Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum
Note to John Underwood
Anonymous:
You rave against the Seed with the same zeal that your mother must of had we she forced all the Seed (Straight) dogma down your throat.
I guess the mustard seed did not fall far from the tree or bush.
Hey Anon,
Any type of fundamentalist especially those of a religious nature have done nothing more than to promote ignorance, intolerance and in my opinion are responsible for much of the evil that prevails in today?s world.
One of the problems I used to have with the Seed was I did not wish to look at the world in such black and white terms. Not all my old friends were evil and not all of them plotted for my eventual down fall so that they could justify their misguided lives. Not everything that Art or Staff said was infallible or perfect. Art was not a god.
On the same hand I do not think my time at the Seed was filled with underhanded manipulations or that the Seed was part of this great government conspiracy to control the minds of America?s youth to create some kind of secret society that can be easily controlled and molded or that I was completely used by ambitious self serving social climbing status and wealth seekers that had nothing but their well-being in mind.
Here are some facts about the Seed: 1- The Government money dried up in the early to mid 70?s when strings came attached with the Government funding. The reason for this was Art refused to take any money from the government because he refused to relinquish any type of control over the Seed. He felt this was his brain child and no one would take that away from him. There would be no government psychiatrist neither from the State or Federal agency allowed into the Seed. Every once in a while Art would go into the group and talk about this.
Art hated the republicans party primarily because around 1972 or 73 the Seed was audited by the feds. He always blamed this for a comment he had made and support he had given to Sen., Edwin Mouskie during a failed run for the White House. Art held the plumbers from the Nixon White house personally responsible for a smear campaign against the Seed and himself. There was nothing that Art resented more than government interference with the Seed his anger many times was pointed against the republican conservatives . I never once saw him break allegiance with the Democratic Party.
Could all of this been a gross exaggeration of events in order to feed into his monster ego and over emphasis the importance of the Seed program.
From the lets say the mid 70?s on the Seed survive on donations from Seed families private institutions and Seed kids. This money was more than enough during the mid 70?s when there were 1000 kids on the program but the money soon started drying up as the amount of new comers dwindled. In the early 80?s in a good year he Seed might have taken 10 new comers a year and the core group of long timers or old comers shrank to about 80 people. That group shrank more and more with each passing year.
The Seed stopped taking minors in or around 1986 because of all the accusations that were going on at the time about all the child molestations in the day care centers around that time. The State past a law that required all people working with minors such as day cares or rehabs etc. had to submit criminal back ground checks. Art refused to give the State that luxury not to mention that many of the old comers did have criminal records. The State also required certain bureaucratic procedures along with this law and Art decided that all new comers had to be at least 18 years old. Keep in mind that as the core group grew older so did most of the new comers. The face of the Seed had changed it was no longer a program catering to minors but to people in their 20?s to 60?s some even older.
All these things that I have stated are based on my personal observations and conversations and talks with Art and other Seed graduates during my years at the Seed.
I really have no reason to lie or defend or accuse. I post and read on this sight basically to help myself and to clear some of my unresolved issues with the Seed with people that experienced the same place I did.
Antigen:
--- Quote ---On 2005-08-09 16:34:00, Anonymous wrote:
Could all of this been a gross exaggeration of events in order to feed into his monster ego and over emphasis the importance of the Seed program.
--- End quote ---
Got a simpler explanation? I don't. Occam's razor says...... YES!
Faith is believing something you know ain't true.
--Samuel Clemens "Mark Twain", American author and humorist
--- End quote ---
GregFL:
thanks for the info!
Who were you directing the initial biting remark to? If it is me I would respectfully like to point out it is in fact "BUSH".
:grin:
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quote:On the same hand I do not think my time at the Seed was filled with underhanded manipulations or that the Seed was part of this great government conspiracy to control the minds of America?s youth to create some kind of secret society that can be easily controlled and molded or that I was completely used by ambitious self serving social climbing status and wealth seekers that had nothing but their well-being in mind.
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No one has said that. In fact,most posts here readily admit the seed was good intentions gone bad. I believe that, coupled with an egomaniac cult leader thats impression of his own self importance was truly outlandish. Tie that all in with dangerous cultic mind control methods that most people didn't even understand..including the staff. Apparently many of them still don't understand the fire they were playing with..only that it "changed" the kids rapidly.
You should know however that the federal government had indeed done studies at the synanon and funded many synanon type rehabs thruout the nation...yes including the Seed and later Straight, Inc.
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quote: The Government money dried up in the early to mid 70?s when strings came attached with the Government funding. The reason for this was Art refused to take any money from the government because he refused to relinquish any type of control over the Seed. He felt this was his brain child and no one would take that away from him. There would be no government psychiatrist neither from the State or Federal agency allowed into the Seed. Every once in a while Art would go into the group and talk about this.
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there is more to the story than that. The congress issued a report indicting The Seed specifically for using Korean style brainwashing techniques and recommended that consent forms be signed by all enrollees that they were subjecting themselves to experimental treatment..ie. Art hit the roof because he knew this would be the end of the endless stream of profitable kids coming in...who in their right mind would sign that form? Think about it. Art as usual put his own spin on it and claimed it was for the good of the seed.
I appreciate that you don't feel a need to defend or accuse. Some people may have deeper issues they are trying to resolve. Were you here when Big Frank used to post? Well, unfortunately he never was able to resolve all his issues before he died.
Lets join together and wish everyone who posts here resolve and happiness. We are a community, even if once in a while things get a little snippy...
GregFL:
--- Quote ---On 2005-08-09 17:17:00, Three Springs Waygookin wrote:
"In no way do I intend to trivilize the Seed experience for the victims of the program. However, to me the entire program sounds so surreal that it's beyond belief. Sort of like one of those horrible 70's sci fi flicks with wires attached to the space ships, and the rubber monsters flopping around the stage.
"
--- End quote ---
that would be pretty funny...if it was original. How bout this comment from my school newpaper in 1973....
"all I know about the Seed is that when teenagers go there and come back they are just like Robots from outer space"
http://fornits.com/anonanon/images/seed.jpg
Antigen:
Welcome to SDF, Three Springs Waygookin. Interesting stuff, isn't it? Yes, it was a surreal trip!
What differences/similarities do you see between The Seed and the programs where you staffed?
A multitude of laws in a country is like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady.
--Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
--- End quote ---
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