'Holy Hell' is a very personal documentary about a small cult in the USA and Hawaii called
The Buddhafield.
It highlights the social interplay that happens between highly codependent people who are willing to give pathological narcissists the constant adoration attention they need, and who depend upon him as the source of their self-esteem.
The film maker notes there is a simple mechanism that upon seeing other people devoted, people who appear otherwise rational or attractive, that encourages us to becoming devoted.
In this case, Michel - the "guru" himself, the film maker, and many of the followers were homosexual males and this is reflected in both the cult, the documentary ... and the type of sex abuse that ultimately happened. I suspect many BKs/ex-BKs will find that element and the degree of "body-consciousness" uncomfortable ...
The "guru" figure turned out to be an failed actor/ex-gay porn star and much of the symbolism is as camp as heck, and it seems llike only "beautiful people" were encouraged to join.
However, as ever, what is most remarkable about it ... is how similar the dynamics are (again, and again, and again).
It is as if whatever your needs are, there's a group and a leader out there to match and exploit them ...
only in California, even cult devotees have to have perfect white teeth.
Perhaps the most touching part is in the final minutes when an advertisement the film maker made for the group when he was an adherent is overlaid with notifications of who left and who stayed; and the personal stories they tell of regaining control of their lives after leaving, and how the post cult or exiting experience ultimately enriched their lives.
The adherents, all shown in whites and "full Godly ecstacy" mode during their cult days ...
just as we might have done ... have pretty much now all left.
The guru himself did not reform but just -
as with Lekhraj Kirpalani and the BKs - changed his name and changed his location and started up again with a small core group and the same dynamics.
The paradox being that it was the allegedly enlightened one who was stuck and could not change.
The group became established where the Brahma Kumaris started their expansion into the USA ... San Antonio, Texas.