The Cult Vault

Watching Two Detectives "Biddy" - Watching Two Detectives - Podcast - Apple Podcasts

In this episode of the Cult Vault, Kacey interviews sisters Rose and Sefa, who co-host the podcast My Sister’s Take, about being raised in the Church of Immortal Consciousness, a small metaphysical cult founded around 1983 in Mesa, Arizona by Steven and Trina Kamp. They describe Trina’s “dead trance mediumship” in sealed dark rooms where she channeled “Dr. Duran,” later moving the community to remote Tonto Village, and explain doctrines like “like-vibration” soulmate pairings, communal living, shifting family roles, and “processing” sessions of public shaming and control.

They recount reproductive coercion, arranged relationships, fear, instability, and how skills and outside validation helped them leave. They discuss the cult’s decline after Trina’s death, uncertain status of Steven, lingering rumours, and their podcast’s seasons and platforms.

My Sisters Take - YouTube

FIND THE FULL PODCAST HERE:
THE INSTASCAMMER: Investigating Liana Shanti


In this full-length interview, Kacey speaks with Kristin about losing her sister to Liana Shanti's online community.

Content note: this episode includes discussion of coercive control, recovered-memory and childhood-abuse allegations, and family estrangement. Support resources are below.

Sources & credits:
Lisa's story in her own words on Liana Shanti's podcast "Deep Throat": https://www.lianashantipodcast.com/dtpodcast/episode-six-believe-her-malana-hokulani-lisa-fiorvante-and-her-journey-to-heal-from-child-sexual-abuse

About this series: 
THE INSTASCAMMER is an 11-part investigative audio documentary from The Cult Vault podcast into Liana Shanti (legal name Liane Wilson), the online wellness figure behind HMI Wellness, the Health Mastery Institute and Life Mastery Network. Built on court records, documents, recordings, former members, experts and the families affected, the series traces how a juice-cleanse following became a coaching business and a closed community. Hosted and produced by Kacey Baker, Vault Productions.

Have you experienced something like this? 

Support & resources:
If anything in this episode resonates with your own experience, you are not alone, and help is available.

• Recovering from a cult or coercive group: R.A.I.S.E. CIC (UK) — cultic-abuse support and peer-led recovery — recoverautonomy.org.
• Internationally: the International Cultic Studies Association — internationalculticstudies.org, [email protected].
• If you’ve lost a loved one to a cult or coercion: The Family Survival Trust (UK) — thefamilysurvivaltrust.org/support.
• Childhood or sexual abuse: US — RAINN, 1-800-656-4673 (24/7). UK — NAPAC, 0808 801 0331. • In emotional distress or crisis (including suicidal thoughts): UK & ROI — Samaritans, free on 116 123, 24/7. US — 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call or text 988, 24/7.
• Domestic abuse or coercive control: UK — National Domestic Abuse Helpline (Refuge), 0808 2000 247, 24/7. US — National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233.  

(If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number.)  

Verification & evidence:
Much of what is described in this series is supported by recordings, documents, court filings and public records. If you are a journalist, researcher, or someone personally affected and you would like to verify what you’ve heard, you can reach the production at [email protected].

A note on names: To protect the privacy and safety of contributors and their families, some names and identifying details have been changed. Where individuals appear under their real names, they have consented to do so.

In this episode, host Kacey presents a deep-dive episode on Kenyan preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and the Shakahola Forest deaths.

WARNING of child deaths, starvation, and abuse. Born in 1973, Mackenzie founded Good News International Church after working as a hawker and taxi driver, broadcasting end-times messages that branded schools and hospitals satanic. He was repeatedly arrested from 2017–2019 and then moved followers into isolated forest settlements where residents were barred from mixing. During COVID-19, fasting escalated into a planned sequence of deaths, children first, with beatings, restraints, and reported sexual assaults; authorities ignored complaints until an April 2023 raid uncovered graves.

Postmortems cited starvation and killings by strangulation, suffocation, and blunt force; organ-harvesting claims were disputed and not charged. Exhumations exceeded 430 bodies amid hundreds missing, and further graves emerged at Kwa Mbinzaro. On 19 Oct 2026, a Mombasa High Court convicted Mackenzie and 28 followers of murdering 190 children and one adult, finding coercion, radicalisation, and that children cannot consent; appeals, sentencing, and additional cases remain pending.

Sources:
Full list of resources can be found here as the list was too large for the episode description field.
SOURCES | TheCultVault

In this episode, Kacey interviews Amir, a former Scientology executive from Scotland who says he escaped in January after four years in Scientology.

Amir describes a normal pre-Scientology life and explains that modern recruitment emphasises self-help books, stress/personality tests, courses, and front groups rather than overt sci‑fi beliefs, while internal operations follow outdated Hubbard-era policies.

After taking an initial communications course, Amir rapidly increased course participation, was recruited onto staff, and by 2024 was running major functions at the Edinburgh org, sacrificing time, friends, and education while keeping involvement from family. Reassigned to PR, he ran social media and public outreach, heard growing criticism, contacted protesters, and appeared on a critic's channel.

Amir says this triggered intelligence scrutiny, two weeks of interrogation, pay penalties, shunning, and forced manual labor, prompting him to gather evidence and leave via an emergency exit, later facing disconnection and monitoring. He advises offering leavers support and compassion.

LISTEN TO MY NEW 11-PART INVESTIGATIVE PODCAST SERIES HERE! 

In this episode, Kacey interviews author and speaker Raylynn Van Oort about her memoir, From Shit to Sunshine, which recounts how childhood experiences with a controlling stepfather primed her for manipulation by a charismatic preacher-politician who claimed to speak for God and eventually claimed to be God. 

After meeting him at McDonald’s, she became his unpaid campaign manager/executive director, was isolated from family, coerced into surrendering money and using credit cards in members’ names, and endured coercive control, public humiliation, beatings, and forced “med runs” to obtain drugs and alcohol during a period he called “atonement.”

She was ultimately arrested for writing bad checks for the group, spent 13 months jail-hopping, and found her first physical safety behind bars, though mental freedom came years later; in 2010 she named it a cult, sought specialised therapy after appearing on Dr. Phil, and spent five years in intensive recovery. She now promotes hope through speaking and book events, calls herself a “hope hooker,” and the book is available in print and audio narrated by her.

Raylynn's Website - From Shit to Sunshine: Raylynn Van Oort's Inspiring Journey

CLICK HEAR TO LISTEN TO MY NEW 11-PART INVESTIGATION SERIES INTO LIANA SHANTI!

In this episode, Kacey interviews Bloomberg investigative journalist Ellen Huet, author of Empire of Orgasm, about OneTaste and its founder Nicole Daedone.

Huet explains how Daedone rebranded a partnered clitoral-stroking practice into trademarked “Orgasmic Meditation” in 2004 and marketed it through Silicon Valley-era mindfulness, wellness, and “girlboss” culture as a life-transforming cure-all.

Huet describes her reporting process, including interviewing 125+ people over five years, and alleges former members reported financial, psychological, and sexual exploitation, communal living, social isolation, and “assignments” tying sex to sales. She discusses Daedone’s shifting personal narrative and teachings rejecting victimhood, which former members found harmful. Huet recounts the FBI investigation, a 2023 forced-labor-conspiracy indictment of Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, their 2025 Brooklyn trial and guilty verdicts, and their subsequent prison sentences.

Ellen's Website - Ellen Huet

NEW 11-PART PODCAST SERIES "THE INSTASCAMMER" - THE INSTASCAMMER

In this episode, Kacey interviews author and journalist Priya Hutner about her memoir, Chasing Nirvana, and her experiences in the Kashi ashram led by a Brooklyn-born female guru known as Ma. Priya explains how her father brought the family into the New York-based spiritual community, which later centralised in Florida, and describes her dual life as a largely unsupervised teen in the city and later as a devoted adult who returned with her two sons seeking meaning and “enlightenment.” 

She outlines daily ashram life, Ma’s teachings, service work with people dying of AIDS, and the control, confusion, and moral complexity Priya faced as she rose to become CEO and Ma’s link to the outside world. Priya recounts her gradual exit, Ma’s death, ongoing contact with her mother who remains in the community, her current nature-based spirituality, and her book tour and song-titled chapters.

Priya Hutner | Writer. Storyteller. Advocate for the Literary Arts

NEW 11-PART SERIES 'THE INSTASCAMMER' AVAILABLE NOW

In this episode, Kacey interviews author Ru Marshall about Ru's new book American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda. Ru describes how decades-long curiosity about Castaneda led Ru to investigate after reading about the discovery of Nury Alexander’s skeleton and speaking with memoirist Amy Wallace. Ru outlines Castaneda’s rise after 1968’s The Teachings of Don Juan, the slow debunking of its anthropology claims, and the parallel development of a secretive high-control group that later publicised “Tensegrity,” promised ascension, concealed Castaneda’s liver cancer, and saw five women vanish after his 1997 death. Ru details interview-driven research, how UCLA dynamics and Harold Garfinkel aided credibility, and publishing battles including “cult wars,” UC Press resistance, and legal threats before OR Books released the book.

Writing - Ru Marshall
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MY BRAND NEW 11-PART SERIES THE INSTASCAMMER - https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-instascammer--7247429

In this episode, host Kacey interviews religious satirist and writer Becky Garrison about her book Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists

A satirical, research-anchored consumer guide to recognising spiritual narcissists and knowing when to walk away. Garrison discusses her background, the Wittenberg Door satire magazine, family experiences with alcoholism and narcissism, and how awareness, trauma healing (including EMDR), and boundary-setting help people discern healthy communities from coercive, exploitative ones. She defines narcissism as a lack of empathy and explains spiritual narcissism as using religious or spiritual language to control others by threatening their souls. They cover love bombing, consent, online influencer culture, psychedelics and untrained facilitators, institutional religion’s decline, and practical red flags like intolerance of pushback, shaming, conditional belonging, and leader-centered control.

Becky's Book - Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists
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CLICK HERE FOR MY NEW 11-PART PODCAST SERIES THE INSTASCAMMER

In today's episode, Kacey interviews retired journalist and University of Texas at Austin professor Robert Jensen, now living in rural northern New Mexico. Jensen discusses his wide-ranging books on feminism and pornography, race, anti-war responsibility, and ecology, and explains his new, more personal book, "This I Don’t Believe: A Fulfilling Life Without Meaning," reflecting on a traumatic, abusive childhood, vulnerability to cult-like certainty (including an Ayn Rand libertarian phase), and 17 years of therapy. He describes moments realising his family’s toxicity, work at a Benedictine monastery, and how coercive power dynamics appear in families, workplaces, churches, and cults.

Jensen argues for facing grim realities without spiritual “anchors,” finding fulfillment through love, community, and practical shared work like communal irrigation-ditch cleaning, and notes the book is available via Amazon and his website excerpts.

ROBERT JENSEN – Writer · Organizer · Retired Professor

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