This is a model for how a specific kind of abusive cult or group functions. Not all dangerous groups follow this model. This can be used as a guide to distinguish if a guru is creating an environment for unhealthy control.

Unlike Persephone and T, I never dated Brent. I wasn’t abused by him. I was part of a social environment that was shaped by Brent to keep a certain type of person close to him.

I was there. I didn’t see everything. I saw enough.

Brent sexually abused me over the course of our year-and-a-half-long relationship. At the start of our relationship Brent was 39 and I was 19 (I’ve had healthy age-gap relationships, but in retrospect I think this was an unhealthy one); I was coming out of an intimate relationship with someone who believed…