You wake up.
You check your messages — someone from the group is already asking why you missed last night’s call.
You eat a specific breakfast.
You repeat your affirmations.
You schedule your day around the next training, the next team meeting, the next prayer circle, the next live.

And slowly, without realizing it, your day isn’t your own anymore.

This is what high control over daily life looks like — a subtle but powerful form of manipulation used by cults and multi-level marketing (MLM) companies to dominate how you live, think, spend, eat, talk, and even sleep.

It’s not just control. It’s ownership.

What Is High Control?

High control happens when a group, leader, or system interferes with and dictates the personal choices of individuals — including things that should be private, like how you:

  • Dress
  • Eat
  • Spend your money
  • Spend your free time
  • Parent your children
  • Communicate with others
  • Use your social media
  • Express your thoughts

It often starts with suggestions… and ends with obedience.

High Control in Cults

In cults, high control is often framed as “discipline,” “purity,” or “alignment.” The rules are said to bring you closer to salvation, divine purpose, or the group’s ultimate goal.

You might be told how to:

  • Cut off “toxic” family or friends
  • Meditate or pray at specific hours
  • Speak using the group’s language only
  • Abstain from certain foods or medicine
  • Dress modestly, or exactly like others
  • Refrain from questioning leaders or decisions

Daily routines are carefully shaped to reinforce dependency, eliminate outside influence, and reduce the time you have for critical thinking.

You stop asking why, and start asking what’s next.

High Control in MLMs

In MLMs, control is masked as “entrepreneurial discipline” or “committing to your goals.” But what it really means is:

  • Showing up to daily Zoom calls (even if you’re sick or tired)
  • Posting constantly on social media, even if you don’t want to
  • Avoiding vacations because it might “slow your momentum”
  • Planning your entire life around events, launches, or challenges
  • Mimicking top leaders’ routines, diets, morning rituals, and content
  • Cutting out “negative” people who question your MLM involvement

You’ll be told, “Success doesn’t sleep.”
“You have the same 24 hours as anyone else.”
“Winners show up every day.”

It’s a hustle cult disguised as business.
And it never stops.

Why It Works

This tactic works because it makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing.

The more time and energy you give, the more invested you become. The more invested you are, the harder it is to leave. You end up measuring your worth by your obedience. If you ever feel burned out, you’re told to try harder. There’s no such thing as “too much” — only “not enough commitment.”

Your daily life becomes one long performance for a system that never claps for you back.

Red Flags of High Control

Watch for these warning signs:

  • You feel anxious when you miss a meeting or call
  • You need permission to take a break or go on vacation
  • You’re guilted for not attending every event
  • Your schedule is flooded with group-related activities
  • You’re told to avoid people who don’t “support your goals”
  • You constantly adjust your routine to fit their expectations
  • You no longer do things for fun unless it can be monetized or justified

Freedom doesn’t look like this. Healthy communities respect your autonomy.

How to Take Your Life Back

  • Reclaim your time. Start small. Skip a meeting. Go offline for a day. See how it feels.
  • Set non-negotiable boundaries. Your rest, family time, and hobbies shouldn’t need approval.
  • Track how your schedule changed. Look at how much of your day used to be yours — and how much is now devoted to the group.
  • Talk to someone outside the system. A therapist, a friend, a survivor of high-control groups. Get perspective.
  • Relearn how to make decisions for yourself. You don’t need a guru, upline, or team to tell you how to live.

Final Thoughts

You deserve a life that’s yours — not scheduled for you, scripted for you, or stolen from you in the name of personal growth, God, or passive income.

High-control environments want you to believe that following their routine is freedom. That conformity is success. That exhaustion is commitment.

But here’s the truth:
If every choice you make serves the group before it serves you,
you’re not in control anymore.

And real freedom starts when you take that control back.

Have you experienced high control in a cult, MLM, or high-demand group? Share your story below.

By Beth Gibbons (Queen of Karma)

Beth Gibbons, known publicly as Queen of Karma, is a whistleblower and anti-MLM advocate who shares her personal experiences of being manipulated and financially harmed by multi-level marketing schemes. She writes and speaks candidly about the emotional and psychological toll these so-called “business opportunities” take on vulnerable individuals, especially women. Beth positions herself as a survivor-turned-activist, exposing MLMs as commercial cults and highlighting the cult-like tactics used to recruit, control, and silence members.

She has contributed blogs and participated in video interviews under the name Queen of Karma, often blending personal storytelling with direct confrontation of scammy business models. Her work aligns closely with scam awareness efforts, and she’s part of a growing community of voices pushing back against MLM exploitation, gaslighting, and financial abuse.