My Dad Grew Up in a Cult. Now He’s a Famous Scientist.

The story of how he wound up in a dangerous compound—and how he escaped

My dad and his sisters, in the 1960s and 1980s, just before and after Synanon.

I was so young when my dad started telling me his cult stories that I don’t think I even knew what a cult was. In a way, I still don’t. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how unique it was to have a father who regaled his young daughter with…