Problem is MMS is not like diets, or anything you can freely go off or on a diet. With MMS the moment you say this is not for me it is turned into being manipulative. MMS not bieng for you is not an option, can you see that as being one of the many problems?? Not being allowed to talk to your parents for months doesn't help either and then having your calls monitored...
And even if MMS did some good things, the trauma of the experience far outweighed any benefits for a lot of us. Favorotism was a problem, I account both these things for varying emotional responses to 'the program'.
And this 'battle' as you like to call it isn't about you or anyone else, it doesn't exist. Any lawuits filed will be between girls who were abused by John and MMS....well, really just John and even Colleen because none of the other founders are there. Whether or not you found MMS helpful is irrelevant from the standpoint of regulation, lawsuits, and you can argue until your blue but it doesn't make everything we experienced go away or change. You experience can be or not be whatever you claim it to be and the truth remains the same.
John should have been qualified to run the school: therapy, etc, he never was nor IS he NOW, and beyond that, the techniques he used WERE UNETHICAL, and morally repugnant...I guess what I'm saying is in the same way I tell my uncle who often tells me that his father used to call him names and put him down and just be a terror in general (uncle says it was to make him a better person, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger) and it was essentially a good thing, while his sister, my aunt tells me it was traumatizing : Somethings are wrong even if people claim they are helpful or necessary in the end, made them better persons, etc.
Abuse victims often begin to believe they desevere the abuse they have received. And MMS made sure we believed this was ok treatment, they made it necessarily ok if not exalted it as life saving techniques by this grand facility that prides itself on excellence...excellence my ass.
We were young and stupid, what else were we supposed to believe, until we grew older and wiser realizing that, um...this cocky dude had NO IDEA what he was doing, just fear and work and constant crying (psuedo therapy) was the name of the game, with some trust games and group building bullshit that served no purpose. Trusting the group with your life and all that nonsense, it was a total joke! I made great firneds, sure, and I'm very close to many... we bonded over terror and a uniquely unjust experience. But it took many years to clear my head and realize that their solution, AA meetings, and talking about feelings was perhaps their oversimplistic way of offering us 'therapy'. Life is far more complicated and difficult to build on of Johns dumb ass life lessons 101 classes, what ever happened to empowerment.
Real empowerment, though, none of this acting as John's soldier bs, mimicing John as if he was god. I'm talking about real empowerment characterized by freedom of thought, of conscience, freedom to speak, and speak out, encouragement of being critical and analytical, and REAL THERAPY. MMS was a joke and offered nothing of that sort, things of real value. I did like the closeness to nature, but beyond that, please.... JOKE!
After 2 years or three years of being at MMS, though, and coming from an abusive home, I'm not suprised by your posts.