Spiritual Cult

Shortly after turning up the light, I heard a male voice I didn't recognize say, you are for him. It sounded like the person who said it was standing at the end of my bed. First, I froze. Then I reached over and flipped on the light and tore off my eyemask. No one was there.

You've entered into the world of alternate realities. Here, paradigms are shifted, minds are blown, and mills are lifted. Actual supernatural experiences are brought to life through storytelling by the people who experience them. Welcome to Adventures in mysticism with Leah Grant, where the esoteric is explored and consciousness is expanded. Visit adventuresinmysticism.com to further your spiritual development through layers, latest offerings. And now we continue with this episode's mystical adventure.

During a verbally abusive relationship, I felt trapped in because the guy didn't become a ranger until after we purchased a home together. I put on weight. I'm embarrassed to say I allowed myself to gain almost 100 pounds in the year I stayed with him. Psychologically, I'm sure it was because I didn't feel safe. Logically, it was because we ate out almost every night, and we weren't choosing the healthiest options. Once I got out of that relationship, I went back to my healthy eating habits and back to yoga and exercise. 60 pounds easily melted off in about five months. Then I spent three months stuck. I tried juice cleanses, fasting, boot camps saunas, but the wait wasn't budging. Around the same time, I realized how far away from my spiritual practices I had strayed, being with that man. As things often happen, a solution to both of my problems presented itself in the form of a spiritual weight loss program brought to my attention via an endorsement from a friend of a friend in a Facebook post. I reached out to the success story and after a brief conversation signed up for the next program taking place the following week. At the three day weekend, I was welcomed into the conference room at a hotel by many women who are having success with the program and came back every time it was offered. We were all instructed to settle into our seats and being new. I was sat in the front row. The teacher Walt's stin, wearing all white linen clothing. He was tall with dark hair, and I suppose most would consider him handsome. When he spoke his Italian accent was apparent. he flirted with the entire room with his movements. And I was initially pretty turned off. The last thing I needed was some pompous European dude telling me my thighs were too fat. But here I was front and center. So I kept listening. He shared his own body journey more with being unfit versus extremely cut, as opposed to being overweight. Yet he still seemed to understand the body dysmorphia, the shame and the frustration that accompany the struggle to feel great in your skin. His empathy for what we were dealing with seemed genuine. And he was definitely devoted to God. Or at least his words indicated that on the first break, he sidled up next to me, making sure I felt his presence, leaned in a little closer and asked, Do you know who I am? He asked it in the tone of voice that indicated I should know the answer to the question. I felt like the answer. Jesus was pushed into my head. I stepped back from him, threw up an energetic protection field and said no. Did we meet at a networking event somewhere. His green eyes bore into mind searching. I stared back at him, keeping my expression blank. I could always tell when someone was trying to read me. And I knew how to keep that from happening. Not sure how I knew I just did. Another participant approached interrupting the exchange, and I took the opportunity to escape. After the break, everything seemed normal. There weren't any more odd exchanges. And I have this look that people think they've met me before. So I figured the teacher just thought I was someone else. The workshop took place at a hotel in town, so I was staying on site. Since I didn't know anyone. I had my own room. Shortly after turning out the light, I heard a male voice I didn't recognize say, you are for him.

It sounded like the person who said it was standing at the end of my bed. First, I froze that I reached over and flipped on the light and tore off my eyemask no one was there. I got up. The door was bolted with the security chain in place. I checked anywhere in the rooms someone could be hiding, but found no one. I crawl back in bed confused as to who had delivered me that message. Why? And what did it even mean? The remainder of the weekend was normal, meaning there were some lectures and some exercises. And at the end, I was thrilled to have released three pounds over the three days breaking my plateau. So when the teacher shared his spiritual development workshops, I happily signed up for the next one. I figured that sense what he did in the spiritual weight loss seminar got results, then getting some straight up spiritual guidance from Him might be beneficial too. And it was just not in the way I thought it would be. The next event was a three day spiritual only event and it had three times the attendees of the weight loss one. His male students were much more front and center in welcoming the attendees to this event, two thirds of whom were women, presumably from former spiritual weight loss classes and girlfriends of the male students. This workshop was much more energetic. The sales technique of seating was very effectively used. He dropped many intriguing yet incomplete details of his paid events. And during break, his current students gave rave reviews. There was nothing supernatural about this event, nor did anything occur like the voice in my room. One thing I did notice at both events, though, was how many of the women fond over the teacher. He seemed to both encourage them and hold them at arm's length was interesting to watch. I was already ripe for wanting spiritual guidance and hadn't had a spiritual community for quite some time. So I was an easy sale and sign up for the next week long retreat. Little did I know, I was being groomed to be part of a cult. As I got to know more of the girls better who were regulars, I realized how many of them had severe crushes on the teacher. I would later find out how many of them that teacher had been getting intimate with. While proclaiming publicly he was celibate and waiting for who God told him to be with. I am grateful I was not lured into that aspect of the web. But that doesn't mean I escaped the craziness of it. The teacher nicknamed me Lotus. This ruffled the feathers of at least two of the girls who took this to mean that the teacher had chosen me as being somehow special. The teacher would always say that women were flowers. But I was the only woman as I recall that he gave the name of a flower to this was all part of the psychological games he would play to keep most of the women at odds with one another. Looking back, lots of the psychological games were played that would pit people against one another setup levels of access to the teacher based on if you were behaving properly and constantly calls, events and retreats to keep you engaged with the community and feeling like you needed to be present to get the best perks, which could include things like invitations to private events at the teachers house, the best room placement at the retreat, hotels, and other little things. What was fascinating is that the teacher addressed his following as being called a cult, by not denying it, but by instead owning it. And reminding us that the definition of a call to any group that had the same beliefs, so therefore churches were called and other community groups or cults, so there was no reason to demonize them. presented in the context of his other training. This seemed like a reasonable explanation at the time. It definitely doesn't now.

Despite how convoluted his relationships were and how he ran the group, I was feeling more aware, more open to my spiritual nature, and more in touch with my connection to the divine. So I stayed. What happened that caused me to pull away were some unnerving supernatural experiences. The first occurred when coming home from a retreat of his most of the retreats were held in the middle of nowhere at centers in South America, getting home and taking a van or a small bus several hours to the airport. The final day of this retreat, it had rained a fair amount, making the dirt and rock roads very soft. The van taking us to the airport was able to get up to the retreat center, and those of us who were leaving that night were all packed in and ready to go. However, the van was having difficulty turning around to get out and it began sliding down the back of a hill. The teacher appeared and with superhuman strength and within the blink of an eye moved the van so that it was no longer slipping and was safely facing downhill. None of my fellow attendees seem to notice this. When one of the girls insisted on opening the van door to give the teacher a last hug, I locked eyes with him mentally telling him I knew what he did. He just smoked. The following retreat, the teacher had been doing a particularly intense emotional healing session for one of the participants in front of the room. Throughout the healing, I kept seeing the teachers face shape shift into what looked like a reptiles face. On the break, I approached the teacher and shared what I had seen. He stared at me for a moment then asked me to describe what I saw. To which I said your face morphed into scales and your eyes changed to have yellow slips. It looked as if your face was kind of reptilian. What is in you. He put his hands on my shoulders and squared my body to his looking me in the eyes and pressing his right finger deeply into that area above the clavicle bone. He said I have it under control. The pressing of the finger thing was something he did frequently not sure what its purpose was. But in NLP, we use that to place anchors, another sign of manipulation and control. After that retreat, things began to unravel within the group. Some of the women found out the teacher was doing things with other women, his devoted assistant quit. I left the group feeling like he did not have control over whatever was within him. And I felt that he was naive to think he did. Unless that in fact was his true self. I'll likely never know. The teacher passed away about a year after I left the group and without his influence everyone just scattered to live their lives. Now that I've had this experience, I honestly do not think that most people know they are joining a cult when they do. There was something I was seeking. And because of that I was easily seduced into the fold. I was focused on making news building relationships and having new amazing experiences. I was so focused on these things that I missed what was really going on. I'm still friends with many of the people I met through that experience. We went through a lot of soul searching, discerning, confusion, and even fun times together, so deep bonds were formed. Creating or joining a deeply spiritual community is still something I'd like to do.

Thank you for listening. This is the last episode of season one of adventures in mysticism, but definitely not the last of my stories. Those will return in season three. Next episode begins season two, which is where I'll be interviewing others about their adventures and mysticism. For most guests, they will have never shared these experiences before. Until then, remember that your spiritual journey is a supernatural adventure in and of itself. Enjoy the unfolding and embrace the unknown.