Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum

A Good Experience

(1/3) > >>

Anonymous:
On the contrary I attended the Seed in the seventies and it was a good experience for me and my whole family.  My brother shot heroin at 14 and we were sure there wasn't much hope for him.  He's now in his late fourties, and a professional as well as myself.  I am grateful for the help my whole family recieved and have very fond memories filled with alot of love.  Sure there was disipline, I was not alowed to do alot of the things I did before ( like drugs & shoplifting). If it wasn't for the Seed I really don't know what would have happened to my whole family...

GregFL:
Welcome. This has always been of great interest to me.

That two people can go thru essentially the same experience and come out with two very different results.

For me, the Seed was a defining moment of my childhood and the ultimate destruction of my ego and my family. It took me years to recover and my teenage years were ruined and my family is still divided on some level over this issue.

I commonly talk to people who take your attitude, that it was tough but you needed something. Usually, my observation has been that these people haven't really confronted the actual process that occured there, the breakdown of individuality and rebuilding of self under a cultic model and the worship of the Seed and Art Barker that was required. Hell, some people don't care and just subscribe to the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" theory on life.

Whatever floats your boat. I won't discount your experience but would love to hear more. Also, what Seed location were you in? When? Also, shooting heroin at 14? Damn, that seems extreme...


What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

--- End quote ---

GregFL:
If it wasn't for the Seed I really don't know what would have happened to my whole family..."

You know, that is the thing...no one really knows because you cannot change the path you went down.

However.Think of the majority of your friends now. Most of them that grew up in the 70s did drugs, stole, etc.  but most are okay today...some our of national leaders (our president was a coke head).

Some are not. How many of them had to be locked in a wherehouse in order to survive? How many had to profess their love for a middle aged cult leader in order to go home to their mother? To eat a decent meal? To urinate or defecate without being humiliated? To sleep properly? To gain any humanity whatsoever?

Then think of all the Seed graduates you know...where are they? Some are doing great..I know I am (no credit to the Seed I endured despite that place).

And then theree are the others...the graduates that didn't make it. One I know just died a junkie.  Several I know of jumped off the skyway. Some from deep on Art's inside have written me and expressed grief and outrage over what happened to them...the allegations are frightening from some. One of my best friends from high school, fellow seed graduate David Leverone, flamed himself in the arm with an eight ball and died some 20 years ago.

And what of those beaten and sexually humiliated,screamed at,forced to hold their urine in for hours, to look straight ahead always, to not think without punishment(no getting into your head)...forced to always smile that "seedling smile" or be punished, started over, refreshed?


How about those of us locked in rooms, reduced to tears in front of the group, kipnapped from school? Coerced to sexual confessionals and public drug confessionals?Forced to endure beatings from parents at the direction and insistence of staff and in front of them, then returned to group and stood up and humiliated?

And before you deny any of this, I have newspaper articles from the time and articles from national publications  confirming that my memories are not false.


What would of happened to your family without the Seed? I honestly don't know....but my question to you is;

Do you really credit the Seed with your success?


 
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark.  The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.  
--Plato
--- End quote ---

Anonymous:
Greg- do you only want people to agree with you?
It does kinda sound like that.  I think everyone has their right to their opinion.  You sound a bit defensive.

JDavid:
Defense is the reaction to offense.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page