IndoctriNation

CW: physical & sexual assault against youth Sarah Landry first discovered Nithyananda at his Vancouver branch, though much of her story takes place within the master guru's pricey "Life Bliss Engineering" program in India. Seeking enlightenment, his disciples endured traumatic punishments to secure his favor and bring them closer to "completion". Sarah spent 9 years in the...

Vanessa LaRose's father worked extremely hard to hire a Scientology counselor because it was the only other option within the rules of the group that could potentially help her with anxiety and depression. She continues explaining how her experience with auditing-- and training to become an auditor-- has impacted her goals. A third video interview with Vanessa is available this weekend on Patr...

After being disconnected from her Scientologist parents for some time, Vanessa LaRose has decided it's finally time to break ties with the "church". She shares how she found Rachel through an underground network and ironically began to study psychology and therapy after fearing it for so long. Vanessa grew up with some of the top Scientology schooling and businesses. She has agreed to...

Stacey Aviva Flint continues sharing her story about her mission to Kenya with the International Churches of Christ. Her one year trip became two years, as she was forced, unexpectedly, to pay her own way after dropping out of college and living homeless in New York for months. Stacey also shares her experiences with therapy while in the group and after choosing to leave. At one point she encounte...

Kernan Coleman became an activist and critical thinking advocate after losing loved ones who denied the existence of HIV though they were effected. He shares his encounters with celebrities and their belief systems, and how growing up agnostic affected his skepticism as he navigated the world of entertainment. Kernan brings a vivid language to his perspective on anti-vax culture, and discusses oth...

Stephen Kent is currently a professor of religious studies and sociology of religion at the University of Alberta in Canada. He continues with Rachel, voicing his perspective on several current political topics. The conversation picks up in discussing the current protests in Hong Kong, and how religious alignment can play a role in developing a biased infrastructure. They were able to converse on...

Stephen Kent is currently a professor of religious studies and sociology of religion at the University of Alberta in Canada. He shares the knowledge he's acquired over more than thirty years as an academic. Stephen attended University of Maryland in the early seventies and witnessed his campus respond to the Cambodian invasion in protest. Oddly, by the time he came to graduate, he began to not...

Stacey Aviva Flint was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was a spiritual seeker from a young age though her family wasn't tied to a religion. She was approached by a pseudo-Christian cult known as the International Churches of Christ at age 16. The ICOC was run by a man named Kip McKean, and is not affiliated with the mainline Church of Christ. Rachel has memories of the Boston Movement...

When Claudine began to feel that she no longer believed the teachings, she realized that part of Mormon testimony was to avoid "anti-Mormon" literature. Passing up their guilt, Claudine and her husband uncovered original documents and their church's history. Rachel helps Claudine unpack this and other techniques including attributing critical thinking to sin or negative energy. The chu...

After her grandmother passed away, Claudine found peace in her new reality through her faith in Mormonism. Her oldest son, Ian, didn't find the same comfort and began distancing himself from her. When Claudine finally got him to open up, the two went on a journey to better understand their doctrine. Active in the church for 27 years after growing up without associating with a denomination, the...

CW: physical & sexual abuse Left without help from her family and friends, Megan had only her workplace to depend on. In part two, Rachel and Megan talk about how her financial and emotional dependence was taken advantage of by a couple running a popular Chicago theater company. Simultaneously targeted at home and work, Megan found the courage to leave behind an abusive husband and eventually...

CW: Domestic and sexual violence Megan spent ten years in Chicago's off-Loop DIY theatre scene as an actor, playwright, costume designer and choreographer. Rachel and Megan speak candidly about the lack of safeguards in the entertainment industry while walking through how she was pitted against other actresses by an invasive director. Jeremy, the director, urged his actors to form a deep kinsh...

Nitai Joseph was a part of a Hare Krishna offshoot sect called Audarya, led by Swami Tripurari in California. He currently studies the power of coercive control across contexts, and has found a scholarly way to understand his experience. Nitai currently works at nonprofits serving victims of coercive subjugation. Through his studies, he has been able to more fully understand cult dynamics. He spea...

Teddy Hose is a motion graphics artist and writer who grew up in the Unification Church, also known as the “Moonies”. He expands on the militaristic themes of the church, including gun violence and physical abuse. While its membership and businesses run worldwide, the Unification Church doctrine bases itself on parental abandonment, paranoia around sex and the outside world, and prioritizing loyal...

Teddy Hose is a motion graphics artist and writer who grew up in the Unification Church of self-proclaimed messiah, Sun Myung Moon—or the “Moonies”. While its membership and businesses run worldwide, Teddy’s family lived on church properties near the Moon family estate in Tarrytown, New York until he was 13. Life around the Moons was a mix of summer camps, banquets, and close bonds in an internati...

Samantha Manewitz is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and educator, and AASECT certified social worker currently based in Massachusetts. Rachel and Samantha discuss harm reduction and the processes of restorative and transformative justice. Optimistically, survivors forming the pods believe that change is possible for their perpetrators. She elaborates on the transformative justice 'pods'...

Brie Loskota, from the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture, explains 'capacity building' and how it empowers young leaders to advocate for themselves, for their communities, and for community peace building. Brie is a writer widely published and interviewed, with significant roles in many notable religious, public and governmental institutions, and...

Listen in on a discussion with cult expert Mike Kropveld from Quebec, and his organization InfoCult. Quebec has cults too. They just operate in French! Beginning as an effort to rescue a friend from the Unification Church, the knowledge and attention he has gathered over the 40 years of his program continue to spread awareness and resources to their community and to the rest of the world-- includi...

Body language and speech are the tools we need to use to express nuanced feelings. But in Scientology and other groups like it, those who express sadness, grief, or doubt are labeled as strictly negative or troubled and treated as outliers for unsuccessfully suppressing their natural emotions. April returns for part two of her episode; opening up about her brother who is still living in a fog of S...

IndoctriNation presents its first re-release from 10 months ago, when Rachel was joined by Catherine Oxenberg who had been fighting to pull her daughter away from the cult NXIVM. They discuss her book, Captive, and her daughter India's experience during and after leaving the group. Run by Keith Raniere, who was just convicted on all charges on June 19, 2019, the organization was heavily bankro...

April’s former fear of psychology, medication, therapy, and even yoga were ingrained from a young age as she grew up in the Church of Scientology. She was taught to view mental health specialists as people who only wanted to capitalize on other people’s problems, and issue brainwashing medications. Scientology auditing replaced programs that could be helpful, and instead used their power to take a...

This episode, titled after the Alexander Pope quote, is a small component to a deeply thought out response from Chanon Bloch and Rachel. After receiving large amounts of both positive and negative comments, the two respond to the backlash of their first episode (link below) by pointing out that this is precisely how a majority can continue to remain indoctrinated. Using South Africa's aparthei...

CW: racism Chanon Bloch takes our show in a new direction. Growing up in the peak of Apartheid (born 1957), he reflects on his childhood to unravel the embedded racism left behind by colonialism. He details, for the first time on this show, how racism is indoctrinated; through his experience growing up as a white man in South African society, with indentured servants. Dividing his own biases from...

Joey continues telling his story; presenting an internal system that is morally falling apart on itself. He shares details from the intense, intrusive Scientology auditing process. This included a mandatory HIV test -- even though he had no sexual history -- and being forced to read L. Ron Hubbard's deeply prejudiced science fiction novels, among other therapies, as punishment. This group has...

Joey Chait was born into Scientology-- but this belief system did not welcome him as is. Though his parents were high in the ranks and had crossed the "bridge to total freedom", he was interrogated in deliberations 8 hours a day, for two months, because he had shown signs of being gay. His interest in exploring and accepting his sexuality was suppressed; like many children who are finding...