Art Barker likely never at Synanon

[GregFL]

i have good reason to believe Art Barker never spent time at Synanon.  All I can say right now is this is the result of intensive personal research.

However, Art Barker claimed in the press "13 years of interest in juvenile drug prevention" back when the Seed had only been around 2 years, and there was decidedly synanon style "treatment" At the seed in addition to the warped AA idelogoy.


I remember Cliff saying he knew Art in New York when they were at _________ treatment center. There were already several Synanon spinnoff treatment centers in the region and I believe Art must have done a stint there or at the very least one of his early insiders did and brought the techniques with him. In addition, there are reports that Art had a personal fascination with "hitler youth", but the fascination was the mobilizing of the kids, not the nazi overtones. Art was fond of calling it the "seed army".

Anyone else remember?  The memory is old and I need independent confirmation. I really need help in confirming where Art learned these synanon techniques.


HELP



[ This Message was edited by: GregFL on 2004-02-29 19:20 ]

[FueLaw]

Sorry Greg I can't answer your question but I have a feeling your hunch is correct. His backround was in AA so it must of been some of his early staff members who taught him certain techniques and gave him ideas on how to conduct effective cult like brainwashing of children.

The early or original seedlings were probably like guinea pigs to him and the staff. If something worked he kept on doing it if not try something different. After a couple of years he got it down to a science.  By 1973, when you and I went in, he had virtually all of his techniques worked out.

The key to the whole thing is when he was able figure out that he needed get kids isolated away from home for extended periods of time in order for his cult like brainwashing to work. Once he was able to keep people for 24 hours a day the genisis of a cult began to evolve.

The stuff he used to spew about having 12-13 years experience or interest in youth drug prevention was probably just bs he would tell people to build up his credibility.

[Anonymous]

I don't know anything about Art's mind control training or AA involvement,but Richard Nixon was in the White House at the time. I do remember he "opened he door to China" during his administration and pulled America out of Vietnam. Reading a bit about the brainwashing techniques that were used in Red China made me see a connection. Only I may be wrong. All I remember reading is that The Chinese had to put bobbed-wire fences around all the parks because people that were involved in Communist brainwashing techniques and undergoing their indoctrination to create the order over there, were hanging themselves from the tree limbs and committing suicide at such a rate they ad to put up a barrier to the trees. Nixon was in 68-75? I don't remember. How did Art get a government grant for this all? Once I had a student keypal from China and we discussed a lot of things. The only thing I couldn't uderstand was she said"How did you get so advanced?" She was still a student and I told her "I was raised a communist here in America in The Seed. I mean not a real communist but I had been sheltered and brainwashed.She too could not speak freely of certain things and I respected that because of the Seed memories. I just felt a connection with her on a friendly level. She couldn't uderstand why there was no Jazz in China. lol It's musical freedom of expression in a succubus type of brand. Great American export. She just had no freedom there. It was like talking with a young seedling sort of. Whether that had anything to do with it all......Nixon,China, Art's training I have no idea,but I don't know how Art got a cool million government grant to expand and experiment? Wish I could help.

[GregFL]

Well, here is the rub people.

The person that granted the Seed the grant was Robert Dupont.

Robert Dupont also later became a paid consultant for Straight, Inc.

In a lawsuit against straight filed by one of our own, Robert Dupont testified under oath that

Straight was a linear descendent of Synanon.  

Now, Robert Dupont knew that the Straight was a direct descendent of the Seed.

I hope this helps you guys better understand why I feel a connection exists between synanon and the Seed.  I remember Raps where Cliff was saying things like "This all comes from ________" and he was  mentioning a rehab in New York or in the general area. There were synanon spinoffs in New York such as Daytop.

There is a connection, I just haven't been able to connect the dots, and I need the help of this community.



 

[ This Message was edited by: Somejoker on 2004-03-10 07:43 ]

[Somejoker]

Okay, for those interested. Here is an excerpt and the link for Robert Dupont under oath in a trial against straight, courstesy of my friend Wes Fager:


4 Now, the therapeutic community program is

5 the linear descendent of the earliest of the modern

6 addiction treatments. It started with a program

7 called Synanon in California in 1978 and spread around

8 the country. And here we have Second Genesis and

9 Crossroads and several others in this area, as well as

10 Straight, that provided this kind of treatment, which

11 really had to do with peers working with peers in the

12 program and had to do with confrontation and

13 relatively prolonged periods of treatment.

http://thestraights.com/people/medical- ... t-web4.htm

Other than his obvious mispeak about the date synanon was started (it was not 1978 but the early 60s)Notice he said straight was  a LINEAR DESCENDENT of Synanon. Straight was formed by Seed parents and Seed staffers in St Petersburg Florida when the seed tucked tail and left.

How clear is that?

Now, please help me find the link to how Art Barker obtained these methods.  I know the guy....he didn't think it up on his own.  In other words, Art barker DID NOT REINVENT THE WHEEL, ONLY COPIED IT.  

The question, how and where did he learn of these techniques?




[ This Message was edited by: Somejoker on 2004-03-10 07:45 ]

[GregFL]

And just so you know where Dupont's loyalties lied, check out this excerpt from his Testimony in Fager's case against straight....Q) is Fager's attorney and A) is Robert Dupont.


1 Q. If the person was placed in the closet, as I

2 talked before, and had been confronted and had someone

3 yell and scream at him in a volume that this jury has

4 heard for up to an hour for 40 days in a row and spit

5 in his face and not let him wash it off before he went

6 to bed, would that be appropriate confrontation?

7 A. Well, it might be.

8 Q. Under what circumstances would that be

9 appropriate, doctor?

10 A. Well, I think that the issue would be what

11 the person's responsiveness to the program is.

12 Q. How about if he wasn't making -- oh, it

13 would be okay to spit on him?

14 A. I don't know spit on him. I don't think

15 there was any -- at least in my understanding of the

16 deposition there was no claim that he was being spit

17 on. In fact, he went to some extent to say no, he

18 wasn't being spit on. If I understand --

19 Q. Who said this?

20 A. William Fager, in the deposition.

21 Q. So you have reviewed all the records?

22 A. No, just that deposition.

FRIEDLI, WOLFF & PASTORE


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

1457

1 Q. You were saying that this 24-hour -- I

2 don't know what word to use -- where they were

3 involved or in contact with the upper phaser for 24

4 hours a day was good?

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. That includes bathing with them in the same

7 room, requiring that they take a bath and they

8 required that they have their hands up on the towel or

9 the shower curtain rod?

10 A. Uh-huh.

11 Q. That they go to the bathroom at the same

12 time while someone else is present? They sleep with

13 them?

14 A. Uh-huh.

15 Q. All of that is appropriate treatment?

16 A. Yes, so they don't run away.

[GregFL]

Excerpts from the idiots that ran the drug war in this country in the 1970s and 80s. These people, the sum total of them all, created an environment where it was "appropriate" for 14 year old kids to be tortured in thought reform camps like the Seed and then the offspin programs...Life, straight, Kids...Pathway...safe.


These decisions, made decades ago, have resulted in countless kids being robbed of their childhood, of their right to experience life in a normal fashion to include making mistakes and finding their own identities.

Instead, they attempted to recreate us in the image of a chain smoking, angry alchoholic AA dogma spewing cult leader because his ideals for reforming children fit the mold the drug warriors thought was appropriate for teenagers.

In other words.... we got fucked.

[Cayo Hueso]

On 2004-03-10 08:40:00, GregFL wrote:


In other words.... we got fucked."

Majorly fucked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we didn't even get a decent meal out of it.

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?"  Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night."
-- Charlie Brown, _Peanuts_ [Charles Schulz]

[GregFL]

Yep, not even a kiss goodnight after.

 :grin:

[GregFL]

It is also important to remember that the founder of the synanon, Chuck Deitrich, was an AA guy himself.

In fact, the term synanon is a play on the term
alcoholics anonymous.

What it is meant to stand for is sins anonymous (get it).

Chuck Deitrich and Art Barker aren't the first or last AA guy to go off the deep end and declare themselves the leader of a cult movement. All the elements for the rise of a tyrant exist within the confines of AA doctrine.

[Anonymous]

The Higher power thing Greg? If somebody went off the deep end would they believe their own bullshit all the time or would there be a conscious knowing of their trickery? Or would they have tricked themselves? If they felt chosen to rise out a tyrant wouldn't that make their god an evil god?  :eek:

[Anonymous]

I dont think cultism really has much to do with god..good ,evil or otherwise.

Cutlism is more about re-enforment of dogma and individual ego, mind control, basic surprisingly simple  behavior modification and the pyschology of the propensity of people to follow a leader.

Troubling as it is, AA has all the elements of dangerous cultism at its immediate disposal. Dogma, exclusive language, higher purpose...all there for the grabbing.

Witnness Chuk Deitrich, Art Barker, Jim Jones and countless other cult leaders that have sprung form the AA doctrine.

[Anonymous]

I recall a movie about Santeria and its involvement with a drug rehabilitation program called"The Believers" starring Martin Sheen. It mae me wonder what really went on behind closed doors at the staff's circle. The god concept was introduced to me through AA doctrine as a Supreme being. All I could think about was some god that wore a long red robe and wandered through the world. For all the atheists their higher powr was the spirit of the group called a "spreda core" or something. I guess the mysticism of all the cultish programs just seemed like a dogma, like you said. As Seedlings we were always getting it from everybody it seemed like. Even the place where they called us a "family". I hated that place.(the Seed) :flame:

[GregFL]

Yeah, the spree de corps thing. I remember that term being bantered around quite a bit.

More than that, I remember having my speach ready during steps rap, which occured every day in first phase, and then repeating the "god to me is the group" pablum every time I was called on to explain that particular step.  I never believed it, not for a second, nor did I think anyone seriously believed that "god to them can be anything..even a chair".

What a crock, but if you even appeared to doubt any of the dogma, any of it, you were in big trouble, so I sat in my chair and rehearsed what I would say if called upon mustering as much feigned enthusiasm  as I could,  deeply afraid of being called on and confronted, deeply resentfull of being stuck there but not seeing a way out, and all the while losing my childhood to an experienced that I neither needed, wanted, or should have been subjected to.

Yesterday My daughter and I spent the day together with family for a party for my nephew. My daughter is the age I was (14) when I went in. As I thought of what a crime it would be to break her spirit at this age, I also observed former seedlings at the party and wondered if they thought the same thing about their kids.

The Seed still sucks, but now it is just sucky memories.


Back to the thread topic...Still looking for help identifying where Art got his synanon techniques.

[marshall]

Cliff usually talked about how our higher power could be anything...the group, an idea, even a lightbulb. I recall that Robert Chun once really got angry and contradicted cliff on this. He kept saying that god was not some lightbulb or the group, etc..that god was GOD! It was obvious that he was referring to cliff on this subject. The cultish, mystical aspect of the seed is especially repugnant to me. Art our saviour. Our glorious mission in the world. We...the chosen. ughh!