If you have your own story of being an occult or a high control group, or if you've had experience with manipulation or abuse of power that you'd like to share, leave us a message on our hotline number at 347-86-8-6-trust.

That's 347-8-68-7-8.

Or shoot us an email at trust me pod at gmail.com.

Trust me. Dude, you.com. Trust me.

Dude, you trust me.

Trust me.

I'm like a smart person.

I've never lied to you.

I never have lied to you.

If you think that one person has all the answers.

Don't.

Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief and manipulation from two intervenors who've actually experienced it.

I said that very weird. I won't pretend I didn't. I'm Lola Blanc. And I'm Megan Elizabeth.

And today our guest is Ashlyn Hilliard. She's a cult interventionist and founder of organization people leave cults.

And she's going to talk to us about her path to working in cult intervention and recovery,

her personal religious experience that led her to this work and how being around Mormons in Utah,

interestingly, woke her up, how she defines a cult and why throwing around the accusation of cult isn't always helpful.

She'll tell us how cult intervention is

different today than it was in the 70s, how it used to involve kidnapping and unethical practices,

and how the modern version of cult intervention that she practices under the guidance of

former guest Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly takes a harm reduction approach. Plus red flags

to look out for when someone makes promises that they can get your loved one out of a cult.

...