78 Ex-Cult Members Share The Strangest Things They Were Expected To Do And Believe

In mine, women could hold power, but no authority over a man. If she needed to ‘establish order’ over a man, she had to find a man to tell him what to do. Men weren’t allowed to be alone with any number of women, so usually travelled in pairs (Jesus sent them out in pairs).

Tried to give me a home exorcism. (Turns out I’m actually just schizophrenic. Exorcism did not work).

Vilifying rock 'n roll... I put my shoes in the dryer after a Summer rainstorm and one of the reception desk boys walked into the laundry room on my floor saying, "Oh, I thought I heard a bit of rock music playing." He was totally gonna snitch if he caught me.

My turn; that a little Filipino dude is the Messiah & Christmas was evil, Halloween is evil, Easter is evil, having questions during bible study is evil, stating that their message is a contradiction & blasphemous is evil. Therefore, I ofc was evil. I was 12.

Laying hands on and praying for a car that was broken down.

Parenting books that taught "blanket training", where you put your infant on a blanket and then smack them with a switch if they try to crawl off.

Needing a special secret name and knowing special secret handshakes to get into the highest level of heaven (because there's more than 1 level, duh).

Fasting (no food or drink for 24 hours) at 7 years old.

As a former Mormon, I was told that drinking coffee was a direct violation to my salvation and would prevent me from being a god in the next life and creating my own planet.

Not saying "awesome" because it was a word that was hijacked by satan to make god seem less awesome.

I was once locked in a room with other preteen girls while a middle aged angry man “taught” us about virginity. The lesson was him crumbling up a dollar, stepping on it, then compared us to that dollar. The aunties that should’ve been protecting us cheered him on.

Acting like men were/are better than women in literally any way, forgiving grown men who groom/a*****t children while telling said children they now need to earn forgiveness for tempting the a****r, basically everything to do with Christian nationalism.

Being shamed for not harassing enough strangers is tied with having to confess whenever you cranked one out
I also donated plasma for a “special missions contribution” only to find out it went to pay off our lead ministers credit card debt, and everyone was like “well, how can he fully give himself to the mission with all that credit card debt??”
I didn’t leave until I had kids and realized I would have to raise them to be ok with all that too…

Being told the pastor’s wife’s fibromyalgia was a result of the congregation’s sin. Told as if it were a word of prophecy.

Buying cooking wine for a recipe but pouring it out after using it once so you weren't tempted to drink it.
Also "flirty fishing".

The Elders having unchaperoned "counselling" meetings with young girls to browbeat them over how they were a disappointment to God and needed to be more docile.

Standing in a room all together as a huge group & chanting words that we didn’t even know the meaning of like we were doing the most important work in the world.
And being given top secret personal chants by our guru that no one else could know.
And everyone had to wear a sword necklace. I still don’t know to this day what the heck was going on there. Just glad I left.

The shame. Grown adults who couldn’t make an autonomous decision lest the leader disagree or call it sinful. I’m gonna add to this by saying it’s WILD how people felt so much shame for existing, and children became hyper self critical adults who burnt out faster than a candle made of kindling.

My sister had her very first seizure ever-she was 7. We were all sitting in our chairs playing our flutophones
Her hand stopped being able to hold on and shot up in the air, trembling,her face was blank, and our band teacher, an elder in the cult leaped over the rows of as we all stood up,concerned. And put his on her head and starting shouting about casting the demons from her. I watched in horror. And my mom stood there praying loudly instead of stopping him and taking her to the hospital.

I don’t even know how to describe this but I’ll try: having an evening where the lights were turned off and everyone screamed and cried as loud as they could, punching pillows and screaming at their parents (the pillow represents the parent), while people are vomiting around them in the dark.