Game of Thrones actress details 'psychotic breakdown' after joining wellness cult

Game of Thrones actress Hannah Murray has recalled how she suffered a psychotic breakdown after she joined a wellness cult in 2017.

Murray, 36, was first introduced to an "energy healer" through her personal trainer on the set of Detroit, she told The Guardian.

The actress said this was actually her introduction to the alleged cult.

"It's easy to go, 'Well, that would never happen to me,' but we do ourselves a disservice when we start saying that, because you don't know," Murray told the publication.

"I would've assumed I couldn't, that I was safe. I was well educated, from a middle-class family; everything should have been fine."

She admits she made "terrible choices" but said "it's important to understand why people do these things, rather than going, 'Oh, they must be idiots.' Or, 'How stupid could you be?'"

Murray then detailed the first time she set foot inside the alleged cult, with no idea what she was getting into.

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"My own experience felt highly eroticised, without anything explicitly physical happening," she explained.

"There was just this charge to the energy in the room. I think there often is in these hierarchical spiritual organisations.

"I found it interesting that it was a primarily quite female space – the teachers, the healer – and then this man walks in and he's incredibly confident and magnetic."

She added that "The first thing he says is a joke about sex."

"[It went from] this quite floaty, quite gentle, wishy-washy energy, it was suddenly, like, 'Hey, I'm here,' and, 'Let's f--k.' I think he was doing that deliberately."

The actress explained that she spent thousands on the cult in the pursuit of "wisdom and specialness," before she fell into a psychotic episode.

Murray was admitted to a psychiatric unit and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

After her experience, she admitted she stays far away from anything wellness-related.

"Even the tame stuff can feel quite distressing," she said.

"I don't meditate any more. I wouldn't go into a crystal shop. I don't do yoga, because I don't quite know what might come up that might feel a bit too woo-woo for my personal threshold."

The Game of Thrones alum has retired from acting.

She's turned to writing, penning a memoir of her experience in the alleged cult called "The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness."

Murray is best known for her role as Cassie Ainsworth on Skins and Gilly on Game of Thrones.

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