I really appreciated this show. I felt that they tackled the subject quite fairly, and compassionately. I liked that they interviewed people with both positive and negative experiences. I loved the evolving conversations between mother and daughter. The inside footage is quite frankly, chilling sometimes, but it was good to see that. My husband and I have been talking about it for days because of our personal experiences.
I think it is hard to understand how being in a deeply controlling environment changes your thinking and decision making. I grew up, not in a cult like this, but in a religion where my life was very controlled. Meetings three times a week, your life course planned out for you from childhood etc. Strangely enough, they kept telling you that you had more freedom than people out in the world around you, and you believed them. Your life goal is to work to advance "the organization", as we called it. Very similar M. O. of keeping you in the group by telling you that you were part of creating a new society with no racism and no class division and using the fact that you made a life commitment to guilt you into staying. On the surface, it sounds great, but it wasn't really. If you leave, you lose everything. That being said, once you leave and spend some time unpacking the baggage, your life improves.
I am deeply grateful that people are making documentaries like this. People need to see these things. This show will help others who did not grow up this way to understand those who did.
