Review of The Followers

[Unique Ego]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Followers" by Radhia Gleis.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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What is that thing that makes people lose their individuality and sometimes their sense of reasoning? What is it that causes intelligent people to become susceptible to mind control and cult manipulations? For as long as anyone can remember, psychologists have been fascinated by the phenomenon of crowd/cult behavior.

Radhia desired an intimate knowledge of God. She hungered for that transcendental feeling of nirvana that comes when one reaches that point of union with the ultimate being. It was this search that led her to Jaime Gomez and Buddha-field—a cult that took the best part of her youthful years. This book essentially leverages Gleis's personal experiences to decipher the workings of cult groups and their leaders' manipulations.

The Followers was written in the first-person narrative. It was a fascinating exposé for several reasons. Firstly, I liked that the author, Radhia Gleis, was vulnerable enough to bare her life story in this book. She drew on 25 years of personal experience as a member of a cult to give depth and context to her analysis of cult leaders' personality traits and narcissistic tendencies. Her analysis also focused on the followers of such figureheads. Having been one of such followers for a long time, Gleis showed through her writing that she was the ideal person to address why people would blindly follow narcissists and sociopaths even in the face of glaring evidence that should persuade them otherwise. The clarity of her writing made it easy to understand her explanation of the physical, mental, environmental, and emotional disposition of Buddha-field members when she was a part of the cult. I also enjoyed when she drew parallels between her Buddha-field experience and that of followers of historical and present-day narcissists like Hitler and Trump. In my opinion, this helped drive home her arguments and convinced me about the reality of her own experiences.

A lot of research went into writing this book. Judging from the references and citations scattered throughout the book, the author took no prisoners while making her case. I was also intrigued by the parallels she drew between cult mind control and today's culturally pervasive cult of personality and use of propaganda. As I read along, it became increasingly apparent how this book cut across themes of history, politics, psychology, sociology, and religion. Radhia's exceptional research and writing skills made it one compelling read.

As alluded to earlier, I enjoyed how Radhia interlaced her discourse with stories and references from her time with Buddha-field. However, this became a little much at certain points in my reading. These portions of the book felt like she was rambling, making them a little boring.

On the whole, the layout and presentation of the book were commendable. The editing was professional; I only found a couple of errors throughout my reading. For a book of over 600 pages (EPUB version), this was commendable. Consequently, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. The author rambling on about her personal life is a subjective issue and not enough to deduct a star from the rating. I recommend this book to all students of psychology and politics. Any person interested in mind control, propaganda techniques, crowd behaviour, or cult dynamics will find this book an exciting and enlightening read.

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The Followers
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[Aarti Jha]

"Any person interested in mind control, propaganda techniques, crowd behavior, or cult dynamics will find this book an exciting and enlightening read"- This is the reason this book appealed to me. Thank you for sharing your genuine thoughts.

[Mayur Arjune]

The followers must think before following someone, they should think critically with reasoning. The review also explain this.

[Maliha Naveed]

Seems to be an interesting read. Cult cultures hide so much in them that needs to come out in front.

[Suzer6440 xyz]

This really sounds like an interesting read. Thanks for the detailed review . This is going on my shelf for future reading

[Sou Hi]

Thanks for your interesting review. Humans tend to move with the crowd and succumb to sweet words, especially when they feel lonely or distress. It's good that the author is brave enough to discuss this topic.