About

About the Podcast

During his time as the world’s first male supermodel, and a Princeton football player, Hoyt was entrenched in a dangerous  doomsday cult on the East coast for 20 years, that he ended up giving multi-millions of dollars to. While Chele was in a destructive  religious cult on the West coast for 17 years, married to a stranger, with every aspect of her life on the line— also being forced to give massive amounts of money. 

They were both leaders in their cults, and between them, they have 37 years of experience and harrowing tales, from two entirely different vantage points. 

Although Hoyt has many media appearances and magazine articles written on his cult experience, and Chele has a memoir in the works—this is Chele’s first time speaking publicly about her cult which still has approximately 128,000 current members. She finally feels healthy enough to tell her story. So in Chele’s own words—

“I’ve kept my mouth shut for 12 years since escaping, but I’m finally talking, and if I’m going to tell this story, I need to tell all of it!” 

How did it happen?

Why didn’t you just leave?

How to heal from trauma and not feel like a victim?

Education and awareness is key to understanding how cults operate, and why they are often so effective in controlling people’s minds. Hoyt and Chele will highlight the fact that almost all cults use the exact same thought reform formula to indoctrinate the mind. They like to explain it like this:

“Indoctrination is all the same party, different cults just wear different costumes.”

With this definition you can see that it is much easier to indoctrinate someone than you might have thought. There’s a reason that all sorts of cults are growing at epidemic levels around the globe. And that’s what our hosts are here to talk about, and shine a cautionary light on.

According to the CAN (Cult Awareness Network), there are currently over 10,000 different types of cults around the world, and 1 in every 8 people will either directly or indirectly be involved with cultic activity in their lifetime. This equals almost one billion people.

One of the myths that they will address is that anyone recruited into a cult must be weak or dumb or gullible. Well, after you get to know Hoyt and Chele a little bit you’ll realize that nothing is further from the truth. You actually can’t indoctrinate or control an apathetic, unmotivated person or a couch potato… 

It’s usually the highly driven and idealistic dreamer that is susceptible to a cult, because they want to do something extremely significant with their lives, and something that is bigger than themselves.

Indoctrination definition:
The process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.

IMG_7239_final_1

During his time as the world’s first male supermodel, and a Princeton football player, Hoyt was entrenched in a dangerous  doomsday cult on the East coast for 20 years, that he ended up giving multi-millions of dollars to. While Chele was in a destructive  religious cult on the West coast for 17 years, married to a stranger, with every aspect of her life on the line— also being forced to give massive amounts of money. 

They were both leaders in their cults, and between them, they have 37 years of experience and harrowing tales, from two entirely different vantage points. 

Although Hoyt has many media appearances and magazine articles written on his cult experience, and Chele has a memoir in the works—this is Chele’s first time speaking publicly about her cult which still has approximately 128,000 current members. She finally feels healthy enough to tell her story. So in Chele’s own words—

“I’ve kept my mouth shut for 12 years since escaping, but I’m finally talking, and if I’m going to tell this story, I need to tell all of it!” 

How did it happen?

Why didn’t you just leave?

How to heal from trauma and not feel like a victim?

Education and awareness is key to understanding how cults operate, and why they are often so effective in controlling people’s minds. Hoyt and Chele will highlight the fact that almost all cults use the exact same thought reform formula to indoctrinate the mind. They like to explain it like this:

“Indoctrination is all the same party, different cults just wear different costumes.”

With this definition you can see that it is much easier to indoctrinate someone than you might have thought. There’s a reason that all sorts of cults are growing at epidemic levels around the globe. And that’s what our hosts are here to talk about, and shine a cautionary light on.

According to the CAN (Cult Awareness Network), there are currently over 10,000 different types of cults around the world, and 1 in every 8 people will either directly or indirectly be involved with cultic activity in their lifetime. This equals almost one billion people.

One of the myths that they will address is that anyone recruited into a cult must be weak or dumb or gullible. Well, after you get to know Hoyt and Chele a little bit you’ll realize that nothing is further from the truth. You actually can’t indoctrinate or control an apathetic, unmotivated person or a couch potato… 

It’s usually the highly driven and idealistic dreamer that is susceptible to a cult, because they want to do something extremely significant with their lives, and something that is bigger than themselves.

Indoctrination definition:
The process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.

IMG_7239_final_1
Executive Producers: 
Chele Roland, Hoyt Richards and 
Katheryne (Ktee) Thomas 
 
Production Partners: 
In Ohm Entertainment and Floating Downstream Inc. 
 
Theme song: “Get Me Through the Night,” provided by JES and Intonenation Records 
 
Website and Graphics: 
Melissa McKeehan and Mike McKeehan
 
Social Media team: 
Melody Joy Conte, Krystal Nunez and 
Kira Sutherland 

The opinions and observations expressed on any WhaTheFlok recordings, channels, social media platforms and website do not reflect any official position or viewpoint of the podcast. Our guests and experts are simply exercising their right to freedom of speech and sharing personal opinions, based on their own individual experiences and/or formal training. None of the opinions or experiences shared are meant to offend or malign any individuals, organizations, businesses, or religions.