In 2010, Talia Ray requested her seven roommates at Sarah Lawrence School in the event that they minded her father, Larry Ray, residing with them for a time after being launched from jail—they did not. In the beginning, Ray offered himself as a confidant and guide, however over the process 10 years, he terrorized his daughter’s pals with horrific emotional, bodily and sexual abuse as a part of a “cult.”
Regardless of Ray’s daughter’s request being the catalyst to a decade of abuse, survivor Daniel Barban Levin instructed Newsweek how he’d nonetheless be serious about speaking to Talia Ray once more, must she achieve out to him.
Levin seems in Stolen Youth: Within the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, a three-part Hulu docu-series that examines Ray’s crimes and the affect his abuse had at the scholars who lived with him and his daughter.
Daniel Barban Levin ‘Would be Curious’ To Meet Talia Ray Again After ‘Stolen Youth’
Hulu
Ray’s crimes first got here to mild in a record from The Minimize, of New York Mag, which precipitated government to research the allegations made in it of his abuse. Talia Ray has additionally been investigated as a co-conspirator of her father, however no fees were introduced in opposition to her.
On January 20, 2023, Ray, 63, used to be sentenced to 60 years in jail for racketeering conspiracy, violent crime in support of racketeering, extortion, intercourse trafficking, compelled exertions, tax evasion and cash laundering offenses.
Levin mirrored on his former friendship with Talia Ray, admitting that once he used to be in a position to flee her father’s clutches and unfastened himself from the person’s “cult,” he selected to chop all ties out of outrage for his protection.
“I had disconnected myself from everybody concerned with this for a few years as a result of I used to be afraid and did not know who used to be protected,” Levin mentioned. “After which, after the conviction, I [began] reconnecting with my pals, and I have no idea the place Talia is at, and what her way of thinking is.
“I feel that if she reached out to me I might be curious to have that dialog. However it is in point of fact arduous for me to believe what her enjoy is, and I think a large number of compassion for somebody who has lived with Larry Ray since she used to be a toddler, I will be able to’t believe that.”
Levin, who has written a memoir about his reviews titled Slonim Woods 9, additionally shared how he felt following Ray’s conviction in April 2021 and his sentencing in January.
He mirrored: “I gave sufferer affect remark on the sentencing, and that used to be one thing I sat with and thought of for a very long time, and to present that inquiry in entrance of him used to be in point of fact horrifying however in point of fact an enjoy that made me hopeful in many ways, so I hesitate to take a look at to rehash that remark as a result of I think adore it used to be really well crafted.
“However, necessarily, I sought after him to grasp the ways in which he had harmed me and the techniques by which I will be able to at all times need to reside with that, but additionally that he did not spoil me. I feel that every one of my pals sought after to do this, not to give him that pride.
“I am getting to enjoy human reviews and emotions, I am getting to really feel love and unhappiness, and worry. The primary factor is I will be able to open my entrance door and stroll outdoor and I’ve a key to my condo and I will be able to lock my door if I need to, and those are all issues that he attempted to remove. And now that is a privilege that he does not deserve anymore.”
How Daniel Barban Levin Hopes To Lend a hand Different Survivors of Abuse and Cults
Levin is eager to appear in opposition to a extra certain long term, and in addition the usage of his reviews of abuse to take a look at and lend a hand his pals who had been additionally abused through Ray, and others who could also be in a an identical scenario.
“I am simply excited to get to do customary issues, it is as granular as simply the enjoyment of having to head outdoor and revel in a pleasant day as a result of I need to move to speak to a chum [and] now not having to be afraid of claiming the flawed factor and being harm for it,” he mentioned.
“However, additionally, I am getting to discover the issues I like. I’m a creator and Larry attempted to take writing clear of me and I am getting to spend on a regular basis writing and I educate other folks the right way to procedure their very own trauma thru writing, that is extremely pleasurable.”
Levin added: “I’m hoping that still having those conversations can lend a hand different individuals who’ve had all these reviews [and] begin to procedure, so [I’m] simply seeking to flip this terrible factor that came about into one thing that may help in making an international the place it is much less prone to occur.”
Reconnecting along with his pals from his days at Sarah Lawrence School has additionally been a satisfying enjoy for Levin.
“I will be able to say for myself it is been unreal to get to speak to my pals once more,” he defined. “It really isn’t overstating it to mention that I grieved them, I assumed that I had misplaced them perpetually and, so, it is like those individuals who had been so integral to my lifestyles got here again from the lifeless.
“They are the one different individuals who in point of fact absolutely perceive what I went thru and I am able to give that figuring out again to them. So, we will now not handiest validate every different however we are in a position to giggle about this, giggle on the absurdity of Larry Ray, this clown of a person who additionally used to be horrific.
“And in order that feels so just right, and I feel that as a result of I’ve been out of it for longer than them, I think like I am able to communicate to them slightly bit about what that adventure used to be like for me to start with and what to anticipate, and the way the twists and turns of restoration can also be sophisticated highway.”
Levin additionally mirrored at the documentary, and mentioned that he hopes it is going to steered audience to begin a “deeper dialog” about cults and what they’re.
He mentioned: “I feel that once folks recall to mind a cult survivor, a cult follower, generally what they believe of their minds does not seem like me, does not seem like my pals, and on account of that it used to be very arduous for me to grasp myself inside that place. To say this can be a cult, this guy is a cult chief who is abusing me.
“So, I feel we want to amplify that definition slightly bit, and to possibly have a broader dialog about energy and about males like this, who possibly do not need a host of 19-year-olds transfer into their condo and abuse them however who in finding different eventualities by which it is conceivable to exert regulate over folks, to gaslight and, in some circumstances, to abuse them. I feel that dialog has been taking place for a very long time, however I would love to possibly amplify it to incorporate reviews like mine.”
Stolen Youth: Within the Cult at Sarah Lawrence is out now on Hulu.
