Author Topic: Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage  (Read 10991 times)

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Offline Anonymous

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« on: December 01, 2007, 08:28:40 PM »
At 18 you supposedly have all these rights. However, the torture cults and the "parents" who put you in them use all sorts of tactics to prevent you from excerizing these rights. They extend custody, they seize control of inheritances and other monies that legally belong to you, they use trickery to continue controlling and exploiting you.

Did you encounter any such trickery and manipulations that were abetted by brain/emotional damage that comes with having your brain restructured through brain washing?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2007, 08:30:55 PM »
Kids don't deserve no goddamn rights, cuz they ain't no better than a bunch of fuckin NIGGERS! If mine ever try to "assert their rights" I'm gonna drag 'em out t' the woodshed and tear up their uppity little asses!
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Offline Anonymous

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2007, 09:23:19 PM »
Do you know of anyone who was manipulated into staying post-program?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline TheWho

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #3 on: December 01, 2007, 09:33:56 PM »
You don’t need anything at age 18… get yourself a student loan… a room in the basement of some older couple who will be nice to you as long as you like their dog….. study your butt off for 4 years or 6 years at college…or get a entry level job and work your way up for a few years and then strike out on your own with an apartment, car etc.
Screw the inheritance and extended custody crap… once you are of legal age you are in control of your own life and life is good when you are at the helm!!



...
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2007, 09:58:35 PM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
At 18 you supposedly have all these rights. However, the torture cults and the "parents" who put you in them use all sorts of tactics to prevent you from excerizing these rights. They extend custody, they seize control of inheritances and other monies that legally belong to you, they use trickery to continue controlling and exploiting you.

Did you encounter any such trickery and manipulations that were abetted by brain/emotional damage that comes with having your brain restructured through brain washing?


At this point, why not walk away from the "inheritance and any money that may legally belongs to you?"  There are other ways to go to college, or to live on your own; or you could join the military. Why accept being controlled and exploited?
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Offline Deprogrammed

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Manipulated
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2007, 10:46:17 PM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
Do you know of anyone who was manipulated into staying post-program?

I was manipulated into signing myself into the program , post program when I turned 18 years of age.
-DP
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Manipulated
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2007, 11:51:06 PM »
Quote from: ""Deprogrammed""
Quote from: ""Guest""
Do you know of anyone who was manipulated into staying post-program?
I was manipulated into signing myself into the program , post program when I turned 18 years of age.
-DP


how did that happen? What tricks?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Re: Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2007, 12:08:05 AM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
Quote from: ""Guest""
At 18 you supposedly have all these rights. However, the torture cults and the "parents" who put you in them use all sorts of tactics to prevent you from excerizing these rights. They extend custody, they seize control of inheritances and other monies that legally belong to you, they use trickery to continue controlling and exploiting you.

Did you encounter any such trickery and manipulations that were abetted by brain/emotional damage that comes with having your brain restructured through brain washing?

At this point, why not walk away from the "inheritance and any money that may legally belongs to you?"  There are other ways to go to college, or to live on your own; or you could join the military. Why accept being controlled and exploited?


I'm saying, dipshit, that unethical manipulation tactics are used to control youth: stealing, lying, abandoning. This is evil regardless of possible conduits for escape available to youth. These manipulation tactics are used on top of previously imposed mental damage, and are  effective control devices for program kids in a way they are not for a normal 18 year old, who has experience outside of an institution. In iredland there was a religious organization- the magdalen sisters- where young girls were imprisoned by their parents. Even though they could legally go at 18 100s of thousands(alot anyway) wound up living their entire lives as slaves. They became "institutionalized", brain damaged, brainwashed etc.
Keeping them prisoner was further enabled by a series of manipulations and fear tactics, similar tactics applied to the vulnerable damaged youth of programs

(And joining the military is a horrific suggestion for escaping an abusive atmosphere.) Also, keeping monies away from youth ensures a level of protection for parent and program, as you need money to buy justice. I'm curious about the techniques used
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Offline psy

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2007, 04:34:13 PM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
Quote from: ""Guest""
Quote from: ""Guest""
At 18 you supposedly have all these rights. However, the torture cults and the "parents" who put you in them use all sorts of tactics to prevent you from excerizing these rights. They extend custody, they seize control of inheritances and other monies that legally belong to you, they use trickery to continue controlling and exploiting you.

Did you encounter any such trickery and manipulations that were abetted by brain/emotional damage that comes with having your brain restructured through brain washing?

At this point, why not walk away from the "inheritance and any money that may legally belongs to you?"  There are other ways to go to college, or to live on your own; or you could join the military. Why accept being controlled and exploited?

I'm saying, dipshit, that unethical manipulation tactics are used to control youth: stealing, lying, abandoning. This is evil regardless of possible conduits for escape available to youth.
These manipulation tactics are used on top of previously imposed mental damage, and are  effective control devices for program kids in a way they are not for a normal 18 year old, who has experience outside of an institution. In iredland there was a religious organization- the magdalen sisters- where young girls were imprisoned by their parents. Even though they could legally go at 18 100s of thousands(alot anyway) wound up living their entire lives as slaves. They became "institutionalized", brain damaged, brainwashed etc.
Keeping them prisoner was further enabled by a series of manipulations and fear tactics, similar tactics applied to the vulnerable damaged youth of programs[/quote]
Well.  When asking "why" about an over 18 program, treat it like a cult.  Read Margaret Singer's "Cults in Our Midst".  At Benchmark Young Adult School, they use most of the techinques she describes to keep people there against their will.  Even benchmark's own website states that kids do not want to be there, yet they still claim it's voluntary.  What they mean is they coerce volition (an oxymoron if there ever was one).  Eventually your cage is the safe place, outside of which you will inevitably end up dead, insane, or in jail.

The first day I arrived I sat in group and was asked where I came from, my name, and why I was there. I said "to finish high school".  That wasn't enough.  I was told "why are you really here"... etc.. eventually I began to accept their imposition that I was damaged in the head, an alcoholic (even though I had only gotten really drunk once before that, at the age of 18, in Ireland where it was legal).  Eventually they convinced me to re-interpret the significance of factual events to portray myself as headed down the wrong path, inevitably headed for self-destruction.

I would ask "since you don't seem to care for what reason somebody is here, is anybody ever here for no "issue' at all, and what if I don't see myself as having any "issue" that I feel I want to have fixed.  Isn't it my choice.  I came here to finish high school."?  I was told "if you didn't have a problem you wouldn't be here."  You weren't considered to be "working your program until" you started to taking the "First Step" (in benchmark's eyes) of admitting you did have an issue (even if you didn't).  To this end, you needed to find a way to re-interpret your past in a manner that was "truthful" enough for the staff.  It wasn't the facts that changed (though sometimes they did) as much as it was the interpretation and the significance of those events. I confessed a little, and I got rewarded a little, etc.  The worse you made yourself out to seem the better it was for you.  Self-deprecation was the theme of program success.  Why?  Confessions are a lot more powerful than bad reports in convincing the parents that:
  A: you have a problem that is far worse than they thought and cannot control yourself and cannot be given too much freedom...  This convinces parents that coming home is not tenable.
  B: you are coming clean with your dirt (no coincidence in this loaded language.  Past elements of your life are to be associated with "bad".).  This means that you have taken the "first step" in addmitting to your "problem".  This convince parents that Benchmark is the right place.

Social pressure:

What else?  Everybody around you had to pretend as well, "fake it to make it" and you really never knew who was faking it, who you could trust, or who really wanted to leave.  If you didn't fake it, you were isolated in a motel for "negativity".  They used this to maintain an environment resembling a pro-program cheerleading section (which does a number on your head).

Parental Threats:

When we attempted to get a kid out of Benchmark they gave his mother my cell phone number.  When she called me, in addition to screaming at me, threatening to have me arrested (for what?!?!), and accusing me of kidnapping her son, she also told me he had "ADD and cant take care of himself." (the kid disputed this).  Such small moehills turned in to mountains by programs in the minds of parents.  She also told her son that if he left program she would disown him.  Benchmark advertises to fix things that can't be fixed and give parents a false sense of hope that they can cling to.

Breaking?

They actually throw kids out on the streets as punisment at Benchmark (with no money, property, food, shelter, or often even identification).  They say you can "leave" but make sure that you won't be successful in that attempt.  Their goal is for you to hit "rock bottom" by not succeeding(engineered), convincing you that you really do need program to succeed since your life is "not working" without it.

They did it to me.  I was on the streets thinking of what I could do and where I could go in an area that was very dangerous (che can witness to this). I had no money, no resources.  I knew I could possibly call the cops and get some of my property (or ID) back, but I had no guarantee that would be successful.  The staff kept telling me that I signed away my rights when I came to program and I considered it a possibility (until later, when I found out better by an ill-placed contract-law book in the Benchmark library (which was confiscated, BTW, after I started informing other students of their rights.  I was also put in Motel isolation)).  Furthermore, I also considered it a possibility that if I really tried, they would let me graduate.  As it got colder, and I got hungrier, and the sun set and it was dark I began to become afraid.  Program was so comfortable.  Everything was so structured, at least it was safer than the streets...  I began to think perhaps I did need the program to succeed.  I began to think there was something wrong with me that I couldn't make it.  

I thought then that the reason I wasn't getting my level two or advancing in program was because I wasn't being sincere enough in what I chose to disclose, how much trust i gave others, how much I gave in to the program etc.  They lied to me.  Why should I have trusted them.  Despite this, I believed they could tell if I was faking it.  I came to believe that the only way for me to succeed was to truly do everything they wanted me to... give up my will to the program and be open (even though I didn't feel safe enough to disclose anything of import).  I saw how much Friendship Workshop (LGAT) moved people around me yet felt relatively unaffected when I took it.  Why?  Because I didn't feel comfortable enough and did not want anybody to change me.  Did I need to change?  Irrelevant, (and no, in my opinion).  There was no informed consent.  I was not told it was necessary when I came to Benchmark.  I felt fine.  Is feeling fine so bad. Is having disagreements with parents so abnormal.  Is rebellion not a natural part of growing up.  It is not a disease.

So I gave myself fully to the program, cutting my identity off and letting it rot as i forget who I was.  "old me", "new me".  I and Me, etc.  "We all wear masks" (meant to be interpreted literally, as in "you are fake and you don't even know it since you've been pretending so long".... etc..)  Let "down your walls", take "down those shields", etc...  I thought I was a fake person and they could help me find the "real me"  It was almost a religious conversion experience.  I felt dazed for weeks afterwards, tearing myself up, questioning everything about my identity and (with the subtle guidance of the staff) re-defining who I should be.  I literally saw myself as two people (one bad, one good) and this sort of thinking was encouraged by the program through innumerable exercises.  They overloaded you with feelings of emotion using games and told you that you never truly felt before...

Then I found out that they were just fucking with me.  When I truly gave myself to the program, and even then was not allowed to succeed...  When they kept lying to me... I snapped out (enough, there are multiple aspects and levels to the belief system.  It's layered.), and hell broke loose (but that's another story altogether).

Jobs, etc?

Benchmark does let students (level 2s and certain motel students) get jobs however the catch is they require you to sign over our paycheck to program.  It's justified to more or less "keep you safe from yourself", (further implying that you can't control yourself), so you don't go out and buy drugs or relapse on anxiety disorder or your given "issue".  We were sent to AA meetings and told to replace the word alcohol with our "issue", regardless of how absurd a fit it was.  Again, A convenient gospel of powerlessness, portraying you as having problems you can't control and the program itself as the ultimate "higher power" that could fix you if you gave in fully and "let go and let god/program".

Quote
(And joining the military is a horrific suggestion for escaping an abusive atmosphere.) Also, keeping monies away from youth ensures a level of protection for parent and program, as you need money to buy justice.

Keeps the lawsuits low.  When you're struggling to survive (and most likely blame it on yourself) you most likely aren't interested in suing the program.

Quote
I'm curious about the techniques used


Hope this answers some of those questions.  They had the practical angles covered pretty damn well (no homeless shelters, high crime area, deprivation of resources, etc...) as well as psychological angles (hollow carrot on a stick, pummeled self-confidence, fear, etc...)  By no means is this complete, but that's a smattering of some of the techniques used.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
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Offline Anonymous

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yup
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2007, 09:59:59 PM »
yes, I would say that everything you say is spot on.

when my daughter refused to cooperate at TBS and eventually walked off campus, the school called us and told us to 'call the escorts STAT and "get her back to wilderness and then to a RTC lockdown" since obviously she hadn't bought into the program and is a danger to others and herself. Put her into a lockdown....  WTF

What was hilarious is is they had someone watching her non-stop while she sat right off the property line.

we refused to call escorts. we refused said TBS advice. We flew up, got her and I had the peer group leader call us spineless for caving in and rescuing her out of that cult helllhole.

our error was even listening to the 'struggling teen' scam in the first place.
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Offline Che Gookin

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Re: yup
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2007, 10:14:14 PM »
Quote from: ""a Mom""
yes, I would say that everything you say is spot on.

when my daughter refused to cooperate at TBS and eventually walked off campus, the school called us and told us to 'call the escorts STAT and "get her back to wilderness and then to a RTC lockdown" since obviously she hadn't bought into the program and is a danger to others and herself. Put her into a lockdown....  WTF

What was hilarious is is they had someone watching her non-stop while she sat right off the property line.

we refused to call escorts. we refused said TBS advice. We flew up, got her and I had the peer group leader call us spineless for caving in and rescuing her out of that cult helllhole.

our error was even listening to the 'struggling teen' scam in the first place.


Be advised your refusal to comply with the cult's expectation may have postive long term effects on your daughter.
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Offline Anonymous

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che
« Reply #11 on: December 02, 2007, 10:35:39 PM »
yeah all that's transpired since: testing out of high school and enrolling in community college, being herself with postive philosphies/critical thinking is everything the TBS warned against.  :-?


We're fortunate we have a relationship with her.
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Offline Deprogrammed

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Re: Manipulated
« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2007, 10:39:51 PM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
Quote from: ""Deprogrammed""
Quote from: ""Guest""
Do you know of anyone who was manipulated into staying post-program?
I was manipulated into signing myself into the program , post program when I turned 18 years of age.
-DP

how did that happen? What tricks?

Well, the program making my parents tell me that I would have no place to live for starters.
-DP
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline Che Gookin

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2007, 10:53:09 PM »
They must have an Idiot's Guide for Programs. They use the same leverage/intimidation ploy at Benchmark and I've seen it used at Three Springs.
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Offline Anne Bonney

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Tricked by manipulations/ brain damage
« Reply #14 on: December 03, 2007, 10:28:23 AM »
I got pregnant within a few months of 'graduating' Straight.  For the next almost 20 years my parents and my ex-husband's parents (we married, I got pregnant again and divorced him when my youngest was 11 months old) had me by the balls.  When I first left my ex, we were renting a house from his parents so obviously I was the one to go.  My father was so militant program that he refused to let me in his house and talked my mother into doing the same.  My ex was doing crack, I didn't like it so I left.  I had started drinking again (this was now about 3 or 4 years after getting out) so I was hauled into  family court not by my husband but by his parents and my father working together.  My dad even hired an attorney who's partner was on the board of Straight.  All the judge needed to hear was that I was once in a drug program and was now drinking.  Custody was given to the grandparents.  They split the girls up, my oldest going with my dad and his wife (also a program parent) and my youngest going to my ex's parents.  They dragged it out for almost 3 years......every little thing I did they dragged me into court.   Even after I got them back they would either take me to court or threaten to if I wasn't towing the program line.  It was horrible.  A therapist later told me that I lived in a constant state of fear for damn near 20 years.  Once I had that initial "diagnosis" of an addict (although I wasn't one.  The "diagnosis" was Miller Newton looking at my eyes on intake and concluding that I had done loads of cocaine.  I hadn't even seen it yet) I was screwed.  They could make shit up, exaggerate minor mistakes that all parents make and in general control my life through the threats of taking my children again.  I think that was the hardest part to get passed when I begun to reconnect with my father.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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