From his sprawling property in the rolling hills of northwest Georgia, Greg Baer built a self-help organization with a deeply human mission.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.“We teach the real meaning of love, replacing anger and confusion with peace and confidence in individual lives and relationships,” reads the website for his group, the Real Love Company.Baer has written more than a dozen books, hosted hundreds of seminars and released thousands of online videos.He claims to have transformed the lives of more than 450,000 people.In some ways, he’s an unlikely spiritual guru.
Baer was an eye surgeon in the 1990s who, in his own telling, got hooked on drugs and became suicidal, leading him on a search for “genuine happiness.”His philosophy centers on the concept of unconditional love.Baer believes that most people’s problems stem from being raised by parents unable or unwilling to offer the sort of love that seeks nothing in return.He himself fills that void, telling his followers to call him Daddy and holding them in his lap as if they were babies.
At retreats, attendees would often line up for the opportunity.Greg Baer in a Real Love YouTube video.YouTubeSome say the results have been transformative.They broke bad habits, healed broken relationships and became part of a close-knit community that stretched to the U.K.
But over the years, Baer’s organization took on cultlike qualities, according to interviews with 10 former members and their relatives.He acted as the ultimate authority, directing their lives in matters large and small.When they were ready to date.
Whom they should marry.Many were encouraged to convert to Mormonism.
Some were instructed to cut out family members.They didn’t dare to question or defy him because they feared being pushed out of the community.A select group of his followers, all women, said they received special attention in the form of extended ...