Overlaying bounded choice framework onto the biological need to survive within the human group, we can see that there is only the illusion of choice for people within cultic systems. At every crossroads, where my intuition was screaming for me to not take a prescribed path, my conditioning told me that total abandonment and death awaited down the other path. Even if I was told that I had a choice, did I really?

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Janja Lalich's book Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults. 
• A Psychology Today article on human conformity. 
• Unchained at Last. 
• Resiliency Foundation. 
• The film Knots: A Forced Marriage Story. 
• The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 
• igotout.org