Anon, I was
in a program for two years where no masturbating and no caffine were unstated and stated rules, respectively.
No caffine only applied to newcomers (people on first phase, which could last half a year or more). This, along with the sleep deprivation, helped ensure that you would not be alert and mentally able to defend yourself till after you'd given up the cause.
The no masturbating thing was not, as I remember, a stated rule at that time. It's just that you were never, ever allowed to be alone at all. Wether you were the newcomer or oldcomer (watchee or watcher) you had company on the john, in the shower and in bed at night.
The only time I EVER passed on an oportunity to sleep was when I had enough adrenaline running through my system to keep me awake because that was the night I would execute my well laid plan to get around whatever security measures they had in place and make a break for it. I can't speak for anyone else, when my head hit the pillow, I was down for the count (which seemed like about 10 seconds) till the alarm went off the next day. I wouldn't have known it if the other girls had a loud orgy together right on top of me.
Later, after I got out in late `82 (or maybe sooner and I just don't remember) there were stated rules against, not only masturbation and caffine, but any added sugar, sometimes even salt and pepper (for kids who were deemed to be 'avoiding themselves' by enjoying their food too much) And people would be stood up in group, confronted and bullied into confessiong having masturbated. That also may have happened while I was there. It just wouldn't stand out as unusual so I can't swear to it one way or the other.
These restrictions are not unique to Mormonism. Whatever Miller Newton was (possibly Scientologist), that was all in his script.
It's hard to explain what the culture is like to someone who finds the whole thing foreign and implausible. I'll put it this way. Several times in my late childhood, I tried to take up the fine practice of journal keeping. The trouble wasn't so much that I couldn't think of anything to write, but that I couldn't think of anything to write that I wouldn't want my mother reading aloud to whoever she thought might commiserate her martyrdome or join in attacking me for it. So when they got hold of my diary and read it to group, there were no realy important secrets in it. It was anticlimactic, which meant that it was another notch in my belt.
"Our friends and allies in the Middle East and Europe will soon be subject to forms of intimidation by an Iraqi government bent on dominating the Middle East and its oil reserves,"
http://www.sptimes.com/' target='_new'>Project for the New American Century (were they talking about themselves?)