What follows is a series of posts from a Cedu group on Yahoo.
Initial Post...
"Have any of you done research into the connection
between CEDU and Synanon? Interested at all?"
Reply...
"Yea, that's where Mel got the basic idea for Cedu. When I was there most of the 'family heads' where
escapee's from there. Synanon's concept was cult like
in that you never left, you were all one big family
and your children were to be raised by all. They fell
apart in the late 70's I think when someone put a live
rattlesnake in the leaders mailbox. It got big news
coverage. I don't even know if they still exist.
Anyway, the guys who defected to Cedu were uneducated
punks who were let loose on us teenagers. They had no
training, no degrees, just Mel guiding them. Who, by
the way, was a furniture salesman before he became the
Cedu god. Talk about a control freaks dream!!!
What a sweet deal these losers had too....free rent, a
nice salary and all they had to do was pick on kids
all day. No wonder they all seemed so happy,
especially when the got all those hugs and kisses from
the nubile young girls sitting on thier laps.......
I don't think any of those men could have made it in
the real world or held down a real job.
I remember the first night I was there, some big fat
old (at least to me, he seemed old at the time...) guy
named Neil Weston came up to me and started hugging
and kissing me and I freaked out! I didn't know what
the hell he was doing.
Other than John Padgett, I never heard anything about
what became of Morty Mullins or Dave Powers. I know
Michael Allgood started his own school, maybe they
went with him.
I may be wrong here too, but I bet these guys had to
leave once a legitimate business took Cedu over. I
can't imagine how they could justify to the paying
parents that their kids were being counseled by these
men."
Next Post...
"I had a long chat with one of our members last night and we talked
about the Synanon connection to Cedu as you all know that's where Mel
Wasserman got his idea to start Cedu. These are some scary
people....we should count our lucky stars that we didn't end up
there. There's a web site that gives you the basics about Synanon
and has a alumni list that includes John stallone and Morty Molin
(who is now deceased) who were two of the 'family heads' when I was
at Cedu. The address is
http://www.synanon.org/ and you'll have to answer a
question to get into the visitors section. The answer to the
question is "Walk Around Money" or WAM. I thought it was very
interesting. I'm also waiting on a response from a synanon group in
yahoo groups to see if I can join and ask them some questions. I
would really like to know how Mel Wasserman, a furniture salesman in
Palm Springs got involved with Synanon and how he ended up with these
dope fiends as counselors/therapists.....
Next Post...
"ere's what my friend Margaret, who was one of the first to join Cedu
had to say......
To my knowledge Mel did not have any real connections to Synanon. He
went
there a couple of times and maybe donated some money. But the only
connection I know of is that after he visited there he decided he
could do
the same thing but with teenagers. So he used their basic game plan
and
opened the doors to his Palm Springs house to invite us( drug using
messed
up kids)into his home just to talk. That is how it got started. We
started
coming over just to talk about what we were doing and why. Then Mel
made
some basic rules no drugs, no alcohol, cannot be stonned or drunk, no
physical violence, a person could talk about or say annything they
wanted
. It just kind of snow balled from there. Kids started moving in
including
me and we worked and pooled our money, I believe he was sincere about
helping us at first. I know I had no direction in my life at that
time. But
like I said something happened, I think power and money became the
name of
the game. If that was his intentions all along I do not know. I sure
hope I
wasn't so stupid to buy into his game. But who knows. you can put
this on
you site if you want and use my name if you want."
Next Post...
I'm copying a message posted on the Yahoo Synanon group page
regarding the Synanon/Cedu connection. Interesting, but I wonder how
true it is?
Hi **** --
In Synanon we were told it was a drug rehab program called The
Charles E Dederich University. We thought it a nice compliment.
Have a cool week,
*****"