A MUM has advised how she fled a horror doomsday cult the place new child infants have been savagely crushed to rid them of “demons”.
Vennie Kocsis spent 11 years in Sam Fife’s sect known as Transfer of God- the place she says she was subjected to ritualistic exorcisms, torture, and paedophiles.
On the age of three within the Nineteen Seventies, the warped cult recruited Vennie’s mum whereas they have been dwelling in California and her dad was engaged on a army base.
After arriving in Ware, Massachusetts together with her mum and two older siblings, aged seven and 9, Vennie had all her belongings taken from her and her childhood images have been burned.
She was advised she was beginning over for God – and becoming a member of the tens of hundreds of cult members dwelling in two dozen “wilderness” farms throughout America.
Transfer of God’s central teachings have been that the tip occasions have been coming – and other people wanted to maneuver away from mainstream society to stay with out sin.
They believed all issues have been brought on by demons which should be pushed out of your physique by means of exorcism and religious therapeutic.
However the cult’s practices are alleged to have led to the horrifying and systematic abuse of kids, together with Vennie.
Fife and his internal circle believed that youngsters have been inherently sinful – that they’d an “outdated Adam nature” that wanted to be stripped out.
In a single sermon, Fife mentioned: “A toddler has the identical type of nature the demons have.
“The demons can’t make him any worse than he’s as a result of he was rebellious in opposition to God from the day he was born.”
The darkly charismatic preacher was a former Baptist who started to show the tip occasions in 1971.
He offered himself as a “prophet”.
Fife claimed he was immortal – assuring his followers he had stopped ageing because of his “incorruptible life”.
He led the group till he died aged 54 in a aircraft crash in 1979 in Guatemala.
Paedophiles have been additionally welcomed to the farms to “heal” – allegedly contributing to vile sexual abuse.
“They believed that paedophilia, any form of depravity you had, was a demon spirit,” Vennie, who has bravely determined to waive her anonymity, advised The Solar.
“In order that they welcomed paedophiles to come back to the farm for therapeutic, to expel the demon.”
Vennie revealed that she was first abused at Ware, when she was simply three years outdated.
She mentioned: “I lived in a room with a few dozen different ladies my age. The lady who was our overseer was vicious and nasty.”
The survivor survived who the lady would seize her and abuse her, leaving her feeling “smothered” and “unable to breath”.
“I did not perceive what was occurring,” she mentioned.
However, the sexual abuse was principally hidden, based on Vennie.
She mentioned that the occasions that it did come out, pointing to the instance of her sister, typically the woman was blamed.
“She was known as a whore of Babylon, a Jezebel,” Vennie mentioned.
In the meantime, youngsters weren’t allowed to say no. Kids have been merely alleged to obey, as failing to conform was deemed sinful.
They welcomed paedophiles to come back to the farm for therapeutic, to expel the demon
Vennie Kocsis
In keeping with Vennie, Fife’s perception within the demonic qualities of kids – and the way it guided his elevating of them – was “completely horrific”.
“He believed that infants ought to begin being crushed at three days outdated,” she mentioned.
“Once I say crushed, I imply vigorously slapped throughout their our bodies
“He says issues like babies are egocentric. They wake their moms up.
“He even talks about trapping his personal daughter, taking his belt and coming at her when she’d break his guidelines.”
Vennie provides that she was tortured all through her childhood. That she lived in everlasting concern of being grabbed and crushed at any time.
She mentioned that every one youngsters have been subjected to exorcisms, hypothermia baths, sleep deprivation, public humiliation, withholding of meals, in addition to being tied to chairs and crushed with belts and paddles.
The entire abuse was justified as an incentive for resisting the satan, she mentioned.
On prime of being crushed, the cult ensured youngsters have been saved busy always.
There was restricted education, and the hours they need to have been spending in schooling was changed with baby labour.
Vennie mentioned: “I used to be working 13 hour days. Tilling the fields, a whole lot of working within the kitchen.
“Peeling potatoes till your fingers are blistered, churning butter till your fingers are blistered. Peeling eggs. Something.
“I imply, like there’d be sooner or later I am churning butter all day till my little arms are simply aching. And you may’t not work. You are going to get a smack.
“I would be shucking corn, slaughtering rooster, reducing up greens to dehydrate, cleansing, something.”
America’s most notorious cults
Chilly Conflict America noticed a drastic and disturbing improve within the variety of cults across the nation. Here is among the most horrific.
Manson family Most likely probably the most infamous cult of all of them, the 100 one thing followers of Charles Manson left their mark on the world in 1969 with their string of brutal murders.
On August 9, 1969, Manson ordered a bunch of his followers to bloodbath the Hollywood elite – resulting in a two-day killing spree.
People’s Temple The bullying chief, Jim Jones, humiliated, assaulted, raped, robbed and killed lots of his church’s members.
In November 1978, the warped chief satisfied 909 of his followers to kill themselves in a “revolutionary suicide”. Round 300 of these killed have been minors.
The Branch Davidians Based within the turmoil of the Sixties, warped cult chief David Koresh satisfied his followers he was the one one who may reveal the true teachings of the Bible.
His totalitarian management over his members led to a wealth of disturbing practices – resembling taking numerous “religious wives”, a few of who have been reportedly as younger as 11.
Children of God The horrific group got here to be recognized by the general public for its “flirty fishing” method – which referred to feminine members being pressured into sexual acts with males as a type of recruitment.
Former members have alleged {that a} wealth of sexual abuses occurred on the cult’s communes, together with baby sexual abuse and incest. River Pheonix revealed he first had intercourse on the age of 4 whereas within the group.
Heaven’s Gate This non secular group believed that by rejecting their human type they might grow to be aliens and would ascend to Heaven on a UFO.
Members of this bewildering motion needed to adhere to a collection of stringent guidelines together with abstaining from consuming, smoking, intercourse, and in some instances, castration.
Vennie recollects how the cult’s recruiters used her father’s absence to manage her mom.
She advised how they ultimately sunk their claws in and claimed that her husband wasn’t truly working and that he was spending time with different ladies.
Her mom issued her husband an ultimatum – both they need to all be a part of the Transfer of God, or she would file for divorce.
Quickly after, the cult funded the divorce, and Vennie was shipped off to Ware.
“I bear in mind when my household was completely happy, and I bear in mind when all the things felt prefer it turned darkish,” Vennie mentioned.
After arriving in Ware, her household was cut up up they usually have been put into their “classification” items.
In 1977, after a brutal 4 years, Vennie was reunited together with her household and flown to a a lot bigger compound in Alaska.
There, the sexual, bodily and psychological abuse continued.
He believed that infants ought to begin being crushed at three days outdated
Vennie Kocsis
However it was coupled with a rhetoric concerning the Chilly Conflict that was used to scare members into believing within the “finish of occasions”.
They have been advised communists would ultimately kill all Christians.
“They taught us that Russia would invade America, and anyone who was a Christian could be shot on sight,” Vennie mentioned.
She defined how she was skilled to struggle, with instructors shouting at her “in a mock Russian accent” – screaming “do you consider in Jesus?”.
“It was terrifying,” she advised The Solar.
“Your thoughts does type of motive that like, oh, I will simply say, I do not consider in God, after which I will stay.
“However then the opposite aspect of your thoughts, the mind-controlled aspect of your thoughts thinks about eternity in hell. So you are like, die or hell.”
Fife’s successor, Buddy Cobb, took over the cult in 1980 – and the Transfer of God nonetheless has “farms” around the globe right now, regardless of its dwindling followers.
In 2017, Cobb was filmed by his granddaughter, Angie, the place she will be heard asking him: “What are you going to do about all of the abuse? All of the people who bought abused?”
He appeared to acknowledge the abuse, responding: “There’s nothing that occurs that is not the will of God.”
Talking on her daughter’s actions, Cara Cobb, Buddy’s daughter-in-law mentioned: “She produced that video when her grandfather was within the final levels of Alzheimer’s.
“I, personally, don’t really feel that she was proper in posting it. It was fully unfair to Buddy.
“Sure, the occasion did occur. Sure the person was by no means expelled. Sure, the ministry believed and acknowledged all issues have been ordered by God, together with abuse.”
Cobb died in 2017 – and the group now operates underneath a unique title.
Cara added that even after 30 years of getting left, her daughter continues to be working by means of the anguish she skilled within the Transfer of God.
Each Cara and Vennie warned that the Transfer stays energetic – with a number of strongholds internationally.
Vennie ultimately moved in together with her grandmother in Tennessee after the cult excommunicated her household, and skilled a complete tradition shock.
She had no formal schooling or expertise with the surface world.
After finding out tremendous arts in Tennessee, Kocsis moved to the Pacific Northwest.
It wasn’t till she birthed two youngsters that she may start to know a few of her psychological trauma.
In 2007, after Vennie’s mom handed away she determined to put in writing her first e-book – Cult Baby – to assist her unpack the abuses in opposition to her.
Now, Vennie has grow to be an advocate for cult survivors – utilizing her voice as a beacon of hope for others in related conditions.
The Solar has reached out to Transfer of God’s present type for remark.