Eternal Values with Hoyt Richards

Hoyt Richards spent over two decades in Eternal Values, after first meeting the man who called himself Frederick von Mierers on a beach at the age of 16. Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, out now on HBO Max with episodes releasing weekly, explores Hoyts’ journey alongside other actors and models of the era, and Hoyt has spent the years since his exit dedicated to educating people about the red flags to watch out for so that they don’t ever have to go through the experience that he did.

When Hoyt finally left Eternal Values, at the age of 37 and years after Freddie himself had died, it wasn’t because he had realised it was a cult; he had hit rock bottom, felt like he wasn’t up to the group’s work and was letting everyone down. Until he reconnected with fellow former member, actor and filmmaker Dar Dixon, and they started examining their experiences more deeply together, he really didn’t know exactly what had happened to him – even though cult accusations had been brought against the group for years.

Links

Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult — HBO Max
Hoyt Richards — official website, including Hoyt's cult education work
East Side Alien — by Marie Brenner, Vanity Fair, March 1990
Hoyt Richards IMDB profile

Credits:

Produced by Sarah Steel

Music by Joe Gould

You can support Let's Talk About Sects here. If you have been personally affected by involvement in a cult, or would like to support those who have been, you can find support with or donate to Cult Information and Family Support if you’re in Australia (via www.cifs.org.au), and you can find resources outside of Australia with the International Cultic Studies Association (via www.icsahome.com). If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs support right now, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 in Australia, or find your local crisis centre via the International Association for Suicide Prevention website at www.iasp.info. Find Sarah's audiobook Do As I Say here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(119)

Can You Handle a Girl Like Me with Bek Condello

In a sleepy Canberra suburb, Bek Condello was raised in a strict patriarchal Pentecostal movement. The influence of the Geelong Revival Centre extended deeply into the lives of the congregation, promo...

12 Jul 39min

ICSA with Carol Merchasin

Carol Merchasin is the newly appointed President of the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). Drawing on decades of experience in law, investigations, and survivor advocacy, Carol has led i...

21 Jun 53min

Coercive Control in Charismatic Evangelical Churches with the RTC

When we talk about cults, we tend to picture the ones that make headlines: isolated compounds, charismatic leaders, dramatic exits. But what about the church down the street? The one with the worship ...

31 Mai 53min

Sphinx Spiritual – Part 2

Sphinx Spiritual takes instruction from a council of entities that includes Leonardo da Vinci, Lady Di, Sir Francis Bacon, Mahatma Ghandi, an alien called Zootor, and married Mornington Peninsula coup...

26 Mai 1h 33min

Sphinx Spiritual – Part 1

A spiritual school in Victoria teaches that we each have a spiritual guide who we can rely on to help us through life, and that the couple who run the school – Ian and Pearl Rogers – sit on a council ...

19 Mai 1h 26min

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps with Harrison Hill

The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, or ACMTC, is a hardline fringe religious cult that was led by a former hippie who went by the name Deborah Green. In The Oracle’s Daughter, author ...

12 Mai 54min

Update: The Nannup Four

The ABC’s internationally award-winning podcast Expanse, exploring big stories from across Australia, looked at the mysterious case of the Nannup Four for its sixth season. Host Dominique Bayens inves...

3 Mai 34min