A mini bio…
I’m amazed at the interest my last post has generated. That encourages me that there might be a audience for the book. There has been many “Leaving the cult ” books written, but none on the Twelve Tribes explicitly.
So, as I said before, this will be a very condensed version and I want to further set the playing field with a very, once again, condensed biography which is another 10 books in itself…
I was born in St Marys Hospital in Madison Wi. Aug 16 1956. I am the middle child of 5. I have a older bro and sis, and a younger bro and sis. My father was active Air Force and then went DOD civilian. We moved to Cocoa Beach Fl when I was 8 then to Adak Alaska on the Aleutian chain in 66 when I was 10. I loved it. Boy scouts, hunting and fishing etc. We moved to Niagara Falls NY in 70, 72 we moved to the island of Bermuda were I graduated HS in 74 on-base with a graduating class of 19 students, 5 guys and 14 girls. I was one of the few long haired dependents on base. I went to class a half day my senior year and life guarded on the base beach for the other half. My home life was a cold,sterile German/Irish family. We lacked nothing except warmth and open displays of affection. I joined the AF in 75 after being kicked off base for selling pot. I had a choice, military or jail…I was smoking, drinking getting high already. I was scared of girls but alcohol gave me courage. I met another AF girl and we married for 2 years. I was stationed in Las Vegas and Fairbanks AK. I got out, actually I was court martialed for awol, desertion and escape. I got 6 mo confinement but still received a favorable discharge due to the fact that I had previously turned myself in for pot smoking. After my incarceration I went to college at Buffalo State SUNY for a year. I dropped out due to my partying, classes I felt I would never use and that my homophobia and my major(theater) did not mix. So I left and went to work at Yellowstone and Grand Canyon in the summers and the Fl Keys and Virgin Islands in the winters for 3 years. I moved to my grand fathers in Madison were I spent a lot of my childhood at in 84. I got married again and she joined the AF and we went to Germany for 4 years were we had a boy, a girl and a vasectomy in 12 mos. We moved to Homestead AFB, south of Miami in 90. In 91 we divorced. I got the documented sea time I need in order to test for my Coast Guard 100 ton Masters License which turned out to be the hardest test I have ever taken. I started running boats for the AF water survival school as a DOD civilian, when hurricane Andrew moved the school to Panama City Fl in 92 for a year, then to Pensacola. All this time I was a heavy drinker. I had gotten married again in 92 . I moved back to Homestead after the Navy absorbed the school and was working on base at the supply warehouse. I got divorced again and put myself in a Christian 6mo rehab. That’s when I got a pamphlet from the http://www.twelvetribes.com I had never heard of intentional community, you could call it a commune, and was enthralled. I fell in love with them and joined them for 7 years. I’ve been pretty much sober since. That’s one thing I am grateful to the cult for teaching me. How to control my vices. What got me to leave was that through the internet, I had the revelation that Christianity was all wrong and left. I went to a program for exit counseling from high control groups. http://www.meadowhaven.org By the way, most people in groups like this are very intelligent and looking for a purpose for their life and a place to belong and fit in ,cuz they usually don’t fit anywhere.
My back is falling apart. I was in a car wreck when I was 16 and had a hairline fracture in my C7 vertebrae. After 40 years it caused a bad curvature of the spine and now I have 3 permanent bulging discs, stenosis, necrosis, arthritis to name a few things and it is inoperable. looks like I’ll be looking for a disability pension of some sorts real soon because all my skills and trades involve intense labor and it’s a bit late to be changing careers like my Dr told me I should do…
I was still enthralled by community but have no need for religion but spirituality is a different story….
I’m very content now were I’m at, physically, mentally and spiritually . I don’t regret my past. It was all a learning experience and actually I feel I’m just starting to grow up and learn how to live. Life is good!
Sincerely, David Pike
Ok, lets get back to my birth as a Prophet of Yahweh…