The one thing I was good at in this cult was listening to their CDs and reading their books. This was something we were told to do instead of watching tv or listening to secular music. (Don’t worry–we could listen to Christian music.)
At the weekly meetings, there would be a part where IBOs (Independent Business Owners) would walk across the stage according to their point level. I’ve heard of similar ranking systems in other organizations–Diamond was the highest, then there was Emerald (we had two of those in the weekly meeting I attended, so they were essentially the leaders), then there was Ruby (our team was trying to get our leader to go Ruby so that the wife of the couple could “retire”). Below Ruby was Platinum and below that was a smattering of smaller insignificant numbers.
I was one of those insignificant numbers. I rarely got to go on stage.
What I Did Get to Do
What I did get to do was stand up whenever they would say, “who listened to 3 CDs this week? 4? 5??” and I would just keep standing because that’s literally all I listened to in the car.
We bought our CDs each week from our upline (people above us in the pyramid scheme levels of cult). I would write a check to my sponsor, who would write a check to their sponsor, who would take all the checks they got plus what they wanted to buy and would write yet another check to their sponsor and so on. It sounds ludicrous. How can a person possibly manage all of that?
I later found out on a podcast that the only people making money from those “business materials” were those at the Diamond level. That means thousands of people below them were doing all that book keeping work for no profit whatsoever.
Anyways. I was really good at brainwashing myself. I washed my brain nice and clean. I didn’t watch tv which made it hard to understand what it meant when someone told me I reminded them of Pam on The Office. It wouldn’t be until a couple of years later when I would wonder to myself…early Pam or late Pam?
I wonder if that’s why I became so obsessed with the show once I did actually allow myself to watch television programs.
All the Tales
I listened to all sorts of tales on those CDs. Stories of people who came from nothing, worked their tail off, and became a millionaire. Stories of people who were into “the business” even though they were already well off, but they wanted more time with their family. Stories of women following their men. Women who learned all they could about makeup and skincare so they could do their part for the business (the women were obviously in charge of the womanly things). It didn’t really matter the specific story–all stories pointed to some key cult-minded points.
