Director Will Allen joined the cult when he was 22, after he was forced to leave home when his mother discovered he was gay.
Director Will Allen said he suffered an existential crisis after he left the cult in 2007. After he saw Keep the Lights On (2012) at the Sundance Film festival, he sought ways to make a film out of his experience.
At the very beginning, as Will Allen narrates about his younger life and wanting to know all things spiritual, a stack of books is shown. The book on top is "A Handbook of Concepts for Living", published in 1981 by Campus Crusade for Christ International, an evangelical Christian ministry.