Beyond Belief - Nelson Arts Festival

Anke Richter’s Cult Trip is a gripping, visceral, thriller-like investigation into Centrepoint, Gloriavale and Agama Yoga. In this session, Noelle McCarthy quizzes Richter about the dynamics that turn a group into a cult, and why we are all susceptible to undue influence.

Cult Trip: Inside the world of coercion & control, those who leave and those who survive is an investigative personal deep dive into Aotearoa New Zealand’s most notorious present and former “high-control groups”, told in a personal journalism style by Anke Richter, one of the world's leading journalists on cults.

This book can be compared to Stasiland in style. Apart from sharing survivors' stories, the book also touches more lightly on international groups, such as Orgasmic Meditation in California, where Richter spent time in an OM-house and the former ashram of Osho in Pune, India, which she visited.

The chapters are introduced and woven together by Richter's personal experience as a former follower and now critic of one particular "school" that was transformational for her. She will describe her challenges of working in the field of cult reporting, of coming under attack by perpetrators and sometimes getting too close to victims and their trauma – and the lessons she learned.

Content Warnings: Drug references, sexual references, rape/sexual assault, mental illness

This event is part of the 2022 Nelson Arts Festival.