Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1998, page 4
Moments of Grace
Nancy Miquelon, M.A., L.P.C.
Grand Junction, Colorado
I have really enjoyed this seminar with the Seminary and AFF --it‘s an exciting format to be
part of. And I have really enjoyed listening to the other speakers it‘s amazing how similar
our stories are.
I grew up in a Christian home as well and went to Methodist and Presbyterian churches. We
moved quite a bit, so where we worshipped depended upon which town we were in. I had a
love/hate relationship with my churches in high school. I would get very angry at the church
for its hypocrisy, but I was very involved. I was a youth leader and went to church camps in
the summer. Then at the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, I went off to college. I got
into the whole hippie scene and got very far away from church for a while.
I was in Wisconsin at the time, and I had friends who were looking into all the areas of New
Age and alternative kinds of groups. My friends were coming out here to Colorado to all
these seminars, particularly one with the Divine Light Mission and Guru Maharaji. At the end
of that seminar, they were all set to sign up for the classes and receive enlightenment. For
some reason, the guru bestowed enlightenment upon one of my friends that same day (he
was evidently more enlightened than some). But my friend figured out then that this guy
didn‘t know any more than he did, so my friend took off and ended up in a place in Loveland
[Colorado] called Sunrise Ranch, where he was told he could get a good free meal. In fact, a
couple of my friends stayed there for a week, then came back to Wisconsin to tell us all
about this place they had found.
We sort of humored these guys as we heard their story-they had done this with several
different groups, and we were just listening to the most recent escapade. For some reason,
though, they stuck with this group longer than they had others, so we had to listen a little
bit more. We eventually got on the group‘s mailing list and started receiving its literature.
My friends got a speaker from Sunrise Ranch to come out to the campus in Wisconsin. When
he spoke, he gave us the standard line about love and acceptance and living what we
preached, not just talking about it. So we got more and more involved.
Joining the Group
In that phase, we were not told the organization was called the Emissaries of Divine Light.
The organization had a sort of front group that members referred to as The Universal
Institute of Applied Ontology-ontology was a good buzzword at the time-it sounded very
academic and philosophical. And I was very interested in existentialism, so this was
appealing to me. We stuck with this group for a while, and it was several months, possibly
even a year later, before we heard of the Society of Emissaries and later of the Emissaries
of Divine Light. Again, the recruitment process and indoctrination into the group were
gradual.
This all began in 1971. My involvement with the group continued through my years of
college. The summer after my junior year, I went to a one-month-long class in upstate New
York, which is really where the indoctrination set in. The class involved all of Lifton‘s eight
points of thought reform. We were isolated. We were outnumbered. We had four hours of
classes every morning. The group dynamics were very strong, because half the people
attending the class were already members. We ate all of our meals together. We had what
they called a ―work pattern‖ in the afternoon then, after supper, we had either more
classes or lots of homework to do. We were not to contact family. That wasn‘t an absolute
it was just a strong suggestion. And with only one phone on the property, contact was
difficult. We had no televisions (there were one or two televisions on the property, but some
Moments of Grace
Nancy Miquelon, M.A., L.P.C.
Grand Junction, Colorado
I have really enjoyed this seminar with the Seminary and AFF --it‘s an exciting format to be
part of. And I have really enjoyed listening to the other speakers it‘s amazing how similar
our stories are.
I grew up in a Christian home as well and went to Methodist and Presbyterian churches. We
moved quite a bit, so where we worshipped depended upon which town we were in. I had a
love/hate relationship with my churches in high school. I would get very angry at the church
for its hypocrisy, but I was very involved. I was a youth leader and went to church camps in
the summer. Then at the end of the 1960s and the early 1970s, I went off to college. I got
into the whole hippie scene and got very far away from church for a while.
I was in Wisconsin at the time, and I had friends who were looking into all the areas of New
Age and alternative kinds of groups. My friends were coming out here to Colorado to all
these seminars, particularly one with the Divine Light Mission and Guru Maharaji. At the end
of that seminar, they were all set to sign up for the classes and receive enlightenment. For
some reason, the guru bestowed enlightenment upon one of my friends that same day (he
was evidently more enlightened than some). But my friend figured out then that this guy
didn‘t know any more than he did, so my friend took off and ended up in a place in Loveland
[Colorado] called Sunrise Ranch, where he was told he could get a good free meal. In fact, a
couple of my friends stayed there for a week, then came back to Wisconsin to tell us all
about this place they had found.
We sort of humored these guys as we heard their story-they had done this with several
different groups, and we were just listening to the most recent escapade. For some reason,
though, they stuck with this group longer than they had others, so we had to listen a little
bit more. We eventually got on the group‘s mailing list and started receiving its literature.
My friends got a speaker from Sunrise Ranch to come out to the campus in Wisconsin. When
he spoke, he gave us the standard line about love and acceptance and living what we
preached, not just talking about it. So we got more and more involved.
Joining the Group
In that phase, we were not told the organization was called the Emissaries of Divine Light.
The organization had a sort of front group that members referred to as The Universal
Institute of Applied Ontology-ontology was a good buzzword at the time-it sounded very
academic and philosophical. And I was very interested in existentialism, so this was
appealing to me. We stuck with this group for a while, and it was several months, possibly
even a year later, before we heard of the Society of Emissaries and later of the Emissaries
of Divine Light. Again, the recruitment process and indoctrination into the group were
gradual.
This all began in 1971. My involvement with the group continued through my years of
college. The summer after my junior year, I went to a one-month-long class in upstate New
York, which is really where the indoctrination set in. The class involved all of Lifton‘s eight
points of thought reform. We were isolated. We were outnumbered. We had four hours of
classes every morning. The group dynamics were very strong, because half the people
attending the class were already members. We ate all of our meals together. We had what
they called a ―work pattern‖ in the afternoon then, after supper, we had either more
classes or lots of homework to do. We were not to contact family. That wasn‘t an absolute
it was just a strong suggestion. And with only one phone on the property, contact was
difficult. We had no televisions (there were one or two televisions on the property, but some
