A follow-up to this post day before yesterday about the troubled teen industry.
The Cult That Spawned the Tough Love Teen Industry
Mount Bachelor, the school mentioned previously, was a CEDU school prior to being purchased by Aspen. CEDU is a first generation offspring of Synanon, the original abuse-as-therapy cult.
A Business Built on the Troubles of Teenagers
A web site for abuse survivors
Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students as therapy. [...]
But because the programs are privately run, what happens within their walls is largely a mystery. No one knows whether the programs succeed or fail. [...]
Mount Bachelor’s executive director, Bitz, says her school uses widely accepted psychological treatments to help children overcome their problems. “We also use a psychodrama-treatment approach designed to do one or both of two things,” said Bitz in her statement, “get a student to embrace qualities of their character (such as beauty or courage) about which they have doubt or assist them in recognizing qualities that are unproductive (such as selfishness or conceit) about which they have little insight.” [...]
“They told me I was dirty and I had to put mud on myself for being raped,” she said in reference to another Lifesteps session. “They basically blamed me for getting raped.”
Bitz dismissed Jane’s story and called it “very suspect” in an interview with the Bend Bulletin, which also spoke with Jane. “We know that some current students have made a conscious decision to lie about our school, hoping that it will be closed as a result, and that they would then be sent back home,” Bitz told TIME. [...]
Synanon began as a drug-rehabilitation program before morphing into a controversial cult and is credited with putting forth the idea that confrontation and boot-camp-style breakdown tactics could cure teen misbehavior and addiction. Synanon’s confrontational techniques influenced est and LifeSpring, which began selling weekend seminars designed to prompt emotional breakthroughs in participants.
Time: An Oregon School for Troubled Teens Is Under Scrutiny
Interesting article on a number of levels:
1) The potential Synanon-inspired abuse of kids right here in Oregon.
2) The implications of the court case for students and school districts.
3) Problems with private schools in general.
4) Problems with public schools, education, and therapy in general.
There’s a follow-up form the author of the article at HuffPo.
(via Metafilter thanks to Trevor Blake)
In this first episode of a three part series, Nick Pell of Black Sun Gazette and Grind House Land infamy turns the tables on Joseph Matheny and interviews him on his own show. They talk about 4p2, The Process Church of the Final Judegment, the John Titor Project is touched upon as well as the sad state of the LHP mileu today. Part 2 to follow in 2 weeks and part 3, 2 weeks later.
The Israeli branch of the UFO centred movement known as the Raelians was planning something special to commemorate ‘World Orgasm Day’, a huge orgy in downtown Tel Aviv, the largest city in Israel. The event was going to attract at least 250 participants of all sexual orientations: Straight, bisexual, gay and lesbian and was meant to make a powerful and highly relevant statement in this most troubled part of the world: that it is far better to make love rather than war. Sadly however the organisers have been forced to cancel this year’s event due to numerous violent threats made towards both the movement and the venue. The threats are believed to come from ultra-orthodox Jews who feel such celebrations violate the sanctity of the Holy Land and go against the morality of Judaism.
(via Jon Lebkowsky)
Hawkins’ ads featured simple questions like, “Why are you unhappy?” in white print against a black background, backed by edgy music supplied by Hawkins’ friends, and finally, a shot of the Dianetics book splashed against a volcano. The ads cost around $2,000 to make, yet within months of their first nationwide appearance, Dianetics made the New York Times Best Seller List for the first time since its initial publication in 1950″‘and a special commemorative edition of the book was printed to mark the occasion.
Hawkins estimates he made more than $200 million for the church in his 35 years of marketing Dianetics. Nevertheless, he ultimately paid for his success by being thrown out of the church in 2005. Now living in Portland, Hawkins is writing a book about his experiences in Scientology.
And boy, is he pissed….
“Dark clouds tumbled overhead on that afternoon 30 years ago, in the last hours of the congressman’s mission deep in the jungle of Guyana. With a small entourage, Rep. Leo Ryan had come to investigate the remote agricultural settlement built by a California-based church. But while he was there, more than a dozen people had stepped forward: We want to return to the United States, they said fearfully.
Suddenly a powerful wind tore through the central pavilion, riffling pages of my notebook, and the skies dumped torrents. People scrambled for cover as I interviewed the founder of Peoples Temple.
“I feel sorry that we are being destroyed from within,” intoned the Rev. Jim Jones, stunned that members of his flock wanted to abandon the place he called the Promised Land. That freakish storm and the mood seemed ominous “‘ and not just to me. “I felt evil itself blow into Jonestown when that storm hit,” recalls Tim Carter, one of the few settlers to survive that day. Within hours, Carter would see his wife and son die of cyanide poisoning, two of the more than 900 people Jones led in a murder and suicide ritual of epic proportions.”
(via USA Today)
(Related: “Now The Really Big Question: Will MSNBC Honestly Bear ‘Witness To Jonestown’?” and “MSNBC’s Jonestown ‘Witness’ Documentary Verdict: Perjury. And Tonight-More of The Same from CNN?” via Jonestown Apologists Alert. “Jones Plotted Cyanide Deaths Years Before Jonestown” via CNN)
(MSNBC video from “Witness To Jonestown”)
Psychologists in the Prison Service will try to “cure” extremist Muslim inmates of their political beliefs with controversial therapies similar to those used to “de-programme” members of religious cults.
The experimental treatments are being developed by a special Extremism Unit set up by the Ministry of Justice in January last year, The Mail on Sunday has discovered.
Sources say the therapy forms part of a wide-ranging strategy to combat Islamic extremism in Britain’s jails.
(via Cryptogon)
Who determines who is a “fanatic” and who determines when they have been “cured”?
Todd Bentley has a long night ahead of him, resurrecting the dead, healing the blind, and exploding cancerous tumors. Since April 3, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous “supernatural healing revival” in central Florida. To contain the 10,000-plus crowds flocking from around the globe, Bentley has rented baseball stadiums, arenas and airport hangars at a cost of up to $15,000 a day. Many in attendance are church pastors themselves who believe Bentley to be a prophet and don’t bat an eye when he tells them he’s seen King David and spoken with the Apostle Paul in heaven. “He was looking very Jewish,” Bentley notes.
Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read “Joel’s Army.” They’re evidence of Bentley’s generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that’s gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other “hyper-charismatic” preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel’s Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian “dominion” on non-believers. [...]
Joel’s Army believers are hard-core Christian dominionists, meaning they believe that America, along with the rest of the world, should be governed by conservative Christians and a conservative Christian interpretation of biblical law. There is no room in their doctrine for democracy or pluralism.
Dominionism’s original branch is Christian Reconstructionism, a grim, Calvinist call to theocracy that, as Reconstructionist writer Gary North describes, wants to “get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.”
(thanks Bill!)
“Picture the scene: you are in a room with more than a hundred adults. Sitting at one end, with a microphone in his hand, is a man with long white hair who is encouraging everybody to introduce themselves to each other. ‘Go up to somebody,’ he says, ‘and say one honest, true thing about them that strikes you immediately. Then have them do the same back to you. But before you do that,’ he goes on, ‘please take off all your clothes.’
Welcome to the ‘most radical self-help workshop in the world’, as this hip new 10-day residential retreat is dubbed. Led by the Birmingham-born life coach guru Paul Lowe, it is not a place for the shy and retiring. As well as being encouraged to voice compliments to each other, such as ‘you make my vagina tingle’, discuss innermost feelings in intense, nude ’sharing’ circles and take part in sensual massage sessions, participants will also be invited, during the course of the workshop, to explore their sexuality with multiple partners (yes, actually in the workshop). In Lowe’s eyes, you see, monogamy is one of those ‘ludicrous, unnatural social conventions that stand between you and spiritual enlightenment’.
(via The Times Online)
A strange new war has broken out in the remote Himalayan statelet of Nagapur, pitting ancient Serpent Deities against the global bureaucrats of the World Bank.
Not to be confused with Nagaland, Nagapur is a small ‘princely state’ in the Himalayan foothills between Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. Its highest peaks get winter snow, its lowest plains join the heatchoked tiger-and-orchid jungles of the Terai, but all within a hundred-odd square miles.
Nagapur was mentioned in the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata as one of the ‘cities’ of the Nagas or semi-divine were-snakes. Nagapur is still noted for its tantrik snake temples, some of them decorated in medieval Nepalese style with ‘obscene’ carved wood sculpture. The former ruling family claimed descent from an ancestral cobra, the Sheesh Nang. [...]
In the past few years however one clan of the family has achieved some degree of notoriety thanks to its connections with an emerging ‘Fourth World’ resistance movement in Nagapur. Poor peasants and ‘tribals’ who depend in part on the forest for economic sustenance have struggled against various ‘Green Revolution’ agricultural policies, dams, and development projects, some launched by the Indian Government and others by Global institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. [...]
In 1997 a great-grandson of the Begum was born and named Nagarjuna, and proclaimed Crown Prince. The infant’s horoscope was said to be unusually auspicious, and rumors began to spread amongst the adherents of the Naga Goddess. As Hindu-Moslem syncretists they came to believe that the young prince was both the Kalki Avatar (the savior incarnation of Vishnu) and the Mahdi or Hidden Imam revered by Nagapur’s Shiites and sufi mystics.
Very interesting. Worth reading the whole thing.
(Thanks Nova!)
#5.On His Native American Upbringing …
#4.On His Study of Nuclear Physics …
#3. On L. Ron Hubbard, War Hero …
#2.On Living The Drug-Free Lifestyle …
#1. On Inventing the Concept of a Moral Code …
(via Disinfo)
“At the time of this writing, interesting recent press coverage hearkens back to two of 1969s most notorious events.
The first story concerns the new search for possible Manson family murder victims long rumored to have been buried in the desert near Manson’s old hideout at Barker Ranch in California’s Death Valley. This theory of unknown murder victims stems from a statement attributed to Manson family member Susan Atkins, who allegedly told a fellow inmate she was incarcerated with that there were “three people out in the desert that they done in,” referring to other possible victims during the Manson family’s spree of killings during the summer of 1969. As reported by the press, a team of forensic scientists have traveled recently to Barker Ranch and used cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar and other equipment in an attempt to locate these possible victims. According to the report, the scientists located “three large areas of interest.”
The story second concerns a BBC News report that details the revelation from the FBI’s own files that the Hell’s Angels may have actually tried to assassinate Mick Jagger at his rented home in Long Island, New York in retaliation for Jagger?s comments following the disastrous concert at Altamont in late 1969. The murder attempt supposedly failed after the boat carrying the would-be assassins foundered during a storm, almost drowning them.
That these two stories continue to resonate in modern times in not such a surprise. The article below discusses the detrimental effects that the Manson murders, the ill-fated concert at Altamont, and numerous other crimes that the press of the day dubbed “hippie murders”, had on the hippie image.”
(via Steamshovel Press)
(For another good read about the dark side of “the Age of Aquarius” check out “Turn Off Your Mind”, by Gary Lachman)
Above is a trailer for the book and DVD Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid: Oprah, Obama, and the Occult. It just happens to be a rip off of other Christian conspiracy theorists:
Last week, Lighthouse Trails was contacted by two other ministries who brought up issues regarding the use of their material in Steele’s book. Upon reading Steele’s work ourselves, our editors discovered that the 80-page book was filled with verbatim passages copied from other writers material, which was presented as Steele’s own authorship. Because of the sensationalistic overtones of the book (e.g., comparing Oprah to Jim Jones who gave poisoned Kool-aid to over 900 people), and because plagiarism most often ignores the original context and authorial intent of the material copied but is not ethically credited, Lighthouse Trails cannot, in good conscience, promote Steele’s book.
Full Story: From the Lighthouse
(via Hit and Run)
Pale Rider writes:
t’s believed that more than 3,000 cults exist in America today. But as recent news events of a polygamist sect in Texas have reminded us, we seldom get to see what exactly goes on inside - from the benign to the abusive. Who joins cults or renegade sects? What drives their beliefs? How is sex used to ensure devotion to cult leaders? And is it all just a pretext for more earthly desires?
Strong City: End of the World Cult on Google Video
on National Geographic (Showing again on Wed.)
Strong City- Finished Work and Experiencing the Finished Work
(via GPod)
I haven’t been following or covering the FLDS fiasco much because it erupted at a time when I had no time to follow it and I’ve been slow to catch-up. But I think Wendy McElroy does a pretty good job of commenting on it:
One other thing: Jesse Walker Radley Balko points out that “And if Texas law says parents can marry their 15-year-old daughters off to 60-year-old men, perhaps we should talk about the wisdom of that law, not arrest the people who still manage to stay within it.”
Comment from previous Process Church of the Final Judgement coverage:
Publications will again be put on sale. If you would like to receive the sale announcement, please forward an email address to me at processean@yahoo.com.
If you are an former or current Processean and would like to be put in touch with others, please email me.
The telephone rings, and a voice on the other end says that Anonymous is in crisis mode.
It’s March 13, two days before Anonymous’ second protest against the Church of Scientology, and things are starting to get serious. Rumors abound that Scientologists are flying in investigators from church headquarters in Clearwater, Fla., to Washington. Reports have come in that people involved in Anonymous–”anons”–have been followed, and a series of videos have been posted on YouTube purporting to show anons without their masks and listing their real names.
The videos appear alongside a video released by the church, titled “Anonymous Hate Crimes,” which calls the group terrorists. Down in Clearwater, the church has applied for a restraining order against planned Anonymous anti-Scientology protests on the Ides of March, but the D.C. permit is secure.
Things seem to be going down pretty much the way ex-Scientologist Arnie Lerma said they would, and paranoia is running high. It’s a woman’s voice on the phone, but she won’t reveal her name, only that the recipient of the call has met her before–she wishes to remain Anonymous.
(via Hit and Run)
“I am deep in the Amazon rainforest, anxiously losing my mind as the world begins to disintegrate. Around me, all sense of distance is wrapping itself up like spatial origami, slowly shrinking until an entire dimension has disappeared. A moment ago, I was surrounded by 200 people dressed in white and singing like angels, but now they occupy the same space as me… if that makes any sense.
Wherever I look, that is where I am. I can see everything from every angle, all at the same time. In fact, I feel I am everywhere. Outside, in the forest, the thrum of frogs and cicadas drowns out the sound of shrieking monkeys. Below me, the floor is shimmering, vanishing in waves like a spent mirage. Behind, I feel a cold vibration on my neck and sense a growling malevolence. I turn and see a red door, bulging at the hinges. Overcome with dread, I push hard to keep it closed, and all the while I feel a horrible nausea.
When will this end, I am thinking. And, with sweat running down my forehead, how can I survive it? Welcome to the Church of Santo Daime, one of the fastest growing religions in the world. Its mixture of Christianity, South American shamanism and African animism is proving irresistible to thousands of new believers across the globe. But it is its central sacrament, ayahuasca, a powerful hallucinogenic brew made from rainforest plants - a brew that I have just drunk - that makes the Church so appealing to some yet so controversial to others.”
(via the Times Online)
“Beyond the pure insanity of a nutty cult leader having the influence that Reverend Moon has, there are so many things so very wrong here I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll force myself to start with what’s been in the news recently. And I’ll do it briefly because, as I’ve said before, this topic has been discussed to death in the corporate media. And now that I think about it, it’s not that it’s been discussed so much, but how it’s been discussed, as an endless 20 second loop, that’s the problem.
If you go back as far as I do, ask yourself when the last time was, or if you don’t go back that far, ask yourself if you’ve ever, heard the Reverend Sun Myung Moon mentioned in the corporate media. I go back far enough to remember the John Belushi skit from the documentary when it first aired on Saturday Night Live. While Reverend Wright sound bites play on and endless loop in the corporate media, a man who has more political influence and is more dangerous than all the religious nut cases you can name combined, and I don’t include Wright in that group, is rarely, if ever brought up. In fact, he’s only been mentioned recently in the blogosphere from what I’ve seen, and I watch a lot of CNN and MSNBC. And while that might not be exhaustive coverage of what the media is reporting, googling his name for news stories on him finds only a handful. One by AlterNet, none by major media outlets.”
(via A Revolution of One)
(direct link to “King of America” on Veoh)
(Related: “Who is Rev. Moon?”)
From the TOPYNA site:
As of the end of Janurary 2008, the Temple Ov Psychick Youth North America will be directing all of its attention at the launch of the new phase in our communal growth, the AUTONOMOUS INIDIVUDALS NETWORK (AIN)
The ACTIVE membership status and current activites of the Network will remain in order and progress as they should. But the name of the Network and some of the key elements of the traditional initiate process will be changing. And all future publications and correspondence will reflect this name change.
Over the years the identity issue of TOPY in regards to its name, use of certain symbols, and basic origin, have constantly come under the scrutiny of those that wish to deny our exsistance and our WILL to CREATE a better way of interacting as magickal individuals on planet earth. We now boldly step up the task of “growing up”, and the time has come for us to exit our comfortable psychick womb and GO out into the universe as true INDIVIDUALS.
We welcome all interested parties to seek out our message and interact with us.
long live the memory of Thee Temple.. those who do not remember the past.. are forced by the hand of chance to repeat it..Long live The Autonomous Individuals Network..
Individuals wanted… AIN23
(via smi2le)
The case of a 15-month-old Oregon City girl who died for lack of medical treatment could become the first test of a state law that disallows faith healing at the expense of a child’s life.
Ava Worthington died March 2 at home from bacterial bronchial pneumonia and infection, according to Dr. Christopher Young, a deputy state medical examiner. He said both conditions could have been prevented or treated with antibiotics.
The child’s breathing was further compromised by a benign cyst that had never been medically addressed and could have been removed from her neck, Young said.
Child-abuse detectives recently referred investigative findings to prosecutors, who are evaluating the case in light of a law passed in 1999 after several faith-healing deaths of children.
“This is the first time that they could be taking a shot at interpreting the law,” said state Senate President Peter Courtney, who carried the contentious bill on the Senate floor nearly a decade ago. He said the Worthington case is giving him “flashbacks.”
Full Story: Religion News Blog.
See also: Child sacrifice in Oregon.
Recently, Radar reported on Scientology’s short-lived attempt to beat its Guy Fawkes mask-clad antagonists “Anonymous” at their own game: scary YouTube videos. A clip posted by a Sciento associate under the name “AnonymousFacts” displayed the names and personal information of several supposed Anonymous members and accused the group of violent threats and terrorism. YouTube quickly took the video down and suspended AnonymousFacts. But the hassle for at least one of the three men shown didn’t end there.
[...]
Later a friend of the family came over and said Mr. Mustachio was hanging out in front of the house and had asked her if she was Jonathan’s mom. When she said no, he waited until Jonathan’s parents did arrive, then handed them the file and said, “This is a courtesy letter. No charges are being filed yet. But your son may be involved in terrorist activity.” And then he left. Inside the package was a letter accusing Jonathan of terrorism and a DVD copy of the YouTube video, he says.
[...]
Jonathan said the DVD of Scientologists’ video and the accusation that their son was a terrorist concerned his parents. “[They] told me that while they understood what I was doing, it’s not worth it to have psychos threatening our family. And I agreed.” He’s publicly declared he’s done with Anonymous. “I can’t. I live at home, and these creepy guys started knocking on our door and handing my parents letters … Anyway, I’m not protesting anymore.”
Update: Another protester’s been intimidated out.
Radar’s coverage of the protests.
Scientology Sets Sights on African Expansion.
He walked to the National Geographic map of the world mounted on the wall. “You guys know about Genghis Khan?” he asked. “Genghis was a man with a vision. He conquered” - David stood on the couch under the map, tracing, with his hand, half the northern hemisphere-”nearly everything. He devastated nearly everything. His enemies? He beheaded them.” David swiped a finger across his throat. “Dop, dop, dop, dop.”
David explained that when Genghis entered a defeated city he would call in the local headman and have him stuffed into a crate. Over the crate would be spread a tablecloth, and on the tablecloth would be spread a wonderful meal. “And then, while the man suffocated, Genghis ate, and he didn’t even hear the man’s screams.” David still stood on the couch, a finger in the air. “Do you know what that means?” He was thinking of Christ’s parable of the wineskins. “You can’t pour new into old,” David said, returning to his chair. “We elect our leaders. Jesus elects his.”
He reached over and squeezed the arm of a brother. “Isn’t that great?” David said. “That’s the way everything in life happens. If you’re a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that’s who you guys are. When you leave here, you’re not only going to know the value of Jesus, you’re going to know the people who rule the world. It’s about vision. ‘Get your vision straight, then relate.’ Talk to the people who rule the world, and help them obey. Obey Him. If I obey Him myself, I help others do the same. You know why? Because I become a warning. We become a warning. We warn everybody that the future king is coming. Not just of this country or that, but of the world.” Then he pointed at the map, toward the Khan’s vast, reclaimable empire.
Previous coverage of The Family.
(thanks Gabbo!)
“The One True Church Of Mammon is a community of increase and abundance. The spiritual center of the church is a bar of pure silver currently located in New Hampshire. This dense metal object is at all moments, from now until the end of the days, commanding members of its community to fulfill personal ambitions and to GAIN, and it transmits this permanent, unrelenting order like a radio transmitter that is broken and cannot be turned off. The silver object receives its authority from those who focus attention upon it, and by its nature it imparts immediate and instant power to those in the act of obeying its single order. This concentration of power is openly available for anyone who, in their own unique manner, brings attention to the object and receives its permanent command to GAIN.”
(The One True Church of Mammon. H/T: Mind Control 101)
