geoffrey falk wrote:Leaving Cult, Need Money?
One of the primary impediments to leaving a cult, even for persons who have already realized the detrimental effect of their continued residence there, is the lack of money and job prospects facing one in leaving that environment.
One may, quite literally, go from living in a psychological prison to living in a shelter; or, in the hope of avoiding that fate, sign an agreement constraining one from speaking against the destructive spiritual organization, in exchange for just a few hundred dollars.
I never had to sign any agreement with the BKs to keep quiet ... that must be pretty obvious. I don't know of anyone who had to but we were told the founders of the previous xBKChat forum were frightened into some kind of agreement to silence them and close the forum down. There is a copy of it, here. Although I do wonder if any ex-BKs have kept silent because of the dirt the BKWSU keeps or knows about them from "confessions" made to senior Sisters, and so on?
However ... I can agree with the above on the money side and know many who were left in a similar situation. Rather than saving up, paying a mortgage on a home and looking after myself, I gave all my extra free labor to build up the BKs' business and what little extra money I had too.
Not only did I have nothing when I left, no savings, no qualifications, no real career, no nothing outside of the cult ... my leaving was delayed simply because I did not have the money to do so. I had left inside a sometime before.
The period between when the internal changed had happened, and my final physical departure, was horrible. I so regret getting involved. When the bubble burst you start to see all the ugliness and most of all the neediness and manipulation. The BKs defend against this by preparing adherents by warning about "seeds of Maya" being planted and "souls being eaten by Maya" etc ... but, in truth, it is the BK world that is the Maya. By leaving, you are escaping it.
I hear they pay more attention to exiting BKs in the West now, so as not to have them turn upon them but I wonder how it is in India and for Sisters, for whom I suspect it is impossible to leave?
The BKs should set up a financial trust to assist any surrendered individual leave and find their way in the real world, e.g. enough to rent a place to stay and find their feet, some counselling even (although not in-house).