I can't fathom you having lived this many years on your own 1) with an intuitive awareness (knowing) that your family is centered in a cult and devoted to its leader; and 2) without the support and validation of other adult children of premies in similar circumstances or any former followers. Discovering all this so recently (11 days as 13 just posted) after so many years of that kind of isolation and privately held perspectives with no validation or sounding boards must be an incredible relief, to say the least. Even I feel a bit overwhelmed contemplating how it must feel.

Your enthusiasm takes me back to when I first began reading this forum. Day after day of misty eyes as my world suddenly expanded beyond anything I ever thought possible (and I had Knowledge!) - after the initial shock of coming to terms with the fact that I'd been duped and trapped in a cult wore off.

My advice for today: enjoy that overwhelming sense of relief and be thankful that your inner warning system got it right from the very start:

It only took me thirty-six years to arrive at that conclusion. (I keep telling folks here that I'm a bit slow on the uptake! ) And I couldn't even have done that without the enormous help and courage of the posters on this forum.

And I can surely be that witness from 1975 all right. I didn't even begin to tell the stories of children given Hindu names by premie parents who were bummed-out because they couldn't drop everything and move into the ashram... and so on.

Thank you for your kind words.

Bob