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Rating: 
Summary: The Power of Love
Review: "Torn From the Arms of Satan" is a mindboggling book that demonstrates how the power of love can make a difference in the world we live in today. It is a wake up call to the reality of deception and extreme emotional and spiritual abuse. If you have a heart that can feel the depths of pain, the joy of friendship and the faith to put your life on the line for another human being, then you owe it to yourself, your family and to God to read this compelling true story. This book is a joint account of a tapestry of lives woven together in an evil cult that took away every fiber of human decency, with the intent to destroy the life of a brilliant young girl through brainwashing, greed and total decadence. The courage and comittment to rescue and restore the victim came from a formidable foe whose fearless faith would not deny her the victory.
Rating:
Summary: The Power of Love
Review: "Torn From the Arms of Satan" is a mindboggling book that demonstrates how the power of love can make a difference in the world we live in today. It is a wake up call to the reality of deception and extreme emotional and spiritual abuse. If you have a heart that can feel the depths of pain, the joy of friendship and the faith to put your life on the line for another human being, then you owe it to yourself, your family and to God to read this compelling true story. This book is a joint account of a tapestry of lives woven together in an evil cult that took away every fiber of human decency, with the intent to destroy the life of a brilliant young girl through brainwashing, greed and total decadence. The courage and comittment to rescue and restore the victim came from a formidable foe whose fearless faith would not deny her the victory.
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Summary: A comment to "Dangerous Minds still in dark places"
Review: An intriguing true story with many facets. This book shows how individuals with a con artist mind set can take advantage of good people in a week moment. In this particular case the con artist guru claims to be an authority in stress management. The bulk of the story that follows, portrays how this devious individual uses and manipulates the innocent people that he has been able to lure into his control. The good ending exudes the goodness and perseverence of a wonderful woman whose insight was able to help one more victim escape from the mental manipulation of a morbid maniac! Bottom line, a book everyone should read.
Rating:
Summary: the power of love
Review: Burchard & Carlone in the revelatory "Torn From the Arms of Satan", have rendered an invaluable service to everyone on this planet. All of us need to be alerted to the inherent danger of evil predators whose sole purpose is to control and enslave others. No one is immune to their wiles, to the tantalizing prospect of having one's uncertainties fulfilled and all questions answered. Wake up America! Be prepared to reject these monsters and to help and understand those tragic unfortunates who have fallen prey to them. Read this book!
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Summary: A comment to "Dangerous Minds still in dark places"
Review: First of all, this is not a self help book. It is an autobiographical account of a woman who was trapped for 19 years in a therapy cult. This book is not "slim on facts"; it is filled with facts - even complicated and painful emotional issues are described objectively. I found the authors passionate in their delivery. They were eloquent and successful in conveying to the reader the covert manipulations, hidden agendas and faulty logic of the cult leader. Contrary to your assertion, the co-author was never involved in the group's activities, she helped her escape. I found myself feeling "rage at injustice" for the woman who was trapped and cheered every time she broke another bar of the jail he created for her. This book shows a woman's courage to climb out of an emotional hell-hole by confronting every contradiction to her doctrine. Being sexually exploited, losing over $200,000.00 to a lie and throwing away all of those years would make anyone angry, however, I didn't feel any attitudes of revenge coming from the authors. Anger is a normal stage that a victim passes through before they let it go. The tone of your review has shown people who understand how ignorant and compassionless you really are.
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Summary: Insightful, Thougt provoking, and Fascinating
Review: Many personal experiences told by former cult members are written in a simplistic fashion. They describe their life in the cult as a living Hell and express gratitude that they are out, but they do not describe their struggles, their ambivalences and their confusion. Their stories are interesting from the point of view of learning about the beliefs of the cult, but they do not offer insight into the human condition. This book does offer those insights. Most of the narrative is written by Ms. Burchard, who was innocently unwary of a manipulative sociopathic cult leader who could seduce people, exploit them, and discard them with no sense of the fact that he was destroying people's lives. Ms. Burchard's explanation of her entry into the cult, her life within it, and her subsequent leave taking is honest, self-revealing and complex. Outsiders can easily see that the group members' beliefs are bizarre and absurd. Ms. Burchard helps us to comprehend how an intelligent, insightful and well read individual could be manipulated into accepting those beliefs. Her long struggle to leave and her initial reluctance to give up those beliefs, even after she knew they were false, help us to understand the complexity of mind control and manipulation. Ms. Carlone's struggle was not to come to grips with the truth or falsity of the leader's claims. She was not caught up in the cult leader's web and could clearly see the absurdity of the group's beliefs. Her problem was how to convey that insight to Ms. Burchard without alienating her. Ms. Carlone's dilemma is that which is faced every day by family members and friends of cult members. Her consistent, loving approach to helping her friend realize that she was in a destructive situation is a blueprint that others can learn from and emulate. This book is not about dangerous minds still in dark places. It is about normal human beings caught up in a hurricane of manipulation and exploitation. Any of us, under the proper set of circumstances, could get caught in a cult. This book helps us to understand how that could happen. It is insightful and thought-provoking. The fact that it is also fascinating is a tribute to the story-telling skills of the authors.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, Thougt provoking, and Fascinating
Review: Many personal experiences told by former cult members are written in a simplistic fashion. They describe their life in the cult as a living Hell and express gratitude that they are out, but they do not describe their struggles, their ambivalences and their confusion. Their stories are interesting from the point of view of learning about the beliefs of the cult, but they do not offer insight into the human condition. This book does offer those insights. Most of the narrative is written by Ms. Burchard, who was innocently unwary of a manipulative sociopathic cult leader who could seduce people, exploit them, and discard them with no sense of the fact that he was destroying people's lives. Ms. Burchard's explanation of her entry into the cult, her life within it, and her subsequent leave taking is honest, self-revealing and complex. Outsiders can easily see that the group members' beliefs are bizarre and absurd. Ms. Burchard helps us to comprehend how an intelligent, insightful and well read individual could be manipulated into accepting those beliefs. Her long struggle to leave and her initial reluctance to give up those beliefs, even after she knew they were false, help us to understand the complexity of mind control and manipulation. Ms. Carlone's struggle was not to come to grips with the truth or falsity of the leader's claims. She was not caught up in the cult leader's web and could clearly see the absurdity of the group's beliefs. Her problem was how to convey that insight to Ms. Burchard without alienating her. Ms. Carlone's dilemma is that which is faced every day by family members and friends of cult members. Her consistent, loving approach to helping her friend realize that she was in a destructive situation is a blueprint that others can learn from and emulate. This book is not about dangerous minds still in dark places. It is about normal human beings caught up in a hurricane of manipulation and exploitation. Any of us, under the proper set of circumstances, could get caught in a cult. This book helps us to understand how that could happen. It is insightful and thought-provoking. The fact that it is also fascinating is a tribute to the story-telling skills of the authors.
Rating:
Summary: A Believable Portrayal of Cultish Mind Control
Review: This book is *not* about satanism. It is a well-written journal describing a hellish, suburban cult experience.The authors have chronicled Ms. Burchard's nineteen-year involvement with a group of dependent, weak-willed individuals dominated by a greedy and manipulative leader. The leader used verbal intimidation, physical threats, and social isolation to erode members' self-confidence. Ms. Burchard stagnated and lost over $165,000 during her nineteen-year cult experience. She was able to leave the cult only after Ms. Carlone met and befriended her. Ms. Carlone and her husband provided the insight, objectivity, and emotional support that Ms. Burchard needed to grow and to break with the cult. The authors' writing style conveys emotion without being sensational. Their description of their experience effectively and believably portrays the power of cultish mind control.
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Summary: An incredible story
Review: This is a story of tragic introduction to a new age guru through the victim's mother and of a friendship that prevailed to enable leaving the cult. Her friend, who coauthored this work, was a constant source of support. She provided observations, rarely noted, of a victim while under the confines of cult influence. It is excitingly written. The reader wonders why didn't she get rid of this guru much sooner then she did. We learn again and again how difficult it is for any victim to disentangle themselves of the cult burden. We see clearly the intimidation and self justification of the guru. His actions are decidedly that of a sociopath. He exploited her almost to the point of financial ruin. She is faced with many unresolved issues in her contacts with this "wisdom" filled rogue, but our writer manages to lay aside the scars of her brutal treatment and salvages a life of her own. I consider the care and direction given by her friend as close to miraculous. Judith Carlone prodded with sensitivity, and considered her actions humbly as no more than a duty to a friend. I thank the authors for providing us with the subtleties of cult involvement along with the agonizing decisions to break the spell. An incredible story.
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