**PLEASE NOTE: This episode originally aired in Oct 2024. Since, there have been quite a few updates to both the cult and story. Tune into the episode to hear more.**

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In Part 2 of Angela's story, the realities of Falun Gong’s grip on her family deepen. Angela reflects on the emotional toll of a cult that prioritized spiritual salvation over physical health—even as her mother’s condition worsens. But escaping isn’t easy when your family remains deep in the cult’s ideologies… Angela’s journey out of this cult is filled with heartbreaking revelations and the resilience that defines a true “surthirver.”

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**PLEASE NOTE: This episode originally aired in Oct 2024. Since, there have been quite a few updates to both the cult and story. Tune into the episode to hear more.**

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When her mother fell sick, young Angela had no idea that she would spend her childhood growing up in a dangerous cult. Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual movement-slash-religion-slash-cult, known for its Shen Yun dancers and its ties to 'The Epoch Times’ entangled her family in its facade of meditation and enlightenment. In this two-part episode, Angela recounts her experience in a world where karma is not just a bitch, but a force that can dictate life and death… with suffering seen as a path to salvation and modern medicine demonized as an obstacle to spiritual purity. And just when you think it can’t get any wilder, the Capitol Insurrection storms into the story…

This is Part 1 of Angela's powerful story.

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FOLLOW US → For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)

HAVE A CULTY STORY?

Email us → info@wasiinacult.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As a young teenager, Darls Centola was searching for something steady in a chaotic world. What she found was the Jehovah’s Witnesses—a religion that felt warm, structured, and safe.

What she didn’t expect to find… was him.

Not the King of Pop. Not the global icon. Not Michael Jackson.

Just Michael.

A shy, curious, thoughtful teenage boy looking to her for religious guidance.

What unfolds is almost impossibly pure. Two kids hiding behind their school not to smoke pot, but to talk about faith and opening orphanages one day—all while trying (and failing) to suppress feelings they aren't allowed to feel.

Because inside their dogma, a crush isn't just a crush. It could get you killed at Armageddon. And as their bond deepens... so does the control.

Until the belief system that brought them together… is the very thing that tears them apart.

This isn’t a story about fame. It’s not a takedown. And it’s not a defense.

It's about first love.

And a deeply human, intimate look at a version of someone the world thinks it already understands, set against the very real, very damaging impact of cult abuse.

And the uncomfortable truth that both light and darkness can exist at the same time.

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Today, Darls Centola is a licensed clinical social worker, educator and EMDR consultant with a focus on the impact of spiritual abuse and high control systems.

She has written a memoir about the innocent and heartbreaking time in her life inside a cult with teenage Michael Jackson from the POV of that young girl. A time that didn't just change her life... but may have quietly shaped his too.

Purchase Darls' memoir here: "Finding Truth with Michael: A Memoir of Friendship, Faith and First Love"

Find Darls' workbook and other resources on her website: findingtruthwithmichael.com

FOLLOW US → For more culty content — follow us on Instagram & TikTok → @wasiinacult

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our Patreon! Get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes conversations. (And our forever gratitude)

HAVE A CULTY STORY?

Email us → info@wasiinacult.com

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.