Read more +28 August 2023 By Christine Talbott Acosta in All, HistoriesRather than enlightenment, however, nearly a dozen ex-members, students and other affiliates have come forward to tell KQED about a consistent pattern of psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of the Welcomed Consensus, and its leader Robert “RJ” Testerman, over the past three decades.
Read more +26 August 2023 By Rachel W. in All, HistoriesTo commemorate my 2 year anniversary, I am posting a text exchange I received from a woman who was being groomed by the Welcomed Consensus.
Read more +25 August 2023 By Nat J. in All, HistoriesThis is Nat’s full journal of her time at The Ranch, A Madrone Cult Story – with pictures. It’s long but worth the read. She does a good job 0f describing the subtle messaging and red flags she encountered along the way and how it affected her. Below is an excerpt and her conclusion after
Read more +24 August 2023 By Christine Talbott Acosta in All, StatusIt’s been a long time since I posted. I knew I would eventually write about recruiting and those years with RJ and the community, but I enjoyed dragging my feet. I no longer feel or think about them or my past much anymore. All the memories and emotions remain, but they aren’t very loud, and
Read more +16 August 2023 By Christine Talbott Acosta in All, HistoriesThe following events took place from 1998 to 2001, after Dennis and I moved out of The Welcomed Consensus house on Joost Avenue in San Francisco. We had left because I was unwilling to participate in yet another Touch and Look course. RJ told me I had to leave, but after everything that had happened
Read more +28 May 2023 By Christine Talbott Acosta in All, HistoriesWe spent four days at “The Ranch” as Workaway volunteers in 2023 before realizing the true nature of the ranch and quickly fleeing. We were not indoctrinated, we were not members, and we are relatively unscathed. But we are the lucky ones. It’s now our mission to prevent any other unsuspecting farmstay-seeking volunteers from stumbling
Read more +30 October 2022 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusFree the Need is a registered 5013(c) that was started and is controlled by RJ Testerman and the members of The Welcomed Consensus.
Read more +25 October 2022 By Allyson M. in Histories*Please read with caution, graphic violence is described. In 1998, when I was 26 years old, I met The Welcomed Consensus. I was involved with them until 2000. In 2019, I received a call from a producer who wanted to do an HBO documentary on OneTaste, a company that teaches courses similar to The Welcomed
Read more +30 September 2022 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusThe message below was cut and pasted below from a message that was forwarded to me from a supporter. This is excellent news, and we all felt very successful upon hearing it, but soon the reality became clear. RJ Testerman and The Welcomed Consensus never acknowledged the harm they have done. They have only hidden
Read more +24 September 2022 By Christine Talbott Acosta in Cults, HistoriesAll the podcast interviews are linked below, enjoy.
Read more +23 September 2022 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusI hope you enjoy the redesigned website; I enjoy having professionals help to keep it going. It remains vital that this site continues to positively impact the people who have come in contact with RJ and The Welcomed Consensus, his children, and current recruiters.
Read more +11 August 2021 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsMy intention in creating and posting this information is to clear up as many misconceptions as possible about the relationship between RJ Testerman, the Welcomed Consensus, Free the Need, and the people who live in the W.C. houses. Free the Need I’m not claiming that Free the Need doesn’t do good work. They give away
Read more +02 May 2021 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesA student of the Welcomed Consensus posted a comment about her experience. Vulnerability = chum in the water for this group of practiced predators.
Read more +17 April 2021 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesAfter leaving America for Europe in November of 1989, I came back to visit a few times. During my first visit, the rift between RJ and me was mostly healed.
Read more +18 November 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsSasha and I were recently interviewed by Sarah Steele for her award winning podcast, Let's Talk About Sects.
Read more +13 September 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusI didn’t realize it had been so long since I last posted, but the break has been good. Like everyone else right now,
Read more +23 June 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesIn 1988 I was 23 years old. After Kevin and I broke up I moved back to Redwood City. There was a brief stint at my parents’ house, but we started where we had left off - in the shitter.
Read more +29 May 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsRJ Testerman and his group, the Welcomed Consensus, have been operating in San Francisco and Northern California for decades.
Read more +14 May 2020 By Jennifer F. in HistoriesI was 24 and my friend Steve invited me to a party. Then he hedged and said it wasn’t exactly a party, but more of an event. He went on to explain that the event consisted of playing social games.
Read more +05 February 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusMy intention in creating and posting this information is to clear up as many misconceptions as possible about the relationship between RJ Testerman, the Welcomed Consensus, Free the Need, and the people who live in the W.C. houses.
Read more +01 January 2020 By Sasha N. in HistoriesI was deeply involved with the Welcomed Consensus for 18 months. I lived in the communal house in San Francisco from September to December of 2018.
Read more +01 January 2020 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusI’ve learned not being vulnerable is not being human, it's not being alive. I will no longer spend even a minute with people for whom I need to alter myself.
Read more +11 October 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsRJ Testerman uses his "sex education" business, the Welcomed Consensus, to get memebers and resources for his sex cult in Northern California. This is how.
Read more +13 September 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesPlease read with caution. Denis describes how she was trapped in a violent relationship that was supported and sponsored by RJ Testerman and the Welcomed Consensus.
Read more +14 August 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesSheri is the third woman RJ collected after Wendy and I. This is what it was like when she arrived.
Read more +29 July 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsThis entry dives deeper into how RJ Testerman and the Welcomed Consensus use well established exploitative techniques to lie and indoctrinate their followers.
Read more +25 July 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusWhen I heard RJ Testerman's daughter wrote a book I was glad. She is a smart, funny, wonderful human. I briefly mentioned this book in a different post, but really had no interest in dragging her into this trauma vortex.
Read more +29 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusThis blog has now been live for 6 months. There has been no response, legal or otherwise, from RJ Testerman or anyone else in his group.
Read more +26 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusRJ was diagnosed with cancer, this is what I know so far. Plenty of people who upon learning my history wished a fate worse than death on RJ; some still do.
Read more +16 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusThese are a few of the common questions I get that I thought would be easier to respond to here. Please feel free to ask whatever you might be pondering, I don’t have all the answers.
Read more +13 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusIt wasn’t until I was standing in my shower decades later that I had a flashback to being that young girl again. Involuntarily I inhabited that 13-year-old body.
Read more +11 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesThis is what happened when Wendy came a long and RJ and I started a threesome with her. The really tough stuff was being emotionally involved with two people.
Read more +05 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsThe group didn’t start as a cult. It started with a desire for community and friendship, self-acceptance, and a sincere wish for more than what 80’s culture had to offer.
Read more +04 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsRJ always publicly shamed me, and others, for being an intellectual. As if thinking was something to be ashamed of, but now I know it is because if you actually thought too much you might see his façade.
Read more +03 June 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsThis list about Welcomed Consensus BenchMarks was forwarded to me from someone who came across my site.
Read more +20 May 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesI was 18 years old when things started to change for RJ. I’m not sure when RJ found More University, nor do I remember who introduced him to the teaching there.
Read more +20 May 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesI was still 18 when I got really sick. I couldn’t even eat saltines I was so nauseated. When I found out I was pregnant I thought that if this is what it was like, I was never going to do this on purpose.
Read more +20 May 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusIn this linked article, a really tough question is answered succinctly about the core reasons more people don’t tell their stories of abuse. It is a belief, pure and simple, about something that is neither pure or simple.
Read more +21 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesThis one is burned in my memory. It came back to me when I was writing about Rhonda in the Legal Update post. Much more needs to be remembered, I am sure.
Read more +21 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusHere is an update and rewrite for the paragraph in my post about the Legal status of what I'm doing. This is the first I have received confirmation about what happened after the last contact.
Read more +18 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsThis is a great podcast about how RJ Testerman and people like him operate. It is shocking, but also affirming, to hear how it happened.
Read more +14 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesAbout a year after I moved to San Francisco, when I was 17, RJ moved to a hair salon on Maiden Lane owned by Larry Coffey.
Read more +13 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesSomewhere around the time after I turned 18 RJ said he was tired of waiting for me to finish beauty school.
Read more +13 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusIf even spiritual leaders can’t find enlightenment about their behaviour what hope can we have for the Weinsteins and RJs of this world? In everything there is good and bad, in everyone and everything.
Read more +01 April 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusMany people have reached out to me about the legality of what I’m doing. When I started this and I saw fear in people's eyes, I mistook that for dislike of my writing or the subject matter, but later realized it is fear that more shit will be brought down on my head.
Read more +31 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusWhen I called RJ, my oldest, dearest friend of 40 years and asked him not to contact me or my family anymore he didn’t have even one question.
Read more +25 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in CultsHere is a short list on how to know if you are in a cult. Anyone who has lived with RJ will recognize these traits.
Read more +25 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesWhen I was 17 RJ and I were out drinking and he told me he had met a madam. He said she was really nice and I would like her.
Read more +25 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusSo I write and write and then I cut and cut. In the end everything and nothing feel important. Let in even a little memory and the flood gates open; I feel more than I was prepared for, but it is getting better.
Read more +04 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesI was kicked out of High School the third quarter of my freshman year, and then again, the first quarter of my sophomore year. I was a serious truant.
Read more +04 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusI am 100% responsible for everything that happened. I made choices all along the way. That is true without a doubt.
Read more +04 March 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in StatusUp until I published this site I had a skewed view of how this would be, how it would be received, and how I would feel about it all. The response I have got even within the small circle who has seen it has been great.
Read more +25 January 2019 By Christine Talbott Acosta in HistoriesI was 12 and RJ was 32 when we met. I was babysitting for an old friend of his from back home in Ohio, Micky.