Jonathan Hirsch
speaker
1,168 appearances
9 recordings
3 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 5 Jun
Jonathan Hirsch’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Mar 2026 with 2.
Appearances
She didn't on the surface appear to be particularly charismatic, but it was her words that captivated people. Oh, Terry.
There are few recordings left of Terry. but this is from one of these counseling sessions she gave to her students. Her voice is slight, with a thick Texas lilt. She was gentle and nurturing to her students. A divine mother, one former disciple told me. Life, Terry instructed her earliest acolytes, was a journey towards spiritual evolution.
And she was there to help you advance, to cheer you along as you became more spiritually aware, but also to encourage you to eliminate things that weren't serving you.
This all sounded too kooky for Chuck. He stayed out of it. His wife was slipping. He didn't approve of this new relationship, which was taking time away from raising the family and also costing them. She was buying up expensive jewelry from Terry made of semi-precious stones she claimed would provide spiritual protection.
When Sandra started writing checks for several thousand dollars made out to Terry's group, Chuck had enough. They were at an impasse. That's when he met Gail. Both of them had been invited to a minister's home.
It was the first time Gail met Sandra.
Different, like she marches to the beat of her own drum. Eccentric.
It took the women a minute to realize she was being serious.
And I'm sure it felt unsettling to the other women in that room, these relatively well-to-do Christian women chatting in the kitchen of a Dallas suburb, 1972.
Not long after, Sandra asked Chuck for a divorce.
Who was this woman? She'd wrestled her way into the center of a marriage and managed to convince Sandra that, to evolve, her husband had to go. She had spiritual practices to pursue or whatever, and Chuck was getting in the way. At the same time, Chuck had started this new blended family. Gail was Devereaux's stepmom, and Devereaux now had a stepbrother and stepsisters close in age.
He was concerned about Terry's influence on his daughter. He fought to have full custody of Devereaux.
Chuck's lawyer was scared. Sandra had espoused some pretty out there ideas, which she seemed to be absorbing from her friend Terry.
Chuck's attorney feared that Sandra was being influenced, that she might do something she'd later deeply regret. If you move forward and get full custody, his lawyer said, which it looks like you can get, you will win the battle, but you're gonna lose the war.
Gail and Chuck, in the middle of all this, did their best to provide a loving home for Devereaux and to keep the kids insulated from any of the weirdness going on with Sandra and Terry. They were sort of dancing around Sandra, trying to stay connected to Dev without getting too involved with her. It felt precarious, unstable.
And now, lawyers on both sides of the custody dispute were telling them, it could be dangerous.
Chrissy is Gail's daughter from her previous marriage. She was closest in age to Devereaux. Seeing Gail and her together, she's a carbon copy of her mom. silvery blonde hair, high cheekbones, perfect teeth. Chrissy loved Devereaux.
A few months before Devereux took that trip with her mom to Hawaii, she'd asked her sisters to stay the night with her at Sandra's. It was Sandra's turn to have her, but she'd also planned to host a conscious development meeting at the house, which made Devereux uncomfortable. She didn't want to be there alone.
Kristen figured it'd be your typical teenage sleepover. Junk food, manicures, movie marathons. It was anything but.
The house on Manning Lane in Dallas was just a five-minute walk from Terry's. A big front yard with a paved walkway towards the door. Large, sleepy oak trees hung over the walkway on either side. And inside the house, in the living room, all the people from CDBMS were there. From Dev's room in the back of the house, the girls could hear all of their voices.
Showing 1041–1060 of 1,168 · page 53 of 59
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