This is a copy of the newsletter that was sent out on November 7th, 2025.
I do not believe in coincidences.
Over the last two months, I sat down with three different people who almost made a terrible mistake. Two were new therapy clients from different countries. The third is a sharp, high-performing executive coach who came to me for mentoring.
These are smart, grounded professionals. Strong pillars in their respective communities. Yet they almost signed away their freedom to a group that promised them an extravagant outcome.
I see a clear pattern here. Cults are making a comeback in the self-help sphere.
We live in unstable times. Prices climb. Politics fail. The rules we grew up with vanished. Social media fuels the fire, broadcasting curated perfection that makes us feel obsolete. Then experts predict the end of freedom—militarized artificial intelligence and totalitarian slavery.
Such speculation creates a shared, global anxiety. We need security more than we need food or sex. We panic before the unknown, ignoring the fact that history repeats the same cycles it has followed for the last 10,000 years.
There are organizations that use this anxiety for profit.
When we say “cult,” we picture the classic archetypes. We remember Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. We recall the Osho commune and religious fanatics. Moreover, we expect a savior in robes chanting psalms. We look for predators who commit pervasive assaults disguised as consensual acts.
If you link the word “cult” with only the extreme or the occult, you will overlook the true danger.
The modern cult promotes success by offering financial freedom, enlightenment, elimination of anxieties and fears, dating prowess, or internet fame.
The leader presents themself as a “super-achiever,” as someone who has beaten the system and is eager to help you do the same, but only for a share of your profits, which is why you are inclined to believe in their authenticity.
The followers think of themselves as “high performers.” They believe the leader has the blueprint to fix their stress. They are inducted (through the strategies below) to accept the group as the only way to get the power they lack in real life.
This is the trap. We naturally seek out a tribe of high performers. We want to stand among equals who share our drive and values. We find safety in that membership.
These groups run like major marketing firms. They start by giving you value.
It often begins with a “free” session. It might be a workshop on real estate, a seminar on dating, or a “breakthrough” therapy session. Occasionally they call it a networking event.
They use their current members to reel you in. This is their best trick. You might ignore a stranger. But when your cousin or best friend tells you, “You have to come; it changed my life/business,” you listen. You trust them, so you trust the event.
The setup is always the same.
You go to a free or almost-free event. The energy is high. The room is full. The speakers are charismatic. They give you solid advice at first. They prove their expertise. They offer encouragement and promise to stand by you.
They make you feel lucky to have found them. You feel relieved to find people who share your values, your goals, and can instantly help you overcome your most pressing challenges.
Then something changes.
The sessions go on for hours. You get very few breaks. The temperature in the room is often kept too cold or too hot, which makes you uncomfortable. They hammer you with complex and often deliberately confusing information and intense emotional drills. They wear you down until you are completely exhausted.
By the end of the day, you feel drained. Your defenses are gone. Your B.S. detector stops working.
That is when they pitch the “real” solution. The first seminar was just a taste. The real change happens in the “Inner Circle” or the “Mastermind.”
They push you to buy immediately. The price is low for what they promise—maybe under $1,000 for four days with food and materials included. It looks like a fantastic deal. You assume the paid seminar offers even more value than the free one.
Their senior members surround you. They look you in the eye. They ask if you are serious about your success. In your worn-out state, you cave. You sign the paper. You hand over your credit card.
You are hooked. You become an official “member.” Your brain accepts this status as part of your identity.
Once you become a member, the process of brainwashing begins.
I spent decades studying neuro-linguistic programming. I can clearly see and analyze the tools they use. They use the same methods I teach for therapy, but they use them to control fatigued minds. They manipulate you to create a dependency on the group.
I made this list for you and the people you care about. Watch for these exact behaviors:
- They train you to associate the leader’s voice with euphoria (stacking anchors). You start believing you need them just to feel fulfilled.
- If you raise a real concern, they will dismiss it as “internal resistance.” They insist your doubts prove your spiritual or psychological weakness.
- The speaker often incorporates embedded commands into casual stories, frequently using conversational hypnosis misdirections. Your brain follows the command while you consciously only hear an anecdote.
- The group forces you to use their made-up words. It rewires your thinking processes.
- Sometimes, in some groups, the trainers or their senior assistants would scream at you or humiliate you, then immediately switch to intense praise (love bombing). This emotional whiplash triggers your survival instincts and forces you to comply just to feel safe again.
- They agree with your reality completely at first (pacing), then use that trust to lead you to radical conclusions.
- When you’re completely exhausted, after a few intensive days of this “advanced” training, they orient you to be against your family.
- They ban writing notes because they want you in a trance rather than analyzing what they say.
- They make you feel guilty for wanting to be alone or even leave the event, casting the outside world as “cold” and the group as “safe.”
- They frequently employ a military tactic that holds each member accountable for the group’s well-being. This created a sense of hesitation to rock the boat, driven by genuine respect and concern for one another.
- They teach you to ignore your gut and trust the process instead of yourself.
- They describe the loss of your personal boundaries as an essential step in your “transformation.”
- On the first chance they get with you individually, they would call your family and friends “toxic” and pressure you to cut ties with anyone who questions the group.
- They identify your deepest fears—like being poor, alone, or unstable—and present the group as the only solution.
- They humiliate anyone who disagrees in front of the entire room to scare everyone else into obeying.
- They keep you awake and busy until you are too worn out to say no.
I wrote this message because it is difficult to get someone out of this cult mindset. Your brain protects its new reality. Once a person identifies with the group, they see any challenge as an attack.
My advice is to walk away immediately if you notice any of these signs.
And then talk to your therapist to remove whatever nonsense they’ve managed to imprint within your unconscious mind.
Send this page to anyone who needs it. Sometimes seeing the list makes them wake up. Contact me directly if you need help. We can fix the damage and get them back to reality, but it takes real work.
Contact me directly if you need help. We can fix the damage and get them back to reality, but it takes real work.
I hope that’s helpful.
Have a wonderful weekend,