Hi Joe!  This all makes me think of the "don't talk, don't think, don't feel" rules that those of us recovering from enmeshment in dysfunctional families are busy recovering from!  It IS one gigantic dysfunctional family, this cult.  "Keep it all inside the prescribed parameters, and heaven help you if you go and blab to the neighbors about what's going on inside your house!"

Sad! 

But hey, you CAN leave! 

~Shelagh