Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Anonymous on July 10, 2003, 10:51:00 AM
-
$6,500,000.00 settlement for abuse.
For details click here.... :smile:
http://thestraights.com/index.htm (http://thestraights.com/index.htm)
-
She was in KIDS for 13 years!
-
:smokin:
-
There's a close-knit, inner core of The Seed who've been there for well over 20 goddamned year! A journalist who interviewed Art and some of his followers recently told me that this one guy turned to him at one point, while he was gushing about how Art saved his life, and said "And you know what? Art knows what I'm thinking right now". I shit you not! And this guy's the mayor of Dania Beach!
I spoke with a lady around a year or two ago who hadn't heard from her brother in over 20 years, since he became a Seedling. I found out later that he'd married Libby MacDonald.
In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
--Unknown
-
I thought two or three was ridiculous. Was the person five years old when they were admitted, turning up squeeze bottles of chocolate syrup and farting uncontrollably? ....What?
-
Those who wound up staying after age 18 were either court ordered or lied to and convinced they were court ordered to stay until program completion. Plus, there's that sector of severely brainwashed devotees who willingly stay, and those who remain there out of some sort of family/staff induced fear.
This story is a major example of how we are all different, while those programs attempt to force us to respond identically to their methods.
I was stealing cars and got out in 9 months. I had a normal life after I got my own car, but I actually committed crimes before going to Straight. So, everything I did was obvious. Regarding Lulu... we don't even know if she really did drugs, yet she was there 13 years.
[ This Message was edited by: JDavid on 2003-07-12 04:59 ]
-
::stab::
And I'd be on death row - not a happy place in Texas.
This state executes more people each year than any other - check you Amnesty International books. :skull:
It's very disturbing that people were there for so many years - and we all know it's still happening today. In some non-descript building that we may drive by every day. . .
-
You ever see a woman stay with a man who beats her, berates her, takes everything she has and gives nothing back and wonder why? He must have a cock made of gold or somthing, right?
It's a lot like that. But, for some damned reason, in our society, all they have to do to camoflage it is to label it 'treatment' and wave around some bogus credentials.
The Internet is now safe for free speech.
-- Christopher A. Hansen on the overturning of the Communications Decency Act
-
I was on 5th phase for a year of my two years+ that I spent in that place. I 7-stepped only after I tried to withdraw, and then copped out. I wish that I could remember more about my status when I put in for withdrawal. Anyway, when I copped out, I followed the railroad tracks thru VA to some gas station and asked some black guy for a ride to somewhere, I guess I told him I was headed to DC since Balto was so far away. He got me as far as Arlington, VA...and I walked into DC from there. Being 17 and somewhat naive, I had trouble getting to balto from there. i spent a horrible night in a homeless shelter. it was November and kinda rainy and dismal. I hooked up w/ some street guy who was going to bring me back to a shelter that he knew of. When these a-hole bums at the shelter started their intmidation routine on this guy trying to squeeze money out of him, I decided maybe this wasn't the greatest idea. So being without cash, I called my mom, she picked me up in tears and we rode to Balto. I willingly returned to straight the next day.
The point of all this that I'm trying to get to is that I think that I had gotten used to or "comfortable" in the program after being there for so long. Yes, I wanted out, but the sad truth was that I didn't know what I was going to do once I got out. I wasn't any more brainwashed than the next guy (except for the "misbehavers" perhaps) I just began to get numb to everything after a while. Does this make sense? I wanted out, but I let myself go back in. I knew my parents would disown me if I didn't...
-
Does this make sense? I wanted out, but I let myself go back in.
Yes, makes perfect sense. On the outside I was this happy go lucky 5th Phaser, excited to see the kids in group after putting in an 8 hour day at work. But my MI's screamed to let me out of that place. In one MI I even wrote, "I'm so sick of being in here with all these people." If Staff had read that MI there is no telling what they would've done.
It's easy to say things like, "if they ever started me over I'd pull myself" plain just isn't true. In my mind set back then if I had been started over for any reason, I would've sucked it up and stayed until I 7th Step.
One thing I find myself doing is replaying certain incident's over again. This time doing things the way I wished I would've done back then. Believe it or not, it really helps me for some reason.
Don
-
Don,
Thanks for the reply. Maybe I'll try doing the replay thing...
No offense, but I'm having trouble making sense of this:
It's easy to say things like, "if they ever started me over I'd pull myself" plain just isn't true. In my mind set back then if I had been started over for any reason, I would've sucked it up and stayed until I 7th Step.
I don't understand exactly what it is that you're saying here. Please rephrase, if you don't mind...
Thanks, Alex
-
Alex:
"Does this make sense? I wanted out, but I let myself go back in. I knew my parents would disown me if I didn't..."
Yeah, it absolutely does. I did the same thing. I'd been hitchhiking around for some time and not falling in with some sustainable situation like I'd hoped. So someone suggested that I go to a halfway house. When I got there, they suggested that I contact a family member who might be sympathetic; who wasn't part of the reason I'd run away to begin with. It made sense, so I did that.
One thing led to another and, before long, I'd agreed to get on a plane and go back to the Program in Florida. I thought briefely of ditching from my sister's house during the night. And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have tried too hard to stop me. But I'd made a promise. And, silly as it seems now, I didn't want to confirm the idea that I must be a druggie in need of treatment by breaking my word.
Looking back, I realize I'd just lost all the habits that make up the ability to make and then execute any kind of plan. For so long, I hadn't had the need for those kinds of mental activities. Why think about what you want to make for breakfast or what you'll do with your afternoon when it's all set in stone anyway? Why tease yourself by wishing you were at the beach or out hiking and camping or at a concert or whatever when you know damned well it's not going to happen?
When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with all other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
-- John Muir
-
don't understand exactly what it is that you're saying here. Please rephrase, if you don't mind...
Thanks, Alex
Well, I was just thinking back to my days in Straight. I was so sucked into the whole program that I never took seriously the idea of leaving the program. Even though I did plan a cop out once on 4th phase. Deep inside, I knew I wasn't going to really leave.
In the last three years I've been known to say thing like, "If they ever started me over I'd pull myself." Back when I was in the program, it wouldn't have been a true statement. I would have stayed for three years if that what it took. That's why I do the replay in my mind. When I do, I actually pull myself or cop out. It's really kind of fun.
Don
-
Most of what's being said about staying after age 18 is in the ballpark of what I meant by "staff/family induced fear". You leave the program on 4th or 5th phase, can't find stability out there your first few days, so you get in contact with family then they stick ya back in Straight. They (staff/family) basically use your brief experience with instability to get you back in. It happened to me too when I left after only 1 week on 2nd phase. I was gone for 2 or 3 weeks. I came home then wound up back in Straight.
I wasn't sure whether or not to call this an effect of brainwashing because on one hand, it is an escaped client seeking stability, which is normal. On the other hand, it's the lack of ability to find stability after age 18 for someone still in such a program, which isn't normal. What I really meant by severely brainwashed was people like those 20 year devotees like the ones Ginger was talking about.
-
"And, silly as it seems now, I didn't want to confirm the idea that I must be a druggie in need of treatment by breaking my word.
Looking back, I realize I'd just lost all the habits that make up the ability to make and then execute any kind of plan. For so long, I hadn't had the need for those kinds of mental activities. "
Yeah, that pretty much sums up my experience. They just did a good job of brainwashing us day in and out. We were young then and were treated as if we were even younger. We were told we couldn't function on the outside, and even if we knew this wasn't true initially, it became the truth over time. I never copped out because I started believing I really could not make it "on my own". The pressure from all the authority figures to "do the right thing" was so great, that I allowed it and jumped through all the stupid hoops. It felt good to do that because there was honor and glory and praise for complying.
I think I developed a "split personality" in Straight. One that was a "superman". This "superman" had lofty ideals and goals and dreams and was a part of who I was/am, but was also the product of Straight brainwashing, which is to say "fear induced behavior modification". I now recognize that there should be limits on how or how much an institution can "modify" people's behavior. Most of us have not committed murder for example. How much modification and thought control does a pothead really need? Perhaps some of us need more than others, but who is wise enough or smart enough to know who gets what. The Straight shmucks were amazingly incompetent, but there they were, telling us what was what, and what was right, and when to grab a square of toilet paper and how many squares we were worhty of.
It didn't seem to affect me all that much at first. But later on down the road, when I "relapsed", all this Straight brainwash, parental fear/shame/abandonment, loneliness, despair and desperation came back haunting me. It wasn't the alcohol doing it, it was the mental torture from Straight, and I knew this. But it drove me to drink even more and to self-destruct more. I developed a serious binge drinking problem AFTER Straight, NOT BEFORE. I was taking LSD and pot mostly before Straight.
The only thing my parents, or an ex-Straight counselor/acquaintance would recommend was "treatment" or AA. Well two years is enough treatment for a lifetime, so I opted for AA first, treatment months later. AA and treatment both FAILED to keep me sober.
Ultimately, I had to come to a place where I KNEW unconditional love in a way that dispelled all of my insecurities and fears. No man was able to help me, only Love. So, I've modified myself (with God's great help) to evaluating everything throught the lens of unconditional love. If a system, a program, a methodology, a philosophy, a theology, or whatever lacks sincere, heartfelt, powerful love, I am uninterested. There are so many voices claiming to be authoritative on what's up with life. I care for so few of them. There are so very few. There's so little love in almost all of them. They have other motives or have too easliy forget what is important.....
But back to my reply, they pretty much had us in a place where anything that we did to break away was revealing our "drugginess", it is sad and bizarre that we were misdiagnosed in the thousands. With scarlet letter D's draped around our necks, we were banished from normal society. I don't know about you guys, but I don't need a label like that affecting me and alienating me from my peers anymore. I don't need it, I don't even use drugs. I used to. I'm not very ashamed of that really. I liked it, but I don't want them now. I want to do other things. Free people do what they want and I am free. Do what you love doing, you know. Ask questions later. Did I screw up? Yes. Oh well. Try try again. EVERYBODY screws up, not just ex-Straight people.
What am I doing? it's 3:48AM, and I'm still writing. Good Night all.
-
You leave the program on 4th or 5th phase, can't find stability out there
I have held fast to a theory that I developed about 4 or 5 years ago about Senior Staff and their relapse rate. (64% in Cincinnati)
It has long been my opinion that when a Senior Staff member leaves Straight. (Either through relapse or good standing, it doesn't seem to matter which) They have a great deal of difficulty finding stability out there. They have been so used to calling the shots and being in charge that when they get a job in the real world, suddenly they find themselves being just another employee and not the boss as it were. On top of that no one they work with cares that they used to be a Senior Staffer. This begins to get to them and their egos can't handle it. It is such a traumatic revelation to them that it's like being started over and before they know it they've relapsed BUT the staff/family induced fear doesn't kick in as strong as someone who was never on Staff. Again, their ego's won't allow it.
This might seem strange to some, but I know that ever since I left Staff in April 1984 I've put every job I've had and compared it to the chain of command. I try to see where I'd fit today. Junior, Senior, Supervisor etc. Take into consideration that I never even made it off Trainee. Can you imagine how a former Senior Staff member feels?
I know this probably seems a little strange that I do this. I can't really explain why it is that I do this comparision. I just know that ever since I left Staff I do it.
Another thing, I don't blame Straight for this 100% although there is some responsibility there to be had no doubt about it. There is a decision that each of us makes each day to either remaian sober or not. I cannot in good faith blame Straight if I should one day relapse. When or if they day comes, it will be my decision and nothing to do with Straight.
I am writting an article on Senior Staff Relapse that goes into much more detail that I have done so here. When I get a chance I will finish that article and post it over at my group.
Have a blessed day.
Don
-
Don, I think that goes right to the heart of it. People stay in cults and other abusive relationships becuase the relationship has replaced their own identity. Outside of that artificial structure, they are pretty irrelavent.
That's why cops, as good as they may be and as well intended, cling like life itself to prohibition. Without a glorious war, elite special forces (SWAT,Area Narcotics Task Forces, etc.) and all that abides the drug war, who is a cop in the greater scheme of things? Face it, today's snitch culture would regard Andy Griffith as a complete pussy.
"The Libertarian Party is a coalition of those who hold dear the economic freedoms championed by conservatives, yet abandoned by Republicans, and the civil freedoms championed by liberals, yet abandoned by Democrats."
--Rick Root
-
Anonymous - You touched on a few interesting points here...
I think I developed a "split personality" in Straight. One that was a "superman".
Like the nazi party, straight taught us that we were a 'superior breed' that must not contaminate itself with the "druggie" element. Yes, and we were so vulnerable that we couldn't make it outside of the plastic bubble. :scared:
I developed a serious binge drinking problem AFTER Straight, NOT BEFORE. I was taking LSD and pot mostly before Straight.
:silly: Same here...hmmmm....
But back to my reply, they pretty much had us in a place where anything that we did to break away was revealing our "drugginess", it is sad and bizarre that we were misdiagnosed in the thousands. With scarlet letter D's draped around our necks, we were banished from normal society.
Very well put. It's too bad you are an anonymous...sorry, I had to add that in...
-
I am trying out a different keyboard. The other one was giving me numbers and stuff when I hit letters, very frustrating. I suspect that a little one spilled some ominous liquid on the other keyboard. The little one will be "anonymous" but she knows who she is. At any rate, this keyboard is working fine.
Mr. Froderick13, I am as anonymous as you are. What you read of my posts is me. The words I write, are me. What I am saying is, my life is an open book. All you have to do is read the words I say, to know more about me. I do not hide any thing in my words. My real name, for example, doesn't define me. If you did a background check on me once you learned my real name. That would not be conclusive either. For that would only reveal me at my worst and probably at a time when I drank a little too much. So, knowing my name, though it might be interesting, wouldn't tell you all that much about who I really am, just what my parents named me.
I like being anonymous because people respond to my words, not my name, nor even my reputation. I think we would all enjoy posting anonymously if we had our druthers. I think there would be disappointment if people were to find out my name here. Kinda like, "is that all? boy, does that suck, I liked you better when you were nameless." So, I just respond to thougts that are posted here because that is more of an accurate description of who we are than even our names. We are what we say, unless we are pretending to be John Travolta or something retarted like that. :roll:
But you and I seem alot alike, if you ever liked the Butthole Surfers, and we were probably siamese twins separated from each other at birth. I hardly know anyone who gets excited about them. I don't listen to them much anymore. My wife gets irritated if I ever play "The Hurdy Gurdy Man". She's like "grow up already". She's always right. I shouldn't be listening to them anymore, they're way too obnoxious for my tastes nowadays. They are too much fun, too much excess, too psychotic. Ha ha. But, I am not too mature to appreciate a good Whitesnake classic:
"Here I go again on my own
Duh nuh di di duh nuh (guitar)
Goin' down the only road I've ever know-oon
Di di duh nuh (guitar)
Like a twister I was born to walk alone.
Di di duh nuh
But I've made up my mind....
I ain't wastin' no more time
But here I go again
Here I go again
Here I GAAAOOOOOOOUUUUUU!" (high pitched scream)
I used to criticize this kind of music. But now I love it! I heard it coming home from work and it made me so ridiculosly happy and I don't know why!
Like a twister I was born to walk alone. I love that!
-
I'm with you, Anon. Sorry for rattling your cyber-cage, lol. You go ahead and post as whoever the hell you want, it's a free country (in theory at least.) I agree that the content is much more important than any identity. If you don't mind though, I'll refer to you (at least in my own mind) as "Butthole Surfers Anonymous" :cool:
I've never heard anything that I've liked by Whitesnake, but maybe I'll check out that song...what's it called? "Like a twister I was born to walk alone" (?)
-
Thought it was "like a drifter"
-
Fister? I don't even know her.
-
If it's "like a drifter" I no longer dig it. It sounded so independent and destructive, if not altogether dangerous. Now he sounds like a bum who couldn't keep a job and was on the run from creditors like Harry and Lloyd. I guess "twisters don't walk...alone" do they? I need to go get drunk now. Please excuse me.
-
My mother-in-law thought CCR's line, "There's a bad moon on the rise," was, "there's a bathroom on the right."
CL
-
"Fister?...."I don't even KNOW her"
Funny JDavid! :lol:
Purple Haze..."'scuse me while I kiss this guy"
How did a thread about Lulu morph into song parody posts anyway...?
Anon~~Whitesnake is touring, Rudy Sarzo is a great bass player and Coverdale is "hollywood" as ever; has skin pulled as tight as Joan Rivers...It is a good show though!
-
I go to straights.com to read the article about the settlement- how about that picture of Miller? Oh my God! He looks soooo :flame: EVIL :flame: ! He hasn't changed a bit since I last saw him 23 years ago. Well, according to my good old Straight awareness ( :lol: LOL :lol: ), Mr. Newton's body language tells me a lot- he's angry, he's being rebellious, he's being defiant, and he's closing off from the group. I wonder what he was thinking about while he was sitting there. Hmmm...
Top 10 things Miller's thinking:
10. "I better split soon or else."
9. "I'm going to write a searching and fearless moral inventory about this tonight."
8. "I think I'll carve my arms. Now, where did I put that pen?"
7. "I can't wait to get home and smoke a joint."
6. "Damn, what are the words to that Serenity prayer?"
5. "Gee, I hope I get 4th phase this week."
4. "I'm glad they didn't ask me about that guy-guy relationship or that night with the neighbor's dog!"
3. "Should I rock out to Metallica or Led Zeppelin?"
2. "I knew those anger management classes wouldn't help!"
1. "I wonder if I'm going to get started over for this?"
[ This Message was edited by: gduncan on 2003-07-18 13:22 ]
-
I saw that picture too. He's deciding whether to brutally misbehave and get thrown on the floor or just go jello. Whatever it is, his main wish is to cop out.
[ This Message was edited by: JDavid on 2003-07-18 14:20 ]
-
Check it out
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... t=10#14838 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=2459&forum=10&start=10#14838)It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.
--Joseph Goebbels
-
On 2003-07-18 18:13:00, Antigen wrote:
"Check it out
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... t=10#14838 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=2459&forum=10&start=10#14838)It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.
--Joseph Goebbels
"
Could you imagine if ANY of US looked like that in group? There would have been hell to pay! What a fucking dildo. (Please note: He's not even a real Penis.)
CL