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The Heart of a Cult
Set adrift by sudden unemployment, web designer Michelle Thomson is at an impasse in her life when she is introduced to a charismatic spiritual teacher known only as Ma. Though initially skeptical, Michelle is soon captivated by Ma's energy and insight and begins to find new meaning both in Ma's teachings and as a member of her insular community. While at first she blossoms under Ma's guidance, when Michelle uncovers deception at the heart of all she has come to believe in, she is forced to face the ultimate test any spiritual teacher can give.
- GenresFiction
234 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2006
105 people want to read
About the author
Lena Phoenix
1 book409 followersTo pull me in, a book must tell a really, really good story, make me laugh, or make me look at why we believe the things we do and how those beliefs affect our lives.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 15, 2008
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
As anyone who's ever looked into the subject can tell you, our collective societal idea of the kind of person most susceptible to cults is actually quite a bit off from the usual reality; that instead of the uneducated, drugged, dazed, easily brainwashed minions we usually picture (an image that comes almost exclusively from the notorious Manson Family cult of the '60s and '70s), in actuality most modern cult members are more like those people from the Heavens Gate group in the '90s, highly intelligent and otherwise very functional members of society, clean and conservative and usually with some very bankable job skills as well. So how is it, then, that such people can also be so easily influenced by the groupthink and manipulation of a cultlike organization? How can such an otherwise rational person somehow also think that little space aliens live inside their body, or that they should donate 90 percent of their income to some con artist in a towel who claims to be a reincarnated Egyptian god? How is it that you can seemingly snap your fingers one day in front of these otherwise very normal-seeming people, and suddenly without question they're downing cyanide tablets and waiting for the Great Mothership to come whisk them away?
Author and New Age veteran Lena Phoenix asked this herself recently; a self-described active participant of various alternative communities for over a dozen years, she admits right in her bio that she has had "both positive and negative experiences," New Age code for "Jiminy Cricket, have I met some dangerous nutjobs along my travels." And thus do we have Phoenix's first novel, The Heart of a Cult, a look at the exact kind of intelligent, troubled person I'm talking about, of why a person like this is so surprisingly susceptible to a cult despite seeming at first to be the opposite, and of exactly how a cult can take advantage of a person like this for their own personal gain. It's a bit rambling, a bit unfocused, and for sure suffers the exact problems you would expect a self-published first novel to have; but for what it is, it's a pretty fascinating read, a look at the subject from the actual crystal-lined trenches, showing systematically just what kinds of hypocrisy always lay at the heart of all cultlike situations, whether violent and evangelical in nature or merely greedy and passive-aggressive.
Because let's face facts, the main character on display here seems suspiciously similar to the author herself; a youngish web designer and New Age enthusiast in the Denver/Boulder region of Colorado, our frazzled hero Michelle is like many independent American women in the 2000s -- unemployed, loveless, frustrated about life, continually let down by all the traditional religious structures around her, as well as all the other traditional institutions that are supposed to help a person in these situations. She is a woman desperately receptive to a good message coming her way; and thus enters the gibberish-spouting hocus-pocus shamanesque antics of a woman known only as "Ma," just one example of the thousands of merely minor quasi-legal cultlike organizations that currently actually exist in the western half of the United States, little semi-mystical New Age "study groups" all bunched up in places like Boulder and Vail and Taos and San Jose, who definitely succeed because of cultlike activities and behavior but with the whole operation small-potatoes enough to not attract much attention.
For example, Phoenix does a great job of detailing the bizarre upper-class consumerist Zen mishmash known as Ma's home and the group's headquarters; it's essentially a tricked-out suburban McMansion, full of indoor running waterfalls and rooms full of white linens and all the other cheesy decorator tricks that can so easily impress a room full of Oprah-obsessed New Age soccer moms. And this is a big part of how the group stays successful in the first place, precisely through such easy visual "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" trickery, paid for through the outrageous fees being charged (thousands of dollars a day) for the intensely personal "weekend sessions" and whatnot between members and Ma. It's all part of a system that feeds on itself, and Phoenix does a good job of showing the mechanisms behind it all; of how a residential headquarters like this can quickly become a cocoon-like emotional fortress against the "real world," which then tightens one's circle of friends to just fellow members, which then invariably brings the person to actually working professionally for the group, which in turn reinforces more and more the idea that they should be turning right around and donating all that pay back to the group, in the form of "workshop fees" and the like. For people who have never really thought about the subject -- for people who have never known a "New Age burnout," one of the ones spun around the Empowerment Ringer for a few years then ingloriously spit out at the end -- this will be an eye-opening book, an acknowledgment of just how many people out there in picturesque semi-rural environments are so easily being manipulated and brainwashed into lives of virtual servitude.
Now, like I said, the book also has its problems, sometimes major ones that belie the circumstances behind its creation; for example, Phoenix assumes that her readers have as much interest as her in the detailed minutiae of actual New Age theory, an assumption she shouldn't make and that adds a good 30 or 40 unneeded pages of manuscript. Also, she has a bad habit of mistaking good dialogue for the exact kinds of conversations two friends might have over drinks at a pub on a Friday evening, when in fact these are two very different things; good narrative dialogue skips over all the boring trivialities of such real conversations, assumes that readers already understand certain things without needing to be explicitly told. It's a hugely common problem among all beginning writers, of writing dialogue that doesn't exactly sparkle, but is a problem nonetheless. Like I said, though, I'm certainly glad I read The Heart of a Cult, and learned by the end all kinds of interesting things about a section of society I don't know that much about. For those with a specific interest in cults, the radical fringe of the west-coast New Age community, and of how intelligent and independent people can still be easily manipulated in such circumstances, this is a book you'll definitely want to pick up.
Out of 10:
Story: 8.1
Characters: 7.4
Style: 6.8
Overall: 7.5
As anyone who's ever looked into the subject can tell you, our collective societal idea of the kind of person most susceptible to cults is actually quite a bit off from the usual reality; that instead of the uneducated, drugged, dazed, easily brainwashed minions we usually picture (an image that comes almost exclusively from the notorious Manson Family cult of the '60s and '70s), in actuality most modern cult members are more like those people from the Heavens Gate group in the '90s, highly intelligent and otherwise very functional members of society, clean and conservative and usually with some very bankable job skills as well. So how is it, then, that such people can also be so easily influenced by the groupthink and manipulation of a cultlike organization? How can such an otherwise rational person somehow also think that little space aliens live inside their body, or that they should donate 90 percent of their income to some con artist in a towel who claims to be a reincarnated Egyptian god? How is it that you can seemingly snap your fingers one day in front of these otherwise very normal-seeming people, and suddenly without question they're downing cyanide tablets and waiting for the Great Mothership to come whisk them away?
Author and New Age veteran Lena Phoenix asked this herself recently; a self-described active participant of various alternative communities for over a dozen years, she admits right in her bio that she has had "both positive and negative experiences," New Age code for "Jiminy Cricket, have I met some dangerous nutjobs along my travels." And thus do we have Phoenix's first novel, The Heart of a Cult, a look at the exact kind of intelligent, troubled person I'm talking about, of why a person like this is so surprisingly susceptible to a cult despite seeming at first to be the opposite, and of exactly how a cult can take advantage of a person like this for their own personal gain. It's a bit rambling, a bit unfocused, and for sure suffers the exact problems you would expect a self-published first novel to have; but for what it is, it's a pretty fascinating read, a look at the subject from the actual crystal-lined trenches, showing systematically just what kinds of hypocrisy always lay at the heart of all cultlike situations, whether violent and evangelical in nature or merely greedy and passive-aggressive.
Because let's face facts, the main character on display here seems suspiciously similar to the author herself; a youngish web designer and New Age enthusiast in the Denver/Boulder region of Colorado, our frazzled hero Michelle is like many independent American women in the 2000s -- unemployed, loveless, frustrated about life, continually let down by all the traditional religious structures around her, as well as all the other traditional institutions that are supposed to help a person in these situations. She is a woman desperately receptive to a good message coming her way; and thus enters the gibberish-spouting hocus-pocus shamanesque antics of a woman known only as "Ma," just one example of the thousands of merely minor quasi-legal cultlike organizations that currently actually exist in the western half of the United States, little semi-mystical New Age "study groups" all bunched up in places like Boulder and Vail and Taos and San Jose, who definitely succeed because of cultlike activities and behavior but with the whole operation small-potatoes enough to not attract much attention.
For example, Phoenix does a great job of detailing the bizarre upper-class consumerist Zen mishmash known as Ma's home and the group's headquarters; it's essentially a tricked-out suburban McMansion, full of indoor running waterfalls and rooms full of white linens and all the other cheesy decorator tricks that can so easily impress a room full of Oprah-obsessed New Age soccer moms. And this is a big part of how the group stays successful in the first place, precisely through such easy visual "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" trickery, paid for through the outrageous fees being charged (thousands of dollars a day) for the intensely personal "weekend sessions" and whatnot between members and Ma. It's all part of a system that feeds on itself, and Phoenix does a good job of showing the mechanisms behind it all; of how a residential headquarters like this can quickly become a cocoon-like emotional fortress against the "real world," which then tightens one's circle of friends to just fellow members, which then invariably brings the person to actually working professionally for the group, which in turn reinforces more and more the idea that they should be turning right around and donating all that pay back to the group, in the form of "workshop fees" and the like. For people who have never really thought about the subject -- for people who have never known a "New Age burnout," one of the ones spun around the Empowerment Ringer for a few years then ingloriously spit out at the end -- this will be an eye-opening book, an acknowledgment of just how many people out there in picturesque semi-rural environments are so easily being manipulated and brainwashed into lives of virtual servitude.
Now, like I said, the book also has its problems, sometimes major ones that belie the circumstances behind its creation; for example, Phoenix assumes that her readers have as much interest as her in the detailed minutiae of actual New Age theory, an assumption she shouldn't make and that adds a good 30 or 40 unneeded pages of manuscript. Also, she has a bad habit of mistaking good dialogue for the exact kinds of conversations two friends might have over drinks at a pub on a Friday evening, when in fact these are two very different things; good narrative dialogue skips over all the boring trivialities of such real conversations, assumes that readers already understand certain things without needing to be explicitly told. It's a hugely common problem among all beginning writers, of writing dialogue that doesn't exactly sparkle, but is a problem nonetheless. Like I said, though, I'm certainly glad I read The Heart of a Cult, and learned by the end all kinds of interesting things about a section of society I don't know that much about. For those with a specific interest in cults, the radical fringe of the west-coast New Age community, and of how intelligent and independent people can still be easily manipulated in such circumstances, this is a book you'll definitely want to pick up.
Out of 10:
Story: 8.1
Characters: 7.4
Style: 6.8
Overall: 7.5
June 18, 2008
Published in Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2007
Based upon personal experience in several cults, Lena Phoenix provides a first-person narrative of a young woman’s susceptibility to, recruitment by, devotion to, and eventual departure from a fictitious guru and her followers in Boulder, Colorado.
Phoenix’s novel reads as a memoir of a young Web designer amidst career flux and family challenges, who open-mindedly attends a meditation session with her good friend. With a voice that comes from personal experience, Lena describes the impressions and inner thought process of a person struggling to define herself professionally and personally.
Detailed conversations among the novel’s protagonist, Michelle, and other devotees reveal gentle persons supporting one another along a financially and emotionally damaging path, and praise from their revered guru, “Ma,” in their quest for enlightenment.
The reader feels drawn step by step into a world that alternately praises and criticizes devotees for following Ma’s directives. As relationships evolve within the story, the reader understands Michelle’s process as she makes a series of decisions that affect her residence, career, and relationships. She never ceases questioning herself as she methodically abandons her previous lifestyle and later struggles to regain her sense of self.
While Michelle rides the roller coaster of relocation, juggling her credit cards, spiritual devotion, and heartbreak, the reader finds herself with Michelle, pulled toward Ma for reassuring guidance and stability.
The Heart of a Cult is a story. Phoenix does not analyze cultic persuasion or discuss the recovery process. She merely tells a story that many have lived. Her novel offers a compassionate expression of everyday cult allure and betrayal. This book would be useful for family members of cultists to understand the mindset of their beloved cult members. Those in cult recovery would find a voice of compassionate acknowledgement for their experience of betrayal and multifaceted losses.
Phoenix has created a Web site to support the book that also offers resources for cult recovery, at http://theheartofacult.com/
March 10, 2008
One Woman's Journey
The Heart of a Cult is a captivating story about a vulnerable young woman spiriling into what she perceives to be a spiritual awakening, but what turns out to be not much more than a reality check AND enormous debt.
The narrator, Michelle, a Denver-based web site designer suddenly finds herself downsized. Facing her 30th birthday without a job (or a boyfriend), and a best friend who is so engrossed with her new boyfriend and a spiritual teacher known as "Ma," Michelle allows herself to be talked into attending a lecture in Boulder. Something clicks for Michelle when she enters this seemingly welcoming community and she ends up moving to Boulder and investing an enormous amount of money she doesn't have to a lecture series. Further, she volunteers her time to create a web site for Ma, a project she'd normally charge $5000 to complete.
The style Lena Phoenix presents feels more like memoir than fiction, and this makes it easy for the reader to not only believe everything that happens, but also to understand it. Instead of getting upset with Michelle for handing over more cash and more hours, and for rationalizing so many of the inconsistencies in Ma's teachings, I found myself saying, "yes, I can see how easy it is for a person in this situation to behave like this and believe these things."
The writing is easy to read, several typos notwithstanding, and I recommend for readers who enjoy reading first novels and for anyone interested in learning more about how and why people get involved with cults or alternative spiritual quests.
The Heart of a Cult is a captivating story about a vulnerable young woman spiriling into what she perceives to be a spiritual awakening, but what turns out to be not much more than a reality check AND enormous debt.
The narrator, Michelle, a Denver-based web site designer suddenly finds herself downsized. Facing her 30th birthday without a job (or a boyfriend), and a best friend who is so engrossed with her new boyfriend and a spiritual teacher known as "Ma," Michelle allows herself to be talked into attending a lecture in Boulder. Something clicks for Michelle when she enters this seemingly welcoming community and she ends up moving to Boulder and investing an enormous amount of money she doesn't have to a lecture series. Further, she volunteers her time to create a web site for Ma, a project she'd normally charge $5000 to complete.
The style Lena Phoenix presents feels more like memoir than fiction, and this makes it easy for the reader to not only believe everything that happens, but also to understand it. Instead of getting upset with Michelle for handing over more cash and more hours, and for rationalizing so many of the inconsistencies in Ma's teachings, I found myself saying, "yes, I can see how easy it is for a person in this situation to behave like this and believe these things."
The writing is easy to read, several typos notwithstanding, and I recommend for readers who enjoy reading first novels and for anyone interested in learning more about how and why people get involved with cults or alternative spiritual quests.
March 20, 2008
Lena Phoenix approaches the subject of cults with equanimity and thoughtfulness, taking her readers by the hand and guiding them to the core of cultic belief. This is a story about cults not as they have been traditionally portrayed, but as we experience them today – that is, as a benign and omnipresent element of our daily lives, one, however, which if taken to excess can cause disillusionment and despair.
Shaken by the loss of her job Michelle Thomson, though skeptical by nature, is ripe for a new adventure. Invited by her best friend to visit a spiritual retreat in Boulder, Colorado, she finds herself in the midst of a charismatic group of people who quite literally sweep her off her feet. And yet resonating in this mantra of positive thinking is a string of betrayals that reveal themselves to Michelle only after she has partaken of them herself. With lucid prose and an entertaining plot, the author has captured the insidious draw of cults that despite the veneer of fellowship, ultimately leads to isolation.
Shaken by the loss of her job Michelle Thomson, though skeptical by nature, is ripe for a new adventure. Invited by her best friend to visit a spiritual retreat in Boulder, Colorado, she finds herself in the midst of a charismatic group of people who quite literally sweep her off her feet. And yet resonating in this mantra of positive thinking is a string of betrayals that reveal themselves to Michelle only after she has partaken of them herself. With lucid prose and an entertaining plot, the author has captured the insidious draw of cults that despite the veneer of fellowship, ultimately leads to isolation.
October 25, 2010
was hooked on this book from page one. The story is about a young woman named Michelle. One day Michelle is a successful web designer, the next she is a single, unemployed woman in Colorado. Michelle's friend Lucy has been dating a new man, who has introduced her to his spiritual leader. Impressed by what she finds through "Ma," Lucy invites Michelle to attend one of Ma's seminars with her. Though skeptical at first, Michelle soon succumbs to Ma's intense teachings, and finds herself belonging to an inner circle of members.
As Michelle struggles to understand her spiritual path and find a connection with God, we as readers are taken along for the ride. Michelle falls in and out of love, becomes disconnected from old friends, and part of a new whirlwind life. As suddenly as it all began, things get "questionable," and Michelle is forced to examine everything she has come to know as the truth.
Not being an overly "spiritual" person myself, I was unsure of how I would connect with this book. Whether you're spiritual or not, you will find yourself relating to the main characters, and taking a look at your own life. The story is real, honest and sincere, and one that I would recommend to anyone, no matter what your reading preference may be.
As Michelle struggles to understand her spiritual path and find a connection with God, we as readers are taken along for the ride. Michelle falls in and out of love, becomes disconnected from old friends, and part of a new whirlwind life. As suddenly as it all began, things get "questionable," and Michelle is forced to examine everything she has come to know as the truth.
Not being an overly "spiritual" person myself, I was unsure of how I would connect with this book. Whether you're spiritual or not, you will find yourself relating to the main characters, and taking a look at your own life. The story is real, honest and sincere, and one that I would recommend to anyone, no matter what your reading preference may be.
October 20, 2009
I was a little nervous about starting this- I'm kind of funny about anything religious and even though I've read a decent amount of non-fictional cult stories, this was my first fictional cult book.
In the end I was worried for no reason- from the second page on I got the distinct feeling that Lena Phoenix actually saw this story unfold in her head. I think some people assume this is how all writers come up with their stories but I know I've read many, many, many books that seemed.....strained. Very strained. Like the author was groping for the "right" word(s). This wasn't the case at all with The Heart of a Cult.
I could see this unfolding in her mind, as well as mine. I didn't read one sentence that didn't fit together, not one sentence that seemed as if it "didn't go".
I know this was based on true accounts but I still didn't expect the story to feel so real. Needless to say this was very surprising and welcomed.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Lena Phoenix wrote another book that I'd pick it up right away.
In the end I was worried for no reason- from the second page on I got the distinct feeling that Lena Phoenix actually saw this story unfold in her head. I think some people assume this is how all writers come up with their stories but I know I've read many, many, many books that seemed.....strained. Very strained. Like the author was groping for the "right" word(s). This wasn't the case at all with The Heart of a Cult.
I could see this unfolding in her mind, as well as mine. I didn't read one sentence that didn't fit together, not one sentence that seemed as if it "didn't go".
I know this was based on true accounts but I still didn't expect the story to feel so real. Needless to say this was very surprising and welcomed.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Lena Phoenix wrote another book that I'd pick it up right away.
Want to read
September 17, 2008Wow, my earnest and insightful GR friend wrote a book fictionally based on her own fascinating experiences? I had no idea! And I can't wait to read it.
April 30, 2017
I burned through this book very quickly. Very easy read, though some dialogs left me wondering who was talking or being referenced. (I.e. "She"? She who? He subject of discussion or the speaker?)
If you are curious on the subject of cults, I think this book nails it. Interesting how terms cross over into so many different spiritual groups. I only wish it went deeper into the psychology of the spiritual experiences, though I realize that's probably a bit outside the scope of the book, and up for too much interpretation. I appreciate how the author isn't passing judgement on spiritual practice.
If you are curious on the subject of cults, I think this book nails it. Interesting how terms cross over into so many different spiritual groups. I only wish it went deeper into the psychology of the spiritual experiences, though I realize that's probably a bit outside the scope of the book, and up for too much interpretation. I appreciate how the author isn't passing judgement on spiritual practice.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews