Was I in a Cult?27 Loka 2025

The Jordanian Sufi Cult: "Trapped Between Worlds"

When Raidah left medical school in Sydney to spend the summer at what was promise to be an Islamic utopia in Jordan, she thought she was taking a break to heal.

Instead, she found herself inside a high-control religious community led by Nuh Ha Mim Keller — an American-born Catholic convert who reinvented himself as a Sufi sheikh and built a devoted following of Muslims living in Western countries.

Through his English-language books, lectures, and retreats, Keller promised these diaspora Muslims a spiritual home — a refuge from Western chaos and Islamophobia.

But what Raidah found instead… was a cult.

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FOLLOW RAIDAH SHAH IDIL

Follow Raidah on Instagram → @raidahwrites

Check out her debut novel How to Free a Jinn — available now from Allen & Unwin (ANZ and Asia) and Simon & Schuster in the U.S

READ Storm Without a Port (PDF) — the 77-page survivor testimony compiled by former members of the Jordanian Sufi cult.

Visit In Shaykh's Clothing — a resource for Muslim survivors of spiritual abuse.

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Jaksot(169)

Teen Mania: "I Clean Sh*t For God"

By high school, church wasn't just Shannon McElroy's faith, it was her community and her future. She was going to be a Christian counselor. Then her youth group took her to something called "Acquire t...

21 Syys 1h 20min

Children of God PT2: "Witnessing... But With Chicken"

Daniella Mestyanek Young was born three generations deep into the Children of God and today, she finally gets out. At 15-years-old, she lands in Texas with no real education, no money and no friggin'...

14 Syys 1h 13min

Children of God PT1: Sex Cult Math

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7 Syys 53min

Amway: "Sleep is for Sissies... and Diamonds'

At 21, Stephanie Vaughn wanted to make some extra money. Then she won a "raffle" at her gym for a free case of energy drinks. Lucky her, that free case won her entry into one of the biggest and most i...

24 Elo 1h 6min

A Single-Family Cult: "Beyond The Front Door"

Every cult calls itself a family. Audrey's actually was one. For Audrey, there was no guru, no religious doctrine, and the only members were her ten other siblings. And the leader? Her parents, par...

17 Elo 1h 2min

Gloriavale: "Gloria Fail" (UPDATE)

**NOTE: This episode originally aired in 2024, but a LOT has happened inside this cult since then. None of it surprising, all of it sick, and we'll fill you in on all of it. Jason Christian was bo...

10 Elo 1h 8min

UFO-Tantric-Doomsday-Alien-Fairy-Angel-Sex Cult - Pt2: "Jump Ship"

Everyone gathered on the deck the day Yo promised the mothership was finally coming. They waited… but alas, it never came. In PART 2, the magical fairy tale capsizes. Laurien becomes one of Yo's chos...

3 Elo 51min

UFO-Tantric-Doomsday-Alien-Fairy-Angel-Sex Cult - Pt1: "Whatever Floats Your Pleasure Boat"

Laurien had already been in one cult before she was old enough to understand what a cult was. At 22, she was invited onto a fleet of white "pleasure" yachts traveling the rivers of Europe, not knowing...

27 Heinä 53min