Investigation reports about Straight are now online

[dragonfly]

[Sam Kinison]

Talking about flashbacks!!Woof and myself were in that group when that Rap Schedule of 1978 was made.Looking at that staff roster makes me think of a menagerie of misfits.Three different staff couples on that roster ended up as husband and wife and one other,Liz Cassidy,married Steve Gay,who was also sitting in group at that time.Two of those couples later on left to help Helen Petermann start LIFE.The other couple eventually became Mr.and Mrs David Crock.You're right,Woof!!!The seeds of hate were even being sown back then!!Let's all sing Zip-a-dee-doo-dah and think happy thoughts!!!

Pura Vida
Sam from Costa Rica

[RTP2003]

This is an excerpt from a letter by a Straight-supporting parent to the president of CBS complaining about the depiction of Straight on the investigative journalism program, 60 Minutes: (italics are added for emphasis)


"The child not only
gets the opportunity to get its life back, but also the child gets its family
back"

Note that the parent does not use the adjective "their" when referring to the horrible druggie beast hellspawn, but instead uses the term "it" when referring to children that have been placed in Straight.  To me, this may be a Freudian slip, one that is indicative of the objectification of their own children that Straight parents demonstrated, time and time again.

A very telling insight into the mind set of the program supporter can be gleaned from this one sentence, and the adjective twice used to describe the abuse victim in question.

[shaggys]

This is an excerpt from a letter by a Straight-supporting parent to the president of CBS complaining about the depiction of Straight on the investigative journalism program, 60 Minutes: (italics are added for emphasis)


"The child not only
gets the opportunity to get its life back, but also the child gets its family
back"

Note that the parent does not use the adjective "their" when referring to the horrible druggie beast hellspawn, but instead uses the term "it" when referring to children that have been placed in Straight.  To me, this may be a Freudian slip, one that is indicative of the objectification of their own children that Straight parents demonstrated, time and time again.

A very telling insight into the mind set of the program supporter can be gleaned from this one sentence, and the adjective twice used to describe the abuse victim in question.

Yeah I read that letter too. Referring to children as "it". To me, that letter proves how deep the washing really was. What kind of person refers to other human beings as "it". Fuckin Josef Mengele type shit. Really sick stuff.

[dragonfly]

[Ursus]

http://survivingstraightinc.com/documen ... ight_inc-1

There's also a bunch on the SEED

It's about 1,000 pages in all....

There are some very, extremely, insane, criminal implications in there

Kris scanned that stuff by hand ya'll , one page at a time!

What an incredible mother lode of material. And scanning it all... jeesh! A huge thanks and appreciation for the initiative taken, as well as all the hard work to get it on the net! This'll keep me mulling for quite some time...  :nods:

[Inculcated]

this is my personal favorite...http://survivingstraightinc.com/Florida ... ombine.pdf

While simply worded and evenly formatted it might take most folks a pepcid to read and a measure of gallows humor to tolorate this.

In a nut shell this particular *report* appears to be saying that while the authors (who were consulted for their studies of drug use and for their "particular interest in religious and political cultism") happened to find many parallels between known methods of brainwashing and the Straight milieu, they conclude that after considering the nature of the persons presumed (without any indication of investigation for the purpose of substantiation) to be druggies receiving the reeducation that Straight offered with its bare and isolating facilities, and daily inventory examinations-- then in this  case all such is hunky-dory.

"The brainwashers take a person who is acculturated to a given society and they render him entirely hostile to that condition. Straight does this too, but the immediately pre-existing patterns of thought were entirely malignant in relation to the values and behaviours of the inclusive society."

"The third requirement is that there must be a complete denial of the worth of the old self."
"The subject abdicates his past".... by “declaring he is a druggie and that as such he was out of control and injurious to himself and others"
 (a “several hundred”+ head count of 5150s… really?)

Everything in the passage starting with “If a person is accepted by the group he comes to recognize …” Is strikingly at odds with the later assertion that “No cataclysmic conversions are promoted or desired”

"Furthermore the choice made by the adolescent seekers after the enlightenment of oblivion must be fully honored…"(Are they for f*ing  reals?)  

Guys it’s okay cause this was all being done for the greater good and anyone who does not agree is eschewed as being a cultural relativist
(you know those fringe types)

The fourth requirement is that the subject must be an active participant in his own resocialization. Yes, Straight does this.
Self analysis and self criticism, both privately (through the constant preparation of a moral inventory) and publicly (through the forthright series of revelations to the group), are essential to this programme.And this could be dangerous, as it has been in many organizations that use this device. This is the central technique of the group encounter and of many religious and political revivalist movements.History abounds with fearful examples.We knew that this technique would be a vital element of the Straight programme and we were especially careful to be observant regarding its use and possible misuse. The group encounter, when it is not controlled, can be a dangerous instrument; and many studies have attested to the psychological and even physical injuries that have been attributed to its use.

They then go on to essentially convey hey but here with these types (you know) --it’s a-okay.
 
And folks apparently it’s only sadism if it’s done in an intermittent and unreliable manner because well that would be disorienting…

It is obvious, however, that a director bent on cruel humiliation could hold that the newcomer had so abused his life as to have given up his right to be a human being. As such he would be required to crawl about on all fours or eat without benefit of utensils. The statement as it is currently made at Straight is acceptable but great care must be taken to check any evolution of this idea in the direction of outright sadism.

...feeling queasy outrage as I read...

“Straight is relentlessly normative.”

^Well timed by the authors because this reader needed a laugh, albeit a bitter and rueful one.

Pfft...It gets a little sticky where the authors try to claim limited exposure (despite the 12 hour days involving routine "group revelations" that were "often intense" and the other 12 hours spent shifted into host homes) while also recommending extended aftercare and follow-up.(but oddly very definitively expressed not for the purpose of evaluating success rates)

Do these examiners who find importance in reeducation enough to give a pass on an earlier stated cultic criterion find an actual education for those children at Straight to be as important? Nope.

Is the programme anti- intellectual?children at Straight do not engage in the sort of intellectual pursuits that might be found at a school or university.They do not, for that matter, even read books or watch television programmes devoted to ideas. They are not there for the purpose of expanding their knowledge of intellectual affairs. They are there, nevertheless, to exercise their intelligences. The programme is extremely rational but it is also very simple and direct. It is pragmatic…

::puke:: The rest pretty much states that since the perils of drug abuse are so...well perilous that this peril must be weighed against the possible perils of the programme that they are asked to examine. The authors appear to have concluded that you all would’ve been dead insane or in jail without accepting a little infringement on basic human rights.... dignity,education or peeing w/out observation and what have you.

Straight, we are inclined to suspect, is going to be recognized, eventually, as a national resource.

Well that’s that.

------off topic -ish-----for those un-interested please, pardon what might seem "side talk", but I found an interesting contrast here with his earlier work----
BTW, in case you were wondering about Andrew I. Malcom, MD:
He is the author of a less apparently pandering work that offers some interesting WTF? Reflections when statements within are compared with his report of Straight. “The Craving for The High”

Summary: Youth today is being fed with the message that self-transcendence is all-important and that all worldly details should be secondary to this great aim This message is being perpetrated both by drug users and members of such groups as the human potential movement. We must be aware not only of the power of drugs in inducing an altered state of consciousness, but also of the power of the group in reinforcing a set of values that make this altered state a most desirable phenomenon. Undesirable effects can be produced in the emotionally disturbed or immature person, to the point where seeking a 'high 'becomes the sole object in life.

Excerpted: “The urge to suspend rational thinking has become one of the most actively promoted goals of our time. It is suggested that the only sensible reaction to the dehumaniz-ing processes of the technological society is to emphasize what is accidental and spontaneous in man. Man, it is said, is not by nature rational; it is his emotional life that is meaningful; and therefore if his fullest potential is to be realized he must disconnect his intellect and promote the release of all those elemental passions that are normally held in check by his tyrannical cerebra.
This, in effect, is the most essential dictum of both the drug-using subculture and the drug-free human potential movement.”

Dr. Malcolm assesses the need for an altered state of consciousness that is seen so frequently today.

[dragonfly]

[shaggys]

this is my personal favorite...

 http://survivingstraightinc.com/Florida ... ombine.pdf

OK I just read this one. So it seems that either Straight did a major dog and pony show for this guy or he was on the Straight payroll somehow. The report is so obviously based on faulty info and observations. Its like he accepted every Straight lie at face value. Anybody know the history behind this "report"

[Sam Kinison]

I remember Jim Hartz calling these "therapeutic" measures PEER PRESSURE BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
Tomato----to-mah-toe

[marg1978]

Please contact me for full documents of crimes committed during a four year period . You may contact mike S or the webdiva for my phone number.

[Froderik]

This is an excerpt from a letter by a Straight-supporting parent to the president of CBS complaining about the depiction of Straight on the investigative journalism program, 60 Minutes: (italics are added for emphasis)


"The child not only
gets the opportunity to get its life back, but also the child gets its family
back"

Note that the parent does not use the adjective "their" when referring to the horrible druggie beast hellspawn, but instead uses the term "it" when referring to children that have been placed in Straight.  To me, this may be a Freudian slip, one that is indicative of the objectification of their own children that Straight parents demonstrated, time and time again.

A very telling insight into the mind set of the program supporter can be gleaned from this one sentence, and the adjective twice used to describe the abuse victim in question.

Yeah I read that letter too. Referring to children as "it". To me, that letter proves how deep the washing really was. What kind of person refers to other human beings as "it". Fuckin Josef Mengele type shit. Really sick stuff.

Damn right it is! That creepy-ass quote brings to mind "Buffalo Bill" in The Silence of The Lambs:

"It puts the lotion in the basket."

[dragonfly]

[dragonfly]

[Ursus]

this is my personal favorite...

 http://survivingstraightinc.com/Florida ... ombine.pdf

OK I just read this one. So it seems that either Straight did a major dog and pony show for this guy or he was on the Straight payroll somehow. The report is so obviously based on faulty info and observations. Its like he accepted every Straight lie at face value. Anybody know the history behind this "report"

I assume you mean Andrew Malcolm's report, yes? Although I don't know how Dr. Malcolm in particular came to write this report, other than that someone from Straight apparently asked him to (Dupont? Hartz?), a lil bit of research uncovers some possible context...

Dr. Andrew Ian Malcolm was a psychiatrist based in Toronto, who apparently had a real issue with any kind of mind-altering experience, especially via, but by no means restricted to, recreational drugs. He also railed against the pharmaceutical companies. And he allegedly wrote a couple of books on the subject.

I've also read reference to his research on cults. Apparently he wrote a book on that too, although I still haven't actually pored through (or found) any of his material myself.

And... he also appears to have been not infrequently hired to psychoanalyze defendants in court cases, some of those cases having been a bit notorious. Not surprisingly, Dr. Malcolm also wrote a book on the pros and cons of using a psychiatrist in court.

His big thing, however, perhaps impressed upon him by mere historical circumstances, appears to have been the dangers of P-O-T.

Back in the early 1970s, Canada was mulling over the possibility of legalizing marijuana. A five member commission headed by Gerald Le Dain was assigned to research the situation for a few years (and spent quite a hunk of taxpayer money in the process). When the commission finally came out with its reports and summaries in 1972, the recommendation was for the decriminalization of personal amounts.

Andrew Malcolm went ballistic. Certainly, he wasn't the only one, but the press seems to have quoted him quite a bit. Although I'm sure that Dr. Malcolm was considered to be a real expert, his prolific appearances in the press may have also had something to do with the colorful sound bites he proffered during interviews. Jes' saying...

At any rate, I'm sure that Straight, Inc. was quite aware of him.

Personally, I'd venture that this report was commissioned by Straight, Inc. for potential use as defense material in the event of lawsuits filed against them. Dr. Andrew Malcolm's well-known position on the matter of drug abuse, his former employment as researcher for the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, his averred (or inferred) expertise with usual cult practices and modes of influence, and his ample experience as an expert witness in court cases would have all played into this. Straight, Inc. probably gave him a list of key issues they wanted him to address, and he ... addressed them. Much of the language in this report is absolutely like that of a rebuttal against charges levied.

One more thing. I can't shake the impression that this was supposed to pass as an "objective scientific report." Generally speaking, one means of working towards such a goal would be to have multiple observers collaborate on this type of project. Dr. Malcolm appears to have striven for an approximation of that by bringing along his wife who, as far as I can tell, had no experience nor interest whatsoever in "adolescent drug abuse treatment facilities" other than, perhaps, that of supporting her husband and whatever his issues may have been. This may well be a horribly unfair presumption to make on my part, and I sincerely apologize for that, but that's simply the impression I get. Fwiw.