Lena Phoenix

Lena Phoenix (born 1968) is the American author of the award-winning novel The Heart of a Cult. She graduated from the Naropa University Inter-Arts Program in 1998. She is married to Steven Sashen and a resident of Boulder, Colorado.

List of works

 * The Heart of a Cult, (2006 Garuda, Inc. Trade Paperback). Phoenix's first novel was inspired by her personal experiences in the alternative spiritual realm. The book is written in the style of a personal diary.  It chronicles thirty-year-old Michelle Thomson, who during a period of unemployment goes to a spiritual seminar.  The seminar experience leads her into the depths of a cult, from which she must win her freedom.  The cult experience is not all bad, nor all good, for Michelle, with her entrapment she learns and grows.

Set adrift by sudden unemployment, web designer Michelle Thomson is at an impasse in her life when she is introduced to a charismatic spiritual teacher known only as Ma. Though initially skeptical, Michelle is soon captivated by Ma’s energy and insight and begins to find new meaning both in Ma’s teachings and as a member of her insular community. While at first she blossoms under Ma’s guidance, when Michelle uncovers deception at the heart of all she has come to believe in, she is forced to face the ultimate test any spiritual teacher can give.

The Heart of a Cult won Independent Publisher's 2007 Visionary Fiction Silver Medal.

Critical Reaction

 * Review - The Daily Camera.
 * Review - Cultic Studies Review.
 * Review - Midwest Book Review.
 * Review - Enfuse Magazine.
 * Review - Chicago Center for Literature and Photography.