The Tension Experience Review

Our Tension Experience Review actually began a few days before we even experienced the event. We received an email from the father of Addison Barrow. He says that Tension isn’t an immersive theater, that is actually a cult. It is a cult that has taken his daughter Addison.

A day later we received more emails stating that the father has gone missing. Then we received over 80 pages of Addison’s diary. Someone had painstakingly photographed each page. A lot of the pages are torn out and some are just scribbles.

The diary is about Addison coming to Los Angeles to become a famous actress. We learn about her struggles and how she eventually gets caught up in the OOA cult. That is all we are told before we show up at a sketchy parking lot in Boyle Heights.

We hung around waiting for others to arrive, making sure to leave all our valuables in the car. We also had worn our grandma underpants since the email said we would be getting undressed (they send an email out before hand that has all the rules).

As we waited a black Van screeched up in the alley beside us. We were herded into the Van and black hoods placed on our heads. One at a time we were pulled out of the Van. We had arrived at the OOA and it was time to join a cult.

The actual signing up for the cult was peaceful. Older cult members took our photos and we filled out an information sheet. We moved into a comfortable old room where we had punch and pretzels. This is the time to explore and look through the books around.

People began disappearing from our group and soon we moved further into the building. They had us strip out of our clothing and put on white semi-transparent jumpsuits (so get ready to strip to your underwear in front of people because there is no privacy!).

Then we moved into a fully white room for placement. They asked each participant different bizarre, personal questions. We continued moving from room to room like this. Moving deeper and deeper into the cult. It was difficult to know how much time we had spent in each room. Sometimes we were alone, and at other times we were with the entire group.

Finally, we learned that the OOA cult worships the god Anoch. To become one with him, a person must lose all their senses. They blindfolded us to take away sight. They forced us to drink vinegar to take away our taste. We had to inhale smelling salts to take away our smell. Our hands were dunked in hot wax to take away feeling. Finally, headphones were put in our ears to take away hearing.

It was a very surreal experience to have your senses taken away. Time became arbitrary and you have to completely let go. We were pushed blindly through some large space. Then the headphones and eye covering was removed. We were ready for the final initiation.

We watched as 2 members of our group were dragged onto the stage. The cult members strapped them down to chairs. Then in front of us, they started cutting out the eyes, ears, and tongue of one of the people from our group.

We panicked and rose to our feet, wondering what was happening. Had this all been real? There was chaos in the room and one of the security guards pulled a gun on us. We fled the room, leaving the two members of our group on the stage.

It was a very intense experience, one not easily forgotten. We found out that the girl who was killed had actually been an actress for the Tension experience. Our group never suspected and thing, and it really helped the experience.