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I watch all the cult docs, although lately I’ve found I can no longer stomach them and wasn’t able to finish the latest NXIUM series on HBO. They still very much intrigue me and I was able to watch through Stolen Youth, but watching the physical abuse of the young man in the red shirt was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. SY reminded me a lot of my childhood with my birth father. How Larry spoke to Felicia and rewrote her own memories, my birth father did that to me and my mom. My mom actually watched the 3rd episode of SY with me and we were able to open up to each other after the part where Felicia talks about her childhood photo where she’s wearing the dress. In a way, it was validating to my own experience and I didn’t know I needed that. SY was done so well, and as someone who was closer to this group in age and I’m school years it made it more real if that makes sense? For example NXIUM or Heavens Gate, both very real but seem more like an urban legend than because they happened before my time. Idk if that makes sense.

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Seeing the effects of abuse in real-time like that was hard to watch. Thanks for sharing here. I am glad you felt it was validating your experience and sorry that it was yours.

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Stolen Youth was a well produced cult doc. And I say this because so many are not. I feel that SY did such a good job of centering the victims, they took care in the interviews and it shows. As some one who has watched many cult docs it was refreshing to see one where the subjects were not further manipulated and victimized by the production and editing. I wish more docs were made this way. I watch cult docs because I had a master manipulator and emotional abuser as a step parent for 24 years and watching cult docs helps me to understand and to feel seen and ultimately heal from my experience.

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I couldn't agree more. They thought out how to respect the victims, especially those who chose not to participate.

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I‘ve rewatched it several times because I was having a hard time really grasping what I was looking at. I think it did a great job at making me as a viewer feel how difficult to grasp Larry’s influence was. It was everywhere and nowhere at once because it was so profoundly psychological. The nature of Larry’s influence felt so suffocating.

I am very into cult documentaries because I value and desire to see a more communal world and appreciate spaces of common and shared values and ideologies, but quickly see things like male dominance, messiah like structures and the trauma of societal oppression leads people in this way. I have been able to evade deeply committing to any group or environment that feels “culty” but it’s more of an intuitive nudge than a cognitive understanding of the risks. However, I am deeply curious about how others land in these positions. I’m curious about people who live outside of the margins and the choices they make to do so, often not from a righteous place, is still interesting nonetheless.

I listen to the Conspirituality podcast where the two hosts have each been in a few cults. They speak very candidly and openly about those experiences that were not necessarily the most extreme that makes way for good tv content. They have an episode on this series with the writer of the book and director. It’s definitely worth a listen. So much cult content is geared towards the extremely tragic endings some have seen, sexual exploitation and the seeming stupidity of the people involved.

The video clips of Larry were utterly shocking and jarring. The violence towards his partners and the fear he instilled in Felicia were truly heartbreaking. To know that innocent families were broken up because of his memory instillation work was very important because the parents were primary to this as these were kids. This perspective was needed to demonstrate how entire communities are wrecked by these characters. Cults are not quirky mistakes. They are organized spaces of control, domination and violence is what I’ve learned.

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Thanks so much for sharing. I did listen to that CS episode which led me to the doc. It was good to listen to that first before watching the series. I struggled to watch Felicia come undone too.

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