Cult worship

from The Melbourne Jewish Report - April edition 2023

Support the People of Israel this Yom Tov

MEGAN NORRIS

Cult exit counsellor Raphael Aron’s debut crime fiction novel takes readers on a disturbing journey that centres around complex themes he knows only too well.

Bound by Belief (AIA Publishing, 2023) offers insight into the dangers vulnerable people face when they fall under the spell of charismatic leaders while isolated from those that love them.

The book is based on real stories of some of the broken families Aron has supported and the damaged survivors he has helped to escape from cults.

His novel follows grieving Australian mother Laura Fields and the support agency she founded after the unsolved disappearance of her daughter many years earlier.

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Through her team at CultAssist, Fields provides a lifeline to other desperate parents mourning lost or missing children and leads her into the seductive and dangerous world of cults.

Five frantic families race against time to break the spell of unscrupulous pseudospiritual organisations, while the main protagonist faces daunting challenges.

Aron, who is the Melbourne director of Cult Consulting Australia (cultconsulting. org) is the author of six published books.

These include Cults: Too Good to Be True (Harper Collins, 1999) and Cults, Terror and Mind Control (Bay Tree Publishing, 2009).

In Bound by Belief, he weaves a fascinating tale involving mind control, emotional manipulation and the overarching need to belong.

Stepping outside his usual academic research and case files, the novel examines the roles of society, law enforcement and family in helping those seduced down a dark path. It looks at the predators who strip followers of their identity and exploit them by indoctrinating them with their warped beliefs.

This happens in the post-COVID era, when the appeal of cults has never been greater.

Aron highlights the complexities facing those battling to support helpless relatives looking to bring “the taken” back before families are damaged beyond repair.

At a time when his own agency is receiving increasing calls for his services, Aron’s message could not be more timely.

Bound by Belief is a real page turner and is available from The Avenue Bookshop in Elsternwick. It can be also ordered online and as a Kindle Edition via Amazon.

Megan Norris is a journalist and author of The Messiah’s Bride (Penguin Random House)

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