Book description
Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate 'monks' awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked Bounded Choice as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
After ten years in a political cult, Janja Lalich dove deep into research on Heaven's Gate. Then she set out to explain, in this book, how smart, driven people function under coercive control.
The gist? While they keep their intelligence and capacity for achievement, they shrink the range within which they act and think.
Lalich's perspective helped me understand why my fellow ex-Zendiks and I had acquiesced to so much dumb shit. We weren't stupid or brainwashed—just trapped by bounded choice.
Also, I was delighted by her account of her own cult's implosion, crystallized in the moment when the leader…
From Helen's list on The best books for composting your cult experience into fertile soil.
If you love Bounded Choice...
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Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
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