Hannah Murray, best known for her role in ‘Game of Thrones‘, has opened up about one of the most difficult periods of her life, revealing that she became involved in an exploitative wellness cult that ultimately triggered a psychotic episode severe enough to land her in a mental health unit for 28 days. The actress, 36, has detailed the experience in her new memoir ‘The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness’.In a recent interview with The Guardian, Murray spoke candidly about the experience and reflected on the lack of critical thinking surrounding wellness culture. “There’s not enough critical thought about wellness,” she said. “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.”
How Hannah Murray became involved in the wellness cult
Murray explained that her involvement began when she met an energy healer she refers to as Grace on the set of the 2017 film ‘Detroit’. The violent and dark subject matter of the film had left her shaken, and she found herself quick to open up to Grace. What began as a $150 healing session soon evolved into promises of activating her “spiritual DNA” using what Grace described as “powerful and ancient tools.”Since Murray had been introduced to Grace by someone on set, she did not think to question her legitimacy. She was gradually led to a series of classes that promised answers to her journey of self-healing, though they consistently came with a financial cost.“The pyramid was structured to exploit everyone who tried to climb it,” she wrote in her memoir. “Except for one person, one man, who sat at the very top.” Murray refers to this man as Steve, describing him as magnetic and powerful in a way she had never encountered before. “He exuded power in a way I had never known anyone to exude it. Magical power,” she recalled. “I knew I was in the presence of a magician.”
Signs of exploitation and a growing unease
As she became more deeply involved, Murray said she began to notice signs of sexual exploitation within the organisation. “My own experience felt highly eroticized, without anything explicitly physical happening,” she told the outlet. “There was just this charge to the energy in the room.”When she raised concerns that the organisation might be a sex cult with one of the female teachers, she was told that Steve was simply “really good at breaking down your ego.”
The psychotic episode that led to her hospitalisation
It was during a five-day course held in London that Murray’s behaviour became severely erratic. She began speaking at what she described as “a million miles a second,” experienced hallucinations, and developed delusions that Steve loved her and intended to marry her.At her lowest point, Murray recalled locking herself in a bathroom in extreme distress, while teachers on the other side of the door chanted, “Be gone, evil spirit in Hannah.” When help was finally called, she was pinned to the floor and rushed to the hospital, where she was held for 28 days under the Mental Health Act.
Hannah Murray’s diagnosis and why she chose to speak out
Following her hospitalisation, Murray was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She said the diagnosis brought an unexpected sense of clarity. “Everything made so much more sense,” she recalled.She has since spoken out about the stigma surrounding serious mental health experiences, noting that public conversations tend to focus only on anxiety and depression while leaving out those who have been sectioned. “It felt really important to say, ‘I went through this.’ Lots of people go through this. That doesn’t mean they are bad or f—ed up forever,” she said.Murray’s memoir ‘The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness’ is currently available.
