Not only has there never before been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its immediate past, but there has never before been a society that is able to access the immediate past so easily and so copiously.”

I admit it, this stuff fascinates me. I have always wondered how people can become so brainwashed as to join and live in cults for years. I mean, it has obviously all got to do with the original grooming and promises, the promised enlightenment, and the reading of one's weaknesses and the preying upon them. Let's be honest, if you were told upfront what it is all about, you would run a mile. Can you imagine a first-up, honest introduction to Scientology? Prince Tristan Faasa was never destined for the throne. That was always his brother, Michael. The same brother responsible for both Tristan's tormented childhood and the scar that mars his face. When their father dies, Michael is set to assume the throne, and Tristan is set to steal it. The leader of a secret rebellion, Tristan will stop at nothing to end his brother's reign. But when Michael's new betrothed, Lady Sara Beatreaux arrives, Tristan finds himself in the middle of a new kind of war. The kind that begs the question of what's more important, the crown or the woman about to wear it.What’s amazing to me in this story is that there were many people who escaped before her, with or without their life, but her story, coming just prior to the #metoo movement is the one that FINALLY gave traction to the FBI and police to get off their butts and arrest the abusers instead of the victims seeking help, blaming the victims, or simply ignoring the victims. Edmondson was in NXIVM for years, slowly working her way up the ranks when one day her best friend, who was one of the highest-ranking people in the organization, asked her to be in a secret club where Sarah would be the slave and she would be the master. She sold it to her as a group of women helping other women grow and develop. However, it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. The “slaves” were actually being groomed to be sex slaves for NXIVM’s leader. As with everything in culture that hangs around long enough (The Beatles, the Star Wars saga, the concept of the superhero) 1970s nostalgia has darkened and complicated itself as its shelf-life has extended beyond its own meagre ambitions. Because it wasn’t just Bagpuss and Dad’s Army was it? It was the IRA and Pol Pot and the Ayatollah. It was panic about rabies and despair about the Cold War, summers that were too hot and winters that were too cold, and strikes and power-cuts. Margaret Thatcher smashing the glass ceiling and lacerating everyone below her. Open racism, open sexism and people of forty who looked nearer seventy because no one dared tell them how many fags they could smoke or gins they could sink at lunchtime.

Finally there’s a discussion of the 1970s fascination with the paranormal. Everything from Ancient Aliens and UFOs (take a bow Erich Von Daniken) to Uri Geller, Nessie, The Bermuda Triangle, hauntings and how this was all taken far too seriously by the media. I told you it was a strange decade. T here’s a terrible habit, when looking at the culture of a decade, to not go into any depth; it’s an easy task to just laugh at the fashions, or assume that referring to a handful of common references will cover it. The 1980s in the UK were a time of unemployment, poverty, social unrest, and political divisions – not just everybody wearing red braces, having fax machines and watching John Hughes movies… From BookTok sensation Emily McIntire comes a dark and delicious fractured fairy tale reimagining of The Lion King. Pirating from all sorts of existing philosophies including Scientology, The Four Agreements, Dianetics, the martial arts system of growth, and ultimately components of Hinduism and the Klu Klux Klan, Keith Raniere developed a complex university of human potential. Most of the concepts are actually pretty stellar ideas—credit to the people who originally devised them—and had NXIVM continued in a direction for good, it could have done some pretty great things, much like Hitler, but we all know how that story ends. Most of the book is deadly dull as she details every step of her naive journey. The final chapters, as she tries to leave the group after she is branded, are the most interesting. But the fact that it took her agreeing to be branded to finally see the light means that there was something seriously wrong with her beyond the Nexium group. And she had many chances to walk away from it--instead she succumbed to more peer pressure and placed herself on the table.

Product Details

This is a volume focussed mainly on British pop culture, with only a few incursions from across the pond, but it does reveal what a very odd place Britain was during the era of power cuts, three day weeks, Glam, Punk and paranoia. There’s a child whose life has changed in the last year…..Somewhere, there are other children whose lives are going to be changed. The writing was stilted and at times went off in a more self-congratulatory direction than I wanted it to. There were some things that weren't really dug into at all (The Rainbow Child Galen in particular I would have enjoyed reading more about, some of NXIVM's actual belief systems, etc.) I think a third-party writer might be the best way to really uncover it all, hence enjoying the podcast that I did.

In the tradition of Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman, Escape by Carolyn Jessop, and Troublemaker by Leah Remini There was a strong Gothic element to British TV output as well, with annual Ghost stories for Christmas (usually an MR James adaptation) and such downright strange shows as Dead of Night, The Stone Tape and Sapphire and Steel. All of this is recalled in loving detail by the authors along with recommendations of what to watch and how to watch (either DVD or YouTube. Thank god for YouTube!). I have read about different cults before, always wondering how the hell people managed to allow others to so fully control them that they succombed to brainwashing, abuse, and even death. With NXIVM, I can completely understand how it was able to collect so many followers and for so long under the guise of a personal growth and empowerment groups...because what human isn’t constantly seeking that? You can tell this book was quite the labor of love for the two men. A lot of work went into researching, writing, and in some cases even interviewing people for the finished product. Brotherstone and Lawrence focus as much on historical information and contextualizing as they do on the scary/creepy/weird, and most every section ends with suggestions of where to go to find the particular film, board game, comic, television show, book, or whatnot should you want to experience it for yourself.Imagínate que un día tu vida es tan miserable que sientes que no hay nada que llene tu vacío, que sientes que eres un fracaso entonces te encuentras con un grupo de gente que te dice que el problema está en ti y sólo en ti, que debes dejar ciertos patrones que llevas cargando desde pequeño para poder vivir la vida que quieres y entonces ¡boom! crees haber encontrado la respuesta al existo, pero de repente esa misma gente te dice que hay ciertas limitaciones y que debes obedecer a cierto líder, comienza a controlar tu vida y a usar todos tus secretos en tu contra, imagínate que tienes taaan normalizado ese control que terminas marcada por las iniciales de un narcisista psicópata y tú ni siquiera te puedes dar cuenta... Pues eso fue lo que pasó Sarah en nxivm y muchas otras chicas que fueron engañadas y adoctrinadas por una secta que les prometió existo pero lo único que logró fue arruinarles las vida. To be a child is to live in a state of fear most of the time. The fear of being lost, of being bullied, of making your parents angry, of being told off, of getting into trouble at school. This sense of dread can be amplified by the media/popular culture around them. There are the things that you know are meant to be scary, the things that are more scary than you thought they would be and the things that are scary that you didn’t think would be. With everything involved in NXIVM over the course of the years, the key players, Sarah Edmonson being one, I have been completely fascinated by everything that continues to be revealed about this secret organization. Sarah’s account is thorough—you will learn a lot about the philosophies, vocabulary, rules, and rituals. You get her version of events right up until she was branded to be in DOS, the secret women’s group being groomed to become sexual partners for Raniere, along with her escape from the organization and attempts to save all of those she had recruited.

The toys and games section is an interesting curio since many survived in one form or another into the 80's and the sweets section is quite interesting too. I distinctively remember the candy cigarettes with the red tip to mirror a real cigarette. And yes, us kids did pretend to smoke them, preparing for adult hood.A book about growing up in the dark side of the 70s with the darkest, most inappropriate pop culture ever.