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Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Seed Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Jimmy Cusick on March 31, 2005, 06:48:00 PM

Title: Gratitude
Post by: Jimmy Cusick on March 31, 2005, 06:48:00 PM
Times have changed my friends but lets think back to 1974. The Seed saved my life and for that I'm eternally grateful.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Anonymous on March 31, 2005, 08:23:00 PM
I can second that emotion/ notion /belief / realization. I believe the same is true for me,
Chris L

PS - Oh & 74' was pretty rockin too!
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Anonymous on April 01, 2005, 02:47:00 AM
I enjoyed being in such a secret society where you could speak your mind. :smokin: And listen. Nobody ever abused me I just kept my ass busy with school and work. :smokin:
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Ft. Lauderdale on April 01, 2005, 08:10:00 AM
I'm alive and well and it keeps getting better every day. (and no I'm not Mr. Rodgers)I learned some very important lessons and I'm glad I did.
 :grin:
Title: Gratitude
Post by: GregFL on April 01, 2005, 09:05:00 AM
Quote
On 2005-04-01 05:10:00, Ft. Lauderdale wrote:

"I'm alive and well and it keeps getting better every day. (and no I'm not Mr. Rodgers)I learned some very important lessons and I'm glad I did.

 :grin:



"


me too. Many lessons learned for me.

One lesson was not to trust authority. Another is people that claim to have your best interest at heart oftentimes have alterior motives. Still another  is when people say they are going to lock somone up, restrict their food, contacts with people and try to control even their thinking to "help them", be real suspicious.

to go further, kids counseling kids where one kid cannot get up and leave or call for help is a dangerous formula for abusive situations.  And another... people claim to have their life saved when there is no evidence or reason to claim such a strong statement other than it being repeated to them everyday under coersion. Here's another...some people thrive under situations where other's feel abused, tortured and captured.


I could go on and on but none of it is the wonderfull life lessons received from singing zipedeedodah under threat  if I didn't participate or repeating stupid slogans like the "steps", "signs" or "serenity prayer" or confessing my sexual secrets to large groups in boys raps or being screamed at by a bunch of children..all under "treatment" by another group of children.

Gregfl
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Ft. Lauderdale on April 01, 2005, 04:32:00 PM
I never was forced to tell any sexual secrets-
Nor did anyone ever ask about my sexlife- Nor did I ever hear anyone talk about sexual stories EVER in the group.  Maybe something like this happened in St. Pete but in all my years this was never anything I heard.  Yes ocassionally someone would go overboard on saying what might happen to you in Jail by BuBa or some shit like that - which I must admit I would cringe and never liked that (I was never a prude but I never liked girls saying that they needed to grow a set of balls either). but that was said maybe 30 yrs ago and I have not heard that since then.  And the starving issue I gained twenty pounds in about 2-3 months.  Food was never anything that was purposely not given to anyone.  Teens can eat quite a bit.
Greg the Seed did save my life and no it was not perfect.  No I'm not brainwashed.  I used to even wish 30 years ago I could be It would have made it alot easier than working through alot of the shit that I had to.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Anonymous on April 01, 2005, 04:38:00 PM
Really? what DID you guys discuss in boys rap?
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Anonymous on April 01, 2005, 06:05:00 PM
Quote
On 2005-04-01 06:05:00, GregFL wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-04-01 05:10:00, Ft. Lauderdale wrote:



"I'm alive and well and it keeps getting better every day. (and no I'm not Mr. Rodgers)I learned some very important lessons and I'm glad I did.



 :grin:







"




me too. Many lessons learned for me.



One lesson was not to trust authority. Another is people that claim to have your best interest at heart oftentimes have alterior motives. Still another  is when people say they are going to lock somone up, restrict their food, contacts with people and try to control even their thinking to "help them", be real suspicious.



to go further, kids counseling kids where one kid cannot get up and leave or call for help is a dangerous formula for abusive situations.  And another... people claim to have their life saved when there is no evidence or reason to claim such a strong statement other than it being repeated to them everyday under coersion. Here's another...some people thrive under situations where other's feel abused, tortured and captured.





I could go on and on but none of it is the wonderfull life lessons received from singing zipedeedodah under threat  if I didn't participate or repeating stupid slogans like the "steps", "signs" or "serenity prayer" or confessing my sexual secrets to large groups in boys raps or being screamed at by a bunch of children..all under "treatment" by another group of children.



Gregfl

"


  How sad for you.  Blaming this program for all your problems?  Take a little responsibility for your own life, buddy.  Grow some balls.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Antigen on April 01, 2005, 06:06:00 PM
Quote
On 2005-04-01 15:05:00, Anonymous wrote:


  How sad for you.  Blaming this program for all your problems?  Take a little responsibility for your own life, buddy.  Grow some balls."


I wish I had Greg's problems...

A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it.  That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit.
-- In the August 1993 issue, page 9, of PS magazine, the Army's magazine of preventive maintenance

Title: Gratitude
Post by: GregFL on April 01, 2005, 07:15:00 PM
Quote

(from anonymous to scared to sign his name:)

  How sad for you.  Blaming this program for all your problems?  Take a little responsibility for your own life, buddy.  Grow some balls."


Who said I had problems? Who said I blamed said problems on the "program". Who mentioned placing responsiblity for my life outside the realm of my own personal responsiblity?

You, buddy, need to "grow" the ability to discuss issues in a logical manner, following the subject without creating red herrings.

Shit, I get so sick of people projecting their own weaknesses onto others in the name of defending Art Barker's little youth prison camp.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: GregFL on April 01, 2005, 10:51:00 PM
Back on topic.....

Ft Lauderdale, what did you guys discuss in boys rap?

I have very specific memories of being terrified in boys rap about the sexual discussion. remember, My memory is from a pre pubescent virgin 14 year old boy perspective...so this stuff was very traumatic for me.

And to anon, don't worry, I am no longer a virgin and don't have lingering sexual issues due to this.

 :grin:
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Stripe on April 04, 2005, 05:27:00 PM
Recall though, as a virgin child, what sexual history could one confess to having anyway?  Pressure to admit/confess to things that were unture for ACCEPTANCE or ANONYMITY. If you had no sexual history you were branded a liar.  I saw one of my friends confess to things I KNEW were not true just so she would be let alone and the "come down" would stop.

From a distance, this sure does sound a lot like that that "druggie acceptance-seeking" behavior we were so skillfully taught to seek and destroy in each other - something that could only be done when you were "really working the program."  You know...do the right things and the right things will happen....Confess and you will be accepted or left alone...

No wonder some of the products of this program are so freaking confused.  All it managed to do was create a whole generation of people firmly convinced they were addicts.  To this day many will accept no personal responsibility for their own choices, claiming instead that they are truly powerless over things.  Even when they succeed - it's not because of their own actions, it's because of Art Barker.  Now that is something that is really sad. To be so brainwashed that you can't even give yourself credit for living a full and productive life.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: GregFL on April 04, 2005, 07:08:00 PM
Or the inverse.. to blame your problems on your failure to accept the program dogma and also to long for the days you were held captive, estranged and incommunicado, as we have witnessed here on this very website.

Or even still.. to project onto other people failures and embitterment they do not posess because they do not recite the dogma of the program.

Or even another.. to degenerate adult conversations into confrontational attack sessions with little or no provocation other than a contrary opinion or memory of the experience we all shared.

Yes, the program has embittered a unique bit of unsocial physchology in some of us, and It is not such a pretty thing when witnessed with distance from the dogma. Freedom from this one way programmed thinking comes from understanding and studying the unnatural processes and pressures that we were submitted to as children.

Stripe, your observation in my opinion is a brilliant assessment of one result that lingers in some post seed adults. The "saved addict syndrom" as it were, usually attributed to non-addicts that thru enslavement, repetition,thought stopping exercises, and  enforcement of group thinking, had convinced him/herself that their very survival and self-worth hinged on that 30 year old unnatural experience and then never challenged the notion internally. Never mind the wealth of experiences that came before and after The Seed, and never mind that addiction almost never existed in seed kids and the vast majority of our friends that escaped the "help" of the seed went on to lead productive and full lives.

 Those of us here today successfull and living full lives are doing so because we had the inner strength and will to do so, not because it was magically imparted to a worthless dying child some 30 years ago.

The myth is that we were all dying or on a one way ticket to jail, mental hospital or some other tortured existence. It simply isn't true for the vast majority of the people who attended the seed. It was a myth created by a man with an agenda, a god complex perhaps, who was busy building a financial empire and personal kingdom.... surrounding himself with the "cream of the crop" of the kids hand picked to worship him for the rest of his life.

When the smoke clears, real understanding is waiting.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Stripe on April 04, 2005, 10:05:00 PM
Here- Here.  A toast to the thinking brain.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: marshall on April 05, 2005, 12:29:00 AM
Quote
On 2005-03-31 23:47:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I enjoyed being in such a secret society where you could speak your mind. :smokin: And listen. Nobody ever abused me I just kept my ass busy with school and work. :smokin: "


Speak your mind? Sure, but only if what you said conformed with program dogma. Otherwise, you were subjected to intense peer pressure to change your ideas to bring them into line. Here on this forum we can speak our mind. People here can praise the program or criticize it, agree or disagree. No such freedom of thought existed while I was at the seed.

Many speak of having been "given" tools at the seed. There was no giving...more like a forced-feeding. I remember raps on becoming the person you were always meant to be. I never felt like the person I was meant to be while there. It was more like we were supposed to be the person art / staff and the seed ideology meant for us to be. We simply exchanged one sort of peer-pressure for another, one sort of conformity for another, equally as stifling, imo.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: GregFL on April 05, 2005, 12:34:00 AM
"speaking your mind" was cause for starting your program over from day one or severe and intense attack sessions led and orchestrated by staff. The notion of speaking my mind at the seed was never even considered by me, not an option, and not even allowed to enter the decision making area of my brain.

The only way you could speak your mind at the seed was if your thought actually dovetailed with the expectation of the group. Otherwise, you had to speak the mind of the seed.
Title: Gratitude
Post by: cleveland on April 05, 2005, 05:04:00 PM
Thanks to Greg, Marshall, Stripe and others for expressing this so eloquently...

By the way, I ran across a couple of Seed articles I had saved from the 70s/80s and perhaps I will add something here later...
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Tony Stark on April 05, 2005, 05:46:00 PM
I met a man in the service in Italy that heard about the Seed in California long time ago. All the AA people just seemed to drop their mouths when I'd speak and with anstonishment. Turned me into a faithful Seedling. He also told me they would be looking for me when I got back to the states. :smokin:

Tough Love: Abuse of a type particularly enjoyable to the abuser, in that it combines the pleasures of sadism with those of self-righteousness. Commonly employed and widely admired in 12-step groups.
--Chaz Bufe



_I don't care what you say Greg. You're a free-mason.________________
"This is a Republic"-Miquel Reese-VA Man[ This Message was edited by: Iron Man on 2005-04-05 14:48 ]
Title: Gratitude
Post by: Tony Stark on April 05, 2005, 10:06:00 PM
Also every single night with my "lover seedling". She got a bit possesive so I dumped her. I was busy jamming with the boys.Still dated her aftwe that, But respected her. Connie ***** and I were lovers before amd after the SEED. I don't see how you just got into that cult. To me it was just a drug rehab. Besides My Dad worked for the St. Pete Times. I could go to football games and do my halftime show with the school band on Fridays, while you were stuck there, I talked to all kinds of people in band. Nobody messed with me. Not the staff or anyone. They knew I had druggie friends.

If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs,
you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors,
shall all become wolves.  It seems to be the law of our general
nature, in spite of individual exceptions.


Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787



_________________
"This is a Republic"-Miquel Reese-VA Man