I feel like Synanon is proof we're living in an Alan Wake-like novel

constantly subject to changing realities based on revisions to a book

I have watched a lot of cult documentaries and read a lot about cults and have never heard of this organization until recently, and apparently it was HUGE, starting out as a revolutionary drug rehabilitation center, transforming into a big corporate entity / charity organization and then a church with multiple compounds that people lived at, with a school for their unwanted kids to disappear at for years at a time to be subject to straight up physical abuse for things like throwing tantrums or wetting the bed.

I'm not done with this documentary about it but they attacked a former member who fought to get custody of his kid, and then they put a rattlesnake in a lawyer's mail slot to try to kill him.

like wtf this is huge but I've never once heard anyone talk about it before

I heard of this place as well.

Like all so called gurus and messiahs, the leader was getting unhinged at the thought of losing his iron grip on his people.

He even started to drink heavily, something his first iteration of his compound would have treated him for, but that went away when he went power-hungry.