33 VOLUME 7 |ISSUE 1 |2016
“Mommy, Did You Get
to See the Dolphins?”
In the summer of 2013, I took a trip
with my husband’s family to Paris. We
were going to attend the marriage
of my husband’s older brother. Many
friends and relatives were coming from
all over France, America, and Europe. It
was going to be a big family reunion,
and we wouldn’t have missed it for the
world. My kids were especially excited
because my oldest son was to be the
ring bearer and my daughter the flower
girl. We spent about a week in Paris
before the wedding.
There are a million things to do and
see in Paris, and I would have loved
to do all of them but I had to stick to
things that would interest my kids.
My big boy, Olivier (all names are
pseudonyms), was 8 years old. Colette, my little princess, was 5
years old and my sweet baby boy, Antoine, was 3. These kids are so
precious to me. They are my life, my love, and my everything but at
this young age they seriously limited my museum and monument
viewing. I thought it would be more fun to take them to one of the
amusement parks right outside of Paris, Euro-Disney or Parc Asterix.
My prior experiences with these two
parks were as a child in the South Indian
Hindu cult that followed Guru Dev. Our
cult took trips abroad every few years for
the purpose of recruitment. During the
early years of the group, London, England
and Austin, Texas were the preferred
destinations.
I went to England twice when I was
quite small. We did some sightseeing
during those early trips, but the later
recruitment trips were consumed almost entirely with spiritual
work. I remember visiting English castles and Stratford-upon-Avon,
which is the birthplace of Shakespeare, when I was a little girl no
more than 4 years old.
My second trip to England, around the
age of 8, involved little sightseeing.
The kids spent all day in the servant’s
quarters of a large mansion occupied
by the guru and his family. Our parents’
time was consumed in talks with
the guru, and we kids spent all day
watching TV. At the end of our 2-week
trip, the picture on the TV started to
flicker and falter, and eventually, on
the last day, it died for good. I was
convinced that we had broken the TV
by watching it for more than twelve
hours a day.
As I got older, the cult began traveling
to France instead of England because
France proved to be a more fertile
recruiting ground. After the birth of
the guru’s grandson, it was important to find ways to keep him
entertained during the trips. That is how the disciples became
interested in French amusement parks.
Because I was not one of the grandson’s favorites, I was not
required to go on these trips, and I never went to Euro-Disney. I
heard about it from my friends who did go, and that was enough
to convince me that I wasn’t interested. The
alternative was to just hang around the
guru’s mansion, but that wasn’t much fun
either. At the mansion, I could participate in
the adults’ spiritual work or try to find a way
to amuse myself alone it got pretty boring.
That is why, when the grandson’s attendants
were rounding up people to go to Parc
Asterix, I decided to go, even though I knew
that my enjoyment was not the purpose of
the trip.
So I liked having the opportunity to revisit Parc Asterix as an adult
with my own kids. I wanted to see how the experience would
be different from the first time when I was forced to serve a
subordinate role to a spoiled brat. In addition, my French relatives
By Eva Mackey Meyrat
The author read this story at the Phoenix Project at ICSA’s 2015 Annual Conference in Stockholm.
How could I possibly
explain to them that their
dearly beloved mommy
was raised in a cult…
“Mommy, Did You Get
to See the Dolphins?”
In the summer of 2013, I took a trip
with my husband’s family to Paris. We
were going to attend the marriage
of my husband’s older brother. Many
friends and relatives were coming from
all over France, America, and Europe. It
was going to be a big family reunion,
and we wouldn’t have missed it for the
world. My kids were especially excited
because my oldest son was to be the
ring bearer and my daughter the flower
girl. We spent about a week in Paris
before the wedding.
There are a million things to do and
see in Paris, and I would have loved
to do all of them but I had to stick to
things that would interest my kids.
My big boy, Olivier (all names are
pseudonyms), was 8 years old. Colette, my little princess, was 5
years old and my sweet baby boy, Antoine, was 3. These kids are so
precious to me. They are my life, my love, and my everything but at
this young age they seriously limited my museum and monument
viewing. I thought it would be more fun to take them to one of the
amusement parks right outside of Paris, Euro-Disney or Parc Asterix.
My prior experiences with these two
parks were as a child in the South Indian
Hindu cult that followed Guru Dev. Our
cult took trips abroad every few years for
the purpose of recruitment. During the
early years of the group, London, England
and Austin, Texas were the preferred
destinations.
I went to England twice when I was
quite small. We did some sightseeing
during those early trips, but the later
recruitment trips were consumed almost entirely with spiritual
work. I remember visiting English castles and Stratford-upon-Avon,
which is the birthplace of Shakespeare, when I was a little girl no
more than 4 years old.
My second trip to England, around the
age of 8, involved little sightseeing.
The kids spent all day in the servant’s
quarters of a large mansion occupied
by the guru and his family. Our parents’
time was consumed in talks with
the guru, and we kids spent all day
watching TV. At the end of our 2-week
trip, the picture on the TV started to
flicker and falter, and eventually, on
the last day, it died for good. I was
convinced that we had broken the TV
by watching it for more than twelve
hours a day.
As I got older, the cult began traveling
to France instead of England because
France proved to be a more fertile
recruiting ground. After the birth of
the guru’s grandson, it was important to find ways to keep him
entertained during the trips. That is how the disciples became
interested in French amusement parks.
Because I was not one of the grandson’s favorites, I was not
required to go on these trips, and I never went to Euro-Disney. I
heard about it from my friends who did go, and that was enough
to convince me that I wasn’t interested. The
alternative was to just hang around the
guru’s mansion, but that wasn’t much fun
either. At the mansion, I could participate in
the adults’ spiritual work or try to find a way
to amuse myself alone it got pretty boring.
That is why, when the grandson’s attendants
were rounding up people to go to Parc
Asterix, I decided to go, even though I knew
that my enjoyment was not the purpose of
the trip.
So I liked having the opportunity to revisit Parc Asterix as an adult
with my own kids. I wanted to see how the experience would
be different from the first time when I was forced to serve a
subordinate role to a spoiled brat. In addition, my French relatives
By Eva Mackey Meyrat
The author read this story at the Phoenix Project at ICSA’s 2015 Annual Conference in Stockholm.
How could I possibly
explain to them that their
dearly beloved mommy
was raised in a cult…
