No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written
permission from the publisher, unless the intent is to benefit humankind.
Reviews:
“While his portrait of a charismatic leader’s slide into madness is gripping,
perhaps more important here is Laxer’s disclosure of some of the motives
impelling young people to immerse themselves in cults…the work is well
written.”
--Library Journal
“This is a very important work…It is today’s Darkness at Noon…”
--Herb Rosedale, President, American Family Foundation
“One of the most important books written for a very vulnerable population.”
--Roberta Davis, WRCT-FM, Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh
“Mark Laxer does a great service in his deeply personal portrayal of life
within a cult. His struggle to attain independence…is a poignant quest of a
seeking spirit.”
--Jacob Longacre, Lutheran Minister
“All students of human nature will delight in Mark Laxer’s insightful story of
his personal journey into a new kind of American cult that interweaves
pseudo-spiritual goals with money making, computer, hi-technology ambitions. He
shows us the subtle techniques used to seduce bright college students and
graduates into this cult and the powerful forces that bind members to their
charismatic leader. My students have enjoyed the narrative and learned much
from this analysis of the psychology of cult indoctrination in Take Me For A
Ride.”
--Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University, Initiator of the Stanford Prison
Experiment
Update:
After weathering a $30 million lawsuit meant to silence his ‘Take Me For A
Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult’ (1993), Mark Laxer went on to write
‘The Monkey Bible’ (2010) with companion rock opera The Line by Eric Maring
and ‘Rama Trauma Trump: I Left the Cult and Now Look What Happened’ (2020) - a
nonfiction graphic novel illustrated by Marcie Vallette. Contact author for
free digital copies of aforementioned books and rock opera.
Additional resources:
--Free audio of ‘Take Me For A Ride: Coming of Age in a Destructive Cult’ read
by the author on the Mark Laxer youtube channel, in the Take Me For A Ride
playlist
--Subscribe to Mark Laxer and TheMonkeyBible youtube channel for latest
--Follow author on twitter.com/marklaxer and instagram.com/mark.laxer
--Contact author through mark.laxer profile facebook page
--Follow author on facebook through thetravelerscircle or themonkeybible or
vEcotourism
--For physical copies of books, search your online bookseller or check
with your local librarian
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Simon & Schuster,
Inc., for permission to reprint an excerpt from Gandhi:
A Memoir by William Shirer. Copyright (c) 1979 by William Shirer.