145:. Hamilton-Byrne said that people who accused her of mistreating the children were "lying bastards" and she would love to "put them right" but could not. She stated that she could have sued her critics but had decided against it. Moore said that she loved Hamilton-Byrne but had mixed feelings about her, still regarded her as being responsible for the abuse of the children. Hamilton-Byrne blamed the Aunties. That was as far as Hamilton-Byrne would go in acknowledging any wrongdoing, Moore said; otherwise she was unrepentant.
80:. In 1990, former group solicitor Peter Kibby started co-operating with police and confessed to forging birth records on orders from Hamilton-Byrne. Former auntie Patricia McFarlane gave information to police about adoption scams. Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill were overseas at the time; they were extradited from the United States in 1993 and faced criminal charges, but were only convicted of making false statements in regard to the adoption of Moore and other children. They were each fined $ 5,000.
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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
Hamilton-Byrne, whom they believed to be 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.
170:(a word usually translated as "righteousness", and denoting the righteous or spiritual path) and the community of Buddhists. This new belief system made sense of her life and gave her a perspective on things, particularly where she had gone wrong by taking on too much, spiritually and emotionally. Having found a guru in whom no one could find fault, she felt that she had regained the psychological and spiritual support that she had lacked ever since her expulsion from The Family.
43:"inheritors of the earth" after a holocaust took place. Hamilton-Byrne had many followers who worked in the medical and nursing professions, and who manipulated the adoption process so that 14 children were adopted by her. These children—including Moore—were told that Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother.
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Helen D introduced Moore to two policewomen who won her confidence; this eventually led to a police raid on "Kai Lama" on 14 August 1987. A number of children were taken into custody, then placed in care, along with Moore. A number of the "aunties" faced criminal charges and were eventually convicted
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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
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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
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She described
Hamilton-Byrne as a powerful and charismatic person and thought that she initially meant well in creating the cult and collecting the children. These acts, she thought, were Hamilton-Byrne's compensation and "delusional repair" for her own childhood, marred by an absent father and a
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for herself. In July 2005, she avoided a jail sentence at
Ringwood Magistrate's Court in Victoria. She was allowed to remain free as long as she maintained good behaviour for four years and did community service. She had pleaded guilty to forging prescriptions to obtain pethidine between November
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Life for the children at "Kai Lama" was unremittingly strict and even brutal. 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
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Along with the other adopted children, Moore was brought up in houses that were owned by
Hamilton-Byrne, who had several properties in various countries (Moore later estimated that Hamilton-Byrne might have been worth $ 150 million). Moore spent the first four to five years of her life at a house
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As Moore grew up, she became more assertive and began arguing with those who supervised the children, including
Hamilton-Byrne herself. After arguing once too often, she was expelled from The Family in 1987, at the age of 17. She was then taken in by a family she had met. After a time, she was
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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
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Eventually, Moore set up a charity called
Barefoot Basics, which aims to provide health assistance to indigenous and displaced people in countries like India. The charity was approved for tax deductible purposes. She did charity work overseas whenever she could afford to make the trip.
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introduced to a private investigator, known only as "Helen D", who had been investigating The Family for several years. From Helen D, Moore learnt that Anne
Hamilton-Byrne was a fraud and that she herself was not Hamilton-Byrne's daughter at all; she had in fact been adopted.
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In
December 2008, Moore was in hospital and lost her left leg as a result of what she considered to be mistreatment by hospital staff after a suicide attempt. She used a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
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newspaper. Hamilton-Byrne, who was then 87 years old, said she was now "ready to die" after being reunited with her "favourite daughter". The reunion took place at Hamilton-Byrne's sprawling compound at
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run by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, her adoptive mother. She was instrumental in having the group investigated by the police in Victoria, Australia. She later wrote a book about her experiences in The Family.
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She went on to study medicine and became a qualified doctor, working at a number of Melbourne hospitals. As a doctor, she did extensive volunteer work in India and Thailand (where she worked with
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164:. She said this brought her enormous relief and joy and meant that she was now rid of her burden. She felt she now had the support of a teacher/guru (the Buddha), the
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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.
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psychotic mother. In a 2009 blog post, Moore said that she had decided to see Hamilton-Byrne again after going through a form of therapy called the
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Moore died in May 2016, aged 46, of heart failure. At her Buddhist-themed funeral, fellow survivors from The Family spoke on her behalf.
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refugees on the Thai–Burma border), but still returned to Australia, where she carried on a medical practice in the Dandenong Ranges.
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east of Melbourne, Victoria. After that, she was moved to "Kai Lama", a group house at
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in 2009 after meeting a Buddhist lama who inducted her into the belief system of
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Australian writer and former member of a new religious movement
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270:"The Family's 'living god' fades to grey, estate remains"
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520:"Forty-Eight Hours - The Family: A Cult Revealed"
107:Moore was charged with forging prescriptions of
327:"Survivor of The Family cult spared conviction"
390:Moore/Hamilton-Byrne, Sarah (15 August 2009).
112:2004 and April 2005. Moore was diagnosed with
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301:"Cult survivor escapes jail sentence"
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495:"The Family documentary Press Kit"
415:Campbell, James (16 August 2009).
235:Campbell, James (16 August 2009).
213:Unseen Unheard Unknown, pp.139–150
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473:"Dr Sarah Moore - Hamilton-Byrne"
325:O'Connor, Angela (5 July 2005).
299:O'Connor, Angela (4 July 2005).
268:Johnston, Chris (17 May 2014).
118:post-traumatic stress disorder
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570:Writers from Victoria (state)
78:Department of Social Security
522:. CBS News. 24 February 2018
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575:Australian medical doctors
151:Hoffman Quadrinity Process
450:The Sydney Morning Herald
47:called "Winberra" in the
38:Early life and education
237:"A twisted controller"
223:Unseen Unheard Unknown
202:Unseen Unheard Unknown
190:Unseen Unheard Unknown
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32:new religious movement
241:The Sunday Herald Sun
590:Australian Buddhists
545:Sarah's Stuff (blog)
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364:the original
356:"The Family"
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310:23 December
281:18 November
53:Lake Eildon
20:Sarah Moore
554:Categories
504:22 October
475:. Facebook
421:Herald Sun
360:60 Minutes
177:References
138:Herald Sun
28:The Family
246:5 January
109:pethidine
526:15 March
162:Buddhism
158:Buddhist
331:The Age
305:The Age
275:The Age
479:2 July
457:8 June
453:. 2017
167:Dharma
84:Career
498:(PDF)
97:Karen
528:2018
506:2016
481:2016
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428:2011
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