Cult survivors speak

by Laura Withers
Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a three-part series; an in-depth look at life before, during and after a cult experience.

ALBANY — “Trust but verify” is the Russian proverb posted on cult survivor Liz Shaw’s office door.

Shaw, who now works as the director of development at Wellspring Cult Retreat and Resource Center, said this proverb reminds her to check people’s stories before trusting them. After surviving the psychological and emotional damage a cult inflicted on her, Shaw adopted a new “buyer beware” outlook on life.

In 1990, Shaw arrived at Wellspring, the world’s first non-profit retreat and resource center for recovering cult victims, located 20 minutes from Athens. She began doing research and found out about Wellspring after being involved with a cult for two years that practiced new age holistic healing.

Shaw said she defines a cult as a religious, political or self-improvement organization that “uses methods of deception to deprive an individual of their freedom of choice.” Cults often use deceptive techniques of mind control and manipulation to recruit people to their group, she said.

Shaw was attracted to the cult when she was suffering from a medical problem and was not responding to orthodox healing practices. The cult’s leader successfully convinced many people their medical problems could be healed in unorthodox ways, she said.

Shaw said she tried every trick in the book to end her suffering.

“I would have burned peacock feathers by the moon if I thought it would have helped me,” Shaw said.

Paul Martin, who founded Wellspring in 1986, also was involved with a cult for seven years. Martin was part of a Christian group called “Cornerstone” while he attended the University of Missouri in the early 1970s.

Martin said he joined the group because he admired the members and what they stood for. At first the group was harmless, discussing issues such as the environment, peace and love.

“I thought, ‘This is the real hippie movement,’” Martin said. “We were just a bunch of people trying to make a better world. We were having fun writing songs and poetry and talking about God, Jesus and love.”

Martin didn’t realize the Christian group was developing into a cult until one member began to take control of everything. As this person began to gain more power, Martin started seeing how he manipulated other members by lying to make them feel good. Within a period of months, the cult leader had more than 300 followers.

“If he would have left us alone, we certainly wouldn’t have developed into a cult,” he said.

Martin found himself being shunned from the group when he challenged the cult leader.

“They called these meetings to prove there was something wrong with me because I had dared to challenge the leader, who was lying,” Martin said. “It was so crazy after a while. I remember when I drove home and I grabbed my wife and said to her ‘Please tell me, am I dreaming or am I awake?’ These guys were geniuses in mind control.”

Martin and his wife, Barbara, were one of the only married couples in the cult at the time. Barbara Martin said she didn’t label the group as a cult until she saw the women in the group started acting differently.

“I started to notice that all of the women’s personalities changed,” she said. “After a few years, everyone was talking the same, dressing the same and even had the same voice patterns.”

Barbara Martin said it was the realization that the cult members were clones of the leader that made her and her husband want to leave.

“Paul and I would lay in bed at night and talk about what was happening,” she said. “We were starting to realize that we were being controlled and forced to make decisions not of our own choosing.”

Martin said when she received a job offer to teach as a speech pathologist at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., the couple got a ticket out of the cult.

After losing seven years of their lives to a cult, Paul and Barbara Martin walked away from the experience and began rebuilding their life together.

For Shaw, realizing she was a victim of cult mind control and manipulation came when she saw not only psychological but also physical damages.

She said her physical condition worsened to the point she thought she was going to die. Members of the cult told her pain was part of the healing process.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was when my medical condition got so bad, and they explained (to me) that my pain and suffering was a good thing,” Shaw said. “I went through that one time too many and thought I was going to die.”   

Shaw said when she started questioning the holistic therapies, members of the cult reacted with anger. She remembers getting heated phone calls from cult members.

“When I questioned (the therapies) they descended on me and gave me a lot of grief,” Shaw said.

Shaw said she was drained of time, energy and money when she left the cult. Being a part of the cult destroyed the relationships she had before joining it.

“My own experience ended up with me being very disillusioned,” Shaw said. “You just feel like an idiot.”

After undergoing personal counseling at Wellspring, Shaw learned to stop blaming herself for her damaging experience.

“I realized that I wasn't the bad guy,” she said.

When she was able to come to terms with the fact she had been conned, Shaw began rebuilding her self-confidence.

“I used to really try to see the best in everyone,” Shaw said. “I was very naïve. Now I like to think of myself as pretty balanced.”