Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum
Art Barker & the Beginning of the SEED
Antigen:
--- Quote ---On 2004-10-26 21:12:00, Robin Martin wrote:
"OK - bottom line...Are you where you need to be?
Anyone out there...do you feel "you've arrived" or are you still searching?"
--- End quote ---
Every time I've ever felt that I'd "arrived", I've gotten my ears pinned back. So I'm just enjoying the trip.
I look at it this way. I was born a fighter, after a long line of fighters. If it hadn't been the Program, I might have chosen some other cause. God knows there are plenty to choose from!
But this is my primary dharma, to borrow a term, simply because of my own personal experience. The philosophy and movement that has grown up around the drug war (of which The Program is just a small but potent slice) has a very dark side w/ which I'm well familiar. Like white slavery rings masqurading as charities of orphans, most good and kind people accept the Program as good and worthwhile w/o much scrutiny. I feel an obligation to share what I know and to encourage a little healthy scrutiny of this phenomena.
May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.
-- George Carlin
--- End quote ---
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2004-05-03 10:01:00, Anonymous wrote:
"the first house before SR84 was pretty much open house you came to meetings and enjoyed everyone, but when i came back in 73 to SR84 it was definitly 6 months of hell, i was basically pretty much a street kid in those days, i did not have parents to force to to go. Art took me in unconditionally, never expecting any money, maybe because i was part of the earliest seed days. I actually signed myself in. It definitly was not easy sittting in those hard chairs from early in the morning till late at night, eating those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but i was so damaged that I needed that sort of boot camp to survice, some real love would have been better, but iIhad no other choices..I tried to escape several times when things got rough and even got away once, but I went home to my family situation and realized the seed was a better solution. When you sign yourslf into the seed it is the same as your parents signing you in, you can't leave until you complete the program. Everybody I knew outside the seed hated it., but whats that old saying, any love is better then no love at all..
The seed definitly set me on the right track, after a couple of years of being clean i went back out for another decade in california of all places. But I now have 18 years of sobriety
and it was from the seed that was planted when i young, it all came back to me, well yes I was basically brainwashed., but with some very important steps, and some bad songs "ZIPPY DO DA ZIPPY DAY" I can look back and see the good in it all, It was an experience i will never forget. Art even asked me to join the staff and they were going to help me go to art school. I turned him down, i guess i needed to make my own way at the time.
Rchard"
--- End quote ---
This is one of the saddest things I've ever read. Richard, please go back and re-read this. "Any love is better than no love at all"??????. This explains so much. I'm really glad that you were able to derive some good from your time there, I honestly am. I hope you're able to look back now though and realize that it was indeed brainwashing and very damaging to most of us. In your case, you made something good out of it and after hearing where you came from I'm not surprised that you mistook the quackery for love. That's how they're set up. All the love in the world. Everyone talks about how they're welcomed with open arms, and they are. But if you stray from the dogma then you are berated and verbally abused (and physically in so many cases) and then shunned from what has now become your "family". That is NOT the unconditional love that you hear so much about in these groups. That's EXTREMELY conditional. Now, considering that you came out of what you say was an abusive household....think about this. All of those who did NOT come from an abusive household. The ones whose parents were scared into believing that what was, in most cases, normal adolescent behavior somehow meant that all these kids were going to die if they didn't sign up. Those kids were subjected to daily verbal abuse. The belittling and confrontation and the whole idea of "breaking us down" is abhorent. Period. Maybe because you didn't grow up with any kind of real love you mistook what Art did and the real thing. THAT'S what makes this one of the saddest things I have ever read.
Please don't misunderstand me, I am really glad that you WERE able to sift some good out of there. But for what I believe to be the majority, it was devastating.
Antigen:
Here's an alternative that existed in Florida back in the early `70's that might have been a whole lot better than The Seed.
http://www.amikids.org/Default.htm
But Art would never, ever tell you about it, would he?
It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
--Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, author, scientist, architect, educator, and diplomat
--- End quote ---
Anonymous:
Antigin. Are you sure that place wasn't a cult too. Maybe they made someone do too many pushups which caused them some permanent damage. Maybe they gave someone too close of a crew cut and now years later they can't get erect because of it. Come on you know everything in this world is fake you can't believe in anyone or anything because their are cultic tones behind everything. Beware of kindness and love for their are always ulterior motives behind everything. :scared:
The Lizard King:
--- Quote ---On 2004-11-10 09:18:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Antigin. "
--- End quote ---
If you're going to address her, you really should spell the name correctly...ANTIGEN. :roll:
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