The Common Denominator

[cleveland]

For the past few months, after learning a lot about my particular experience with The Seed, and then learning about other programs, past and present, from this site and others, I feel compelled to try to isolate the essence of this experience, what makes it so powerful, seductive, defendable, and potentially dangerous.

It seems that the first goal of all of these programs is to make the individual compliant and responsive to authority. The second goal, is to make 'the program' the most important thing in the individual's life. The third goal is to enshroud the entire process in secrecy, and to divide the world into those who 'get it,' and those who 'just don't get it.' The final goal is to try to get everyone else to 'get it.'

These four goals interact with one another. They reinforce each other.

Individually, they seem like good things. When a kid is 'out of control,' or an adult is 'in the throes of addition,' isn't it good to repect authority and to be compliant? And if the 'program' shows you the way, aren't you correct in being grateful? And aren't you right to reject or hold at arms length, all of those old friends 'out there' who dragged you down, or your fucked up family - even the 'outside world' itself, with all of it's problems? And isn't it right to be secretive, because remember the full light of 'the program' was only revealed to you in stages, before you yourself 'got it?' And now, being saved, being grateful, and having 'got it,' don't you wish everyone did - friends, family and coworkers, and woe to those who don't, poor fools.

But isn't this a strange little world you're in? No room for dissent, rational thought, freedom? Isn't it a bit like 1984 that you read when you were a rebellious teen, with its Big Brother and its Anti-Sex League, its Double Speak and its 'love' and brutality?

And even years later, after you've left the Mormon Church, of the Moonies, or Scientology, or the Seed, aren't you kind of embarrassed about how devoted you were? Isn't it really hard to explain to others, now that you've rejoined the world? And besides, weren't you responsible because of your own shameful problems, and didn't you need the help? Everyone needs a little help from time to time - perhaps the ends justifies the means, and what's so bad about a little old-fashioned discipline, or a little love, anyway.

Or maybe you're angry. Fuck them, assholes. I don't even want to think about it. I'm embarrassed to see my shining, happy blissed out face, on the front row or in the pew or in 'the rooms' or whatever. Fuck them, fuck you for asking.

I don't care if it's the Seed, AA, CEDU, Straight, KIDS, or behaviour mod boarding schools. And it's also not to deny that some programs are 'better' and some 'worse.' They all do the same things. That seems to be the routine, and why it's so hard for us to talk about it rationally today.

[cleveland]

It is still going on, exactly as I remember it!

See the site:

http://www.kidshelpingkids.com/Program.html

[Fran]

Wow that site just gave me the chills!! KHK is a clone of the seed. And $22,000.00!!!! Wow!!

[Antigen]

I'm tellin ya! That one is actually a spin-off of The Seed. It was started by George Ross after he left Straight as executive director (or medical director, I don't remember offhand) Then Virgil got involved. Then Virgil took some heat and became not involved. Then Ross took some heat and bounced off.

There are other very similar programs that all seem to go back to CEDU and Provo Canyon by roughly similar ties. These programs predate The Seed and it's spin-offs, but have remarkably similar structures and histories (not to mention strong financial and political ties to a certain faction of the Rebubican Party sometimes called "the extra chromosome Republicans")

Then there are the entirely religious based programs, like Bethel Boys and Bethel Girls, Mountain Park, Victory Christian Academy in Jay, Florida. I don't know of any ties between these programs and Synanon, and yet they use essentially the same methods. And, btw, there are Büsh ties to some of the Texas based outfits as well as to the Character First (Institute of Basic Life Principles; Bill Gothard) programs and seminars.

Looking into this has been a long, strange, mind-blowing trip for me! I think I liked it better when I was just a little paranoid, but the rest of the world was more-or-less OK. But here it is, plain as the nose on your face. So... how to respond? What to do? So far, my first and best instinct has been rampant talking out in group.

What do yenz think?

I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't
agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it
would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.
--GW Büsh, CNN.com, December 18, 2000

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
   10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused.  Is it really NEWS to people that KHK is a direct spinoff?  I honestly thought that was common knowledge.

[cleveland]

I guess I knew there were other 'programs,' and I had even read a lot of the posts here. But I still thought of the Seed as different. It's shocking to see the same language and program details are still in use today. That IS shocking to me.

[Jimmy Cusick]

I was truly shocked to see a carbon copy of the seed exist. WOW. The only difference is Art Barker isnt being driven in a limo by a black man. KHK charges state residents $19,500 for a lifetime of treatment. Such a deal we have for you. Money, money, money and then more money. WOW.  Now I know what made the seed tick for over 20 years.  Money, money, money.

[GregFL]

No, it isn't common knowledge. But here is what happened. Certain people involved in the St Pete Seed, parents and Helen Peterman, set out to make a new improved seed called Straight, Inc. This clone flourished under the leadership and political ties of Melvin Sembler, Seed parent. As this monster grew, offshoots happened, Like Helen Peterman's life program and Virgil Millers Kids Program.

Kidshelpingkids is a product of Straight, Inc.  which was a direct copy of the seed right down to the songs, the placement of the chairs, the "raps" , the steps, Everything.

 Art's abusive program lives on thru these programs and others like SAFE, Pathways, and a few others. Still other Seed and straight graduates have gone on to garner positions of power in other drug rehabs that have resulted in strange programs that blend elements of the seed.

This is one reason this forum is important to me, to let it be known that our little secret never died, it just got played out on new generations.

[GregFL]

you gotta love this crap...



Warning Signs

How do I know if my teen is on drugs?
Their behavior is a key indicator. See the checklist.


Has your child...(Check all that apply)
___seemed depressed
___become rebellious and defiant
___had trouble with the law
___had a bad attitude
___avoided you upon arriving home
___become increasingly isolated
___had a drop in grades
___required extra sleep
___dropped out of favorite activities
___changed friends
___started looking unkempt or unhealthy
___changed image/clothes/personal style
___been caught lying
___possessed unexplained money
___threatened or attempted suicide
___frequently broken curfew
___been fired from work
___come home high or drunk
___destroyed car or property

Do you...

___ argue with your spouse about your child?s behavior
___ feel anger or dislike for your child
___ fear you are a failure as a parent
___ ?bargain? with your child to change
___ compromise your own values
___ lower your expectations
__feel frustrated because nothing seems to change ___your child?s behavior
___ cover up for your child
___ make excuses for your child
___ feel relieved when your child leaves the house
___ give money to your child
___ fear your child might injure him/herself
___ fear your child might injure others
___ desire to spend less time at home
___ fear your child is out of control


You have checked ___ boxes

If you have checked 4 or more boxes, click here to get help now!

 
Just like the Seed, this program offers "solutions" to all family problems. Just lock up little Johnny and brainwash him, make him admit it is all his fault, and make him confess to problems he doesn't have.

BINGO! Instant resolution and absolution of all fault for the parents, and instant micro control over the child.

Unreal that in 2004/2005 this abusive nonsense still exists.

[GregFL]

The history of Kids helping kids according to them...


History of Kids Helping Kids


In the late seventies, early eighties, there were no beds in the Cincinnati area designated for treatment of chemically dependent adolescents. Drugs, however, had sifted down into the high schools and junior highs. Parents were beginning to see the behavioral symptoms that accompany adolescent poly substance abuse. A psychologist who was working for a therapeutic community for adolescents in Florida did a presentation in a Northern Kentucky School Auditorium. It was well attended by parents who were having problems with their children. One Cincinnati couple enrolled their son in the Florida Program. Then another. Through word of mouth, several families found their way to that program. They became convinced that Cincinnati needed a program such as it.

Those parents organized as a 501 (C) 3 private, non-profit corporation , wrote Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws and did lots of fund raising. In July, 1981, eleven teens were transferred from the LIFE Program in Florida to Kids Helping Kids which was then located in a leased facility in Northern Kentucky.

Life was a program, an offshoot, of Straight, located in Sarasota Florida and headed up by Helen Peterman. Helen Peterman was the intake lady at the St Pete Seed (she did my intake in 1973) and later was on the founding incorporators of Straight, Inc.

This is the real history... Kids is a linear descendent of the St Pete Seed program.

[Antigen]

When I first started looking into this, I assumed that there was some direct link among all similar programs; like a person such as Bobby DuPont or all Programs being tracable to some source of origin.

Many of them are, but many are not. At least I can't find the smoking gun.

Then, one day, I decided to sit down and explain my weird little hobby to a good friend. It was a risk! She's a very devout Catholic, raised in the mountains in Haiti and married to a social worker. But she did ask and she is a good friend and very insightful about a lot of things, so I took the chance.

By the time I was done explaining, as best I could, the methods and practices and how they'd scrambled my head for a time, she said "Yeah, zombies".

She then explained to me how, in Haiti, there are scheisters who go around calling themselves Zombi masters. They take advantage of people in crisis, like orphans or refugees or addicts or people w/ illnesses that are untreatable in that part of the world. They convince their marks that they are hopeless and certain to die, that they (the "master") are omnicient and omnipotent and have supernatural powers to save them and that, only through scrupulous obedience to the master can they be saved.

People fall for it. Aparently, this scam is as old as the hills.

In Haiti, where most people believe that illness or bad luck are the direct result of pissing off the wrong witch doctor, that's the schtick that works. In modern America, were most people believe that drugs and teen rebellion are the root of all evil, that's the schtick that works. In some enclaves, like the ones where characters like Bill Gothard and Craig Rogers find good hunting grounds, it's the Devil (or "the avisary"[sic]) at the bottom of things.

But it's essentially the same ol'e same ol'e.

The addressible problem, as I see it, is public sector involvement in this scam.

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.
--Francois Marie Arouet "Voltaire", French author and playwright

[marshall]

http://www.sosbehindbars.com/cult.htm

[Ft. Lauderdale]

Antigen,
I don't remember singing "ouw eee ouw ahh ahh bing bang wallah wallah bang bang. Thats the only witch doctor song I'm famillar with.
Ya know the girls "chicks" sometimes wore itzy bitzy teeny winnny yellow pokadot bikinni's do you think that was some sort of mind control as well?
 :silly:

[Antigen]

Denial is the first symptom, Lauderdale.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us, and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.
--Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist

[cleveland]

Marshall,

Very interesting link to SOS site. Unfortunately, the 'Why the 12 Steps Works for Some' link doesn't work, but it made me think:

I have been to meetings of groups that are pyramid schemes, and also to religious groups, in addition to the seed. Something that is common for me in these experiences is that there were always people who could testify that they had GOT it, really got it. And they were convincing because - it was true! But, just like a pyramid sales scheme, most of the attention/love/power flows upward, giving some people so much, and leaving precious little for most of the little folks at the bottom who crave it, but can clearly see it exemplified in some in the group. Does this make sense?

So, there are some seedlings that really had so much from the group, but very many who could only taste it a little. I knew some were favored, while I was left with small amounts of attention, with a call to duty and sacrifice. I thought the lack was mine.

So, posting here are some who got so much, some who couldn't achieve that level. And here we are arguing about it because we think our own reality applies to others.

But this is so clear to me right now...I can return to that tantalizing feeling I had in the group that I was so close to achieving happiness and esteem..but I only got enough to keep me hanging on. To those of you who got, I hope I don't seem bitter to you...

Walter