Documentary: Leaving a cult behind – The hard road back to life

Breaking free from the clutches of a cult or a cultish religious movement is a long and painful process. So far, it’s one that has largely gone undocumented. Few people talk about the years of struggle — and relapses – breaking free entails.

This documentary about leaving cultish religious movements behind illustrates how powerful the conditioning is — and how deeply dependent it makes its victims. How is it possible to renounce one’s own identity and « reprogram” the brain? Nicolas has been exposed to this influence since birth: his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses. At the age of 22, he managed to break away from the Jehovah’s Witnesses – but he had to cut off contact with his family. Julie was 31 and Yohann 20 when they both fell into the clutches of the French « Université de la relation” movement during what purported to be an ‘internship in the field of personal development’. David and François became « warriors of light” after they trained in kung fu at the Parc de la Villette in Paris — and stuck with it for 10 years. They describe insidious manipulation and talk about how they were completely sucked into a parallel world. The film’s moving accounts of cult dropouts and their long journeys back to a normal life are supplemented by insights into the work of a French police unit specializing in new religious movements.

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