The aim of this 12-hour broadcast is to raise money and awareness for The Cult Vault Podcast & The Family Survival Trust
Time EST
12-12:30pm
12:30-2pm
2-2:30pm
2:30-4pm
4-4:30pm
4:30-5pm
5-6:30pm
6:30-7:30pm
7:30-9pm
9pm-9:30pm
9:30pm-11pm
11:00-11:30
11:30-Midnight
Session Title
Introduction & Welcome from Kacey & My Sound Choices
Interview with Erika Bornman, Author of Mission of Malice
Pre-Recorded Session with Counsellor Janice Selbie,
Interview with Author Faith Jones
Pre-Recorded Session with T - QuitYourCult
Pre-Recorded Session with Chantelle, Host of LadyJusticePod
Interview with Reporter, Editor & Podcast Host Dhyana Levey
Interview with Lisa Kendall of Counter Cult Coalition & Chelsea Davis of Veggies Do It Better
Interview with Janja Lalich, Erin Robbins, Beth Matenaer, Tammie Willis, Sarah Fontaine,
Pre-Recorded Session with Author & EXJW Natalie Grand
Interview with Helen Byrd & Megan Cox from HBOMax "The Way Down" & Escaping Zion
Pre-Recorded Session with Lizzie Prete of Little Birdie Youtube
Pre-Recorded Session with LMFT & IndocriNATION Podcast Host Rachel Bernstein
Collaborators
My Sound Choices: My Body, My Mind, My Voice, My Choice Informing Society of the Harms of Coercive Religious Cults, and Advocating for its Victims. Together we aspire to help assure everyone the freedom to formulate and actuate their own Sound Choices. SOUND: solid, firm, stable, free from error, fallacy, or misapprehension; exhibiting or based on thorough knowledge and experience; legally and logically valid. . . CHOICES: opportunity or privilege of choosing freely without threat or coercion, . . . care in selecting; . . . choice by one’s judgment or predilections; implying a wide range of choice. . . My Sound Choices (SCC) is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit, non-denominational organization. Our ongoing goals are to assist victims with life skills that will empower them and others. We are dedicated to raising awareness of, and working to end the damaging practices associated with religious cults such as coercive polygamy, Scientology, and other extreme denominations. We cannot achieve our goals alone. Please find out how you can help us help others with these projects: Our Ground Work: Expand our online, and in person mentoring programs; such as HOW TO: get a driver’s license, fill out applications, get a social security number, get a bank account, find legal help, find a job, attain a lawyer, gain educational skills etc., etc. Our Legal Work: We’ll continue to challenge legal and political arguments that support coercive behaviors that breach human rights in any and all cults. Challenge The US legal system which doesn’t do enough to protect victims of religious abuse, etc. etc. Campaign nationally, both legally and politically to challenge arguments for lack of intervention Our Neighborhood, Cities and Countries Work: Increase our social media presence such as making flyers, cards, and media presence to better make victims aware of the services we offer. Cultivate public support through awareness campaigns with Press Releases, Billboards, Public Service Announcements, etc., etc. Create Legislative Initiatives and Educate officials about the local problems taking place among these and other cults, to encouraging existing laws to be enforced . . . CULTS STEAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: They CULT-IVATE: physical abuse, illegal behaviors, tax and welfare fraud, organized crimes, grooming of minors, men and women into sex slavery and trafficking. They cult-ivate verbal, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological abuse. . . neglect of children, child and adult labor trafficking, financial and economic abuses, loss of power and control, loneliness, loss of family and friends, low self-esteem, control and punishments, infidelity, coercive polygamy and extreme loss of power . . . We are consistently aware of the massive number of victims who are leaving and escaping oppressive and abusive cults. Their rehabilitation needs are often immense and overwhelming; therefore, we need funding and passionate dedicated volunteers to help us create even stronger support systems such as mentors, educators, councilors, pro-bono lawyers, social services, web developers, etc.
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Kristyn Decker
Erika Bornman has carved a career for herself in magazine publishing as a writer and editor, despite her lack of formal training. Her memoir is her first book and an important element in her quest to make the world a safer place for children. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her two cats, Troy and Matilda.
Erika Bornman
Janice is a trauma-informed registered professional counsellor and religious recovery consultant who sees clients 1:1 and through the Divorcing Religion Workshop. She was a fundamentalist evangelical Christian for 40 years and is now the founder of both the Conference on Religious Trauma (CORT) and the Shameless Sexuality: Life After Purity Culture conference. www.religoustraumaconference.org www.shamelesssexuality.org and my free Conference on Religious Trauma YT channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGhyTXTIM9kdTJ1jW-Ckb5g Social Media Handles: Twitter: @wise_counsellor + @divorcereligion + @cometocort + @shamelessconf1 TikTok: @janiceselbie (folks might know me on there as Aunt Glo)
Janice Selbie
Faith empowers business owners with clear and straight-forward legal knowledge so they can set their businesses up with confidence. She coaches them on a personal level to step into their power as successful entrepreneurs. She is a passionate, articulate advocate for women’s empowerment and business leadership. Her mission is to inspire and equip women with the ability to claim full ownership over their bodies, creations, and deals to accelerate their impact and power. She is an international corporate attorney, author, and TEDx speaker who capitalized on her unusual background to create her unique “I Own Me” framework that is at the heart of empowering all people, to claim their innate power in business and personal relationships. Her goal is to see people, united and empowered, offer the best chance for a promising future for our children and all humanity.
Faith Jones
Lady Justice True Crime is a UK based podcast that takes a deep dive into fascinating and forgotten cases from throughout history. Hosted by Chantelle, each episode is a comprehensive examination of the people involved, the investigation, the media and the court processes; ending with a suggestion of a small act of kindness. New full length cases are released every Tuesday, with a bitesize bonus episode released on the final day of the month that highlights an unsolved or missing persons case. Operation Daimler: In late 2009, Surrey Police would launch Operation Daimler, set up to investigate allegations of corruption and misconduct at the women’s only HM Prison Downview. The subsequent inquiries would reveal that multiple women had told of exchanging sexual favours for special perks with multiple male prison officers. One woman would tell how the then acting governor, Russell Thorne had “ordered” her to perform a sex act on him. Out of four males originally charged with offences committed against the vulnerable inmates, only the principal officer Thorne would be convicted of a crime and was given a 5 year sentence for misconduct in public office.
Chantelle Wilson
T Brown is a survivor of more than two decades in a cult based in Illinois, USA. Since leaving in 2020 -- when lockdown started -- T has become a vocal activist against coercive control. He also came out (again) as gay and went back to school to finish the PhD he quit in 1997 to join the group. He runs a YouTube channel called QuitYourCult, makes music, writes, and performs about his experiences.
T - QuitYourCult
Dhyana Levey grew up on a commune connected to the United Lodge of Theosophists and now hosts the podcast Generation Cult, an interview show about people who grew up in high-demand groups and how they acclimated to mainstream society after they left. She has a bachelor's degree in journalism and worked as a newspaper reporter in California and overseas for about 15 years before becoming a freelance writer for magazines and websites in the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently received her MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control from the University of Salford.
Dhyana Levey
Chelsea V Davis is the founder of Veggies Do It Better which focuses on social and food justice and vegan advocacy and The Roaring Vegans, an online organic and fair-trade chocolate and gift shop. Chelsea has organized 100s of virtual and in-person events including protests, marches, VegFests, international health and animal rights conferences, speakers panels, activism tours, fundraisers, the Master Veg Program, and more. She regularly speaks on effective communication and activism, climate change, animal rights, and plant-based cooking, among other topics. Chelsea’s focus on collaboration and community-building brought her to start the Vegan Night Market PDX in 2019 and co-found Animal Rights Collective Portland (ARCPDX) in 2020. Chelsea is also an admin of the largest vegan Facebook group in the Pacific Northwest, a regular contributor on UnchainedTV, on the advisory board of Counter Cult Coalition, and active in several animal rights and social and food justice campaigns. Her latest project with Project Animal Freedom, the Vegan Climate March, will be an international event on May 6, 2023. Chelsea resides in Portland, OR with her hunter-turned vegan activist husband and their rescue pup. Follow Chelsea at @veggiesdoitbetter to learn about her other projects and upcoming events and gain tips on cooking, activism, veganism, living a healthier non-toxic lifestyle, and how to get more involved in the movement.
Chelsea V Davis
Lisa has been active in the cult awareness community since 2012, providing support for custody cases, child protective service investigations, testifying before legislatures in multiple states, and publishing articles related to the impact of ongoing childhood trauma in high-demand groups. Lisa has a Master's in Public Administration with a focus on public-private partnerships. She has extensive experience in business and nonprofit management and sees collaboration as a solution for some of the challenges social enterprises face today. Among her innovative solutions is a model for documenting abuse by organization with documents that sort by abuser, victim, and state allowing the authorities a more comprehensive picture during investigations. Counter Cult Coalition allows her to use her background and education to affect policy to ensure more protections and services are provided to children in and from coercive groups. She lives in beautiful Portland, Oregon with her three cats.
Lisa Kendall
A world-renowned expert in cultic studies. Author and co-author of critically acclaimed books on cults. An avid contributor to the field of cultic studies through her research, presentations, and articles. Janja Lalich, Ph.D. is a researcher, author, and educator specializing in self-sealing, or closed, systems (cults, human trafficking, situations of coercive influence and control, ideological extremism), with a particular focus on recruitment, indoctrination, and methods of influence and control. She is Professor Emerita of Sociology at California State University, Chico and has been studying the social psychology of controversial groups and exploitative and abusive relationships for 30+ years. Dr. Lalich has written and lectured extensively, has advised the international intelligence community on extremism and indoctrination, and has served as consultant and expert witness in civil and criminal cases.
Dr. Janja Lalich
Beth Matenaer, LPC, is a licensed professional counselor and trauma therapist in South Carolina, who has worked with adults, children, adolescents, and families for more than 25 years. As a survivor of the Troubled Teen Industry, she has devoted her decades-long career to treating clients who exhibit the complexity of post-traumatic stress (PTSD) and other victims of high-conflict systems. Beth’s approach to her work is her understanding that effective and enduring recovery from traumatic abuse, attachment/relational issues, parental and/or children’s residual reactions to adoption, and Complex PTSD requires equally nuanced treatment. In that regard, she draws from the best of classic talk therapy, cutting-edge neuroscience, experimental canine- and equine-assisted therapy, and compassionate advocacy. Additionally, she is the co-creator and Clinical Director of the innovative Think Boxing program. She has led trainings and workshops for helping professionals, as well as for groups of trauma survivors. Beth takes a direct, compassionate, and fully invested approach to helping each patient or client understand the psychological, emotional, and physical effects of trauma and how to evolve into a healthier version of self. She works with the view that regaining self-empowerment after trauma requires knowledge, creativity, and compassion – NOT perfection.
Beth Matenaer
Erin Robbins
Erin Robbins, M.Ed. is an award-winning artist who lives in Northern California. Erin Robbins wasn’t featured in Wild Wild Country, the 2018 Netflix Docuseries about Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho. She was living it all in real-time though. She discovered the controversial guru’s teachings at age 23 in 1977. By the time he summoned her to his bedroom a year later for a ‘special and secret’ meeting (that quickly devolved into the first of many vile and violating encounters) she thought he was the greatest spiritual master who’d ever walked the planet. Erin disregarded her father, the co-founder, and owner of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream company, risking her family connection in order to follow a man who would eventually lead his disciples into a world of murders, mass poisonings, and the gross sexual violation of children. After nearly 45 years of staying quiet, Erin is sharing her story after waking up just a year ago. Here’s to the healing power of the truth.
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Bio from Butteflies & Bravery Podcast - https://linktr.ee/bnbravepodcast Born into a fundamentalist Christian home, Tammie Willis knew coercion and control from a very young age. Kept busy with religious activities, school and church all day, she had little time for anything else. Leaving religion and deconstructing the trauma that she had experienced may have been easier if her life wasn't struck with tragedy in her teen years. Somehow she stumbled upon Dr. Janja Lalich's Take Back Your Life Courses, and now works with Dr. Lalich, Sally Martin and Beth Matenaer who are survivors and trauma informed therapists. Tammie wanted to help spread the word about these incredible classes. Here is the link to Take Back Your Life Recovery where you can find various courses for those who have experienced cults and high coercion and control situations.
Tammie Willis
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Sarah Fontaine
Sarah Fontaine grew up in a very secretive world-wide fundamentalist cult. It's a cult that claims to have no name (often referred to by outsiders as 2x2s), which is just the beginning of what makes this cult just like all the others but also so very uniquely different. Sarah was raised for the sole purpose of devoting her life to God through service and sacrifice in a deeply misogynistic culture. Every part of her life was controlled - either by the cult or by her family and abuse was rampant. Technology was considered a gateway for the devil, so things like radio and TV were forbidden, and science or medical care was only considered in the direst of emergencies. Formal education was also discouraged, so Sarah didn't begin attending public school until she was about 10. She struggled to assimilate and experienced horrific bullying at the hands of her peers, eventually testing out of high school to escape the abuses at home. Somehow Sarah was able to overcome and build a new identity and life, even legally changing her last name in honor of her Granny - Penny Fontaine. She now holds degrees from California State University, Chico after graduating with honors in Sociology, Psychology, and Gender and Sexuality Studies in 2014. She likes to explain her passion for these subjects as all the internal and external reasons why we do what we do and why we feel how we feel. Sarah founded her non-profit in 2015 and continues to serve as the director for Fontaine Foundation, which provides basic necessities to those in need, such as diapers and incontinence supplies. She started her own business, Pearl Consulting, in 2020 and continues to use it to raise awareness of cults and coercion, while also working full-time for a people-first SEO company. The irony of having a successful career in the male-dominated field of technology is not lost on her. Sarah is a very proud single mama of Felix and Jasper.
Natalie Grand is a supporter of the anti-cult movement. She is a mother and an approachable graphic novel author, she created this unique tool for the public to educate them lightly on some of the JW policies. It’s a beautiful, relatable story to anyone raised on in a cult and the story has a San Francisco, California backdrop of being city women in their young 30s, with comical flashbacks and cult scene scenarios. Natalie was born, raised, married in and even had children in the JW cult and was of the highest position that a women could Cult called a regular pioneer. She is 3rd & 4th generation JW on both sides of the family. Natalie is unique because she enjoys the comic industry and saw that there was a need for comedy and comic form graphic novel with the subject matter of cult awareness. It is currently being appreciated by those in and that left the JW organization and appreciated by other readers who left harsh religions or are curious about learning more of the JW culture. Natalie is in California, USA and USA is the international headquarters of the entire world religion, each country has an American representative running individual headquarters of each country. JWs own properties all over the world. The highest rank elders that control the whole company are 8 men known as the governing body, located in New York, USA. Prior to having a group of appointed men, it use to be a President of the organization running the entire gig. Each of these 8 men are the only channel god uses and they claim that they are the only ones being used and enlighted with god’s messages known as “spiritual food” and they are to be rulers alongside Christ Jesus in his ruling as the bride class. Accepting that these 8 men are the only channel to god is actually a requirement in the extensive questioning of becoming a baptized JW. There is a reason cartoon depictions from the governing body show these 8 men in their actual cartoon identities sitting next to Christ on his throne, so that shows the spiritual level they categorize themselves as. Along with this in the past decade they do a broadcast channel very similar to the Scientologist and these 8 men give weekly and special talk discourses that are translated in every language and showed in international conventions every year around the world held in large stadiums and convention centers.
Natalie Grand
"I created Beyond Zion in March of 2021 after my first interview for "The Way Down" docuseries. This docu series revolved around the cult as well as the cult's leader, Gwen Shamblin Lara. I was involved in the Remnant Fellowship from 1996 to 2006 along with my family(they left in 2010). The intent on creating Beyond Zion was to give peer to peer support and provide resources such as counseling, social programs and whatever else may be needed to those that have left Remnant Fellowship or want to leave Remnant Fellowship. I hated learning that so many of us are scattered and dealing with trauma alone. I feel strongly that survivors should unite and speak their truths; we are more powerful than the cult itself. After the last two episodes of "The Way Down" aired, I created a support group for anyone from any cult background to join. Since I created Beyond Zion, it has also spoken to survivors from other cults as well, which was another goal of mine. Remnant Fellowship is one of many cults unfortunately and after speaking to many survivors, the modus operandi is similar from cult to cult. I currently reside in Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie with my husband of 9 years, two sons and a small zoo".
Megan Cox
Helen Byrd former member of almost 10 years of Remnant Fellowship Church Cult. I was featured in all five episodes of the HBOMAX documentary “The Way Down” in which I discussed the inequity and iniquity of this cult posing as a church. I’m a wife, mother, sister, friend professional and most importantly still a believer. I want people to know that for this cult and all cults there is a WAY OUT!
Helen Byrd
Birdie is fairly new to content creation, although she’s always had a love for performing. In fact, when she was only one-years-old, Birdie’s mom would often find her dancing to songs from Barney & Friends in front of the stainless steel dishwashing in her childhood home. Remember the big purple dinosaur? Yeah… “Barney’ was her first word. /// Now, she works in social work and helps people with addiction illnesses get into rehabilitation centers and accompanies them along their recovery journey. /// She aspires to raise awareness around the dangers of social media gurus, borrowing theories from Steven Hasan, Rick Alan Ross, and Robert J. Lifton. Birdie’s current work involves investigating Breatharianism, a sect of thought made famous in the U.S. during the 80s and 90s by Wiley Brooks and Jasmuheen. /// When she’s not falling down internet rabbit holes, you can usually find Birdie in her garden, day dreaming, or at the local thrift store searching for the perfect glass jar, vase, or terrarium for a new houseplant, as if she needs another one… I guess 150 isn’t satisfactory. But hey, millennials love a good glass jar, right? You can find her channel @ Little Birdie and on IG @ cultesque_
Lizzie Prete
Taken from Rachel's Website - My name is Rachel Bernstein and I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. My specialities include family and relationship counseling, children and parents in need of emotional support and coping skills, and cult intervention and re-acclimation. My main goal as a provider is to be an open and encouraging ear to those who are looking for a space to talk about what they need. Every client is different so I always work at a pace that matches what feels best for them.
Rachel Bernstein, LFMT
Contributors
Violet Rose at Astridia Designs - Bringing your favourite characters to life with custom video game terrariums such as Pokemon, Animal Crossing and more!
Violet Rose @ Astridia Designs
Daniella Mestyanek Young is the Author of UNCULTURED, which debuts on September 20th, 2022, from Saint Martin’s Press, a TEDx Speaker, a US Army Combat Veteran, and someone who studies & thinks a lot about group behavior and cults.
Daniella Mestyanek Young
