Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

I went to CEDU school in the late eighties...I was just browsing through this site. I am really sorry of all the pain you went through.  I never spoke of my experiences at CEDU until this year and only on the forum. It wasn't anything I expected  any "civilian" to understand and I had no idea these sites existed.  It was vindicating.  From time to time, I look at these other fora, and it's really crushing to read about the experiences. Straight sounds like an even more sadistic place than CEDU.

Thank you for posting your story. Newcomers who browse the site need to hear these stories to help validate their experience and sense of wrongdoing.

If I may ask, how did it alter your personality? I only spent six months at CEDU, and it affected me enormously in insidious ways, but I'm not sure I could totally articulate it.

Hell, you crack me up!

Although I gotta say, I like the food. Taco bars; roast beef and mashed potatoes, all that fat inducing comfort food.  I hate to say it was the only thing that got me through.

You did however, forget to mention the music. Actually, Neil Diamond's kid was there when I went there. I loved some of his music before I went there (its a family thing).  So when I went to CEDU, it just reminded me of being OUT so it wasn't too bad.)

Yeah, I did post under anon and my user. Sorry for the confusion.  I understand it can cause  credibility problems.   Sometimes I get bit by the paranoia bug after reading some posts... I am feeling vulnerable because I am a single Mom of two small children...

As far as CEDU is concerned, it took me years to figure out why I had issues with the program.  I am definitely not blaming them because my life isn't perfect and I need a scapegoat. My experience was bad because I wasn't treated with integrity and honesty.  I actually left because of the mental abuse and bullying, but more important, I felt that I would be badgered until I had "facilitated breakthroughs" that would require me to lie about myself and my experiences.  I didn't go to CEDU because I was a liar so to have my whole story so twisted was repulsive to me and made it impossible to accept the therapy.  It is complicated.  I also felt there were too many kids there because their parents thought raising a kid was too tedious to them.  There were other kids I felt were downright dangerous.  

I believe many positive experiences are the result of achieving difficult tasks (for me it was all the physical labor, getting over my vanity, and finding I was not the fragile person I always thought. Because I never had to work hard at home, working hard and seeing I was good at it validated my work ethic.)  I felt the "therapeutic" aspects were synanon based mental torture.  I also question the insulation of CEDU.  In addition, parents are sold a bit of a distorted version of the school.  For example, parents only got glimpses of the propheets and some of their attendant exercises but not the total mental annihilation that we got.  

People who went through CEDU shared intense experiences they will unlikely ever share with any other group of people again.  Cedu experiences are built to do just that.  For some, that strong brotherhood and unique bond is unshakable.  

THe worst thing about CEDU was that they promoted bullies and delusional (if charismatic) gurus.  However, some of the other staff were very caring people.  (Others on this site might disagree with that.)

I will now stop wasting your time with my posts because I know you are interested in Team Eclipse stories.

It was me who wants a reunion of us CEDU Fornits folks.  It could be fun.We can come as our favorite indictment. We can all agree on a place that is either central or where most people live cloe to.... Let's Do IT!  ::cheers::

First, I wasn't exasperated by your son's progress at all. I have two small children and I'm happy every time I hear of a parent with a well-adjusted child.  I just don't credit CEDU with all of it.

Second, I do appreciate that there are many other perspectives on the program.  But you can't argue with lack of credentials or bad academia (some were padded by the way so they could pass muster later).  You  certainly can't argue with the verbal and mental abuse these raps and propheets engendered, or that ex-staff are in fear of this place. Or that students were traine dto bully and spy... that people with REAL disorders of anxiety, ADD, and depression were given the exact "treatment" to exacerbate the condition.  You can't really argue that CEDU was founded by a nut job on synonon principles.  YOu can't really argue that CEDU didn't unnnecessarily restrict you from your family and isolate you further by shutting down the real world so all the world is a CEDU play.

Nope, I don't understand your perspective. Is it OK for others to have that much control over your kid and BS you to keep you from pulling him out?

I've read from a mixed site that this girl credits CEDU for saving her and she is doing the same stuff she always did pre-CEDU.  I'm also reading many people who caame out of CEDU unprepared to deal with real life and real academics.  THAT IS WHAT CEDU SHOULD BE DOING!! Just screaming at you breaking you down in propheets and calling you a slut because you had sex with one guy is not "preparing you for the real world.   In fact, my team leaders couldn't even keep the stories straight. I was always getting reemed for stuff that didn't happen. In one case, my family head who was an admitted coke addict found out I experimented with drugs and that was it! I was now a coke addict. I don't think he even believed it but he used that fear to keep my parents from pulling me out.  THe funny thing was that I EASILY gave it up months before CEDU and have never been tempted to go back.  My vices are legal: pizza and cupcakes!

Anyway, it is difficult for me to see your sincerity and digging for pearls cast before swine.

Guys, sometimes I post anon and sometimes I don't. But don't be so hard on M.  When I first started on this site after never talking about CEDU for 15 years, some of the posts by Roy, Jack, and Max helped out in terms of being vindicated about this experience.  I split--so I was cut off from ever talking about it with people who actually lived through the experience.  I had my own thoughts on the place but I honestly felt like everyone thought CEDU ws the second coming of Christ.  All along I'm thinking this is a crappy school, crappy therapy, and mental and verbal abuse by pople who have no idea what therapeutic means.  I ws happy as a pig in shit to just work my ass off in work detail so I didn't have to deal with BS "therapy."  Actually, the wilderness stuff and work details (digging ditches, pipelines, running wheel barrels filled with logs for half a mile and back over and over again were the best therapy CEDU offered me.  I was such a lameass girl with a fragile image too afraid to do anything for failure that putting all my energy into hard work was the only thing therapeutic for me.  That and splitting did wonders for the old "fragile" gal mindset.  

Anyway, I digress. Sorry. I guess healthy dissent is a good thing, but I'd sincerely like it if you guys had a dialogue about it then a one-up battle.  Keeps us stronger, too. I genuinely care about the people on these posts even though the Internet breeds almost a pseudo-intimacy.  

I mean Hell freaked me the hell out too until I read more and saw more nuances. I came to understand him a lot better.

And honestly, it I was worried when B. gave a shout out to all the splitting kids.  'Cause I honestly feel it would play right into CEDU's hands and you have two beautiful children to be there for.  I am a single mom of two small children too, and they would be lost without their father.

Actually I just thought of something. We should do a what to do/ not to do when trying to split. A "How To"....for both RS and RMA.  Maybe the kid can have our phone numbers so the parents can call us as adults so we can verify what their kid is saying.  

PEACE OUT!

I have a lot of back issues w/the word slut and being treated like one when I never even had sex. At my school, slut was a weapon.  Also, I had issues w/a peeping tom, harassment, and violation and I always felt it was my fault.  CEDU mashes this into your head.

To be totally honest, I've never been promiscuous, but I dressed precociously from ages 13-16.  All my friends were older.  I didn't understand the ramifications of dressing this way.  I was just trying to look older.

So, even though I have a potty mouth I'll never call someone a slut or a whore. 2 words that won't cross my lips--ever.

But I hear what you are saying.