shunned

“I can’t express to you how crazy this house was, and yet the friends would come, it was perfect…showtime.” Trish and her kids were in the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but their home too was a place …

Chameleons change their appearance for many reasons, one of which is to avoid predators. Growing up in an abusive home with his stepdad, who was only 11 years older than him, Kevyn couldn’t be himsel…

To participate by donating to the cause, you can donate here (I will personally match the first $200 dollar for dollar): PayPal.me/shunnedrecovery

You can also Venmo to @michael-shemwell-1 (last four…

Tara grew up in a family where fear ruled, whether that was of the cult indoctrinated teaching of Armageddon, or whether it was fearing abuse from those entrusted with her care. Future relationships …

Between being told that she was an accident that ruined her mother’s opportunity to be a “regular pioneer” as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and eventually being shunned, Alyssa was baptized into the cu…

Many have heard the phrase “what would you do if you knew you could not fail”. Inside the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses, opportunities for failure abound and the constant refrain of “I’m never good eno…

Arthur was introduced to the concept of extreme shunning by the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses when he was just six years of age and was forced to shun his sixteen year old big sister. This moment would…

This is a recording of my presentation at the 2023 International Cultic Studies Association annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky.  It was recorded on Friday July 30 in front of a live audience, …

I'll be speaking at the conference on Friday July 30 and there won't be a regular release of the podcast this week. I do hope to record my presentation and to be able to share it afterward if all goe…

Growing up, Rachel moved roughly 15 times between the ages of 5 and 19. Without much stability other than the consistency of the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses and her parents in her life, she was force…

Behind the scenes of a rock concert for Saves The Day, Spencer gets to interact with these “worldly” people that weren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he sees that he doesn’t need to save them like he had…

While some religions speak about the concept of grace, the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses has another term for it… “undeserved kindness”. This is the underpinning of what it is to be one of Jehovah’s Wi…

If your true thoughts and feelings were put on display in a lineup of Jehovah’s Witnesses, would your own parents be able to pick you out? Like so many, Jarvis knew that who he was and who he was exp…

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of mental illness and child abuse whereby a caretaker may make a child think that they are sick or may cause real symptoms in a child to make them sick. The car…

In this episode I talk about what's in store for 2023.  From what's going on with This JW Life and Shunned to new projects and old, I let you in on the realities of the work that I do and will be doi…

Today Tamara MC, PhD is an author and activist for women and girls. Growing up, Tamara’s father joined a Sufi cult that took her father away and left her with the women of the community at the age of…

A little girl on a bike ride. A car with a man in it that seems familiar in an unfamiliar place. The result is a long custody battle, a lot of brainwashing, and ultimately a woman that realizes she w…

Imagine being five years old and having your dad reading you scary stories about the Nazi persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses to send you off to sleep. Those stories were often tied into the fiery Arm…

Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but rather feeling the fear and doing what you want or need to do anyway. Karen grew up in a lot of fear, the fear of a doomsday cult, the fear of not fitting in be…

Like many, Daniel was both gay and one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. That reality creates dissonance between who one is and who they have been raised and pressured to be by the adults around them. In this …