Torn From The Arms of Satan: A True Story of Seduction and Escape from A Contemporary New Age Cult
Author: Judith L. Carlone, Elizabeth R. Burchard
List Price: $14.95
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ISBN: 188137405X
Publisher: Ace Academics Inc (September, 1999)
Sales Rank: 220,001
Average Customer Rating: 4.53 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Insightful, Thougt provoking, and Fascinating
Many personal experiences told by former cult members are written in a simplistic fashion. They describe their life in the cult as a living Hell and express gratitude that they are out, but they do not describe their struggles, their ambivalences and their confusion. Their stories are interesting from the point of view of learning about the beliefs of the cult, but they do not offer insight into the human condition. This book does offer those insights. Most of the narrative is written by Ms. Burchard, who was innocently unwary of a manipulative sociopathic cult leader who could seduce people, exploit them, and discard them with no sense of the fact that he was destroying people's lives. Ms. Burchard's explanation of her entry into the cult, her life within it, and her subsequent leave taking is honest, self-revealing and complex. Outsiders can easily see that the group members' beliefs are bizarre and absurd. Ms. Burchard helps us to comprehend how an intelligent, insightful and well read individual could be manipulated into accepting those beliefs. Her long struggle to leave and her initial reluctance to give up those beliefs, even after she knew they were false, help us to understand the complexity of mind control and manipulation. Ms. Carlone's struggle was not to come to grips with the truth or falsity of the leader's claims. She was not caught up in the cult leader's web and could clearly see the absurdity of the group's beliefs. Her problem was how to convey that insight to Ms. Burchard without alienating her. Ms. Carlone's dilemma is that which is faced every day by family members and friends of cult members. Her consistent, loving approach to helping her friend realize that she was in a destructive situation is a blueprint that others can learn from and emulate. This book is not about dangerous minds still in dark places. It is about normal human beings caught up in a hurricane of manipulation and exploitation. Any of us, under the proper set of circumstances, could get caught in a cult. This book helps us to understand how that could happen. It is insightful and thought-provoking. The fact that it is also fascinating is a tribute to the story-telling skills of the authors.
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Power of Love
"Torn From the Arms of Satan" is a mindboggling book that demonstrates how the power of love can make a difference in the world we live in today. It is a wake up call to the reality of deception and extreme emotional and spiritual abuse. If you have a heart that can feel the depths of pain, the joy of friendship and the faith to put your life on the line for another human being, then you owe it to yourself, your family and to God to read this compelling true story. This book is a joint account of a tapestry of lives woven together in an evil cult that took away every fiber of human decency, with the intent to destroy the life of a brilliant young girl through brainwashing, greed and total decadence. The courage and comittment to rescue and restore the victim came from a formidable foe whose fearless faith would not deny her the victory.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A comment to "Dangerous Minds still in dark places"
First of all, this is not a self help book. It is an autobiographical account of a woman who was trapped for 19 years in a therapy cult. This book is not "slim on facts"; it is filled with facts - even complicated and painful emotional issues are described objectively. I found the authors passionate in their delivery. They were eloquent and successful in conveying to the reader the covert manipulations, hidden agendas and faulty logic of the cult leader. Contrary to your assertion, the co-author was never involved in the group's activities, she helped her escape. I found myself feeling "rage at injustice" for the woman who was trapped and cheered every time she broke another bar of the jail he created for her. This book shows a woman's courage to climb out of an emotional hell-hole by confronting every contradiction to her doctrine. Being sexually exploited, losing over $200,000.00 to a lie and throwing away all of those years would make anyone angry, however, I didn't feel any attitudes of revenge coming from the authors. Anger is a normal stage that a victim passes through before they let it go. The tone of your review has shown people who understand how ignorant and compassionless you really are. Similar Products
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