Cult Experience Becomes Song For North Reading's Friedman

In 2006, singer-songwriter Esther R Friedman of North Reading was unknowingly recruited into a cult. She became a member but escaped in 2011. Friedman has written a one-woman show, with accompanying recorded CD, about her experience. The CD release and performance are scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m., at The Burren, 247 Elm Street, Somerville, a split bill with well-known acoustic duo The Lied-to's.

Friedman, an expressive art therapist and professional writer, says these are the things that saved her. “I’ve always turned to writing" She said. “This particular event was bizarre, insidious and hard to describe. Between the writing and my training as a therapist, I was able to get out with myself intact.”

As Friedman was writing her own story, she realized - as a songwriter - that her story also had a soundtrack. Both songs and story started weaving together into a musical production.

Saving her own marriage was part of what Friedman calls her "wake up call."

"I knew I was lying to my husband about how I spent my Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and increasingly, other nights of the week" she says. "I know now that monopolizing a member’s time and schedule is a classic cult technique."

Friedman now specializes in helping ex-cult members in her own private practice, with a program which she has named The Gentle Souls Revolution: Healing Arts. She has discovered that resources for families damaged by cults, and seeking help, are few and far between. Friedman has been published in the International Cultic Studies Association’s journal, (Free Speech and Cultic Litigation) and presented at an ICSA’s conference in 2015.

The CD release is a split bill with the duo The Lied-to's, Doug Kwartler and Susan Levine. Kwartler produced Friedman's Cd and co-produced the show. For more information on the show and tickets, go to burren.com.

Photo courtesy Esther Friedman