How To Identify a Cult • Former Cult Member Speaks

It is difficult to leave an organization which could potentially be classified as a cult. It may even be difficult after you've left it because usually part of the cult-model is to distort your reality and perceptions of feelings and experiences you've had, making you doubt and question if you are on the wrong side of the picture, as usually the cult members and leader try to make you feel like you made the whole experience up and have no legitimacy to feel or express the way you do. That's why it is sometimes valuable to employ tools developed by experts to better understand your experience.

In this video I go over the famous BITE model of identifying destructive cult behavior and compare it to my experience and personal examples of being a part of an organization that I now personally consider a cult, going over arguments using the model created by Steven Hassan as reference to establish confidence in my experience and a conclusion in order to continue moving forward in my life.

It is also my hope that other people who have went through a similar experience or are going through a similar experience will find this personal exploration in reference to the BITE model useful and will discover themselves a valuable tool to help them better understand and justify their own experience.

In the episodes of "Former Cult Member Speaks" I reflect about my experience of being a part of an organization which I later came to a conclusion that it can be defined as a cult. From being a long time student, to becoming a top member and later leader of my own related community - to eventually becoming disillusioned and leaving the organization and exploring the effects that it had on me. You'll find it all in this series.

Here is my rant describing the dark sides of what I saw spending time with spiritual teachers and eventually becoming one myself: youtu.be/aRjmP64W1uY

In this video I describe how most of my martial arts students left me when I stopped being spiritual leader and tried to be more human: youtu.be/kLMD8RHk0h4

Listen to a talk with Cognitive Behavioral therapist Lynda Heffernan on understanding cults: youtu.be/43DPeJSWq8I

#TheJourney #QuestioningSpirituality #Cults