Torn Asunder

By Bernie Tocholke

This book is a very detailed experience of what it was like within a certain cult. The author reveals many incidents and situations that he experienced or witnessed while being a member of it for several years. He gives descriptive details on the child abuse, the cult's practices, their beliefs, and how marriages like his own, get destroyed by their ministry. His purpose for writing this book is to inform, protect, and prevent the reader of this book from making the same mistake that he was trapped with. Upon reading this book, the reader will get an insight which creates nearly an immunity against the cult's schemes of entrapment. The author's desire is that he wishes that someone else could have given him a book like this before he became ensnared by their tactics. If the horrors of abuse and death mentioned in this book has already been experienced by the reader, they have already fallen prey and became a victim of the cult. The majority of the contents of this book, is behind the scenes and secret from a casual visitor or general public spectator. Some contents are shocking! For pictures, sound bites & other documents, please visit, www.sksstory.com
More information (newspaper, blog, etc.) at www.authortree.com/TORNASUNDER

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 4, 2008
• ISBN: 9781456725440

Bernie Tocholke

The author grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota. From the hard work, to enduring the winters in a cold and drafty house, or the language barrier of the grade school years, all helped develop the character that was needed to not only challenge but endure the onslaught of the cult in his most recent years. In his book he reveals his upbringing and continues with how he became a victim of the cult, and then eventually how he was destroyed by them. Like so many other victims of this cult, he shares how he also has lost his spouse and children by this deceptive, delusive, and pernicious cult. His life's driving force became the desire to share his experience within the cult, to hopefully protect other families from getting "Torn Asunder".

Book preview

Torn Asunder

In The Jaws Of A Cult

Dedicated: To the many shattered lives that were affected by the cult. To all the fathers, mothers, children who are and will always be affected by the experiences of this and all the other cults out there…..

This book is also dedicated to Randy and David, my two sons, that were with me from the beginning. Thanks also to everyone who helped me edit this book.

Much Gratitude to the Photographer

In the middle of writing this book, I had an idea of what I wanted on the front cover of it. I contacted a professional nature photographer that instantly became someone I would call a friend of mine. He allowed me to use the front picture for this book. It was one of the pictures that he took and was noted for. I showed the rough draft of my book cover to several individuals and it was surprising to hear, I saw that picture somewhere before!

The picture of the snarling wolf on the front cover was taken by Dick Petrie. Currently he resides in Pennsylvania. To see his vast supply of photographs that he is nationally known for, please visit his website- www.dickpetrie.com .

By contacting him you are helping me. Without him and his help, this book would not have looked so attractive or interesting. My highest gratitude and thankfulness goes out toward him.

Contents

Torn Asunder

In The Jaws Of A Cult

Chapter 1

My Desire for this Book

Victim of Fury

Chapter 2

Criteria of a Cult

Chapter 3

The Gradual Exposure Of The Rules

Chapter 4

Child Abuse

Stevie’s abuse

Susy’s abuse

More Abuse

Ohio Visit

Chapter 5

Medical Neglect

Sam

C-Section

Death of Baby

Ralph

Gerald T.

Sunflower Seeds

Patrick and the Lima bean

Safety and Health Threat Issue

Vaccination

Chapter 6

My Story of Entrapment

Chapter 7

Danny Layne- The Master Mind

Intimidation

Chapter 8

Closure of our First Congregation

Almanac Project

Hunting and Fishing

Lawsuit over Washington Campground

Chapter 9

The Beginning of the End

Chapter 10

The Captivity Release of the Mind and Soul

Twisted speech

Chapter 11

Entertainment of Resistance with the Children

Sinfulness of Carousels

Mall of America - Sinful Attraction

Video Games – Technology of the Devil

Bonduel, Wisconsin- Harley Shop – Sinful and Evil

Water Sports – if wet, then potentially wicked!

Wisconsin Dells – mostly a den for devils and demons

Christmas Shopping – search for the needle in the haystack!

Milwaukee County Museum/simulators-virtual reality to hell!

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry – why those wicked screens

Control by Fear

June 2008

July 2008

Chapter 12

When will you ever quit hating the cult?

Chapter 1

My Desire for this Book

This book is my feeble attempt to protect other people from becoming victims of a cult. I wish I could present my devastated experience in a way that will give you as the reader the knowledge you need to prevent the destruction of your marriage or family.

A person might boast that they will never be deceived by a cult. But, what can a person say to their spouse, children, parents or close friends when they start getting involved with a strange group? Do they have the wisdom to steer them away from something that will mar them for life or even cause them to die needlessly?

My desire for this book is to display how humanity gets sucked into cults, the exposure of this particular cult, and hopefully show ways to save a person and their loved ones from falling into a cleverly laid scheme.

The disgusting thing about cults is that the people who are involved or are getting involved actually believe they are doing the right thing. With sincerity, they believe the things that seem so strange to us. Yet it is nearly impossible to persuade them from their belief.

There are similarities between a person dying of hypothermia and someone caught up in a cult. When a body is first exposed to the cult or the cold there is a resistance to this foreign thinking or confrontation. As for regarding the cold temperature, a body must resist the force of bringing their body temperature down. Shivering and teeth chattering is the beginning of the transition to hypothermal death. That step of the process toward death is actually the only painful feeling the body experiences. In a matter of minutes the victim’s thoughts of cold changes to believing that he is actually warm. Once that condition has developed the body will die unless someone else takes the necessary action to recover this person from his definite doom. Even then it takes extreme medically related actions to bring the near statistic back to so called normality.

The term so called normal is exactly what it is. A person that has gone down that path of hypothermia or frozen body parts will for his remaining life have a weakness for the cold. Let us suppose a person had frozen his ears. Before that time he could easily tolerate temperatures well below freezing and never had a problem with his ears. However, when he overexposed the ears and froze them there is a change. He no longer has a resistance to the cold as he did before that instance. For many victims of frostbite, just a cool temperature can become painful. I heard heatstroke appears to have the same characteristics. Once a person has had a heatstroke, the conditions of heat and dehydration can be a lot milder and he could get another stroke.

Becoming a victim of a cult has a lot of the same similarities. When the first exposure comes, the body will resist the new concept of beliefs and practices. If the cult is clever it will reveal the rules slowly. As involvement takes place the body undergoes adjustments. Similar to hypothermia, some new rules might make a person’s teeth chatter and also make his body uncomfortable. However, staying in it even though you are having the effects of cult hypothermia, the body will soon move over to the danger zone of not feeling any harm or threat. At that point the downward spiral into doomed finality in this cult is definite.

I must mention also to one more danger about the tactics of this particular cult, which I am sure is also in other cults, is that people desire to strive for two things that make them vulnerable to the predator features of the cult. One human need is the desire for acceptance and praise of others. This cult will give the new members plenty of that. The main leader preached and taught it from the pulpit at how his listeners must approach the new members and visitors.

He demanded that we go out of our comfort zone to contact, honor, praise, help, encourage, embrace and befriend all new seekers of the truth. Nobody else has it. Now I am getting ahead of myself and will continue this thought later.

The second point of what people crave or strive for, is this life long mental struggle of trying to find God in their minds and to create a decision of how they view Him and His requirements. I do not intend to make this book a religious Bible study type of book. However, cults usually have a religious twist to them that captivates people’s minds and victimizes them by their vulnerability for their quest in heavenly answers, truth, and purpose.

Find some correct truth, distort it slightly, then convince others to agree with it and there begins the foundation of a cult. However, the structure must follow this process or else it is just a foundation which is no more than a bad idea. The structure must have several criteria in it to actually become a cult. I hope this book will give you an understanding from someone that was a member of a cult.

I was that man that was deceived. It cost me nearly everything to escape.

My desire is to share my hindsight 20/20 vision to protect you and your loved ones from paying the price that I had to pay to be revived from this spiritual or cult hypothermia. This might be a different cult than the one you might encounter, however, many characteristics will be the same.

In medical emergency rooms, bright lights, total open exposure with visual magnifying instruments is a must for intricate surgery. May this book be the bright light and exposure with visual aide to amputate the cancer from among us.

Please learn from my experience as I expose the hidden issues, rules, and things that have happened. The greatest thing you can do in return is if something emotionally stirred you in this book is to keep sharing the information to others. I want to thank you in advance for that.

Victim of Fury

The pastor (Patrick O’Shea) with his face red was yelling at me. I leaned back against the wall as I watched him spend his fury. You think you will get the children? he yelled, you will not get the children! Shereen is going to get the children. You know it is a woman’s State.

My mind was racing fast at all the events that led up to this. Now, I was facing the anger of the pastor whom I had at one time called the leader of my family. My stomach was in a knot preparing to jump up out of my throat. My legs were threatening to collapse from underneath me.

I had tried to save your marriage, but it is over! You will lose your family. You will lose your business. You will lose your health. You will lose your house and everything you love. You will lose everything! he screamed.

You might think that you can convince your oldest two boys to go with you, however, they will leave you too! They will turn against you. You will be alone. You will die a miserable death. And then you will have to meet God in your sinful condition. You will be lost in hell…. for eternity! Is that what you want? As you have defied the Church, you have done it unto God.

It might have been well over a half hour that he stood before me just yelling with that red faced fury. The entire time his pointer finger was stabbing the air a foot in front of my face. I felt sick beyond description wondering if any of what he was saying was true and could happen. That thought disappears as the spittle of this pastor hits my shirt. With all this screaming he did not even notice that he was venting his spit upon me too!

Until you get some real serious spiritual help, Shereen will need to leave you, was the conclusion of his confrontation against me. I was mentally devastated thinking that the inevitable situation had finally come to full term. Even though I could feel this condition approaching at least two years earlier, denial of this exact circumstance is so human. Even now I am still in denial or shock to fully comprehend what had been established by this angry pastor.

How did I get to this position where a pastor had the power to break up my marriage? Also, what had I done that was so vile for him to destroy Shereen’s and my marriage? My mind drifted back over the years to search for the answer to all my questions.

NOTE: Throughout the rest of the book I might refer to myself as Bernie. It is the name I have been called since my youngest childhood days that I can remember which even continues until now.

Chapter 2

Criteria of a Cult

The word cult conjures images of bodies covering the ground of Jonestown, blazing buildings in Waco, Texas, or the crazed eyes of Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult. But what does it take to be a cult? According to the model developed by Robert J. Lifton there are eight criteria when determining whether or not a group can be classified as a cult.

1. Milieu Control

The word milieu is French, meaning surroundings or environment. A totalistic cult controls the environment of the congregation. In the case of the CoGR. (Church of God Restoration), members were told how to decorate their homes, what kinds of cars to drive and what types of entertainment were considered appropriate. A friend of mine, ( we will refer to as E.R.) and a former member and co-founder of www.churchofgodrestorationexposed.us. posts this, No listening to the radio, watching TV, or listening to unapproved music, even though there is one very odd allowance to the unapproved music part. People who sing specials in the services are allowed to listen to all the contemporary Christian music they want in order to find and learn new songs. It is assumed that anyone who is a special singer is so spiritual that they wouldn’t be tempted by the worldliness in the songs.

Members are also discouraged from spending extended periods of time with their unsaved family, for fear that they may influence the member negatively. Unsaved is everyone that