Almost A Cult
A long list of short stories of casual brainwashing, near incest and inadvertent polygamy Start HereGet the release dates, rewrites, and editing notes in real time.
Dedication
Prelude
Part 1: The Family
*Summary
*Little Annie Wysong And Jesus
*Mom and Dad Wysong
*Manchurian Children
*The Aunt
*The Mrs. Annette Origin Story
*Annette Finds Her Savior
*Isolated
*Gaslit
*Pastor vs. Prophet
*Go West Young Reverend
*A Burst Of Validation
*Becoming Mrs. Annette
*The Empire
*Killing Mrs. Annette
*Killing Annie
*Missing Pieces
Part 2: The Cult
—Narcissism
*Ministry Of Health
*Let Them Eat Cake
*Story Time
*Drama Kings
*Most Important Performance Ever
*Legends In Our Own Eyes
*Building The Pyramids
*Jack Of No Trades, Master of All
—Operating Outside of Expertise
*Un-Ambiguous
*Marriage Prep
*Pedophilia
*By Their Own Standard
—Black and White Thinking
*God Ma’s Dogmas
*Cookie Cutter Kids
*Onward!
—Lack of Delegation
*Women & Children First
*A Matter of Principals
*Prince Edward Longshanks
—Lack of Autonomy (Professional Micromanagement)
*If You Want Something Done Right
*Corporate Punishment
*Grade Quicker
*Grade Quickerer
*Eternal Interns
*Overgrown Leaders
*The One Exception
—Personal Micromanagement
*Tinker Troys
*Your Kid Is Ugly
*Contraceptive By Will
*Mommy’s Makeover
*Papa, Papa, and Papa Too
*Scheduled & Sketchy
*Treat Me Normal
*Texts of Terror
*Unbrief Debriefing
*Those Eyes
—Public Repentance
*Awaiting The Prodigal
*Chapel Confessionals
*Un-arranged Marriage
—Information Siloing
*The Mentors’ Mentors
*Restricting Expecting
*Super Secret Santa
—Ethics Folders
—Sharing Personal Secrets
—Isolationism
*The Holy Spy-rit
*A Friend In Deed
*Too Healthy For Family
*We Can’t Be Friends
*Self-fulfilling Prophecies
*Attaching Strings
*Confidant to Kids
– Cult Conclusions & Hypotheses
*What did you learn?
*How is your relationship with God?
*How could you believe that?
*Why didn’t you leave sooner?
*Why do you keep defending them?
*Were you brainwashed?
*Am I crazy?
*Who got special treatment?
*Who was traumatized most?
*Was it really all bad?
*Isn’t some of this normal?
*Who are you to talk?
– Advice to Jamin
– Wendy’s Response
Part 3: The Rebel
Part 3: The Conflict – Jamin…to October 2019
– My Real-Life Fairy Tale (Part 1)
– My Real Life Fairy Tale (Part 2)
– My Real Life Fairy Tale (Part 3)
– My Real Life Fairy Tale (Part 4)
– Tale Of Two Cities
Part 3A: Child Jamin (Iowa, ages 0-9)
– 7-ish
– Kids of the 80’s
– Christian Kids of the 80’s
– Mom
*Rebel Mom
*Zombie Mom
*Disrupting Reality
– Dad
*Curse Words
*Mysogyny & Masculinity
– Birthday Whooshes
– Wholly Ghosted
– Dude!
– Homeschooling
– “Family”
– Changing Labels
– Eyes On The Prize
– 10,000 Reasons
– Cross / Roads
– Dayspring
– The Underwear Incident
– Butthurt and Other Incidents
– Tragic Romantic Comedies
– Rulers Breaking Rulers
– Back To Work
– High School & A Hottie
– Hypotheses About Teen Years
– Advice to Jamin
– Wendy’s Response
Part 3C: Adult Jamin
– Secrets (1999-2003)
*Sex, Lies, and Vision Escape
*Cobblers
*Breakup Or Breakdown
*Detox
*Wonderful Counselor
*Courtship
*Married Twice
– Blind Faith (2004-2007)
*Equilibrium Narratives
*Honeymoon
*Pedonillia
*My Old Man & My Young Earth
*Premise The Menace
*Pressure
*Continued Counselling
*Sects’ Addiction
– Reality (2008-2015)
*Disequilibrium
*Peak Org
*Coda
*Finale
*Relational Hospice
– Winning Wendy (2016-2017)
*Poking The Bear
*Foreshadowing
*Intervention
*High Chair Legionnaire
*Crazy Blessed Adventures (part 1)
*Crazy Stressed Adventures (part 2)
*Crazy Pressed Adventures (part 3)
*Crazy Incest Adventures (part 4)
Part 4: The Exit
May 31, 2017 – January 28, 2020
Part 5: The Intrusion
January 29, 2020 – May 2020
– Betty
– The Setup
– Different in Hindsight (January 20)
– D-day (January 29)
– Giggity
– The Blossoming of a Beautiful Disaster
– A Royal Awakening (March 5)
– Locking It In (March 9)
– Ides of March
– Burning Our House To The Ground
– The Trinity Intervenes
– The Storm Before The Storm
– Hypotheses
– Advice to Jamin
Part 6: The Shipwreck
May 2020 – August 2020
– Writing The Headlines
– Iceberg Ahead (Friday, May 1)
– First Impact (Monday, May 4)
– Sinking (Tuesday May 5)
– Last Words (Wednesday May 6)
– Gunplay (Thursday, May 7)
– Watching the Dominoes (Friday, May 8)
– Another Letter (Wednesday, June 10)
– A Month of Darkness
– My Plot (Friday, July 3)
– The Rejection Parade (Friday, July 10)
– Trapped
– Logan, Utah (Wednesday, July 15)
– Living in Grayscale (Friday, July 17)
– The Court Report (Tuesday, August 11)
– Please. Please. Leave.
– Stitching Up The Marriage (Friday, August 21)
– The Last Goodbye (Friday, August 28)
– The Last Last Goodbye (Sunday, September 20)
– Hypotheses
– Advice to Jamin
Part 6B: Wendy’s Version
Part 7: The Recovery
Part 7a: Finding Jamin
– Flailing
– Collers
– Tests
– Memory
– Feelings
– Wishes
– Reality
– Timeline
– Family Tree
– Constructing My Story
Part 7b: Reconstruction
– Disconnecting
– The Reynolds Pamphlet
– Growing and Moving Forward
– Ten Years
Part 7c: Grieving
– Sorry Not Sorry
– Owning Crap
– Responsibility
– Gratitude
– Hearing God
– New Goals
– Morning Lists
– Hypotheses
– Advice To Jamin
Part 8: Goodbye Letters
Part 8A: Honorable Mentions
– To the Smiths, Leses, & Hevvis
– To the Smiths
– To the Leses
– To the Hevvis
– To the Cobblers
– To Wholehearted and Courageous
– To the Drivers
– To Jax
– To Kacher
– To Bob Ballion
– To free-thinkers and think-free-ers
Part 8B: Goodbye Letter To My Drug of Choice
Jump On In!
The water’s…muddy, actually. Maybe start at the shore and wade in. But if you’ve already been to my ocean of messy, here’s the most recent addition to the map:
Advice To Jamin About The Exit
What I would tell someone in Jamin's situation: There’s no pretty way to get out of an...
Hypotheses About The Exit
Apologies & Reconciliations First, I wrote to my brother. Then I wrote from my...
Lifepoints 2.0
Totally Not Lifepoints "To attack effects rather than causes...as long as the attack is...
Dear Betty
Predictions Do you know why we imagine that unlucky people could have - should have -...
Dear Ryan
Redundancies By some sadistic miracle, it had only been five days since Ryan was...
Empty Praise
The next morning, Pastor asked to come over to meet. I’m sick of meetings. I’m sick of...
Exiting Quietly
Accepting Defeat Our plan to leave had utterly vanished, at every step of the way, and...
Meeting Attempt #2
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - Leo...
The Trinity Fires Back
Still January 6, 2020, Moments Later [Disclaimer: If it had been anyone other than Ryan,...