wwasps connected to straight, inc.?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if there is a connection?  The programs seem so similar in their brainwashing and systematic methods of abuse and coercion, that it seems that someone from Straight, Inc. must have been involved with WWASP.

[Antigen]

That's what I thought when I first heard about it a couple of years ago (whenever the 48 Hours piece came out) But no, it doesn't look that way. The WWASP (nka WWASPS) programs all go back to Cross Creek Manor, founded by Robert Lichfield w/ staff from Provo Canyon School. PC was founded by former Synanon ppl and based on both Synanon and Lifespring/LGA, which were eventually identified as cults and shut down.

The ties between Straight and Synanon (that I know of, anyway) are Bobby DuPont, who granted The Seed over a million in expansion funding as head of NIDA after formally recomending the Synanon method be replicated throughout the land on the public dime. The Seed wasn't the only one, either. He also had a hand in funding The Matrix, Daytop Village and some other Synanon based programs. After The Seed lost their funding and pulled back to just the one location, Bobby continued his affiliation w/ Straight and DFAF. There are a LOT of ties between Bobby and DFAF. Just google '"robert dupont" sembler dfaf'

The influence is there, but it doesn't seem to go Straight=>WWASP. Seems to start w/ Synanon and DuPont and branch out in many directions, including the WWASP schools and Straight.

Ministers say that they teach charity. That is natural. They live on hand-outs. All beggars teach that others should give.
--Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and lecturer

[Anonymous]

Ginger, thanks for that info.  It's ironic that when I was a kid (70's), my mother warned me about the dangers of "those crazy cults" she heard about in the news.  Must have been the Synanon Church out in California.  She said they were violent and wouldn't let you leave, and she told me to be very careful never to get duped into one.  A few years later, she and my father got duped into Straight, tricked me into the program, and didn't recognize the cult it was.  And my parents thought they were wise to cults!

[Antigen]

Oh, tell me about it! Remember the Summer of Manson and how terrified all the WASPs were? (White Anglo Saxon Protestants, not ppl affiliated w/ RB Lichfield)

But all they understood about it was the Beatles music and the violence against the 'establishment'.

I sometimes think that Life of Brian should be mandatory viewing.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Albert Einstein