Friday Night Dialogues at the Library: Spencer Schneider, Manhattan Cult Story

The Nov. 18 Friday Night Dialogue at the Shelter Island Public Library will feature Spencer Schneider, a practicing attorney, an ocean lifeguard and a contributing writer for EAST Magazine. He will discuss his new book “Manhattan Cult Story: My Unbelievable True Story of Sex, Crimes, Chaos, and Survival.”

At its core, Manhattan Cult Story is a cautionary tale of how hundreds of well-educated, savvy and prosperous New Yorkers became fervent followers of a brilliant but demented cult leader who posed as a teacher of ancient knowledge.

It’s about double lives, the power of group psychology and how easy it is to be radicalized — all too relevant in today’s atmosphere of conspiracy and ideologue worship.

“We were invisible. We had to be,” Mr. Schneider said. “We took an oath of absolute secrecy. We never even told our immediate families who we were. We went about our lives in New York City. Just like you. We were your accountants, money managers, lawyers, executive recruiters, doctors. We owned your child’s private school and sold you your brownstone. But you’d never guess our secret lives, how we lived in a kind of silent terror and fervor. There were hundreds of us.”

Please join speaker Spencer Schneider in what is sure to be an informative and eye-opening evening.

The talk will be at 7 p.m., live at the library, with registration required, at silibrary.org.