Ex-Morninglanders

What Makes a Group a Cult

Cult survivors and writers Karla McLaren and Janja Lalich PhD (author of Take Back Your Life) outline the following four components that, in their opinion, create a cultic group: charismatic authority, transcendent belief system, and systems of control and influence. Another cult expert and...

Transparency – Life in Morningland in the 2000s

Transparency builds trust and encourages accountability. Those who use secrecy or deception to build trust know very well that if they revealed their workings, very few people would join or even trust them. If Morningland were transparent, we would have learned about their core beliefs and basic...

Donato’s Past & Private Investigator

Donato’s Marriage(s) This image is labeled August 29, 1968, however their marriage certificate is dated July 15th 1964 in Los Angeles County Below are pictures of Patricia and Donato at Disneyland. That’s Linny/Rada-Amie (their daughter (they also have a son Mark)) peering in from the left of...

Sri Donato’s Children

Patricia (Sri Donato or Sri Patricia) and Daniel Sperato (Master Donato) had two children. In the paragraph below, their daughter gave an interview for a book Escaping Utopia, featuring stories of individuals who grew up in cults. Hers was published in a section called Children of Cult Leaders: I...

Category - Blog

What is a cult? Is Morningland Community in Long Beach a cult? Who joins cults, and why is it so hard to leave? Thinking critically about our experiences.