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A Must-Read Book for Ex-Mormons: Recovering Agency by Luna Lindsey (Review)
I do not use the phrase “must-read” lightly. There are very few books that I think every single person — or at least every single member of a given group — can benefit from. After all, we’re all different people with different intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs. But I genuinely believe that every person who…
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Cults? In my life? It’s more likely than you think.
In my last post, I talked about how the Law of Attraction and Christian prosperity gospel both use the same thought control techniques as cults. I’ve received several public and private replies to that post: some expressing contempt for “sheeple” who can be lead astray by cults, and others who say my post made…
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The Law of Attraction, Prosperity Gospel, and Other Ways of Controlling How People Think
In the words of Rhonda Byrne, who brought the Law of Attraction to popular consciousness with her book The Secret:“Life doesn’t just happen to you; you receive everything in your life based on what you’ve given.” Or, to put it even more bluntly: “You attract to you what you think about most.” At…
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Why I Don’t Have a “Sacred Name” (for Pagan & Witches Amino’s #OWC)
Note: this was originally posted on the Pagan & Witches Amino app for their Official Weekly Challenge, “Name Game.” When I first began investigating “alternative spirituality,” witchcraft, and magick, it seemed like everything and everyone had a name. Everyone had a neat and tidy label for their spiritual path, from Wiccans to eclectic pagans to…
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Stephen King, “Children of the Corn,” and Childhood Trauma in the Church
It seems like every few months, another religious group makes global news for their abuse of members, specifically children. Catholic priests molesting altar boys. Extremist Muslim groups in Africa mutilating little girls. Pagan teachers extorting teenaged students for sex. Every religion has its monsters. Sacred spaces are typically places where we allow ourselves to be…
Sam Wise 