No music, speaking in tongues, and waiting for the end of the world? You might be surprised to learn what these musicians were up to when fans weren't looking.
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00:00No music, speaking in tongues, and waiting for the end of the world? You might be surprised
00:04to learn what these musicians were up to when fans weren't looking.
00:08R&B singer extraordinaire Toni Braxton isn't the first person you might flag as someone
00:12who comes from a cult-like background, but according to the singer, this is nevertheless
00:16very much the case. In Braxton's memoir, Unbreak My Heart, the artist revealed that when she
00:21was young, her family were advocates of the Pillar of Truth, a religious group that imposed
00:25some seriously oppressive rules and limitations on young Braxton. The Pillar of Truth advocated
00:30speaking in tongues, which Braxton learned to fake. This rapture-awaiting church also
00:34required its female members to cover themselves at all times, and forbade a whole host of
00:39things that ranged from going to the movies to celebrating holidays.
00:42Of course, Braxton eventually learned to stand up for herself and became a globally famous
00:46artist, but the experience made for a pretty rough and alienating childhood, especially
00:51since she was so little that she really didn't have a say in her parents' religious journey.
00:55She told The Guardian,
00:56"...I asked my mom once what they were searching for and she just replied, it was the 70s."
01:01Few musicians have been more open about their negative experiences with religious communities
01:05than rapper Angel Hayes. She was a member of the Pentecostal Greater Apostolic Faith
01:09Church until she was 15, and hasn't hesitated to describe her highly difficult experiences
01:14with them. She told The Guardian in 2013,
01:16"...We all lived in the same community within 10 minutes of each other. You weren't allowed
01:20to talk to anyone outside of that. You weren't allowed to wear jewelry, listen to music,
01:24to eat certain things, to date people. You weren't allowed to do pretty much anything.
01:28Church was on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. When they did revivals, it was every day.
01:32I used to just crawl onto the bench and try to sleep."
01:34Unfortunately, Hayes had even worse experiences during her time with the church than just
01:38rules and limitations. She was sexually assaulted multiple times between the ages of 7 and 10,
01:44and when she left the church, her family broke off all contact with her. Hayes openly describes
01:48the church as a cult, and has described her time with it in both her music and her interviews.
01:53"...Well, I wasn't actually allowed to listen to music until about four years ago when I
01:58was 16."
01:59Christopher Owens of the rock band Girls spent some time in the Children of God Doomsday
02:03cult, now known as the Family International. Owens was given no choice when it came to
02:07his affiliation with the group, since his mother was already in the cult when he was
02:10born. As such, he spent his youth traveling the world with a Children of God-type-knit
02:14community, with little access to outside influences. Owens wasn't very happy about being part of
02:19the group and came to idolize his sister and her boyfriend, who both opted to walk away
02:23from the Children of God. He decided to do the same at 16 years old, using the musical
02:27skills he'd acquired to earn money as a busker and move to Texas.
02:31His path wasn't easy. He initially had no idea how the real world worked, thanks to
02:35the restrictive way he'd been brought up. Owens told The Guardian,
02:38"...Imagine being raised in the Taliban, being told everybody else in the world is bad, rejecting
02:43technology, rejecting medical research, being devoted to God and believing America was evil
02:47and the end of the world was coming. All the same principles."
02:50Carlos Santana might be a globally known name, but what's less commonly known is that
02:54he studied under Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy. Chinmoy has been called out as anything
02:59from controversial to an outright cult leader, and even an alleged sex offender, which has
03:03caused speculation on whether Santana was under the spell of a cult leader during his
03:07years with the group.
03:09Santana and his wife Debra met in 1972 and soon became involved with Chinmoy, whose teachings
03:13impressed the musician. Though Santana didn't subscribe to all Chinmoy's tenets, chiefly,
03:18he opposed Chinmoy's insistence that long-distance running was a purifying thing. They nevertheless
03:23ended up staying with the man for quite a few years.
03:26"...I learned from Sri Chinmoy a different language of light."
03:33The guitarist ultimately walked away when he witnessed Chinmoy mocking tennis star Billie
03:37Jean King's same-sex relationship and realized that the man might not be all about love and
03:41acceptance after all. The departure didn't go off without a hitch. Santana told Rolling
03:45Stone in 2000,
03:46"...Chinmoy was pretty vindictive for a while. He told all my friends not to call me ever
03:50again because I was to drown in the dark sea of ignorance for leaving him."
03:55The summer of 1968 was a strange time for Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who spent
03:59the rest of his life regretting the day he had a chance encounter with two hitchhiking
04:03women. Wilson invited them into the large house he was renting to discuss spiritual
04:07matters. Unfortunately, the ladies were part of Charles Manson's family, and Manson's crew
04:11soon moved in with Wilson. After the cult leader convinced the musician that he was
04:15the two made fast friends. For some time, Manson and members of his family lived comfortably
04:19in Wilson's house, and the musician fell under the Manson family's influence. Wilson championed
04:23Manson and his musical aspirations, but several acquaintances — including Wilson's bandmates
04:28— found the cult leader extremely unnerving. Beach Boys member Mike Love later told ABC
04:33News,
04:34"...You know, it's just an unfortunate episode that happened because of one of our group
04:37members. One of our family members unknowingly invited Satan into our midst."
04:41I said, well, Dennis, you really have an interesting character on your hands now."
04:47Wilson eventually fell out with the freeloading family after they abused his hospitality with
04:50debts, petty theft, and destruction of property. In the end, he simply left the house and allowed
04:55the lease to expire. He did end up heavily altering a Manson composition called Cease
04:59to Exist and turning it into the Beach Boys' song, Never Learn Not to Love, prompting Manson
05:04to issue a veiled threat aimed at Wilson's family.
05:08Elvis Presley liked to keep his finger on the spiritual pulse. He was an avid collector
05:12of spiritual literature, liked to wear both the Star of David and a cross, and was fond
05:16of preaching and singing religious hymns to his family. But one spiritual organization
05:20Presley liked to associate with was especially peculiar.
05:23Presley became involved with the Self-Realization Fellowship and its leader Sri Daya Mata in
05:27the 1960s, and soon became one of Daya Mata's prominent students. The fellowship relies
05:32on yoga teacher Paramahansa's Yogananda's lessons that focus on meditation and draw
05:37from Christianity and Hinduism. And while it's a spiritual organization instead of a
05:41religious one, former members and others have called it out for operating like a cult.
05:45Presley, on the other hand, was greatly impressed by what the fellowship and Daya Mata had to
05:49offer. And according to the singer's widow, Priscilla Presley, he even briefly considered
05:54dropping his career to take a leadership position in the society. She told Ladies Home Journal
05:58in 2005,
05:59At the beginning of this spiritual enterprise, Elvis was highly enthusiastic. He wanted to
06:03devote his life to helping others fulfill themselves through devotional discipline.
06:07In fact, he wanted to be a leader of the Self-Realization Fellowship. However, Priscilla said that Daya
06:11Mata talked the superstar out of the idea, telling Presley that his path in life was
06:15to entertain.