Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

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.

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.

Agree with previous review to ignore the low ratings because people for some reason don't like or believe the story. Are you by any chance in Larryland?

The recordings and videos are horrific, my heart goes out to these people. Someone who experienced gaslighting and emotional abuse at home I can easily believe why these kids ended up in this situation. The end of episode two floored me!

It's great (for a lack of better word) that this documentary had the actual recordings, this is what some of documentaries really lack, I don't understand how someone can claim it's one sided or scripted, it's not that type of documentary.

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.

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.