This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from this youngian life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture.

We hope our work will bring insight, compassion, and understanding to the darker side of human experience.

In that spirit, we meet Sarah, a mother whose daughter was rescued from the self-harm cult called 764.

This dangerous group has been identified by the FBI who continue to prosecute their leaders.

Despite those efforts, it continues and targets children.

We explore how she discovered her daughter's entrapment, the process of recovery, the growing danger of these types of groups, and the toll it has taken on her.

Sarah's ongoing work investigating these cults requires that we protect her identity.

We are using a pseudonym, altering her voice, and obscuring her face.

So I'd like to introduce Sarah, whose daughter was drawn into this frightening 764 group,

who was put at great risk, and Sarah has gone to great lengths to help and save her daughter.

Sarah, why don't you orient us to the story? What happened? We thought at the time that this saga

began a little over two years ago, I got a call at the end of the day from my daughter's school.

She was 11 years old and in sixth grade at the time.

And I was told that she had carved a word into her wrist and that they were calling the cat team, which is a mental health fast, quick responding team.

Really, it's the police department that takes you to a psych ward,

to be honest.

Yes.

And the night before, we had all gotten into an argument about her iPad.

We had taken that away because her grades were not performing, and she was just, you know,

not turning in assignments and doing very poorly.

And she was really upset about having lost the iPad.

And so the next day, the school guidance counselor told us that she had carved a word into her wrist

...