Author Topic: Synanon and the Step program  (Read 4825 times)

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Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« on: December 24, 2003, 02:39:00 AM »
Does anybody know where all the link to our AA combined 7 steps come in? Are we ill to believe in that for our problem solving? I know about the big book and all that stuff, but is it wrong? :question:

Those who control the past, control the future; and those who control the present, control the past.

--George Orwell



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"Don't know where I've been,all I know is it wasn't any easier there than it is now" WWII VET
John Butler                                              My psychiatrist calls it borderline whenever I do the 6th step. Is this ill behavior?                  :eek:
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Offline Anonymous

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2003, 08:55:00 AM »
ARt always claimed his entire inspiration for the Seed came from AA and he incorporated the AA steps into the synanon model.

What we don't know is where he got his synanon experience. Art was a well known rabid AA follower and claimed to get Art Carnie Straight.

this is how the AA steps got incorporated into the Straight, Life, Kids model.  It was by none other than Art Barker, and it occured in 1970


Whether it is "wrong" or not to incorporate the AA steps into your life is some kind of individual decision.

Personally it creeps me out, those little simpleton sayings that supposedly are life changing. The real power of the program was in coersion and brainwashing tactics, not Steps, rules, or serenity prayers.
GregFL
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Offline Antigen

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2003, 08:57:00 AM »
I think it's like any other philosophy. It depends on how you use it. I've known Christians who are just made of love and light and attribute it all to their religion and others who use the same religion to justify their deep seated sadism. I can't say I know a lot of steppers who I would say live so as to demonstrate the goodness of the philosophy. But then, maybe I know them and I just don't know they're steppers. My experience with the philosophy and it's adherants has left more than a bad taste in my mouth. Your milage may vary.

WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION  
-- Ethiopian Proverb

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2003, 09:27:00 AM »
Thank you both for your opinion. I have a doctor that tells me its just some kind of devil-worship to use the 6th step.I am not a Christian but I do believe in a god of some type that is self-edifying. I just don't like somebody telling me I hangout with spirits but don't understand God. I am assuming the doctor is right and he puts me on a shelf. The other problem is that I wonder if they are not just kindred spirits of somekind and not devils at all. God as I understand Him is something over my head. I don't understand God.  :smokin:

The scarcest resource is not oil, metals, clean air, capital, labor, or technology. It is our willingness to listen to each other and learn from each other and to seek the truth rather than seek to be right.
--Donella Meadows

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Offline Kathy

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2003, 01:09:00 PM »
So, was it 7 steps in the SEED too?
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Kathy
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."    ~Plato

Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2003, 02:31:00 PM »
Yeah, it was seven steps in the seed and also in the life program. I was only in straight long enough to know I couldn't stick around. My brother spent two years on his program there though. I can't even get him to speak about it.I heard about the seven steppers though, trough what I've read and overheard by my parents.

Speak gently! 't is a little thing Dropp'd in the heart's deep well; The good, the joy, that it may bring Eternity shall tell.
-- G. W. Langford: Speak gently.

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Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of the Coming Of The Lord\"

Offline GregFL

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2003, 04:19:00 PM »
Yes Kathy, remembering this was the origin of the entire mess, we had


the seven steps
the three signs
the serenity prayer
The rules  (honesty is the first and most important rule)

and incessent raps about this bullshit all day long.


Never let your sense of
    morals get in the way of
    doing what's right
--Isaac Asimov



[ This Message was edited by: GregFL on 2003-12-24 13:19 ]
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Offline Anonymous

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2003, 05:54:00 PM »
It's also important to remember that Synanon was started by an AA member, Chuck Dederich, who believed that if you forced the steps on people, they could be used for addicts as well as alcoholics.  Synanon didn't officially practice the steps but Dederich readily admitted the influence.

He thought AA was wimpy for being voluntary, basically-- and believed that we would have utopia if people just applied total honesty throughout life.

What he didn't get is that people have defenses and there are social niceties for very good reasons.
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Offline Froderik

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2003, 10:53:00 PM »
Yes, like the right to privacy, for starters...
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Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2003, 06:27:00 PM »
All the AA people believe they will never heal from their alcoholism also."Keep coming back"is said while they squeeze hands after they all recite the lord's prayer. Left only to believe they will never get along without their meetings. Some of these meetings are held in "churches" that claim AA is "the grapevine" of the body of Christ. Someplace to go and confess their sins to one another. Usually these churches have ties to other religious institution's that are sponsored by the government in rehab centers and mental health programs.

Marijuana clearly has medicinal value.
 Thousands of seriously ill Americans have
 been able to determine that for themselves,
 albeit illegally. Like my own family, these
 individuals did not wish to break the law but
 they had no choice.
 

--Lyn Nofziger, former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee



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"Don't know where I've been,all I know is it wasn't any easier there than it is now" WWII VET
John Butler



 It is also to my understanding from webpages that all this AA movement came after the great depression from the century earlier. People saw their lives meaningless without their wealth. Needed some form of reason to exist or belong to groups and churches that would give them something that their wealth couldn't buy. Its all online about synanon. I used search engines to get links from freemasonary to even scientology. :cry2:
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Offline GregFL

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2003, 07:39:00 PM »
Yes, and many a AA chapter has gone off the deep end and become very cultish.  The ingredients are all there for some meglamaniac to rise to the top of the heap and gather followers.

Preacher man don't tell me heaven is under the earth; you don't know what life is worth;.......If you know what life is worth, you will look for your's on earth.

--Bob Marley

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Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #11 on: December 26, 2003, 02:17:00 AM »
There's always some person with some kind of a complex that will make trouble with these so called "tools" they have in the synanon church. I guess evil just overtakes them at some time of "spiritual dispersal". Some do it because they do feel called somehow and believe they are chosen enough to lead. This is Mormon turf where I am. Common era just has its moments of insanity. Its all greek to me. I don't get it.

After all, who wouldn't prefer Middle Earth, unless they've been corrupted by a Ring of Power?



http://www.lewrockwell.com/elkins/elkins73.html' target='_new'>December 24, 2002

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Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2004, 05:41:00 AM »
My shrink that told me it was devil worship claimed he was from a good Jewish family and was nuttier than me. He also as an idolator so go figure. I had to answer to him. He even admitted himself that he was a potential adversary to me. I don't believe it was devil worship. It was something old school freethinkers do. Believe in One God and all of the sudden you have rednecks persecuting you. Things like"if I was a jew I'd shoot him". Or for practicing celebacy you get called a faggot or a lame dick. If you don't speak they just say "go to hell then" or "serve the lord" Well, I take that in stride and call it just great. Why should I care? I don't have to answer for it. :smokin:

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again.
-- F. P. Jones

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Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of the Coming Of The Lord\"

Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2004, 07:31:00 AM »
Well that thread got all mixed up and twisted. Hope you all got a good laugh out of how unorganized it was. I personally don't recognize the problem anymore. Thank you. :nworthy:

If quitting drugs means joining the war on terrorism, does this portend the fire bombing of Amsterdamn ?

--Felton Manifestation

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Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of the Coming Of The Lord\"

Offline Tony Stark

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Synanon and the Step program
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2004, 08:39:00 AM »
I don't know about amsterdam, but If I were in politics, I'd have the old soda fountains opened up with real coka-cola with all the jukeboxes playing rock and roll. Just for a matured retire age of people. Wanna smoke pot? I think you should be able to grow 2 plants in the privacy of your own home.But its not that way and its illegal for reasons I don't know. I'm not going to jail over another stupid bust. Its the law, and nobody is above or below it.Now, got any clever quotations? :nworthy:

Time is running out. The Indians' botanical knowledge is disappearing even faster than the plants themselves.

--Richard Schultes, Harvard University educator, authority on medicinal plants

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