Q&A with Darls Centola

Cal Prep yearbook excerpt showing Darls Centola’s humorous “will” entry mentioning Michael Jackson, with her student photo.

  • As a mental health clinician, over the years, I learned from my clients how pervasive and sometimes quite invisible adverse religious experiences can erode one’s sense of self.

    Finding Truth with Michael is my memoir of an unlikely teenage friendship with Michael Jackson, set inside a high-control religion that dictated what to think, who to trust, and even how to love. It’s a story about spiritual abuse and mind control, mechanisms that aren’t confined to cults but echo today in extremist movements, conspiracy communities, and radical belief systems. I share this story to humanize Michael, validate others who have endured spiritual abuse or radical systems, and spark a broader conversation about how we reclaim our freedom, our voices, and our truest selves.

    High-control religions, cults, and extremist groups all use the same playbook of mind control: fear, isolation, obedience, and shame. My memoir shows how those dynamics shaped my life as a teenager—and how they echo today in radical political groups, conspiracy movements, and online hate communities.

    What happened inside my family, faith, and friendship with Michael Jackson isn’t just history—it’s a mirror of what’s happening in America right now.

  • Spiritual abuse is what happens when faith is used to control, shame, or erase someone instead of loving and freeing them. In the book, you’ll see how rules, fear, and silence were woven into everyday life and what it required to unravel.

  • This isn’t a tell-all or a tabloid story. Michael is part of the book because he was part of my life during some crucial teenage years. The heart of the memoir is about friendship, identity, and waking up inside a religious system that didn’t have room for my questions. Michael appears as a boy, not a brand, and our friendship sits inside that larger story. I am a clinical social worker today because of Michael’s influence.

  • Michael and I were both inside Jehovah’s Witnesses—a religion that set strict rules about what we could say, do, and believe.

    Beyond fame, he was a boy navigating the same questions of identity, freedom, and faith that I was.

    Our friendship became a safe space, but it also revealed how even global icons can be trapped by controlling systems.

  • Seen. Less alone. And a little less ashamed of the parts of themselves that had to twist and shrink to survive. I hope they feel permission to tell the truth, whether that means writing, therapy, talking to a trusted friend, or simply admitting to themselves, “Yes, this happened to me.”

  • No. It’s honest about what can go terribly wrong when power goes unchecked and questions aren’t allowed. I still believe in love, in meaning, and in something larger than us, But I no longer believe that fear and control are the price of belonging.

  • It’s for anyone who grew up in a tight, rule-heavy religious world… and anyone who loves someone who did. It’s also for readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories, 1970s LA, and the strange way a single friendship can change the course of a life. And of course Michael Jackson fans who are curious about an unknown part of the reverent young Michael Jackson.

  • Mind control isn’t hypnosis or brainwashing—it’s systematic conditioning. Belief systems teach people what to think, not how to think.

    High-control systems often demand total allegiance: your thoughts, your relationships, even your future. That’s as true for religious groups as it is for extremist movements like Groypers or QAnon.

    Once inside, questioning feels like betrayal. The cost of leaving is often exile, shame, and loneliness—but the cost of staying is losing yourself.