Art Barker & the Beginning of the SEED

[Anonymous]

That Ginger is not the Ginger you are thinking of Steve.  Does your last name begin with an "S" also?  I think I know you!

[SMiamiPimp]

I was between 10th and 11th grade when I arrived at the Seed. Given the drugs I was doing and the value system I was developing, my friends kept getting worse, and I was commited and determined in my bad choices. I was really doing some damage to myself. So as much as I hated sitting in a chair from 10 to 10 on stateroad 84, it took me out of that cycle and I was able to clean up and get back on track. I never graduated and was excommunicated by other members when I was pulled out.

The experience of the drugs and the Seed was intense and although I got back on track in life I felt very different from my peers in high school and I never really felt normal after that. It is hard for me to tell how much was the intensity of the Seed and how much was the recogniton of the reality of my behavior and choices in the drug experience, including how much worse it could have been if I continued. But, I really needed alot of work when I got out of the Seed and the trainwreck of addiction.

I relapsed with alcohol 30(not knowing about cross addiction) and now have 17 years in AA.  When I got to AA determined to complete that program I went to alot of meetings and spent alot of time in the literature, sponsoring, forming genuine freindships. I could not find that kind of depth in the Seed. Part of it was my rebellion and part of it in my opinioin was that kind of depth was not there. In treatment today they typically try to set peaple up to continue with AA where there real recovery takes place with time and effort.

So my complaint is they should have referenced AA and the AA literature. A referal to AA would have been nice when I was booted out and excommunicated. Instead of thier "you will be back because this is the only solution attitude". In my opinion now, the Seed was simply bootleg AA in a controlled enviroment.

Also the whole demonizing of druggies, was effective and even true. But I have wondered if that brainwashing has made me untrusting to say the least for life in a distorted way.

On a positive note, from that experience I was able to turn my life around. By the time I was booted, I was clear and drugs and hanging drug users was a bad idea.

I remember a black staff member, Carl. I beleive he was a barber. He treated me well and I have never forgotten it. Also, although I rebelled and hated the whole deal when I was there. I learned alot that has served me well in not drifting back to where I was. Looking back, I think the staff members I dealt with were doing thier best to do the right things in a tough environment/business.

[GregFL]

WELCOME to our forum. It seems by your writings that you have mixed feelings about your time there. That is not unusual in the least.

Please tell us a story about something you remember from the seed 72. We appreciate you joining our forum and look forward to your participation.

[SMiamiPimp]

Thanks for the welcome!

I will respond after the holidays. Life is pretty good now but that was really an intense period..... I need to think where I want to go with this.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

[dragonfly]

[none-ya]

Here I found this somewhere. I don't know if it's been posted here before. But anyway.....
http://ficanetwork.net/seed/art-barker- ... reactions/

[Ursus]

Here I found this somewhere. I don't know if it's been posted here before. But anyway.....
http://ficanetwork.net/seed/art-barker- ... reactions/

Try HERE; that post includes a link to the original article in the St. Petersburg Times. It's also been reposted on fornits a small number of times since then.

[dragonfly]

[jgar]

As per a conversation that had with Greg Fl a few years back he told me that he had infiltrated Synanon and found no connection with Art Barker. There is no record of Art ever being part of Synanon. That being said there are some strange similarities especially that both use the 7 steps versus the traditional 12 steps from AA. I can remember conversations with Art and he always claimed that the Seed was a direct offshoot of AA and that he had condensed the 12 steps down to 7 steps. The reason he gave was that some steps were repetitive and not needed. The story I can recall was that the Seed started off behind the Playboy club in North Miami Beach on his 1929 Elco "trade Winds" yacht as impromptu meetings with some local junkies. He also told stories of AA meetings in New York with some actors such as George C Scott, Art Carnie, Bobby Darren. He claimed the meetings were held during the day when he was not performing his comedy act in the Playboy club. The other comedian happened to be a young George Carlin. He told me once at dinner that George Carlin was an arrogant prick. The meetings got bigger and he moved to Ft. Lauderdale to bigger locations some of the early members was Libby later changing her name to Lybbi Barker, Robert Chun ect. who later ended up as the main Staff members. I'm going off some old memories in the hope of trying to shed some light to your question. The time I went thru the Seed was during the early 80's as one of the last court ordered persons. Soon after that due to the state of Florida changing the laws regarding the supervision of minors and back ground checks for those who would be in charge of the minors the Seed stopped taking in minors.The changes in the law was a knee jerk reaction by law makers because of the child molestation case of Frank and Illiana Fuste from the infamous Country Walk Day Care center. Art stated in the group he would not have anyone subject to scrutiny by any agency federal or State. The Seed was attributed to have been the first of it's kind a rehab dedicated to younger drug user. Keeping in mind that back in the late 60's and early seventies is when many kids began using drugs such as pot and acid and whatever else and many of the parents freaked because it was a new and scary problem that no one knew how to deal with. Art addressed the issue to this generations parents. Contrary to popular beliefArt was not a republican in fact hated them. He was a staunch Democrat a big fan of JFK, Rosevelt, Clinton. He despised Nixon and claimed that in the early 70's due some statements he made in favor of Edwin Muskee some false statements were made in an attempt to discredit the Seed and later actual agents were sent in to audit the Seed under direct orders from Nixon's "Plumbers" in an attempt to close the Seed. Some of what I can remember from those old days while I was there.

[seamus]

I think art was high on smokin his own dick. He was an overrated shister,and a 2nd rate boogyman that helen peterman both idolized,and half assed threatened us with. Fuck him fuck his culty mc -rehab. Seriously,the fuckhead is dead. he was a shameless self promoting, dishonest,shifty bastard. What more do you need to know. His attempts at anything theraputic were half baked at best. Go piss on his grave (wherever that is) and you can call it even.

[Ursus]

As per a conversation that had with Greg Fl a few years back he told me that he had infiltrated Synanon and found no connection with Art Barker. There is no record of Art ever being part of Synanon. That being said there are some strange similarities especially that both use the 7 steps versus the traditional 12 steps from AA. I can remember conversations with Art and he always claimed that the Seed was a direct offshoot of AA and that he had condensed the 12 steps down to 7 steps. The reason he gave was that some steps were repetitive and not needed. The story I can recall was that the Seed started off behind the Playboy club in North Miami Beach on his 1929 Elco "trade Winds" yacht as impromptu meetings with some local junkies. He also told stories of AA meetings in New York with some actors such as George C Scott, Art Carnie, Bobby Darren. He claimed the meetings were held during the day when he was not performing his comedy act in the Playboy club. The other comedian happened to be a young George Carlin. He told me once at dinner that George Carlin was an arrogant prick. The meetings got bigger and he moved to Ft. Lauderdale to bigger locations some of the early members was Libby later changing her name to Lybbi Barker, Robert Chun ect. who later ended up as the main Staff members. I'm going off some old memories in the hope of trying to shed some light to your question. The time I went thru the Seed was during the early 80's as one of the last court ordered persons. Soon after that due to the state of Florida changing the laws regarding the supervision of minors and back ground checks for those who would be in charge of the minors the Seed stopped taking in minors.The changes in the law was a knee jerk reaction by law makers because of the child molestation case of Frank and Illiana Fuste from the infamous Country Walk Day Care center. Art stated in the group he would not have anyone subject to scrutiny by any agency federal or State. The Seed was attributed to have been the first of it's kind a rehab dedicated to younger drug user. Keeping in mind that back in the late 60's and early seventies is when many kids began using drugs such as pot and acid and whatever else and many of the parents freaked because it was a new and scary problem that no one knew how to deal with. Art addressed the issue to this generations parents. Contrary to popular beliefArt was not a republican in fact hated them. He was a staunch Democrat a big fan of JFK, Rosevelt, Clinton. He despised Nixon and claimed that in the early 70's due some statements he made in favor of Edwin Muskee some false statements were made in an attempt to discredit the Seed and later actual agents were sent in to audit the Seed under direct orders from Nixon's "Plumbers" in an attempt to close the Seed. Some of what I can remember from those old days while I was there.

The Edmund Muskie-Art Barker connection piques my interest. Given that Muskie was based in Maine, the two were situated at the extreme ends of the East coast (more or less). What was Barker's relationship with Muskie? How well did they know each other?

[jgar]

As I remember the story was back in the early seventies many influential people were paraded into the Seed  showing off the Seed as a model for drug rehabs. People in law enforcement politicians, Doctors ,psychiatrist and reporters. Even back around 1971 a report was done by Francis now I can't remember his last name was done called "The Seed of Hope" and was run on the national networks. Anway back during this era I believe it was the 72 primaries Edwin Muskie was running on the democratic ticket for president and came to visit the Seed and was taken thru an open meeting. In typical fashion he was very gratiuos and impressed by the Seed. During his visit several reporters were present and interviewed him. According to Art about a week later a story appeared in a newspaper in Maine that during the visit Art asked Muskie if there was a problem in Maine with Blacks and Muskie replied no but there's a Canook problem.Art denied this exchange had ever occurred and when the paper refused to retract the story Art flew to Maine and protested in front of the paper to make public that the story they printed was untrue. Art claimed that this story was an attempt as a smear campaign to discredit Muskie in his bid for nomination of the democratic party. Later after Watergate it his revealed that this was part of the dirty tricks that was originated by the White house "Plumbers" who were also responsible for the break in at Sargent Shrivers psychiatrist office in an attempt to smear Sargent Shriver who was running for vice president under George McGovern and with the breaking into the democratic campaign headquarters at the Watergate hotel. Art also claimed that because of his actions at the newspaper he became a target of the "plumbers" in an attempt to discredit Art the Seed was audited in an attempt to discredit Art and the Seed and close down the Seed. Art claimed that the agents mistreated the Seed's staff and so he through them out. You probably can find the article somewhere in the archives in Maine's newspapers.

[jgar]

The reporters name who did the story on the Seed was Fred Francis. I'm sure there is an old copy his archive somewhere. He was a national reporter.

[Johnny G]

Don Segretti wrote the Canook letter.  He was part of the Comittee to re-elect the president (CREEP).  wrote it as a member of the Seed, can't verify if Art went to Maine or any of that, but that was the story.  Segretti took credit for the letter as part of the whole Watergate business.

[Ursus]

Don Segretti wrote the Canook letter.  He was part of the Comittee to re-elect the president (CREEP).  wrote it as a member of the Seed, can't verify if Art went to Maine or any of that, but that was the story.  Segretti took credit for the letter as part of the whole Watergate business.

M'Kay... perhaps I'm misunderstanding something here, no doubt. How did Don Segretti write the Canuck letter "as a member of the Seed?" Not only was he born in 1941, but... wasn't he based in California during the time in question?

Or... are you saying that the purported author of the Canuck letter, a Mr. Paul Morrison of Deerfield Beach, Florida, was alleged to have been a member of the Seed?