Sarah Hamilton-Byrne

Sarah Moore, formerly known as Sarah Hamilton-Byrne (8 July 1969 – May 2016) was an Australian writer who spent her childhood in The Family, a new religious movement run by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, her adoptive mother. She was instrumental in getting the group investigated by the police in Victoria, Australia and later wrote a book about her experiences in The Family.

Moore's biological mother was an unmarried teenager who put her daughter up for adoption in 1969. Moore was adopted by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a charismatic yoga teacher who gathered a number of followers around her who believed that she was the incarnation of Christ. Moore was meant to be one of the "inheritors of the earth" after a holocaust took place. Anne Hamilton-Byrne had many followers who worked in the medical and nursing professions, and who manipulated the adoption process so that fourteen children were adopted by her. These children—including Moore—were told that Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother.

Along with the other adopted children, Moore was brought up in houses that were owned by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who had several properties in various countries (Moore later estimated that Anne Hamilton-Byrne might have been worth $150 million). Moore spent the first 4–5 years of her life at a house called Winberra, in the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne, Victoria. After that, she was moved to Kai Lama, a group house at Lake Eildon, also in Victoria.

Life for the children at Kai Lama was unremittingly strict and even brutal. Anne Hamilton-Byrne herself was usually not there, so the children were supervised by women from The Family who were known as Aunties. These women disciplined the children by inflicting severe beatings for the most trivial reasons or no reason at all. Another common disciplinary measure was food deprivation. The children lived in fear and were deprived of all love and affection. Despite this, they always hoped for some show of affection from Anne Hamilton-Byrne, who they believed was their mother, and who visited Kai Lama from time to time. They were also led to believe that the world outside was an evil and dangerous place, and that they would end up in the gutter (or worse) if they ever left The Family.

Another common form of discipline was the administration of prescription drugs that were obtained by the followers in the medical and nursing professions. These drugs were routinely used to pacify the children. When they were older, they could also be forced to take the hallucinogenic drug LSD as a kind of religious ritual. This was known as "going-through", and was supposed to promote self-awareness, helping the person to let go of blocks. Moore was forced to "go-through" in 1984, when she was 15. The experience took place at a property owned by The Family in England, and went on for some days because she was given repeated doses of the drug. She found it a traumatic experience and was later convinced that she had suffered lasting damage from the drug.

...
Wikipedia