AARC

[Anonymous]

Me again, okay you weren't saying I was ottawa, but I did go back and see the post that apparently I had written, and nope, it's not me.  Anyway, it's early Tuesday morning...forgive me.
JessicaM.

[Antigen]

No, somebody registered a username "JessicaM", which has been used a couple of times from the same IP address as AARCGrad and a bunch of anon posts that are very pro program. Same general geographic area as you, but worlds apart in temperament.

I hope this clears things up.  :smile:

"Replace end user" (The Top Support Call Closer 10 Years Running)

--Bastard Administrator

[Anonymous]

Weird, I wonder why someone would chose to use my name as their user name.  Crazy....

Thanks for clearing that up. :smile:

[Anonymous]

thank you for your answer

[ottawa5]

Look, I admit that computers are difficult for me to understand.  So this whole string of posts is sort of obscure to me.

Is this what you were saying:

that somehow, you had come to the conclusion that certain posts with anonymous and other usernames were from the same person?

But then it proved not to be true?

Well, this is interesting, in itself, but doesn't it also imply that our posts are not really anonymous, even when we post anonymously, because you, Ginger, are able to discern where each of us are posting from?

I mean, this is sort of an academic question for me, because I do not post anonymously, but for those who do, it sounds as if their post still gives you considerable info about them.

Tell me if I am wrong.

[velvet2000]

Usually each person has an individual IP address (which yes, us hosts can see but you can't). The cable company servicing most people from Alberta who post here in lamens terms, hands out group IP's. Jessica M happens to be sharing an IP with AARCGrad. However if needed we can always still find out the exact personal IP and find out who is who with help from the cable company, which has been pretty helpful.  

Her point I believe was to out someone posting under various identities, (not so much their names, but their different stances on the issues). However in this case it's a little different and the identities are legit.

[blownawaytheidahoway]

On 2004-07-15 17:26:00, Hamiltonf wrote:

"

On 2004-07-01 20:13:00, ottawa5 wrote:


"


I suppose that I could accept unquestioningly the point of view that the individuals who could be called CEDU success stories are brainwashed. Yet several of these people are known to me reasonably well and I see no sign of delusion or dysfunction in the ways (which are appropiately individualized) in which they have gone on to live their lives after CEDU.





Puzzling, but then life is sometimes like that--I am confident that patience and further information will help to clarify the situation."

It shouldn't be that puzzling to people who have read Chomsky, and before that Willhelm Reich, on the "Mass Psychology of Fascism"  

You mentioned earlier something about my belief system being perhaps socialist.  Where brainwashing is concerned, it's not a question of belief systems, but of cold hard logic and science.  That's one reason I have so much difficulty accepting so many things that are dictated by "The Law".  True, there is a great deal of logic involved, but very little hard science, and Law does not base itself on scientifically validated data, but frequently on myths, propaganda and socially determined legislation.  With an unthinking media involved, this is how you have the manufacture of consent as Chomsky calls it.  

It's easy to see how the US, from the cold war onwards has fallen victim to brainwashing.  Brainwashing based on fear was the very foundation of Nazi Germany, and, today, of the American Bushist state.  Chomsky, again goes into this in his "Hegemony or Survival"  While he only mentions the drug war in passing in relation to the US involvement in, for example, Colombia, I would suggest that it is equally significant that once the Taliban agreed to ban poppy production in Afghanistan, the US were willing to ignore all the other incredible abuses being wrought by them, at least until 9/11.  The Cold War had been replaced by the War on (some) Drugs and only then the War on Terrorism.  But perhaps I'm getting too far afield.

The brainwashing of almost an entire population by Hitler was relatively easy following the Reichstag  fire.

It's been just as easy for Bush following 9/11, especially as the US has been on an almost constant war footing since WWII.  

In law we have a saying that some people "never let the facts get in the way of a good argument." other times "never let the Law get in the way of a good argument"

Bush succeeded in both in his immoral and illegal invasion of Iraq.

But it would never have been possible without the brainwashing of unfortunate Americans that had been taking place for years.

And that brainwashing included the Drug war based as it was on some very flawed thinking.  You, dear Ottawa5 must realise, if you have read John Stuart Mill that the drug war was what created victimless crimes.  

The indoctrination about the evils of drugs was so  complete that even many drug users came to believe that they were victims of "pushers"   The Demonization of pushers has come to be regarded as a universal truth (by pressure at the UN from the US) It was reflected in Steppenwolf in the 1970's "Goddam the Pusher man".  But almost inevitably the pushers that are arrested or entrapped are people at the low end of the scale and most often are doing friends a favour in dealing small amounts.  Sometimes they are addicts, but only sometimes.  

So the grown-ups begin to see their kids experiment with small amounts of pot and they begin to panic (after all, says the brainwashing propaganda, its 30 times more potent than when YOU experimented with it.(false) And this is where the cults can move in.  They feed on fear, which is endemic to the American belief system.  "Somebody is going to seduce my child into a life of drug-abusing  decadence and I do not have the confidence in my own upbringing to be able to handle this and have him come out of it alive."  The cults know your fears, and they will tell you after a brief "assessment" of your child that he's on a slippery slope, and if he's not treated by them, he's going to be dead within 3 years"

And it's all about money and politics ,too.  Do some more reading on these fora, and you will see a very interesting link between the money making schemes of private "treatment" facilities, mandatory drug testing (private organizations), drug warriors like Mel and Betty Sembler (Mel's a Bush appointee to the US ambassadorship in Italy, and DARE (widely criticised for it's ineffectiveness).

So, Boot camps, Adolescent Treatment, adult treatment AA, NA, Synanon, All of the 12 step programmes (note my English spelling)  are based  upon a fundamental flaw.

And I think that I feel very very sorry for the victims of these programmes because they have been deprived of so much of their potential for true joy, independance, freedom and experience.



And if you think that Fahrenheit 9/11 is a pack of lies, you might as well go on believing these cults, created by the hard religious right are a good thing. ( I cheered when I heard Ted Kennedy referring to that segment of the US population as religious zealots)

So that's my final word on this thread, I named myself after that great American Republican Hamilton Fish Jr from New York  who opposed the US getting into the war against Hitler. Perhaps because my belief system tells me that he was a perfect example of deluded thinking.



 "

If I got to be in another "Values Workshop" at CEDU ed, I would choose you for my hero.
Keep telling it like it is. Or am I so pessimistic about my experience that I am more suseptable to paranoia? Hmmmm...

[sweet_grl_with_a_bad_atti]

i dont think you should send ur son to aarc !!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Funny, the original post was in regards to me. I did end up going, and was brought to fully realize the absolute twisted cult-like atmosphere that is AARC.

I ran after a month, thank god, and today I remain sober after going to a (very well-known) secondary rehab centre (whom, by the way, most of AARCs step materials originate from).

Currently I'm awake at 4:00 am thinking about the shit that AARC put me through. I've been told that this is due to PTSD, as a result of AARC's brainwashing quack-bullshit. It's pretty sad to know how many people who I left behind in AARC are still there because their families have been swindled by "Dr." Dean Vause.

I hope someday the public will be enlightened to the psychological cruelty that takes place within AARC.

--Mike

[Anonymous]

Mike,
im so glad to hear that you are doing well.
you have met me but im not gonna reveal who i am on here.(for obvious reasons)
are you in treatment in the states?
im glad you got out before aarc destroyed your personality, like what has happened to me and so many others.
are you still in treatment? are you with your family?
will you be coming back to calgary again? maybe we could meet up if you are.......

[velvet2000]

Hi Mike. You got away? good for you!

In some literature about cult recovery they discuss why PTSD kicks in in cults. The kicker is that conventional therapy uses regressiosional therapy to recover from PTSD, but in places like AARC regressional therapy is what causes the PTSD! Either way - learning about PTSD was helpful for me.

I'm sorry that you are waking in the night because of it. You can vent here if it helps.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am back in Calgary, and have been for a while now. I completed my treatment in the states about 2 months ago (it was only a month-long program, but it seems to have done the trick). I don't regularly attend meetings, as I often find that I get cravings from them, but I think it's better to stay away instead of simply go out of guilt and risk a craving situation, personally.

I'd be glad to meet sometime if you'd like.

[Anonymous]

If you'd like to contact me, you can e-mail me at [email protected]

-Mike

[Anonymous]

Hey parents who are reading this, please know that the responses you are getting are from a non licensed lawyer and the rest being failures of the program... probably the last people you should ask if you believe your son needs help. They are likely to tell you to buy him some drugs and ween him off.

[Anonymous]

Hey loser read the goddamn thread before you reply. I escaped AARC, and my parents have since apologized for ever putting me through that shit. Infact, they thanked me for running from that crazy fucking institution of lies, which made it nearly impossible for even them to withdraw me by their own discretion.

And before you say anything, I'm still sober. You should feel ashamed of yourself for supporting such mentally and emotionally destructive ideals.