Che asked "what specifics about day to day life at Elan stand out the most for you Matt?"
Specifics as in the prevalent theme of Elan , generally speaking (lol,) besides the constant screaming and yelling - I remember being kept off balance emotionally and mentally, perpetually being kept in a constant state of fear- and always the threat of physical violence, and pain, either happening to you or to someone you liked or looked up to. Elan at the time mixed adults with serious alcohol /drug problems with children from private placement like I was and children from various state institutions.
As a child, and I was a very naive child , you looked up to these people because there wasn’t really anyone else to look up to, for conversation and a sense of protection- you felt that they were able to protect themselves from the insanity and violence afterall they were adults and to a child like myself a person 3 -5 years older than me was huge . Yet there were residents that were 38 ,27, 32 years of age also. You realized in about a month quite quickly that they (the adults) were not inescapable/safe from the threats of violence/or the actual violence itself.
It became apparent as time went on that you were in an eat or be eaten type situation in this so called community within a community as it was described to me during my first few days.
On a daily basis we were kept emotionally and mentally off balance, with the constant threat of physical harm. Hell there was a time I was put into the ring about a month or so after I got there on the side of the house, I had not been in a real fight in all my 15 and half years , I had no clue how to fight, (still don't ) I tried to hide from the eyes of the director Jeffery Gottlieb as he was looking for a fresh person to go against Bob Gellermino, who had already gone a few rounds and even though he had been softened up ,I had no desire to go into the ring . Gottliebs eyes fell on me and he said you go in next and I protested, under my breath- the residents that heard me mumble my protestation yelled out he doesn’t want to go in.
Gottlieb looked at me and said if you don’t go into the ring you will go the ring -against the house . I went in the ring against my wishes and barely landed a punch and they quickly realized that I had no experience in fighting. I was scared and humiliated at the same time due to my acute boxing ineptness. There were some people that were silver mittens ,there were some kids there that could seriously fight.
I witnessed many a beatdown. Hell -there was once a director who went into the ring against a resident, because this resident was so big and I remember to this day Peter McCann sucker slamming this resident to get the advantage. Peter McCann was a cross eyed giant in stature sadistic director who took great joy in using presure points on residents and causing physical pain. He was a big scary sick cretin, he died in 1985, but not before he lost his legs to diabetes.
The threats of violence weren’t limited to the ring - there was ; the General Meeting , the insane cowboy ass-kicking, the electric sauce, forced hard labour, the constant yelling and screaming.
Che asked "Like what is a day in the life for an Elan detainee when you went there?"
Well first we were called residents - I remember being told it was because we were not mental patients ,even though some people came from hospital –and that we were not inmates – though many were there in liue of jail or juvee halls. Yes we were called residents. (this was 7-74 to 7-76. things may have modified since then, but this was how it was when I was there -then)
The food also sucked , we were given cigarrettes a pack a day , and drank coffee like fish drink water.
It is hard to answer this question Che- because a day in the life changed from the first few weeks you were there and kept changing thru out your stay as a resident, until you achieved the goal of graduating. When you first got there , you just kinda floated for about a day or two . Other residents of “strength” unbeknownst to you- shadowed you and constantly talked to you about the place . You had to learn a new lingo , everybody would ask you well what was your bag. Which I had no clue what they were talking about –though it meant what did you do out on the street , drugs ,steal, robberies, pimpin , hustling what were you into on the street.
You learned in this honeymoon period how to book an incident ,what the shingle was –the literal book that incidents got booked into , you learned about the injustice system, how to give an injustice , what an attitude was – it was an unattended coffee cup or full ashtray , book , trash , clothing – it was called an attitude because it represented an apathetic non caring attitude, it was unattended it had not been cleaned up or put away -it was just left for somebody else to deal with because of their "apathetic attitude". You learned what the the pull –up was and the proper way to do it and to who you could give a pull-up to and then how to use the dump after the pull up had been given.
You learned there was a dichotomy, very similar to the U.S. Military, you learned your job in this dichotomy would more than likely be a worker on the service crew or worker in the kitchen. You learned that the expeditors were the police force ,their job was to conduct headcounts every 10 to 15 minutes ,there were no bars or alarms to keep us in- but they knew with in 15 to 20 minutes if someone had “split” Expeditors also found people thru out the house to “knock on doors “ for “haircuts” (straight out of the Synanon playbook) or just get people because they roamed all over the house, keeping an eye on the residents. Looking for contracts , people acting off their eyes for each other , Contracts could be cigarrette , split , and goofing off contracts.
Expeditors tried to instill guilt into people with their stares when the house would be called into the dining room for a general meeting. You were not allowed to talk as you sat for hours sometimes before the general meeting started . Expeditors were allowed to roam around and they would stare at residents and whisper to each other just to hype up the already strong paranonia that already existed just from being in Elan in the first place. Such a silly little game they played all to keep residents off balance and to try to make people feel guilty. ( I laugh at it now -but rest assured it was not funny then)
You learned in your first week what the groups were ,what haircuts were –verbal reprimands- and you were told the whys –you were told that the reason you were yelled at in these haircuts was because out on the street you had a hard time listening when people talked to you and as a result that was one of the reasons you ended up in Elan and you needed this yelling .
You learned that the entire resident population was also called the house and you learned that the service crew cleaned the common areas of the house . I started out as a worker in the service crew. In this position we also were told what the Elan philosophy was, we studied it word by word - and what it meant –line by line, the redundancy of the philosophy was to the point that it became a part of your life. You were always from that point on in your Elan cult life always trying to get with the program.The Elan philosophy was read at morning meeting and before the house was sent to bed.
During the first weeks you learned what it was meant by the phrases “buy a saddle “( straight from the line of the elan philosophy “seeing ourselves thru the eyes of others shall demand change) or” throw it out the window “ you learned about the encounter group, the static group, the sensitivity group, and the primal scream groups.
You learned that a persons job was also their status and accorded them power over the lower ranks of residents. The highest level was the senior co-ordinator ( all co-ordinators carried special notebooks) they were the ones that were in charge of the various departments . you learned that beside the kitchen ,service crew, there was also the business office ,and the communications department. During your learning process – you learned that you had to request phone calls and they had to be passed up the dichotomy- you just couldn’t go to the senior Co-ordinator and request a phone call home because that was not the proper way and you could get a haircut for not following that rule.
You learned quickly what the rules were and the main three rules –the so called ‘Cardinal Rules” 1 no violence of any kind , 2 no drugs and the third rule- was no sex of any kind.
You learned that your phone calls were going to be screened and to make sure that you didn’t say anything negative about the program , you learned what the rules were in you first couple weeks . so many rules that could get you a haircut ,a general meeting and that did not involve breaking a "cardinal rule" . Break one those and you were certain to get a General meeting.
Funny when I think about it Elan and the directors broke 2 of their own cardinal rules, they drugged people and my god Che those directors made us be commit violence to our fellow residents thru the ring ,cowboy ass-kickings, general meetings and the electric sauce – shoot I forgot-what am I thinking - that was the sanctioned violence that Elan and the directors held over every residents head , therefore that made it okay , lol -NOT. It was insanely sick.
When a person first got there they learned the difference between the house meeting, general meetings, and morning meetings. They learned where the pull up sheet was( right next to the breakfast sign up sheet) and how to bring a pull up to morning meeting , the new resident also learned that their very first taste of personal humiliation was going to be the song and dance that they would be performing on the next morning meeting or when they were prepared, as was my in my case. This everyone did you were told -it was to help break your image. speaking of images -all men who had beards or facial hair - it was shorn upon your arivial to elan. My song after about 5 days was Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry – it was a terrible rendition I will tell you.
Yes there is so much more you were taught during your first 2 weeks and as you were learning this cult language of Elan and the cult rules of Elan ,you also participated in group sing alongs. Must have sung “Our house" by CSNY so many times that now my skin crawl when I hear it -and quite honestly it is a good song , well written and the harmonies are beautiful ,but I can’t stand that song today . We sang Maxwell’s silver hammer, Hide your love away , Henry the 8th and many other songs. .
Eventually you were well on your way to being well indoctrinated into the cult that was elan – thank god that hell hole is gone .
As for every seeing a psychiatrist( you didn't ) which is what Dr. Davidson was supposed to be besides being a medical doctor and medical director of Elan I spoke to him maybe all of five minutes during my 2 days shy of two years in that place. There were no clinically trained personell at Elan besides Davividson during my time, that worked at Elan then.
I hope this answers a little bit of those two questions and hopefully it will cause more questions to be asked. I for one would like to know if any other programs resembled the lunacy that was elan and if so how? Did any program have the cowboy kick-ass, the ring , the electric sauce - the general meetings - the various groups and the verbal reprimands that were the "haircuts" as part of their program. How was Elan similar to other programs?
Yes the first couple of weeks were spent learning to the point of sensory overload. And as you progressed in getting with the program what you could experience changed on an almost daily time frame and most certainly varied on a week to week time frame.
There was a daily schedule , though it varied as well depending on many factors . The house was always being sent to bed at 11:00pm unless it was being kept up during a gm or because some one had split , the house got up at 7:00am the house was called into the dining room for morning meeting at 9:00. lasted an hour- the house was sent to production at 10:00am house was called into the dining room for lunch at 12:00. groups generally occurred after lunch – dinner was 5:00 -groups could happen after dinner . and this repeated during the week , weekends were a little better, usually groups some slight free time , haircuts happened during the day and night, blasts happened all the time. You time during the day was well occupied, the only peace was at night when you could sleep -if you could sleep.
There was a sheet called the “scratch” that an expeditor carried on a clipboard ( all expeditors carried clip boards ) and it recorded in a rough form of shorthand the times a haircut was given –who gave it and who got it and why . This was the rough draft of the Daily report that was written up that included the previous days activities –when ever the house was called and to where the house was sent ,all the groups –general meetings .sometimes the daily report could be 25 hand written pages and it had to be neat or the person writing it – generally the “ night man” –the resident strength that took headcounts every 20 minutes at night from the night owl –watched over the men while they slept and did head counts and the night woman- who did the night time headcounts of the women - might have to write it up all over again . This "daily report was adressed to either the director of the house or to joe Ricci. It was the daily written record of the previous days activities. this scratch passed thru many different expeditors hands and sometimes it was hard to read the different handwritings.
A new resident learned that if you split that they would send out trackers to look for , these were residents sent out in twos that looked for the splittee at various places on the road and generally stationed at the toll collection booths in Gray Maine. And god forbid if you got caught.
A day in the life of an Elan resident was never the same unless you were shotdown – and that is when you lost your job and just cleaned and hit the pans. (washed the pots and pans and dishes of the house from breakfast ,dinner and lunch), some folks got to clean dumpster with tooth brushes, some got to move piles of Maine white granite boulders from one big pile to another and then back to the original spot all the while getting blasted on the spot for moving too slow.
Seriously thank god that hell hole is closed it has been the destruction and death of many a good person.
