Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

This is a slow documentary. To really see the day-to-day progression from happy college kids to completely brainwashed and mentally broken adults, it has to be told slowly. If you just hear the events listed out you don't get the true picture/feeling of the story.

This is about a man that 1,000% abused these kids and 1,000% had them believing he was the best person in the world and the only one that cared about him. The best part of this documentary is the actual footage. It's mind blowing to see exactly how this man manipulated and molded them into his slaves without them realizing he was doing it. It would be hard to believe all the things he was capable of if someone told you. It is STILL hard to believe while you're literally watching him do it.

The best thing the man ever did was record everything. His recordings are like watching unethical and inhumane psychology experiments, and it's disgusting.

You can't have a low enough score for the subject matter. It's just vile. However, the documentary covered it extremely well. 10/10.

It's a well put together documentary and some seem to be marking it low because of the subject matter. Stories like this need to be told even though they are disturbing because they highlight the dangerous ways evil minds can control other people with some disastrous outcomes. Bullying is heinous in itself but when it goes to such dangerous lengths the punishments need to be severe to put the message out there. Documentaries like this give you insight on how different types of rulership have been developed over the centuries where people are controlled. This was a small example of what can happen to a nation under the control of a narcissistic psychopath and their cohorts where the people get to a point where obedience is the only way to survive.

I had heard about this story when it occurred at the time, and watched the 3 episode documentary because it was reviewed so positively by most critics. It did remind me a little bit of the NXIVM cult, as someone else mentioned in another review. I guess some people think that what Larry Ray did to these people wouldn't be possible, but sadly, there are many people out there looking for answers who are not very strong-minded, and want others to do all their thinking for them. As you can see in the documentary, not all the Sarah Lawrence friends fell under Larry Ray's evil spell. Sadly, some did. The manipulation and the implanting of false memories was stunning. Watching and listening to Larry Ray was like watching and listening to Pure Evil. One of the good/bad things about society today compared to 40 years ago is that people can easily videotape and audiotape themselves (and seem to enjoy doing that, by the way). Sadly, I'm sure things like this happened 40 years ago, but there is little, if any documentation of what happened. Now, we get to see a lot of it.

Those reviewing this documentary because they don't like the story are idiots. It's a TRUE STORY!! They didn't make it up. It has shocking audio and video of a lot of the very disturbing parts of the story. It is a cult. They cut off family, gave all there money to him, commited crimes for him and treated him like a God. Using sleep deprivation and withholding food to assert control. They are all main parts of cults like Scientology, people's temple and the recent nixium cult.

The harsh criticism that they could just leave is easy to say when you're not in that situation. No one joins a cult on purpose. That's the point of it. The human condition of conditioning is fascinating, complex and mysterious. Decades of examples all over the world. Why does it happen so often. This documentary really goes into great depth to show the before, during and after the mind control they endured. It's frightening and disturbing. But also an utter compelling story.

As many millennial women do, I love a good cult story. This one takes the cake as far as modern-day (post-2000) sex cults go. This doc gives shocking insight into the events and experiences that took place within a small group of friends on and off the Sarah Lawrence campus starting in 2010 and lasting for over a decade.

Whether or not you are not familiar with this story, watch this series. It gives first hand accounts of what took place and also offers just an absolutely insane glimpse of just how far brain washing can go. The home footage and audio recordings are harrowing and the things these kids were convinced to do is genuinely incredible.