The Burn Zone

September 1, 2018
The intensity of the meditation session left Linnell wondering what had just happened to her. She had seemingly left her body and become filled with ecstasy and the overwhelming sense that, after a lifetime of searching, she was home. The meditation experience was so powerful, her instructor informed her, because she had been sitting in the burn zone. Linnell quickly began attending other sessions from the same instructor, slowly becoming indoctrinated into what she would later recognize as a cult. In this astonishing memoir, Linnell recounts how the leaders of the University of Mysticism shattered her sense of self, cut her off from all her outside relationships, and forced her to invest her energy and considerable money into a career she had never considered. She became the consort of the instructor's romantic partner, despite her frequent and intense misgivings about the relationship. In examining the arduous, years-long process by which she left her former life behind, Linnell ultimately also faces her own culpability. This is an anguished account of losing oneself completely and fighting afterward to rebuild.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)