Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers
Who wins the prize as the most Cult like program?
Troll Control:
--- Quote ---On 2006-06-28 17:33:00, Three Springs Waygookin wrote:
"Holy shit.. Go read this crap MA...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon
Now that is some serious culty shit.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much
liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
--Thomas Jefferson, 1791, in a letter to Archibald Stuart
--- End quote ---
"
--- End quote ---
CEDU = Charles E. Dederich University
How 'bout them culty apples?
tommyfromhyde1:
Another quick synopsis of Synanon's violence:
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/columns/spa ... 26_03.html
A bishop keeps on saying at the age of eighty what he was told to say at the age of eighteen.
--Oscar Wilde
--- End quote ---
try another castle:
--- Quote from: ""Dysfunction Junction"" ---
--- Quote ---
On 2006-06-28 17:33:00, Three Springs Waygookin wrote:
"Holy shit.. Go read this crap MA...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon
Now that is some serious culty shit.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much
liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
--Thomas Jefferson, 1791, in a letter to Archibald Stuart
--- End quote ---
"
--- End quote ---
CEDU = Charles E. Dederich University
How 'bout them culty apples?
--- End quote ---
Are culty apples in season? Oooo. :o
Far be it for me to bump an ancient thread, but I haven't skulked around here for a while.
As an RMA/CEDU alum, I wish I could weigh in on this with more specifics, but unfortunately, I don't have blownawaytheidahoway's remarkable elephantine memory when it comes to the workshops and propheets. (And he was there when I was. I have no idea how he manages to retain all of that information.) All I know is that they were surreal and crazy. The most absurd for me was the towel-biting exercise in the I & Me, and the lifeboat exercise in the Summit. Taking into consideration that CEDU's "theraputic" practices were fueled by not one, but two cults (Synanon, and later Lifespring, for the Summit workshop), I would have to say that it places CEDU pretty high on the list in the mindfuckery department.
I've read a lot about people's experiences from other institutions, such as straight, wwasps, boot camps, and they have shocked me. It made me feel like I was kind of lucky in that I didn't have to do things like piss and shit in front of staff, or get restrained (except for in the I Want To Live propheet) or beaten. We had wilderness expeditions, and ski trips, and presents for Christmas, and we got to see our parents periodically. However, Ginger mentioned to me once that the more she hears about CEDU, the more it freaks her out, and this is coming from someone who was in Straight. It surprised me to hear that from her, and kind of made me realize that I may be too quick to belittle my own past experiences.
But anyway, yeah, RMA was nutty. You definitely came out of there brainwashed. Blownaway and I were there during the "no tolerance" era, with super strict rules and lots of thought police. I was so paranoid and wanted to be so perfect I would cop to just about any negative thought I had, in fear that if I didn't, the staff would find out sooner or later. There were a lot of other kids who were much more resilient than me in this regard, and others who were worse. I witnessed an extremely smart, sweet guy in my peer group practically decompensate in the summit. I mean, he just totally lost it. He was crying and screaming in frustration, during a part of the workshop when that wasn't "on the script", as it were. We were all sitting around going on with the exercise, trying to ignore him, and he was literally having a nervous breakdown, because he had just had it. I remember being horrified. I don't even remember how he managed to pull himself back from the brink and go on with the workshop, but he deserves some sort of mental fortitude award for it, to be sure.
Here's what I wrestle with: There are people from my era who post sometimes in the forums, and they say that CEDU/RMA was the best thing that ever happened to them. I say "Great! Good for you. Glad you aren't fucked up about it." But I don't understand it. I can't contextualize it. How can such a dogmatic environment produce such polarized opinions? I really don't hear anyone from straight or wwasps saying that they loved the place, (but I could be wrong) only CEDU/RMA. I'm not one of those guys who is going to say "fuck you, man, you're still brainwashed." Because I just don't think it's true. I do believe that everyone handles experiences their own way, but when I hear people say "That was a great school, I loved it." I wonder "God damn. Am I just crazy? Did I miss something?" There's always that element of doubt for me.
try another castle:
If he was there in 1990, he got there about a year after I graduated.
I don't really talk about my experiences much, either. I've written about them on the forum, because there is that element of safety through anonymity, but I don't go into a whole lot of detail with friends or loved ones. And I certainly am never going to tell my parents what I went through. I don't think they would ever forgive themselves.
try another castle:
I know, it's like a fucking virus, or the pod people, or something. People get infected, then they go and infect others.
I'm sure there's a video game in there, somewhere.
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