#181 From Ashram to Author: Finding the Transformative Thread in a Near Cult Memoir with Blair Glaser

What happens when a story that could be told as trauma is instead shaped as triumph?

Blair Glaser joins Estelle Erasmus to discuss her journey from a Catskills ashram in the 1990s to published author, and how she turned her time in a spiritual organization into her memoir, This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience. Rather than writing a simple escape narrative, she explores spiritual longing, group dynamics, depression, leadership, and the unexpected skills she developed inside a restrictive system.

Instead of focusing solely on abuse and escape, Blair takes a nuanced approach, examining how that experience helped her find her voice, build professional skills, and ultimately claim her self worth.

This episode is essential listening for memoir writers wrestling with how to structure layered stories, navigate family fallout, and uncover the thematic thread that elevates personal experience into crafted memoir.

In this episode:

• Why her memoir rejects the typical "cult survivor" narrative and how she found unexpected gifts within a harmful experience [02:55]

• The rookie mistake many memoirists make and how she corrected it in revision [12:05]

• How the ashram taught her to rise through the ranks, create transformational programs, and become a writer, even while struggling with depression [16:00]

• Why she defines spiritual awakening as "a kind of madness" that rarely makes sense to the people around you [25:25]

• How to write about depression and suicidal ideation without deadening the reader [27:00]

• Why writing from therapeutic distance made revisiting trauma feel reflective, even sweet, rather than painful [27:20]

• Her best advice for writers who do not have journals to draw from [28:15]

• The family fallout that followed publication and why she chose authentic storytelling over protection [30:00]

• How indie publisher Heliotrope Books cha

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AofD5lloQ_E

About Blair:

Blair Glaser is a writer and leadership consultant whose essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, Longreads, Oldster, Quartz, HuffPost, Inside Higher Ed, and others, as well as in literary magazines such as Brevity, Dorothy Parker's Ashes, In Short, and The Mantlepiece. She's read stories live at events such as Writer's Read, Generation Women, and The Woodstock Bookfest. Her debut memoir, This Incredible Longing, was published by Heliotrope in February 2026. She lives with her husband and dog-ter, Vanna White, in Venice Beach, CA. More can be found at www.blairglaser.com.

Connect with Blair:

Website: https://www.blairglaser.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blair_glaser/

Book: This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience: https://www.blairglaser.com/books

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About Estelle

Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.

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