Fornits

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

I read these on the web, doing some searching on other subject matter related to my expereinces.

After The Seed I was lonely and confused, having dismissed all my longtime school friends  as "druggies," etc. You guys know the rap.  Anyway, I can see I was vulnerable and ripe for indoctrination into something.

I don't know which was worse, The Seed of 1973
or the Chrisitan church cult of 1975.

But both had these CULT recognized qualities:

1. Absolute authoritanrianism without meaningful accountability.  

2. No tolerace for questions or critical inquiry.

3. No meaningful financial diclosure regarging budget or expenses - like a balance sheet. Where did all the money go?

4.  Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe evil conspiracies and persecutions.  

5.  There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.

6.  Former Members often relate the same  stories of abuse and reflect a simialr pattern of grievances.

7.  There are records, books, new articles or tv programs that documentthe abuses of/by the group/leaders.

8. Followers feel they can never be good enough.

9. The group/leader is always right.

10.   The group/leader is the exlcusive means of knowing the truth or receiving validation; no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

I got this list from another website that deals with religious and spritiual-based cults so some of you may recognize its origin.

I know The Seed was not a religious orgainizaiton, but the similarities between the general criteria of a "BAD" religious cult and The Seed are just too close to be ignored.

Really, regardless of whether it helped the drug addicted or not, how could any of us who were there NOT be able to see these similarities?

It's been a lot of years since most of us were there,so the look back might not be as painful as some of you may fear.

What do y'all think?

And to answer the question - Did Art Barker succeed?  No.  His cult imploded.  But he still makes a nice living off the proceeds.
 

For those Seedlings who say The Seed was not a cult, you have to

Okay then. I was having a psycho-angry flash back myself.  Seems like most folks there were victims of either misguided, good intention parents, or, in the case of volunatry admission, some very serious misrepresentations. Either way, it was far from wholesome.

Forgive me if I offended you with my statement. It's just that when people who were there selectively remember only "the good times" sometimes it's just necessary to call it like I see it.

Man, am I pissed off about this.

The old four lane divided SR 84 that ran next to the canal is gone.  What's there now is a 8 lane east/west freeway called I-595 (Alligator Alley connecting Ft. Lauderdale with Naples, FL).  

The canal and homes are still there, but the Seed building and property on the south side of the highway is gone - it's just pavement now. I was down there yesterday on some business.   That large, gold pyramid is still there, and the small lake (rock pit) that was near the turnpike exit is now huge (several acres in size)SR 84 still on the south side of the highway, its just a parallel access road on the south side of the highway.

hey ICan't talk to you,

Are you really from Jupiter, as Jupiter, FL?  
I was in FtL from 3/73 and involed through maybe mid-74.

Don'tyou think all of these pyramid sales schemes work the same way?  Obviously, everyone needs to make a living, but it seems to me it takes advatage of a needy mindset and victimizes the participants.  

My son had an experience similar to Antigen's when we lived in Michigan.  He called for a job interview and was strung along for a couple of weeks and then a big to do was made about allowing him the opportunity to participate. Long story short, I had to go pick the boy up at a gas station in 20 degree weather.  The operators had told these kids the product would sell itself- all they had to do was present the opportunity to public.. The amamzing, life altering opportuinty??? Street level sales of a local restuarant discount book.  

For some people, NOT THE TRULY DRUG ADDICTED SUPPORTERS, the Seed was sold in the same fashion - taking advantge of fearful people, creating self-doubt and dependency.  Here it is, you can't live without it and if you don't take it, you'll endup deadinsaneorinjail.  What bullshit.

And I can see your point, too.  That you don't want to substitute one kind fo magical thinking for another.  Skepticism is very healthly - there's just no certain answers to any of these quesions, are there?

Why is it that for most seed people it's always an everything or nothing proposal?  Like a person is either addicted or not; or our lives are either GREAT ..or not.  And we only have heavy revelations that bring deep meaing to our lives or or silly, meaningless thoughts that we believe show a weakness of character?

I've seen this time after time in myself over the years and it's avery self-defeating pattern. It looks to me to just be more evidence of programming.

To the anon with the life-threatening disease who perhaps took offense to my comment - "Maybe if you actually tried to live in the real world and deal with people from all walks of life instead of your seed cucoon, you might not be so "offended" by the fact that other people actually have opinions that differ from yours. I'm thinking that you have not really been exposed to much of the real world."

First of all, accept my apologies if my statement offended you.  It was nto my intent and have no ability to know your personal history or the history of any other persons here, it's almost a given that something I write will deeply offend someone.  

I, too have dealt with life threatening disease, poverty, violence, homelessness, etc.  But so have many, many other people who didn't have these "seed" tools.  Those folks do alright - I've seen them - adults and children alike. Anon, there's nothing magic about Seed programming.  Faced with the same set of facts and no Seed training, I pretty certain you would have made those same discoveries about yourself without the seed, and your life would have been just a full and happy and propserous.  Maybe even more that it is. Of that I am convinced - otherwise you never could have made the connections in the first place.

It's time for people to give themselves so gosh darn credit for making it in this world instead of attributing their personal success or failiure to the proper or improper use of externally imposed rules and tools.  Come on, people.