Game of Thrones alum Hannah Murray He says he suffered a mental breakdown after joining a health cult.
“It's easy to go, 'Well, that wouldn't happen to me,' but we're doing ourselves a disservice when we start saying that, because you never know,” Murray, 36, said. The guard in an interview published on Saturday, May 23. “I didn't know I was going to face any of the things in the book. I thought I couldn't, that I was safe. I was well-educated, from a middle-class family; everything should be fine.”
He continued, “I thought, “I'm smart. I make good decisions.' However, I make very bad decisions. But it's important to understand why people do these things, rather than saying, 'Oh, they must be stupid.' Or, 'How stupid can you be?'”
Murray, who appeared in 25 episodes of the hit HBO series across Seasons 2 through 8 as Gilly, declined to name the health cult she said she joined at age 27, instead calling it “the organization.” He told the newspaper that he was introduced to this cult through an “energy healer,” whom he met in his trailer on the set of Detroit.
“My experience felt frustrating, with nothing clearly happening,” he said of his experience in this alleged sect. “There was just this charge of energy in the room. I think it's often in these high-level spiritual organizations. I found it interesting that it's a mostly women's place – the teachers, the healer – and then this man walks in and is incredibly confident and magnetic. The first thing he says is a joke about sex. From this floating, gentle, powerful, like, like, hey-way-wash-wa, all of a sudden. And, 'Asif***.' I think he was doing that on purpose.”
Hannah Murray
Getty ImagesThe health cult leader, Murray, who has also not been named, is said to have written a “symbolic necklace and carried a large Starbucks cup” everywhere he went. The actress spent thousands of dollars to get “smart and special,” but eventually suffered a psychotic episode so severe that she was admitted to a mental institution, and later, diagnosed with a psychotic disorder.
He wrote about his experience in his new book, Make Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madnessand today it stays away from all things related to the health sector.
“Even soft things can be very painful,” he explained. “I don't meditate anymore. I won't go into a crystal shop. I don't do yoga, because I don't know what might pop up that might sound like woo-woo at my own threshold. But I see now how pervasive it is. How often strangers will offer it as a cure.”
He added, 'He'll say, 'I don't really sleep,' and they'll say, 'Have you tried meditating?' It is ubiquitous, seen as a natural solution. And there are harmless or good versions. But as someone looking for something to fix me completely, a magic wand or a silver bullet, the promise felt alluring and addictive.”
