All language subtitles for Eye Investigations - Disciples The Cult of TB Joshua Episode 1 1080p HEVC BigJ0554

Greetings from the Synagogue.

Nobody would knowingly join a cult.

It will just take you.

And when it's grabbed a hold of you,

it infiltrates your mind.

My name is Rachel
and I'm from the UK,

and we are all here
as evangelists in training

under our Father in the Lord,

Senior Prophet TB Joshua.

Urgh.

Nightmare.

What the man of God told us,

that Satan is the author of killing,
of stealing and of destruction.

I'm looking at myself,
and I don't even recognise myself.

I can't watch stuff.

I just find it, like,
very disturbing.

I just went down this rabbit hole
of, like,

one horror to another horror.

He wanted to be the biggest,
the best,

the most important pastor
in the world.

A man who has got
a list of presidents

in his pocket.

This is the first time that
the truth is being heard...

..from the heart
of this organisation.

Some people,

they are still living in fear
for their lives,

in fear for the retribution
that will come

if they do open their mouths.

I had no idea he was
a serial predator.

TB Joshua was perpetrating crimes
on a global scale

for 30-plus years.

I think everybody that came from
that place has guilt.

He took people
who were good, caring, kind,

lovely people

and he turned them into monsters.

SCREAMING

And I shall walk through,

just to see what's happening
through here.

That's a door.

These two telly addicts.

What? They've been watching telly
all morning.

No, we haven't! Yeah, you've got
square eyes, Rachel Holmes!

HE BABBLES

I grew up in a pretty happy family.

I was lucky.

My dad was a chartered accountant.

He worked in London.
We lived rurally.

I would say I was quite privileged
in that respect.

LAUGHTER

If you told me that
this would be my life story,

I would've said,
"Yeah, get out of here. No way."

You know, I'm bright, I'm sharp.

But it happened to me and to many
of my friends across the world.

I grew up generally in the Midlands,
in the middle of the UK.

I was from a working class family.

My dad was a bus driver.

My mum used to work at McDonald's.

Both my parents
were devout Christians.

Charismatic evangelical.

My whole upbringing
was in the community

of whatever church
we were a part of.

Around the age of ten,

my mum was very sick.

She passed away of breast cancer.

So it was just me and my dad.

Seeing my mum go through that pain,

I had a deep-rooted fear inside me,

watching my mum die of that disease.

With the charismatic Christian
movement,

there is such desperation.

We believe in miracles.
We believe in healing.

But then I'd ask myself,

where are all these healings?

You know, where are these miracles?

# Once again, I thank you

# Once again, I pour out my life. #

I went to an evangelical church.

I used to take life
super seriously.

I wasn't just following my parents
to church.

I decided at that stage
that I wanted to live for God.

I had a lot of things going on
for me privately

that I didn't feel
I could speak about.

When I was 12, I realised I was gay,
and it was like,

"Oh, my God, that can't be me."

But this deep knowing that it was.

And I just pushed it down -
so far.

I was just terrified.

Like, I can't have God if I'm gay,

and I can't be gay
because it's wrong.

I think that's what made me start
searching for a solution to that.

So the day that started it all

was the day
that I was shown videos

from the Synagogue Church
of All Nations.

Nothing was ever the same again.

We didn't quite know
what we were going to see.

Greetings from the Synagogue.

As soon as it started playing,

it had a really profound effect
on me.

Look at the screen
of your television right now.

It was an African church,
and I was like,

"What am I seeing?
What am I watching?"

SHOUTING

They were quite graphic.

There was no warning.

It was private body parts

that were swollen

and kind of oozing with pus.

These people with cancers
and growths

just being vulnerable and desperate.

It was shocking to see.

The church had documented
basically very raw,

very, like, rough-cut
productions of...

..miracles.

Help my brother! Help my brother,
man of God!

The people I saw in the videos,
they were real.

Their ailments, their sicknesses,
their suffering

was evidentially real.

And then there were these incredible
documented healings.

Go on! Go on!

Oh!

I saw a lady with breast cancer.

And then, a few days later,
the wound had healed.

And everyone is just in awe.

I was like, "What?

"How is...? How is that possible?

"How is that happening?"

Here was somewhere where breast
cancer wasn't a death sentence.

Here was hope.

And then, slowly,

I saw the man who was praying
for all these people.

This African man comes and reaches
his arm out from a distance,

and then they were being healed.

This is, like...

This is what Jesus would've done.

Who is this man?

What church is this?

W-Where is this place?

What I saw wasn't something
that you could forget.

It just never left my mind.

I thought, "Well, maybe this is
the answer to my problems.

"Maybe this man
can straighten me out."

Like, "If he prays to me,
I won't be gay any more,

"and then I can just give
my life to God."

And that started my pursuit
to Nigeria.

I booked a flight
with a friend of mine.

I was so excited.

It was like I was going to go
into a time machine

and travel back to biblical times
and I was going to meet Jesus.

I didn't get off a bus one day
and decide to go to Lagos.

I was already seeking something
greater than what I'd seen.

APPLAUSE

AUDIENCE: Hallelujah!

AGOMOH:

LAUGHTER

PRESENTER:

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

APPLAUSE

SCREAMING

Oh, my head!

BISOLA:

PRESENTER:

AGOMOH:

TB JOSHUA:

Huh?

BISOLA:

TB JOSHUA:

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

Boom!

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

AGOMOH:

AGOMOH:

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

AGOMOH:

AGOMOH:

PRESENTER:

AGOMOH:

BISOLA:

Say Emmanuel!
Emmanuel!

When I first got to Lagos Airport,

we told them that we were going

to the Synagogue Church
of All Nations.

"Oh, go through, go through."

It was like a free pass,
entry to anything.

It was just like, "Oh, go through.
Go through. Of course.

"Oh, yeah. You're here...
Yes, off you go."

Right from the moment that I landed,
I just got super emotional.

I'd made a pact with God.

I want to know the God
of the Gospels.

I want to see those miracles.

And if I can't see them
and they're not real,

I'm out of here.

I'd never seen
a local African town before,

and it was hustle and bustle
and street sellers and food,

and it was very colourful.

I was just taking everything in.

So you kind of went down a driveway
in these vehicles

that had other foreign visitors in.

There were tour groups going up
from South Africa

in quite large numbers.

I'm Angelique
and I'm from South Africa.

# This jolly man, he comes again. #

Even before I went, I had
these VHS tapes that I'd watched,

and I'd seen
the most incredible things.

And I was so beyond excited
to see this in real life.

BISOLA:

Nigerian disciples
with these beautiful smiles

welcome you.

There's just people smiling.

Everyone looks so happy.

I was, like, surrounded
by all these amazing African people

who were so friendly and loving,

kind of treating me like
I was so super special.

Like it was like an honour
to have me.

I recognised it immediately
from the videos,

and I remember turning
and I looked...

..I looked
into the church auditorium.

And it was a sea of wooden pews.

It was a corrugated iron roof
with hundreds and hundreds

of wooden posts,

which all had televisions attached
to them.

I've never seen so many TVs
in my life,

like, rigged up.

And the very next day you're shown
video after video after video,

miracle after miracle after miracle.

Pause for food.

Miracle after miracle after miracle.

I remember sitting there for hours.

It was this, like, insane euphoria.

I was stepping into those videos.

You know, the miracles, the praying,
the crowds, the excitement,

the Holy Spirit atmosphere.

And by about the third day,

we saw live testimonies.

We look at those negative
HIV medical reports.

There was medical evidence.

You were up close and personal,

observing what was going on.

Quite a few doctors just said,

"Look, in our medical profession,
we can't explain this."

APPLAUSE

There were queues and queues
and queues of people.

Like, hundreds and hundreds
of people queuing up

with, like, various ailments.

People are crying, people are
begging for healing.

There was absolute desperation,

as if the church was the last
and only point of call,

the only place
where they could receive help.

It becomes not just
their desperation

for this to be true,

but you are also desperate
for this to be true for them.

There was electricity in the air.

There was, like, 20 people behind
the cameraman

catching someone that's falling.

They're standing up, shouting,
"I'm healed, I'm healed!"

You don't have time
to process anything.

You have this figurehead

who almost floats through the crowds
with the people behind him

and people in front of him,

and you're just swept along.

I can see!

I had a really involuntary
reaction,

and I just broke down
in floods of tears.

I didn't cry from,
like, a high place.

I cried from, like, a deep place.

Like, deep in my stomach.

I stood there and then he came,

and I found myself being hurled
backwards

into the dirt

in front of everybody.

Like a big kind of thump.

Like boof to the ground.

Then you're up again,

and, boof, you're down again.

Jesus!

This is what I've been looking for.

This is what we've been praying for.

I felt I'd seen the reality

of this God
I had been desperately seeking.

# On the way to salvation

# Wait for me

# Jesus, wait for me. #

AGOMOH:

We count ourselves so lucky
to have found this little place

of miracles, of wonder
in the middle of nowhere.

AGOMOH:

I just remember sitting there,
thinking to myself,

"This is incredible.

"I feel like I'm sitting
in the garden of Gethsemane

"under the olive trees with Jesus."

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

I was 17 years old.

I got my A-level results
while I was in Nigeria,

but I couldn't care less about them.

I wanted to be like Jesus.

I wanted to be like TB Joshua.

I wish I could have
that connection with God.

I wanted to be like him.

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

BISOLA:

Bisola recruited me.

My bags were pulled out
of the truck.

My friend was put on the plane.

My parents collected her
at Heathrow.

She was basically crying, like,
"Rae's not coming back.

"She's, like, stayed there."

Nigerian sister came to me and said,
"TB Joshua wants to meet you."

There was an urgency there.

"No, no, no, no.
You have to come now.

"You have to come now."

And when I entered, the Nigerian
sister kind of ushered me

to kneel down.

"Kneel down."

And immediately, TB Joshua said...

"God's told me you're going to stay.

"You're meant to be here.

"You're going to stay with me
forever."

We were living on site,
in the church.

When you live at the compound,
you don't leave the compound.

There's armed men at the gate
with guns.

There's a wall.
There's barbed fencing.

The windows are blacked out.

The stairs were concrete.

The walls were concrete.

It felt like a labyrinth.

You're told never to leave.

You could get killed.

You could get attacked.

The outside of the compound
is terrifying.

The disciples were a group
of about 100 at a time.

From Nigeria, from the UK,
from America.

And usually quite young people.

When I had this opportunity,
I was like,

"This is what I've been looking for.

"This is a prophet
who has been called by God.

"God speaks to him directly.

"He'll be able to guide me

"in how I can live my life."

There was a male dormitory
and a female dormitory.

There was a culture of, like,
nakedness in the room.

It was good to be body positive
and not have my clothes on.

Just being completely naked
in the female dorm room.

My mind instantly went
to Adam and Eve.

I immediately thought, "Yeah,
there's nothing wrong with that."

I got taken by two women

and they stripped me naked

and they pushed me in a shower
and turned the water on.

And I remember saying something
along the lines of,

"I can do it." And they were like,
"No, we're sisters now.

"We're here to do this for you."

I didn't really know
anyone's last name, really,

their age.

I was Sister Cara.

I was Sister Anneka.

That was immediately encouraged,

to see each other as family.

AGOMOH:

You couldn't contact anyone outside.

I didn't have my own cellphone.

We didn't really have access
to our own personal email.

We didn't have our passports.

They held them for us.

AGOMOH:

Jesus used to say to his disciples,

"Leave your father and mother
and join me."

That's what we had all done.

We had left our families.

When I first arrived,

it was only a couple of days
that I started hearing

disciples calling him Daddy.

We all called him Daddy.

Everybody called him Daddy.

He tried to, like, look after us.

And, you know,
we would all call him Daddy.

I thought it was a bit odd,
but I brushed it aside.

You know, I dismissed it.

I can't really look back
and say that my childhood

was really happy.

And he seemed to be really caring
towards me

and different.

Like, a really warm
and friendly guy.

He had, like, this office
which had a cupboard in it.

It had a whole bunch of, like,
imported sweets.

And he kind of used these as, like,
little treats for people.

Almost like we were kids.

He'd always sit on a swivel chair,

and sometimes he'd push off the wall
and go, "Wee!"

And everyone would go,
"Oh, he's so silly."

We'd revel in that.

"Oh, silly Daddy!"

It's like you're in this kind of
perpetual childhood state

because he also treats you
like a child.

And he calls you a child.

There was this kind of, like,
regression that took place.

You'd just, like, giggle like a kid
and stuff.

It was so strange.

I was 17, but I felt like
a 12-year-old.

Like I was very young in terms
of understanding of the world.

I remember just feeling
like I feel at home.

Like, I felt these kind
of warm sensations.

AGOMOH:

Emmanuel. Greetings from
the Synagogue.

Experience a new level in life.

My name is Rachel
and I'm from the UK,

and we are all here

living in the Synagogue Church
of All Nations

as evangelists in training
under our Father in the Lord,

Senior Prophet TB Joshua.

He was really keen to use us
on the videos,

to endorse him
and to get the endorsement

of the Western world.

And you are joining us here at
the Synagogue Church of All Nation

after a wonderful Sunday service...

I felt like we all had this truth.

We felt that the world needed
TB Joshua.

Can you tell us,
what is your opinion

of the Man of God,
Prophet TB Joseph?

BISOLA:

AGOMOH:

What can you tell us about
your experience here?

My experience has been awesome.

At the beginning,
we all look really bad.

And, like, malnourished.

Visitors had started asking
questions.

So then it was like, "Well, you guys
have to dress really well."

We had to do all our make-up.

We had to look good.

We know that you've just had
the wonderful privilege

to join us here at the Synagogue
Church of All Nations

on our Sunday service.

AGOMOH:

Being a disciple,

you lived under a really strict set

of rules.

If he came into any room
and you didn't stand up,

that would be considered an offence.

We weren't allowed to read anything.

We weren't allowed to watch movies.

You know, he would say
what you should wear,

what you shouldn't.

BISOLA:

TB JOSHUA:

AUDIENCE: I promise to submit
myself...

..to all that you desire of me.

One of my jobs was writing
articles for the church.

He called me in and he said,
"Where's the article?

"Have you not published it yet?"

And I said, "Sorry, sir,
I've not published it yet."

And then he just slapped me.

TB Joshua had a massive temper.

You'd see people coming
and they would be like,

"Ooh, he's hot, hey?
He's hot. Daddy's hot."

And you would literally see
everybody just scatter.

If you didn't run,

you'd get an almighty big slap
around the face.

And I witnessed that regularly.

You didn't see it as physical abuse.

We were told, "It's an honour
to get slapped by me

"because I'm next to Jesus."

AGOMOH:

Our bathroom stalls had just, like,
curtains on them.

And if anyone thought
you were doing anything,

they could just,
you know, flip the curtain.

AGOMOH:

CHANTING

Be healed! Heal me!

Be healed! Be healed!

I saw myself as a servant,

as a vessel of utter surrender
to God.

I can't describe how tired you were.

Constantly exhausted.

Absolutely exhausted.

Because you've had two hours' sleep,

and you never have
more than four hours' sleep.

Ever.

It is nonstop.

It's not uncommon
to wake up at four,

very early in the morning,

to prepare those
that are coming for healing.

We were basically working
almost 24 hours.

Disciples weren't paid.

You didn't have any free time.

Sitting around too much,
reading too much,

sleeping too much
was seen as a no-no.

Sleep was seen as, like,
basically the greatest enemy

to the work of God.

He used to tell us things like,
"You have to pray against it.

"You have to battle it."

AGOMOH:

There were these pads
of white, small, like,

notepaper called disciple paper.

And that's what he used
to give permission for things.

You'd have to go to the office,
say, "Sir, I'm sorry.

"I really need to have
a quick sleep."

And he'd sign a pass for you.

Because if you didn't have a pass,

you'd get reported for sleeping.

BISOLA:

There would be times that I'd be
falling asleep like this,

and he would say, "Stand up."

And you'd literally
have to stand up.

And then, at times,
I would fall asleep while standing.

We weren't allowed to wear watches,
so our time was controlled.

We had to go by God's time,

so I didn't know
what day, month, year it was.

The time goes by so quickly
because every day is so similar

to the last.

You wake up and it's like,
"Oh, it's two years later," or

it was three years later.

Before you know it, your brain
doesn't think like it used to think.

CHILDREN SING

He would just speak for hours.

One of my main jobs was writing down
everything he said.

This is almost like the Bible.

It's the words
that God has spoken to TB Joshua.

You are constantly thinking
of the quotes of TB Joshua,

you were encouraged to memorise
them, to chant them.

You are to embody those words,

be the words, live the words.

Whatever he said
HAD to come from God

and therefore had to be true.

Lack of sleep.

Cut off from your family.

Living communally.

Not allowed to marry.
Not allowed to date.

One high-controlling leader
who controls everything.

To be brainwashed,

it doesn't feel like brainwashing.

It's like your brain
has been completely rewired.

It's like you've took a drug,
almost.

My mind was like a...

..like it'd been shaken.

There was no cognitive clarity
at all.

It was like all churned up,
nothing made sense.

Reality was just skewed completely.

Down he goes again.

Even when something was clearly...

..off,

we couldn't see it.

Because you also don't sleep much,

you don't really have, like,

the cognitive ability to even begin
to question things.

SCREAMING

Huh?

Fasting and lack of sleep took place
before disciples' deliverances,

psychologically destroying us
to the point that I will do

whatever you say.

You become almost like a zombie.

My mind wasn't there.

I just wasn't there. I was...

It was like I was living,
but I just...

..my head was just somewhere else.

He could just manipulate you.

He would make you do
whatever he wanted you to do.

People who know how to manipulate
the mind of another person...

It's dangerous, it is so dangerous.

Hello. My name is Angelique,
and I come from South Africa.

My name is Rachel,
and I'm from the UK.

Hi. My name is Anneka,
and I am from Great Britain.

Hi. My name is Cara
and I'm an American.

To know Jesus Christ
is to know his power.

Therefore, whatever you speak to
in his name,

he will see to it that it is done.

This goes to show that all your
complaints are the fruit of sin.

You need to keep yourself safe
from sin.

You need to divorce
from unrighteousness

and need to embrace righteousness.

If you're born again, then...

..then Satan has to listen.

Now, that implies
that your problems...

ANGELIQUE, VOICEOVER: You can see
that these people are trapped

in another world,

just completely detached

from what we consider

the real world.

ANGELIQUE, ON VIDEO:
All of your crises and concerns

will be kicked out.

When I came here, I realised
that time is nothing at all.

It's not how long you live, but how
you live your life that counts.

So, to me, time -
God doesn't look at me.

ANNEKA, VOICEOVER: I don't recognise
myself at all.

I don't talk like a normal person.

It's like....

It's like I'm watching someone else.

You are no longer yourself
when you're there.

I was no longer Anneka.

I was a disciple of
Prophet TB Joshua.

Some visitors who came more than
once, who observed disciples,

did say, "Sometimes you guys
behave like a cult."

And I didn't know what a cult was.

I didn't think I was in a cult.
No-one joins a cult.

I'd never have joined a cult,
and I'm mad.

I didn't know I was doing a cult,
I thought I was joining a church.

All of us were just so innocent
in how we went into this thing.

And when I look at, like,
what he turned us into,

I wish it had never happened.
I wish I'd never gone there,

I wish I'd never...those things
had never happened,

and not just to me, to everybody.

To move forward,

um, to discover new oceans,
after leaving the shore behind.

I want to jump into the TV screen
and say, "You're in danger!

"You're in danger
and you don't know it."

I lost my sense of reality.

I became TB Joshua's puppet.

He pulled all the strings,
and I just danced to his tune.

He was the architect.

He was the god
at the centre of the whole thing.

Everybody worked to build
this massive structure.

TB Joshua was trying to create
his own empire.

Behind the scenes,
you've got a workforce with no pay.

We were a machine around him.

He wouldn't have been able to do it
without all the disciples.

But we did the actual work,
you know?

AGOMOH:

HE SPEAKS LOCAL LANGUAGE

BISOLA:

I was a disciple of TB Joshua
for ten years,

from 2001 to 2010.

I stayed in that place till 2013.

So what's that, 12, 13 years
that I was there? Yeah, in Lagos.

I was 16 or maybe even 15
when I first visited,

and then I stayed for 14 years.

It was a psychological prison.

We all thought we were in heaven,
but we were in hell,

and in hell, terrible things happen.

HE SHOUTS

You thought you were

in the safest place in the world,

and you were in the most dangerous.

CHEERING

SCREAMING

Each time, they would say,
"Daddy's calling you."

The bottom line is
you'd have to go there.

I thought I would take
what he did to me to the grave.

SCREAMING: