Customer Reviews

People Farm

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I honestly couldn't put PEOPLE FARM down; and when I did it was only to call my bookclub and tell them we were going to read it for our next meeting. Then I picked up the book and reread it.

Cy Aarons therapy community, Rancho Vista, attracted troubled but gifted young people who had come to the end of their ropes. It attracted Steve Susoyev, the author, who was at the time the youngest person ever accepted into Columbia University, and who regularly rehearsed a suicide ritual of filling his mouth with stolen amphetamines and barbiturates and then spitting them out before it was too late. He met Cy Aaron the day he was buying the final lethal drugs for his suicide cocktail. Instead of drifting into a hallucination of pain free death, he heard Cy Aarons words of understanding and acceptance. Steve abandoned his suicide plans and hitchhiked through a Colorado snowstorm to Cys community, the 'farm' referred to in the title. There Steve found healing and growth. Eventually it was in this community where he also was trained to be a sexual surrogate and a felon.

The memoir unflinching examines the deepest concerns of the human soul and follows the story of these gifted and troubled people to the extreme lengths they go in their quest for unconditional love. It is a story so insightful and personal that it could never have been imagined and the fact that the author survived the ordeal to tell his remarkable story is a cause for celebration and gratitude.

Readers should know that there are some explicit descriptions of sex, and some of them may seem brutal.

Steve Susoyev's People Farm is the memoir of a participant in a early Aquarian Age "therapy cult" and a "human relations laboratory" which degenerated and deteriorated into patterns of sexual abuse, corruption, and psychopathy. Names and even the models of vehicles have been changed, but the raw, gut-wrenching power of this personal and eyewitness testimony shows through clearly as a warning to the seductive embrace of overly close-knit and controlling groups. A compelling tell-all which is very hard to put down, People Farm is especially recommended reading for anyone (including their families and friends) who finds themselves tempted by a cult community.

I'm half a generation too young to have been involved in the commune movement of the 60's and 70's -- I was still in grade school -- but this book shows all the great, wonderful, and horrifying aspects of a therapy-cult-commune, and entertains throughout! A GREAT read -- I immediately brought it to my reading group!

Not only is this a fascinating and compelling story, but it is written with humor, charm and compassion. The author lived this experience of being a 19-year-old who sought refuge in a therapy cult in the 1970s and in 1980 "stumbled back into the world and learned who Fleetwod Mac was." He is a great storyteller. The book is fascinating and entertaining and delightful. It is one of those books that you wish would never end.

I enjoyed this book. Honest story that I felt priviledged to read. Definately a story that needed to be written.

This is a mesmerizing tale of love, deceit, loyalty and self discovery, all the crucial ingredients of a great drama. In addition to that, Steve Susoyev's
"People Farm" is a sober analysis of a cult's history from its successful days to its eventual demise. It follows the lives of self-indulgent characters who struggle to find themselves but, when they arrive at the knowledge, they find out that they are capable of doing horrible things to others.

I've always been attracted to the study of cults and cultish communities and groups, and have read a few books on the subject. Mr. Susoyev's account not only provides useful guidelines, but is a fun read and in fact a true page-turner.

If like me you are not in the medical field but are looking for a reliable study about the mechanisms of psychic deceit and power manipulation, you'll be hard pressed to come up with a better study guide than Steve Susoyev's book.

I hope to read more books by Mr. Susoyev. In particular, I love to see this book adapted into a movie because there are beautiful cinematic elements and dramatic scenes throughout.