Types of Raps
Past/Present/Future- This was the most common of the therapeutic raps. There would be a basic theme or concept. For instance, staff might come in to the front of the group and ask someone to relate about a time in their past when they failed to do what they had said they would do. Everyone would start to motivate, a noisy proposition, and staff would call on a oldcomer to set a good tone for the rap. Then staff would relate a little to what they said, and then a couple more oldcomers. Eventually once the idea was established staff would start calling on newcomers. People who did not relate with specific personal and heartfelt information would be confronted. Staff would call on someone else in the group to carry out the confrontation. Staff would lead the group into relating about the present. This might provide them a window to ask a person who had failed in a commitment the prior day- just why did it happened ? This kind of planned confrontation was daily. The Rap would end on positive note, with staff leading the group to discuss goals or dreams about fulfilling commitments in the future.
Confrontation- The "volcano" was a favorite confrontation rap. There were many similar concepts. The basic idea is to get one or two people to describe exploding, or the things that a volcano does, then start to call on the people targeted for confrontation. These were people who were anything short of 100% compliant and enthusiastic about the program. These raps often led to extensive verbal assault and physical battery. Confrontation raps were almost always with a couple of Sr. Staff or higher in the room, or possibly leading the group. They might also participate from the back of the group.
Review- There were only a couple of review raps as I remember it. One was rules rap, a daily recitation of the entire litany of rules including memorization of all the names and positions on the chain of command. The other common review rap was after the open meetings on Friday and Monday nights.
Off The Wall- If the group was in a good place we would at times be treated to an off the wall rap. This might include breaking up into groups and working on role playing projects.
Core Idea- This rap was "grown from a core statement or central thought". Avoiding chronological development staff would lead the group in the process of taking "the pearl" and add layer after layer of insight and perception to it before the rap draws to a close.
Work Groups- Splitting into triads or larger groups to allow each small group work as a team to build a project or skit. This is more of a technique than a kind of rap as it can be integrated in many rap-types.
Instructional- Some review raps are instructional, often morning rap is instructional, the point of the rap is to educate. Virtually all basics raps were instructional. RSC or RSA raps were instructional. Kind of self-explanatory.
Introduction- Staff could choose to do their own introduction to the group as the basis for a rap. They could answer questions about their own lives and pasts as a way to build trust with the group.
Basics- A basics rap was about the seven steps and the other *tools* of change that the program offered. They avoided confrontation and personal issues. Staff would keep the pace fast and the relating brief. However, it should be noted that any rap about "honesty" could start off as basics and end up confrontational. It was the staff members call, it could change directions in the time it took for a fifth phaser to hand in a Chain of Command report.
Love Rap- Generally every night rap was some variety of love rap. Confrontation was avoided; focus was on changes of the day, setting goals and other positive concepts. Misbehavers were often carried out to the intake rooms for these positive raps. Love raps were mushy tear filled events where people who had been carving in their own arms all day would stand up and cry from the stress. These emotionally battered children would promise to change the following day and start the whole process over again in the morning.
Daily Rap Structure
Basics-The object is warming up the group & getting them to start thinking about the steps again. Focus them, get them started motivating, do an early assessment for the mood of the group. Label trouble points and correct seating arrangements. Rap solely focused on basics of the program. Avoid confrontation or personal issues.
Morning Rap- A quick paced shallow rap about the past habits ties and friends. A fast paced process of demonizing anything that was part of the clients life prior to the program. Clothing, foods, behaviors, thoughts and every other aspect of the "past" was demeaned repeatedly. Morning rap was to set the mood for the day - compulsive confession. On open meeting days this slot was filled with Homes Rap.
Guys & Girls Rap- Much more personal rap, with one staff member typically of the same gender as the group. These raps involved intense pressure to discuss sexual topics. Confession of the most horrific sexual thoughts was encouraged. Guys talked about their natural random homo-erotic thoughts as if they were demons that were part of the druggie world coming to drag them into relapse. Girls talked about how they were sluts in their pasts and confessed to having sluttish desires towards the guys in the group, again, as part of the drug problem. Guys talked about being "losers" in their pasts, and "losers" in their current school/work environments outside the program.. These raps were often highly confrontational, and regularly degraded into physical violence for both sexes.
Exercise Rap- Staff Trainees typically led this rap, though at times it was a fifth or fourth phaser. The exercises were always performed with no warm up or cool down process. We were always on a hard floor. We often did exercises that were really damaging to our bodies. The worst were the forced leg lifts, often mixed with aggressive verbal assault and physical battery. I remember people jogging in place barefoot, or in otherwise poor footwear for such high-impact exercise. I have little doubt that this practice caused physical damage to many of clients. If you think about it for a minute, prisons can't do this to people, and schools have to have a licensed instructor, and even then it has to be voluntary. This was daily forced exercise without regard for the potential damage. The objective was simple- get the group worked up before confrontation rap of the day.
Afternoon Rap- The most confrontational rap slot of the day. This was often a period of two solid hours of loud aggressive verbal assaults along with physical battery. Afternoon rap was a sweaty inferno in the Georgia summer. These raps would attract senior staff and the group staff supervisor. These were people who were highly skilled at verbal assault and manipulation. Afternoon rap was the tear down point of the day for the newcomers. They were faced with the waves of oldcomers arriving from school and work, flaunting their freedom. These so called examples would then spend the late afternoon and evening hours relating to the group, confronting newcomers and doing the grunt work of operating the program. Newcomers were brought to understand over time that if they simply confessed to being a drug addict, and learned to believe it, they too could be a part of this elite group & free from the hell of being a newcomer. On open meeting days this slot was filled with Executive Rap.
Night Rap- Almost always a love rap of some sort, the idea was to send everyone home thinking about themselves and how lucky they were to be alive and in straight. Night rap often included turning the lights down low, staff members telling their own stories, lots of tears, slow songs etc. Bring the kids down from being abused each night before you send them home.
What is a Rap ?
For my own part a rap was a period of two hours or longer, in a group of 100-300 people, getting motivated and if called upon, standing up and trying to relate to the rap topic in a way that would win me group approval. Once I got into staff training I learned more about how the raps were structured and what their purposes were as I have written above, but that still does not seem to answer the question, what is a rap ?
It is nearly impossible to explain the level of emotional pressure developed within the group. A rap was always focused on addiction and recovery, even an off the wall rap would end with a serious note about addiction and the risk of ending up dead or in jail. Raps are about the entire group changing, not just individuals. An individual revelation in a rap can be therapeutic or traumatic for everyone in the room. Raps were a chance for staff and upper phasers to use information they had about newcomers against them, with the goal of changing these peoples minds.
Raps are very structured group conversations. Staff would pick and choose who they called on in group based on knowledge of how that person will relate to a rap topic. Trusted higher phasers, especially fourth and fifth phasers were exected to set the example of relating in a manner that obtained group approval. Group approval was only offered for people who had come to accept themselves as insane, and in need of God. The deceptive and generic term higher powers is often put forth as a denial of the religious nature of the program. It is merely smoke and mirrors. Newcomers are coerced through intense group pressures into relating in the same way. Relating in anyway that is off the topic or focus of the rap will result in prompt verbal assault and potentially physical battery. The process of confession and conformity was central to the program and raps were planned to elicit as many confessions as possible from group memebers. The ultimate goal was to elicit complete self disclosure, the sharing of ones innermost thoughts, darkest ideas and deepest fears. Revelation of these normally hidden but natural human emotions and fears in such a traumatic and stressful manner left the kid in a state best described as an emotional sponge. If you truly want to find out how this feels, go to work tommorrow, stand up in the middle of the cubicle farm, and profess loudly and tearfully your most deeply hidden secret or fear, that one thing that you would really rather no one ever knew - like having sex with a relative, touching your dogs genitals when you were 8 years old etc. Everyone has them, we all grew up on the same planet. Try it, see if you like it. To get the full effect be sure there are at least 100 people around, and get them all to yell "we love you" at you when you are done. Complete the process by sitting down and flailing your arms and upper body around wildly for the next 12 hours without speaking again all day. Please let me know how it goes via E-mail.
Kids, don't try this at home and all standard disclaimers for this kind of example apply
Raps were the only way that a newcomer was allowed to communicate for twelve hours a day. A newcomer who did not get motivated would not be called on and could go the entire day without being permitted to speak. A newcomer who spoke out in group, without the permission of the staff, would quickly be battered, at the hands of those around them, If the surrounding clients were not agressive enough in enforcement, a staff member would incite them to physically assault a newcomer who was not motivating and relating appropiately in a rap. Someone would put their hand over the newcomers mouth and try to gag the person. If there was any resistance to this battery, the newcomer would then be further battered, restrained, and perhaps thrown to the ground and sat upon- all for the act of speaking. There was no avenue of recourse for the newcomer. Most often in a few weeks or months the same newcomer would be apologizing for "forcing the group to restrain me for my own good, to protect me from my twisted drug habit of speaking out without permission", or some such programmed lingo-drivel.
Raps were the core control feature, raps were the entire day, even dinner and lunch were referred to as raps. During meals we would be objects of ridicule if we did not put our food down to get motivated to speak each time we had the chance. Raps were constant, they were woven together with the Straight Inc. songs, they never seemed to end. There was no "recess".
