Life After Gaslighting: The Story of The Sarah Lawrence Cult
Robin Stern, PhD
I am honored to know Daniel Levin, to have interviewed him on my podcast and to share his story with you. You will read about the path that led him into the cult at Sarah Lawrence College, the bizarre and often terrifying experiences he had, and ultimately his escape from the grip of cult leader Larry Ray.
Summarized below is the chilling account of Surviving and Thriving Beyond The Sarah Lawrence Cult, as told by Daniel in episode 20 of The Gaslight Effect podcast.
Daniel was a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College in 2010 when he was first introduced to Larry Ray. Father to one of his friends and roommates, Talia, Larry needed a place to stay after being released from prison. At first, Daniel didn’t have any reason to question the arrangement. Painted as a hero at the hands of a wrongful conviction, Larry’s short-term stay with Talia and her roommates seemed harmless enough.
But things quickly spiraled out of control and into gaslighting as Daniel and others found themselves trapped in a cult of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Larry grew closer with each member of “Slonim Woods 9,” the name of their communal dorm and, later, the name of Daniel Levin’s memoir. Eventually, Larry traded in the couch at Slonim Woods for his own apartment on the upper East side of Manhattan. And, when he did, he invited others, including Daniel and Sarah Lawrence students to join him.
Larry Ray’s Way: When Connection Became Control
This is when the “special connection” that Daniel describes between himself and Larry really began, through intimate conversations about his parents, his body, and his sexuality. But “connection” quickly evolved into weaponization of the household’s interpersonal dynamics through coercive control and gaslighting.
“I was experiencing these things, which in retrospect were extreme,” Daniel told me, even though he once thought, “I’m not someone who would be abused or would be in a cult, or would be manipulated.”
Daniel was shamed into believing nothing he could say or do would be good enough for Larry Ray — even as he recorded his victims being abused as punishment for disappointing him. Ray manipulated the group’s eating and sleeping habits, initiated nonconsensual sexual encounters, and regularly exploited their labor. But Daniel lived in fear and in doubt of what qualifies as abuse: “He hasn’t slapped anyone, he hasn’t punched anyone, he hasn’t pushed anyone to the ground, you know?”
Daniel was unsure of what would happen if he stayed and what would happen if he left. That is, until he finally tapped into his gut feelings. Over time, he came to know that in order to survive, he must escape. Still in the fog of gaslighting, Daniel struggled with conflicting thoughts and “spent so much time trying to figure out the best way to leave, the safest way to leave… in the meantime, I was staying in this situation where I was being abused every day.”
The Other Side of Survival: Daniel’s Life Now
Thankfully, in 2013, Daniel did escape and begin his life beyond the cult that later gained national attention. In 2020, the FBI arrested Larry Ray.
Gaslighters like Ray thrive on making you feel stuck or trapped; that is right where they want you. Right where they need you to be. Thus, the ‘right time’ to leave that many victims of abuse wait for may never come. Looking back, Daniel would want himself, and anyone else feeling stuck in similar reality-spinning circumstances, to trust their instinct to leave.
Only once you have escaped can you begin to heal. For Daniel, healing includes telling his story, ultimately one of vulnerability, hope, and living life. “I wish none of this had ever happened,” he wrote in his memoir. Still, “one thing you can control is it being over for you… after it’s ended, it’s up to you to decide how to live with it. More than anything, that’s what I hope you do: live.”
Daniel is now thriving as an author, teacher and an executive producer of Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, a three-part series airing on Hulu, that documents “A group of bright Sarah Lawrence College students” that “fall under the dark influence of a friend’s father, Larry Ray.”
He is committed to telling his story, and it is a gift that can help others break through the fog of abusive relationships to rediscover what freedom looks like.
Thank you, Daniel, for speaking out and for generously — and vulnerably- sharing your story.
Stuck Inside a Cult or Recovering from a Gaslighting Relationship?
You can learn more about all the many forms of gaslighting on The Gaslight Effect Podcast.
You can also identify if you are a part of a pattern of emotional or relationship abuse involving gaslighting and pull yourself out of that dynamic with the help of The Gaslight Effect Recovery Guide, an interactive workbook that will help you reclaim your reality.
