I had the wonderful opportunity to discuss this subject recently with another program survivor. The other survivor was apprehensive in telling me this part of their story for fear that I would think of them as "crazy". I assured this person that nothing could surprise me anymore within the survivor world of the troubled teen industry at all, and that I had pretty much heard it all. The survivor felt more comfortable after me saying that and decided to open up to me. They stated that they had had a dream of going into the program before they actually were put into Pathway Family Centers program in Indianapolis in early 2004. They also reported to me that they actually saw the inside of the building in the dream , as well. this particular survivor got out of the program somewhere in 2005.
I was in turn able to share with this survivor that I too had had a premonition dream about going into Kids Helping Kids in 1988. I was placed in Kids Helping Kids in Hebron, Ky shortly thereafter in June of 1989. After hearing this survivors particular story about the dream I tried like heck to think of common threads between the two of us. It went something like this: "Okay, so we went to the same program under different names. We suffered through the same treatment modality and abuse. Both programs are direct descendants of the STRAIGHT INC. treatment modality stemming from THE SEED , as well as, SYNANON. " I then thought to myself, "Yes, these are all common threads between us, but what else could there be?" So, I started to ask this survivor about their upbringing and so forth. I found out one other common thread between us and that was this; at least one of our parents was involved with real estate as we were growing up. My father worked for Century 21 as a realtor and one of her parents did realty , as well. Although this is one common thread it may or may not mean anything.
I am still searching for other program survivors who have had this same experience, and need help and more thought from others on possible links to other common threads among us.
I feel in my gut that there is definitely something to this, and will not stop until I find out some answers. I got to thinking harder about it, and maybe it has nothing to do with our parents at all, maybe it goes as far back as our grandparents. My grandfather was a free mason...he was pretty high up in that organization. He was a staunch contributor to Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy, and was awarded the title of Kentucky Colonel from the government of Kentucky for public service. This is an unusual award for an "ordinary citizen". this award over the years has usually been reserved for elected officials, and actors, actresses, and entertainers, such as Rosemary Clooney , etc...
Now, I am not saying that my grandfather was not a remarkable, deserving person at all, but combined with other stuff I do know about him....I am suspecting that he got sucked into something that he didn't really know about in the name of the "drug war" and in the name of "saving childrens lives".
Since I just thought of all of this about my grandfather, and that thought process had taken place after I had spoken with the other above mentioned survivor I am not sure if this would be any kind of common thread. So, I am putting this out there in case that it may be and also in case that others have had the same experience.
Comments are welcome.
Thank you!
sincerely,
-DP
