Some of these things are repeated earlier, but I wanted to be as comprehensive as I could. Simply for my own reasons. This is all CEDU/RMA terminology from the late 80s era. (With the exception of the last item.) I also included explanations, for those who went to a CEDU clone or a Brown school where the lingo might be a bit different. Some of these are more "terms" than outright "lingo", but I thought them relevant.
"Propheet": a 24 hour workshop. Named after Khalil Ghbiran's "The Prophet". Passages from the prophet are read at one point in each propheet. When I was there, there were 7 propheets and two workshops. The propheets employed sleep-deprivation, humiliation, occasional exposure to large variations in temperature, guided imagery, loud and repetitive music, regression therapy, bizarre ritual, forced emoting. This normally resulted in a feeling of euphoria and exhaustion after the experience. Certain propheets actually caused students to temporarily lose their voice. Each propheet, with the exception of the last one, also consisted of disclosures and a lengthy rap where everyone in the room was spoken to. After you complete a propheet, you are sworn to secrecy, however, you are allowed to speak to students who have already been through the experience. The list of propheets are The Truth, The Childrens, The Brothers Keeper, The Dreams, The I Want to Live, The Values and The Imagine. The two, multi-day workshops, are the I & Me and the Summit. They employ similar techniques, but are significantly worse and more bizarre.
"Ice breaker" A propheet exercise, done in the beginning, that is normally funny, or tries to be, but most often employs some level of humiliation. It is used to lull the students into a feeling of security and ease their nerves before the more intense exercises.
"Rap": a group session, often confrontational and verbally abusive. Based on Synanon's "The game". Were held three days a week, and lasted around four hours.
"Rap request": When a student or a staff requests another student to be in a rap with them. Requests would be made by writing your name and writing the name of the person you are requesting on a piece of paper, and put in a wooden box. The requests were normally for screaming and yelling at another person, but could also occasionally be used to request support.
"Indict" or "Indictment": When a staff or student confronts another student in a rap. Most often, this is done through browbeating, screaming, and abusive and embarrassing dialogue. This is normally because the student being indicted did something to piss the other person off, or because they are considered to be "not growing", "out of agreement", or any other number of reasons or non-reasons. Occasionally, an indictment will be civil and kept at a decent volume. When a student is "indicted", the person indicting them must sit across from them, since it was considered too intimidating to have a person sitting right next to you scream in your face. If a student was sitting in the wrong position and wanted to talk to the student being yelled at, they were required to get up and trade chairs with someone across the room from that person. There were several times during my stay that I literally emptied out the entire side of a room, with people fighting for chairs across from me, wanting to take part in the indictment. Normally, this took place during peer group raps. It makes me laugh to think about. You could also "indict" yourself in a rap, by saying "I need to talk".
"Agreements": rules
"Out of agreement": you had broken one of the rules. Also known as "dirty". The things that you did that were against the rules were known as "dirt."
"Copping out" or "Disclosing" meant that you told someone the rules that you broke. Required. Disclosing could also mean "copping" to things that you had done in the past that you felt ashamed of, negative thoughts, or complete and utter fabrications because you were under pressure from faculty to come up with more "dirt".
"Dirt list" was a list of rules that you broke, which you write yourself. Required before propheets and workshops.
When a student attempted to enforce the school rules ("agreements") with another student, it was referred to as "pulling them up." If a student sees another student out of agreement and does not "pull them up", then they themselves become "dirty".
When I first got there, I forgot what the term was and accidentally called it "pulling you down".
"Families" was the phased system of progress through the school. The higher you got, the more privileges you were permitted, such as no longer having to have your mail or phone calls monitored. You graduated after you completed your last family. There were six families when I was there. Voyageurs and Discovery, which were the lower school, Quest and Challenge, which were the middle school, and New Horizons and Summit, which was the upper school. You were required to apply to summit, and make a summit portfolio. They announced your ascension in front of the student body.
"Peer group" the group of students you go through all the propheets, workshops and wilderness expeditions with. Your graduating class. Students were often "dropped" (demoted) peer groups if they were believed not to be progressing.
"Big brother/sister... little brother/sister" Self-explanatory. Older students taking younger ones under their wing. As an older student, you could have official (i.e. assigned or requested) and unofficial younger siblings.
"House around the pit" Students were required to assemble around the fireplace, for announcements, and the calling out of who would be attending what rap.
"Bans" meant that there was a specific student, or a group of students (normally from a family on down) that you could not speak with. (You were "on bans" from them.) This also meant that you could not have any eye contact, or engage in any other means of communication, such as passing notes. If there are a group of students which were having a conversation, and you were on bans from one of the students within that conversation, you could not be allowed to participate in that discussion, even if you don't speak directly with the person you are on bans from.
The forced, no-boundaries, and often inappropriate affection was known as "smooshing". Yet another instance where, as a younger student, I accidentally called it by the wrong name, and said it was "smashing."
"Where are you at?" was a common question, referring to how you are feeling. Although that term is common in regular culture now, back then I didn't even know what it meant. When I was asked it in a rap for the first time, I said "What do you mean? I'm in a chair in a room in Idaho."
"Run your anger" was forced, cathartic, screaming and crying, similar to primal scream. Normally forced upon the student by staff and other students by yelling at the target and breaking them down until they were totally frustrated. The screaming would normally be misdirected towards a past experience, or at "negative thinking". Often involved a lot of snot, mucus, and occasionally, vomiting. Also known as "running your shit."
"That's right" was a common term of encouragement uttered by faculty in raps, to spur on people who were "running their anger". I once had a joke that said "How many rap facilitators does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three, one to screw it in, one to support, and one to scream 'That's right!'"
Keeping your space "tight" was specific to RMA. It meant to keep it clean. I believe the equivalent term at CEDU was "plumb and square."
"Going slow" meant, well, I guess it meant that you were in such a vulnerable space that you were totally calm and super sensitive to intense stimulii. It happened a lot after the euphoria wore off after a propheet. It was looked upon positively.
"Going fast" meant the opposite. And was looked upon negatively.
"Safe" or "safety" meant the opposite of what it really means. It was an illusion at the school. But staff and students continuously wanted to enforce the idea of "keeping a safe space" so people felt comfortable enough to be vulnerable and disclose embarrassing information about themselves, or "run their anger" without fear of ridicule.
"Resistance" meant that you weren't allowing yourself to succumb to the program. The staff at the school would say all too often that they needed to "break down your resistance."
"In your thinking" or "In your head" meant that you were actually having rational thoughts and thinking for yourself, instead of crying your eyes out, screaming, or puking. This was often an accusation towards an "indicted" individual who spoke in a normal tone of voice in raps. This term is the one I find to be the most transparent and obvious in terms of reflecting the true agenda of the school. Your thinking was literally bad. You shouldn't think. Only after the I & Me, do they mention, briefly, that I (thinking) and Me (feeling) should work together. However, it was emphasized that "Me" should be the one in charge. I think a current parody of this mentality, although not directed at CEDU, is Stephen Colbert's concept "truthiness". "I don't care about the facts, I just go with what's in my gut."
"In your shit": in a negative emotional mental state. (I think.) Or it might mean more like, you're in a negative state that is consistent with your behavior before you came to CEDU. Kind of like wallowing in your past. I'm kind of iffy on this one.
"Image": This referred to how you represented yourself before you came to CEDU. It implied that you were sporting a false and contrived persona, akin to a stereotype, that was contrary to who you truly were as a person. What CEDU neglected to mention, however, was that it perpetuated it's own "image" onto students: conformity under the guise of individuality. "You're an individual, just like everyone else." Images were, a lot of times, assigned to you by the staff. i.e. a staff member would accuse you of being a slut, or a druggie, or a junkie. I was once accused of having "junkie thinking" because I bought some pants on a home visit that were kind of loud. I remember wondering what loud pants had to do with being a junkie. The pants were even temporarily confiscated, which cracks me the fuck up. Watch out for them junkie pants.
"Cutting up the streets" meant that you were discussing places in your hometown with another student who also lived there. It was strictly forbidden.
"Unacceptable" referred to musicians or bands that were not permitted to be mentioned at the school. Obviously, the music could also not be played, and you could not listen to them on a home visit. What was deemed acceptable and unacceptable changed over the course of CEDU. Some bands that were unacceptable when I was there later were actually used in propheets and played as house music.
"Fiending out" meant that you were getting overly excited about unacceptable music, whether it be singing it, or hearing it somewhere and getting hyper about it.. Also forbidden.
"Popping off" meant that you accidentally starting singing a song by an unacceptable band. Not too big a deal, since it was considered accidental, but still "dirt".
"Badrapping" meant that you were speaking badly about another student or staff behind their back. Also against the rules, and considered "dirt".
"Sex contract" meant that you and another student were planning on having sex. Severely against the rules.
"Splitting": running away.
"Work detail" meant that you were being punished, and you worked on your own on a particular project, such as digging up stumps, landscaping, building walls, etc. People on work details were on bans from the entire student body while working, and were not allowed a watch.
"Work crews" The assigned jobs that each family participated in. Work was done in the mornings on rap days, and all day (plus phys ed) on non rap days. Each family had a different job. Voyageurs were at the wood corral, Discovery did forestry, Quest was the farm, Challenge was either the woodshop or the kitchen, and by the time I had reached New Horizons and Summit, we actually had an academic building, and could attend classes. Work crews also applied to saturday cleaning crews.
"Experientials" Our phys ed credit. Normally consisted of some sort of team-building exercise, or the ropes course.
"First light" The meeting of the students in one particular family, before going to work or class for the day.
"Last light" The final meeting of the entire school, before going to bed. Normally consisted of a particular student being assigned to read or talk to the rest of the student body.
"Sharing". Pretty much how it sounds. A student stands up and talks about themselves, often directed at anther student they like and want to offer support to.
"Warm up" An event involving the entire student body. Happened before a peer group went into a propheet or workshop. Normally involved guided imagery and loud, cheesy music. Often, many students cry. It culminates with other students "sharing" with the ones who are about to go into the propheet.
"Dyads" A propheet/workshop exercise where two students face each other in chairs, and engage each other, while being coached by the staff. Normally involves a lot of screaming, repetitive chanting/shouting (Such as "Mommy made me ____ . Daddy made me ______.") and regression.
"Projecting" meant that you were accusing someone else of a behavior, when in reality, you were the one guilty of that behavior. Also a common term in psychology. I think it also meant when you would pretend that the person across from you is someone that you hated in your past, or a negative representation of yourself, and you would then scream at them as if they were one of those people. My memory is fuzzy on that.
"Bioenergetics" A term referring to specific kinds of exercises in propheets and workshops that resulted in physical and emotional exertion, and possible physical injury. Normally consisted of a repetitious act, such as pounding a pillow, or running in place, and accompanied by emotional explosion.
"Containment" An exercise used in the Values propheet. A student lays on their back, and is directed through a guided imagery experience, via a staff member whispering in their ear. Often very emotional and upsetting. After the experience, the student normally feels an intense connection with that staff member.
"Beat sheet": Normally the standard issue wool blanket, thumbtacked up around your bunk bed to give you privacy while you masturbate.
"Bingo": a communal masturbatory game that the boys did. Each student beat off in their beds. The first one to cum shouted "bingo", and essentially "won". Variation of the circle jerk.
"Trust counseling" Students could not participate in this until after their I&Me workshop. Two members of the same peer group would set up and appointment for the counseling session, and meet in a room or dormitory when noone is there. The format is like a "dyad", although it can also involve bioenergetics, and often does. The students often write in their journals or notebooks afterwards about the experience.
"Full-time" was a method of punishment for more severe infractions against the rules. Such as running away, having sex, or a sex contract, self-inflicted injuries, such as carving (common with girls). A student was to remain isolated at a booth in the dining room for x amount of days (mine was 14, which was a lot, back in my day. The lengths of time increased dramatically after I left). While there, they were supposed to be completing writing assignments in their notebook, as well as complete a reading assignment given to them by the staff that ran their full time. During the day, they were on a work detail. Normally it was a very long project that could last the entirety of their full time. On non-rap days, they worked all day, on rap days, they worked half a day and then were in a rap. A full-time student would be on bans from most of the school, with the exception of upper school students. The only times they could speak with others was in raps. They could not leave their booth unless escorted by a staff or student. They were not allowed to smile or laugh. Your watch was also taken away for the duration of the full time. Staff and older students would occasionally sit down with the student and talk with them about their progress. Often, when a student got on a full-time, they would also have to move dorms. Once you were taken off of a full time, you were relieved, and sometimes felt that you had "learned something about yourself."
"Booth" a variation of a full-time. Not as severe. I'm not sure about all of the differences, since I was never on one.
"Jumpsuit" A form of punishment where a student is forced to wear a jumpsuit while on work detail. Did not exist when I was there, so a little fuzzy on the details.
There is a variation of the full time, where a student stays outside in a tent when not on work detail or in a rap. Meals are brought to them. They are not permitted to live in the dorms. Does anyone know if this is part of a jumpsuit, or does this restriction have another name?
That's all I can think of so far.
