Editor’s note: The following article refers to spiritual concepts. Please read Lovefraud’s statement on Spiritual Recovery.
Love Fraud: How marriage to a sociopath fulfilled my spiritual plan, is a long, expansive story, and there’s a reason for its complexity. The reason is in the book’s subtitle.
Love Fraud tells the story of my marriage to a sociopathic con artist. It’s a juicy, outrageous tale, full jaw-dropping lies and manipulation. The book focuses a harsh light on the despicable behavior of my ex-husband, James Montgomery. My goal is to give people an up close and personal look at what it’s really like to be targeted by a sociopath. But that isn’t my only goal.
I believe the importance of my book is not explaining what happened to me, but why it happened. What is the reason for this experience? I discovered, much to my surprise, that I had a huge karmic issue to work out with James Montgomery, and I came into this life to do it.
Now, this is not a particularly easy message to convey. I can’t just add a chapter to the end of what is essentially a true crime book saying, “By the way, my soul planned this entire debacle.” I need to lay the groundwork, bringing the reader along as I encountered concepts such as manifestation—the idea that we create what happens to us.
Apparently, as I do this, some readers feel that I am going off on tangents.
For example, I include a description of my first psychic reading, which took place years before I met the con artist. I include incidents that happened with my pets after the con artist was gone. I write about past lives that I glimpsed, and when I do, I include historical context.
All of this material develops my larger theme, which is that we are all part of the continuum of life, evolving towards union with God.
Now, this point is not conveyed directly until the book’s epilogue. Love Fraud reads like a novel, but I think of it as a long parable—the message is in the story. Every detail serves a purpose, either bringing sociopathic behavior to life, or explaining the interconnectedness of human life and the spiritual journey.
Some readers, I’m sure, expect only a true crime book. Others, of course, may have no interest in the metaphysical aspects of the story. But it all happened to me. Love Fraud tells exactly what I experienced. Personally, I find it comforting to know there was a reason why I went through such an upheaval. It’s better than thinking I was just a random victim.
The physical world of experience and the spiritual world of consciousness are thoroughly intertwined. This is the point that I wanted Love Fraud to make.