I took classes at a prestigious acting school with highly regarded teachers and many famous actors as alumni. You would have thought I was safe. I wasn’t. A teacher lured me into a cult called Aesthetic Realism, founded by a poet and scholar named Eli Siegel.

Within a year, I gave up my family, friends, home, and ability to think for myself. Under intense pressure, I surrendered my gay identity. Then I spent decades providing thousands of hours of unpaid or starvation-wage labor to promote this philosophy I believed could save the world. I lived in a state of fear and dependence under the influence of coercive mind control tactics. Staying in the good graces of the cult leader and group felt like a matter of life and death. I was certain I’d be nothing if I ever left.

It took me over three decades to free myself.