Hello. I stayed for 16½ years at what I believed to be a true apparition site. Sure there was the unexplained strong smell of roses, the sun seeming to do stuff, and Rosary chains changing. Even the claimed visionary seemed to know things that they couldn’t know. Yet, after many years, the “visionary” became more controlling–and threatening. One had to obey or they and their family would go to hell. So for the past 5 years, I was terrified. The “visionary” claimed to have Elijah protecting them, and if we did anything against them, Elijah would get us. We were to refer to him as “the powerful one” or the “p.o.” All this time, I doubted but the fear was much more strong. Then that person got pancreatic cancer. I pretended to care, but I didn’t. I was told that once again, I (the driver) had to drive that person thousands of miles to Boston to get cancer treatment. I was getting stronger and said no. Another lady who was also a victim and I began to talk about our situation. I was a convert to the Catholic Church, so knew nothing of what the Church said about these things, that we didn’t need to believe anything said there for our salvation. Once I learned that, I said, “I’m out of here!” I had been laid off, and my health was terrible…and as is usual for a cult, as I now refer to that awful place, the cult leader manipulates members to cut off their families and friends. So getting in touch with my family, after refusing to talk to them for years—took much prayer and work. I and the other lady victim both cleared out of “The Center,” as the prayer house we’d been living in–without telling the cult leader–who called me, and I was at my Grandma’s. The cult leader was screaming and cursing and threatening at me. I had to have tons of counseling, and help from Priests, to get my bearings again. It’s been 10 years since the escape. The cult leader died of the cancer. I eventually forgave them.
