ADAM Driver's mother-in-law was as soon as a "trainer" at an ultra-secretive "cult" that preyed on New York's Metropolis elite, allegedly brainwashing them into handbook labor and seizing complete management over their lives.
Cynthia Might, who's the mom of Driver's actress spouse Joanne Tucker, was for years a member of the Odyssey Research Group (OSG), a self-described esoteric faculty - and alleged cult - based by Slaughterhouse 5 star Sharon Gans.
OSG, which nonetheless has an estimated 200 members throughout the East Coast, has a sordid historical past of alleged intercourse scandals, little one abuse, and accusations of racism and rampant homophobia.
Underneath the guise of attaining larger enlightenment, recruited members of the group are requested to fork over $400 monthly to attend twice-weekly "lectures" and lessons primarily based on the teachings of two Russian philosophers who believed laborious labor and intentional struggling had been the keys to self-improvement.
Earlier than her demise in 2021, Gans would repeatedly lead these lessons, shelling out what she known as "historic knowledge" as she reportedly suggested her topics on their intercourse lives, informed them the place they may and could not work, who they may marry, who they may cheat on, and whether or not or not they may divorce.
A key function of Gans' lectures, former college students say, was humiliation and emotional abuse with the one-time actress berating and belittling members of the sect in entrance of each other after forcing them to publicly air probably the most intimate particulars of their lives.
In her absence, followers Gans had anointed "lecturers" - the very best honor inside OSG - would apparently lead these classes on her behalf, conducting the lessons simply as she would.
A type of lecturers was Cynthia Might, now 67, who was handed the so-called honor by Gans within the early 2000s.
Might's involvement in OSG was confirmed to The U.S. Solar by her ex-husband, Spencer Schneider, an OSG survivor who authored a tell-all guide in regards to the alleged cult final yr.
Whereas Might was referred to underneath the pseudonym "Beth" in Schneider's guide, The U.S. Solar was first in a position to confirm her id via divorce data, which Schneider later confirmed.
The couple, who tied the knot underneath the instruction of Gans within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, had been married for greater than a decade earlier than separating in 2009, shortly earlier than Schneider stop the group for good.
Schneider stated he is uncertain if his ex-wife, with whom he shares one grownup son, remains to be concerned with OSG.
"I've my doubts if she's nonetheless concerned," he stated in an interview final yr.
"She is likely to be, however she was additionally reduce out from Sharon's will a number of years in the past, so she could have been on the outs.
"And there are different issues that make me assume she's not in it anymore."
There isn't a suggestion that Adam Driver or Joanne Tucker are in any manner concerned with the group.
Nonetheless, Schneider stated he thinks Joanne was "conscious" of who Gans was, including that she and her siblings "hated" the eccentric sect chief.
He additionally stated that whereas youngsters weren't permitted to attend OSG conferences, they had been periodically invited to retreats with the group.
Schneider's son as soon as attended a retreat in Montana, he stated. It is unclear whether or not Tucker or any of her siblings ever interacted immediately with Gans or different members of the OSG clan.
"[Driver and Tucker] don't have any involvement in it in any way. None," adamantly acknowledged Schneider.
"I do know Adam and Joanne very nicely, they're my stepdaughter and son-in-law.
"They don't have any involvement in it, [but] I believe Joanne is aware of about Sharon, you already know, she is aware of about that.
"However all of them don't have any involvement in any respect they usually did not like Sharon, the children.
"All of them hated her," he added. "All of them hated her."
FAMILY TIES
Requests for remark despatched to Might, Driver, and Tucker have to date gone unanswered. This story can be up to date if The U.S. Solar receives a response.
When Gans handed away from Covid-19 in 2021, she left her $3.275 million property to a handful of members who now allegedly oversee the group, in addition to her stepson who shouldn't be related to OSG.
The alleged members had been named in courtroom paperwork as Minerva Taylor, Lorraine Imlay, Greg Koch, and Ken Salaz.
Taylor, 71, based a Manhattan recruiting agency, Taylor Hodson Inc., in December 1994 - and Gans was long-rumored to be a silent companion within the enterprise.
Cynthia May labored for a lot of years at Taylor Hodson, incomes the title of vp and senior account govt. It is unclear if she's nonetheless employed with the agency.
It is also unclear when and why - if in any respect - Might was nixed from Gans' will.
The previous sect chief did reduce two of her youngsters out of her property after they had been deemed to have "betrayed" her, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
Sharon [Gans] was suggesting that I interact in incest to conceive a toddler.
Spencer Schneider
Gans wrote in her will that she "deliberately excluded" David Kulko, 60, and her daughter, Ilsa Lee Kaye, 59, “for causes which might be identified to David and Ilsa.”
Filed in Manhattan Surrogate Court docket, Gans wrote that she had "deep remorse that Isla has betrayed her so terribly, and adopted in David’s footsteps,” noting the pair “shall not be thought-about [her] youngsters.”
It is unclear if anybody else who had beforehand been listed as a beneficiary was axed within the re-drafting of her will.
A DISTURBING REQUEST
Schneider first met Might within the fall of 1996 after being invited by a good friend to play bass at a neighborhood dance studio the place Might was concerned in a manufacturing.
On the time - as Schneider particulars in his guide, Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Intercourse, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival - Might ("Beth") had solely lately rejoined OSG having beforehand been kicked out by Gans for causes unknown.
Gans instantly instructed Schneider to get along with Might, telling him "you would be excellent collectively," he recounted.
Underneath Gans' instruction, the pair began relationship. Inside weeks they had been engaged and inside months they had been married - a lot to the delight of their orange-haired overlord.
It was sooner or later in 1998, after receiving a cellphone name from Gans, that Spencer, then 37, started questioning his involvement in OSG having spent the higher a part of a decade in its ranks.
As Schneider remembers it, Gans known as him to tell him she was frightened about Might, then 42, having a toddler.
"I don’t like the concept of Cynthia getting pregnant, at her age it is doubtlessly harmful," she apparently informed him, per his guide.
"The kid might have down syndrome and you would need to put it up for adoption.”
As Schneider tried to guarantee Gans all can be tremendous, she informed him he ought to have intercourse along with his 19-year-old step-daughter "Hannah" as a substitute.
"No Spencer, what you are able to do is impregnate Hannah, she will carry the newborn, and also you and Beth can increase the newborn as your individual," Gans allegedly instructed.
When requested if she was severe, he says she informed him: "After all. I’m positive Hannah can be comfortable to do that. She’s nonetheless younger. She would do it for you."
The true id of "Hannah" shouldn't be clear.
However Schneider refused Gans' path and fortunately, he stated, she did not push the matter additional.
In his guide, Schneider additionally recounts the second he knowledgeable his spouse of the sickening suggestion. Whereas Might shook her head in disbelief, it wasn't sufficient to make both of them take into account leaving OSG at the moment, he stated.
"Sharon was suggesting that I interact in incest to conceive a toddler," writes Schneider in his guide.
"This little one can be the grandchild of my spouse, the kid of my stepdaughter, and the niece or nephew of my different stepchildren. It was repugnant and I by no means thought-about it for a second. However I did overlook it.
"Not as a result of I assumed Sharon was demented however as a result of I assumed, in my compromised situation, that Sharon was a free spirit — uninhibited and unconstrained from all conventions — and that somebody of her “hippie mindset” would in fact advocate this. I gave her a go. An enormous one."
'EMOTIONAL ABUSE'
Schneider and Might ultimately conceived a toddler naturally collectively in 1999.
He tried to persuade his spouse to depart OSG within the early 2000s after an exodus amongst long-serving members, he claims.
Nonetheless, Might refused and was later awarded the title of "trainer" for her loyalty.
“I’ve been with Sharon so lengthy in College," Might is reported to have informed him. "If I left it might be like admitting I wasted my complete life on a fraud."
Spencer defined to The U.S. Solar that a trainer at OSG, throughout his time within the group, basically served as a "lieutenant" to Gans.
He stated: "[A teacher] is sort of a lieutenant for Sharon, type of working the lessons when she's not there, retaining tabs on different college students and doing no matter Sharon would do.
"They had been her eyes, her ears, and her enforcers.
"Sharon didn’t present up on a regular basis, so the lecturers would run the lessons and do all the things she did."
Reluctantly, Spencer agreed to remain too as he was scared that Gans would attempt to tear his household aside if he determined to depart.
Nonetheless, his marriage to Might started to unravel by the shut of the last decade with Schneider believing his spouse valued the group greater than she did their relationship.
Gans, after being knowledgeable of their points, ordered them to see a wedding counselor she had personally chosen.
The counselor, Schneider believes, was only a mouthpiece for Gans and her twisted rhetoric.
His perception, he says, was evidenced by one interplay wherein the physician requested Might: "Did it ever happen to you that possibly the rationale your husband and also you don’t have intercourse anymore is as a result of he's a gay?"
Schneider took the query to be a reference to one thing he'd shared throughout one in all Gans' lessons years earlier, wherein he revealed he'd been sexually abused by a male camp counselor when he was 14.
Sharing his trauma for the primary time, and in a room filled with his friends, fairly than providing sympathy Gans accused Schneider of "experimenting" and insisted that he wasn't a sufferer of abuse and he ought to merely cease desirous about the assault.
She additionally brazenly questioned Schneider's sexuality, which led him to consider the childhood sexual assault had been his fault, he says.
A MARRIAGE STORY
Regardless of their greatest efforts to reconcile, Schneider and Might break up in 2009.
In response to his guide, she turned to him one night time that yr and casually informed him: "Oh, I employed a divorce lawyer right now. The place would you like him to serve the papers on you?"
Schneider instantly suspected Gans' involvement. Absolutely sufficient, the next day, he obtained a name from his more and more estranged mentor, telling him he wanted to settle the divorce shortly, amicably, and out of courtroom.
Underneath Gans' proposed settlement Schneider must quit full custody of his son.
Schneider, an legal professional, refused the phrases and as a substitute settled his divorce via the courts, retaining partial custody.
After years of alleged bullying, situations of public shaming, and different emotional and bodily abuses, Schneider lastly determined to depart OSG in 2013.
Having misplaced his marriage and along with his authorized apply struggling vital monetary hardships, he suffered a "full psychological breakdown" in late 2012, earlier than he actually started questioning his affiliation with Gans and what OSG actually was.
"I truthfully, like I did not assume it was a cult till the day after I left after which it simply all tumbled down," Schneider informed The U.S. Solar final yr.
"Then it was like, 'Oh wow, that was a cult' - I will always remember that feeling."
Schneider stated it has taken 10 years "and counting" to rebuild his life after leaving OSG.
In December final yr, he filed a lawsuit towards the property of Sharon Gans, in addition to her alleged “inside circle” members Lorraine Imlay, Minerva Taylor, and Gregory Koch.
Within the go well with, filed in federal courtroom in Brooklyn, Schneider outlines dozens of situations of emotional abuse and claims to be the sufferer of a decades-long scheme wherein he was manipulated and terrorized into performing hundreds of hours of unpaid labor.
Whereas a “scholar” within the group, Schneider says he was required to carry out quite a few duties - together with building, cooking connoisseur meals for Gans, caring for her dying husband, and appearing as her chauffeur - all within the identify of private development.
On the identical time, Schneider says he was shelling out month-to-month for “programs” that he was informed would make him a greater, extra profitable particular person.
Over the course of his 20-something years in OSG, he estimates he paid the group over $100,000.
OSG required members to observe a strict algorithm, and punished those that strayed, the lawsuit says.
The group additionally systematically remoted its members from the surface world whereas additionally controlling all of their interactions throughout the group, per the courtroom papers.
“Sharon Gans Horn, along with the Group and the remainder of the Interior Circle, commanded College students who to this point and have intercourse with, when and who to marry, when to have youngsters, when to not have youngsters, when to have youngsters and provides them up for adoption, when to pay and the way a lot to pay in little one assist, when to shun their youngsters, when to divorce, whether or not to have abortions, and whether or not to have a vasectomy or tubal ligation,” the go well with alleges.
“To keep up management and make sure that the College students adhered to her whims, Gans Horn engaged in unpredictable and outrageous conduct, and instantly, would intentionally upend the lives of her college students by making a requirement of the College students relating to their private lives.”
Attorneys for Gans Horn’s property, Imlay, Taylor, and Koch haven't commented publicly on the go well with.
The case stays ongoing.
POWER COUPLE
Joanne Tucker and Adam Driver lately introduced they had been anticipating their second little one collectively.
The couple, who met throughout Driver's first yr at Julliard, tied the knot in 2013 and are notoriously non-public about their household life.
The couple's charity, Arts within the Armed Forces, additionally abruptly shuttered at first of February.
They based the non-profit in 2006 with the intention of bringing inventive experiences in movie and theater to service members and U.S. army bases.
“Sadly, given a lot of circumstances dealing with the group heading into 2023, after a strategic overview, the Board has made the extremely troublesome choice to dissolve the group in its present working construction, efficient February 1,” the charity introduced in a information launch in January.
The group’s board will search for methods to proceed some AITAF packages, in accordance with the discharge.
“We have now produced impactful inventive experiences on 26 army bases in 7 international locations, and awarded $50,000 to veteran playwrights and screenwriters via the Bridge Awards,” the discharge states.
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