Out on their own

New Zealand urgently needs a secular agency to provide specialised therapy and support to people coming out of cults

-  ANKE RICHTER.

On a Friday afternoon, Sarah Mettrick cracks open a bottle of beer, sitting in the sun outside her Lyttelton home. Such a leisurely indulgence would have once been unthinkable for the 37-year-old who runs her own cleaning business. "I'm a really late bloomer," she says, laughing, but it sounds heavy. "I was so oppressed; I had no autonomy. Every single minute of the day was planned out for me. It felt like I couldn't even breathe fully!" Mettrick was 15 when she attended free meditation classes at the Sri Chinmoy centre in Christchurch, a worldwide cult with a public front of peace work, marathon running and vegetarian restaurants. Her older sister had brought her in. Within a year, the teenager was wearing a sari and working full-time at the Lotus Heart restaurant - for $7 an hour, plus two hours daily for free. She quit school and moved into a shared flat above the restaurant.