It’s easy to look at the modern wellness industry with rose-colored glasses, but Game of Thrones alum Hannah Murray is pulling back the curtain on its very dark side. In a deeply personal new memoir, the 36-year-old actress is opening up about her harrowing Hannah Murray wellness cult experience, revealing how a seemingly innocent foray into self-healing spiraled into a devastating psychotic episode. If you’ve ever been tempted by the promises of “energy healers” and “spiritual awakenings,” Murray’s raw honesty is a stark reminder of how easily things can go terribly wrong.
How a Simple Healing Session Turned Into a Cult Nightmare
Murray, best known for playing Gilly on the HBO hit series Game of Thrones, detailed her terrifying journey in her new memoir, The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness. The nightmare began back in 2017 while she was filming the intense historical drama Detroit. Feeling deeply shaken by the movie’s heavy and violent themes, Murray crossed paths with an energy healer on set whom she refers to as “Grace.”
What started as a standard $150 healing session quickly morphed into a costly spiral. Grace promised to unlock Murray’s “spiritual DNA” using “powerful and ancient tools.” Because Grace came recommended by a trusted colleague on set, Murray didn’t think to question her legitimacy. Slowly but surely, the actress was funneled into a series of expensive classes, all designed to exploit its members financially.
“The pyramid was structured to exploit everyone who tried to climb it,” Murray wrote in her memoir. At the very top of that pyramid was a magnetic, deeply manipulative leader she calls “Steve.”
The Major Red Flags of a “Spiritual” Organization
As Murray became further entrenched in the group, the red flags became impossible to ignore. She noted a highly eroticized charge to the energy in the room, despite nothing explicitly physical occurring. When she nervously asked another female teacher if the organization was actually a sex cult, her concerns were brushed off and gaslit. She was simply told that Steve was “really good at breaking down your ego.”
The Psychotic Episode That Led to a 28-Day Hospitalization
The breaking point of the entire Hannah Murray wellness cult experience happened during an intensive five-day course in London. Under the immense pressure of the group’s psychological manipulation, Murray’s behavior became wildly erratic. She began speaking “a million miles a second,” suffered from severe hallucinations, and developed a delusion that the cult’s leader, Steve, was deeply in love with her and planning to marry her.
At her absolute lowest point, a terrified Murray locked herself inside a bathroom in extreme distress. In a deeply disturbing display, the organization’s “teachers” stood on the other side of the door and chanted, “Be gone, evil spirit in Hannah.”
When actual medical help finally arrived, the actress had to be pinned to the floor and rushed to a hospital. Under the Mental Health Act, she was held in an acute psychiatric unit for 28 days.
Finding Clarity and a Life-Changing Diagnosis
While her time in the mental health unit was undeniably traumatic, it ultimately led to a breakthrough. Following her hospitalization, Murray was officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Rather than feeling defeated, she says the diagnosis brought her a massive, unexpected sense of clarity. Suddenly, everything made sense.
Today, she is choosing to speak out to shatter the intense stigma surrounding serious mental health struggles. While the internet loves to talk about anxiety and depression, the reality of psychotic breaks and psychiatric holds is often swept under the rug.
“It felt really important to say, ‘I went through this,’” Murray told The Guardian. “Lots of people go through this. That doesn’t mean they are bad or f—ed up forever.”
By bravely sharing her Hannah Murray wellness cult experience, the actress is reminding us all that we need to apply far more critical thinking to the unregulated wellness industry. Vulnerability is a beautiful thing, but it’s exactly what bad actors prey upon. Murray’s transparency is exactly the kind of conversation we need to be having right now.
