Radhia Gleis's Blog, page 11

Radhia Interviewed by 360 Magazine

Here is an Excerpt from my article at 360 Magazine, “Pop Culture & Design” – Read the full article here: https://www.the360mag.com/interview-with-radhia-gleis/

INTERVIEW WITH RADHIA GLEIS
By: Skyler Johnson

From Jonestown to the Manson Family, we as a society have been obsessed with the inner workings of cults. Every few years a new documentary explores the secret lives of a society of people much different than ours. But it’s not very often that you meet someone that doesn’t just explore what crimes a cult committed, but how a cult is formed. This is what Radhia Gleis, an ex-member of the Buddhafield Cult, attempted to do in her most recent book: The Followers, Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders. I got the privilege to interview Gleis about the book and her experiences.

[CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE]

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Radhia Gleis on Arash’s World

Watch Radhia’s interview with Arash Farzaneh on his YouTube channel.

Radhia Gleis, former cult member of the Buddha-field cult as shown in the documentary “Holy Hell” as well as the author of the book “The Followers: Holy Hell and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How my Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today’s Cultural Mania” talks about how narcissistic leaders deceive and manipulate us for their own personal gain and benefits, how pervasive and dangerous groupthink and echo chambers are, and what we can do about it all.

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Review of The Followers on OnlineBookClub.org by Reviewer: Unique Ego

OnlineBookClub.org

Discussion Forums about Books and Reading
https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/

Review of The Follower

(Review Source: https://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=192147)

Posted: 12 Jul 2021, 20:45by  Unique Ego

4 out of 4 stars

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “The Follower” by Radhia Gleis.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

******
The Follower
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Re: Review of The FollowerPosted: 25 Jul 2021, 01:14by Aarti Jha“Any person interested in mind control, propaganda techniques, crowd behavior, or cult dynamics will find this book an exciting and enlightening read”- This is the reason this book appealed to me. Thank you for sharing your genuine thoughts.Re: Review of The FollowerPosted: 25 Jul 2021, 01:34by Mayur ArjuneThe followers must think before following someone, they should think critically with reasoning. The review also explain this.Re: Review of The FollowerPosted: 25 Jul 2021, 03:10by Maliha NaveedSeems to be an interesting read. Cult cultures hide so much in them that needs to come out in front.Re: Review of The FollowerPosted: 25 Jul 2021, 22:05by Suzer6440 xyzThis really sounds like an interesting read. Thanks for the detailed review . This is going on my shelf for future readingRe: Review of The FollowerPosted: 04 Aug 2021, 04:18by Sou HiThanks for your interesting review. Humans tend to move with the crowd and succumb to sweet words, especially when they feel lonely or distress. It’s good that the author is brave enough to discuss this topic.

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Radhia’s Guest Post at Ms. Career Girl “How to Recognize a Narcissist”

How to Recognize a Narcissist

By: Radhia Gleis

Guest Post Featured on Ms. Career Girl: https://www.mscareergirl.com/how-to-recognize-a-narcissist/

I spent twenty-five years of my adult life in a cult, under the influence of a narcissistic sociopath. You may suspect your spouse, family member, or boss is a narcissist; or you may have niggling doubts about your spiritual or political leaders and find yourself in a complicated set of circumstances, wondering why and how you got involved or how to untangle yourself from the narcissist’s web of deceit and control. You are far from alone.

The following are lightly edited excerpts from my newly released book, The Followers: “Holy Hell” and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders; How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today’s Cultural Mania. This is a story about 150 men and women insulated within our own small, clandestine community. We called ourselves the Buddha-field. One member, Will Allen, even made a movie about us, called Holy Hell. After twenty-some years it came to light that the teacher was sexually abusing many of the members. What a surprise! It’s a tale as old as civilization: Narcissistic leader turns community of idealistic followers into a cult. Continue reading here.

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Review on Concho Valley News

Book review: The Followers

By: Senora Scott

ENTERTAINMENT – Summer is in full swing but there is still time to add a few more books to your reading list.

The Followers

After spending 25 years in a cult and escaping 12 years ago, Radhia Gleis is delving into the idea of “groupthink.” Gleis was a member of the Buddhafield cult which was lead by a man who had many monikers: Michel, Andreas, The Teacher or Reyji. Continue reading here.

Source: https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/entertainment-news/book-review-the-followers/

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Review by Will Allen, Film Director of the Documentary: HOLY HELL

“What can I say? As the director of the film Holy Hell, I am proud to say that Radhia is super talented, insightful, politically savvy and ferocious in her humor… and I would expect nothing less. I really enjoyed her story from beginning to end. Somethings even I did not know!! I highly recommend her audiobook version because you really get to hear the tone in which Radhia delivers for thoughts. It’s compassionate and empathetic – and a great accompaniment to my film which was only able to touch upon certain aspects of narcissism, leaders in power, and that ugly word, “brainwashing”. Thank you Radhia for writing such a sensitive expose of not only your life, but the comparisons to our current political system – also a product of people tuning into only ‘One source’ of information, and “tuning out” the entire world news as a whole! You all know who you are. Don’t make me name you, because you know I will.

“Thank you again for your hard work on creating an entertaining book that should be read by everybody trying to understand why and how America can stand so Divided.” — Will Allen, Director HOLY HELL (Sundance Film Festival & Netflix named Holy Hell one of their top ten documentaries. Watch it now on Amazon Prime.)

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The Followers – A book reading by Radhia Gleis, former cult follower

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Stop the Steal…of Our Mind

In 1992, political advisor James Carville propelled Bill Clinton into the White House with the simple directive, “It’s the economy, stupid.” How clever Carville was. Those words are still reverberating in the slimy bellows of political rhetoric.

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Available on Audible.com

Find this book on Ebay

Available on the App Store

Read it on your Kindle Fire

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Lest We Rest on Our Laurels

Over seventy million voters still ride on the Trump train. Wow! Seventy million. While I dance in the streets with the other voters who celebrate Biden’s bullet-dodging defeat of the Donald, we cannot plant this wilted wreath of greenery on our crown and call it a victory

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Available on Audible.com

Find this book on Ebay

Available on the App Store

Read it on your Kindle Fire

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The Power of Words

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