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from Nuttynails Tuesday, May 06, 2008 - 06:58 (Agree/Disagree?) I have just read this book in fact i still have the last chapter to go but found the details for this site. I have never paid much attention to the cult you have all been involved in apart from hearing the odd news item so reading the book has given me an insight into what some of you have been through in your lives. I have to say that as a mother i have felt disgust, anger,and much sadness for everything you have all had to endure in your lives. I am not a religious person although i do believe there is a god somewhere but after reading some of the stuff on this board and in the book i have to question that. Anyone that uses children in a sexual way in the name of a god is sick and i hope that in time those responsible will be bought to justice. I also believe the saying that god does not pay his debts in money so all these adult monsters will have to account for their sins. I hope you all find the strength you deserve to lead full and peaceful lives, good luck to you all and well done for finding the strength to speak out. (reply to this comment)

from shins Friday, August 31, 2007 - 14:31 (Agree/Disagree?) Hi there Iam not a member now, nor have I ever been. I am currently reading this book and I am deeply saddened, distressed and sick to my stomach about what I am reading. Im a born again christian (altho not a very good example!) and I cannot imagine people being indoctrinated this way- how vile and evil!!!. Putting the born again christian record to one side, I am above all, a person with ears, eyes and a big heart and I personally congratulate these sisters for coming out and surviving with strength and personality which God himself gave to them. Many others have done so too. Very brave and extremely eye opening. I feel sick reading this and well done to all those who escaped the hands of pure evil. Unfortunately, there seems to be so many people still involved and personally I think they have been destroyed and their free will taken away from them. It is a world turning evil, has been for a long time- those with free will should now express themselves and have morals, something which is lacking in our society- animals behave better!. Those who are free are an example to us all- listen to them!. Thanks for this book- it puts lives into perspective- realise how lucky some of us really are. Good luck and well done. You make us proud!!. Take care, stand tall.x (reply to this comment)

from lucidchick Sunday, August 05, 2007 - 18:14 (Agree/Disagree?) Great book. I recommend it to any of us raised in that cult, as well as those who joined and are courageous enough to read it. (reply to this comment)

from No.1 in the non-fiction charts- Australia Friday, July 13, 2007 - 07:40 (Agree/Disagree?) http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/bestsellers.asp?navaus=bs&navaus2=b (reply to this comment)

from not another beat up please Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 05:52 (Agree/Disagree?) Pardon me if I don't think your lives are any more extraordinary just because your dad was Simon Peter.....and whats with the title "not without my sister"? - an over-dramatic cheap mimic of the movie "Not without my Daughter" it would seem? No, I won't be reading your book, many people I know who have left TF have tried and also suceeded in contacting and helping their siblings leave the cult. - they don't need to announce it to the world. I hardly rate your story as bookworthy...but hey kudos for beating up (and over-dramatising no doubt) another dead story in the hope it makes Oprah's recommended book list. I suppose I should expect such nonsense from people like you. I just cant believe John Saffran gave you an interview - I actually used to like the guys segments somewhat, lets hope he gets his bearings back, damn (reply to this comment)

From cheeks Tuesday, May 06, 2008, 07:50 (Agree/Disagree?) Another example of why we should pull the anonymous comment option. If you are going to say it and that is how you think you should post your name you sniveling little shit.(reply to this comment)

From seems like... Saturday, August 04, 2007, 02:00 (Agree/Disagree?) the public and the press disagree and think that 'Not Without My Sister' is a VERY bookworthy story...one of the biggest publishing houses in the world would hardly have taken it on if it were not. The public would hardly have bought so many copies that it is in the top ten in UK book sales if it was not an incredibly interesting story. 'Not Without My Sister' however may not be so attractive to members of the Cult it is about (you perhaps), since they have never been able to get their shit together to write anything other than complete and utter bollox.... And hello!! John Safran is probably best known of late for his coverage of cults / religions and wacko groups (JS v God) ...so the fact that you "just cant believe" he gave moonbeam an interview makes you a complete muppet that is talking out his / her anonymous arse. My diagnosis of you is that you are total prat and I would recommend anyone who may know you to slap you around the place. I now consider this matter closed! (reply to this comment)

From lacy Saturday, July 14, 2007, 11:58 (Agree/Disagree?) You talk like you are so above reading "another dead story" as you call it, yet you can't even use a name to post under. ...you must be too embarrassed to say who you are. At least she doesn't hide behind her computer anonymously accusing others.(reply to this comment)

From neez Friday, July 13, 2007, 02:47 (Agree/Disagree?) lol.. you obviously have a personal issue with MoonBeam. I mean what is "people like you" supposed to mean? (reply to this comment)

From rainy Friday, July 13, 2007, 02:48 (Agree/Disagree?) Neez, come to chat?(reply to this comment)

From Well... Thursday, July 12, 2007, 23:19 (Agree/Disagree?) Then maybe you should write your own book, you could call it: "The Idiot's Guide to Anonymously Throwing Crap on other Peoples Good Efforts" Hey, you might even make Oprah's list!(reply to this comment)

From memory Thursday, July 12, 2007, 20:33 (Agree/Disagree?) Kristina Jones was one of the very first second-generation voices to be raised exposing the cult's abuse. There was little if any corroboration back then and the cult had the upper hand. This woman has courage. What she has done is priceless and some of us who value the truth being told will feel forever in her debt. Her life was extraordinary for sure. My copy of the book is on the way. Prior to reading it, all else I can say in response to your comment is that everybody has a right to tell their story, including you, and if you feel these sisters only have the right to tell theirs if their life was more extraordinary, I am not sure where you live. Even so, if you also think theirs was less extraordinary than yours, you can always write your own. Many of us have probably had extraordinary lives. Not all (even those who have succeeded in helping siblings leave the cult) have been ready to make it public.(reply to this comment)

From J_P Thursday, July 12, 2007, 15:36 (Agree/Disagree?) You make a lot of assumptions for someone who has not read the book.(reply to this comment)

From aka_hannya Thursday, July 12, 2007, 07:39 (Agree/Disagree?) I don't believe the point of the book was to insinuate that their lives were more extraordinary than ours were. Since I have read the book, I think that I can comment. I could not say that I enjoyed it as it not the type of book that one would enjoy reading. Also, if you are not prepared for someone to ask you some hard hitting questions about your own experiences then I would not suggest recommending it to a friend. This book was a very hard hitting, a name them and shame them book - and they were all named. I thought it was incredible that real names were used - granted they were mostly family names, but this made them recognizable by anyone reading this. Knowing some of the many people in this book I would say that it was very accurate portrayal from both experiences as well as video impressions. I made be wrong but from my recollection Peter's birthday came before Ricky's. I was not involved in the dances for either of them as I was a year or so too young. But from my recollection Ricky felt left out after the dance that was done for Peter Amsterdam and so when Ricky's birthday rolled around the girls performed one for him - and yes there was serious groping from what I was told. A couple of months later there was also a dance done for Gary - I think it was in September; there were twelve year olds in that one. Written from the perspective of three differnent women who all had extremely differnent experiences and are woven together through the bond of sisterhood, this book covers many more topics than I would have thought. It was very honestly written. This book was way better than I anticipated. It took a lot of guts to write what they did and I commend them all for it. I would personally read it before assuming and dissing it.(reply to this comment)

From moon beam Thursday, July 12, 2007, 09:49 (Agree/Disagree?) hannya thank you for your review. And for your kind words. We are thrilled that this type of story has crossed over into the mainmstream and we hope that those who have thought about writing their story will take heart that getting published can become a reality. As a friend of mine was saying yesterday, there needs to be more like this. (reply to this comment)

From Phoenixkidd Thursday, July 12, 2007, 07:21 (Agree/Disagree?) How Dare you criticize Moon Beam's attempt to bring plight to our cause!! Saying that it's an overdramtization or copy of some other media is really disheartening. Who the hell are you?? The world needs to hear it, yes America needs to hear the story of ex-cult kids, and the difficulties we have to deal with just to survive. Face it there's a lot of us out there. Over 10,000, that's probably more than some rare diseases that gets millions of dollars in government and private funding. (reply to this comment)

from neez Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 03:45 (Agree/Disagree?) I enjoyed the radio interview. Saffron's great, very down to earth etc.. you sounded relaxed chatting to him. Not exactly hard-hitting journalism, but I realise this was more of an interview about your book then an expose. If you don't mind me asking, why did you do an Australian interview? or is that just the first of many? And did you approach them, or did they look you up? (reply to this comment)

From neez Thursday, July 12, 2007, 04:22 (Agree/Disagree?) Actually, probably best not to answer that here.(reply to this comment)

From moon beam Thursday, July 12, 2007, 09:39 (Agree/Disagree?) Hi Neez, Thanks. It was an ungodly hour of the day for me when I did it so I was more sleepy than relaxed ;-) The reason we do publicity in Australia is because it is included in the Uk market. (Its also been published in Sweden, Denmark, germany and estonia.) So far in australia we have appeared in Madison magazine, I was interveiwed for a national radio show with Charles Whooley (haven't recieved the recording yet) and Julie and I did the daily morning flagshow, SUNRISE. The way it works is that the publishing house put out a press release and any media who are interested get in contact. We are really pleased our book went in at no. 14 in the hardback charts. Thank you to everyone who has bought one. Kristina (reply to this comment)

From rainy Friday, July 13, 2007, 04:57 (Agree/Disagree?) Can't believe I missed the Sunrise show. Bloody ABC kids!(reply to this comment)

From neez Friday, July 13, 2007, 03:04 (Agree/Disagree?) Interesting. If it's a recorded interview you think they'd arrange a better time. I guess Johnny's too much of a celebrity to wake up early these days. I actually quite liked the whole chat-over-coffee style of the piece. It was a refreshing change, and went well with the style of his show. And from the sounds of it, people can get all the gory details when they read the book. My question was more refering to the fact that your first interview was done in Aus instead of the UK(or am I wrong there?) Hope to see the Sunrise show etc up on xfamily soon. Best of luck(reply to this comment)

From moon beam Friday, July 13, 2007, 04:19 (Agree/Disagree?) well we have to keep the interviews we did here in the UK under wraps for now until they actually get puplished or aired. Unfortunatly also due to the terrorist attack last week, they have been delayed. There is a piece out in Look MAG already. (reply to this comment)

From neez Friday, July 13, 2007, 21:32 (Agree/Disagree?) Fair enough. Just reading the Daily Mail peice now.(reply to this comment)

From moon beam Friday, July 13, 2007, 04:24 (Agree/Disagree?) Okay, I just found out that The Daily Mail ran a double page extract from the book today. (reply to this comment)

from 'triple j' John Safron show Australia Monday, July 09, 2007 - 07:51 (Agree/Disagree?) http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/safran/mod_real/safran.ram (reply to this comment)

From kristina jones on John Safron Monday, July 09, 2007, 07:56 (Agree/Disagree?) I don't think thel ast link was right-click on the 'listen' button latest show http://abc.net.au/triplej/people/john_safran.htm(reply to this comment)

From .......... Monday, July 09, 2007, 08:04 (Agree/Disagree?) feed://www.fatherbob.com.au/father_bob/rss.xml(reply to this comment)

From 'Daily Mail' today Friday, July 13, 2007, 07:05 (Agree/Disagree?) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=468046&in_page_id=1879(reply to this comment)

from lucidchick Tuesday, July 03, 2007 - 20:34 (Agree/Disagree?) THANK you, Kristina, Celeste, and Julianna! (reply to this comment)

from sarafina Tuesday, July 03, 2007 - 16:34 (Agree/Disagree?) They're here. I just got my copy in the mail today! Can't wait to get home and take a read. Fantastic job girls. I'll have more to say once I've read it. (reply to this comment)

from lacy Monday, July 02, 2007 - 19:46 (Agree/Disagree?) moon beam, I know you! You were one of my first good friends made in India when I arrived at the age of 9.-In 1985 or 86. I think it was Madras or maybe Bangalore. I remember you made my sisters and I feel better about being there, we were a bit scared at first. We had many "foolish" times together, and got in lots of trouble. I think I was still Stephanie at the time, I had 3 sisters. I remember you leaving to England and us all crying together. I don't know if you remember me, but I will buy your book as soon as i get a chance. (reply to this comment)

From moon beam Friday, July 06, 2007, 07:15 (Agree/Disagree?) Remember you? I will never forget the four of you and how much fun we were able to have together briefly at palace hotel, Bangalore. For so long I have wondered how you all were, and where you could be now. You were like sisters to me and being suddenly cut off from all my childhood friends was a source of great distress for me. I still have many photos of our time together performing. I was hoping you would come to this site one day. I will email you. xxxx (reply to this comment)

From lacy Saturday, July 14, 2007, 12:32 (Agree/Disagree?) I'm glad you have happy memories of us. You were like a sister, and I remember not having another good friend for the longest time. You have pictures? -that's awesome! I would love to get copies of them. I have very few pics from India. i will email you too.(reply to this comment)

from rainy Thursday, June 28, 2007 - 02:26 (Agree/Disagree?) I was standing in line at the supermarket checkout with my boyfriend when I grabbed a women's magazine rather suddenly. He was pretty surprised as he hasn't seen me buy one yet, so I told him it's something I just have to do two or three times a year. Then he was totally offended I read it on the way home in the car instead of talking to him. "What's so special about that magazine?" It was the story of you girls and your book. Good on you. I'll be buying the book for sure. (reply to this comment)

From Falcon Thursday, June 28, 2007, 11:11 (Agree/Disagree?) Which magazine was it?(reply to this comment)

From rainy Friday, June 29, 2007, 07:14 (Agree/Disagree?) I'm in Australia. They'd obviously taken an American article (the way they do) and replaced American words such as 'bar' with 'pub'. The magazine is called Madison.(reply to this comment)

From Ne Oublie Friday, June 29, 2007, 07:36 (Agree/Disagree?) Considering how the sisters are in England, they may not have had to change the language...(reply to this comment)

From rainy Monday, July 02, 2007, 01:03 (Agree/Disagree?) It gets worse... He's constantly talking about things like baywatch and other stuff I don't know from the 80s & 90s. He says, "It's like you've got this enormous pop-culture hole and you've missed, like two full decades!" He picks up the magazine, "It's like you were raised in this cult or something! ...Hey, they were in America and Japan and Australia. Same places as you. You probably grew up in this cult!" Then I get totally offended, and he kisses me and apologises... I was *kind of* leaving the magazine around on purpose, just out of curiosity about his reaction to it if he picked it up and read it. I saw him reading the article with no reaction, then flip through the rest absently. But five minutes later when he said all that stuff, I was completely knocked for six! I don't think I can tell him. It's just going to make too much sense to him, and after seven years in the outside world, I'm mortified to still be that transparent. When he was apologising though, he said, "I just feel so inferior because you're so worldly and international and know so much and have done so many things, and I feel like an Aussie bogan who mainly knows TV and music. I have to have something to pick on you for." So...maybe it was just coincidence?(reply to this comment)

From figaro Sunday, July 15, 2007, 10:49 (Agree/Disagree?) You really used the term "worldly"? Is that term used a lot where you are? 'Cause outside of TF I have never heard it used.(reply to this comment)

From madly Sunday, July 15, 2007, 11:07 (Agree/Disagree?) It is similar to calling someone cultured or probably closer to worldly wise… someone who knows and understands the world. How have you been? I haven’t chatted with you for awhile. I hope you are well. :)(reply to this comment)

From vix Sunday, July 15, 2007, 10:52 (Agree/Disagree?) Probably indicates that you hang around with people who don't have very wide vocabularies. Worldly can also mean sophisticated. (reply to this comment)

From figaro Sunday, July 15, 2007, 12:37 (Agree/Disagree?) nothing could be further from the truth.(reply to this comment)

From Phoenixkidd Thursday, July 12, 2007, 14:30 (Agree/Disagree?) Don't worry Rainy, I've felt the same pop-culture hole in my mind for way too long...I've tried to catch up by watching tons of TV, VH1, ESPN etc... However yesterday we were watching "American Inventors" in our class and I remarked "I don't know anyone on that panel" To which some other student replied, "You mean you don't know George Foreman?? I then proceeded and found out he was also a boxer instead of just a BBQ grill endorser. (reply to this comment)

From rainy Friday, July 13, 2007, 02:45 (Agree/Disagree?) Hahahahahaha Luckily my ex was a boxing nut who hated Mohammed Ali and adored George Foreman...so I found out about George the Boxer before George the grill inventor. But I found out about Paul Newman the dressing and pasta sauce guy before Paul Newman the actor! :)(reply to this comment)

From Big Sister Tuesday, July 03, 2007, 18:04 (Agree/Disagree?) Nope, not coincidence. I think he knows on some level but hasn't quite put it together yet. And he's gonna be cool with it when he does.(reply to this comment)

From Ne Oublie Monday, July 02, 2007, 01:16 (Agree/Disagree?) Shame you were caught out by that one, as it could otherwise have been a great opportunity to sarcastically agree with him, and properly judge his reaction - while still giving you the 'out' of "I was just joking!"(reply to this comment)

From vix Monday, July 02, 2007, 01:10 (Agree/Disagree?) Uhm he talks about Baywatch and you still let him into your house?? (reply to this comment)

From rainy Monday, July 02, 2007, 02:45 (Agree/Disagree?) yeah, and ninja turtles, batman, the smurfs, etc(reply to this comment)

From vix Monday, July 02, 2007, 07:27 (Agree/Disagree?) Don't mind me, rainy. You know I think he's a great guy and I think it's lovely that you're letting him into your house. Mad caffeine withdrawals, is all. (reply to this comment)

From Ne Oublie Monday, July 02, 2007, 02:05 (Agree/Disagree?) She said Baywatch is one of the things she doesn't know, so just let her ignorance be bliss, vixie!(reply to this comment)

from moon beam Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - 09:24 (Agree/Disagree?) Whats up wit cults? http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1369828331938576791&q=cults&total=677&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=8 (reply to this comment)

From rainy Thursday, June 28, 2007, 02:19 (Agree/Disagree?) What's up with the bloke's sunburn?(reply to this comment)

from Can't Wait Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 21:26 (Agree/Disagree?) http://www.notwithoutmysister.co.uk/ (reply to this comment)