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".
(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.
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.
