Former Buddhafield Follower Shares Unvarnished Truth About Cult Life
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Radhia Gleis spent 25 years of her adult life in the Buddhafield cult, under the influence of a narcissistic sociopath known by many names: Michel, Andreas, The Teacher or Reyji. She escaped the psychological prison of cult life over 12 years ago, but the emotional scars remain. The post-traumatic stress, forever entombed in her psyche, is repeatedly triggered by the characteristics of political and cultural leaders of today, prompting her to explore her past decisions through a much broader lens that sheds light on the blind spots — and dangers — of groupthink.
“What makes people give up their will, their sense of right and wrong — give up their moral compass and family ties for a person or an ideal?” Gleis asks in her captivating new book, The Followers: “Holy Hell” and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today’s Cultural Mania, giving a nod to the 2016 Buddhafield cult documentary Holy Hell, in which she appears.
The Followers lays the groundwork by skimming Gleis’ upbringing in Hollywood and tracing the steps of her adult life, when, at the age of 30, she fell under the influence of the charismatic leader of Buddhafield.
She draws striking parallels between her devotion to a cult leader — an authority — whose damaging behavior and influence she willfully ignored, and the followers of other authoritarian leaders, both past and present.
Gleis weaves her personal experiences with reflections on a number of thought-provoking topics, including:
• The search for a higher truth • Cults, groupthink and mind control • Authoritarian leaders • Malignant narcissistic personality disorder and sociopathy • The American schism • How an intelligent, well educated person may find themselves under the control of a narcissistic sociopath • Cognitive dissonance • The three basic types of people who join cults • The power of words/influence of media
Informative, raw and irreverent, Gleis’ book shares the unvarnished truth about cult followers from the viewpoint of a former follower still grappling with the consequences of her choices.
Author Radhia Gleis is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, CCN, MEd. biochemical analyst and educator for over 33 years. She has appeared as a featured guest on numerous radio and television shows including Fox News, Austin. She hosted The Health Revolution and Let’s Get Healthy on Talk 1370 AM, KLBJ, and The Wellness Connection podcast on Voice America. She was the host and executive producer of three YouTube series: Wake up America; How the Body Works; and The Natural Way. She was featured in the internationally viewed movie, Holy Hell, which was broadcast on CNN and named one of Sundance Film Festival’s and Netflix’s top 10 documentaries. It can now be viewed on Amazon Prime.
For more information, please visit www.radhiagleis.com, or follow the author on Twitter (@radhia_gleis).
The Followers: “Holy Hell” and the Disciples of Narcissistic Leaders: How My Years in a Notorious Cult Parallel Today’s Cultural Mania Publisher: Sage Card Publishing ISBN-10: 1737125803 ISBN-13: 978-1737125808 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and Audible.com
Transcendent Journey Gives Doctor Insights into Life’s Greatest Question Website details transformational visits with spiritual presence
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Why are we here? Minister and licensed psychotherapist Dr. Pieter Noomen consciously searched his mind for conclusive insight into this question during his evening walks. One evening, out of the blue, the word “Oneness” filled him. Day after day, a total of 12 words crystalized within him and around him. Those words became the basis for his 12 booklets, each of which explores the 12 components of life: Oneness, Love, Life, Fire, Space, Connectedness, Progression, Effect, Freedom, Joy, Differentness and Harmony.
Although the content of the 12 booklets comes from Dr. Noomen, he didn’t consider himself the author. “I ‘heard’ them within me when I specifically sat down to ‘hear’ them,” he explained on his website. “I listened while they formed in my head. I guess that the best way to describe this is to see it as a ‘merger’ on my spirit level of the voice/presence/spirit of Life itself and my ability to be consciously receptive for that — as much as a human being can be.”
Dr. Noomen’s connection with the higher presence would ultimately last for many years, resulting in an abundance of deeply profound insights freely shared on his website, www.wordsforall.org.
Visitors to Dr. Noomen’s website can read about the 12 components of life and ponder 147 thought-provoking questions and the illuminating answers that came to him during his extensive communications with the All Spirit. Avoiding the word God, Dr. Noomen relays his extraordinary journeys on the spiritual plane with an openness that invites readers to uncover and explore their own accessibility to spirituality without labels or constructs.
He grew to believe that, directly or indirectly, all life stems from one common source and that to connect with that source is the highest level of existence we can achieve on earth. And perhaps more importantly, he believed that being in direct contact with the ALL of existence is possible for every human being.
As to the answer to life’s most puzzling question, Dr. Noomen had this to say: “The consistent message in all Writings is that the purpose of being on earth is to make individual personal choices; choices that can either further direct contact with the real, full reality or can do the opposite and limit our experience of being alive …”
Dr. Noomen passed away in 2019, but his wealth of wisdom and insights freely shared on www.wordsforall.org will continue to inspire people throughout the world to broaden their spiritual paths.
“Self-help books, groups or gurus offer mental, social or physical well-being. These weekly words don’t focus on this. They focus on our intentions, our choosing-ability. Which is why we are on earth in the first place. ‘What’ we choose is not the issue. We won’t ever be judged anyway. But ‘that’ we choose is the issue; that is fulfilling our mission here. There are no exceptions to this.”
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Is there a reality that exists beyond our human awareness? As a minister and licensed psychotherapist, Dr. Pieter Noomen often addressed this question. And one day, he found himself the bearer of the answer.
Dr. Noomen experienced a profound transcendent journey that led him to connect on a deeply spiritual level with a higher presence. His “visits” into another human dimension would ultimately last for many years, and his communications with the one he calls “the source of all existence” are freely shared on his website, www.wordsforall.org.
As he explains, “I can only say that the information came from a presence on my innermost spiritual level I was in communication with for some time. The words seem the result of my spirit merging with the spirit of life It/Her/Himself.”
Visitors to Dr. Noomen’s website can read about the 12 components of life and ponder 147 thought-provoking questions and the illuminating answers that came to him during his extensive communications with the All Spirit. Avoiding the word God, Dr. Noomen relays his extraordinary journeys on the spiritual plane with an openness that invites readers to uncover and explore their own accessibility to spirituality without labels or constructs.
He grew to believe that, directly or indirectly, all life stems from one common source and that to connect with that source is the highest level of existence we can achieve on earth. And perhaps more importantly, he believed that being in direct contact with the ALL of existence is possible for every human being.
Dr. Noomen hoped that by making public his personal journeys with the world of the Positive State, he could open our hearts and minds to the possibility that there is more to our reality than meets the eye and help us understand the scope of what full existence is all about.
Dr. Noomen passed away in 2019, but his wealth of wisdom and insights freely shared on www.wordsforall.org will continue to inspire people throughout the world to broaden their spiritual paths.
“It seems scientifically proven that laughing is good for our health. Yet I know a source that always lets me smile inside. That happens when I realize how awesomely great the universe is and how tiny I am. And much more, when I realize that this Totality of all, Life in its full volume, is essentially a love reality. Many may not feel or believe that, yet now I know that not my sense of reality counts, but the fact that He/She/It Who is the All doesn’t focus on that but just wants our relationship to be a love affair. That thought often causes more than a smile inside. I want to sing!”
Black Sheep: A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment, Belonging, Racism, and Redemption (This press release may be reprinted in part or in its entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet or used by any means of social media sharing.)
With an afterword by My Haley, PhD, widow of Alex Haley, famed author of Roots and Malcom X
Ray Studevent walked hesitantly toward the door of the nursing home and prayed that his Momma, now in the throes of dementia, would recognize him. Surely, the blue eyes would give him away. The blue eyes that his Momma originally equated with hatred and brutality.
White on the outside, Black on the inside, Ray grew up on the eastern side of the Anacostia River, the Blackest part of the Blackest city in America not long after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the D.C. race riots. There were guidelines if you were Black; different rules if you were White; but only mixed messages for mixed-race children like Ray, who had to fight for acceptance and struggle to find his identity.
Black Sheep: A Blue-Eyed Negro Speaks of Abandonment, Belonging, Racism, and Redemption is the unforgettable true story of Ray’s struggles as a mixed-race boy learning to fight the ghosts of his past to find trust and love. Abandoned by his White, heroin-addicted mother and Black, violently alcoholic father, Ray found salvation at age 5 when he was adopted into a loving, stable home by his father’s uncle Calvin and his wife, Lemell. But that is just the beginning of the story.
Lemell is suddenly widowed and must raise Ray and her two daughters as a single mother in Chocolate City. Each time she looks into Ray’s blue eyes, she sees the Klansmen who tormented her family as she grew up in segregated Mississippi.
Ray and Lemell must navigate the minefields of society’s outward racial tensions while inwardly, Lemell does her best to overlook her emotional scars and suppress her justifiable resentment toward White people when she looks into Ray’s blue eyes.
Black Sheep takes readers on an emotional journey and reveals universal truths through faith and great humor. It is a search for who we are, where we fit and who we can become. Imagine a book where The Notebook meets The Help.
About the Author Ray “Ben” Studevent was a mixed-race child whose unique look led him to fight a racial identity crisis his entire life. Each time he entered a room, he had to decide whether it was better to be Black or White. His personal and career journeys ebbed and flowed, taking him to prison, fatherhood and gigs in comedy clubs, modeling and stock-market research. In all these varied experiences, he realized that race played a critical role. Visit his website at: raystudevent.com.
Black Sheep Publisher: HCI Books Release Date: May 4, 2021 ISBN-10: 0757323812 ISBN-13: 978-0757323812 Trade Paperback, 288 pages Available wherever books are sold
Embrace Your Imperfections and Embark Upon a Healing Journey with God as Your Guide
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Crippling fear permeated every aspect of Christine Soule’s life from an early age and followed her into adulthood. Her past of brokenness — abuse, dysfunction, addiction and other trauma — could have very well defined her future. But once she turned to God and let Him lead the way, she found a path toward a brighter future.
“The key is discovering who you are in Christ — your true identify. And that’s especially significant if you, like me, have a past of brokenness,” Soule writes in her inspirational story, Broken and Beautiful. “So much of how we see ourselves revolves around the demands our society places on us, insisting we live up to its expectations. Don’t listen to the world. Listen to God.”
Soule’s life was a jumbled pile of broken pieces. Her father was married seven times; her mother four times. Between her parents’ divorce when she was 5 years old and the day she allowed the power and presence of God into her heart, she watched her sister have an affair with her adoptive father; met 15 siblings she never knew at her biological father’s funeral; turned to drugs and alcohol; got pregnant at 17; had twins less than two years later; and became a victim of human trafficking. She had to break the cycle for the sake of her children. With nowhere else to turn, she dropped to her knees and prayed. And that’s when everything changed.
Broken and Beautiful is Soule’s remarkable story of how God took the pieces of her broken, astonishingly dysfunctional life and transformed it all into a breathtaking mosaic of joy and purpose.
“The places where you feel hopeless are exactly what He wants to redeem and fill with beauty, dignity and strength. He has a plan for your pain. A wonderful intention for your failures. A purpose for your hardest, darkest stories,” Soule writes.
Told with honesty and surprising touches of humor, Soule shares her journey from drug- addicted stripper to exuberant Jesus lover with a passion for helping others embrace God’s love. Broken and Beautiful is a raw, authentic story of hope, from a place of experience.
Author Christine Soule lives with the love of her life, Mitch Soule, in Seattle. They have five kids and three wonderful grandchildren. She is the founder and CEO of Providence Heights (www.providenceheights.org), a nonprofit created to house women and children in need and to provide counseling, education and jobs.
Broken and Beautiful: Let God Turn Your Mess into a Masterpiece ISBN-13: 979-8662957619 Available from Amazon.com (Broken and Beautiful), providenceheights.org and christinesoule.com
Parents and Educators: Both Can Help Children Attain Academic Heights
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Children who arrive at school with an emotional commitment to learn are ideally equipped to excel academically. A second factor in their learning success is the set of values that guides the lessons they’re taught during their most impressionable years (preschool–grade 5). These are among the insights of Dr. Cornelius Grove, who has spent decades exploring the cultural factors that affect children’s performance in classrooms.
Consider Dr. Grove’s 138-page book for parents, The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel. Here he explores the ways in which East Asian parents instill in their children respect for academic knowledge and receptiveness to the formal learning process. After a seven-chapter explanation of cultural values underlying East Asian parents’ mindset, he offers three chapters revealing their specific supportive practices. It’s an outline for action for American parents who deeply value academic learning.
A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel, is the 148-page companion volume to the above book. Dr. Grove examines the school side of the learning equation. East Asian lower-grade lessons gain the advantage because of their tenacious, narrow, yet multifaceted focus on the day’s topic. He addresses, among other things, how East Asians regard teaching and the reasons for pupils’ math superiority. Choice magazine (June issue) “highly recommends” this book for “general readers through faculty.”
“People who’ve had experience in unfamiliar cultures often remark that they now see their own culture with fresh eyes,” Dr. Grove explains. “It’s as though they’ve looked into a mirror and seen alternative possibilities for themselves. They realize that their usual ways of doing things are not etched in stone; instead, they’re choices. Different choices could be made.”
Although each book effortlessly stands alone, The Drive to Learn and A Mirror for Americans combine to encourage complementary reassessments by parents and lower-grade teachers about the more impactful roles they could be playing in upgrading the academic performance and the eventual college readiness of the youngest Americans.
For more detailed overviews, visit TheDriveToLearn.info and AMirrorForAmericans.info.
Author Cornelius N. Grove holds a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Johns Hopkins and a Doctor of Education from Columbia. He has had a decades-long fascination with the cultural factors that affect children’s ability to learn in school. At a 2005 conference in Singapore, he spoke about the two instructional styles found around the world. In 2013 he wrote The Aptitude Myth: How an Ancient Belief Came to Undermine Children’s Learning Today, a historical study of why most Americans believe that inborn ability determines school performance. For two recently published encyclopedias (2015 and 2017), he wrote entries on “pedagogy across cultures.” And now with A Mirror for Americans and The Drive to Learn, he is revealing the complementary roles home and school play in strengthening children’s academic capabilities.
The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Raising Students Who Excel Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland) Hardback: 978-1-4758-1509-2 Paperback: 978-1-4758-1510-8 eBook: 978-1-4758-1511-5 Available from Amazon.com, Rowman.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.
A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about Teaching Students Who Excel Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, Maryland) Hardback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4460-3 Paperback: ISBN 978-1-4758-4461-0 eBook: ISBN 978-1-4758-4462-7 Available from Amazon.com, Rowman.com, Barnesandnoble.com and other booksellers.
Trish Stevens Teresa Hinojosa Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 832.569.5773 Direct 281.333.3507 Phone pr@ascotmediagroup.com www.ascotmedia.com
Pivot Your Perspective: 10 Reasons Why the Future is Bright
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It’s natural to invest a lot of time and energy into building a career and making money. After all, we need roofs over our heads and food on our tables. But what if we invested that same amount of effort into being truly, authentically happy?
“I thought that by having the house, the wife, the 2.5 kids, the vacations and the material things, I would be happy,” says Life Coach Michael Taylor. However, in spite of “having it all,” he still felt something was still missing.
Today, Taylor describes himself as an “irrepressible optimist,” and it’s all thanks to changing his perception of “success,” following his own gut and breaking free from the construct of societal expectations. He reveals his transformational journey along with insights drawn from science, spirituality and psychology in his new book, The Good News Is, The Future Is Brighter Than You Think!
Taylor challenges readers to look within their own minds and hearts to uncover the keys to authentic fulfilment. Along the way, he shares his
• 10 reasons to be optimistic about the future; • 4 pillars of a joy-filled life; and • 3 ways to know you are doing what you love.
The Good News Is dives deep into topics such as what it means to be human, divine intelligence and evolution, recognizing a higher power, creating meaningful connections, and so much more.
“If you’ve been looking for a resource that inspires you and motivates you and lights you up, this is the book for you!” Taylor adds.
Author Michael Taylor is uniquely positioned to spread hope and optimism. A high school dropout, he overcame a divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, depression and being homeless for two years on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur, motivational speaker, radio and TV host, and author of nine best-selling books. He has dedicated his life to empowering men and women to reach their full potential by transforming their lives from the inside out.
Taylor is President and CEO of Creation Publishing Group, a company that specializes in creating programs and products that empower men and women to live extraordinary lives, and Too Cool Club, a company that develops transformational education programs for youth. He has been featured in the Amazon.com bestselling book Motivational Speakers America and in USA Today magazine about the changing roles of manhood and masculinity in society. He has won numerous awards for his dynamic speaking style, and he is an Amazon.com bestselling author.
He is the host and producer of two TV Channels on the Roku Network, Don’t Believe The Hype and Shatter The Stereotypes, and hosts two podcasts of the same names available on most podcast platforms like Spotify and iTunes.
Most importantly, he has been blissfully married for 18 years to the woman of his dreams and he is a proud father of three grown children.
To learn more about Coach Michael Taylor, please visit www.coachmichaeltaylor.com.
The Good News Is, The Future Is Brighter Than You Think! Publisher: Creation Publishing Group ISBN-13: 978-0996948777 Available from Amazon.com
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