The question comes to me more than any other, from people who got out and from families who watched someone go in. It is always some version of the same sentence.
How did this happen?
No two recruitment efforts run on the same schedule. Some take a weekend and some take five years. However, let’s explore how it can happen to you, assembled out of hundreds of accounts I have heard over the decades.
Day 1. You Have No Idea
You would never join a cult.
Day 2. You’ve made a new friend
You meet a new woman (or man) in the elevator, coming down from your new job. You’ve just moved to the city to pursue a great new opportunity, and while you’re excited about all of the possibilities, the move has left you feeling a bit lonely.
When the kind looking person points out the wellness book you’re carrying, one you bought on a whim to drown out your moving blues as “a great book”, you agree, it’s a great read. She introduces herself as Sue, and she’s forward and confident when she asks, since you’re new in town, if you’d like to attend a local weekend wellness retreat with her.
“I work right here in the same building,” she adds, brightly.
What the hell, why not? you think, exchanging phone numbers with her. The city is about new adventures, you tell yourself. When you get home, you feel happy. You spend the night reading the rest of the book.
You would never join a cult.