Stories on Reddit to carry a certain very special type of weights. While ARG's creepy internet web series are definitely notable topics to talk about I feel that incredibly strange real-life narratives have a certain appeal to them that seems more intimate. As we know Reddit allows for an extra layer of immersion that isn't found on most other social media websites Since you're unable to make your profiles private on the platform, it allows the opportunity for just about anyone to read through editors post histories This concept coupled with Anything that might be shared by a user Allows us to get an inside look on the lives behind the user names and often times. These can prove to be extremely intriguing because of this non privacy concept users wall from resort to making throwaway accounts with the sole purpose of interacting on just one post or a common thread It's commonly done to prevent people from digging through their online history. But depending on the context provided has some mixed results Tonight we're going to discuss a throwaway account that I recently discovered by the name of u/throwawayone181718. About two years ago. They made a post in the confession subreddits about their incredibly bizarre experience with an unnamed cult Being completely fascinated by a story I decided to do a little digging and stumbled upon quite a few oddities Because of this I wanted to bring you along for the ride We're going to press through a story before picking it apart to theorize on what might have happened to this anonymous user So buckle down because it's time to investigate the mystery of the redditor that escaped a cult. Our story begins on January 29th, 2017 That night a redditor by the name of u/throwaway181718 Seven one eight had made a pose to the confession subreddit with the title. I was in a cult Here he explains in great detail his incredibly bizarre experience as he was enticed to join a So-called summer camp for people that had mental illnesses Now quick sidenote I haven't exactly done any story narrations on my channel but to get the full picture of this I'm going to present his short story to you in its entirety So if you have popcorn or snack nearby grab it because we're about to go all in before we pick his story apart. I was in a cult. Firstly apologies for my anonymity. I don't want this to get back to me But I haven't told anyone about this. I need to get it off my chest Three years ago when I was in college, I was suffering with severe depression. I took medication and attended therapy and group therapy One day my group therapy. Our therapist told us that there's a man here to talk to us for reasons Let's call him Bob. Bob was really energetic really friendly and understanding he spoke to us on our level a bunch of vulnerable teenagers He told us about a group therapy holiday We would go away over the summer holidays and do some cool things like rafting rock climbing, etc He explained that it was completely free because the college would pay for us to go and it lasts five weeks Not many people were interested, but I decided to ask him a few questions after the session He told me it was all about adventure making friends and having fun whilst continuing our therapy. I asked for some details off him, but he didn't have a card. So we asked for mine Stupidly I gave him my phone number email address and home address later that night. I was telling my parents about it They seemed a little suspicious, but I was trying to convince them whilst we were talking. There was a knock at my door and... It was Bob My dad welcome to min and he spoke to both of them explaining and it's good for my mental health And it's also a lot of experiences as well. It was completely free After talking for a while my parents agreed that I could go they filled out some paperwork and the next time I saw Bob was when I got on the coach with lots of other people around my age Bob was really enthusiastic and everyone looked excited, albeit we were all having mental health issues Bob explained that on our first day we will be doing an adventure course in building a raft to help with teamwork with our fellow campers We drove north to a walled-off campsite and it was huge as we got off the bus Everyone had to go for a physical checkup It was uncomfortable, but I assumed it was to make sure that we could take part in the events. The doctor was very thorough When we left we couldn't find our suitcases, so we guess they were but to our rooms, but when we got to our rooms They weren't there either. I asked Bob and he said that we weren't allowed them and that we weren't a lot our phones either He asked for all of our phones me and the other boys in the room refused But then he said that it was in the contract we signed Reluctantly, we all gave up our possessions and he gave us these ugly track suits to wear because he quote "didn't want our nice clothes to get dirty" We did some activities and they were fun, but then we all went for dinner before anyone started eating One of the group leaders said that we all should pray I'm not religious and there was no indication that this was a religious group. So I was a bit confused The group leader said that we should all say thanks to "the gods" for bringing us all together I thought this was weird but assumed that he was just being inclusive of everyone's religions Later that night. We all went to bed whilst we were in bed another group leader Let's call him Todd Came in and forced us all to stand up we did and he told us all off for sleeping in our boxers He said that we should sleep when the track suits We put our track suits on and as soon as he left we took him off again. It was summer after all. The next few days, there were pretty much the same there were some fun activities But they were always shadowed by the group leaders acting weird and very strict The boys and girls weren't allowed to talk to each other when we went swimming We went in our track suits and we were only really allowed to talk during these activities Every meal we had to pray and the leaders always said things like "The gods will show us the way to the end" And honestly, I was getting really creeped out We did exciting activities, but we also had to do some more boring ones like meditation They also told us that if we wanted to stay after the five weeks we could stay and we could invite our families to live with us. One evening. I asked Bob if I could call home just because I wanted to talk with my family He said that my family was already told that I have arrived safely, and I'm happy I tried to argue it, but he was determined to not let me contact my family until the five weeks were up I didn't know where they took my suitcase so I had no way of contacting him That evening there was a campfire event and it was integrated with a group therapy session I asked to use the bathroom in the main building and sneaked off There's a small office that was empty and the lights were off So I went in and used the phone to call my home phone I told my mom what was happening and they told me that they'd come get me straight away in The back of the office was another room filled with suitcases and a plastic box filled with phones It took me a while to find my phone But I stuck it in my pocket and then tried to look for my suitcase Whilst I was looking Todd walked into the office and caught me He practically dragged me out and sat me down on the hallway yelling at me for disobeying the rules He said I was trying to get to my clothes and it was a sin to be proud or something He then took me back to the group and told the other group leaders in front of everyone else The group leaders were then angry at everyone and started going over the rules. We were all sent to bed without dinner and bed I was on my phone texting my dad who said they were arriving now I made sure that the other boys didn't see I had my phone Eventually, my dad texted me saying something like 'we're outside come now' So I pretty much jumped out of bed and ran out as fast as I could Pass the group leaders who tried to stop me from running out of the building Down the dirt road to my mom's car at the edge of the campsite the leaders chasing me My dad got out of the car and locked me in the car with my mom The group leaders were saying that I wasn't allowed to leave My parents signed a contract saying I can't leave until my five weeks are up My dad refused and they tried to open the doors to get me out Somehow my dad got back into the car and the doors were locked before they could get me out and my parents drove me home At home I told my parents everything The next morning Todd and some other group leaders were at my front door My dad told him to go away as they still tried to get me to come back to the camp But they wouldn't leave without me. My dad called the police and the police escorted them away we couldn't see them but we knew they were watching I pretty much didn't leave the house for the rest of the summer and I was constantly peering out of my window When college started again I left the house on my own for the first time to go get the bus and as I walked on the road I could hear Todd and the others calling after me. I tried to run but there are around ten of them they've surrounded me on the streets A few people from their houses heard the commotion and I yelled out for them to call the cops a Few men came out and a fight started I managed to run back to my house and lock myself in the group leaders were arrested But the next week a new group would show up in my area Eventually, we moved house. I stopped going to college and we had to start a whole new life We don't live in witness protection, but we use fake identities to stop them from finding us My parents were in contact with the college and the police The college stopped funding the group and the police told us that they would start an investigation and that Todd killed himself falls down bail. I don't know much more than that. But I hope that everyone in the group are safe So as you might expect a lot of speculation surfaced after this on one hand There are quite a few people claiming that this was fake and on the other people were baffled wishing OP the best Now regardless of how you feel about his story now there is more to it Remember how I said that reddit post histories allow us to take a deeper look into the lives behind the posters That holds true here Heading over to his profile for census with quite a few interesting discoveries in a comment that directly follows his post He provides an update claiming that he appreciates a supportive reaction and that he'd like to (..) from giving away too much information Following this he provides five notable bullet points containing: One: In response to the questions about my phone dying I didn't think it was worth mentioning that I turned it off before I handed it over Two: I haven't heard from the team since I left and I haven't heard from the leaders since we moved house There was an investigation a few years ago. I don't know what happened to the group Three: Some of you have guessed my country, but I still don't want to give away too much information about where I live Four: The reason I won't expose the group is because it would be interfering with the police investigation And five: when I said we changed identity I meant we unofficially started using a new surname and only our closest relatives know this As explained above a group of the leaders were arrested and charged with harassment. However, more people turned up soon after He then closes off his post by claiming that he's been scared to even Google the group name in fear of being tracked down. A few other comments were posted by him in response to general questions afterwards. However, that don't carry much weight After these though, we can see an incredibly strange thread that he made over in the help subreddits with the title: How do I delete a message I posted? With absolutely no other context provided there were only two comments on this One was by an actual helper on the sub that provided tips on how to do so and another was from a redditor that was following this story "Look at his only other post and look at the comments. This is creepy as hell" And then... He dropped a bomb On February 3rd, and one last update comment on his original post he proceeds to say this "This is not true. I was part of a therapy group that specializes in helping teenagers with mental health problems It was not a cult since then I've decided to rejoin the group. I will answer no further questions on the matter" And that was it Ominously this comment fell on mostly deaf ears With only four comments in the thread and 39 up votes the few that saw this were pretty baffled Now this is quite a bit to unpack with the wordage used in his last comments It sounds as if a third party is responding to accusations that were made in the story It seems (at least to me) that the OP expresses himself pretty well. Why would he out of nowhere pull a total 180 and claim that this story is untrue in such an unnatural way? It just doesn't add up With all of this in mind were able to run with two theories either one His story is real and the account was compromised by a cult leader as an attempting to discredit him or two this entire thing is a hoax Let's focus on theory one. Let's say that this is real He was forced back into the program and other his phone was taken again where they have access to his computer Ok, but what organization was it that could have done this? Now it sounds like it could line up with religious cults such as Peoples Temple or Scientology However, I wasn't able to dig up much at all regarding any sort of rehabilitation summer camps that connect to them It might seem like a long shot to try to match up his experience with an actual verifiable account by someone, but hey it doesn't hurt to try There is one group that I wanted to discuss here That seems like it could potentially fit the bill If we head back to the comments section on his original post we can see that a user left a link to an article Claiming that his experience sounds oddly similar to controversies that were taking place in a rehab group by the name of Teen Challenge After looking into them a bit. It seems like I said that they could be a potential suspect From Wikipedia The Teen Challenge is a worldwide network of Christian faith-based corporations intended to help teenagers, adults and families with problems such as substance abuse or self-destructive behavior It was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Ozark, Missouri Now at face value this organization sounds legitimate and seems like it has an innocent mission Help people of all ages out of self-destructive or addictive behavior interestingly though if you perform a google search of Teen Challenge cult, for example You can stumble upon countless posts about this group for taking an abusive acts at their summer camps with this in mind and that article that was shared were able to read up on the underbelly of the organization through a compilation of testimonies given by people that were put through the program In one account given by a parent of a student at the Teen Challenge affiliated school gateway Christian Military Academy, they claimed this: "They shaped involved at first warning in 2008 put him in an orange jumpsuit and made him exercise past dark Through the night as he slept on the floor. They forced him awake for more the screaming the illness exercise it was all in the name of God" In another testimony someone claimed "I was at Teen Challenge in Pensacola, Florida for two months And it was very much like a cult, a lot of brainwashing there. It made my problems worse rather than better I don't recommend Teen Challenge for anyone. One leader threw Bibles at the residents and carried around a baseball bat to scare us" Now we're able to draw some parallels between the group, their testimonies and the reddit story for starters OP isn't from the states and this common thread here He basically confirms that he lives in another English-speaking country and also makes a comment about not being able to purchase a gun where he lives with that in mind That means that this organization would either have to be based in whatever country he's from or have to be worldwide Going back to that original Wikipedia description Teen Challenge definitely fits the bill here Furthermore there a: Rehabilitative program that partners with schools and has religious undertones They force attendees to wear jumpsuits at their camps, wake them up at night and provide so-called help to people of all ages Each of these carrying a parallel to the original story Now say his profile was compromised by a co-leader and he was somehow forced to rejoin That would mean that they had aggressively hunted him down Even after they moved and either khoresht the parents into placing him back into it or potentially had dug up some sort of blackmail Down mean that he likely returned to the camp again soon after his phone was taken once more and they likely tried to get into His account without him knowing assuming that it isn't password-protected Either that or he's completely fine and they hacked him somehow trying their hand at damage control Although this is pretty far-fetched in itself. I'm sorry but a crazy religious rehabilitation hacker cult just sounds outrageous Going with theory number two being that this is a hoax, we're able to pinpoint some holes in the story First off with that. How do I delete a message? I posted thread in his post history. We can begin to rip his logic apart How on earth is someone capable of logging into a reddit account? Navigating to the help subreddit specifically and creating a post about deleting a post without actually knowing how to delete something It's incredibly rudimentary and anyone with any sort of internet knowledge would know how to do this with ease Furthermore in his original update comment. He claims that he's scared to even Google the group name and fear of them tracking him down Regarding the cult name this implies that Well He doesn't have one Is for example teen challenge sitting there and monitoring every IP address that Google is their organizations name Is that puts you on some sort of watch list? It isn't even possible for the public to her first track people that search up certain terms which leads me to believe that this guy's Either being overly paranoid or he doesn't have a group name at all Lastly he claims in his original story that he didn't leave the house for the rest of the summer However, right when he finally does the cult leaders surround him So you're meaning to tell me that with all of the other people that could be taking part in this crazy cult They had an undying focus on him and him only Even digging for organization leaders that committed suicide after being released on bail Somewhat of a very specific instance provides little to no results You would think being only two years ago that this would send a shockwave across the Internet If Teen Challenge or any other cult for that matter are the ones involved wouldn't there be reports about it, tweets, Facebook posts? Like I said, there are a lot of inconsistencies and it's hard to look past them All-in-all Teen Challenge is a religious rehabilitation organization that has had their fair share of controversies throughout the years The parallels between the testimonial is given by attendees and OP original story are evident However with the lack of verifiable evidence cell is given in this post It's hard to pinpoint what exactly it was that happened to him and who it was that did it? Either he's back in this cult and in potential trouble or this entire thing was nothing more than a very comprehensive scary story Nonetheless, it's an incredibly entertaining one And if he ever comes back to reddit to do the potential update he mentioned I'd love to get some more insight into his experience u/throwaway181718 was stuck in a cult whether or not it was fictional His story was indeed a well-written one what did being just two years old? Perhaps he'll be back But if not, it looks as if it'll sit an internet mystery history For good So, what do you think? Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one. I love you all and good night
My bet is Canada, when I was young my parents had a minivan that died on the highway that they 'donated' to a youth rehab program/group in exchange for a tax-related donation receipt.
These guys were apparently kids and young adults facing drug abuse and other bad habits very similar to this 'cult'. If you google Teen Challenge in Ontario, Canada (think US border to Toronto), you will find quiet a few centres as well as a teen challenge farm. My bet is one of these locations is where this story happened.
Creepy stuff.
I was thinking UK from his verbage. Im convinced the story, however is fake. Fun nonetheless.
BTW I pass teen challenge on my way home every day so I thought that bit was interesting
Super interesting!
I would agree on Canada being a probable location, "mum" is a term we use and our gun laws are strict. The term "College" to me here sounds more like a private school, most college students here are over 18, our legal age, and they wouldn't need parental consent.
The "waiting for him, and just him" argument is not bad, but if you look at Scientology and their "fair game"policy, it becomes something unlikely but plausible.
The Team Challenge scenario fits, except for the use of the word "gods" and not "God", he was pretty specific about that. Why?
Still...I'm leaning towards a fabrication.
A suicide rarely makes the news. A suicide while on bail, maybe the local news. A suspected cult leader commits suicide? That makes the headlines and there's a record of it somewhere. A leader from a little known cult? There's an investigation report about it somewhere too.
But the biggest red flag?
No parent goes through all that and doesn't notice their child is back with the group. No parent would let that go quietly.
It was a great vid, made my night! Thank you!
Honestly, I want to believe it's true, but there needs to be more evidence dug out to further prove such a story. Definitely intrigued by this whole ordeal, and I'm probably going to start investigating myself pretty soon.
This seems pretty interesting!
Hopefully OP was larping and accidentally posted on /r/confession when they meant to post on /r/nosleep. Biggest red flag for me and Teen Challenge is the difference between a "Christian" organization, and the OP's claim that they prayed to "the gods." Christian and pagan beliefs are incompatible and it's not enough that they share in having "religious overtones."
Still, I don't doubt that it's possible. Hope OP is okay, wherever they are.
this one feels like a mixture of fact and fiction to me. I feel like he may have done the program, and realized it for what it was and wrote a part truth and part fictitious (and/or heavily embellished) story surrounding the creepiness of his ordeal
I thought it was interesting that Nexpo went for Teen Challenge right away, given the whole "god_s_" thing. There's tons of christian organizations that are culty.
I have an ex-girlfriend who was literally handcuffed and dragged away at 3am, thrown on a plane to the Dominican Republic for 3 years. She didn't speak and spanish, so it took her over a month before she figured out that her mother had paid New Horizon's Youth Ministries to give her a "culture shock". Turns out the whole thing was a goddamn work camp cult, not that her mother cared at the time. They worked her to the bone doing "charitable" things for poor villages like building houses and working fields. She mentioned something about them mixing bleach into the drinking water because it was so shitty. It's hard to tell what was teenage bullshit and what was real.
She got out when she was there for several years and she convinced them that they had beat the christian into her so hard that the could use her to recruit others.
By the time I met her, she was mid twenties, pretty fucked up mentally. She was in college for social work, dedicated on helping other people. She was also involved in a lawsuit against New Horizons, because she managed to find a bunch of other people who got out and were pissed off. She also found other organizations that operate similarly.
Nice