Excerpt from Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus
EPILOGUE: 2022 Version
In the New Age of Cults — It’s Time to Heal
Ten years ago, the world’s culture of cults was very different than it is today.
While there were cult leaders in the news, like Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and David Koresh, cults existed on the fringes of society. The prevailing mythos was that no one who was good, decent, or sane would ever be lured into one.
Now there is an explosion of cults — both religious and non-religious. There are large and small cults everywhere.
On the religious front, in the last decade, we’ve seen the exposure of cults formed by gurus like Osha (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), Marshall Applewhite, and John of God (João Teixeira de Faria).
On the non-religious side, we’ve witnessed cult-like organizations led by people like Elizabeth Holms, Keith Raniere, and a former so-called president.
What exactly is going on? Why are so many people being seduced into cults by the allure of charismatic conmen or con women? Why are they willing to give up their free will, morals, and self-interest to do the bidding of a thoroughly selfish and corrupt person who only cares about money, sex, fame, and power?
Lacking a Foundation of Spiritual Wisdom
Our present new age of cults is being discussed from the halls of academia to the homes of middle America to dozens of podcasts. But there are few clear answers about this seemingly out of control defect in the human psyche — the defect of giving up your life for a psychopath.
My take, as a former “true believer” in a long-running religious con game, is this: We are all lost souls because our culture has lost track of the true eternal wisdom that is required for humans to reach their full potential — physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.
Without a solid foundational of spiritual wisdom, we are left adrift in the vast sea of maya — the world of illusion.
Some of us have a deep longing for the divine. Some of us have a fear of the mercurial world in which we live. Others want a daddy or mommy figure to take care of us and tell us what to do. Some of us just want to be part of something that makes us feel special.
So Many Cults — So Much Damage
But none of those reasons are valid. A cult leader doesn’t possess some secret that only a few are able to access. And a cult contributes nothing good to our lives or to society. In fact, a cult environment breaks you — mind, heart, body, and soul.
People who leave cults are some of the most traumatized people on the planet. One of the hardest things to heal from is having been conned by an evil person or group. It can take years of therapy to heal — and even then, you’re lucky if you ever truly feel safe or whole or free again.
My personal experience of trying to heal from the emotional damage I experienced in my ex-cult has been a long and bumpy journey. Even before I physically left the ashram, I sought the guidance of a therapist.
After about a year out of the cult, I thought I was doing well and proceeded on the path of my new life without ongoing therapy. But like a virus that lies waiting in your body for a weak moment to strike and make you sick again, about nine years after leaving the cult I was knocked down by the weight of my unresolved trauma.
The life I had created could not sustain me because it was out of balance. I had not healed on every essential level — mind, body, heart, and soul. I had what amounts to a nervous breakdown.
Learning How to Heal Myself
At one point in my slow climb back to health, I thought about returning to therapy but realized that what I really needed was to learn how to heal myself.
One evening while walking my dog, I came up with the idea of creating a method of healing myself based on the chakras. I would start at the bottom, the root chakra, and slowly work my way up.
The root chakra is the starting point for developing and maintaining balance. It is focused on obtaining safety in the world, including home, finances, and community.
Over the next several years, I slowly worked my way up the seven basic chakras using a system I developed myself. And it was working.
The culmination of my healing journey was a literal journey across the country to a new home in the west. While I was nervous about traveling alone, with just me and my pup, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the journey made me stronger.
I ended up traveling around the west for ten months, healing all along the way. In fact, I felt freer and more myself than I had in years.
Healing “Just Enough” isn’t Enough
The pandemic cut my journey short and reignited some of my old anxieties. I was experiencing a bit of backslide that had me worried.
I have since learned that healing “just enough” isn’t enough. That’s because our nervous system can hang on to the old pain and reignite it whenever we are thrown off balance and feeling out of control.
I was lucky to find a new form of therapy that is helping me heal deep into the core of my being and rewiring my many old injuries. Now, more than ever before, I’m in a true place of ongoing healing—and feeling more like my original carefree, happy, and confident self.
Life is Healing. Healing is Life.
To commemorate my healing journey and reclaim myself, I decided to rename myself as sort of a “new birth rite of passage.” I chose the name Aya Ray Arohi. Aya is an ancient goddess of the morning light. Ray means a type of energy that produces changes that intensify consciousness and tear down old ideas. Arohi means evolving or ascending.
So, for me, my new name signifies that I am in the process of evolving my consciousness and becoming a ray of the light of goodness in the world. Along with my mission to support victims of my ex-cult and help others avoid getting involved in my ex-cult, I am now on an even greater mission to help people heal from cults and other traumatic experiences.
I am so passionate about the value of my post-cult healing process that I’m documenting my healing journey on this blog.
If you would like to learn more about the often-long road to reclaiming the real you after any traumatic experience, please follow subscribe.
I aim to share a story about hope.
Learn more about my memoir Sex, Lies, and Two Hindu Gurus.
