A mother tells her child that one “impure” thought could mean eternal fire and she claims she can read minds. That fear becomes the fuel for a family-run, high-control religious group where confession lasts until 3 a.m., “demons” explain every human impulse, and doubt is treated like a moral failure.
Peggy, author of *Surviving the Family Kingdom* and a psychotherapist, unpacks what it’s like when the cult leader is also your parent. Peggy walks us through the early chaos that made her mother vulnerable to extreme beliefs, the Pentecostal influence that normalized spiritual spectacle, and the slow shift from searching for faith to building a closed system of control. We talk about coercive control tactics like sleep deprivation, isolation, punishments, the “hot seat,” and how love bombing can flip into fear the moment someone stops complying.
Then we follow the moment everything breaks open: motherhood. Peggy describes how parenting clarified what she could no longer accept, how she stopped policing her own mind, and why leaving required a strategy that protected her from manipulation. We also explore the harder, less-discussed part of cult recovery and religious trauma: rebuilding identity, living with triggers, and navigating a complicated relationship with an aging parent who never offers acknowledgement. Peggy shares how EMDR helped neutralize the images and body memories that kept her feeling haunted.
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Producer & Host: Jennica Sadhwani Editing: Stephan Menzel Marketing: Lucas Phiri
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