ESCAPING A CULT

Colouring in my book, it seemed like I had a perfectly normal childhood.

From the outside, those memories are not unfamiliar to most.

However, dig beneath the surface and much of my childhood was far from sweet.

I was beaten and spent hours locked in a dark room, memorising Bible passages.

It’s safe to say, my childhood was anything but ordinary.

Why, you ask?

I was raised in a cult.

Born in Osaka, Japan, I was part of an organisation called the Children of God – later known as the Family International Commune.

Founded in 1968 by preacher David Brandt Berg, we lived in groups of communes, also known as ‘colonies’, all over the word.

And the group