John,
Life has taught me much but one of the main things is that many people are needy, emotionally that is. The SEED fed those needs. Just as you have many cults, whether they are business, political or religious. You have and will continue to have zealots preaching the sky is falling in every walk of life. It fed the needs of, in my case, a parent that had absolutely NO parenting skills and wanted to hand off the problem SHE (and a family pedophile) created to someone else. My problems didn't start with the SEED nor did they end there. The SEED did however, really mess with my very young confused head. Do you have any idea, how many years I felt I was the one that was wrong? I was not alone. Being a reformed drug addict DID NOT give you any training to help others. YOU were an adult.....I was a kid. You only learned what worked for a select few. The rest of us were just trying to fit in.....kind of like some of us did with our druggie peers.... I NEVER did drugs(before the Seed), but the staff said I did and that was that. I "confessed" I did just to appease the staff after 2 months of trying to tell them I didn't. It was the ONLY way to get off the front row. It took over a year to graduate.....my entire 9th grade. Since I lived in Jupiter, I didn't wasn't allowed to go home for over 7 months. Wonder why I flunked 9th grade?
I had to sit and listen to staff me tell me that an "education" was a waste. I guess they didn't want anyone smarter than them too much of a threat.
.
Could it be Art was clueless, sucked in by the power and adoration, he probably began to see himself as a savior, because everyone kept telling him he was. Who knows? Shit, even Jim Jones started out pretty good. I saw Art, for the first time as an old comer, flip out over something so trivial it was pathetic. IMHO he is a sad pathetic little man. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Imagine his power, over kids that really needed PROFESSIONAL help......sick. Not like he tried holding power over "normal" people, they were kids and parents that were in crisis.
I never saw anyone being physically assaulted, but I would have gladly taken that over the imprisonment I had to endure. At least bruises heal, emotional scars last a lifetime, and that is what many here are trying to tell you. I blocked so much out...and I mean really blocked it out, because it was just to painful.
Would it be that hard for you to say.......I'm sorry for what you went through? If I had known that I would have tried to help. For some reason that would make me feel validated. Is it that hard for you to acknowledge that? I realize it can be a little intense here, but you seem to really provoke a lot of it yourself. Walk a day in my shoes....then talk to me.
I deal with people like you everyday, and everyday I feel like hitting my head up against the wall. You just don't get it.
My brother came to an open meeting after I had been, for the lack of a better term "brainwashed". You almost didn't let him in, you might remember him John. Big blonde guy, tattoo and an earring. The staff tried to keep him out. He took leave from the Navy after he found out what my mother had done to my little brother and I. You and Darlene glared at him the whole time we talked after the meeting. Even had a staff member sit while we talked. He told me then "just say the word and you are out of here". Like a good little programmed kid I told him I needed the Seed. I would have loved to see him take out the staff......lol Daydreamed about that for a while.
Anyway....guess I have rambled enough. As one of my teens would say....whatever.....
