Review by Juliesaraporter217 -- The Cult Next Door

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Juliesaraporter217
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Review by Juliesaraporter217 -- The Cult Next Door

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[Following is a volunteer review of "The Cult Next Door" by Elizabeth R. Burchard, Judith L. Carlone.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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The Cult Next Door by Elizabeth R. Burchard and Judith L. Carlone is a mesmerizing fascinating look into cults from the perspective of one of their survivors. It captures the mindset of people who join to fill a psychological and spiritual need and how they feel that need is fulfilled by a charismatic leader who eventually controls and dominates them to the point that it becomes difficult to leave the cult.

Elizabeth R. Burchard was a Swarthmore College student when her mother, Rachael introduced her to George Sharkman, a biofeedback technician and eventual cult leader.

Burchard's home life put her right in Sharkman's path. Her parents divorced and her beloved father died when she was in middle school leaving her with her volatile highly critical mother. Rachael moved herself and her daughter from one fad to another from nutrition gurus, to psychotherapists, to biofeedback technicians filling Burchard with uncertainty.
Burchard struggled with depression, insecurity, and searched for a purpose in life. After her mother introduced her daughter to Sharkman, Burchard was instantly mesmerized by Sharkman's pitch about using “brain power to merge with the Universe.”
Sharkman organized group meetings at the Burchard apartment that grew into a larger group of people drawn by Sharkman's New Age rhetoric.
So began over 20 years of entrapment, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, extortion and brainwashing as Burchard navigated her experience from willing cult member, to outcast, to survivor.

Burchard's book portrays her as a highly intelligent woman with a normally scientific rational mind, but even the most intelligent mind can be drawn to a highly charismatic individual that uses persuasion and group think to control others and prey on their weaknesses. There are many chapters where Burchard argued or disagreed with Sharkman but somehow either he, her mother, or her friends convinced her to come back around to his way of thinking.
When Sharkman molested Burchard, she tried to fight him off but her mother kept pushing her back towards him. Finding nowhere to turn, Burchard acquiesced to his advances rather than fight.
It wasn't too long before Burchard was deprived of her money by paying for Sharkman's expensive courses, her work because Sharkman's daughter took over her business, and her health by following Sharkman's dietary plans and advice to never see a doctor.

There are some pretty intense moments when Sharkman controlled everything around his followers including what they saw and heard. In one graphic chapter, after the death of Sharkman's beloved dog, he made an invisible shape in the air telling them that the dog was in his hands. In true “Emperor's New Clothes” fashion every single one of the followers swore they saw and felt the dog too. Even Burchard was convinced she felt something showing Sharkman's frightening ability to manipulate people into not even trusting their own senses.
Another frightening moment is when Burchard's former boyfriend is killed by an approaching train. At first, his death was treated as an unfortunate freak accident but after she left the cult, Burchard realized that Sharkman mentally deprived the young man of any survival instincts or flight or fight response. Burchard realized that her boyfriend lost any desire to save himself and walked to his own death.

Reading about the horrible person that Sharkman was makes it hard to believe that Burchard took so long to leave. In fact, Sharkman at first made the decision for her. When financial struggles caused her to cut back his services, Sharkman instead removed her from the Group. (Though she was far from out of his sight. His daughter, Serena, was still Burchard's business partner. Her mother and close friends were still in the cult and he was still a passing acquaintance in her life.)
It wasn't until Burchard was in her early 40’s and made friends with Judith Carlone, who helped her see the dangerous situation that she was in that Burchard cut herself off entirely from the cult.
Some Readers may grow impatient with Burchard's reluctance to completely remove herself from the cult. However, it's rather like being in an abusive relationship. No one really knows what it's like to be in a situation where a person has complete domination over them, unless they have been in that situation themselves.
Until she met Carlone, Burchard had nowhere else to go. Everyone in her life was involved in the cult and she was broke, in failing health, and in the grips of a mental health decline. She believed that she couldn't make it without Sharkman, because for over 20 years he told her so. That's why it becomes a real victory, when Burchard regained her life and found work and friendships outside the cult. It's a bittersweet and triumphant moment when she saw her former friends and saw them as shells of their former selves, while she had moved on.

The Cult Next Door gets Four out of Four Stars. It is a highly recommended character study of the psychology on how cults are run and reveals the strength of character it takes to leave them and forge a life of one's own.

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The Cult Next Door
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