Gong told him that the people who were meditating were Falun Gong practitioners and loaned him a book about the practice.

It took him a while to read the book because of his depression, but once he was done, Tang found purpose in life again and embraced Falun Gong as a way of life.

“He was just moved, you know,” Scott Li said, interpreting his response. “After reading this book and the principles, he was a completely changed person.”

By about May or June in 1999, Tang began hearing rumors that the Chinese government was planning to ban the practice. On July 20, 1999, he was stunned when a local coordinator for Falun Gong practitioners told him that the practice had been banned.

He didn’t understand why the government would ban a practice that had given him peace and purpose in life. So that night, he went to the capital of his province to get answers from government officials.

When he got to the government office, he found a long line of Falun Gong followers looking for answers also.

Local government officials told the group that there was nothing they could do to reverse the ban and rounded all of them up and took them to a school nearby, where they were detained for about half a day. Police collected their personal details. And once Tang was processed, he went back to his college.

On July 22, 1999, Tang said he went outside to meditate at his college and the police quickly arrived. He said they took his identification and told him he could not practice Falun Gong.

After he graduated from college, Tang went back to his hometown in Guangzhou, where he and other Falun Gong practitioners were monitored by the 610 Office.

Tang said a police officer told him that as long as he practiced Falun Gong quietly and not in public, he didn’t care. He was also advised not to go to Beijing.

The zealous Falun Gong practitioner, however, didn't listen.

In July 2000, Tang went to Tiananmen Square and held up a banner protesting the Falun Gong ban. He and other protesters were immediately swarmed by police who took them to a local precinct and locked them in steel cages.

Later that night, they were rounded up and transported to another city nearby.

To protect themselves, Tang and the protesters left their identification at home. But the police still managed to find out who some of them were. Five days later, someone from the 610 Office in Guangzhou took him to a detention center, where he was held for 15 days.

During that time, he was beaten and told to stop practicing Falun Gong. But Tang replied that he couldn’t because Falun Gong is his life. He was later released to his family and warned not to protest.

A few days later, Tang was detained again and taken to a labor camp, where he spent two years, from 2001 to 2003.

For a while, Tang kept up his protest by going on a hunger strike, which prevented him from working. He was eventually forced to eat and build a range of products, like Christmas lights and trinkets similar to those found at a dollar store.

“It’s extremely painful to the point where you don’t want to live, but they don’t let you die,” Tang recalled from the experience.

Tang spent another four-and-a-half years in prison for refusing to stop practicing Falun Gong.

After he was released from prison in 2008, Tang took over the management of his sister’s handbag business, which became wildly successful even as he continued sharing his Falun Gong practice with clients quietly.

As the government continued to monitor him, he filed a lawsuit against a former CCP leader for the persecution he suffered in 2015.

That year, while he was in the U.S. on a business trip, government agents went to his business and took the machines he was using to print information about the Falun Gong.

He decided it wouldn’t be safe to return to China after that. He distanced himself from the business for the sake of his family still there.

Contact: leonardo.blair@christianpost.com Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost



https://www.christianpost.com/news/when-your-faith-makes-you-an-enemy-of-the-state.html

Billions in Covid deals given to firms linked to Plymouth Brethren sect

Ben Ellery
The Times
February 05 2022

Dozens of companies with connections to a tiny fundamentalist Christian sect were awarded as much as £2.2 billion in government coronavirus contracts, The Times can reveal.

Firms with links to the insular Plymouth Brethren have been handed contracts for PPE, masks, visors, aprons, tests and ventilators without other companies being given the chance to bid for the contracts.

It can be revealed that PPE worth millions of pounds supplied by firms linked to the group were cleared for use by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) despite being declared substandard by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

The evangelical group, likened to a “cult” by some former members, has connections with the Conservative Party, and MPs have previously lobbied for it to be given charitable status.

The first Brethren assembly in England was established in Plymouth in 1831 by a group who had become disillusioned with the Anglican church and felt it had become too involved with the secular state. The majority of members are born into the church, though on rare occasions those without a family connection have joined by meeting a local group. Members are encouraged to set up their own businesses.

This week it emerged that the DHSC had written off PPE worth £8.7 billion last year, admitting to a “significant loss of value to the taxpayer”.

Unispace Global, an office interior design company that suddenly became a PPE provider at the start of the pandemic, was awarded seven PPE contracts worth almost £680 million by the DHSC in 2020.

The group that owns the company belongs to two Australian brothers, Charles and Gareth Hales, whose father is Bruce Hales, the worldwide leader of the Plymouth Brethren sect.

Unispace Global recorded an £86 million profit in 2020, with the largest beneficiary, likely to be Gareth Hales, entitled to £32 million.

Research by The Times and the Open and Candid website, an investigative platform, found that former directors of Unispace are connected to at least 45 companies linked to the Brethren that have won coronavirus contracts. There is no suggestion that the sect co-ordinated the applications for contracts.

The sect reportedly has 50,000 members worldwide, with 16,000 in this country. It operates a series of primary schools and business courses in the UK.

Followers adhere to a set of strict rules based upon their interpretation of the Bible. In avoiding anything they perceive to be sinful, members cannot watch television, listen to the radio or go to the cinema.

Unispace Global has transferred the money from the Covid contracts to Sante Global LLP.

Ross Robertson, 39, from Oxford, is a shareholder and former employee of a sister company, Sante Global Trading Co. Three days after lockdown, Ross and his brother Luke set up Medco Solutions, which was then handed £772 million in contracts to provide visors, facemasks and aprons.

In December it was reported that visors procured by Medco as part of a £33.4 million contract were being processed by a recycling firm.

A third Robertson brother, Murray, is a director of Rapid Relief Team, a Plymouth Brethren charity that provides catering for emergency services crews.

A charity was set up by the sect in 2013 after a battle with the Charity Commission for it to be officially recognised. The application was made by the trust of the church that runs its gospel halls. Ultimately, the watchdog decided there was enough public benefit from the gospel halls for them to be given charitable status.

The campaign to secure charity status was heavily supported by a large number of Conservative MPs, including Owen Paterson, Peter Bone, Robert Halfron and Michael Ellis.

Jolyon Maugham QC, founder of The Good Law Project, said: “It’s very, very odd that companies connected to a tiny sect have won £2.2 billion worth of contracts. At best, it’s a head-scratcher.”

A spokesman for the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church said: “The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is [a] place of love and worship, not of business and politics.

“Like in any other religious group or church, many of our members run their own businesses, and these businesses are completely separate from the church. Any contractual agreements between the government and these independent businesses are completely unrelated to our church.”

Neither the companies concerned nor the DHSC responded to requests for comment.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/billions-in-covid-deals-given-to-firms-linked-to-plymouth-brethren-sect-8tlszvrh5

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/5-6/2022 (Religious Research, Cult Involvement, Video, Podcast, Meth, Book Launch, Dialogue and Cultic Studies)

Religious Research, Cult Involvement, Video, Podcast, Meth, Book Launch, Dialogue and Cultic Studies

"Religiosity in Canada is at an all-time low, with recently released data from Statistics Canada showing only 68 per cent of Canadians 15 or older now report having a religious affiliation. It's the first time that number has dipped below 70 per cent since StatCan began tracking the data in 1985.

In response, Global News has spent the past two months speaking to members of religious communities across the country and looking at historical data to determine why this is happening. This is part one of that series.

It's important to note that this decline is not across the board; the number of Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus is increasing, and StatCan predicts the number of Canadians reporting a non-Christian religious affiliation could double by the year 2036.

Christianity, however, is in sharp decline. In 2011, 67.3 per cent (about 22.1 million people) of Canadians said they were affiliated with a Christian religion. In 2019, that number had dropped to 63.2 percent. Catholicism, Canada's largest denomination, now accounts for 32 per cent of Canadians over 15, down from 46.9 per cent in 1996."

The decline is even more precarious for Canada's United and Anglican churches.

Pat Ryan and Joe Kelly have worked helping people exit and recover from cults for many years. In this week's video, they join Jon to talk about the nature of authoritarian control, the nostalgia some 

Butterflies and Bravery: Meth And Me
"In this episode Jemima bares it all and talks about some of her previous vices, focusing on her meth addiction. She holds nothing back as she takes you down the long dark road she walked. You'll be on the edge of your seat as we delve into the world of drug addiction. Find out how Jemima got clean without attending meetings or having a religious epiphany, and how she managed to stay that way. Sometimes there's not a why, there's not a way, there's just holding on."

(February 10,  2022, 5:30 - 7:30 pm GMT, Zoom)

About the book: All religions undergo continuous change, but minority religions tend to be less anchored in their ways than mainstream, traditional religions. This volume examines radical transformations undergone by a variety of minority religions, including the Children of God/ Family International; Gnosticism; Jediism; various manifestations of Paganism; LGBT Muslim groups; the Plymouth Brethren; Santa Muerte; and Satanism. As with other books in the Routledge/Inform series, the contributors approach the subject from a wide range of perspectives: professional scholars include legal experts and sociologists specializing in new religious movements, but there are also chapters from those who have experienced a personal involvement. The volume is divided into four thematic parts that focus on different impetuses for radical change: interactions with society, technology and institutions, efforts at legitimation, and new revelations. 


Respondents will include: 

    • Professor Emeritus James A. Beckford, University of Warwick 
    • Michael Langone, Executive Director, International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), USA 
    • Professor Linda Woodhead, King's College London 
    • Register

ICSA E-Newsletter: ICSA's Openness to Dialogue: Historical Perspective
"From its founding in 1979, ICSA strove to apply professional perspectives and research to understand and respond to the problems posed by cults. This professionalism has made ICSA open and tolerant, and, consequently, credible. Though there were and continue to be different opinions about how open ICSA should be, the prevailing view has always been that we must not be like cults, which are closed-minded and censor or refuse to engage with those who advocate dissenting views.

The reasons for and importance of openness and dialogue was formally articulated in a document written by the ICSA Board of Directors: "Dialogue and Cultic Studies: Why Dialogue Benefits the Cultic Studies Field." Historical background can be found on ICSA's history page, especially "Changes in the North American Cult Awareness Movement."

ICSA's openness to dialogue can sometimes be difficult to reconcile with ICSA's mission of helping those adversely affected by cultic involvements. Former members, especially those who have been traumatized, may feel discomfort -- sometimes revulsion -- when ICSA's openness to divergent views exposes them to people with positive views of cults or even of religion in general. Openness may also challenge parents and helping professionals who are focused on ameliorating harm. Conversely, some academicians may interpret ICSA's focus on cult-related harm as an anti-religious bias.

Because ICSA is open to diverse and conflicting views, ICSA cannot please "all the people all the time." Some degree of tension and discord, therefore, is unfortunately unavoidable. This tension can be challenging, but it can also enhance learning and thinking creatively about cult-related problems.

ICSA is unique because it brings together in a coherent and substantial way international constituencies of victims, families, helping professionals, and researchers. The diversity within ICSA promotes an environment that is conducive to thinking broadly about the subject and to learning from those one might not ordinarily encounter. "Stress-testing" our opinions is a hallmark of critical thinking."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery


CultEducationEvents.com

CultMediation.com   

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.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

Flipboard

Twitter

Instagram

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.


Thanks,


Joe Kelly (joekelly411@gmail.com)

Patrick Ryan (pryan19147@gmail.com)


If you do not wish to be subscribed to this list, or you think you are being maliciously subscribed to the list, or have any other questions, send them to: pryan19147@gmail.com or send an email to: cultnews101+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

Feb 5, 2022

Transforming Trauma Episode 062: Continuing the Conversation of Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery with Daniel Shaw

Transforming Trauma Episode 062: Continuing the Conversation of Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery with Daniel Shaw


Daniel Shaw LCSW
NARM Training Institute

"In this episode of Transforming Trauma, we’ve invited Daniel Shaw back to have a conversation with our host Emily to further discuss his work and his most recent book, Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear. Daniel Shaw LCSW is an author, private practice psychoanalyst, faculty and supervisor at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. He has provided professional counseling for former cultic group members, and their friends and loved ones since 1994. 

Daniel shares that he wants listeners to understand the ways that we become alienated from ourselves because of trauma and the internal antagonism between the part that wants to live, and the part that wants to shut down life. He also shares, “We within ourselves, have healing capacities, we have healing energy. That’s innate.” 

Throughout the episode, we hear from Daniel about his influences such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and EMDR, and how these models have supported his understanding of Trauma and the Self. “The benefit of subsequent training in trauma theories has been to understand that within us is always an energy trying to survive and trying to LIVE. We’re not just trying to survive. I think we’re trying to live,” he shares. "

https://narmtraining.com/transformingtrauma/episode-062/


Tr​ansforming Trauma Episode 028: Traumatic ​​Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation with Daniel Shaw

Tr​ansforming Trauma Episode 028: Traumatic ​​Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation with Daniel Shaw
NARM ​Training Institute​



​"​In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Sarah Buino is joined by therapist, social worker, and author Daniel Shaw to discuss his seminal book Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Daniel explores the theme of traumatic narcissism from a developmental and trauma-informed perspective. In his work, he connects the challenging symptoms and behaviors of clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder to the deeper understanding that they were raised in a highly traumatic environment by narcissistic caregivers. His underlying message for listeners is that, “It's important to understand what's going on in the mind of the narcissistic traumatizer in order to help patients free themselves from those relationships, in order for therapists to help the patient, and in order for the patients to help themselves.”

Daniel began his research in social work after leaving a religious group that he participated in for thirteen years, and which he later came to identify as a cult. In this group, Daniel experienced traumatic abuse through the cult leader, who “needed to inflate their own narcissism by controlling others.” This dynamic is exactly what he came to see represented in the relational system of the traumatizing narcissist, which he identified as a “system of subjugation.”

Unlike perspectives that can ostracize or vilify narcissistic tendencies, Daniel’s perspective on narcissism is very similar to that of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM). Narcissism is understood to be a common trait that all personalities experience to some degree. While Daniel acknowledges that this trait can be quite harmless, for example “sometimes people are just a little more self centered”, his work focuses on the narcissistic person who is predatory in their behavior, and who seeks to establish relational dynamics in which they can control others “through belittling and intimidating and humiliating.” Daniel describes these individuals as highly seductive at first, and then after their initial phase of seduction others become subjugated to the narcissist. “So that person actually … comes to believe that they are bad and the narcissist is good. And the reason the narcissist is cruel to them is because of their badness.” He goes on to explain that the victim of traumatic narcissism is so affected by this relational system, that it is incredibly difficult to stop blaming themselves or feeling alienated from themselves.

In a healthy parent-child relationship, the parent honors and understands a child’s natural dependency, and allows them to gradually grow more independent over time through healthy individuation. This healthy individuation celebrates the child’s growing independence, while also allowing the child to come back and check in to re-establish safety as they slowly venture farther and farther into the world. Daniel and Sarah come together with Daniel’s statement that “We are born completely dependent and there's… no reason on earth why a child should grow up ashamed of that dependency.” However, the narcissist is not brought up in this healthy environment. Narcissistic parents resent the child’s dependency, shame them for it, and create a traumatizing environment in which the child’s dependency on their parent becomes the source of pain and suffering. These children often grow up with one of two outcomes: to become profoundly depressed with low self-esteem, or to take on aspects of this narcissism themselves and recreate relationships with this relational system of power-over and control through humiliation. As Daniel states, the traumatized child can then become the narcissist, who begins “disavowing and denying any kind of dependency, any kind of need, and associating [need] with shame. And then the person that they choose to relate to has to carry that neediness and that shame for them.”

Sarah and Daniel discuss the common thread in Daniel’s work and NARM. Much like in NARM, in which the therapists support clients to reconnect with their own agency, Daniel’s intention in working with people that have experienced narcissistic abuse is to help them “retrieve a faith in themselves that has been taken from them by the narcissistic abuser.” In both NARM and Daniel’s work, the therapist supports the client to raise their awareness of what has become internalized from their childhood abuse, including the vicious ways that these clients often degenerate and belittle themselves throughout their lives. This is a “powerful moment” in the therapeutic process, as the client begins to recognize that they themselves have taken on the role of their abuser through their own self-objectification.

Sarah then turns the conversation to the complexity of narcissism in a family system. Oftentimes, there is not only the traumatic narcissist who is creating relationships of subjectation, but there is also the covert narcissist, who is often the one that is standing by and watching what is unfolding, and not protecting the children from the abuse that is taking place. This person is essentially sacrificing the child to the relationship, which is a form of narcissistic abuse. Though there are common gender dynamics in these family configurations, both Sarah and Daniel are careful to note that these forms of narcissistic abuse are truly ‘gender blind,’ and can happen in any family system.

Daniel describes the healing from these forms of traumatic narcissism he sees when the client is able to look at themselves without judgment, and with compassion for their own experience. This form of self-inquiry is about re-discovering their own relationship to themselves through compassionate understanding. Sarah and Daniel close by discussing the role of the therapist, and how therapists can support the client in this process of self-reflection through being fully attuned and letting them know that we are “in their corner.” If the therapist is able to do this, the therapeutic relationship then becomes a place where the client can begin to feel this unconditional, fully present relationship from another, so that they can begin to feel it for themselves.​"​


How reliable is your memory?


Elizabeth Loftus
TED
September 23, 2013


Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. More precisely, she studies false memories, when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were. It's more common than you might think, and Loftus shares some startling stories and statistics, and raises some important ethical questions we should all remember to consider.

Feb 4, 2022

From a violent French sect to living on the streets of LA to the top of the music charts, pianist Riopy's incredible journey is the epitome of the idea that music can save your life.

France 24
February 3, 2022

Paris (AFP) – From a violent French sect to living on the streets of LA to the top of the music charts, pianist Riopy's incredible journey is the epitome of the idea that music can save your life.

The 38-year-old -- real name Jean-Philippe Rio-Py -- wrote the score for award-winning films "The Shape of Water" and "The Danish Girl", spent three weeks at the top of the US classical charts last month and is streamed by millions around the world via meditation and yoga apps.

But it has been a hard road to success, worthy of a fantastical film.

"I had some bad luck that transformed into an opportunity," he told AFP in Paris.

That is quite an understatement.

The "bad luck" was a sect in the Deux-Sevres region of western France, where he was raised by his mother along with two brothers and two sisters.

He faced beatings and other forms of psychological torment that left their mark in the form of an obsessive compulsive disorder and chronic depression.

The guru who ran the sect banned all music and television but the young Riopy found an abandoned piano and was able to teach himself to play.

"To say that music saved me is a cliche, but it's true," he told AFP.

"They would put me on a chair and tell me: 'Don't move'. It lasted hours and hours. I loved to make up rhythms in my head that I later transferred onto the keyboard."

'The nightmare continued'
Today, Riopy does not like to discuss the details of the sect, but he fled home at 18 and had no contact with his mother for the next 17 years.

He found himself living rough in Paris before heading for Los Angeles -- chasing the American Dream, as he put it.

"But the nightmare continued. I was cleaning toilets in exchange for a bed. I ended up on the streets. A priest tried to rape me."

Giving up on the US, he eventually found himself in Reading, a town outside the British capital, and it was there that his luck finally began to change.

Someone heard him playing in a piano store and offered to pay for his studies on a contemporary music course in Oxford.

From there, he settled in London and began to gig in piano bars.

"My music was so cinematic that it worked well in pubs," he recalled.

A British film producer, Nick Saunders, heard his music online and offered to represent him as his agent.

Soon he was playing in some of the ritziest venues in the city and picking up advertising gigs for the likes of IKEA, Samsung, and an Armani spot that was viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube.

A surreal full circle was achieved one night when he was invited to play at a dinner organised by Vanity Fair and met Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay.

Impressed by his playing, Martin offered to buy him a piano of his own -- a moment that had particular resonance for Riopy.

"When I was 18, before going to LA, I was on the streets of Paris, in the snow. And I was crying and listening to the album 'Parachutes' by Coldplay," he said.

Back from the brink
Although his life seemed to have taken an incredible turn of good fortune, Riopy remained crippled by the demons of his past.

"I was suicidal. I drowned it in alcohol and drugs," he recalled.

Yoga and meditation helped pull him back from the brink and his career continued to blossom.

He has released a trio of successful albums since 2018 and found great success as a composer for films.

His darker moods are more under control and he says he can finally enjoy life.

"I have the chance to live from my music, to have a wife that I love and two little babies, and to be able to share my music with a huge number of people," he said.

© 2022 AFP

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220203-the-pianist-who-escaped-a-sect-and-topped-the-charts