Any fond memories, lessons or other positive aspects of The

[Filobeddoe]

Ok... here goes! It will probably be a short list for me, but there are some positive things I got out of "my" Seed experience.

IMPORTANT LESSONS:
1) Serenity Prayer- Very important lesson while in The Seed and to this day for me to deal with problems that come up.
2) Change your ATTITUDE- The Seed taught me that it is up to me to "change my attitude" if it is bad. Yes, this is pretty obvious... but it is something I think about almost daily whenever I have a lousy attitude I stop & think about it & know that I can change it if I want.
3) Self Esteem- Was told that I was "better" than all those druggies out there. It was something I needed to "say no" to my peers. It gradually helped me realize that I was capable of making my own decisions without getting approval from my peers. (there of course were many negatives about alienating 90% of population.. BUT eventually helped)
4) Counselling friends & relatives about drug abuse/effects of peer pressure etc. Having been in a "drug rehab" program... I have a unique perspective.

FOND MEMORIES:
1) Many friends made with seed oldcomers & graduates. They replaced my old druggie friends for a few years while I grew up. Looking back, alot of the stuff we did was "druggie-like" like listening to rock music (real loud), dating Seed & non-Seed girls, dancing, hunting, water skiing, riding dirt bikes, etc.
2) Driving back home from a weekend Seed meeting & getting my mom's Chevy 4 door up to 100+mph while listening to Boston's album on my power amped out (300 decibels?) stereo with other Seedlings. (Hey, I was 17 & it was fun)
3) My oldcomers & their families where sincerely interested in my progress & were neat people.

Well, that's about it. Not a long list but I can say some good things about my experience.

What are some of your fond memories or lessons from The Seed?

Filobeddoe[ This Message was edited by: Filobeddoe on 2004-09-25 21:32 ]

[rjfro22]

the seed got me a job with other seedlings and i learned to work hard show up in time  something I could never do prior ,and actually save money for a car. I shared apartments with several seedlings and we had a ball, and yes we listened rock and roll and
I even let my hair grow back and ocasionally some one would make a comment about my hair, but they didn't  try to force me to cut it,  at this point I was an oldtimer.  I also made very close friends with a family that I lived with and they were very supportive, we are still friends to this day. I traveled the country in a pinto with a female seedling friend and that was a great experience, we even fought occasionally, but we never had to use over it. Art asked me to stay on as a staff member and even offered to help me get to art school, I just was not ready at the time and said no.  It took me 11 years later to get to art school on my own, oh well, I wasn't ready.  coulder woulder shoulder.  The seed knew me better then I even realized, even when you think no one knew you, they seemed to know what you needed.   Art is a great man and may he remain well.

[Tony Stark]

We could sing really well together in St. Pete. :smokin:

Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.
-- Emo Phillips

[rjfro22]

I know singing those sappy songs were ridiculous, I basically just moved my mouth.
That one took a while for me to get use to.
It certainly was a way to break the big ego.
The road to recovery....

[GregFL]

Recovery from what?  99% of seedlings had no drug addiction. Recovery is a drug addiction term.

The only road we were on was the road to coersive cultic mind control.

[Anonymous]

speaking for everyone are we? hmmm..

[GregFL]

Anon, do you dispute that 99% of the Seed inductees were not drug addicted?

Enlighten us please...

[Anonymous]

children playing with matches could be deadly. I do think many kids were simply developing dangerous habits . the seed for many was early prevention. I do think even today the word addiction may be misused but
bad habits can kill regardless.

[GregFL]

Early Prevention?  Holy shit...So by that same logic any child drinking a beer should be put in lock down Alcoholic treatment, and kid looking at porno should go to sexual addiction treatment,any kid that gets in a fight needs Anger management counseling and any kid that steals a dollar should go to jail.

It just doesn't fly.  You don't put non-addicted kids in residential lock down addiction treatment, Especially ones using the techniques of a known cult (synanon) with a "leader" that claims to be saving america's youth. Just how fucking gullible and stupid were the parents of seedlings?  I still have stuck in my mind visions of those little children coming into that warehouse and being subjected to food and sleep deprivation. The whole thing was  a travesty and injustice to most of the kids, and those few of you that felt "helped", well...congratulations for "recovering" on the backs of scared little children. Would you do this to your 14 year old if you caught him with a joint and bad grades? I sure hope not.

No, for the most part, addicts were a rarity and oddity in the Seed that got instant hero status once off the front row, then usually they disappeared within a couple weeks. If not, they were called on constantly to woow us with their addiction and jail stories.

The Seed as Prevention.....   ::puke::

[ This Message was edited by: GregFL on 2004-09-27 12:54 ]

[Anonymous]

I never meet anyone in the seed that was there for a joint, and about getting sober  at the exspence of other children,
you really are reaching. It sounds to me that you are trying force your idea's on other people.  
Tell again , what did they do to you that was so terrible?   and again I ask,  How come you didn't take off.....  30 something years later your still there, go  out of there.
Take off....

[GregFL]

Oh, its you rjfro22. I wasn't sure but thought so, but your latest posts are Anon.

There were children in the Seed as young as 8 or 9 for attitude problems. Many many people were there for "druggie attitudes" and for minor offenses, even skipping school and talking back to their parents.This is documented. Judges even were sentencing kids to the seed in st pete for shoplifting (the judges kids had kids in the program).

I also in length explained to you why I didn't "take off". It was not an option for many. I have also for several years of posts explained what happened to me there, how I had to choose freedom over family, how my famly was left shattered, how my childhood was stolen, how I was embarrassed, hurt, angry, confused, how my ego was destroyed, how I felt in school being the member of a non voluntary cult and how I felt worthless and not part of normal society for a long time.


I am also "30 years later still there" for the benefit of people like you that want a place to discuss what happened in the seed. Before the SDF existed it was just the dirty little secret of many people and few understood like others that were there.  This site is my pleasure to moderate. I don't do this because I chose to relive my hurfull childhood over and over. In fact, I have no emotion whatsoever discussing this. I view this forum as an avenue of public service, something I am qualified to give back to other people who went thru a unique shared event in their life. No thanks necessary rjfro and no charge to join the discussion and no attacks allowed to protect all points of view.

No, rjfro, I am not trying to force anything on anybody and certainly not my ideas. . How many times must I say that?

You seem to want to often bring this discussion off of the Seed and back around onto me for some reason. That is usually the tactic of someone with weak arguments. You may notice few other people do that here. Do you have an axe to grind with me? Do my opinions offend you?  If so, try to get over it and give us the benefit of your knowledge and point of view instead of changing the subject to me.  That confrontational method of communication learned in the Seed really is anti-social outside of exclusive groups.

[Filobeddoe]

On 2004-09-26 09:00:00, rjfro22 wrote:

"I know singing those sappy songs were ridiculous, I basically just moved my mouth.

It certainly was a way to break the big ego.

The road to recovery...."

Right! I can't think of a better way to break down the big ego of a "tough kid" than making him sing Zippety Do-da or Do the Hokey Pokey or playing Simon Says or cutting off a couple years worth of long hair.

You are also correct that many of us were on the road to recovery during & after The Seed... not from drug addiction (which you didn't say) but from a self-destructive way of life largely centered around doing "non-addictive" drugs.

For most of us in The Seed... we needed a "jolt" or an abrupt about face to get off the wrong track and onto the right one.

Unfortunately, there were alot of negatives mixed in with the good & for alot of people in the program, the negatives outweighed the good.

= = = Getting back to original post.... would be interesting for me & others to hear of any fond memories or lessons learned others have had = = =

[GregFL]

I will say this, drug use was always a very destructive thing for me personally. I do know people that can smoke pot all the time with apparently little consequences.  For me it always spirals me into a self critical paranoid non fun time and I choose not to do it. Other drugs are way out of the question for me now.

prior to the seed, it didn't do this. Maybe the brainwashin did work in a way. On the other hand, I did far more drugs in a much more dangerous way after the seed as did most of my friends.

Aw fuckit, I just can't come up with anything positive...I give up and totally bail out of this thread.

[Tony Stark]

Taught me right from wrong when everybody and everything I was into was not right. I could have wound up like a lot of dead ,jailed, institutionalized people. I remember what question Nick asked me when he stood me up and rebuked me....." Do you know how many people want your chair right now?"   :smokin:  

"I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease."
 "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."
--Disraeli to Gladstone

[Tony Stark]

And you mr. clown asshole moderator can GO TO HELL

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140440607/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'> Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (A.D. c.56- c.115)