Let's Talk About Sects is an award-winning monthly podcast focusing on a different cult each episode. Sarah takes a storytelling, deep dive approach, looking at the history of a sect's leaders, the recruitment of members, their experiences, psychological aspects, and notable incidents during its existence. You can support us on Patreon , with a one-off donation , or grab some merch . Sarah Steel's debut book Do As I Say is available now . “A fascinating and well-researched look into cults and…
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The Victorian Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee has published their final reports from the Parliamentary Inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups , which commenced in April 2025. There are two parts, Volume 1: ‘Crossing the line’ and Volume 2: ‘In their words’. They set out 39 Recommendations which the Victorian Government now has…
In a sleepy Canberra suburb, Bek Condello was raised in a strict patriarchal Pentecostal movement. The influence of the Geelong Revival Centre extended deeply into the lives of the congregation, promoting discipline and dictating how girls and women behaved, who they socialised with and who they would marry. After finding her way out and discovering her own identity, Bek has written a memoir, out…
Carol Merchasin is the newly appointed President of the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). Drawing on decades of experience in law, investigations, and survivor advocacy, Carol has led inquiries into allegations of misconduct within prominent spiritual and religious organisations and has worked extensively with survivors of coercive control and abuse. Through her legal practice,…
Hoyt Richards spent over two decades in Eternal Values, after first meeting the man who called himself Frederick von Mierers on a beach at the age of 16. Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult , out now on HBO Max with episodes releasing weekly, explores Hoyts’ journey alongside other actors and models of the era, and Hoyt has spent the years since his exit dedicated to educating people about the red…
When we talk about cults, we tend to picture the ones that make headlines: isolated compounds, charismatic leaders, dramatic exits. But what about the church down the street? The one with the worship band and the small groups and the Instagram presence? In this episode, Sam Sellers and Elise Heerde, co-founders of the Religious Trauma Collective , talk about what happens when coercive control…
Sphinx Spiritual takes instruction from a council of entities that includes Leonardo da Vinci, Lady Di, Sir Francis Bacon, Mahatma Ghandi, an alien called Zootor, and married Mornington Peninsula couple Ian and Pearl Rogers. Forum posts dating back to 2012 allege that the organisation is run as a cult. And the operation goes back long before this – but it’s only now that former members have…
A spiritual school in Victoria teaches that we each have a spiritual guide who we can rely on to help us through life, and that the couple who run the school – Ian and Pearl Rogers – sit on a council alongside entities who have lived many lifetimes before this one. Students are lucky enough to gain access to incredible knowledge through this council, which boasts Leonardo Da Vinci, Mahatma Gandhi,…
The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, or ACMTC, is a hardline fringe religious cult that was led by a former hippie who went by the name Deborah Green. In The Oracle’s Daughter , author Harrison Hill tells the story of the group through the experiences of three women: Deborah, the self-proclaimed oracle; Maura, who nursed Deborah’s ailing brother and became one of her first…
The ABC’s internationally award-winning podcast Expanse , exploring big stories from across Australia, looked at the mysterious case of the Nannup Four for its sixth season. Host Dominique Bayens investigated the 2007 disappearance of Chantelle and Leela McDougall, Tony Popic, and a man known as Simon Kadwill from the town of Nannup in Western Australia. Simon was actually a name taken on by a man…
Fai West was just 10 years old when she was first introduced to the teachings of Soulaire Allerai and the Soulful Journey. A few years later, as a teenager in high school, she found herself living in Soulaire’s basement, sleep deprived from attending multiple late-night classes and channelings of an omniscient being known as ‘G’, and learning about her own presence in a future dimension called The…
