Straight, Inc.

by **Dreams End** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:09 am

You thought Boystown was bad? Straight has been praised by every bigname Republican around. Bush sr. did a promo for them. <blockquote>Quote:<hr> Bush rewarded one of his loyalists with the ambassadorship to Italy -- despite his past as the founder of an cult-like teen rehab clinic. 110805_story Mel Sembler, former US Ambassador to Italy. REUTERS/Tony Gentile Among our president's appointments of GOP activists to important posts, we've done worse than Melvin Sembler, the Ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak Italian. Unlike the FEMA chief, who had real responsibilities, Sembler sometimes found himself a fifth wheel around his own embassy. As the Washington Monthly has reported, the scandal that claimed Scooter Libby's job last month may have sprung from secret Rome meetings between neocons, an Iran-Contra figure and an Italian intelligence boss who later pushed phony WMD documents -- all behind Sembler's back. But where Melvin Sembler, 74, demands attention is as an object lesson in how cruelty can be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16 years, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile rehab business in America, STRAIGHT, Inc., before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in Pennsylvania, who told The Montel Williams show this year about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took years to overcome. "It sticks inside you," she told Williams, "it eats at your soul." She told AlterNet that she was committed at 12, in 1980, for nothing more than being caught with a mini-bar-sized liquor bottle, handed out by a classmate whose mother was a flight attendant. Samantha's mother suspected more, and a STRAIGHT expert reassured her fears. The small blonde junior high-schooler was tricked into being taken to the warehouse-like STRAIGHT building. Her mother, told by counselors that her daughter was a liar, was encouraged to trick the girl for her own good. Overcome by dread in the lobby, Samantha tried to run but was hauled into the back by older girls. Inside, as was standard operating procedure, she began the atonement process that cost over $12,000 a year: all-day re-education rituals in which flapping the arms ("motivating"<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> and chanting signaled submission to "staying straight." She was coerced, she says, into confessing to being a "druggie whore" who went down on truckers for drugs. "You're forced to confess crimes you never committed." (Some survivors call it extortion.) Melvin Sembler stepped down earlier this year as Our Man In Rome -- he also served under the first Bush as Ambassador to Australia. Were Monroe's story unique, his STRAIGHT clinics might still be in business. Instead, his creation, which he stubbornly defends, closed under a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by 1993, ranging from sexual abuse, beating and stomping to boys called "faggots" for hours while being spat upon -- humiliation so bad that a Pennsylvania judge recently ruled it potentially mitigating of a Death Row sentence for a former STRAIGHT teen who committed a homophobic murder. Although prosecutors closed the clinics, six-figure settlements sucked it dry, and state health officials yanked its licenses after media reports of teen torture and cover-up, Sembler himself escaped punishment. As one of the preeminent and hardest-working GOP fundraisers, Sembler has received the honor of living during the George W. Bush presidency at the Villa Taverna, the official residence for the U.S. ambassador, which has the largest private garden in Rome. One night in May at "The Magic Kingdom" (as Mel and Betty call it), the dining room filled with smoke from fine cigars, as the ambassador entertained Bush Sr. and an entourage -- until Betty complained that the old friends were stinking up "my house," the Washington Post reported. He's come home, but still wafting across national drug policy is the influence of his STRAIGHT, which has legally changed its identity to the Drug Free America Foundation (director Calvina Fay denies it's the same organization but the name change is listed in Florida corporate filings). Subsidized by tax dollars, it lobbies for severe narcotics policies and workplace drug testing, with an advisory board that includes the like of Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife Columba, and Homeland Security Director of Public Safety Christy McCampbell. A more pressing issue is that former overseers of Sembler's company, true believers in the STRAIGHT model, are still running spin-off businesses that treat teens with the old methods. Starting out STRAIGHT The story begins in 1976 when Sembler, who'd made his fortune in Florida real estate, founded STRAIGHT from the ashes of The Seed -- an earlier program suspended by the U.S. Senate for tactics reminiscent, said a senator, of Communist POW camps. But as the Reagan years rolled into view, and a climate of fear nurtured a Shock and Awe approach to teens, the Semblers found a new world of acceptance for an anything-goes treatment business, meting out punishment in privately run warehouses. Endorsers from Nancy Reagan to George H.W. Bush lent their names to the program, celebrating a role model weapon in the "war on drugs." Nine years before the elder Bush took office, Sembler was a faithful political supporter, and raising millions beginning in '79 for the Bushes' clash with Reagan for the Republican nomination. In 1988, as Bush finally accepted the GOP's nomination for president, Sembler sat in the front row. With his man in the White House, STRAIGHT would become a vehicle for purchasing eminence as a Drug War thinker. By 1988, Sembler wasn't just running the Vice President's "Team 100" soft money campaign and enjoying steak dinners with him -- he was sojourning in George and Barbara Bush's living room, briefing the candidate on drug policy. As a token of his friendship, he gave Bush a new tennis racket, receiving this note in return: "Maybe we can play at Camp David someday." And Sembler's success grew and grew as the Clinton era spooled out. The slickly dressed go-getter smashed records as RNC Finance Chairman from 1997 to 2000, chairing the "Regents" club that accommodated such super donors as Enron's Ken Lay to fund George W. Bush's campaign machine. Meanwhile, a coast-to-coast trail of human wreckage had ensued during STRAIGHT's reign from 1976 to 1993 -- its survivors claimed physical, sexual and psychological trauma. The Web sites Fornits.com and TheStraights.com have collected many of their stories. Posts Kelly Caputo, an '88 alumna: "I don't think I will ever be the same. My every thought has been violated, confused, degraded and warped." "My best guess is that at least half of the kids were abused," says Dr. Arnold Trebach, a professor emeritus at American University who created the Drug Policy Foundation to find alternatives to harsh laws. He has singled out STRAIGHT in his book "The Great Drug War" as among drug warriors' worst mistakes. But today, Sembler's trail of purchased political friendships has led him through the opulent doors of the $83 million "Mel Sembler Building" in Rome, christened this year with help from a longtime ally in Congress, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). Not the palace where Sembler worked as ambassador, but another of the Eternal City's architectural treasures, built in 1927 and now dedicated as an annex to the U.S. Embassy in a $30 million renovation at taxpayer expense. "Narcissus is now Greek and Roman," said the Washington Post of the monument. No one could remember any other diplomat receiving such honors, not even Benjamin Franklin. "We don't do that, do we?" George W. Bush reportedly told the congressman, according to Congressman C.W. Bill Young 's (R-Florida) speech during the ceremony. "We don't name buildings for ambassadors where they have served." "Mr. President," the politician replied, "I introduced the bill and you signed it." Bush may have missed the Sembler Building provision, tucked as it was into an appropriations bill. But he owed much to the longtime family friend, whom he thanked on "The Jim Lehrer Report" [RealAudio] in 2000 for raising $21.3 million at a single dinner in April, a new record. Asked what favors the money paid for, Bush professed wonderment at the premise: "I know there's this kind of sentiment now -- I heard it during the primaries ... [that] if someone contributes to a person's campaign, there's this great sense of being beholden." At the Sembler Building, visitors can stroll among the Italian frescoes of cherubs and heavens, and marvel at the spoils of Bush family loyalty, and meditate on the human costs that made Sembler's paradise possible. STRAIGHT's practices Melvin Sembler's Jekyll-and-Hyde empire appealed to parents with cheery pamphlets bearing pictures of happy and reunited families that had put their horrible pasts behind them. Even Princess Diana had graced the clinics with a visit, celebrating STRAIGHT as a humanitarian institution. George H.W. Bush named the program among his "thousand points of light." But many called it Hell. Taking in new kids without much discrimination -- many addiction-free -- STRAIGHT staff assured parents that a variety of troubled teens could benefit from their brand of discipline. Vanished from home and school, the newcomer would enter the care of a "host home" overseen, at night, by the same counselors up in her face by day. Over the months, patients like Samantha Monroe earned back basic privileges like speaking or, in the distant future, going to the bathroom alone, without an ever-present minder's thumb in the belt loop -- literally. The counselors were themselves STRAIGHT kids, who had been molded into drug warriors in the heat of humiliation. They'd learned to play along and join the winning side, becoming the hall monitors and the muscle that enforced the rules. From the outset, STRAIGHT's method was on thin ice with regulators. The underpinnings had long struck critics as more Pyongyang than Pinellas County. Sembler took his blueprint from another St. Petersburg program, The Seed, in which his son had enrolled in the 1970s. The Senate was less impressed than Sembler with The Seed. Senator Sam Ervin, who'd brought down Richard Nixon, killed the program's federal subsidies for funding a method "similar to the highly refined 'brainwashing' techniques employed by the North Koreans." Ervin's 1974 probe into the rise of treatment abuse articulated an admirable American ideal: that "if our society is to remain free, one man must not be empowered to change another's personality and dictate the values, thoughts and feelings of another." Sembler had other ideals in mind, as hundreds of STRAIGHT victims would later attest. Finally, one by one, the 12 clinics, which had once formed a nine-state empire, went dark. Much of the money was lost in settlements, but jury verdicts offered a peek into the regularity of the abuses. Florida patient Karen Norton was awarded $721,000 by a jury after being thrown against a wall in 1982 by the Semblers' treatment guru of choice: Dr. Miller Newton, whose unaccredited Ph.D was in public administration, but was tapped by the Semblers as STRAIGHT National Clinical Director. He's emblematic of how the creature Sembler built just won't stop sprouting heads, having personally launched spinoff businesses with names like KIDS. As a result, Newton has paid out over $12 million to his victims. Having moved back to Florida, he now calls himself "Friar Cassian," a priest in the non-Catholic Antiochian Orthodox church. (note, see Peter Levenda's "Sinister Forces" for a look at such "wandering Bishops.). But just last month, Betty Sembler testified in a case against a STRAIGHT critic that Miller Newton, the dark cleric of rehab, is "a very close and dear friend and a valued one," and an "outstanding individual." Had he committed outrageous acts? "Absolutely not," she said, adding that it was incomprehensible that ex-STRAIGHT teen Richard Bradbury was picketing Newton. Thanks to her judgment of character, Newton has been given a voice in national drug policy, listed as a participant in a Drug Free America Foundation "International Scientific and Medical Forum." From the beginning, critics were shocked to find that the keepers freely acknowledged many of the tactics -- yet insisted they were necessary. Mel Sembler even seems to have been emboldened by painful questions about his clinics. "We've got nothing to hide -- we're saving lives," he said in 1977 after six directors quit over practices that included kicking a restrained youth. He remained closely involved in personnel management. Almost two decades later, recalling how the ACLU was furious about STRAIGHT's practices, Sembler told Florida Trend Magazine in 1997 -- "with a grin," the reporter wrote -- that "it just shows that we must have been doing things right." And rather than clean up Florida's program, he apparently leaned on health inspectors in 1989 to go easy on it. Reports of a cover-up wouldn't emerge for four more years -- long years, for the teenagers committed to a program that wouldn't lose its license until 1993. STRAIGHT foe Bradbury, believing he'd been "brainwashed" into becoming an abusive counselor, brought the clinics to the attention of the state after years of protest. Inspector Lowell Clary of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services found that reports of illegally restrained and stomped-on teens had been swept under the rug, likely with help from Republican state senators, who went unnamed, but made phone calls urging the clinic stayed open. A "persistent foul odor" hung over this use of power, said a St. Petersburg Times Op-Ed applauding the death of STRAIGHT. "While at the facility," wrote Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services Acting Inspector General Lowell Clary on May 19, 1993, "the team [of inspectors in 1989] received a phone call informing them that no matter what they found, STRAIGHT would receive their license." "If you do anything other than what I tell you on this issue, I will fire you on the spot," an HRS official was told. Clary wasn't positive, but evidence suggested that "pressure may have been generated by Ambassador Sembler and other state senators." By now, Clinton was in office. Four years earlier, while young "druggies" were still being restrained to chairs for 12 hours, denied medication and sent to the hospital with injuries, the 1989 report would have tarnished President George H.W. Bush's "points of light." Bush had designated STRAIGHT an American treasure. On that fragile premise, not one but two STRAIGHT presidents had been named ambassadors in 1989, the year of the Florida inspection. Sembler got the Australian assignment. The other post sent co-founder Joseph Zappala to Spain armed for diplomacy with a high school education. The two were mocked in People as "too hick to hack it." They'd clowned around during the nomination process, turning in nearly identical answers on Senate disclosure forms. In the "languages spoken" box Sembler had written, humorously, "English (fluent)." That took real cheek. These two pranksters had been leaders of a group characterized as a destructive cult by top authorities on cult abuse ranging from Steve Hassan of the Freedom Of Mind Center to the late Dr. Margaret Singer of UC Berkeley, an expert on the abuse of American servicemen in the Korean War whose expert testimony was used to close a facility in Cincinnati. Bradbury, the whistleblower, concurs, saying the program modified his personality into something monstrous. Bradbury attended the St. Petersburg, Florida clinic. "You don't understand what they did to these kids," Bradbury told AlterNet. "They put stuff up my butt." But you wouldn't know from Sembler's State Department biography that his claim to fame has such a shoddy legal record. The program has the honor of being described as a "remarkable program" in his bio, and it credits STRAIGHT with saving 12,000 kids. The ambassador did not return attempts to contact him during the reporting for this story, and declined the author's interview requests last year through a U.S. Embassy spokesman. In addition to receiving a second Ambassadorship from the second Bush president, his Governor Jeb Bush named August 8, 2000, "Betty Sembler Day" for her "work protecting children from the dangers of drugs," labeling her "ambassadorable." The next year, at a drug policy conference in Florida, a writer from the Canadian legalization magazine Cannibis Culture asked her about the STRAIGHT victims. "They should get a life," he quotes her as replying. "There's nothing to apologize for. The [drug] legalizers are the ones who should be apologizing." The ambassador's wife is an outspoken critic of what she calls "medical excuse marijuana," and serves on the boards of such mighty anti-legalization campaigns as the International Task Force On Strategic Drug Policy, which works with Latin American countries to lobby for harsh drug laws. Mel himself used his Rome ambassadorial pulpit for a global conference in 2003, appealing to the "moral imperatives" of the drug war and urging a "culture of disapproval of drug abuse." DFAF, founded by the Semblers, receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from the Small Business Association to advance workplace drug testing in businesses -- for example, a handout in 2000 of $314,000. Betty Sembler is president and Melvin has served as chairman. STRAIGHT's Spin-offs Though Sembler's clinics were shuttered, the spirit of STRAIGHT lives on as a flourishing model for drug rehabilitation. That includes offshoots run by former STRAIGHT staff, such as the Orlando STRAIGHT spin-off, SAFE, which was described by 16-year-old Leah Marchessault in 2000 as "something from the Twilight Zone" in a report by Florida's WAMI TV station. Leah had gone to visit her sister, in for heroin abuse, only to be told she herself was a "druggie" -- sound familiar? And when Leah fled, she was pinned against a wall and assaulted by a pack of nine women members who forced her to undergo a full-body search. Another girl told WAMI of being "forced to stand for about an hour and a half, the attention being focused on me, and about every 10 minutes I was told how I was full of crap, how I needed to be flushed out." Despite their cheery names -- SAFE in Orlando, Florida; Kids Helping Kids of Cincinnati, Ohio; Growing Together of Lake Worth, Florida -- these barely regulated warehouses cry out for oversight. Hungry for recruits, they appeal to the fears of parents by warning a child will die on the streets if uncorrected by their methods. In the TV report, the presence of a spokeswoman named Loretta Parrish was evidence that SAFE was the child of STRAIGHT -- she'd been the local STRAIGHT's marketing director until 1992, when the old company closed under state scrutiny, and SAFE, a new company, almost immediately sprang up to replace it. A new head for the hydra: Parrish didn't dispute the visiting sister's horrifying experience, but called it necessary, as if explaining something something obvious to her since the '80s. "Yes we do require that," said Parrish. "And if they don't, then they have to remove the other child. This is a family treatment program. And unless the entire family is in treatment, it doesn't work." "We do not do a strip search that is different from any other treatment program," she adds, and later described the teens and moms attacking SAFE as "a coalition of cockroaches." Gov. Jeb Bush even endorsed SAFE in a letter he wrote as "a valuable tool." And so with the former STRAIGHT bosses rich in Republican honors, and insulated in a political Xanadu not unlike the alternate reality field engulfing the White House, a new generation of teenagers is going under the hammer, as an old generation of victims finds cold comfort for their own suffering. If this is the compassionate kind of conservatism, how harsh the other variety must be. John Gorenfeld, a freelance writer in San Francisco, will be blogging further details of this story at gorenfeld.net/john. <a href="http://alternet.org/story/27725/">alternet.org/story/27725/</a> <hr></blockquote> Those of you who are regular readers of Jeff's site will understand the implications behind the fact that the STRAIGHT president was also one of Bush's best fundraisers.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:17 am

Thanks for posting this, DE. I've been meaning to write a story about Sembler for a while. I hope I can get to it this week. Here's a good site about <a href="http://www.thestraights.com/index.htm">Ambassador de Sade</a>: Is Straight some sort of Richard Nixon CIA-NIH mind-control experiment gone awry? Thomas Constantine (former director of the DEA) is on the Advisory Board of Straight under its latest name (Drug Free America Foundation). Karen P. Tandy (Administrator DEA) is also on the Advisory Board. Former Drug Czar Robert DuPont of Bensinger & DuPont is another board member. Dr. DuPont administered the US government's grant to The Seed, Straight's predecessor, when he was the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (an NIH subsidiary). Later he became a paid Straight consultant. Peter Bensinger, DuPont's business partner, was another director of the DEA. Guy M. Tunnell, Commissioner, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (Florida's state police) and former FDLE commissioner James "Tim" Moore are also on the board. Former White House drug czars Rober DuPont, MD (a former paid Straight consultant) and Donald Ian MacDonald, MD (Straight's former national medical research director) are members of the International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug Abuse (a DFAF subsidiary). Richard Schwartz, MD, former medical research director for Straight - Springfield is another forum member. Former CIA director George H. W. Bush made a TV commercial for Straight out of the Oval Office and appointed Straight founders Mel Sembler and Joseph Zappala to ambassadors to Australia and Spain, respectively. His son President George W. Bush appointed Sembler to ambassador to Italy. His son Governor Jeb Bush is on the Advisory Board for Straight (under its current name, DFAF) along with his wife Columba and his Lt. Governor Toni Jennings. DFAF is funded by the US government. Perhaps it's a good time to wonder whether Straight (and its predecessor--The Seed) is Some sort of Richard Nixon CIA-NIH mind-control experiment gone awry?

by **Dreams End** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:30 am

Wow. Here is a flowchart showing the originations of Straight. <a href="http://www.thestraights.com/flowchart.htm">www.thestraights.com/flowchart.htm</a> The article said it came out of something came out of "The Seed". this flowchart suggests the Seed came out of something called "Synanon". And Synanon, a group I'd never heard of before, sounds very much like the Finders. Won't research it tonight, but info on Synanon/Seed/Straight links would be of interest here. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>I. Group Profile 1. Name: Synanon Church 2. Founder: Charles E. Dederich 3. Date of Birth and Death: b. March 22, 1913 - d. March 5, 1997 4. Birth Place: Toledo, Ohio 5. Year Founded: Synanon was first formed in 1958 but did not officially declare itself a religion until August 1974 1. 6. Sacred or Revered Texts: The Synanon Philosophy was read every Saturday night before evening events. The statement contains some elements of Synanon religious beliefs. There is also a prayer that is read every morning 2. 7. Cult or Sect: Negative sentiments are typically implied when the concepts "cult" and "sect" are employed in popular discourse. Since the Religious Movements Homepage seeks to promote religious tolerance and appreciation of the positive benefits of pluralism and religious diversity in human cultures, we encourage the use of alternative concepts that do not carry implicit negative stereotypes. For a more detailed discussion of both scholarly and popular usage of the concepts "cult" and "sect," please visit our Conceptualizing "Cult" and "Sect" page, where you will find additional links to related issues. 8. Size of Group: In 1972 the group reached its peak with almost 1700 members, up from 1000 members in 1968. In 1988, the church cited membership numbers at 860 with two communities in Badger, California. Synanon's economic base received a blow in 1991, when the Internal Revenue Service denied Synanon's tax-exempt status. As a result, the Church soon dissolved, though remnants survived through the 1990s4. | Group Profile | History | Beliefs | Controversy | Links | Bibliography | II. History Charles Dederich Sr., was born on March 22, 1913 into a German Catholic family in Toledo, Ohio. He attended Notre Dame for a short time and went through two marriages before ending up in California in the 1950s 5. By this time Dederich was broke and had been battling alcoholism on and off for 20 years. He had been involved with Alcoholics Anonymous for two years and although it seemed to be working, he found it very limiting 6. As a result, he began holding meetings in his apartment for himself and the circle of friends he had met at Alcoholics Anonymous. Several months later, Dederich rented a storefront using his $33 unemployment check. The group named the club the "TLC" for Tender Loving Care. Meetings were now held at the TLC and it also provided a place for people to stay who had nowhere else to go. In the following months, the composition of the group shifted from primarily alcoholics to narcotic addicts. Due to a dispute, Dederich's group soon split with A.A. and eventually became incorporated 7. The history of Synanon (the word is a result of an addict's attempt to say "symposium" and "seminar" 8.) can be broken into three eras: (1) from 1958 until 1968, it served as a therapeutic society, (2) between 1969 and 1975, Synanon became a social movement and alternate society, and (3) from 1975 until present, the group has sought to serve religious purposes 9. 1958 - 1968: Therapeutic Society In 1959, Synanon moved from the TLC club in Ocean Park into an old national guard armory in Santa Monica. In these years, Synanon used reeducation and rehabilitation in order to return ex-addicts to a society in which they had been unable to live 10. The program established at Synanon during its therapeutic years was a two year recovery process. The patient began by going through detoxification by quitting "cold turkey" and then he slowly gained more and more responsibility, with the ultimate goal being either an outside residence and job (rehabilitation) or a position within the organization (absorption). From its development, the Synanon program was praised and claimed by the media to be the answer to drug addiction. The program was applauded in books, magazines and newspapers throughout the country. It was even called "a man-made miracle on the beach of Santa Monica" by the United States Senate. However, all of the media praise may have been given without warrant. Most people who completed it were absorbed rather than rehabilitated, and this has led to considerable debate as to the meaning of successfulness. Berkeley sociologist Richard Ofshe claims that of the 6,000 to 10,000 residents of Synanon between 1958 and 1968, only 65 people were ever rehabilitated by choosing to live and work outside of the community independently 11. Dederich once stated that he believed "a person with this fatal disease will have to live here all of his life" 12 Within the community there was a recognized idea (the rule of containment) that a member's time and energy was to be reinvested within the organization rather than in the outside world. In general, life was oriented inward with residents all knowing each other intimately 13. In 1966, Synanon opened game clubs for non-residents to experience the encounter groups and by 1968, Synanon reported club membership to have been at 3,400 members 14. 1969 - 1975: Social Movement and Alternative Society The transition from therapeutic society to alternate society was initiated by two key decisions made in late 1968 and early 1969. The first move was to eradicate rehabilitation to the outside world and to instead expect ex-addicts to stay at Synanon forever. The second decision implemented was to allow members of the game clubs to join the community and experience the lifestyle. They were thus called "lifestylers" and donated several hundred dollars or more a month for this privilege. It was during this era when much of the organization's expansion occured. It developed into a "hustling" operation in which it solicited donations from businesses or individuals across the nation. Synanon also began to acquire substantial real estate holdings in Oakland, San Francisco and Badger, California and was successful in the business of distributing advertising gifts and specialties 15. In 1968, Dederich moved the headquarters from Santa Monica to Marshall. 1975 - Present: Religious Purpose In late 1974, the Board of Directors passed a declaration proclaiming Synanon a religion and in late 1975, the Articles of Incorporation were changed to state that one of the primary purposes of the organization was to operate a church 16. But it was not until October of 1979 that Synanon amended the Articles of Incorporation once again, to declare that the primary purpose of the organization was religious 17. It was during this stage in Synanon's history that the community began to observe unique living practices. In the mid-1970s, Dederich began to implement strict rules involving how one should live, children and partner switches among others (see below in "III. Beliefs and Practices"<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"> . Also during this era was the creation of the "Imperial Marines," the community's new armed forces. Synanon becaming increasingly shut off from the world and became more controlling of its members. In February of 1976, Dederich decided to decrease the size of the organization in order to "shake off the uncommitted, nonproducing members." In less than three years, Synanon lost about a third of its members and was at less than 1,000 members in March of 1978 18. In the late 1970s, Dederich and two church members were charged in relation to an incident where a 4 1/2 foot diamond back rattlesnake was found in attorney Paul Morantz's mailbox. Morantz had just won a $300,000 settlement for a married couple against Synanon. By this time Dederich's health was failing and in order to avoid jail time, he agreed to discontinue serving as an officer and director of Synanon19. In 1980, the owners of the Point Reyes Light, Dave and Cathy Mitchell along with Richard Ofshe, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, combined efforts to report on Synanon and what was happening inside of the community which was now located in Marin County north of San Francisco. Their articles in this tiny newspaper brought national attention to Synanon and earned all three Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage. The loss of their charismatic leader, unfavorable media coverage and the Internal Revenue Service's denial of their tax exempt status were all key factors in the decline of Synanon. The Church was forced to disband, leaving only remnants of the community to survive through the 1990s. | Group Profile | History | Beliefs | Controversy | Links | Bibliography | III. Beliefs and Practices Dominant in Synanon's way of life for both the individual and for the group was the desire to achieve oneness 20. Dederich, claimed his throught had been influenced by such philosophers and theologians as Freud, Thoreau, Lao-Tse, St. Thomas Aquinas, Plato, Emerson. Members were urged to read of Jesus, Lao-Tse, Buddha, etc., as an open mind was thought to help an addict find himself 21. Dederich strove to create a "family-like atmosphere" through the collective use of the facilities. They ate in dining halls, many lived in dorms and some shared apartments 22. Also central to the social life at Synanon was the feature of encounter groups. There were different types of encounter groups, the most regular and influential one being "The Game." Listed and briefly described below are various types of encounter groups and living practices. Encounter Groups: Encounter Groups have less stigma than orthodox psychotherapy because they emphasize the idea of perfecting oneself rather than solving problems. Synanon therapeutic ideology focuses on behavior not the fundamental cognitive structure 23. The Game The Game was group psychotherapy for the whole community and served as a way to discuss organizational change 24. Members were grouped by a Synamaster, usually an older member tried to achieve a balance of female-male participants and a varying range of Synanon membership seniority. A basic game consisted of ten to fifteen members and a Synanist to facilitate the activity 25. The Synanist was someone who had shown the ablility to either control the symptoms of his addiction for a considerable time or seemed to be progressing at a faster rate than his peers 26. The Game was an emotional and aggressive group meeting in which members attacked each other verbally. It was an open arena for voicing and airing problems with one another en route to finding a solution. Members were free and encouraged to be honest with their feelings and frustrations. The "attack" was seen as an expression of love 27. It presumably helped people to see themselves as others do and compelled them to examine their own thoughts and actions. The Synanist acted as moderator and tried to help the participants find themselves and would use such tactics as ridicule, cross-examination and hostile attack to further the session 28. It was estimated that the typical resident participated in three to four three-hour games per week 29. Role-joining was a very important aspect of the Game and was used to progress the session. Role-joining was an agreement between two or more game members to combine their efforts to place an individual on the "hot seat." Once the plan was evident to the other members, they supported and aided in the scheme. Role-joining was essentially like joining a bandwagon and would result in all the session members joining forces against one of their own 30. The Game was also the cornerstone around which the Synanon community was formed 31. It was key to Synanon government and created an in and out of game dichotomy. When "in the game," one was expected to criticize others and reveal any personal conflicts one might have with whoever was in the "hot seat." On the other hand, when "out of the game," one was supposed to portray a happy, pleasant, and helpful manner 32. Members were also expected to follow the rules and standards established during Game sessions. Compliance to the norms expressed was rewarded by material and social goods such as personal prestige or occupational mobility. Wealth and status symbols were regulated by the small group 33. "Dissipation" "Dissipation" was an encounter for resident and non-resident leaders lasting between 36 and 72 hours. Participants experience hallucinations, euphoria and indiscriminate love as they relived their childhood. The Ouija board played an important part in the experience and there were accounts of contact with famous dead people who informed Synanon about its mission and importance. There were often quasi-halluciations of Dederich as the Savior and Father and Synanon as the ultimate way of life. "Trip" The "Trip" was a 48 hour encounter group involving groups of 50-60 residents and non-residents. This experience included all the elements of a "dissipation" along with special rituals and a small staff to help manage the encounter. As fatigue and confusion increased, Trippers were encouraged to have greater integrity, honesty, self-reliance and self-exploration. At the end of the encounter, suggestions for a personal commitment to Synanon were given. "Stew" The "Stew" was an on-going encounter group in which participants rotated in and out. A member's first experience lasted up to 84 hours, with two six-hour breaks. Following experiences lasted for up to 24 hours 34. Living Practices As Synanon developed, the rules for living became increasingly controlled. Here is a brief description of the transformation from living by the "Golden Rule" to extremely controlled behavioral expectations. The Golden Rule Helping others was a rule all Synanon residents tried to follow. 'Doing unto others what you would have them do unto you' was an important theme 35. It was also thought that if a person was helped, it benefitted the helper too because they were a part of the same community and "individuals evolve as they contribute to the community." Resocialization of a neighbor was related to one's own personal well being 36. Self Help Synanon stressed self help with an emphasis on self-reliance. Whereas Alcoholics Anonymous works with an individual's reliance on a higher being, Synanon dealt with a person's ability and desire to help himself. It was believed that "God helps those who help themselves." This principle was embodied in the following prayer that was read everyday at the morning meeting: Please let me first and always examine myself. Let me be honest and truthful. Let me seek and assume responsibility. Let me have trust and faith in myself and my fellow man. Let me love rather than be loved. Let me give rather than receive. Let me understand rather than be understood 37. Noontime Seminars For the noontime seminars, residents were divided into two groups. For one group, a concept or quotation was placed on the board and then everyone discussed it. The second half met for a "public speaking seminar" where different people were randomly chosen to stand up and give impromtu speeches on various topics 38. Healthy Living Initially Dederich preached only three rules: no drugs, alcohol or violence 39. By the mid 1970s, Synanon required abstinence from sugar, smoking, alcoholic beverages, use of psychic modifiers and from "violence or threats of physical violence among members of the community." Residents were also required to engage in physical exercise four times a week 40. Children Beginning in the mid 1970s, Synanon began implementing new social order innovations. Children were separated from their parents at the age of six months and were placed in a dormitory setting along with other children. Synanon created a private school system and modified traditional hours of work 41. Stance on Violence Although non-violence had been one of the community's founding principles, around 1975, Synanon adopted a new aggressive stance and changed it's position on violence. Violence became permissible in order to ensure loyalty or punish the opposition. Weapons were purchased and members dubbed the "Imperial Marines" were trained in the martial arts. In September 1977, Dederich was quoted as saying, "Don't fuck with Synanon -- in any way --...I think that is our -- is the new religious posture" 42. Vascetomies On January 1, 1977, Dederich declared that from then on Synanon would care for the abused children of the world. Men would have to give up their right to have children and those who had been members for five or more years were required to have vasectomies 43. Partner Switches In October of 1977, Dederich announced that couples should end their relationship with their current spouse and switch with other members for three years at a time. He advised that this be done at the peak of the relationship rather than in the depths. Dederich began the experiment with his daughter and her husband, and the then president of the Synanon foundation and his wife 44. | Group Profile | History | Beliefs | Controversy | Links | Bibliography | IV. Issues and Controversies Over the course of twenty years, Synanon grew from a $33 unemployment check into a multi-million dollar operation. One man's idea developed into communities throughout the state of California and hundreds more non-resident members. Charles Dederich's innovative idea of participating in open encounter groups as a means of perfecting one's self was lauded as a potential cure for drug addicts and received much attention and praise from the media. Between 1958, when it was founded, to the mid-1970s, Synanon's mission and beliefs changed substantially. Synanon was created in 1958 with the idea of being a community in which alcohol and drug addicts could come to be rehabilitated and then be returned to the outside world as responsible and contributing members. This was often not the result, as many recovered addicts were absorbed back into the organization. The purpose of the community as a recovery program soon changed into Synanon serving more as an alternative community. Both resident members and non-resident members contributed time and money to building the society and its prominence. Synanon at this time resembled a business, with people paying to experience the lifestyle that was so famous. During the late 1970s, Synanon began to be more exclusive. Dederich began to implement rules which governed the members' lives. The community and its members began to become more isolated from the outside world and even created its own armed forces to handle the opposition or dissention. Perhaps it was during this period of self inflicted isolation that Synanon's identification as a cult became most apparent. The community and the lifestyles of its members were often criticized in the media, resulting in several slander cases being brought to court by Synanon. The community was, in essence, imploding into inself while at the same time engaging in hightened levels of tension with the outside world. In October 1977, following a legal judgment against Synanon, the group planted a rattlesnake in the mailbox of the prosecuting attorney. This incident was the beginning of the downfall of Synanon. Dederich plea bargained and escaped likely imprisonment. Synanon pursued agressive slander suits for several years, but was not successful. During this period the government actively investigated the organizations business interests. In 1991 Synanon lost it's tax-exempt status as a church and shortly thereafter Synanon disbanned. J. Gordon Melton recently reports that "remnants of the community [have] survived throughout the 1990s. With the exception of the brief period of time during which Synanon was seen as a miracle strategy for dealing with addictions, the group seemed constantly to be in conflict with the community around it and with the media. What follows is a partial timeline for Synanon's legal conflicts between 1962 and 1984: 1962-1964: Synanon came into conflict with the Santa Monica community. The town did not want the group there, so Synanon tried to move to Malibu but again met opposition. October 1972: Synanon sued Hearst Corporation for $40 million because of two articles printed in a Hearst affiliate, The San Francisco Examiner. One article described Synanon as "the racket of the century"45. July 1976: The Hearst Corporation settles out of court for $600,00046. January 1978: Synanon sued Time Publishing for $76 million for the "kooky cult" article published on December 26, 197747. October 1977: Attorney Paul Morantz, who had just won a case against Synanon for $300,000, was bitten by a 4 1/2 foot diamond back rattlesnake found in his mailbox. Synanon members Lance Kenton, 20 (son of bandleader Stan Kenton), and Joseph Musico, 28, were booked for investigation into the incident. Dederich, along with two other community members, pleaded no contest to the charges. As a result of a plea bargin, Dederich must resign as Synanon's director and leader 48. October 1979: A superior court in California dismissed 41 of the 44 charges in Synanon's suit against Time49. January 1980: Synanon filed slander suits against Dave and Cathy Mitchell and Richard Ofshe for their articles on Synanon in the Point Reyes Light newspaper. The Mitchells and Ofshe had worked together to write exposes on Synanon, for which they earned Pulitzer Prizes50. February 1980: Synanon dropped its $76 million suit against Time51. June 1982: A settlement outside of court was reached between Synanon and an ABC affiliated TV station52. November 1984: Synanon lost two appeals in a suit against Reader's Digest, the Mitchells, and two other people for an article published in July of 198153. <a href="http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/synanon.html">religiousmovements.lib.vi...nanon.html</a><hr></blockquote> Synanon no longer operates, but their website suggests that, if you need help, you could visit any of these places, all run by former Synanon members: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Narcotics Anonymous, Delancey Street, Walden House, Samaritan Village in Brooklyn, Amity Foundation or Phoenix House all run by former Synanon residents. <a href="http://www.synanon.org/Synanon/">www.synanon.org/Synanon/</a> <hr></blockquote>

by **Dreams End** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:57 am

<a href="http://thestraights.com/theprogram/synanon-story2.htm">thestraights.com/theprogr...story2.htm</a> this goes really, really deep. Finders parallels are clear. Synanon is clearly a precursor of Straight. Some excerpts: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>According to the book The Light on Synanon Synanites met with Scientologists (who have their own church-related drug rehab program called Narconon) in the 1970s to discuss common issues.<hr></blockquote> This is of interest because of the above link from the synanon site to Narcotics Anonymous...NOT affiliated with Scientology. So are BOTH N.A.'s fronts for this stuff? <blockquote>Quote:<hr>Synanon Church: the root of today's confrontational-type therapeutic communities. Synanon was the first therapeutic community devoted to the treatment of the drug addicted according to the Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, which is edited by the first White House Drug Czar; Dr. Jerome Jaffe.(1) According to the article Dealing with Drugs printed in Current, August 1970, Synanon is the prototype of the drug-related therapeutic community-a community where the addict surrenders all aspects of his life, except one-"the right to leave."(2) Bratter and Forrest write that "In less than a quarter of a century, the American self-help residential therapeutic community has come to span the globe. [Chuck] Dederich [Synanon's founder], an exile from A.A., is credited with being the genius behind the TC [therapeutic community] movement."(3) Leon Brill acknowledges in The Clinical Treatment of Substance Abusers that the original therapeutic community directed by ex-addicts was Synanon though others, he writes, such as Daytop Village, Odyssey House and Phoenix House in New York City have used psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other professionals as part of their staff."(4) In an article for Substance Abuse: Clinical Problems and Perspectives written in 1981, Deitch and Zweben acknowledge that Synanon is the progenitor of the present-day therapeutic communities.(5) In his book Heroin and Politicians former professor David J. Bellis writes that the term "therapeutic community" was coined first by British psychiatrist Maxwell Jones to describe a "residential" hospital ward milieu where each patient is both a patient and a therapist and that Synanon was "the first 'residential' in the United States to gain wide publicity and academic attention." He gives Daytop, Phoenix House and Odyssey House as Synanon spin-off "residential" programs.(6) <hr></blockquote> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>In 1984 a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia awarded Fred Collins, Jr. $220,000 for being falsely imprisoned at Straight, Inc. Straight's attorney for that trial was a prominent Washington, DC civil liberties lawyer named Ronald Goldfarb. Seven years before that trial Goldfarb had written a book he entitled JAILS: The Ultimate Ghetto which calls for prison reform. In his book he talks at length about drug rehabilitation for prisoners and the method he calls for is the Synanon-style therapeutic community. <hr></blockquote> Where did it come from? Synanon Church and the medical basis for the $traights, or Hoopla in Lake Havasu by Wes Fager (c) 2000 "Synanon sounds more like a dreadful futuristic fun house out of A Clockwork Orange; this weird crew of ex-alcoholics, addicts, and criminals mingling with bourgeois dreamers . . .in a plastic New Jerusalem." (Available on DVD) Kirkus Reviews reviewing Escape from Utopia: My Ten Years in Synanon by William Olin "I made you sane and . . . I . . . can . . . make . . . you . . . insane." Synanon founder Chuck Dederich reputedly addressing a group of Synanites [Paradise Incorporated: Synanon by David U. Gerstel, p. 278. New Times, November 27, 1978, p. 34.] "My gut keeps saying, you know, like this kind of Nazi feeling of, you know, mass sterilization." A Synanite in a Game trying to decide whether to get sterilized for Synanon Adblock sound control (If you're not getting music, click here.) Many men flocked to Synanon's alcohol-free dances to do the Hoopla with attractive Synanite women--after first playing The Game. [Photo Los Angeles Times] Robert L. DuPont, Jr., MD is the founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and is also the second White House Drug Czar. While director of NIDA he administered funds for an experimental, juvenile drug rehabilitation program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida called The Seed. Later the U. S. Senate would issue a report likening the methods employed by The Seed to Communist brainwashing. Soon after that report was released Melvin and Betty Sembler and some other former Seed parents opened their own Seed-like program in Saint Petersburg, Florida which they called Straight, Inc. After leaving NIDA Dr. DuPont became a paid consultant for Straight and frequently represented Straight in civil suits for which he was well paid. In one of those suits, in 1993, Dr. DuPont testified that the progenitor of the Straight method was a place called Synanon which he even admitted was a cult! He testified that those places which used Synanon's methods are called therapeutic communities and that there are two cardinal rules for these therapeutic communities: No Sex and No Violence. But was there no sex and no violence at Synanon? And what was Synanon anyway? Let's take a look at Synanon Church and then we'll come back and look at DuPont's testimony and statements of others to see that Straight and other so-called confrontational-type therapeutic communities, are based on technologies developed at Synanon Church. Synanon Church. The Straight therapeutic concept of addicts helping addicts by shouting brutal indictments at one another was developed in 1958 in Ocean Park, California (the poor side of Santa Monica) by a college dropout and recovering alcoholic named Chuck Dederich. His organization, called Synanon Foundation, treated recovering heroin addicts. You can't con a con, telling your dirty story, confession, parent weekend, anal/vaginal searches, verbal shouting matches, synamasters, no newcomer contact with parents, parents taking someone else's kids to the doctor, warehouses, kids cussing, thought control, beatings--it all came from Synanon Church. If you were to ask any former Synanite what Synanon stands for they'll probably tell you that it means nothing; that it was a failed attempt by a tongue-tied member to put together two words and that it just stuck. Not true, according to probably the earliest published account of the name. According to Santa Monica's Evening Outlook of January 23, 1959 in an article by R. D. Fox Synanon stands for Sins Anonymous. It would appear that when Sins Anonymous was first starting out, before it started a "tradition", it may have been cute to be called that. But once Synanon started to be taken seriously by the medical establishment, then some quick re-writing was in order to fix the origin of the name. Chuck Dederich had developed a therapy of brutal, vicious verbal confrontation where members screamed indictments and obscenities at one another in a forum of one's peer group called "The Game" or a "synanon" (with a small 's'). Dederich called the Game an "omni-confessional". The Game is actually an implementation of the Chinese brainwashing concept of the Peer Group--a 12 man jail cell where everyone understood that no one could graduate until everyone had done what their teachers required of them, and that was to actually come to believe their own trumped-up confessions. It wasn't the guards who wouldn't let you sleep, it was your fellow cell-mates--your peers. The only rule in a synanon is there can be no physical violence, though we will shortly see that Synanon Church was anything but non-violent. There are many sub-types of synanons. The Stew is an extended length synanon while the "Perpetual Stew" lasted indefinitely. A haircut is a Game in which the indictee can not defend himself; and "The Fireplace Scene" is a special haircut where the entire Group, perhaps 900 people, shout accusations at an indictee who is not allowed to defend himself. Straight's destructive concept of the large peer Group where oldcomers and staff incessantly scream indictments and obscenities at newcomers who are not allowed to defend themselves is actually a perpetually lasting Fireplace Scene, but we'll just call it a synanon. Synanon evolved into an Emersonian, utopian society with just as many life stylers, or non-drug addicts, as addicts. Many life stylers were attracted to Synanon by the beautiful Synanite women at alcohol-free dances doing a Synanon dance called the Hoopla. The Seawall--an old waterfront warehouse in San Francisco--was a popular alcohol-free, Synanon dance hall/Game Club. So was their property in Lake Havusu, Nevada. In the mid 70s Synanon had declared itself a church. This photo shows Chucks' wife Betty Dederich, a former prostitute and high priestess of Synanon Church, and his daughter Jady along with a woman named Barbara. According to the book The Light on Synanon Synanites met with Scientologists (who have their own church-related drug rehab program called Narconon) in the 1970s to discuss common issues. Adgap, Synanon's novelty business which made and distributed gifts items like pen and pencil sets for General Motors and monogram handbags for the airlines, actually helped Synanon accumulate over $30 million dollars in assets. Here's a photo of Synanon's ranch. Straight used a variety of techniques to control parents. One was to game parents at bi-weekly synanons called Parent-to-Parent Concerns where parents were taught to blast one another and to end each indictment with the words, but I love you. Another was a more intensive weekend retreat called Parents Weekend, an extremely humiliating and destructive event. Grown men have openly cried at these specially extended, hypnotic synanons. Alba Murphy tells of one parent who when was repeatedly refused permission to go to the bathroom wet her pants. Parent Weekend, where sexual intercourse, and even holding hands, are forbidden between a man and his wife, is Straight's implementation of Synanon's The Trip--minus the white robes and a ouija board. No Sex. Men and women frequently turned over all their worldly possessions for the common good. The dress code for men and women was bib overalls and often shaved heads. The use of sugar and white flour was prohibited. [As late as 1989 clients in Miller Newton's Kids of Bergen County were forbidden to use sugar and white flour.(7)] The peer Group became "one conscious" for all parishioners and all life was controlled by the Game. Even the sex life, in intimate detail, between married couples was publicly gamed. There came a time when all men over 18 (except Chuck Dederick) were "gamed" into being sterilized by Synanon doctors, and all pregnant women were gamed into aborting their children. The Game was used to persuade parishioners to exchange wives in evening auctions called Changing Partners. No Violence. Synanites let off steam through brutal verbal confrontations. There was only one rule during a synanon--no violence. But Synanon proved to be anything but non-violent. For internal security Synanon Church formed an armed militia called the Imperial Marines. In the mid 1970s the church purchased a total of 152 pistols, rifles, and shotguns and more than 660,000 rounds of ammunition, reportedly including armor piercing projectiles. In July 1980, the month after Straight's education director George Ross left to form Life, Inc. (today survived by its off springs Growing Together and Kids Helping Kids of Cincinnati) and six months after Miller Newton joined Straight's staff, Chuck Dederich and two of his Imperial Marines, Lance Kenton and Joe Musico, pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to a charge of attempted assassination. The victim was Los Angeles attorney, Paul Morantz. They'd place a huge diamondback rattle snake--with its rattlers removed--in Mr. Morantz's mail box. It took 11 vials of anti-snake venom to save his life. [Perhaps Mr. Morantz is luckier than you might think. It was alleged on July 11, 1983 in U.S. District Court by three former Synanon Foundation members including Rodney Mullen that Synanon officials had attempted to hire a professional hit man with “orders to have attorney Paul Morantz assassinated.” And author William Olin wrote about one former Synanite who claimed he had been approached when he left Synanon to be a hit man who “took care of enemies on the outside.” Though, personally, Olin and his wife tended to discount this claim.] In June 1975 rancher Alvin Gambinini claims he was dragged from his truck and beaten by Synanites. In February 1977 a young man had gone to Santa Monica beach to surf and had parked unauthorized in the Synanon Church parking lot. There are allegations that synanites beat, slugged and kicked him. The next day on Synanon property in the Sierra foothills five men showed up to retrieve a car that had gone out of control the day before and landed on Synanon property. About 50 Synanites showed up and attacked them. It is alleged that some were beaten with clubs and blackjacks. According to a police report, in 1978 synanites handcuffed Thomas Cardineau, took him to a barn and then beat and kicked him. Cardineau sustained major injuries to the face, head, and body. Also in 1978 Ronald Eidson sued Synanon because he claimed a group of Synanites showed up in his front yard and beat him with their fists, feet and a gun, and, he claimed, threatened his wife and son with the gun. Synanite Lynn Worrell reported to the Sheriff in 1978 that she witnessed a beating of Synanite Cliff Zeppieri during a Synanon "general meeting." 100 - 150 looked on, she alleged, as fellow synanites held Zeppieri from behind in a "hammerlock" while five or six members punched him in the face and stomach, breaking his nose and breaking or dislocated his arm, she reported. "At first he screamed," she said, "and then he just cried silently." Finally he fell to the floor and tried to shield himself while he was repeatedly kicked. On September 21, 1978 three weeks before the botched murder attempt of attorney Paul Morantz, former Synanite Phil Ritter, turned critic, was getting out of his car when two men clubbed him from behind, knocking him to the ground, and continued clubbing him as he lay on the ground. A neighbor took down the license plate number of the Toyota the assailants were driving and police later found a Toyota with a similar license number at Synanon Church. Ritter's skull had been broken and brain fluid leaked into his spinal column developing into spinal meningitis and putting Ritter in a coma. Somehow he recovered. Jim O'Donnell, the former director of Synanon's Santa Monica facility, testified in a hearing that Dederich had ordered to have some people kidnaped, brought back to Synanon, and to "break their legs." After Synanon's former president Jack Hurst left Synanon he says he received so many death threats that he bought an attack dog. One night he came home to find his door open, all his lights on, and his dog dead, hanging by a rope. Was there child abuse at Synanon? Synanon seperated children from their parents as early as age 3 to live in special dormitories. As in the Straights, if a child had to go to a doctor a parent other than his own frequently took him. Children as young as age five played The Game, where they frequently used profanity against one another, to control one another's behavior. Besides their own children, Synanon accepted wayward children, often wards of the state, into what Dederich called the Punk Squad (film from NBC) which is perhaps the forerunner of modern-day boot camps for wayward teens. Punk Squad kids were frequently beaten and abused. (Interestingly enough, while Chuck Dederich was taking care of wayward children out in California, Miller Newton, later to become Straight's national clinical director, from 1975 - 1976 was Chairman of the Board of San Antonio Boys Village-a private prison for kids in Florida.) The following accounting comes from an unpublished book on Straight by Wes Fager: The material is copyrighted by Wesley M. Fager. Excerpts in a clockwork orange follow: When Robert Moncharsh of Van Nuys, California was divorced from his wife Beverly, the divorce court gave custody of their 8 year-old daughter, Lisa, to his wife. The wife turned custody over to Synanon in Marin County. The father filed a writ of habeas corpus to get his daughter out of the cult. He included statements from Lisa's sisters' Julie and Cindy, who were former Synanon members, that Lisa was being abused. Sister Julie Moncharsch, age 15, had lived in Tomales Bayfrom 1971 to 1976, and had run away twice. She would wind up in the Punk Squad. Her declaration stated: They were always hitting children. In 1974, September, three boys tried to run away from Tomales Bay. After they were caught, they were beaten. Two of them. . . were slammed against a metal building over and over . . . The third boy. . . was punched in the stomach. He screamed that he was hurt real bad but they punched him again. We were told that this would happen to us if we tried to run away. I was always being hit. If I didn't run in 'basic training,' I was hit. If I didn't stand up straight I was hit. If I did an exercise wrong or changed my sheets I was hit. Once I was taken in front of a classroom with another girl. . . and was hit." Julie declared that she had run away from Synanon in January 1976, only to be brought back to Synanon by the police "since my mother was in Synanon." Yet she declared she had not seen her mother since March 1975. "When I returned," she declared, "I was given a 'contract' for trying to escape. I was made to wear large gas station attendant's clothes and made to eat standing up when they allowed me to eat and given only three hours' sleep. [The Straight rule book called for a minimum of three hours of sleep.] I was not allowed showers and I was made to work cleaning up pig feces with carrot sticks putting the feces in cups. . . Initially when I came back, they had a demonstration in front of the other kids where they punched me in the stomach and slammed me against the wall. Such activities were common. I saw this happen numerous times to children other than myself when they tried to run away. They have slapped children in the face, thrown them across the floor and punched them in the stomach. Julie declared that she ran away again later that month, but decided to come back and steal some money so that, "this time I could make it." But her plan was discovered. "I was taken outside by (a man) and repeatedly punched in the face with his fist. I cried for him to stop, but he kept hitting me. . ." Another girl named Michelle Silvers included a declaration in Lisa's custody hearing. Michelle, age 16, is the daughter of a former Synanon director. She wrote, "In a classroom on one occasion I saw them take a girl . . . and Julie Moncharsh . . . in front of class, take off their glasses and start beating them up by hitting them and kicking them. I have also seen a kid paddled and girls in the 'girls corps' hit if they had done anything wrong." If Florida's Children and Family health officials think that politically connected Mel Sembler plays hardball with them, he's a wuss compared to Chuck Dederich. Synanon has a long history of allegations of manipulating and intimidating state licensing officials. In one newspaper account, responding to a reporter's question about child abuse at Synanon, a church attorney and Synanite told reporters, "...If some kid acts out in a way that's offensive to me, I'm going to knock him on his ass. I might hit him on the side of the head..." Asked just how far Synanon would go to keep inspectors off their property he reportedly responded that Synanon intended on going after specific persons in the Health Department. Founder Chuck Dederich added, "I'm going to find out how many of those cocksuckers are practicing sodomy, how many are fucking sheep, and everything else...We'll show them how to investigate...we will surround them...with ten guys twice their size...and say, 'All right, inspect punk.'"(<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"> After a Marin County grand jury issued a blistering report on Synanon in 1978, one juror claimed to have started receiving threatening phone calls and Synanite cars started trailing him. Another found a lizard nailed crucifixion-style to her driveway. In April 1978 Synanon announced it would not admit a county child-abuse inspection team without a warrant, so the Health Department sought one. Synanon sent them a letter stating, in part, "It does not seem to matter what we do to inform you that Synanon is not subject to licensing by your bureaucracy." On May 23, 1978 a Health Department team trying to inspect Synanon's Marin County facility was stopped at the gate and taken to a building where team members were video-taped. They were told they could inspect only on 3 conditions: if the team's doctors did not talk to Synanon doctors; that they stayed as a group; and that no Synanite was to be interviewed without a court reporter taking notes. The team withdrew and had to fight through the courts for the right to inspect Synanon! Synanon Church: the root of today's confrontational-type therapeutic communities. Synanon was the first therapeutic community devoted to the treatment of the drug addicted according to the Encyclopedia of Drugs and Alcohol, which is edited by the first White House Drug Czar; Dr. Jerome Jaffe.(1) According to the article Dealing with Drugs printed in Current, August 1970, Synanon is the prototype of the drug-related therapeutic community-a community where the addict surrenders all aspects of his life, except one-"the right to leave."(2) Bratter and Forrest write that "In less than a quarter of a century, the American self-help residential therapeutic community has come to span the globe. [Chuck] Dederich [Synanon's founder], an exile from A.A., is credited with being the genius behind the TC [therapeutic community] movement."(3) Leon Brill acknowledges in The Clinical Treatment of Substance Abusers that the original therapeutic community directed by ex-addicts was Synanon though others, he writes, such as Daytop Village, Odyssey House and Phoenix House in New York City have used psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other professionals as part of their staff."(4) In an article for Substance Abuse: Clinical Problems and Perspectives written in 1981, Deitch and Zweben acknowledge that Synanon is the progenitor of the present-day therapeutic communities.(5) In his book Heroin and Politicians former professor David J. Bellis writes that the term "therapeutic community" was coined first by British psychiatrist Maxwell Jones to describe a "residential" hospital ward milieu where each patient is both a patient and a therapist and that Synanon was "the first 'residential' in the United States to gain wide publicity and academic attention." He gives Daytop, Phoenix House and Odyssey House as Synanon spin-off "residential" programs.(6) In 1984 a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia awarded Fred Collins, Jr. $220,000 for being falsely imprisoned at Straight, Inc. Straight's attorney for that trial was a prominent Washington, DC civil liberties lawyer named Ronald Goldfarb. Seven years before that trial Goldfarb had written a book he entitled JAILS: The Ultimate Ghetto which calls for prison reform. In his book he talks at length about drug rehabilitation for prisoners and the method he calls for is the Synanon-style therapeutic community. The reviewer for his section on synanons for prisoners is none other than Dr. Robert DuPont, the second White House Drug Czar and founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Now Dr. DuPont, a psychiatrist, made his then claim to fame, not by running synanons, but by running the methadone treatment program for prisoners in the Washington, DC jail. Nevertheless he was familiar with Synanon because as director of NIDA he administered a whopping $1.8 million contract to an experimental, start-up synanon for kids-only called The Seed in Fort Lauderdale. And furthermore, the National Institutes of Health (NIDA's parent) had funded the first Synanon copy-cat program in NYC called Daytop Lodge. (Joe Ricci was a former Daytop student who went on to found his own program for troubled youth in Maine called Elan.) NIH had even started its own experimental synanon at the federal lockup hospital in Lexington, Kentucky. This program was called MATRIX. Eventually Dr. DuPont left government service and became a paid consultant for Straight, which had replaced The Seed after the US Senate likened its methods to North Korean brainwashing. In fact, as Ronald Goldfarb defended Straight, his reviewer, Bob DuPont, was Straight's star medical witness. Fred Collins won a measly $220,000 for being falsely imprisoned, but lost the potentially larger amount on claims he had been abused. How could he convince a jury of that with the likes of Bob DuPont saying, "we don't abuse kids!" Ten years after the Fred Collins' trial Dr. DuPont was in court again testifying for Straight, this time against a former client named Bill Fager. Dr. DuPont freely admitted that Straight's brutal confrontational approach is based on Synanon's Game and he even admitted that the program upon which Straight is based was a cult. Here are excerpts from his 1993 testimony: * DuPont defines what a therapeutic community is * DuPont says that Straight is a therapeutic community * DuPont says that Synanon is the progenitor for modern-day therapeutic communities * DuPont says that Synanon was a cult because you never left * DuPont says there are two cardinal rules for therapeutic communities; namely, no sex and no violence. So Straight's own high-profiled consultant has established that Straight's model was based on Synanon which he freely admits was a cult, but he leaves us to believe that Synanon was a cult, not because it engaged in destructive mind control or exhibited bizarre or dangerous behaviors, but because "you never left." And he underscores it all with the statement that characteristic of the methodology developed at Synanon, there is no sex and no violence! Second generation synanons. In 1964 a New Jersey Drug Study Commission opted not to give Synanon any funding after reviewing rehabilitation statistics supplied by Synanon Foundation. Out of 1,180 addicts who had entered Synanon in its first five years of operation, only 26 had graduated! World renowned Berkeley sociologist and "thought reform" expert Dr. Richard Ofshe used Synanon's own data to compute a cure rate for heroin addicts at Synanon of only 10%. This is the only available scientific study ever done on the effectiveness of Synanon.(9),(10) Despite the fact that the only way Synanon Church could keep addicts off drugs was to keep them at Synanon forever--that is Synanon was a cult--and despite Synanon's sordid past--Synanon was a violent cult--the idea of the synanon or Game became the basis for a new breed of therapy where the addict himself helps in his own recovery just as Chinese thought reform students help in their own recovery. Almost all modern day therapeutic communities--and there are hundreds of them--are based on synanons. This is due, in part, to many Synanites having left to form their own lucrative drug rehabilitation companies--a degree in medicine is not a requirement. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>A popular TV series was based on John Maher, a colorful former Synanite, who formed his own second generation Synanon in San Francisco called The Delancey Street Gang. Synanon's advertising of its few success stories was so convincing that many professionals like New York psychiatrist Dan Casriel had become convinced of the Game's efficacy. Casriel teamed up with Father William O'Brien to form Daytop Village which today is one of the largest therapeutic communities in the world. Early on they selected former Synanite David Deitch to run Daytop but later released him when they claimed he tried to set up a Communist-based political action committee of ex-drug addicts. In 1966 New York City Mayor John Lindsay hired Puerto Rican psychiatrist Efren Esteban Ramirez to run the city's Addiction Services Agency. Dr. Ramirez once told a reporter that the best way to get a "strung-out junkie interested" was to "'confront him' with a rehabilitated addict, so he can work his way out of his own doubts by watching the reformed addict."(12) [Synanon had run a program in Puerto Rico.] Ramirez set up the synanon-based Phoenix House which hired former Synanite Ted Dibble to manage one of its centers. Phoenix House is one of the biggest TCs today. Psychiatrist Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber visited Dr. Ramirez in Puerto Rico and setup her own synanon-based TC in New York City called Odyssey House. Many entrepreneurs, previously excluded from the lucrative drug rehabilitation trade because of lack of a medical degree, have opened their own second, third, and fourth generation synanon-type therapeutic communities. <hr></blockquote> And, of course, just for you, Jeff: <blockquote>Quote:<hr> Parent Weekend, where sexual intercourse, and even holding hands, are forbidden between a man and his wife, is Straight's implementation of Synanon's The Trip--minus the white robes and a ouija board. <hr></blockquote> Notice also that the Finders were based on "Games" and Pettie was the "Game-master."

by **Col Quisp** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:01 pm

Lots of information is out there. I posted this link in another thread: <a href="http://melvinandbettysembler.blogspot.com/">melvinandbettysembler.blogspot.com/</a>

by **Nonny** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 1:48 am

This is the same Mel Sembler, owner of the Florida Bay Point School. After the 2004 election, Jeff Fisher was contacted by MIS of Bay Point -- hacking the vote... Oh, Bush's ambassadore to Germany, he doesn't speak German either. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/timken.asp" target="top">www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/timken.asp</a> "President Bush nominated Ohio industrialist and major GOP contributor William Timken, Jr. in July 2005 to serve as ambassador to Germany. The post had previously been held by former Republican Sen. Daniel Coats. The long-time head of the Timken Company, an automotive and industrial parts manufacturer, Timken was previously nominated by President Bush to serve as chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Timken’s decision to shutter three Canton-area factories and cut nearly 1,300 jobs became fodder for Democrats during the 2004 campaign. One year before the layoffs, Bush visited a Timken plant to tout his job creation plan. Although Timken is of German descent, he has no diplomatic experience and does not speak German. According to a White House spokesperson, the president chose Timken because of his reputation as an “experienced executive.” snip-

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:35 am

Oh yeah, Mel Semlber and Straight, Inc. I was onto them a few years back <a href="http://hotline.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?14@206.75tjama3w6t.180@.ee7aad0/564">hotline.deadnetcentral.co...e7aad0/564</a> I think it was Dan Baum's book Smoke And Mirrors that first brought them to my attention.

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:42 am

Here's an interesting tie-in to Sembler and his "Drug-Free America Foundation"- <a href="http://hotline.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?14@206.75tjama3w6t.192@.ee7684e/1043">hotline.deadnetcentral.co...7684e/1043</a>

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:51 am

...I thought that I'd re-post it in full, lest my posting on DeadNetCentral.com be lost at some point later on, also: Sort of a tangent, but I need a place to cache this link, on the Enron-connected Cliff Baxter's death- <a href="http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?article_id=1617">www.stlimc.org/front.php3...le_id=1617</a> Links Harris County Medical Examiners office, particularly Lab Director Ashraf Mozayani who handled parts of the Baxter autopsy, to Enron/Bush/Cheney people. Several people have pointed out the interesting political ties that Harris County Medical Examiner Joye Carter has to various individuals and organizations that make her work on the Baxter death highly questionable. Carter's right-hand in the office is Ashraf Mozayani. She conducted the toxicological examine on Baxter. What is not well-known is the web of connections she has with Enron/Cheney/Bush people. The links below give an indication of how closely tied she is to various administration supporters and right-wing groups. Mozayani sits on the board of Drug Free Business Houston with Halliburton's William Bedman. Advisors to this group include Enron. (See: <a href="http://www.drugfreebusinesshouston.org/board.htm">www.drugfreebusinesshoust.../board.htm</a> ) This group is intimately tied to Drug Free America Foundation, which was founded by the Sembler family of Florida. The Semblers are long-time Bush family backers and have strong ties to Cheney. (See: <a href="http://www.sptimes.com/News/112301/Floridian/People_Sembler_famil.shtml">www.sptimes.com/News/1123...amil.shtml</a> for their ties to Cheney. You have to type this address in directly because it will allow you to link otherwise.) The Semblers used to run Straight, Inc., which was successfully sued for questionable legal and ethical acts. They later founded DFAF after having licensing difficulties and to avoid further lawsuits. They have provided the Bush family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in "contributions" (see: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/sembler.asp">www.opensecrets.org/bush/...embler.asp</a> ) and been given government posts and grants in exchange. Many of the "anti-drugs" groups are tightly linked to right-wing groups. DFAF (see: <a href="http://www.dfaf.org/home.htm">www.dfaf.org/home.htm</a> ) has received "grants" from groups like the Carthage Foundation, which is controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife. (see: <a href="http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.asp?1895">www.mediatransparency.org...t.asp?1895</a> ) DFAF's executive director is Calvina Fay. She is the former director of Drug-Free Business Alliance of Houston and sits on William Bennett's Drug Watch International. (see: <a href="http://www.dfaf.org/post/fay.htm">www.dfaf.org/post/fay.htm</a> ) Bennett has ties to the Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace, ( <a href="http://www.drugfreeworkplace.org">www.drugfreeworkplace.org</a> ) which is based in DC, seems to be controlled by the law firm Little, Mendelson, and includes Enron, Halliburton, DFAF, and Mozayani's DFBH as supporters and associates. Mozayani states in her own biography ( <a href="http://www.forensicpanel.com/editorial_boardphp3">www.forensicpanel.com/edi..._boardphp3</a> ) that she is a "Forum member in DFAF". She also states that she is a consultant to the government and to the Military Courts of the US. She is listed as one of a group of "anti-drug leaders" who petitioned Congress to support the drugs testing of students. ( <a href="http://www.ourdrugfreekids.org/List_Anti_Drug_Leaders_Attachment_1.htm">www.ourdrugfreekids.org/L...ment_1.htm</a> ) On this list is Calvina Fay of Sembler's DFAF. Mozayani joined an amicus brief submitted to the US Supreme Court by the National Families in Action (also joined by the extreme right-wing group Family Research Council, founded by James Dobson) in opposing the use of medical marijuna. ( <a href="http://www.nationalfamilies.org/prevention/nfia.html">www.nationalfamilies.org/.../nfia.html</a> ) This group includes George Vrana, a partner with Arthur Andersen LLP. Betty Sembler is listed in its guide. Both Carter and Mozayani are associated with a group called Justice For All, a right-wing "victims' rights" group in Texas that supports the death penalty and has close links with Tom Delay. Carter spoke before this group in 1997 and Mozayani says in her biography that she is a member of this group. It is clear that both Carter and Mozayani, who worked together in the DC office during the Paul Wilcher case, have strong ties to Enron/Bush/Cheney. Does this mean they are covering up Baxter's murder?

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 5:55 am

I thought I'd drop in the full URL for the St. Petersburg Times article in question, rather than the abbreviated URL that leads nowhere- <a href="http://"></a> www.sptimes.com/News/112301/Floridian/P ... amil.shtml I added a space after the <a href="http://"></a>

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:08 am

http:/ / Yeah, that's what I added the space after... Now that I'm officially signed in on ezboard, I've recovered the ability to edit my posts. Which I intend to exercise... More info on Straight, Inc., Mel and Betty Sembler, the DFAF, etc.- <a href="http://hotline.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?14@206.75tjama3w6t.198@.4a85468b/9895">hotline.deadnetcentral.co...5468b/9895</a> <a href="http://hotline.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?14@206.75tjama3w6t.209@.4a854cf8/5134">hotline.deadnetcentral.co...54cf8/5134</a> Gotta love that WebX search function on the DeadNetCentral board- in sharp contrast to ezboard, it actually works worth a dijiydoo... <a href="http://hotline.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?14@206.75tjama3w6t.223@.ee81e5c/1347">hotline.deadnetcentral.co...81e5c/1347</a> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 11/16/05 3:38 am

by **Dreams End** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 11:20 am

interesting....but had anyone heard of synanon? Synananon-the seed-straight is the line of descent.

by **starroute** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:02 pm

That Florida Bay Point School business never made any sense to me -- why use a school full of juvenile delinquents to steal an election? -- but if Sembler was involved, it starts to come together. And W.R. Timken was on the board of Diebold until appointed ambassador to Germany last summer. The connection with Synanon also reminds me of some of the things Wayne Madsden has been writing about involving the Fellowship Foundation. Cults in general are a good basis for dirty doings, because they're conspiratorial by nature and tend to foster a high level of trust among members along with distrust of outsiders. And the possibility of a little mind control stuff on the side can't be ruled out. To Dreams End, by the way -- I'm not sure why you say, "had anyone heard of synanon?" Is that a straight question or rhetorical? Synanon was quite well known back in the 60's, though it seems to have been largely forgotten since.

by **robertdreed** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:03 pm

Synanon is sort of an old story to me, really. The original tough-love addict program. It goes back to the 1950s-60s, when both popular and medical opinion on heroin addiction was that it was overwhelmingly incurable, even when involuntarily induced. Heroin was widely depicted in the popular media as so addictive that a single shot could induce addiction- even when given to, say, a kidnap victim. ( The people involved in direct personal contact with addicts knew better, of course. ) The only medical rehab program at the time was the Federal facility at Lexington, Kentucky. There was one in Camarillo State Hospital in California, too. But the mechanism of opiate addiction was a mystery, and there was no such thing as "rehab", per se. The long-term recovery rate for opiate addicts was less than 10 per cent, they were pretty much regarded as hooked for life. Thus Synanon was originally pitched as a "progressive alternative" to places like Lexington. It was based on the idea that people became drug addicts because they had weak/defective/sociopathic/pathologically irresponsible character disorders that could only be reached by intensive group therapy to break down their defensive identity barriers. I don't recall any Synanon clients being teenagers or middle-class people- the original groups were all for hardcore addicts, people who had done jail and continued to re-offend, and so forth. Synanon was one of the first "treatment programs" offered as an alternative to incarceration for people with drug addiction problems. And as I recall, it was always for opiate addicts- no cokeheads, pill heads, potheads. Those types were considered too lightweight to merit the psychological badgering approach used in Synanon. Synanon was strictly for hard-heads, it was assumed that you had a thick skin already, along with a lot of baggage in terms of disregard of others in pursuit of your drug habit. It was modelled along the lines of a halfway house, only more in-your-face. Because of the intensive group therapy sessions, isolation, punitive measures for infractions, and overall dependence on the philosophy and treatment regime of the original founders/authority figures, Synanon grew to become increasingly cult-like over time. Some other addict treatment programs used their halfway house model and developed more progressive, less hard-edged treatment measures in conjunction with it, like Delancey Street in San Francisco. Over time in the 1970s, as addiction rehab science advanced, Synanon became increasingly viewed as needlessly brutal and intrusive, like the measures used to "treat" the mentally ill in the era of "snakepit" mental hospitals. And then the "rattlesnake incident" came along, and Synanon got a lot of bad press. Their reputation really diminished after that. But by then, Straight. Inc. was up and rolling- a regime that not only included heavy reliance on the bark-stripping psychotherapeutic methods of Synanon, it extended the model to minors with a history of using any type of illegal drug at all, not just adults with a history of opiate addiction and associated criminality. That's what blows my mind. Synanon was a primitive and sometimes brutal program, but at least it initially justified its means by pointing out the hard-heads it had to deal with. Straight., Inc. was drilling 14-year-olds in ways that were even harsher. [edit] Just read through the entire Synanon link- I didn't know all the stuff about parents, family members, and young children of addicts eventually being inducted into the cult as well. Considering the borderline justifiability of the harsh conditioning model being used in the first place, I think there's something especially sinister about extending the group pressure and intensive scrutiny to people who people with no prior experience of incarceration and monitoring, who haven't developed defenses and a degree of psychological immunity to such hazing. Delancey Street was also mentioned. They're still around in the SF Bay Area, and as far as I know they don't have the baggage of Synanon. From what I know of them, they're a lot less cultish than Synanon, and emphasize the positive a lot more in terms of finding employment and community service for the people in their programs. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 11/16/05 12:19 pm

by **hanshan** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 2:39 pm

... Synanon has a colorful, tangled & ultimately tragic history which rdr elucidates rather well. Had a friend who knew Dederich.With all the negative press surrounding Synanon stone-cold long term addicts did kick their habits; Additional info<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/frown.gif ALT=":("> the wiki article is excellent) Arbiter, Mullen and Fleishman each spent more than a decade living at the now-infamous California-based cult called Synanon. During their stay throughout the 1970s, they witnessed and participated in a program that evolved from treating drug addicts, to declaring itself a religion to avoid taxes, to developing a paramilitary organization bent on violence. The central feature at Synanon was regular intense group encounter sessions known as the "Game." During the game, participants would viciously verbally attack each other, leveling allegations that may or may not have been true. Truth, in fact, became whatever the bullying leadership decreed. The game was such a powerful manipulative device that Synanon's charismatic leader, Charles Dederich, used it to control nearly every aspect of Synanon members' lives. At one point, Dederich demanded hundreds of married couples split from their spouses and remarry. Nearly every one did, including Arbiter and Mullen, who say they had already separated from their spouses <a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/synanon/synanon3.html" target="top">www.rickross.com/reference/synanon/synanon3.html</a> The Rise and Fall of Synanon: A California Utopia Rod Janzen. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001, 300 pages. Founded in 1958 by Charles E. “Chuck” Diederich, a charismatic alcoholic, Synanon started in California as a residential treatment center for drug addicts. According to author Rod Janzen, Synanon became “one of the most successful and most innovative communal societies in the United States.” At its peak, more than 2,000 men, women, and children resided in its various communities; and its commercial enterprises had spread across the country and abroad. But by 1991, Synanon was disgraced and bankrupt. Why did this enterprise succeed, and why did it fail? Was it a cult? <a href="http://www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_bkreviews/bkrev_risefallsynanon.htm" target="top">www.culticstudiesreview.org/csr_bkreviews/bkrev_risefallsynanon.htm</a> Synanon was initially a drug rehabilitation program founded by Charles Dederich Sr. (1913-1997) in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. By the early 1960s it had become an alternative community as well, attracting people with its emphasis on living a self-examined life, as aided by group truth-telling sessions known as the Synanon Game. Synanon ultimately became the cultish "Church of Synanon" before its founder left in the late 1970s and the group disbanded finally in the early 1990s. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon" target="top">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon</a> Direct outgrowths from Synanon are Day Top & Phoenix House: <a href="http://www.daytop.org/" target="top">www.daytop.org/</a> <a href="http://www.phoenixhouse.org/NewYork/" target="top">www.phoenixhouse.org/NewYork/</a>

Straight, Inc.

Straight, Inc.

Re: Straight, Inc.

Re: Straight, Inc.

Re: Straight, Inc.

Sembler blog

Mel Sembler

Straight, Inc.

Sembler

Considering that the original link is gone...

addendum

Re: addendum

Re: addendum

Is this starting to point towards election fraud?

Synanon

re:Synanon, addiction & the web

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