How To Survive a Doomsday Cult

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael grew up terrified that the world was going to end. This wasn't your typical childhood anxiety, but something he was taught while being raised in the Children of God cult. Michael left the cult years ago, but now in his 30s he's struggling to heal the scars it left on his parents and 11 siblings. How do you go on living when the world doesn't actually come to an end? On this episode of How To!, we bring on Rebecca Stott, author of In the Days of Rain, a memoir about her childhood in a cult called the Exclusive Brethren. "Whenever I have an interview like this, I can feel the frog in my throat," Rebecca tells us. "It's like there's something still censoring me...in my own head." Rebecca knows what it's like to feel ashamed of her childhood, but she's also learned to find what was useful in her experience and apply it to her life today. She says Michael can do the same thing by opening himself up to his loved ones and in future relationships.

If you liked this episode, check out "How To Forgive the Unforgivable."

Do you have an unusual problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

Transcript

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0:30.2	You know, I knew that we weren't allowed to have radio, television, cinema, because Satan was
0:35.3	in all of those things. That's what they told us. So I remember the day
0:39.5	when my father brought home a television. I remember the day that the radios were installed.
0:46.3	You know, like nobody sat down with us and said, hey, you know, we told you that Satan was in
0:51.8	the radio and in the television set, well, we were wrong.
0:55.3	So in the logic of my head, my parents had gone to the dark side.
1:01.5	Welcome to how to. I'm David Epstein. Have you ever heard the phrase drinking the Kool-Aid?
1:08.7	Maybe you've used it yourself to describe someone who fully and uncritically
1:12.5	believes something that you don't. The phrase actually comes from an infamous cult called the
1:17.3	People's Temple, and its leader Jim Jones. About 40 years ago, more than 900 members died
1:23.9	after Jones coerced them into drinking a grape-flavored beverage laced with poison.
1:29.3	They were found simply buried under other bodies.
1:34.3	There were larger adults, they were grouped together, and under their bodies were found the bodies of smaller adults and children.
1:45.0	The Jonestown saga is obviously extreme.
1:48.0	Most members of cults survive.
1:50.0	They even get out in many cases.
1:52.0	But what do they do then?
	...

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