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Citiya because sometimes existing is exhausting.

My name is Anthony Padilla,

and today I'll be spending a day with Calvin,

an ex-cult member, to learn the truth about being born into a cult alongside his 44 siblings,

the terrifying red flags that he started noticing, and what it took to actually escape this cult.

By the end of this video, we'll find out if it's easy to reprogram your brain after decades of severe brainwashing

or if the process of shattering one's entire perception of the world is outright devastating

or even torturous.

Hello Calvin! Brother, so happy to be here, love what you've done with the place.

I feel like most people are sympathetic for people who have been inside a cults, but they feel like there is no way I could ever find myself within a cult.

Do you think that that sentiment is true?

Saying, how could anybody ever join a cult

is like saying, how could anyone ever get in a toxic relationship?

Nobody signed up to be in a toxic relationship.

That's something that I think is missed a lot of times is to me the idea of

cult is on a spectrum and it can shift.

It's not until you can remove yourself from it

just enough to look at it and be like,

holy shit, that's not what I want. What was the name of the cult that you were a part of and what were the core fundamental beliefs?

A lot of people have heard of Mormonism.

...