The Betrayal Trauma of 7M: "Church", entertainment "management", cult

I recently caved & watched the Netflix docu-series, Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult. I figured, it's about a Tik Tok thing. This will be trite, superficial & stupid.

I was wrong: this series portrays the raw and real damage of betrayal trauma. 

Image courtesy of imdb.com

  Here's the story: A predatory opportunist, running cons for decades, targets 2 pairs of young sisters in two different eras. The Wilking sisters are two dancers who'd built a successful TikTok following. One sister declines his “church/entertainment management company" 7M Films. The other falls for the seduction of stardom. The more she’s groomed and promoted, the more she stonewalls her family—as is always the case in cults.   

Then the Lee sisters appear—former members of the "Shekinah Church" before it morphed into 7M Films. They were kids at the time, abandoned by both parents, so a cult leader's prime target. If you've got the proclivity to exploit vulnerability, abandoned youth are easy prey. The Lee sisters talk unflinchingly about how leaving ripped back the curtain, exposing his years of abuse and con artistry, stealing precious time, and damaging their bond. Newsflash, it was and continues to be painful. 

This excerpt from the Daily Beast article, How a TikTok Dance Cult Exploited and Abused Its Brainwashed Members lays it out: " ...Melanie Lee... had escaped Shekinah Church. Eventually, Melanie’s sister Priscylla did as well. Alas, their healing process has been a slow and arduous one, especially for Priscylla, whose unvarnished anger and misery—rooted in shame, regret, and outrage—is startling in its intensity. In their tormented conversations, Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult lays bare the difficulty of coming to terms with having been duped and exploited by the very people you most trusted and revered."

The 7M cult shredded both pairs of sisters, inflicting incalculable damage on those families. When duped and exploited by people you trust, the shock, anger and grief that follows is unexplainable. But I thought that this series drove it home.

I'd love to know what you think. 

Inhale, exhale. Repeat.  Esther

Author of The Gentle Souls Revolution.