Nobody thinks they're joining a cult.

People in cults don't know they're in cults, and my parents thought they were in a non-violent

drug rehabilitation society, which is kind of how it started.

It was just trying to get addicts clean, and it did a pretty good job between that and

saved a lot of people's lives first.

That's Michele Jolay, reflecting on his unique and complicated childhood.

But then you isolate people, and you start getting groupthink going, and then it's kind

of like this quirk of human psychology that they tend to line up behind very often in

our statistic and abusive man, and that's what happened in our case.

I'm Danny Shapiro, and welcome to the new season of Family Secrets.

I can't wait to share ten astonishing news stories with you.

Stories of resilience, memory, and the way in which long-held family secrets so often

need to come out.

Coming to season nine, which drops on Thursday, November 9th.

Here's Susan Kioito, recalling the risks she took to crack the code of her identity.

I said to the receptionist, I just need to get something from my car, I'll be right back,

and I raced walked out to my car and threw it in the seat and just drove off as fast as

I could, and that was how I got those records, which had my birth mother's name.

I was like, I'm like breaking the law, what am I doing here?

Is this a crime?

Am I going to jail for this?

What did I do?

...