Growing up in the Church of Immortal Consciousness in Arizona, a chess prodigy spent a decade trapped in a religious cult, enduring years of fear and self-loathing. The cult, known internally as the Collective or the Family, was led by Trina Kamp and her husband Steven Kamp, who channelled the teachings of Dr Pahlvon Duran, a spirit from the 15th century.
The prodigy discovered chess at age nine after watching the film Searching for Bobby Fischer on HBO. Living in Tonto Village, a remote mountain community with dirt roads, he was surrounded by about 100 children under 12, all raised in the cult. The cult's teachings emphasised finding one's 'purpose' and living 'in integrity', with failure labelled as 'out of integrity', considered the gravest sin.
The cult's leader began grooming the boy to become a grandmaster, separating him from his mother to focus on chess. The community consisted of damaged individuals seeking help, including alcoholics, drug addicts, and abuse survivors, who gave themselves over to the cult for answers.
The prodigy's mother, Deborah Lynn Sampson, was a lost soul whose spiritual wanderings led the family to the cult. The experience left the prodigy with deep-seated fear and self-loathing that persisted for years after escaping.
