“I learned on my journey through self-help programs that I had experienced covert abuse,” writes the author.

But this is not just an inside-the-cult book this is the story of a woman who attempted everything in her power to get out of it. Some qualify the Unification Church as a cult, and Kohn appears to agree with that line of thought. The author explores her teenage years, when she interacted with peers who knew nothing about her strict behavioral guidelines, the boyfriends who came in and out of her life as her dogma changed, and her shifting relationship with her father. I can be washed over with shame.” The austere tone of this introductory passage doesn’t quite represent the vivacity with which Kohn writes about her struggle breaking out of the mold in which her parents trapped her. I have my scars and insecurities, my fears that feel like they’ll engulf me. I can feel unworthy or damaged or hopeless. “As a young adult, I internalized this more and more. “As a kid you misinterpret the nasty things that happen to and around you, and you somehow believe you’re to blame,” writes the author. She and her brother, Robbie, were caught in the throes of their parents’ belief in the Unification Church, founded by a self-appointed messiah, Sun Myung Moon (followers were called Moonies).

Growing up in New York in the 1970s, debut author Kohn had few points of reference through which she could make sense of the world around her. A teacher and leadership consultant takes readers into the crevices of a cult.

To the moon and back book lisa kohn