Cult Trip: Inside the World of Coercion and Control

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

A leading journalist's intense, riveting and personal investigation into the worlds and minds of cults.

At a new age festival in Byron Bay, Australia, German journalist Anke Richter is finding her spiritual awakening when she meets a woman – a survivor of the Centrepoint cult – who will change the course of her life and career.

Over the next ten years, Anke pursued a labyrinthine investigation into how and why cults attract, entrap and destroy otherwise ordinary people, asking what the line is between tribe and cult, participant and perpetrator, seduction and sexual abuse.

From the emotional and criminal carnage of Centrepoint in Auckland, New Zealand, to an anti-cult conference in Manchester, the infamous Osho’s ashram in India, the tantric Agama Yoga school in remote Thailand and culminating in a visit to Gloriavale on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Anke uncovers a disturbing pattern of violence and suffering.

Cult Trip is a powerful exploration of what really goes on inside the groups we call cults, and how to reckon with their aftermath.

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Praise for Cult

'A powerful must read’ Style

'Phenomenal. I cannot recommend this book enough' Today FM

'Wild stuff. Anke Richter is one of my favourite writers, blurring the line between participant and reporter' David Farrier, journalist

'What a book and what a writer! An incredibly immersive, intense and necessary reading experience put together with doggedness and skill' Noelle McCarthy, author

Painful and powerful - an eye opener, a tour de force and a call for justice' Janja Lalich, author

'Bringing together information from around the globe, Anke Richter pinpoints the internal struggles of those coming out of cults, and the debilitating harm that lingers afterwards' Rachel Bernstein

'Thorough and compassionate ... Cult Trip is a brittle, sensitive book' Steve Braunias