How a Spaceship Cult SCAMMED a Super Model!

Former top male model Hoyt Richards opens up to Dr. Steven Hassan about his 20-year journey inside a destructive UFO doomsday cult. Learn how high-control groups exploit vulnerabilities—even at the top of the fame ladder. 🎙️ In this powerful episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum Podcast, Dr. Steven Hassan sits down with longtime friend and cult recovery advocate Hoyt Richards—an award-winning actor, filmmaker, and former supermodel—to explore his decades-long entrapment in the Eternal Values cult, a manipulative UFO-end-times group with eerie parallels to modern QAnon and New Age conspiracy cults. 👉 Topics covered: - How cult leaders use grooming, love bombing, and astrology to recruit - UFO cults, walk-ins, and doomsday predictions (Edgar Cayce, aliens, the "pole shift") - The dangers of high-control groups and spiritual abuse - Why critical thinking breaks down under undue influence - Recovery after cult trauma and reclaiming your identity - Celebrity culture and the illusion of success masking deep coercion 🧠 Hoyt’s gripping story reveals how anyone—even an Ivy League athlete and international model—can fall victim to cultic manipulation, and how reclaiming freedom of mind is possible. 🔗 Subscribe for more interviews with cult survivors, whistleblowers, and experts on mind control, authoritarian influence, and psychological freedom. 00:00 – Intro: Hoyt Richards joins Dr. Steven Hassan 01:20 – From Ivy League athlete to male supermodel 03:05 – How Hoyt was recruited by a UFO cult at 16 06:35 – Grooming tactics and spiritual manipulation 10:10 – First experiences in the cult leader’s world 14:25 – Studio 54, astrology, and subtle indoctrination 18:40 – The rise of Eternal Values as a full-blown cult 22:45 – Walk-ins, reincarnation, and Ruth Montgomery 26:30 – Cult identity vs. real identity 29:10 – Funding the cult with modeling success 32:05 – Losing family, freedom, and self 35:00 – The illusion of spiritual superiority 38:40 – Parallels to QAnon and current conspiracy cults 42:00 – Doomsday prepping and alien ascension beliefs 46:00 – The Vanity Fair exposé and leader’s death 49:15 – Failed intervention and deeper entrapment 53:30 – Hot seats, thought reform, and PTSD 56:45 – Falling in love & regaining critical thinking 1:00:30 – Shaved head, control tactics, and breaking point 1:03:00 – Escaping the cult: the long road to recovery 1:05:20 – Fabio, friendship, and rebuilding life 1:07:00 – Reflections on cult recovery and self-forgiveness 1:09:15 – Closing thoughts from Dr. Hassan and Hoyt #CultSurvivor #MindControl #UndueInfluence #StevenHassan #HoytRichards #UFOCults #DoomsdayCult #QAnon #ExCult #CultRecovery #SpiritualAbuse #PsychologicalManipulation #InfluenceContinuum #Cults #ConspiracyCult #CelebrityCult #AlienCults ******************************************** Learn more at: https://freedomofmind.com/ Subscribe to The Influence Continuum podcast: https://freedomofmind.com/podcast-3/ Enroll in our courses - https://courses.freedomofmind.com/collections Download a .pdf of the BITE model here! https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/ Subscribe to the Freedom of Mind newsletter: https://freedomofmind.com/subscribe/ Read or listen to Dr. Hassan's books: https://freedomofmind.com/books/