I think I'm finally out of denial about what rage is "appropriate" towards people who willfully ruined portions of one's life - key portions at that. Years I should have been back in college rather than chasing the delusions of a narcissistic, drug addled psychopath.
Dag, maybe this will help you feel better:
I too was very upset that this cult talked me out of going to any other school, and promising things much better. I guess I should preface by saying I only spent about 2 years actually working for the cult, and only days, really, as a public, I was still a sucker for the tech for about five years. I'm not sure how many years you spent, but I know I'd be even more mad if I wasted any more.
Then I read Bent's book, right when it first came out, and began the decompression process.
So, I've been Laffy-spell free for decades now. As I look back on those few young, naive years, I value them.
Let me explain; I consider this cult to be 'cult inoculation' in that when I came across anything similar, I was immune. Once you've been done by da masta, the next time a two-bit guru comes along claiming to have all the answers for a small donation of money or life, you just laugh.
I've even heard the old bastard chuckling to himself in ways that led me to believe he might have justified some of his abuses by thinking he was helping people be more free in an oblique way by enslaving them, all the while claiming to be delivering more self-determinism.
So, take heart! Poorer but wiser, we now can move beyond this trap.
Be careful, though. I know one ex that got snookered by an 'invention development' company, and lost several thousand dollars. Of course, he was computer illiterate at the time. It took me literally five minutes to find out what was really going on, and call this fool back to tell him he was being scammed, so I'm not worried about you.