The year was 1982. I was married to my husband for almost 12 years, but we had been living apart because of various unresolved issues between us. He refused to go with me to family counseling sessions. He did, however, attend the Sterling Institute weekend seminar, and he later joined the ongoing weekly Sterling men's group. Now he wanted me to attend one of the Sterling Institute's general public meetings. I agreed.
My husband and I together attended a general Sterling Institute meeting with about 200 other attendees there. Justin Sterling paced up and down the aisle, and, for some reason, hovered over me for several minutes, shouting to the whole group that I was a loser and that if I did not get it together with my husband, that I would be a "loser for life". At the end of his tirade, he then sarcastically called me "sweetie". When I replied "you are not my sweetie", he blurted out "yes, and it's a damn good thing you're not". The whole house went into wild laughter and my husband had a strange smirk on his face. I was humiliated in front of everyone. I knew then and there that our marriage was over, as I could see that this group was a cult, and that my husband had been reeled in, hook, line, and sinker, into it.
My husband continued to attend the weekly Sterling men's group, but I refused to go to the weekend seminar. We were at a stalemate. He still would not go with me to private marriage counseling sessions, and I staunchly refused to go to the Sterling Institute seminars. His weekly Sterling men's group was aware of that. I intuitively felt that his men's group disparaged me to him, encouraging him to get rid of me because I would not attend the Sterling seminar. I felt this because, over time, his tone toward me became more and more negative.
A few months later, in very early 1983, we divorced, and within a year, he was dating a woman who was Sterling Institute seminar graduate, and who was in an ongoing Sterling women's group. A couple of years later, they got married and all the Sterling "friends" attended their wedding.
I spoke with him on the phone about a year ago (2009), and he proudly told me that he is still in the weekly men's group, for 25 years now. Upon hearing that, there was mute silence on my end of the phone, as I feel that the Sterling Institute alienated my husband from me, as soon as they realized that I was not going to play their game.
It is tragic what this cult does to families and marriages.
Copyright © 2010 Rick Ross.
