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Cult Escape
Cult Escape. It is the personal story of a boy born into a tyrannical religious Exclusive Brethren cult in England in the 1960s, and the tormenting journey of planning the escape to eventual freedom. The price of freedom was to be cut off from all his friends and family who were forbidden from having any contact with him.
Now, after escaping, what does a 22 year old boy, who had been hidden in a box like a coiled spring do, when suddenly he finds he can explore all his fantasies with no religious restraint? Like the proverbial kid in the sweetshop, he goes wild. He loses his virginity within days, goes evil by buying the forbidden TV, radio, video and ‘fills his boots’ experimenting with the ‘big bad world’. That boy was me.
Cult Escape has three sections; IN, OUT and SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT. The story starts with being born into the cult, the lifestyle, the rules, the coercion, the confessions, the disciplining, and the separation from the evil world.
The IN chapters cover how it felt having to grow up in a strict religious cult, the laws we were all under, the difficulties of school life, the challenges of work life, and the coping mechanisms for ‘us young ones’ during the excruciating boredom of yes, eleven meetings every single week! One of my distractions was, believe it or not; I ate myself. I still have the scars. In that particular chapter called Funny Memories...;
"Such was the dry monotony for most of us young ones, we were always on the lookout for anything to break the boredom. The following are a few memories and funnies of such happenings, which though may sound ridiculously insignificant to you, were some of the highlights of our life of conformity, restrictions, rules and regulations."
Here you will read about Sandy Huckley’s buns, the fate of all those who watched Charles marry Diana, the passage we could look up and the Yawn Show. Yes, all weird stuff, the things intelligent people can get up to when they allow a man they call The Universal Leader to control their hair length, their shaving habits, their house drains and convince them it would be wicked to have a cup of tea with their neighbour.
The OUT chapters describe the new and exciting world I was now free to explore, how my head got free from the cult indoctrination, how my beliefs changed and three major healing experiences that I hope will help many who read this book.
The controversial SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT chapters examine serious issues that seek to position religious controlling cults under the scrutiny of the public eye. Though religious cults are legal, how does society really feel about the splitting up of families, coercive indoctrination and brainwashing? What actually defines a cult? Why do they all believe they are the ‘right’ church? How can a person successfully leave a cult, even if they were born into it? Can anything be done to stop the control and abuse that goes on today? I believe that there is something the government can do and I make a legislation proposal in the penultimate chapter called The Religious Warning. Finally, the Conclusion which I offer for due consideration. In the words of Paul McCartney, ‘There must be an answer, Let It Be’.
Cult Escape is more than a book. It is also a campaign with an online resource at
www.cult-escape.com The strap line is:
Inspiring courage and hope for anyone who seeks freedom from religious control.
The aim of the campaign is to help those wanting to escape their entrapment, encourage those wounded and harmed by cults to pursue healing, to warn society about the dangers of what can happen to their family should they join a cult, and to show that love is more powerful than control. The book will be sold from this site where anyone can also access information about cults, watch videos, read testimonies and contact help organisations all around the world. Cult fascination is worldwide and is growing with new documentaries being released regularly and more and more ex members coming out with their stories.
What will be the next big cult story to hit the news? A friend of mine once testified in court that the cult he had been a member of had not informed him of his mother’s death, till three months after she was buried. The judge put his head in his hands and shook his head in disbelief. Something needs to be done about this. I’m getting on with it.
Kind Regards
John Spinks
Now, after escaping, what does a 22 year old boy, who had been hidden in a box like a coiled spring do, when suddenly he finds he can explore all his fantasies with no religious restraint? Like the proverbial kid in the sweetshop, he goes wild. He loses his virginity within days, goes evil by buying the forbidden TV, radio, video and ‘fills his boots’ experimenting with the ‘big bad world’. That boy was me.
Cult Escape has three sections; IN, OUT and SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT. The story starts with being born into the cult, the lifestyle, the rules, the coercion, the confessions, the disciplining, and the separation from the evil world.
The IN chapters cover how it felt having to grow up in a strict religious cult, the laws we were all under, the difficulties of school life, the challenges of work life, and the coping mechanisms for ‘us young ones’ during the excruciating boredom of yes, eleven meetings every single week! One of my distractions was, believe it or not; I ate myself. I still have the scars. In that particular chapter called Funny Memories...;
"Such was the dry monotony for most of us young ones, we were always on the lookout for anything to break the boredom. The following are a few memories and funnies of such happenings, which though may sound ridiculously insignificant to you, were some of the highlights of our life of conformity, restrictions, rules and regulations."
Here you will read about Sandy Huckley’s buns, the fate of all those who watched Charles marry Diana, the passage we could look up and the Yawn Show. Yes, all weird stuff, the things intelligent people can get up to when they allow a man they call The Universal Leader to control their hair length, their shaving habits, their house drains and convince them it would be wicked to have a cup of tea with their neighbour.
The OUT chapters describe the new and exciting world I was now free to explore, how my head got free from the cult indoctrination, how my beliefs changed and three major healing experiences that I hope will help many who read this book.
The controversial SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT chapters examine serious issues that seek to position religious controlling cults under the scrutiny of the public eye. Though religious cults are legal, how does society really feel about the splitting up of families, coercive indoctrination and brainwashing? What actually defines a cult? Why do they all believe they are the ‘right’ church? How can a person successfully leave a cult, even if they were born into it? Can anything be done to stop the control and abuse that goes on today? I believe that there is something the government can do and I make a legislation proposal in the penultimate chapter called The Religious Warning. Finally, the Conclusion which I offer for due consideration. In the words of Paul McCartney, ‘There must be an answer, Let It Be’.
Cult Escape is more than a book. It is also a campaign with an online resource at
www.cult-escape.com The strap line is:
Inspiring courage and hope for anyone who seeks freedom from religious control.
The aim of the campaign is to help those wanting to escape their entrapment, encourage those wounded and harmed by cults to pursue healing, to warn society about the dangers of what can happen to their family should they join a cult, and to show that love is more powerful than control. The book will be sold from this site where anyone can also access information about cults, watch videos, read testimonies and contact help organisations all around the world. Cult fascination is worldwide and is growing with new documentaries being released regularly and more and more ex members coming out with their stories.
What will be the next big cult story to hit the news? A friend of mine once testified in court that the cult he had been a member of had not informed him of his mother’s death, till three months after she was buried. The judge put his head in his hands and shook his head in disbelief. Something needs to be done about this. I’m getting on with it.
Kind Regards
John Spinks
303 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2019
43 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 16, 2020
A fascinating and helpful read for anyone who grew up in a cult. ( or is in one now) Well written. Real, raw and funny. Having grown up in the same cult as John I read it with great interest and he really captures what The Exclusive Brethren are and how overwhelming their mind control is. The fear of leaving and the grief of never being allowed to see family and friends again. He writes with such love and concern for all tied up in cults and his own struggles to leave.
February 19, 2020
Fascinating
I was fascinated reading John Spines’ memoir that recounted his experience growing up in and leaving the Exclusive Brethren cult.
I was fascinated reading John Spines’ memoir that recounted his experience growing up in and leaving the Exclusive Brethren cult.
January 2, 2021
This is the story of a young man leaving the Exclusive Brethren. The exclusive Brethren are a closed evangelical Protestant group, which severely limited the contact between group members and non-group members. The author notes that even having tea with a non-group member was considered sinful.
As well as restrictions like that, there were ever-changing rules imposed by the group leader. Every time that the rules reversed, the group was told that ‘God has turned a corner.’ If anyone stepped out of line they could be excluded from the group and never again have contact with family members.
One of the most damaging details which the author cites is the percentage of families split up by the EB. Some 73% of the people he knew in the group were members of families which had at least one person banned, and so they were unable to ever get together as a whole family (Kindle 60%). When he compares this to the 0% of Christians in mainstream churches who are in a similar situation, it really makes the point that the EB was indeed a cult.
The book is written some 30 years after the author left the EB. So the book is written with considerable detachment from the events which it narrates. At times it becomes almost an impersonal description of events, as the author has come to terms with the feelings and emotions which he felt at the time.
The story of the ‘escape’ is effectively told in the first third of the book. Then it revisits and re-explores aspects of the story, with additional reflections. Surprisingly the author escaped one cult, only to end up in another similarly difficult situation for a further 6 years. And so that story is explained as well.
The book contains a lot of additional reflection about cults and relevant factors. The author talks about the grief cycle, which cult escapists go through. He reflects on coercieve persuasion (brainwashing) and many other similar factors.
Stylistically and structurally the book is not without its problems. The author recalls having to stand outside the assembly hall at school, because EB members could not join collective worship. I read that scene in at least 3 different places in the book. Tighter editing and structuring of the story would have avoided some of the repetitions of details like that.
There were also occasional spelling and grammar surprises. For example, referring to the leader of the Nazis as “Adolph” Hitler (84%) is an unusual approach in English.
The final chapter is a meditation on law vs love. Cults work by enforcing laws which people interiorise as ‘truths’. But the author suggests that the world would be better if people focused on unconditional love rather that law. Yes, as an ideal this is undoubtedly true. But the tension of law vs love is one that goes back to the very beginning of Christianity itself. One of the staunchest defenders of love and the inability of the law to transform people is surely St Paul. And yet even he felt the need to occasionally remind his readers that there were in fact rules and standards which needed to be followed. Resolving the tension between law and love is an extremely difficult judgement call.
As well as restrictions like that, there were ever-changing rules imposed by the group leader. Every time that the rules reversed, the group was told that ‘God has turned a corner.’ If anyone stepped out of line they could be excluded from the group and never again have contact with family members.
One of the most damaging details which the author cites is the percentage of families split up by the EB. Some 73% of the people he knew in the group were members of families which had at least one person banned, and so they were unable to ever get together as a whole family (Kindle 60%). When he compares this to the 0% of Christians in mainstream churches who are in a similar situation, it really makes the point that the EB was indeed a cult.
The book is written some 30 years after the author left the EB. So the book is written with considerable detachment from the events which it narrates. At times it becomes almost an impersonal description of events, as the author has come to terms with the feelings and emotions which he felt at the time.
The story of the ‘escape’ is effectively told in the first third of the book. Then it revisits and re-explores aspects of the story, with additional reflections. Surprisingly the author escaped one cult, only to end up in another similarly difficult situation for a further 6 years. And so that story is explained as well.
The book contains a lot of additional reflection about cults and relevant factors. The author talks about the grief cycle, which cult escapists go through. He reflects on coercieve persuasion (brainwashing) and many other similar factors.
Stylistically and structurally the book is not without its problems. The author recalls having to stand outside the assembly hall at school, because EB members could not join collective worship. I read that scene in at least 3 different places in the book. Tighter editing and structuring of the story would have avoided some of the repetitions of details like that.
There were also occasional spelling and grammar surprises. For example, referring to the leader of the Nazis as “Adolph” Hitler (84%) is an unusual approach in English.
The final chapter is a meditation on law vs love. Cults work by enforcing laws which people interiorise as ‘truths’. But the author suggests that the world would be better if people focused on unconditional love rather that law. Yes, as an ideal this is undoubtedly true. But the tension of law vs love is one that goes back to the very beginning of Christianity itself. One of the staunchest defenders of love and the inability of the law to transform people is surely St Paul. And yet even he felt the need to occasionally remind his readers that there were in fact rules and standards which needed to be followed. Resolving the tension between law and love is an extremely difficult judgement call.
July 28, 2024
It was a good read, not fantastic but very interesting!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews