Podcast Episode
Born Into a Cult: The Unbelievable True Story of One Man’s Escape from Scientology
November 10, 2025
Abandoned at birth and handed over to Scientology's paramilitary wing, Jamie Mustard spent his first years in a slum-like "orphanage" where babies were stacked in bunks, starved of human touch, and bathed only once a week in filthy water. Decades later, he's a celebrated author, artist, and survivor. And now, he's exposing the global network of abuse that destroyed thousands of children's lives. In this jaw-dropping conversation with Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen, Jamie reveals how he escaped a billion-year contract, overcame illiteracy and shame, and discovered the neuroscience of healing trauma through brain health. This is one of the most harrowing—and hopeful—survivor stories ever told on the podcast. You'll learn: • What really happened to children inside Scientology's secret compounds • Why he called himself "Child X" • How he survived a pressure-cooker environment "kind of like Lord of the Flies" • How medical neglect nearly cost him his hearing… and his life • How a celebrated author could grow up feeling "stupid" • Why shame kept him silent for decades • How trauma rewires the nervous system… and how to reset it • The radical treatment that erased decades of his anxiety in 20 minutes • Why so many of the kids he grew up with were lost to addiction and suicide Jamie's new book, Child X: https://www.amazon.com/Child-Slavery-Poverty-Celebrity-Scientology/dp/163774708X
Categories
- 4 Circles
- Abuse
- ADD / ADHD
- ADD in the Bedroom
- Addiction
- Advice
- Aging
- Alcohol
- Alternative Therapies
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Anger Management
- Antidepressents
- ANTS
- Anxiety
- Attraction
- Autism
- Automatic Negative Thoughts
- Beauty
- Bipolar
- Blood Pressure
- Body Image
- Boundaries
- Brain
- Brain Fog
- Brain Function
- Brain Health
- Brain in Love
- Brain in The News
- Brain Scans
- Brain Tips
- Caregiving
- CBD
- Change
- Change your brain
- Change Your Grades
- Child Psychiatry
- Children
- Cholesterol
- Chronic Illness
- Chronic Pain
- Coffee
- Communication
- Community
- Confidence
- COVID-19
- Culture
- Depression
- Diet
- Disasters
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- Drugs
- Eating Disorders
- Emotions
- Empathy
- End of Mental Illness Book
- Energy
- Entitlement
- Exercise
- Faith
- Family
- Family Health
- Finding Value
- First responders
- Fitness
- Focus
- Food
- Forgiveness
- Gender
- Get to Know Tana
- Gluten
- Goal Setting
- Gratitude
- Grief
- Grieving
- Gut Health
- Habit Forming
- Habits
- Happiness
- Heal Your Mind
- Healing
- Health
- Healthy Habits
- Healthy Lifestyle
- Heart Health
- Holiday
- Holiday Health
- Hormones
- Hyperbaric Oxygen
- Hypertension
- Hypnosis
- Immune System
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- Inspirational
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- Introduction
- Irlen Syndrome
- Judgement
- Learning
- Learning Disabilities
- Logic
- Love
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- Marriage Health
- Martial Arts
- Medicine
- Meditation
- Memory
- Memory Loss
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- Microbiome
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- Mom Hacks
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- Motivation
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- Nutrition
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- One Page Miracle
- Opioids
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- Panic Attacks
- Parenting
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- Procrastination
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- Q + A
- Racism
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- Relating
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- Self Esteem
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- Self Talk
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- Sleep
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- The Relentless Courage of A Scared Child Book
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- Trauma
- Violence
- Voice And Your Brain
- Vulnerability
- Weight Issues
- Weight Loss
- Women's Health
- Workplace Relationships
- Your Brain Is Always Listening Book
Guests
- Alize Castellanos
- Andy Ramage
- Anne-Marie Principe
- Anthony Davis
- Barry Goldstein
- Bob White
- Chase Mattioli
- Chloe Amen
- Chris Browning
- Colonel Jill Chambers
- Dan Sullivan
- Darin Olien
- Dave Asprey
- Denny Salisbury
- Dr. Caroline Leaf
- Dr. Charles Fay
- Dr. Dale Bredesen
- Dr. Daniel Emina
- Dr. Darria Gillespie
- Dr. David and Daniel Root
- Dr. David Perlmutter
- Dr. Derose
- Dr. Derwin Gray
- Dr. Earl Henslin
- Dr. Emily Morse
- Dr. James Gordon
- Dr. Jay Faber
- Dr. Jeffrey Zeig
- Dr. Jennifer Farrell
- Dr. Jennifer Love
- Dr. Jim Fay
- Dr. John Townsend
- Dr. Jonny Bowden
- Dr. Joseph Pizzorno
- Dr. Josh Axe
- Dr. Judith Orloff
- Dr. Kabran Chapek
- Dr. Lisa Strohman
- Dr. Mark Filidei
- Dr. Mark Houston
- Dr. Mark Hyman
- Dr. Martin Katz
- Dr. Michael Breus
- Dr. Mike Dow
- Dr. Nancy Bohl-Penrod
- Dr. Parris Kidd
- Dr. Rebecca Siegel
- Dr. Robert Lustig
- Dr. Shane Creado
- Dr. Sharon May
- Dr. Stephen Hayes
- Dr. Steven Masley
- Dr. Todd Ovokaitys
- Dr. Uma Naidoo
- Dr. Wayne Jonas
- Gary Busey
- Guy Finley
- Helen Irlen
- James Ackerman
- Jay Shetty
- Jerri Sher
- Jim Karol
- Jim Kwik
- Joan Lunden
- Josh Perry
- Julianne Hough
- Justin Wren
- Kathy Smith
- Kelli Davis
- Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks
- Leeza Gibbons
- Lisa Ackerman
- Lisa Sasevich
- Mareya Ibrahim
- Maria Shriver
- Mark Wolynn
- Mary Schlesinger
- Max Lugavere
- Michael Peterson
- Miles McPherson
- Rachele Brooke Smith
- Rice Broocks
- Roger Love
- Sandra Maddox
- Shannon Kenitz
- Shawn Stevenson
- Tom Bilyeu
- Troy and Shannon Zeeman
- Winn Claybaugh
- Wymford Dore
- Zoe Davis
