Customer Reviews

The Heart of a Cult

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
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The Heart of a Cult is a captivating story about a vulnerable young woman spiriling into what she perceives to be a spiritual awakening, but what turns out to be not much more than a reality check AND enormous debt.

The narrator, Michelle, a Denver-based web site designer suddenly finds herself downsized. Facing her 30th birthday without a job (or a boyfriend), and a best friend who is so engrossed with her new boyfriend and a spiritual teacher known as "Ma," Michelle allows herself to be talked into attending a lecture in Boulder. Something clicks for Michelle when she enters this seemingly welcoming community and she ends up moving to Boulder and investing an enormous amount of money she doesn't have to a lecture series. Further, she volunteers her time to create a web site for Ma, a project she'd normally charge $5000 to complete.

The style Lena Phoenix presents feels more like memoir than fiction, and this makes it easy for the reader to not only believe everything that happens, but also to understand it. Instead of getting upset with Michelle for handing over more cash and more hours, and for rationalizing so many of the inconsistencies in Ma's teachings, I found myself saying, "yes, I can see how easy it is for a person in this situation to behave like this and believe these things."

The writing is easy to read, several typos notwithstanding, and I recommend for readers who enjoy reading first novels and for anyone interested in learning more about how and why people get involved with cults or alternative spiritual quests.

From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life," and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group.

Spiritual search is part of so many lives. It is easy to be misled and make mistakes. This story is entertaining, and it is more than that. It is eye-opening. It's easy to get caught up in things that are neither true nor helpful, especially when we are vulnerable. I enjoyed it immensely!

The Heart of a Cult demystifies what a cult is like, with a very realistic and evocative portrayal of a spiritual community. The process of Phoenix's protagonist's introduction to this community and the personal develpment of the protagonist feels completely authentic. Phoenix's story neither condones or condemns, but let's the reader create their own view from an inside look into becoming involved with a spiritual community and being involved with a spiritual teacher.

Phoenix is a truly delightful writer. She touches on life issues that face all of us, especially those with an interest in spiritual growth and discovery.

This is a great read and leaves you with a sense of possibility and hope.

Sometimes, just sometimes, we really need guidance. And
when it presents itself in the guise of someone who can
lead us to a God we've never known, it's almost impossible
to refuse.

The trick is to understand the reality. Lena Phoenix's
heroine in The Heart of a Cult is Michelle. An out of work,
web designer who can almost sense a hidden truth in
how her life is playing itself out but needs a bit of a push.
When her closest friend tells her about a spiritual teacher
she is studying with Michelle is intrigued but wary. And
as we later find out it's with good reason.

But not the Kool-aid drinking, kidnapping kind of reason.
It's the believing in oneself and recognizing our true
nature reason. One's path is not always straight, and
even some who aren't always fully truthful have something
to teach us.

The Heart of a Cult shows us the journey of several, with
well defined and likable characters that illustrate the
warmth and nurturing one can find in community and also
the love and growth we all possess if we have the strength
to look inside, and at the love within us and around us.

There aren't all that many novels I find myself engrossed in right up to the end. This one was one of the few. Michelle, a web designer, has been downsized. She's broken things off with her boyfriend and is at loose ends when her best friend invites her to a lecture by "Ma," leader of a spiritual group that has recently moved into the area. She finds herself drawn into the group, plunking down her money and volunteering her time. The books shows both Michelle's spiritual growth and her growing disillusionment with the cult and its charismatic leader.

The author has a breezy, easy-to-read style and I found myself really caring about the characters. They, as well as the group Michelle finds herself joining, are all very believable and it's easy to see how Michelle was drawn in. The book does a nice job of showing both sides of the 'cult' coin, the good as well as the bad. A very promising first novel.

If you think you're not a spiritual seeker, if you think you're above it all or beyond ever being "cult-ified", think again. Lena phoenix will lead you up the staircase to Ma, with the promise of enlightenment, to the very heart of a cult, and you will want to be there every step of the way. This credible, fascinating, and succint account of how an ordinary fly is drawn to her spider will weave you into every page.

Unaware of her own capacity for spirituality, Michelle found herself on a pathway to the Divine. She experienced a moving from human consciousness to a wider cosmic consciousness.

Within months Michelle had experienced the trauma of a broken relationship, and the loss of a longstanding web designer position in Denver, Colorado. Devastated, unemployed, and lonely, Michele attended a lecture, on spiritual enlightenment by a charismatic leader, simply called "Ma."

Intrigued by Ma's teachings, insights, and energy Michelle signed up to participate in a series of seminars promising personal growth, self awareness, and a new level spiritual perception.

Lena Phoenix writes with understanding and insight into the personality of vulnerable individuals with a propensity for being deceived by cultic leaders and their close knit community relationships.

This first person narrative takes on a feeling of real life, and genuineness. Phoenix masterfully develops subtleties in her characters that draw you into their lives, identifying and empathizing with them.

Phoenix uses dialog to lay a ground work for Ma's teaching. Michelle is responsive to the teaching and mediation and quickly becomes a part of Ma's inner circle, as she works to complete a web site for the group.

After six moths of donating her services to the group, neglecting her job search, and running up thousands of dollars in debt, Michelle has a wake up call to reality. As evidence mounts, Michelle does some soul searching, asks questions, has several confrontations and uncovers deception that again changes the course of her life.

This is a book for those who have been touched personally by cultic teaching and practices or for someone on a quest for spiritual enlightenment and manifestation. The novel is clearly written, well articulated, and grounded in reality.

The Heart of a Cult invites us to look at what is real, what is meaningful, what is possible, and also how to be discriminating and honest with spiritual paths. I thoroughly enjoyed this read until the very end! As a matter of fact, I stayed up one night until 2am finishing it. I became connected to the main character, Michelle, and I wanted to know what happened to her, how she felt, what became of her. This book was so real and clear about a spiritual path. It showed the benefits and the downfalls. It was not fluffy or airy-fairy like some other spiritual books. It was a great story, written very well, and such a pleasure! I would recommend it to someone who has a lot of experience in this topic as well as someone who doesn't know a thing about cults or spiritual groups. I think almost anyone could get something out of it....even it it is just a great story!

I don't think anyone intentionally joins a cult. You are looking for some sense of community and spiritual fulfillment and when you find it, you don't want to leave it, even when you start to see red flags going up all around you. This is basically what happens to the main character in the book. She finds a group of people who make her feel spiritually alive, accepted, and loved. Being a part of this group, makes her feel less confused about life and it gives her a sense of finally fitting in somewhere. The group first starts to take advantage of her financially, then they begin to expect her to work for free for them. Anytime she questions this treatment, that unconditional love they have offered becomes very conditional in an instant. She ignores all the warning signs until she finally learns to stand up for herself, even if it means confronting these surrogate parent figures that she has come to fear as much as love.

This was a very enjoyable read. I only wish it had been longer. This isn't a criticism of the length of the book. It's just one of those books where you don't want to stop knowing the characters. You feel close to the characters as if they are real people. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. As well as being a very enjoyable work of fiction, it also provides very good insights into how cults lure people in and then slowly take away a person's willingness to confront members of the religion, even when their behavior is clearly inappropriate.

I felt drawn into this story from the beginning. I wanted Michelle to find her way and I kept hoping something good would come of her quest. Phoenix's believable portrayal of a vulnerable young woman caught in a web of circumstances held my interest and was a fascinating platform for revealing the hopes and promises of a spiritual path and the motives and temptations of those called to be teachers. In good story-telling fashion, the reader is left wondering, until nearly the end, if any enduring truths would be discovered.