Posted by Greg B (207.36.160.31) on October 26, 2000 at 09:22:17:
I stumbled upon your message board yesterday while looking up something on the net concerning my family that linked me to anon anony and then onto your board from there. Memories flooded back to me, all extremely negative. I was never in the straight, but was in my own hell hole called the Seed in 1994 in St Petersburg, Fl. I was 14, estranged from my father and living with my mother in Ft Lauderdale. My father, under the pretense of reconciliation, picked me and my sister up from my mothers and drove me right to the Seed in St Pete, where I was strip searched and mocked for 10 hours straight. My father was remmaried and his new children were older and already in the program for several days. I was then subjected to adult type behavior modification which included inprisonment, food deprevation, sleep deprivation, group cult behavior, bathroom priviledges, etc. The list is long and perhaps the most cruel and hearless thing that could be done to a young child. The experience made me the ridicule of all my st pete friends, and our high school, Lakewood, became a big spy center where your every action was reported back to the seed. I felt all alone, I could not trust anyone, no one outside the program trusted me, and my life basically sucked. I left st pete at 16, cut all ties with my father and his crazy wife and family, and tried to put the whole thing behind me. Funny, the experience never left and has made me a child advocate of sorts. The Seed experience was one of a series of negative events in my early life which has impacted my ability to trust people to this very day. My father and his wife went on the become one the founders of Straight and show up as original incorporators. If anyone wonders who I am, look up the original incorporators of The Straight(I found it surfing yesterday) and You will see my father and his wife's name, Arthur and Lila. One day in Ft Lauderdale in 1978 I was hanging out by a pool at my friends apartment and I noticed the pool was filled with stepford like young women and one older man. It then hit me, the older man was Art barker and the girls were staff members. I walked over and began giving him a major piece of my mind, calling him a criminal, pervert, whatever. He grabbed my arm and warned me to stop and I told him to remove his hand from my arm or I would beat the hell out of him and then have him arrested. He backed down and the cult procession left the pool area. My heart pounded for about an hour afterwards. After this, outside of family arguments, I never really discussed my seed experience, even with my ex wife. I almost feel like I was in a POW camp and I am too ashamed to talk about it. Weird for a 41 year old man. Anone whom knows my sister Frieda, she is still around doing well, very religious. My father is alive 73 years old and not doing all that well. Lila is still Lila. A strange aspect of the whole experience is the level that my father and his wife became cult members without ever going thru behavior mod. The spoke the silly language and slang, said the "I love you" thing to people and generally acted inaapropriate in public, making asses of themselves for years. This is all I have now but if anyone is out there whom has questions or comments, E mail me. Remember, the seed still sucks.