Uploaded March 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Destigmatizing Medical Care (Eva Mackey and Ck Rardin)
Sunday, March 27th, 2022
Disclaimer: Views expressed on ICSA Websites or in ICSA's publications or events or other venues are those of the document's author(s) or speaker(s) and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its directors, staff, or advisers.
Second and Multigenerational Adult Former Cult Member Recovery Series
Those who have exited cults are likely to have many psychological barriers to accessing the medical care they need. Individuals raised in cults may have never received appropriate medical care and may have many misconceptions about illness, doctors and medicine. This talk will explore how two second generation adult (SGA) former cult members overcame those barriers. You will hear from one SGA who become his own medical advocate and was able to form healing, therapeutic relationships with his medical team and doctors. The other speaker is an SGA who went to medical school after exiting the cult and has been a practicing family physician for 20 years. She will explore the issue from both perspectives and will specifically address stigmas attached to mental illness and psychiatric medicines.
Eva Mackey Meyrat, MD, is a second-generation adult former cult member and a facilitator of the ICSA CT Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups. Her mother became a devotee of an Indian guru in 1975 when she was one year old. He taught a branch of Hinduism called Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic philosophy which teaches that the self is one with the ultimate truth or reality. Half of Eva’s childhood was spent in the ashram in India, where she and the other children were unsupervised much of the time. Despite the upheavals and instability that characterized her childhood, Eva managed to get out of the cult at the age of 16 and eventually earned her MD degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Mackey has a busy family practice, and she lives near Dallas with her husband and four children.
Ck Rardin, facilitator, ICSA CT Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups, was born in California. His parents raised him in a cultic Catholic group and when he reached adolescence, they signed over their parental rights to the group. Ck was then sent to the cult’s headquarters in Itaquera, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He stayed in the group till age 26 when he gathered the courage and strength to leave the organization on his own. After leaving he became a certified EMT, then was certified and joined the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP ), with which he maintains his certification. He now runs his own IT consulting firm in upstate New York and spends much of his time involved in recovery from his experience, working to expose these groups (for example, assisting in research for MTV’s production of The Cult Question) as well as helping others in their recovery.
Destigmatizing Medical Care (Eva Mackey and Ck Rardin)
Sunday, March 27th, 2022
Disclaimer: Views expressed on ICSA Websites or in ICSA's publications or events or other venues are those of the document's author(s) or speaker(s) and are not necessarily shared, endorsed, or recommended by ICSA or any of its directors, staff, or advisers.
Second and Multigenerational Adult Former Cult Member Recovery Series
Those who have exited cults are likely to have many psychological barriers to accessing the medical care they need. Individuals raised in cults may have never received appropriate medical care and may have many misconceptions about illness, doctors and medicine. This talk will explore how two second generation adult (SGA) former cult members overcame those barriers. You will hear from one SGA who become his own medical advocate and was able to form healing, therapeutic relationships with his medical team and doctors. The other speaker is an SGA who went to medical school after exiting the cult and has been a practicing family physician for 20 years. She will explore the issue from both perspectives and will specifically address stigmas attached to mental illness and psychiatric medicines.
Eva Mackey Meyrat, MD, is a second-generation adult former cult member and a facilitator of the ICSA CT Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups. Her mother became a devotee of an Indian guru in 1975 when she was one year old. He taught a branch of Hinduism called Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic philosophy which teaches that the self is one with the ultimate truth or reality. Half of Eva’s childhood was spent in the ashram in India, where she and the other children were unsupervised much of the time. Despite the upheavals and instability that characterized her childhood, Eva managed to get out of the cult at the age of 16 and eventually earned her MD degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Dr. Mackey has a busy family practice, and she lives near Dallas with her husband and four children.
Ck Rardin, facilitator, ICSA CT Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups, was born in California. His parents raised him in a cultic Catholic group and when he reached adolescence, they signed over their parental rights to the group. Ck was then sent to the cult’s headquarters in Itaquera, Sao Paulo, Brazil. He stayed in the group till age 26 when he gathered the courage and strength to leave the organization on his own. After leaving he became a certified EMT, then was certified and joined the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP ), with which he maintains his certification. He now runs his own IT consulting firm in upstate New York and spends much of his time involved in recovery from his experience, working to expose these groups (for example, assisting in research for MTV’s production of The Cult Question) as well as helping others in their recovery.
