My memoir, Escaping Paradise, is the story of how I grew up inside an abusive cult and under the control of a leader we viewed as God. From my earliest perspectives as a small child, to my musing as a young girl, and later a young adult, I open up to my readers about the secret double-life I was forced to live. 

Holding together the secrets I was bound to protect from birth, I longed for something different. The mental and emotional weight of being one of Master’s chosen Children of Light was a constant weight on my soul. It was a mantle too heavy for my young shoulders to uphold. I knew my role well: I was born to bring joy. To do anything outside of that was to risk public humiliation and punishment. 

When we eventually moved our cult from the unsuspecting suburbs of Houston, Texas to the secluded mountains in the northernmost edge of the United States, my world was turned upside down. 

In the isolated woods of the Rocky Mountains, I was thrown into life on the cult compound. Abuse was allowed to run rampant; unchecked and unseen by the outside world. I lived in terror as my voice was systematically silenced. The weight of living in the Family of Light became heavier as I was expected to follow the ever-changing demands of the cult leader and held responsible for the life and death of those around me.

Eventually, I found my way out. Unfamiliar to the world on the outside, I stumbled my way through to life on the other side of abuse. Each step was frightening and felt like betrayal to the core of who I was told to be. The journey to finding myself was terrifying and liberating all at once. 

This book is the story of how I rescued myself and freed the voice inside of me that had been silenced for far too long.