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Donna Lamb's avatar

I believe I am still a paying reader - unless my annual subscription has ended - and I plan to go on being a paying reader as long as SINS exists. What do I get out of it?

1) I am everlastingly grateful to you, Helen, that you came to my home in Manhattan to talk about your experience writing Mating in Captivity to assist me as I was in the beginning stages of writing about my 32-year experience in the cult of Aesthetic Realism. (It's going on 6 years and the end is in sight of writing my memoir so I can move on to the next grueling stages. Ugh!)

2) Thanks to your encouragement about my mission, I established my website at donnalamb330@gmail.com to expose Aesthetic Realism and promote the issues that got me out of this cult - antiracism and pro-reparations for slavery advocacy. I also filed an official complaint against the Aesthetic Realism Foundation with the NYS Attorney General's office and did several other things to try to bring down this cult.

3) And very importantly, I simply love reading about your life since existing Zendik Farm! I look forward to your postings and read them with great interest. I don't need to feel I am getting something out of it for myself other than receiving the rare opportunity to see into another person's life, presented raw, not all tidied up and made to look good. I especially like having the chance to get a glimpse into the ongoing life of a former cult member, which, as I think you know, is pretty rare.

Most memoirs tell practically nothing about what happened after they left whatever cult they were in.

Anyway, I am usually so goddamn tired of sitting in front of this computer and writing that I have no desire to write anything I don't have to, so I have been a silent - but very appreciative - reader. There are no doubt others out there just like me.

Love,

Donna Lamb

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Nataliya's avatar

Thank you for your voice and for sharing your thoughts. I am new in your world, but I appreciate deeply your honesty. And yes, I hear you about writing into the void... Just wanted to speak for all the lurkers our there (I am one of them), sometimes I read your posts and it stays with me for days, but I still don't go and comment... that's just me being human in this crazy world :)

Sending you love

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