Ex-Morninglanders

2023 – Survivor claims sexual abuse in Morningland

The events took place in Morningland, Long Beach, CA, in the 1980s. The following paragraphs are from the original article posted in Signal Tribune. After decades of silence, a woman is sharing her story of growing up in Morningland, an alleged cult based in Long Beach, and accusing its leaders...

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...

Critically about Donato

I believe that the uncritical acceptance of spiritual authority can perpetuate unhealthy relationships and contribute to a lot of suffering. My critique about Daniel Sperato aka Master Donato is based on published...

Videos from 1977 and 1979

These videos were filmed by Brent B. All credit goes to him on these. The videos do not contain audio. Below you can see Sri Patricia (Sri Donato), former Gopis, Kamazi X5 when he was still Terry, and disciples (many...

Crazy Guru Crushing Ego?

“Physical, sexual, and psychological abuse are not teaching tools” – Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche CRAZY GURU? The first time I heard the term “crazy guru” was when the Gopis (Chokru, Saravati, Ona-Ali)...

Vasectomies in Morningland

Vasectomy is a form of male birth control that cuts the supply of sperm to your semen. It’s done by cutting and sealing the tubes that carry sperm. Vasectomy has a low risk of problems and can usually be performed...

Who Joins Cults?

People do not join cults - they are recruited. Cult members are not stupid or weak-willed - large majority are highly intelligent, open-minded, adaptable, and often very idealistic.

Leaving a Cult

Leaving a cultic group seldom happens overnight. It is more like a slow creep, or, like Daniel Shaw writes, “death by a thousand cuts.” Sometimes ethical transgressions pile up, and one becomes too many...

Abuse

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE Psychological abuse involves the regular and deliberate use of a range of words and non-physical actions used with the purpose to manipulate, hurt, weaken or frighten a person mentally and...

Guru’s Overinflated Ego

Can someone have strong personal magnetism, even some almost tangible spiritual energy, but still behave badly, demonstrating unwholesome, even abusive behaviors? Some spiritual circles believe that the two do not go...

Hypocrisy & Mind F**ks

Below are some insights we gained after we left Morningland about the many inconsistencies in their indoctrination. DOGMA Sri and the Gopis said to us repeatedly that religions were full of dogma, but in Morningland...