1
00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,440
Speaker 1: Trust me? Do you trust me? Right?

2
00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:05,520
Speaker 2: Ever lead you astray?

3
00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:09,080
Speaker 1: Trust? This is the truth, the only truth.

4
00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:12,160
Speaker 2: If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't

5
00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:16,240
Speaker 2: welcome to trust me. The podcast about cults, extreme belief

6
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,280
Speaker 2: and manipulation from two celestial beings. We've actually experienced it.

7
00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:24,200
Speaker 2: I'm lol Oblanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. If you're a

8
00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,520
Speaker 2: bad Mormon, you're a telestial being. Eh. No one gets

9
00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,920
Speaker 2: that joke. Okay. This week our guest is Celeste Gross,

10
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,720
Speaker 2: survivor of the Children of God aka the Family. She

11
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:37,440
Speaker 2: is going to share what it was like growing up

12
00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:39,880
Speaker 2: in the cult along with her many siblings who all

13
00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,600
Speaker 2: talk about it on TikTok. She'll explain to us how

14
00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:44,440
Speaker 2: her parents joined when it still just seemed like a

15
00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,800
Speaker 2: beautiful gospel movement that helped her dad get sober, and

16
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:50,000
Speaker 2: what it was like living on the commune in Brazil,

17
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,639
Speaker 2: living off of donations, with every part of life controlled

18
00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,000
Speaker 2: down to how many squares of toilet paper they were

19
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:55,640
Speaker 2: allowed to use.

20
00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,480
Speaker 3: We're going to get into the media band the group

21
00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 3: imposts and how only the songs and TV shows made

22
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,200
Speaker 3: by the group were allowed other than two very specific movies,

23
00:01:06,360 --> 00:01:07,480
Speaker 3: which will surprise you.

24
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:08,800
Speaker 2: So let us will tell.

25
00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:11,840
Speaker 3: Us about how her family became homeless overnight after they

26
00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,920
Speaker 3: finally left in the extreme hardships they faced while trying

27
00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:16,640
Speaker 3: to rebuild a life from nothing.

28
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:21,080
Speaker 2: That's right, And before we hear Celeste share her story,

29
00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:23,600
Speaker 2: I would love to know your cultest thing of the week, Megan.

30
00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:28,160
Speaker 2: My cultest thing of the week is billionaire Peter Teal.

31
00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,320
Speaker 2: Oh you know him. We love Peter Teal, billionaire Peter Till.

32
00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 3: And I had high hopes for Peter Till, you know,

33
00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:37,880
Speaker 3: kind of like a good looking gay billionaire.

34
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:39,479
Speaker 2: I thought maybe it did.

35
00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:43,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought, at least you serve us like some gadsbeed,

36
00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,880
Speaker 3: do you know what I mean? Like, I thought something

37
00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,560
Speaker 3: other than what is happening. M I'm getting my information

38
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 3: off of CNN. So Peter Teal is in Rome. It

39
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,960
Speaker 3: says near the Vatican. He's not at the Vatican because

40
00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,400
Speaker 3: to quote mean, girls like you don't even go here.

41
00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:01,840
Speaker 3: They don't want anything to do with him. But he

42
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,760
Speaker 3: is near it at a quote unquote undisclosed location, talking

43
00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 3: and giving lectures about the Antichrist. Now what is the Antichrist?

44
00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:16,360
Speaker 3: According to Peter, I'll tell you it's going to look

45
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:20,639
Speaker 3: like peace. What it's going to look like people being

46
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:25,560
Speaker 3: anti technology and anti and anti climate change. And do

47
00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:30,840
Speaker 3: you know who Peter has seen as being somebody not

48
00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:36,160
Speaker 3: the Antichrist in particular, but is Antichrist adjacent and probably

49
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 3: working with the Antichrist. Who Greta Thunberg.

50
00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,800
Speaker 2: Oh, of course she's the anti Christ. How would she

51
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:45,200
Speaker 2: not be the anti Christ?

52
00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 3: Our little Swedish peace activist who's on a mission to

53
00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:54,480
Speaker 3: bring clean water and food and peace to the world

54
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,040
Speaker 3: is actually just a part of the greater scheme in

55
00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:02,399
Speaker 3: this Antichrist movement that will look like something good to us.

56
00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,079
Speaker 3: So I'm just going to say, Peter, if you're listening

57
00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:09,360
Speaker 3: to this, and I know you are, please go to

58
00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:11,520
Speaker 3: the woods. You need to go deep into the woods.

59
00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,639
Speaker 3: You need to do mushrooms by yourself, a hero dose.

60
00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,720
Speaker 3: We need you to go into the woods, Peter, and

61
00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,680
Speaker 3: maybe stay there while you're at it, just to stay

62
00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,320
Speaker 3: in the woods until your heart opens and speaks to you.

63
00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:29,760
Speaker 3: You'll know what it is and when you can come back.

64
00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:31,440
Speaker 3: That's very generous of you.

65
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:35,000
Speaker 2: Thank you. So yeah, that's what's happening.

66
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,800
Speaker 3: And it just feels like a third of the world

67
00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:41,880
Speaker 3: is in complete religious psychosis right now, as far as

68
00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:44,800
Speaker 3: he goes, I don't think in my mind that he

69
00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:48,320
Speaker 3: actually believes any of this. I think he's just trying

70
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,600
Speaker 3: to stir up that Christian but he.

71
00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:54,160
Speaker 2: Does go to church, like it's interesting.

72
00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:55,840
Speaker 1: I know, I'm like, do you.

73
00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,000
Speaker 2: I don't know whoever knows? Though, you know, whoever knows

74
00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 2: when someone is in that has that much power, like

75
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,320
Speaker 2: they could believe anything, and they could be scheme. It

76
00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:06,680
Speaker 2: could all be a scheme. They could believe it. I

77
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:07,800
Speaker 2: have no fucking idea.

78
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:10,960
Speaker 3: And yeah, the more power you have, the more likely,

79
00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:14,080
Speaker 3: it feels. I haven't done this study, but it feels

80
00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:16,800
Speaker 3: like you just start believing weirder and weirder shit. Sorry,

81
00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,039
Speaker 3: I mean, you do have less empathy. You do connect

82
00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:20,880
Speaker 3: less to the plight of others.

83
00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,279
Speaker 2: That is that has been shown over and over and

84
00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,320
Speaker 2: over again and research, so like maybe when you are

85
00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:32,200
Speaker 2: less connected to others, that's more conducive to developing weird

86
00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:35,839
Speaker 2: beliefs about people who do care about others or something.

87
00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:36,240
Speaker 1: You know.

88
00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:38,960
Speaker 3: I guess I'm you know, in my research, I still

89
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,640
Speaker 3: have yet to really understand what he thinks is good,

90
00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:43,680
Speaker 3: like what does.

91
00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:46,599
Speaker 2: He want for society? Because it's not peace. It stands

92
00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:50,200
Speaker 2: his own wealth. He wants to justify, however, to maximize

93
00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:53,280
Speaker 2: his giant pile of money. It's just very strange.

94
00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:58,040
Speaker 3: I know, put it mildly, but uh yeah, Peter, like

95
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:01,560
Speaker 3: I said, please go to the I love go to

96
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:04,360
Speaker 3: the woods as just like a general refrain that we

97
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,920
Speaker 3: can say about anyone like being fucking crazy.

98
00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:15,719
Speaker 2: Just go to the woods. Take a little time. Yeah,

99
00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:18,760
Speaker 2: go get away from your money for one second. Yes,

100
00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:23,120
Speaker 2: go to the woods. My god, Forrest. It's like go

101
00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,720
Speaker 2: to the mattresses, but go to the go somewhere and

102
00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,200
Speaker 2: just touch the grass. In fact, it's the opposite of

103
00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:31,080
Speaker 2: go to the mattresses.

104
00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,120
Speaker 3: Well yeah, wow, yeah, what about you, what's your closiest

105
00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:34,640
Speaker 3: thing of the week.

106
00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:40,640
Speaker 2: Uh well, so some folks might remember that a little

107
00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:42,599
Speaker 2: bit ago, maybe a year or two ago, I was

108
00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:44,280
Speaker 2: talking about this stuff that was going on with my

109
00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,679
Speaker 2: mom and what she was doing in this FLDS town.

110
00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:51,080
Speaker 2: And finally you are all going to get to see

111
00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:55,320
Speaker 2: exactly what happened. It's so crazy. There is a docuseries

112
00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:59,360
Speaker 2: coming out that ironically is called Trust Me, but it

113
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:02,960
Speaker 2: is not our series, although I do I think I

114
00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,479
Speaker 2: am in it and my song is in it. But

115
00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:07,719
Speaker 2: it is called trust Me, the False Prophet, and it

116
00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:10,960
Speaker 2: is on Netflix. It drops April eighth, and it follows

117
00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:16,840
Speaker 2: my mom's journey entering this historically FLDS town as an

118
00:06:16,839 --> 00:06:21,159
Speaker 2: outsider and how she kind of came to earn the

119
00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:23,400
Speaker 2: trust of the people, which was a whole other that

120
00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,120
Speaker 2: could be a whole episode on its own. Yeah, and

121
00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:29,400
Speaker 2: then the new prophet decided to ask her and my

122
00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:33,080
Speaker 2: stepdad if they would start filming him, and of course,

123
00:06:33,400 --> 00:06:38,239
Speaker 2: over time they realized that he was engaging in illegal acts,

124
00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,280
Speaker 2: and my mom contacted the authorities. At first, she was

125
00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:43,599
Speaker 2: told she didn't have enough evidence, so then she started

126
00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:48,000
Speaker 2: collecting evidence and went officially undercover. And spoiler alert, the

127
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,119
Speaker 2: man is now in prison and you guys can watch

128
00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:55,360
Speaker 2: the whole story on April eighth. The trailer looks amazing.

129
00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:59,240
Speaker 2: I've not seen the series. I think it's it's gonna

130
00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:03,080
Speaker 2: be a very very dramatic one. So that is Michael,

131
00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:04,880
Speaker 2: do you sing the week? Yes?

132
00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:06,839
Speaker 3: I cannot wait to see it. The name will not

133
00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,680
Speaker 3: be hard to remember. It is called trust Me, So

134
00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:12,840
Speaker 3: just type that into Netflix. When does it come out?

135
00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:13,040
Speaker 1: Again?

136
00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:14,560
Speaker 2: Did you already say that? I did, but I'm going

137
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,960
Speaker 2: to say it again. It's April eighth, and I just

138
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,520
Speaker 2: want to shout out all of the women and girls

139
00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:23,720
Speaker 2: who came forward with their stories and were able to

140
00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,480
Speaker 2: break free from this man and take him down, because

141
00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 2: there is a whole group of incredible, strong survivors who

142
00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,520
Speaker 2: were a part of this, and yeah, I'm excited for

143
00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,280
Speaker 2: y'all to get to see all of their stories.

144
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:37,880
Speaker 1: You know.

145
00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:40,520
Speaker 3: The thing that's so annoying is that this man rose

146
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,080
Speaker 3: to power because Warren Jebs went to prison. Then this

147
00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:45,520
Speaker 3: man's going to go to jail, and I just really

148
00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:47,680
Speaker 3: hope that the buck stops here.

149
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's just like I feel like in religions

150
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,440
Speaker 2: where the premise and the foundation of them are that

151
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,160
Speaker 2: someone just had a vision and then told people that.

152
00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:01,520
Speaker 2: Just unfortunately, I think just intrind leaves room for new

153
00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,120
Speaker 2: people to do that. It's like until or unless you

154
00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:07,440
Speaker 2: eliminate the fundamental belief system, that someone can just deem

155
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,200
Speaker 2: themselves the leader. Like, how do you stop that? And

156
00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:13,240
Speaker 2: maybe we can talk about that with my mom when

157
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:15,720
Speaker 2: we have her on Yeah, hopefully in a few weeks.

158
00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:17,400
Speaker 2: Yeah that is the question.

159
00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:20,360
Speaker 3: Well, again, I can't wait to see it and I

160
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:22,520
Speaker 3: can't wait for y'all to hear this interview.

161
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:37,439
Speaker 2: What's celess? Let's get into it. Welcome Celeste gross to

162
00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:39,839
Speaker 2: trust me. Thank you for joining us, Thank you for

163
00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,760
Speaker 2: having me so Megan found you on TikTok? Is that

164
00:08:42,840 --> 00:08:46,560
Speaker 2: right correct? Because you and your siblings have been sharing

165
00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,920
Speaker 2: your stories about your childhood in the Children of God

166
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:51,320
Speaker 2: also known as the Family.

167
00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:52,439
Speaker 1: Yes.

168
00:08:52,559 --> 00:08:54,840
Speaker 2: Can you start us at sort of the beginning of

169
00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,800
Speaker 2: your family's journey and tell us how your parents met

170
00:08:58,800 --> 00:08:59,960
Speaker 2: and how they originally joined.

171
00:09:00,760 --> 00:09:04,800
Speaker 1: My father is American born in Baltimore, Maryland. My mom

172
00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:10,040
Speaker 1: is Brazilian born in San Paulo, Brazil. My father joined

173
00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:15,040
Speaker 1: the cult. He was kind of living on the streets.

174
00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:17,920
Speaker 1: He didn't really he was into drugs. My father had

175
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,839
Speaker 1: a very chaotic childhood as well, was abandoned by his

176
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:25,640
Speaker 1: parents when he was super young. So at a very

177
00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,600
Speaker 1: young age, he just was kind of living on the streets,

178
00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:32,160
Speaker 1: kind of no direction, and he met this group that

179
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:38,640
Speaker 1: he describes us. He says they saved his life. So

180
00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,880
Speaker 1: he had no direction, he had no home, he had nothing,

181
00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:45,800
Speaker 1: he had no family, and they took him in and

182
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:50,240
Speaker 1: he felt communion and he felt a sense of belonging,

183
00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:53,400
Speaker 1: and he met it was a beautiful movement at the time,

184
00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:57,840
Speaker 1: where all these young hippies in the sixties got together

185
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,160
Speaker 1: and just read the Bible and sing a lot, but

186
00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:05,520
Speaker 1: also party like. But he was into it, and so

187
00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:09,960
Speaker 1: he started traveling and ended up in South America somehow

188
00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,320
Speaker 1: with the cult. He joined the cult. I think he

189
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:18,199
Speaker 1: was around nineteen or twenty when he joined. My mother

190
00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:23,600
Speaker 1: in Brazil also came from a very chaotic family and upbringing.

191
00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:28,000
Speaker 1: So her brother, my uncle George, he was a seeker

192
00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,160
Speaker 1: and he invited her one day. He said, I met

193
00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:33,280
Speaker 1: this very cool group. They live in a communion, and

194
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,280
Speaker 1: they invited us for like some devotion and some time

195
00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:39,120
Speaker 1: at their space. Let's go. So he took my mom.

196
00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:41,600
Speaker 1: Little did she know that that was one of the

197
00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:47,120
Speaker 1: meetings they had, like gatherings, let's say, for outsiders to

198
00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:51,160
Speaker 1: come and see how they lived. And my mom instantly

199
00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,080
Speaker 1: fell in love. I don't know if she fell in

200
00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:56,160
Speaker 1: love where if she maybe just saw a hope of

201
00:10:56,200 --> 00:11:00,160
Speaker 1: a better living and a better future since she grew

202
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:05,520
Speaker 1: up in such like a bad environment. So shortly after

203
00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,160
Speaker 1: meeting this group, she went home. She told my grandmother

204
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:10,760
Speaker 1: she was leaving, she packed her bags and she joined

205
00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:14,240
Speaker 1: the cult like overnight. Wow. And at one point my

206
00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,920
Speaker 1: parents met because my dad traveled through South America. Eventually

207
00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:21,760
Speaker 1: he made his way to Brazil to So Paulo and

208
00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:27,120
Speaker 1: met my mother at one point. My mother was twenty

209
00:11:27,160 --> 00:11:30,960
Speaker 1: and my dad was twenty five, I guess at that point.

210
00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,160
Speaker 1: So that's how my parents met.

211
00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:36,280
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's such a good illustration of how

212
00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:40,680
Speaker 2: people don't join something that they think is a cult.

213
00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:44,280
Speaker 2: They joined something that seems to really be offering answers

214
00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:46,640
Speaker 2: to what they're looking for or in need of in

215
00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:50,400
Speaker 2: their lives. So your dad got sober in the Children

216
00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:51,960
Speaker 2: of God basically yes?

217
00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:52,600
Speaker 3: Wow?

218
00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,840
Speaker 2: I mean yeah, like going from not having a home

219
00:11:56,040 --> 00:12:00,440
Speaker 2: and being not sober when you really need be, to

220
00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:02,959
Speaker 2: having not only a home but like a family and

221
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,320
Speaker 2: a community and you know, getting some stability to help

222
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:08,720
Speaker 2: you get that sobriety. I mean, of course that sounds great.

223
00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:11,160
Speaker 2: Sign me up. I would do the same in his position,

224
00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:13,560
Speaker 2: you know, and in your mom's as well. We've covered

225
00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:15,360
Speaker 2: the Children of God before, but it's been a minute.

226
00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,040
Speaker 2: So was there like a larger mission or like a

227
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,080
Speaker 2: greater like what were the beliefs of the children of God.

228
00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:24,960
Speaker 1: H My parents said it was very beautiful in the beginning,

229
00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:29,000
Speaker 1: and innocence in a way. Their mission was just preached

230
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,120
Speaker 1: the Gospel to every creature, so they would just like

231
00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,880
Speaker 1: go and talk to people about Jesus, but like in

232
00:12:35,920 --> 00:12:37,400
Speaker 1: a very innocent way.

233
00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:38,440
Speaker 2: M hm.

234
00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:41,240
Speaker 1: That's all they described it in the beginning. Also, I

235
00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,439
Speaker 1: think my parents were pretty naive in the beginning when

236
00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:46,040
Speaker 1: they first joined right.

237
00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:50,040
Speaker 3: And in the beginning, were they living on compounds? Was

238
00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:51,160
Speaker 3: everybody living together?

239
00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, my parents say that there were lots of people

240
00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:57,800
Speaker 1: living in compounds, and then there were people that lived

241
00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,320
Speaker 1: with families, two or three families in a house. So no,

242
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,719
Speaker 1: not that big. We lived through every kind of situation.

243
00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,560
Speaker 1: We lived in compounds with up to eighty people, and

244
00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:11,160
Speaker 1: at times we shared our house with two or three

245
00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:14,200
Speaker 1: other families. But for the most part that I could remember,

246
00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:17,400
Speaker 1: we lived in bigger houses with a lot of people.

247
00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:19,960
Speaker 1: But my parents, I think in the beginning it was

248
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:21,360
Speaker 1: smaller compounds.

249
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:23,280
Speaker 2: Would it be like on a ranch, like with a

250
00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:25,840
Speaker 2: farm a commune, or would this be like in the city.

251
00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:28,960
Speaker 1: It would be bolls. It would usually be on the outskirts,

252
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:32,200
Speaker 1: but we lived off of donations, but so it was

253
00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:35,760
Speaker 1: really what they could get. But they could actually get

254
00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,040
Speaker 1: some very nice houses. It was like not really a house,

255
00:13:39,080 --> 00:13:42,000
Speaker 1: it was like a compound with a guest house, with this,

256
00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,680
Speaker 1: with that, but still very crowded.

257
00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:48,680
Speaker 2: How would they convince people to donate enough money for

258
00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:50,560
Speaker 2: a living situation like that.

259
00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,880
Speaker 1: Well, I think they used the kids a lot. Like

260
00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,480
Speaker 1: we would sing. They would line us up and we

261
00:13:56,480 --> 00:14:00,600
Speaker 1: would sing in front of strangers, like let's say the

262
00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:03,120
Speaker 1: owner of a grocery store, and they would go to

263
00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:05,800
Speaker 1: the grocery store and say, hey, we are from the

264
00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:10,080
Speaker 1: children of God, and we our missionaries, and our mission

265
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:13,680
Speaker 1: is to save the world and preach the gospel, and

266
00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:17,360
Speaker 1: we rely on donations, and here are the kids, And

267
00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,720
Speaker 1: then the kids would all line up and sing, and

268
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:23,080
Speaker 1: of course people I think the kids were the biggest bait.

269
00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,080
Speaker 1: But it's crazy because they got homes, giant homes, compounds,

270
00:14:30,120 --> 00:14:38,760
Speaker 1: donated cars. Everything everything was donated, food, all the beds, blankets,

271
00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,320
Speaker 1: everything you needed to live was donated to us.

272
00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,800
Speaker 2: It was incredible. Who was running Who's in charge?

273
00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,560
Speaker 1: The guy that found it was David Berg back in

274
00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:54,720
Speaker 1: the sixties in California, but then it spread worldwide. At

275
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,400
Speaker 1: one point, I think when it had the most followers,

276
00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:00,720
Speaker 1: it had over fifty thousand followers, so it was worldwide.

277
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,760
Speaker 1: So it was set up where the hierarchy where this

278
00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:07,240
Speaker 1: guy is in charge of this whole cult and the

279
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:10,960
Speaker 1: whole city. But then each home would have so each

280
00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:14,320
Speaker 1: layer of it had a person in charge. But everything

281
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:18,840
Speaker 1: came from David Moe the MO letters that he would write,

282
00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,240
Speaker 1: and he would send out to all the homes telling

283
00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:26,280
Speaker 1: us exactly how to live, exactly how much toothpaste to

284
00:15:26,400 --> 00:15:28,960
Speaker 1: use to brush your teeth, how many squares of toilet

285
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:32,560
Speaker 1: paper to use, how you fooled your t shirt? Everything, wow,

286
00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:36,280
Speaker 1: everything he would dictate and everybody would just follow what

287
00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:40,400
Speaker 1: he wrote. So he was the mastermind. And then there

288
00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,880
Speaker 1: were people below him, but he was always up here.

289
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,600
Speaker 1: But he never showed his face. No one knows where

290
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,120
Speaker 1: he lived because also there was a lot of prosecution,

291
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,920
Speaker 1: so he always hid right, but he controlled everyone through

292
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:55,000
Speaker 1: his MO letters.

293
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,840
Speaker 2: What do you remember of your childhood like? What was

294
00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:12,920
Speaker 2: day to day life like in these different places.

295
00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,120
Speaker 1: I remember my siblings a lot, because there were seven

296
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:18,680
Speaker 1: of us and we're all super close in age, so

297
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,240
Speaker 1: I remember we were separated into age groups. So I

298
00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,400
Speaker 1: would be in the dorm with all the eight through

299
00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,640
Speaker 1: ten year olds, and then my siblings would be in

300
00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:32,600
Speaker 1: another one and another one, and we would all share

301
00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:36,320
Speaker 1: dorms that had bunk beds that were three bunk beds,

302
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,960
Speaker 1: so we would all could fit in a room. And

303
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,880
Speaker 1: we always had one person responsible of taking care of us,

304
00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:47,600
Speaker 1: a teacher or someone that would watch us. We were

305
00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,600
Speaker 1: separated in groups of like twelve to fifteen kids, and

306
00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:54,040
Speaker 1: we would just live together in this dorm, and we

307
00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:57,720
Speaker 1: were homeschooled many hours a day. In the morning, so

308
00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,840
Speaker 1: our routine was essentially we would wake up, we would

309
00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,040
Speaker 1: go to this hall where everyone would be there having breakfast,

310
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,879
Speaker 1: so like eighty people having breakfast at once. Breakfast was

311
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:12,359
Speaker 1: always pretty disgusting because it was, like I remember, they

312
00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:15,720
Speaker 1: would put these fried eggs on trays, but like hundreds

313
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:18,560
Speaker 1: of fried eggs and they would all pop together, yo.

314
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,119
Speaker 1: And we would always eat what was donated to us.

315
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:26,040
Speaker 1: So let's say we were donated boxes of green bell

316
00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,560
Speaker 1: peppers that were like half rotting. We would clean them out.

317
00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:31,919
Speaker 1: They would they would line us up. We would clean

318
00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:35,160
Speaker 1: out the rotting pieces, and we would eat green bell

319
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:39,200
Speaker 1: peppers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so it always depended

320
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,920
Speaker 1: like what was donated to us that week or whatnot.

321
00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,520
Speaker 1: We would have breakfast and then we would I believe,

322
00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:47,720
Speaker 1: we would go to Bible study for an hour or

323
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:51,879
Speaker 1: two after breakfast. From there we would be homeschooled for

324
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 1: four or five hours a day. We would have one

325
00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,119
Speaker 1: hour to play in the afternoon, and then we would

326
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,720
Speaker 1: have dinner, and then we would to have more Bible time,

327
00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,040
Speaker 1: like the whole home together, and then we had about

328
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,639
Speaker 1: one hour to spend with our parents in their room

329
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,560
Speaker 1: before we had to go to our dorms and sleep.

330
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:12,040
Speaker 1: And that was like every day.

331
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:14,879
Speaker 2: So you weren't living with your parents. You were living

332
00:18:15,160 --> 00:18:17,480
Speaker 2: in dorms with kids your own age, right.

333
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, but our parents lived in the house, okay, But

334
00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:26,800
Speaker 1: our parents, like every adult in that house had a job.

335
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,240
Speaker 1: So some adult jobs were to take care of the kids.

336
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 1: Others were to go and get donations, all others were

337
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 1: to cook there. So my parents were always doing something

338
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,760
Speaker 1: that they had to do, whatever their duty was, but

339
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,879
Speaker 1: they weren't taking care of us. We were handled by

340
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:47,080
Speaker 1: other people that were responsible for that.

341
00:18:47,600 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 2: How early was breakfast?

342
00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 3: How early were they waking people up, Like, how busy

343
00:18:52,119 --> 00:18:54,560
Speaker 3: were they keeping everyone, because that seems like a full schedule.

344
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:57,639
Speaker 1: Yeah, we stayed pretty busy. There was not much time

345
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: like in the afternoon, we had time to lay outside

346
00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,840
Speaker 1: after being homeschooled, but we also had chores so like

347
00:19:04,880 --> 00:19:07,440
Speaker 1: they would give us like for example, you're gonna clean

348
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,119
Speaker 1: this and that, and we would clean for hours. We

349
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,720
Speaker 1: didn't have much time to goof off.

350
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't sound like it. And when you say homeschool, like,

351
00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:19,560
Speaker 2: what's the curriculum? Is it like real school?

352
00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:20,520
Speaker 3: Is it?

353
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:21,200
Speaker 2: David Berg?

354
00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,000
Speaker 1: So when I was nine years old that I left

355
00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:29,240
Speaker 1: and I went to real school, I was really bad

356
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:32,679
Speaker 1: at some subjects, but then in other subjects I was

357
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:37,399
Speaker 1: super advanced, more than people in regular school. But it

358
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:42,399
Speaker 1: was definitely not like a regular school. Definitely had a

359
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:46,160
Speaker 1: lot of English because everyone in the cults, no matter

360
00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,760
Speaker 1: where we lived, our common language was English, even though

361
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: I grew up in Brazil, but everyone in our home

362
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 1: spoke English, so we learned a lot of English. We

363
00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,199
Speaker 1: learned a lot of the Bible too, even though we

364
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:00,600
Speaker 1: were in school. But it there was a lot of

365
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:06,119
Speaker 1: Jesus in that school, so we didn't learn things like science,

366
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 1: right I don't think they believe in science. We were

367
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 1: taught about evolution. We were taught that the whole we

368
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:18,320
Speaker 1: didn't come from monkeys. So they had their own agenda.

369
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:22,359
Speaker 1: It wasn't regular. It wasn't a normal school like at all.

370
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:24,320
Speaker 1: It was a lot weaker.

371
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:26,679
Speaker 2: And there was just someone one of the adults was

372
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 2: designated to like teach you guys.

373
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:33,080
Speaker 1: Basically. Yeah, they weren't necessarily a teacher, they were just Jenny.

374
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:38,080
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that the English was the required language, that

375
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,040
Speaker 3: the mall letters would be more accessible.

376
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:41,960
Speaker 2: Is that the deal.

377
00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:45,640
Speaker 1: No, Because they made their materials in every language. They

378
00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:49,399
Speaker 1: translated to every language. We had posters that we would sell,

379
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 1: We had cassette tapes, we had videos with all the

380
00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,320
Speaker 1: material that we would also sell to make money. And

381
00:20:56,359 --> 00:21:00,360
Speaker 1: they would come in Japanese and Portuguese and Spanish and English.

382
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:04,240
Speaker 1: I don't know why why they decided that eating baby

383
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:10,200
Speaker 1: because they David Berg was American, so he wanted everyone

384
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: to speak that language.

385
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 2: Yeah.

386
00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:15,639
Speaker 1: It was good though, because we all learned English living

387
00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 1: in Brazil, so in a way it was a good thing.

388
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,440
Speaker 2: And this was such an international movement, right, Like there

389
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:25,760
Speaker 2: were many countries that had outposts of this group.

390
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,800
Speaker 1: Yes, so I think they wanted to have a language

391
00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,440
Speaker 1: in common that everyone could because there were people from

392
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,200
Speaker 1: all over the world, and I think they wanted everyone

393
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 1: to be able to understand each other at the end

394
00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:38,480
Speaker 1: of the day.

395
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:48,120
Speaker 3: Did different communes compounds of countries have different rules, Oh no.

396
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,680
Speaker 1: We all followed. We all followed the same rules.

397
00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,359
Speaker 2: Because the letters would go to everyone and everyone would

398
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:55,160
Speaker 2: have to follow them.

399
00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:55,800
Speaker 1: Yes.

400
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 2: Did anyone in your family ever meet David Berg?

401
00:21:59,280 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: No? Wow?

402
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 2: What did you picture him to be like when you

403
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:04,240
Speaker 2: were younger? Well?

404
00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 1: He he In those MO letters, they were all like

405
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 1: they had hand drawn images, so it was kind of

406
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,840
Speaker 1: a cartoon character that he made for himself. And in

407
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 1: this cartoon character, he has this big beard, so in

408
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 1: my mind that that was him, But I've googled his

409
00:22:23,040 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 1: face in these MO letters he looks like this nice,

410
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:31,719
Speaker 1: little like grandpa with big white beard, kind of like

411
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:36,040
Speaker 1: Santa Claus. And but yeah, he in real life he

412
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 1: looks a little crazy.

413
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,479
Speaker 2: That's so, are you looking him up right now?

414
00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:42,760
Speaker 1: Yeah?

415
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,919
Speaker 2: What's the vibe? I mean, he definitely has photos with

416
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 2: his very long beard where he looks Santake, But then

417
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:53,720
Speaker 2: there's like him just like surrounded by girls. Yeah, yeah,

418
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 2: and creepy very Warren Jeff's type picture.

419
00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,119
Speaker 3: What do you think was so special about him that

420
00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 3: got people united?

421
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:06,439
Speaker 1: I really don't understand, Like I feel like people some

422
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: people are just so lost and they're just looking for

423
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:12,240
Speaker 1: someone that pretends like they know what they're doing.

424
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,359
Speaker 2: Well that you just hit the nail on the head

425
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 2: in a more simplistic way than I've ever heard it,

426
00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 2: and you're completely correct. Yes, yeah, Okay, So he wasn't

427
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:30,440
Speaker 2: these letters or his speeches weren't incredibly invigorating or smart or.

428
00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:37,240
Speaker 1: No they no. Yeah. I can't imagine, at me as

429
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 1: an adult ever seeing that in my life and being like, Wow,

430
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 1: this man has all the answers. I'm going to blindly

431
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:46,760
Speaker 1: follow him.

432
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 2: I mean, it must have just really been about the people.

433
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:52,159
Speaker 2: It sounds like that's what it was for your parents.

434
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 2: I think that's what it was for.

435
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:54,040
Speaker 1: A lot of people.

436
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 2: It's like, Oh, these wonderful people who care about me

437
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 2: are following this thing, so see like it's working for them,

438
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 2: I'm going to do it too. I think that's just

439
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 2: like so incredibly powerful, And we forget that sometimes in

440
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 2: the conversation about colts because we do focus so much

441
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 2: on the charisma of the leader, but then there's so

442
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 2: many cases like this where the leader's not even there

443
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 2: and yeah, these great people that you want to hang

444
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:18,200
Speaker 2: out with and live with.

445
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:22,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think also the idea of rebelling against

446
00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:27,160
Speaker 1: the normal world of working making money. So they had

447
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:31,160
Speaker 1: all this free I'm free, we live off of donations.

448
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: There's not that responsibility of following a nine to five

449
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: like everyone. We're better than that. I know it was

450
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:42,120
Speaker 1: very attractive for my dad because my dad never really

451
00:24:42,160 --> 00:24:45,800
Speaker 1: wanted to work. He wanted the easy life, so he thought, oh,

452
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 1: that's that's convenient. I don't have to work.

453
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you're working pretty hard, I imagine on the.

454
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,959
Speaker 1: Yeah, you work, but maybe because it's not a normal

455
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 1: job like most people that maybe they thought it's not work.

456
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 2: It still feels rebelly, as I can imagine.

457
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:05,440
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

458
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 2: Do you remember what your parents' responsibilities were, like, what

459
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 2: they were assigned to.

460
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 1: I know my dad at some point he was high

461
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:16,600
Speaker 1: up on like the in charge of the home we

462
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 1: lived in. He was one of the leaders. At some point.

463
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,119
Speaker 1: I remember my parents taking a lot of trips. I

464
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,919
Speaker 1: don't know what those trips entailed. Our parents have a

465
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 1: lot of They have some shame in the subject. They

466
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: never fully shared what they would do on the on

467
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,679
Speaker 1: those trips, but they said they were like faith trips

468
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,400
Speaker 1: where you go when you find donations. I guess. But

469
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,800
Speaker 1: my parents weren't around for a lot a lot of times,

470
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 1: and we never really knew what they were doing.

471
00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 2: Interesting, Yeah, did you feel close to them? Did you

472
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 2: feel close to your siblings, Like, how did it feel

473
00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 2: in your family?

474
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 3: Uh?

475
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: Definitely close to my siblings because we were so close

476
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,600
Speaker 1: in age, and we would see a lot more of

477
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 1: each other than we would see our parents. Like if

478
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: we even saw our parents, it was maybe one hour

479
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 1: or two hours a day max. But I don't remember

480
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 1: necessarily not feeling close to my parents. I just thought

481
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: that's how it is. I didn't feel necessarily abandoned by them.

482
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: I just was like, oh, we're taken care of. There's

483
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 1: someone watching us.

484
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,760
Speaker 3: You bring up a great point, which is that if

485
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,840
Speaker 3: you don't know anything else, everything feels normal.

486
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, like we had, we had lots of

487
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:33,760
Speaker 1: aunties and uncles to us, like we were taken care

488
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,480
Speaker 1: of by everyone. Everyone was kind of our aunt and uncle.

489
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,679
Speaker 1: It was just a communal thing. Everyone took care of

490
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: everyone's kids, took care, did whatever they wanted. But yeah,

491
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 1: like we were everyone's kids right.

492
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,679
Speaker 2: In a way that sounds fun, I know. I'm like,

493
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 2: oh bag family.

494
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:57,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, all of these things have like such seeds of wonderfulness.

495
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, because there were some nice people. So like the

496
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,919
Speaker 1: people that took care of us that were nice, we

497
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 1: loved to this day, we remember their names. But then

498
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: there were a lot of people with bad intentions too,

499
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: so we were exposed to both. Yeah.

500
00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you believe in it? I mean, obviously you

501
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 2: were very young you left when you were nine, but

502
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 2: or your family did. But do you remember feeling like

503
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 2: it was like the true church? Like David Berg was

504
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,199
Speaker 2: a real prophet. It was he a prophet? Yeah, he

505
00:27:29,320 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 2: was a self proclaimed prophet, right.

506
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, he called himself a prophet. Yeah. I didn't think

507
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:39,840
Speaker 1: anything of him. Honestly, I love that because I didn't know.

508
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was to me like, okay, I

509
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: didn't know I was in a cult. Yeah, like I fat,

510
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 1: that's just how everyone lives.

511
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 2: It wasn't like a religious belief that was like drilled

512
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:55,119
Speaker 2: into you necessarily, No, it was.

513
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,640
Speaker 1: But when you grow up like that and that's all.

514
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,679
Speaker 1: You know, we only realized those things after we left,

515
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: when you're when we were in there, was like, okay, whatever,

516
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: we just follow whatever we're told. We do what we

517
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:12,160
Speaker 1: were supposed to do. We don't know. Oh, this is different.

518
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 2: Right when I was growing up, because I grew grew

519
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 2: up a mainstream Mormon, which is separate from my what

520
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:24,040
Speaker 2: I call my cold experience. But Mormons are baptized at

521
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,359
Speaker 2: the age of eight, at least they were when I

522
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:30,080
Speaker 2: was Graham, and you're you're asked to make a decision

523
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 2: about your faith. So I'm like five six years old

524
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,159
Speaker 2: and I'm like, yes, I have faith. I hear the

525
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 2: angels for sure, definitely definitely believe in Joseph, you know,

526
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,760
Speaker 2: like it was so it was so like a part

527
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 2: of our world. But also that like Mormonism is very

528
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 2: specific and that you're like asked to bear your testimony

529
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 2: in front of everyone to talk about how you believe

530
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 2: the church is true, and there's a lot of pressure

531
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 2: to do it.

532
00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you don't even know what you're saying. You're

533
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: just being fed and what you hear them saying, You're like, okay, yeah,

534
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,040
Speaker 1: as a child, you don't even know what that means.

535
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 3: No, no, yeah, no, you have your own enner monologue

536
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 3: about what it means. But you're also a child who

537
00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 3: is making up adult themes.

538
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, and trying really hard to feel the

539
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 2: correct thing that I'm supposed to. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

540
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,720
Speaker 2: When you would sing in a line to the strangers,

541
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 2: what did you think, like was that fun? Was that weird?

542
00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 2: Like it could be fun? Yeah?

543
00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: It was like people loved it. They would be like, oh,

544
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:44,240
Speaker 1: so cute. I remember being so so shy, like very shy,

545
00:29:44,720 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 1: but we didn't really have a choice, so we just

546
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:52,080
Speaker 1: sang like kind of moping. My dad would my dad

547
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: would be like, smile, like show some enthusiasm. So then

548
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: we would be like, yeah, whatever, but but people love

549
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: they're so cute all the kids, or when it was

550
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,960
Speaker 1: like sometimes it was us and the other kids from

551
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: the same home. Sometimes it would be just me and

552
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: all my siblings. So then people were always like impressed, like,

553
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 1: oh seven, oh do you remember what you sang? What

554
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: we sang Jesus songs from the cults?

555
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 4: Oh?

556
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember. We had all our own music,

557
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: our own TV shows because we weren't allowed anything from

558
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:26,240
Speaker 1: the outside.

559
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 2: Oh what were the TV shows?

560
00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: Ah, they were like there's videos, you can YouTube it.

561
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: There's like all with like a lesson in the end.

562
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: I was watching one the other day and I was like,

563
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: oh my god, it brought back memories, like because the music.

564
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: We watched it over and over and over again. It's

565
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,440
Speaker 1: like a regular child watching Hannah Montana or whatever. But

566
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,959
Speaker 1: ours were Jesus shows made by the cult members and

567
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 1: that's all we had access to.

568
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,280
Speaker 2: Wow, oh my god, I'm so curious. I can't wait

569
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:03,400
Speaker 2: to watch on a boat. That's wild. I had no

570
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,200
Speaker 2: idea fascinating it.

571
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: Was everything we had. But it was funny because they

572
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,239
Speaker 1: allowed us to watch two movies growing up, because I

573
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: remember well, because it was the only thing that was

574
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: not their material that we were allowed to watch, actually

575
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: three movies. One was Wizard of Oz from all which

576
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:25,080
Speaker 1: has so much symbolism and it has the evil monkeys

577
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:27,280
Speaker 1: and it has a witch. So how could they even

578
00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:28,240
Speaker 1: allow us to watch that?

579
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 3: Awards controlling us as a liar, It's actually so funny.

580
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,320
Speaker 1: Okay, Like when I think of that, I'm always like,

581
00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 1: how how was that one of the only ones allowed?

582
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,040
Speaker 1: It makes no sense? And then we could watch a

583
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 1: Pollyanna Okay, it's it's an old movie, old old movie.

584
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:53,480
Speaker 1: And we could watch c C it's an old movie too,

585
00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 1: And those were the only three things we were allowed.

586
00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 4: What CC, Yeah, what's CC is she's in And I

587
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 4: don't remember the word, but empress okay in Germany or something,

588
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,320
Speaker 4: and it's a it makes no sense, but yeah, from

589
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 4: all of them, the Wizard of Oz was the funniest one.

590
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,680
Speaker 1: But other than that nothing.

591
00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 3: Was there any secular music allowed? Or was it just

592
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 3: the cult hems?

593
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: Just cult music?

594
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 2: Who's making this cult music? David all by himself?

595
00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 1: Or no? Because there was a lot of people that

596
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 1: are part of our members that have talent that are musicians.

597
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 1: My father, for example, he was a musician. So they

598
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: would sing a lot. They love to sing and play instruments. Yeah.

599
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,400
Speaker 1: So yeah, they made up all their Jesus music.

600
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:41,280
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I know.

601
00:32:41,520 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: They They would sing and they would put concerts, and

602
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:48,960
Speaker 1: they would record cassettes and sell the cassettes and people

603
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 1: would buy them.

604
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,160
Speaker 2: Too, Wow, like outsiders would buy them.

605
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 1: Uh huh huh.

606
00:32:54,200 --> 00:33:00,479
Speaker 3: We and our cult would make tapes of ourselves singings.

607
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:05,280
Speaker 2: We would not sell them. We would just share them with.

608
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 3: Each other so that other people could be tortured by

609
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 3: the sound of us singing. And but like some families

610
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 3: would be such good singers, and those tapes would be

611
00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 3: like really flown around, you know, like how widespread are

612
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 3: they going? Stay to stay, stay to stay? Crossing the

613
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,480
Speaker 3: state lines? Yeah, I mean sometimes you just couldn't wait

614
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 3: to get your hand on one of those tapes.

615
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:31,720
Speaker 2: You you really.

616
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 1: You know.

617
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, But we weren't making up our own songs. It's

618
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 3: cool that you guys, I mean cool. It's it's interesting

619
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 3: that you were allowed to be like this is a

620
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 3: new hymn.

621
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:44,760
Speaker 2: I just made it up.

622
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: Yeah.

623
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds like yeah, it sounds like everybody was kind

624
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:50,440
Speaker 3: of going on the fly a little bit. Yeah, like

625
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:51,200
Speaker 3: doing their own thing.

626
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:51,760
Speaker 1: Yeah.

627
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 3: It sounds a little bit more rebellious, which was what

628
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:55,440
Speaker 3: attracted your father.

629
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's just except that the toilet paper squares.

630
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, So how many toilet paper squares were people allowed.

631
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: To have in the Children of God? Two when you

632
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:10,360
Speaker 1: peet and three when you poop?

633
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 2: That's it, that's not enough. How did you choose that?

634
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,759
Speaker 1: I don't know. And it was donated toilet paper, which

635
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: was usually the cheapest.

636
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:23,720
Speaker 2: One, oh my god, the thin kind.

637
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,879
Speaker 1: No. But in Brazil we had the days so.

638
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 3: Oh oh okay, okay, okay, that's I guess what else

639
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:32,520
Speaker 3: was like?

640
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 2: Odd?

641
00:34:34,120 --> 00:34:38,080
Speaker 1: Well, we were not allowed any so no kind of

642
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: processed food, which in a way, I don't see that

643
00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 1: as a negative thing. Uh, I'm not into processed food,

644
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 1: and I know it was because of the way I

645
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 1: grew up. So no sugar whatsoever. Nothing. It was just

646
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:57,800
Speaker 1: whole foods and vegetables and fruits and no access to TV,

647
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 1: no access to we could not listen to rad We

648
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:05,440
Speaker 1: had no contact with outsiders or very limited contact to

649
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,960
Speaker 1: outsiders like our family members, our cousins. We would see

650
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:11,560
Speaker 1: them maybe once a year. We would barely see them.

651
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 2: What would you do for fun?

652
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: Like?

653
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:16,279
Speaker 2: What was recreation time? Like?

654
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: Sometimes they would have parties where we would like light

655
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 1: the griw and real sardines or whatever was donated to us,

656
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:27,719
Speaker 1: and we would build fires and we would they would

657
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: play music and all the kids would be playing and

658
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:34,759
Speaker 1: we had like parties with that. It would just be

659
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: music and everybody dancing. So there were some parties sometimes,

660
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: but obviously no alcohol. Sardine parties, yeah, so.

661
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 3: No alcohol no, Yeah, were you guys hungry because the

662
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:53,080
Speaker 3: pepper's half cut up? And yeah, this is not sounding

663
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 3: very fulfilling.

664
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know that we were hungry. I remember

665
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: one time we went thirsty because the water. Something happened

666
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 1: with the water and we couldn't get water, and we

667
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,040
Speaker 1: went to sleep that night with no water. We were

668
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 1: without drinking water for almost twenty four hours. I remember

669
00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: I was so thirsty. I thought I was gonna and

670
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 1: my mom was like, just fall asleep and then it

671
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 1: won't be thirsty anymore. Oh my gosh. And then the

672
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: next day we woke up and there was water. But

673
00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: I don't remember food being an abundance. But I also

674
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:29,240
Speaker 1: don't remember going hungry. But like my uncle, he's an outsider,

675
00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 1: and he would send us boxes because my aunts and

676
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:35,799
Speaker 1: uncles would feel bad for us, so they would send

677
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 1: us a box of goodies. And we never saw those

678
00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:41,359
Speaker 1: boxes of goodies. They would take it and they would

679
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 1: give it to the pregnant women because the pregnant women

680
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: had a refrigerator that belonged only for them, and they

681
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:51,840
Speaker 1: got all the treats so they could eat chocolate, they

682
00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 1: could eat everything that ice cream.

683
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:59,600
Speaker 3: It makes sense. That's incentivizing people to be pregnant. Yeah,

684
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:03,279
Speaker 3: make more babies. Well, and was that a big part?

685
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:05,239
Speaker 3: I mean obviously, like in your family, that's a lot

686
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,759
Speaker 3: of children. Notoriously, there were a ton of children and

687
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 3: children of God, many of whom were being abused. But

688
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 3: was the like pro create and have a lot of kids, like,

689
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:14,400
Speaker 3: was that like a big part of the culture.

690
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: Oh, for sure, my mom had seven, but there were

691
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: women in there with sixteen twenty one babies.

692
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 4: Wow.

693
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:23,320
Speaker 1: Oh yeah?

694
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 2: And are these all home births most of the time?

695
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, most of the time homebirths, or my mom had

696
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: us in clinics too, She would go to clinics, but

697
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:38,080
Speaker 1: a lot of home births, and like, for example, my

698
00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:41,319
Speaker 1: mom would always be nursing one of her babies and

699
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: another random baby, so it was very communal. The women

700
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: wouldn't have milk, so then the other women would breastfeed

701
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: everybody's babies. Wow.

702
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 2: So your dad got kicked out right?

703
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:56,960
Speaker 1: Yeah?

704
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:58,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened?

705
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: They demoted my father because they said that he had

706
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 1: temper issues and he was a very angry person, and

707
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: he was not happy with that. He was very brideful,

708
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: and he got very angry and he decided to leave,

709
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:22,279
Speaker 1: and they said, okay, well your wife doesn't have to,

710
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: just you, your wife and your kids can stay. But

711
00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: then my mom said, no, if my I'll go where

712
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,640
Speaker 1: my husband is going. If he's leaving, we're all leaving.

713
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: And they said, okay, you're on your own then, So

714
00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:39,600
Speaker 1: overnight we were homeless and we had nothing to our

715
00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 1: names except my parents owed a VCR, a VCR DVD

716
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 1: like the two and one. That's the only thing they owned.

717
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:52,200
Speaker 1: So they sold that and with the money, we crossed

718
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,799
Speaker 1: the country. My mom got us nine bus tickets and

719
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:58,879
Speaker 1: she had barely enough money for like enough water, enough

720
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 1: food for us to cross the country for thirty hours

721
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:06,120
Speaker 1: in a bus to go to the city where my

722
00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: grandmother lived on the other side of the country, and

723
00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,959
Speaker 1: my grandmother took us in, all nine of us, into

724
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 1: her two bedroom house overnight.

725
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, So what is that like to go

726
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 3: from one world to a complete like talk about the

727
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:22,800
Speaker 3: Wizard of Oz.

728
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:24,160
Speaker 2: What did that feel like?

729
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 1: Yeah? I don't even know, Like I think I was

730
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,240
Speaker 1: just so young and I didn't understand what was happening.

731
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 1: My oldest sister she understands everything. She understood everything that

732
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: was going on. But like I was so young at

733
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: the time that I didn't really follow what was happening.

734
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 1: I just kind of went with the flow. I think

735
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: it took us about six months for us to understand

736
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,680
Speaker 1: we had left and our parents just trying to like

737
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 1: put one foot in front of the other and yeah,

738
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was a huge, huge shock when we realized,

739
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,840
Speaker 1: okay this we're out. Okay now what?

740
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:02,680
Speaker 2: Oh my god? First of all, thank god they had

741
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:06,960
Speaker 2: that VCRDVD combo, because like, what the hell would you

742
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,240
Speaker 2: guys have done? And also I can't believe that paid

743
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:11,840
Speaker 2: for that many tickets for all of you. Yeah, it

744
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 2: seems like such a stressful journey, both for you guys

745
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 2: and as your parent Like, oh my god, Like.

746
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:21,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, my parents had absolutely nothing to their names, Like

747
00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: we I have a picture of us in the bus

748
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:29,360
Speaker 1: station the day we were traveling across across the country.

749
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: We all had just like a little grocery bag with

750
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 1: our belongings. That's all we owned. That's all we had.

751
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,080
Speaker 2: Wow, because nobody really owned anything in the cult, right

752
00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 2: because everyone's everything was everyone's.

753
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, so maybe like we all owned like two changes

754
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: of clothes and a toothbrush, so that was it. Oh

755
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:53,279
Speaker 1: my gosh, yeah.

756
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 2: Wow, So how did your parents rebuild their lives and

757
00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,799
Speaker 2: like find a home? Like what happened then?

758
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:05,560
Speaker 1: So much happened, So much happened that it's crazy. We

759
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: almost went hungry. We lived in the middle of the

760
00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: slum in a one bedroom for all nine of us.

761
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,480
Speaker 1: We went through so much. We had our house robbed

762
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: while we were sleeping and the thief like entered through

763
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,319
Speaker 1: the window where all me and my sister was were

764
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,920
Speaker 1: sleeping naked because we were it was so hot, and

765
00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:29,399
Speaker 1: these thieves came in. We had our little grocery bag

766
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: of whatever belonged to us. These thieves came in in

767
00:41:33,280 --> 00:41:34,960
Speaker 1: the middle of the night. We had just moved in

768
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,759
Speaker 1: two days ago, and they took our grocery bags. So

769
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:41,560
Speaker 1: we wake up the next day and the grocery bag

770
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: we had with our tooth press in our clothes is gone.

771
00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 1: Oh my god, my dad's my dad's only set of

772
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:54,880
Speaker 1: clothes that he had to go look for work is gone. No, literally,

773
00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:00,680
Speaker 1: like we had nothing, like nothing. So the neighbors come

774
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:02,840
Speaker 1: and they say, hey, I think we found your stuff

775
00:42:02,840 --> 00:42:04,879
Speaker 1: in the in the alley back there, and we go

776
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: and the thieves were so dumb that they threw the

777
00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:10,359
Speaker 1: only thing the value that we had was my dad's

778
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:14,520
Speaker 1: American passport. They disposed of the passport behind the house.

779
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:19,120
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, but like we had nothing to steal,

780
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 1: but they managed to steal like literally our only change

781
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,480
Speaker 1: of clothes. So it was not easy. We went through

782
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: a lot of things until I don't know, maybe five

783
00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:35,160
Speaker 1: years after we left, my parents somehow managed Like my

784
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:38,280
Speaker 1: dad started to teach English because that's the only skill

785
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: he had, He's American in Brazil. He was like, I

786
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 1: could teach English, that's easy. And my mom just stayed

787
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 1: at home trying to raise us, cooking three meals a

788
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,040
Speaker 1: day and dealing and we were like kind of going

789
00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 1: crazy when we discovered that there was a whole world

790
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:57,680
Speaker 1: out there and we started being exposed to it, and

791
00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:01,400
Speaker 1: we it was just wow.

792
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,800
Speaker 2: What, yeah, what was your first day of school?

793
00:43:03,840 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 4: Like?

794
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,600
Speaker 1: Well, first, when we first left my mom, my mom

795
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:12,680
Speaker 1: she volunteered at this seven day Adventist school, and in exchange,

796
00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:15,320
Speaker 1: we all went to Adventist school for two three years

797
00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:19,239
Speaker 1: because my parents really wanted to keep us like protected.

798
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 1: But after a few years, two three years, that didn't

799
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,640
Speaker 1: work anymore. So then we went to public school, and

800
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: my first year in public school, I was beat up

801
00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 1: at the exit of school. I was so naive. We

802
00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: were so naive. We were like these innocent kids. We

803
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 1: knew nothing, and people looked at us and they were like,

804
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 1: where did you guys come from? Like well, rock were

805
00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 1: you living under? Because we didn't know, we didn't know,

806
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:46,479
Speaker 1: we had no.

807
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 2: Reference, right, where was this?

808
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 1: This wasn't in San Paulo in Brazil. It was. It

809
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: was not easy. But then we stopped telling people we

810
00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:00,720
Speaker 1: grew up in a cult because people would really treat

811
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:04,040
Speaker 1: us like aliens. And it was not our fault, but

812
00:44:04,080 --> 00:44:06,160
Speaker 1: we carried a lot of shame. I carried a lot

813
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:09,279
Speaker 1: of shame. I know my siblings did too, so I

814
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell people anymore. And I think part of it

815
00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:14,759
Speaker 1: was just trying to put it behind us and be

816
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,440
Speaker 1: normal and move on. So we I think in the

817
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 1: beginning we didn't We didn't consider the trauma or what

818
00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:28,719
Speaker 1: where the complications of growing up in a cult. To

819
00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 1: us was like, Okay, this happened, and my parents never

820
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 1: really talked about it, like, oh that was crazy. Now.

821
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 1: My parents were just like, Okay.

822
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:39,279
Speaker 2: That's all. That's moving on.

823
00:44:39,680 --> 00:44:43,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm moving on. Yeah, yeah, like okay.

824
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:45,879
Speaker 2: I mean, in in fairness, they were in survival mode.

825
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 2: It sounds like for quite some time, which is like

826
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:50,360
Speaker 2: very destabilizing.

827
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:51,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

828
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 2: So many people come out of cults and are like

829
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:57,839
Speaker 2: your parents, where they like they don't have anything, they

830
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 2: don't have a job, they don't have any resources. Sometimes

831
00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 2: they don't even have family relationships. And that can be

832
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:07,640
Speaker 2: just such crisis mode. And I really feel for anyone

833
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:09,200
Speaker 2: who who's had to go through that.

834
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, no life skills, Yeah, out of nowhere. You're in

835
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:15,960
Speaker 1: the normal world and you're like, Okay, what am I

836
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:17,960
Speaker 1: gonna do? I have seven kids to feed and I

837
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:23,000
Speaker 1: have zero dollars right, nothing to my name? My gosh,

838
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 1: what are they gonna wear? Are they gonna sleep? We

839
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:26,279
Speaker 1: had no beds?

840
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:27,319
Speaker 2: Oh my god.

841
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 1: Wow. My grandmother and like my aunts and uncles, they

842
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:33,840
Speaker 1: would try to help us. They would send us money,

843
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 1: but like every month we would have the lights cut out,

844
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,560
Speaker 1: the water, no money to buy groceries. We were laid

845
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,480
Speaker 1: on rent. Like my parents couldn't get it together. It

846
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,920
Speaker 1: took a very, very, very long time for us to

847
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:51,719
Speaker 1: have any kind of like idea of something semi stable, right,

848
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 1: my parents were never good to this day. They're not

849
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 1: good with finances and money, and they never really prepared

850
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:01,959
Speaker 1: for the future. Sure they kind of just live every day.

851
00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 1: And now they're older and now they look back and

852
00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:08,399
Speaker 1: they're like, wow, we really didn't think this through in

853
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,240
Speaker 1: our minds. We were told Jesus was going to come back,

854
00:46:11,320 --> 00:46:15,560
Speaker 1: and we don't have to worry about doing anything. We

855
00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:18,520
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about getting an education, about trying

856
00:46:18,520 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 1: to be a save money retirement because yeah, so now

857
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:28,720
Speaker 1: they're starting now they realize what they've done the forty

858
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:29,959
Speaker 1: years thirty years later.

859
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Megan talks about that a lot. I mean,

860
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:37,960
Speaker 2: I won't speak for you if you feel like no. Similarly,

861
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,359
Speaker 2: that's how I grew up thinking. And then I see

862
00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 2: a lot of kids, like my friend's kids also thinking

863
00:46:45,120 --> 00:46:48,320
Speaker 2: that way, just because of like global warming or you're like,

864
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 2: what do you want to be and they're like, I

865
00:46:49,400 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 2: don't fucking I'm not going to be an adult and

866
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:52,440
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, get got it.

867
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 3: So you can just see how it spread that kind

868
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 3: of thinking in many different forms.

869
00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 2: So it's hard enough to take care of your finances

870
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:07,000
Speaker 2: when you don't believe in a doomsday. Yeah, Like, I

871
00:47:07,040 --> 00:47:08,920
Speaker 2: don't know how anyone does that. I'm really bad on

872
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 2: it as it totally totally looking back on your experiences now,

873
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,960
Speaker 2: obviously you know you and your siblings have this TikTok

874
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 2: where you all are sharing your stories, and I can

875
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:22,600
Speaker 2: imagine that's helpful to be able to kind of mind

876
00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:25,319
Speaker 2: meld on it and process what happened to all of you.

877
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,239
Speaker 2: How did those experiences shape you as you grew up

878
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,680
Speaker 2: and became an adult, Like, how do you think of

879
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:32,200
Speaker 2: them now?

880
00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for them in spite of it all because

881
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 1: I am incredibly resilient, adaptable. I can read the room

882
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,279
Speaker 1: like no one. Growing up like that gave me a

883
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:49,920
Speaker 1: lot of gifts, just having to survive, having to be resourceful,

884
00:47:50,680 --> 00:47:56,600
Speaker 1: having to just get over it. Because of that, I

885
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,719
Speaker 1: think growing up in a cult too, I don't like men.

886
00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:03,799
Speaker 1: Don't trust men because I saw what men do, like

887
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:09,239
Speaker 1: my dad and my father included unfortunately, like what they

888
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,640
Speaker 1: do to kids, what they have, abusive of power, they

889
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 1: can be. So I'm very, very careful when it comes

890
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:22,400
Speaker 1: to men. And I don't know it's I say, what

891
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 1: doesn't care you make you stronger? So I started that

892
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:28,799
Speaker 1: TikTok account maybe one year ago. My siblings, it's like

893
00:48:29,080 --> 00:48:33,760
Speaker 1: pulling teeth, but I want them to participate more. Hopefully

894
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:35,600
Speaker 1: they will, But I told them, I said, you know,

895
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 1: we need we need to talk about it because this

896
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:41,560
Speaker 1: is our story and we kind of we don't talk

897
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:44,520
Speaker 1: about it. We kind of rush it under the rug.

898
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:47,719
Speaker 1: And it's something we all shared. It's like we all

899
00:48:47,760 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 1: survived it. So it was actually really cool. So far,

900
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,759
Speaker 1: it really helped. We were part of two other podcasts

901
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:57,960
Speaker 1: where we all participated, and I think it helped us

902
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,239
Speaker 1: to start heal as a family. Although my parents are

903
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:04,360
Speaker 1: really not happy about that idea. I told them, you know,

904
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,640
Speaker 1: it's our story and we have the right to tell it.

905
00:49:07,960 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

906
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 3: When did you first realize, like, oh, that experience was

907
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:14,920
Speaker 3: so unusual and.

908
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:18,839
Speaker 2: So like it was a cult. Yeah, what was that?

909
00:49:19,040 --> 00:49:22,200
Speaker 1: Like? It took me a long time to realize how

910
00:49:22,239 --> 00:49:26,360
Speaker 1: crazy that experience was. Like sometimes I'm talking to my sister,

911
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:29,360
Speaker 1: because my oldest sister, she's the one Michelle, she remembers

912
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 1: the most, she saw the most, she felt the most,

913
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:34,880
Speaker 1: So me and her will be reminiscing and to this

914
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:36,960
Speaker 1: day we talk about it and then we just look

915
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:42,920
Speaker 1: at each other and we're like, what the fuck? Like what, Oh,

916
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:46,520
Speaker 1: this is crazy? Like what we went through is crazy

917
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 1: now that we look back at it with the knowledge

918
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,680
Speaker 1: of what's normal and what's not normal. So every day

919
00:49:54,719 --> 00:49:57,239
Speaker 1: I'm still impressed when I think back, And the more

920
00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 1: I talk about it, the more memories them back. Because

921
00:50:00,840 --> 00:50:04,960
Speaker 1: I repressed these memories for so long. It's been very

922
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 1: interesting to re remember and talk about it. And now

923
00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:14,360
Speaker 1: that we're adults, just see how those experiences shaped us.

924
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:18,399
Speaker 1: Like we all went through the same experience, but all

925
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 1: seven of us, we all have a like a different

926
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,760
Speaker 1: version of it or a different perspective of it, which

927
00:50:23,800 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 1: makes it really interesting.

928
00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:29,840
Speaker 3: It's an incredible story, and I'm just amazed at how

929
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 3: the whole family was able to get out and how

930
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:36,920
Speaker 3: you guys are now working together and sharing the story.

931
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:39,720
Speaker 3: And I want everybody to follow you. Where can people

932
00:50:39,760 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 3: follow you?

933
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 1: Yeah? So we have a TikTok account and our handle

934
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 1: is seven siblings in a Cult, seven being number seven.

935
00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:50,120
Speaker 1: So TikTok seven siblings in a.

936
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:52,360
Speaker 2: Cult And you're a chef now, right.

937
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:54,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a private chef.

938
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:54,720
Speaker 2: Cool.

939
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 1: I think, like growing up with that horrible food make

940
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:02,440
Speaker 1: me want to like, yeah, grow up.

941
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:07,719
Speaker 2: And make good understandable. Yeah, Well, thank you so much

942
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:13,240
Speaker 2: for joining us, Thank you so much. My my, my, my,

943
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:16,719
Speaker 2: my my. Well we've talked about children have got before,

944
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 2: and I know Megan that you would not this wouldn't

945
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:22,520
Speaker 2: be your particular type of cult that you would join. No,

946
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:27,160
Speaker 2: but you had something about oh wait, sorry, zoom zoom

947
00:51:27,239 --> 00:51:29,600
Speaker 2: is giving me a weird notification. We noticed you've spoken

948
00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:31,360
Speaker 2: Oh what the hell? No, okay, sorry, that was what

949
00:51:31,520 --> 00:51:37,439
Speaker 2: we noticed. You've spoken ill of Peter. Oh my god,

950
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 2: he's in the computer. Okay. You had something about the

951
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:49,759
Speaker 2: movies you were allowed to watch growing up.

952
00:51:50,239 --> 00:51:54,319
Speaker 3: Yes, so, being raised and the two by twos, we

953
00:51:54,320 --> 00:51:57,640
Speaker 3: weren't allowed to have a television or access to any media.

954
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 3: And what we did have was a little tiny VCR

955
00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:06,799
Speaker 3: that was like very much hidden. We really weren't allowed

956
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,640
Speaker 3: to watch it very much. But we had a tape

957
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:13,160
Speaker 3: and it was the care Bears tape. Oh and there

958
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:16,359
Speaker 3: was this boy in this particular tape that was called

959
00:52:16,440 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 3: Evil Heart. He was like a very evil little boy

960
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 3: the care Bears had to make good. But I was

961
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,480
Speaker 3: madly in love with him because he was like a bad.

962
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:31,080
Speaker 3: Oh my, god of course, I'm three years old.

963
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:31,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

964
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 3: Cut to twenty years later, I'm doing an internship. I'm

965
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:37,440
Speaker 3: in a big city and I turn around and who

966
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:39,920
Speaker 3: do I see sitting behind me? Keep in mind that

967
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:45,840
Speaker 3: this is a cartoon, but I see the complete.

968
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:47,959
Speaker 2: Lookalike of the cartoon version of Evil Heart.

969
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:53,719
Speaker 3: Okay, and so I go up to him and I'm like,

970
00:52:54,000 --> 00:52:56,239
Speaker 3: oh my god, you look like and He's like, I know.

971
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:58,279
Speaker 3: And it turned out he was an actor and a

972
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:00,759
Speaker 3: TV show, but I'd never seen the TV show because

973
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:03,080
Speaker 3: I didn't watch TV. And I was like, no, you

974
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:05,759
Speaker 3: look like Evil Heart from the care Bear movie. And

975
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:07,640
Speaker 3: he was like what.

976
00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 2: And then we started dating for a very very long time.

977
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:12,760
Speaker 2: He's the reason.

978
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:16,760
Speaker 3: Yes, this man ended up being the reason I stayed

979
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:21,279
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles after I got done with rehab and

980
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:24,400
Speaker 3: ended up staying here and living here. So I had

981
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:27,600
Speaker 3: a very big impact in my life. And he's still

982
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 3: one of my best friends. He looks exactly like Evil Heart.

983
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,520
Speaker 3: That is, if you want to he won't mind being

984
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,719
Speaker 3: he won't mind being named. He was playing Sark in

985
00:53:36,920 --> 00:53:39,319
Speaker 3: Alias at the time, the bad guy in Alias. And

986
00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 3: if you want to look up Sark Alias and care Bearers,

987
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,399
Speaker 3: Evil heart, you will see that they are the.

988
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:49,920
Speaker 2: Same person in my mind. Oh, I totally see it.

989
00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:53,480
Speaker 2: I totally see it, Like he just needs redd er hair,

990
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:56,440
Speaker 2: just if he had brown hair. Yeah, this reminds me

991
00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:00,680
Speaker 2: of the kid from Toy Story who every do you

992
00:54:00,760 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 2: know about the actor who looks just like the kid

993
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,319
Speaker 2: from Toy Story? And everyone thought he literally was the

994
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 2: actor from the Toys Story And it's like he was

995
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:12,120
Speaker 2: a cartoon. Also, he was like a baby when that

996
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 2: movie came out. Wait, what is the name of the actor?

997
00:54:14,719 --> 00:54:18,200
Speaker 2: Hold on, The character is Sid Phillips, but the actor

998
00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 2: is Will Poulter. Do you know Will Polters?

999
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 3: Yes?

1000
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,240
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh my god, Oh my god. Yes, Will Poulter

1001
00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:30,080
Speaker 2: is literally exactly the evil kid from Toy Story. But

1002
00:54:30,280 --> 00:54:34,080
Speaker 2: he's obviously not. There was like a mass delusion from

1003
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 2: all of us, including myself, but like, oh yeah, the

1004
00:54:37,520 --> 00:54:39,360
Speaker 2: guy from Toys Story.

1005
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:43,560
Speaker 3: Well I can relate because I literally was like I

1006
00:54:43,600 --> 00:54:46,479
Speaker 3: can't believe I'm dating the guy from the care Beer movie.

1007
00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:50,000
Speaker 3: And then I was like, you're not because it's a cartoon.

1008
00:54:50,480 --> 00:54:54,360
Speaker 3: But inside I really thought that I was so shout

1009
00:54:54,360 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 3: out to uh two cults limiting your movies to very

1010
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:02,680
Speaker 3: small things and making their own.

1011
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:05,879
Speaker 2: Because it led to a led to a whole new life.

1012
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 2: Let's a love that's so nice. Yeah. I was allowed

1013
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:12,600
Speaker 2: to watch movies and listen to music, but oh, okay,

1014
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 2: show off. Sorry, but there was a Mormon book series

1015
00:55:16,800 --> 00:55:20,360
Speaker 2: called Tennis Shoes among the Knee Fights that I was

1016
00:55:20,600 --> 00:55:23,640
Speaker 2: obsessed with. And have I talked about this before? I'm

1017
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:26,240
Speaker 2: sure I have, But it's like a kid's go time

1018
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:29,919
Speaker 2: traveling into like the book of Mormon days Tennis Shoes

1019
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:32,879
Speaker 2: among the New Fights. Can I tell you the audiobook

1020
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:36,600
Speaker 2: on long road trips? Listening to this in the car

1021
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 2: like nothing has ever. I haven't loved anything that much

1022
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:45,280
Speaker 2: since Peak experience. Totally. Dang, there's some good Mormon content,

1023
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 2: just saying well, while.

1024
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:50,960
Speaker 3: I wouldn't join the children of God, I will join

1025
00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:53,239
Speaker 3: the people who think cartoons are real.

1026
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,920
Speaker 2: And yeah, the mind is a crazy, crazy place, so true.

1027
00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:00,600
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you so much, thanks for listening to

1028
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 3: another episode of Trust Me. We appreciate you so much.

1029
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:05,440
Speaker 3: Rate us five stars if you can, if you want to,

1030
00:56:05,760 --> 00:56:08,600
Speaker 3: and as always, remember to follow your gut, watch out

1031
00:56:08,640 --> 00:56:09,920
Speaker 3: for rad flags.

1032
00:56:09,640 --> 00:56:16,879
Speaker 2: And never ever trust me Hi later. This has been

1033
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:18,960
Speaker 2: an exactly right production hosted by.

1034
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:22,480
Speaker 3: Me Lola Blanc and me Megan Elizabeth. Our senior producer

1035
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:22,800
Speaker 3: is G.

1036
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:25,400
Speaker 2: Holly. This episode was mixed by John Bradley.

1037
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,880
Speaker 3: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain, and our guest booker

1038
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 3: is Patrick Kuttner.

1039
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:32,680
Speaker 2: Our theme song was composed by Holly amber Church.

1040
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:36,719
Speaker 3: Trust Me as executive produced by Karen Kilgareth Georgia hart

1041
00:56:36,760 --> 00:56:38,080
Speaker 3: Stark and Danielle Kramer.

1042
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:40,560
Speaker 2: You can find us on Instagram at trust Me podcast

1043
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:42,880
Speaker 2: or on TikTok at trust Me coult podcast.

1044
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:46,279
Speaker 3: Got your own story about cults, extreme belief, our manipulation.

1045
00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 3: Shoot us an email at trustmepod at gmail dot com.

1046
00:56:49,680 --> 00:56:52,600
Speaker 2: Listen to trust Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1047
00:56:52,719 --> 00:57:00,799
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts