Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

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.

This documentary was close to perfect as far as how it was delivered. It was facts: Aftermath interviews with his former victims and audio and video of Larry and his former followers during the cult. There was no sensationalizing and none of that rehashing of the same information over and over like they do in many documentary series. The only thing that is missing is the information they couldn't gain access to because of some people refusing interviews and the timing of when the documentary was made. Watching the documentary made me look up more about it online, because it was so intriguing. I found it extremely interesting, disturbing, and skillfully done. I watch every cult documentary out there, even some bad ones, but I have had to turn some off because they were so poor. I wish every cult documentary was done this well. Some reviewers said it was too long, but I could definitely watch several more episodes.

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.

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.