'How do you explain to people you've just been on such a ride for years! '
Once upon a time we imagined we were special, devotees of the lord of the universe, knowers of his secret knowledge.
The longer I've been out of the cult the less extraordinary it seems. It was one cult amongst very many (when I realised it was a cult, I remember thinking that at least it wasn't the Moonies, which is clearly crazy, as if the cult I'd just left was mitigated by being somehow more reasonable or logical!). How many cults are there? I don't know where to draw the line between a cult and a religion. And I regard many aspects of nationalism and sport to be rather cultish too.
I met a fellow a couple of weeks ago who on hearing of the sudden death of a friend immediately quit the job he'd been doing for the last thirty years, with the idea he didn't want to waste even one more day on it. Some people wake up to the unpleasant realisation that their partner isn't at all that lovable, and is perhaps a bit of a bastard, and everything changes for them.
I think leaving the cult isn't after all so unusual or unique. Many people have experiences that are similar in some ways. OK, there were some fairly unique features in our experience, but maybe they're not the important features.
I do remember feeling like I rejoined the human race, only later to think, actually, I never left it. The ability to believe nonsense, a suseptabilty to being deceived and manipulated, a willingness to suspend our critical faculties... we're all full of it, or at least most of us are. It's a big part of the human experience.
One consolation of having been in a cult of thousands though, is that we have each other. Which has got to be easier than waking up to a long held delusion that was all yours and yours alone.
