Hi everyone, welcome to this special bonus episode of Pink Shade, in which I was fortunate

enough to talk to James Luroo about his experiences as a cult member for 14 years.

James was a member of the Church of Bible Understanding, the Koboo, for 14 years before

finally leaving in the 90s. James is an artist and author now and he's written two books about

his experiences in Koboo. The first is entitled Captive Congregation and the second is the Tangled

Web. Both are available on Amazon. Check the show notes for links to these books and to his

website and his Facebook forum on Koboo Stories from hundreds of ex-members and families. And you

can even take a peek at his artwork if you go to JamesLurooEllustrations.com and I'm going to

include that link in the show notes as well. As a reminder, the Koboo is the same cult my parents

remembers of in the 70s and the cult I was born into. We left before I was four years old but I

do remember a lot about it as a child. In our time together, Jim told me what life was like for him

in the Koboo as an adult starting in his younger 20s how Stuart changed over time and became more

controlling over the years. And when I say Stuart, I'm referring to Stuart Trail, the leader of the

Koboo who's still alive to this day and has a very few members still hanging on. James talks about

what finally led to him leaving the group for good and we also get into the idea of total institutions.

It's a concept applied by cults throughout history and it's a very clever framework that makes it

really quite difficult and sometimes virtually impossible for members to escape a cult.

This conversation is so interesting because James is not only an ex-member so he has the direct

perspective of what it's like to be in a cult and come to the stark realization that you are

indeed in one but he has studied it since then and he really understands the psychology behind it.

Before we launch into our discussion, I'm going to just give you a quick reminder to follow me on

Instagram and Twitter at Erin Lea Martin and to join my private Facebook page, Pink Shade with

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