Aberrations of Power: Leadership in Totalist Groups (Synanon)

2004 - Cultic Studies Review: Aberrations of Power: Leadership in Totalist Groups (Synanon)

November 18th is recognized as International Cult Awareness Day

" … Synanon was a residential drug treatment group founded in California by Chuck Dederich, in 1958.  Synanon’s treatment was based on the “Game,” a confrontational group session during which participants critically considered the defenses and illusions that sustained their substance abuse.  Within months, Synanon claimed to be an effective means of controlling not only alcoholism but drug addiction, as well. Between 1958 and 1968, the group processed over 5000 individuals (Gerstel, 1982).

The purported success of this program as a treatment for drug addiction was based primarily on unsubstantiated reports in the press (Ofshe, 1980).  While it is likely that members did remain drug free and sober while in residence (given the no-nonsense, confrontational Synanon approach), there is little formal documentation that Synanon provided a successful cure for individuals who moved to non-resident status (Ofshe, 1980).  In time, such graduation ceased to be a goal of the organization.  Its fame as a successful drug program led to donations, grants and expansion that permitted it to open businesses staffed by (unpaid) Synanon members (Gerstel, 1984).  By 1967 Synanon had over 800 members in various residence facilities and had begun to admit non-addicted individuals from the community.  The Game was offered as a powerful, albeit traumatic, means of self-exploration. Obviously it also served as a blunt instrument of punishment and control.

In 1968, Dederich formally re-conceptualized Synanon as a communal living experiment open to all. Entry required attending “boot camp” complete with sleep loss, vigorous exercise and other humiliating initiation activities.  Game “marathons” lasting over 24 hours became common at this point. (Gerstel, 1984). By 1975 Dederich had declared Synanon to be a religion, renounced his vows of poverty, allocated himself a substantial salary, and established a luxury residence for himself and his entourage. Dederich could broadcast at will to all Synanon locations and used this communication system, “the wire,” to humiliate any Synanon member who displeased him (e.g., Gerstel, 1984).

Promiscuous sexual activity at Synanon had long been tolerated and by 1977, was actively encouraged as a means of establishing “mutual love” among group members (Gerstel, 1984). Dederich’s power was reflected in the effectiveness of this edict even among married members as well as his success encouraging abortion and vasectomies for group members (Ofshe, 1980).  By the mid 1970’s, the group abandoned non-violence and formed armed security details designed to “protect” the group from outsiders as well as to discipline unruly members -- particularly resistant adolescents.  By 1975, these security personnel had engaged in physical attacks on local neighbors, the beating of an ex-Synanon member, and a case in which an “enemy” attorney was bitten by a rattlesnake placed in his mailbox—a crime that eventually resulted in Dederich's accepting a plea bargain of five years probation (Gerstel, 1984).  Synanon then lost a series of lawsuits stemming from the physical assaults made by the group.  The IRS revoked their tax-exempt status in 1986.  Synanon was formally disbanded in 1991, and in 1997 Chuck Dederich died of heart and lung failure in California where he was living in a trailer park (Yee, 1997).

Theoretical Analyses of Synanon (Social Identity Theory)

In accord with a social identity view, group salience in Synanon was high given the residential nature of membership.  Similarly, given the initiation ordeals, it is safe to assume that among those who chose to remain, group commitment and identification were very high (Baron, 2001; Pratkanis & Aronson, 2000). Moreover, the intense mortification process entailed in Gaming, recurrently encountered by both neophytes and veterans, was specifically designed to challenge members’ feelings of esteem and self-efficacy—conditions we have emphasized earlier as facilitating conditions for group identification. Given that Dederich lived among the other members, participated in Games on a weekly basis, and for years did not take obvious material advantage of his leadership position, one could argue that he was viewed as a prototypic group member. Thus, Dederich was deeply admired within the group and his opinions on a wide range of issues (from sexual promiscuity to the need for brutal mutual criticism) defined normative opinion and behavior within the group. In addition, Dederich took positions that differentiated him from those outside the group on a number of issues (e.g., private property, promiscuity).  Thus, conforming to his “prototypic” opinions helped establish the distinction between Synanon members and those outside the group. In short, in several respects, Dederich’s leadership style corresponds to that outlined by social identity theory.

However, as above, Dederich did not emerge as a leader because his attitudes and behaviors happened to correspond to prototypic group norms.  Rather, as creator of the group, such norms were defined by whichever opinions and actions he favored.  This fact does not correspond to the analysis offered by (Hogg, 2001). In addition, while there is little doubt that Dederich’s leadership stemmed in part from his prototypic status as Hogg’s analysis maintains, it is clear that Dederich aura of charisma was to his abilities as a speaker, manager, and innovator, over and above any attributional bias on the part of his membership.  On the other hand, Hogg’s suggestion that leaders come to rely more on coercive and reward power as they begin to distance themselves from the group is congruent with the fact that Dederich expanded his use of physical discipline as he adopted luxurious privileges not available to others.  In short, the social identity perspective corresponds in some but not all respects to the leadership history within Synanon.

Transformational Theory

One can also make a reasonable case that Dederich’s leadership pattern represents the pseudo-transformational style alluded to by Bass (1998).  Group members stood to gain any one of several transactional benefits, including a life free of drug addiction and crime (in the cases of drug addict members).  Dederich offered inspirational leadership, a transcendent purpose, and individual consideration of group members. However, Dederich had little toleration of dissent, was an expert in humiliation and criticism of his followers, focused on punishing transgressions (as opposed to rewarding correct behavior), and was manipulative and Machiavellian in dealing with the group.  Thus, Bass’s conception of pseudo-transformational leadership provides a close description of Dederich’s leadership style within Synanon."

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‘It was a cult’: Traumatizing troubled teens

An Arizona facility for troubled teens was just hit with a $2.5 million judgment for fraud

JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY

Arizona Mirror

JULY 15, 2024

 

Outside the small town of Mayer, Arizona, 14-year-old Katie Farran and other teenage girls were engaging in a ritual they had done many times before. 

At the Spring Ridge Academy, Farran and others gathered in a room for “Feedback Group,” a pseudo-group therapy that involves shouting grievances at other participants. 

The teenage girls were encouraged to participate, told they needed to have things to say to their peers,  who were there for reasons ranging from substance abuse, eating disorders or simply being victims of bad parenting.

This story deals with child abuse. If you or a loved one is experiencing abuse please call 1-888-SOS-CHILD

“It was something you had to do,” Farran, now 39, said in an interview with the Arizona Mirror. “It was really humiliating to be called out in front of everybody.”

This style of “therapy” was born in the late 1950s, connected to a group known to many as a cult and connected to a string of crimes including attempted murder. 

Now Spring Ridge Academy is facing legal repercussions after a mother of one of those teenagers filed a federal lawsuit claiming fraud, among other things, and a jury awarded her $2.5 million. But for survivors of Spring Ridge Academy and similar facilities for so-called troubled teens, the victory is just one small step towards greater accountability. 

But Spring Ridge Academy, which closed in 2023, is just one part of a larger ecosystem, one that continues to use outdated therapies and procedures born out of a cult from the 1950s. And it’s one that still has roots in Arizona. 

“It is easy for people to kind of overlook us and think, ‘Oh, they were just kids,’ or especially, ‘Oh, they were just messed up kids,’ and not take us seriously,” Farran said. “I hope that people start listening.”

From cult to therapy 

In 1958, Charles “Chuck” Dederich created Synanon, a drug rehabilitation program intended to combat the rising heroin addictions of the era. 

By the late 1960s, the group was attracting media attention and building a fanbase in Hollywood, culminating in a feature film starring Chuck Connors and Edmond O’Brien, filmed at their actual headquarters in Santa Monica. 

Synanon began making Dederich $10 million a year as its popularity grew. At the heart of the program was something called “The Game.” 

The Game was presented as a therapeutic tool, a form of group therapy in which members humiliated each other and were encouraged to expose each other’s weaknesses and flaws. 

The Game is a form of “attack therapy,” a treatment that studies have since found leads to lasting psychological damage. Its efficacy even in the short term is questionable, as other research concluded it even drove some alcoholics to drink more. As Synanon grew, so did the group’s control over those in its care. 

By the 1970s, women in Synanon were required to shave their heads, married couples were forced to break up and find new partners, men were given forced vasectomies and some pregnant women were given abortions against their will. 

As Synanon grew, so did its legal troubles. Dederich ordered two of his followers to assassinate a critic — the rattlesnake they planted in the man’s mailbox bit him, but he survived — and there were violent assaults against members and those who wanted to free loved ones from Synanon’s grasp. The final nail in the coffin for the organization came in the 1990s, when the Internal Revenue Service revoked its tax-exempt status, ordering the organization to pay $17 million in back taxes. 

Dederich was no longer at the helm after the attempted murder, which landed him probation. Bankrupt and without a leader, Synanon dissolved in 1991. 

But its legacy remained. 

Other groups popped up in its place, using similar tactics. Former followers branched off into different industries and soon a whole industry would emerge based on many of its initial teachings. 

The Troubled Teen Industry

It was December 2003 and Nora Ash was about to experience something called “gooning.” 

Gooning is a form of legal kidnapping utilized by what is colloquially referred to as the “Troubled Teen Industry,” or TTI for short. Big men show up at your house, often in the middle of the night, and whisk you away without telling you anything. 

Ash was taken from her home in Salt Lake City to a place called Outback Wilderness in the middle of nowhere Utah. The state was being hit by a blizzard that would eventually claim the lives of five people. 

At Outback Wilderness, there was nine feet of snow on the ground at a facility that aimed to teach kids “self reliance.” In order to have the privilege to eat, the teenagers first had to make a spoon from scratch, Ash said. 

Due to the storm, she was unable to get the things necessary to make her spoon for a day and a half. 

Ash, who was 16 at the time, was sent to Outback Wilderness by her parents because she had interest in an older boy. Like many teenagers, she also snuck the occasional drink or smoked marijuana, something she shared with many of the teens sent to TTI facilities. 

Outback Wilderness was a type of camp that is popular in the troubled teen industry. The “troubled teens” are forced to live in a wilderness setting, something sold to parents as a “tough love” solution for their teens. 

Arizona has its own wilderness programs. Some have even had their own time in the limelight. 

Family vloggers Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt were sentenced earlier this year to prison for child abuse. But before Franke’s children were taken away from the abuse, they were being sent to Anasazi, a wilderness program based out of Mesa. 

The wilderness programs follow similar programs as those in Synanon and other troubled teen groups. 

“Most kids get put in programs because they have trauma somewhere that wasn’t addressed earlier on,” Ash said. She now spends her time advocating against these facilities and trying to steer parents away from sending their kids to them. 

“Just about every TTI program is centered on Synanon practices,” Ash said. 

In 1999, Farran was learning just what those practices were while at Spring Ridge Academy. Just before going there, she was at a wilderness program and had been told she’d be going home, only to discover she had been sent to the Mayer facility instead. 

“It was absolutely devastating, because I never knew exactly how long I was going to be there,” Farran said of the transition from one facility to the next. Many of the programs say they will last between six and nine months, but survivors share similar stories of aging out of the programs. 

Lifeboats and duct taped towels 

One of the exercises that many survivors tell is of taking towels wrapped in duct tape and hitting them against chairs. Many times, the teens are asked to imagine what they’re angry at or pretend that they’re hitting their parents. The exercise was sometimes coupled with days-long “retreats” where the teens would engage in other activities, including one Farran remembers vividly from Spring Ridge Academy. 

It started with a meditation and visuals of a serene journey on a cruise ship. It was a moment of calm for the teens as they listened to calming music and imagined a different life.

Then the sirens and flashing lights started. 

“It jolts you out of it and scares the crap out of you,” Farran said. 

Suddenly, everyone was being told the fictional cruise ship they were on was sinking and there were not enough lifeboats for everyone. Each teen got one minute to say why they deserved to live. 

Those who didn’t use the whole minute were chastised for not thinking highly of themselves.

But those who used their whole minute? Well, they must be selfish. 

Now the teens had to vote on who in the room would live and who would be left to die on the sinking ship and why, often looking a crying friend in the face as they did so. 

The lifeboat exercise was just one of the many different kinds of “therapies” that Farran experienced during her tenure at Spring Ridge Academy. She also experienced the “feedback groups,” in which teens as well as the adults involved in the program would shout their grievances at one another in a style similar to Synanon’s game. 

“This is why you’re a piece of sh–, but in a veiled way like you are caring,” Ash said of how they were told to participate in these group attack therapy days. 

Many of the facilities also give the teens different “levels” that offer them varying privileges. Farran recalled being told she needed to give more feedback if she ever hoped to rise higher in the Spring Ridge Academy ranks. 

“It was a cult in itself,” Farran said of Spring Ridge Academy. And at the head of that cult in Mayer was a woman named Jeannie Courtney.

Repeated investigations

Courtney founded Spring Ridge Academy. Her ex-husband is a man named David Gilcrease. 

Gilcrease was a facilitator for a group called LifeSpring, which was created in 1974. Some have described it as a pyramid scheme, while others described it as a cult. Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was once a member who began crusading against cults after leaving.  

Although Courtney and Gilcrease divorced in 1988, the two often worked together doing LifeSpring seminars until the mid-1990s. 

Spring Ridge Academy eventually became Courtney’s main focus. She counted among her employees her son and daughter-in-law, as well as Gilcrease’s new wife. 

“Not only did they use cult-like practices, but she was this figurehead,” Farran said, adding that Courtney had an “inner circle” of teen girls who often got special privileges. “I wanted her to approve of me so desperately. That was my driving goal.”

That desire to make Courtney happy led Farran to fully dedicate herself to the program. She described Courtney as charismatic, but with a “very high school mean girl” attitude — someone who would be nice or mean at a moment’s notice. 

Towards the end of her stay, the veil began to slip for Farran. 

She had worked to try to reach the “honor code,” which gave teens extra privileges. Farran had done absolutely everything she had needed to do, but Courtney still wouldn’t let her into the “inner circle.” 

“That kind of opened my eyes a little bit,” Farran said. She tried to tell her parents in her letters home, but those were read by staff and her phone calls were always monitored. Her parents also made it very clear that she would not be leaving anytime soon. 

Farran’s story is similar to the one told by Kimberly Sweidy, the mother who successfully sued Spring Ridge Academy for fraud. 

In her 200-plus-page lawsuit, Sweidy describes much of the same type of abuse and manipulation seen by former Spring Ridge Academy residents. Sweidy tried to get her daughter back from the program, only to have the program go around her to her ex-husband to ensure her daughter stayed. 

Sweidy and her family were paying Spring Ridge Academy $9,000 a month in tuition. 

Spring Ridge Academy was the focus of several investigations by the Arizona Department of Health Services during the 16 years it was open. It officially closed its doors in 2023, however, Courtney has filed for a business license for what appears to be a new program in Prescott. 

Courtney and Spring Ridge Academy’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment or a request for an interview for this story. 

The Arizona Department of Health Services cited the facility for lacking critical documentation and not preventing a teen from trying to commit suicide. 

“I don’t have a plan and I think about it 66% of the time,” the teen said in an assessment form reviewed by ADHS. The form also noted that the teen had said they had been “cutting ankles, wrist, hip with whatever sharp thing I find in the moment.”

The teen attempted suicide multiple times. Another teen resident at Spring Ridge Academy told ADHS investigators that the suicidal teen had told multiple people they had intended to kill themselves. 

In total, the department found two administrative violations, two medication service violations, two emergency and safety standard violations, one opioid prescribing violation, two quality management violations, two environmental standards violations and two behavioral health services violations. 

Life after 

The troubled teen industry has been facing intense scrutiny. Last month, socialite Paris Hilton told a congressional committee her stories of abuse within the system. And multiple documentary films have been drawing more eyes to the industry than ever before. 

But what of those still inside and those who may have gotten out of a place like Spring Ridge Academy or Outback Wilderness? 

“Keep your head down, do what they say until you get out,” Farran said to those who may still be in a place like Spring Ridge Academy. “Know that it will be OK and there is a whole community that will support you.”

Many survivors, including Farran and Ash, have found comfort in the communities online that have grown out of the troubled teen industry. They share their traumas, give advice for how to move on and advocate for change in the industry. 

Farran said that the trauma of a place like that can be hard to shake. She recalled a business trip she took where she felt she had to ask permission to leave the hotel, a reminder of her days at Spring Ridge Academy. 

For Ash, it’s about not only educating parents but trying to reach workers on the inside who may think they’re doing right by the children but are just a part of a “larger machine.” 

“By the time they see what is actually going on, they stay ’cause they feel they are the only way to prevent what is happening to these kids,” Ash said of some of the workers she’s spoken to. 

Both Farran and Ash also stress the importance of not forgetting those who have died at these facilities. 

In Arizona, there have been multiple deaths attributed to troubled teen facilities, along with shocking footage of abuse. 

But survivors are more hopeful than ever that real change may be coming, whether that be through legislation that prevents “gooning” or by more people becoming aware of the situations at some of these facilities. 

However, the industry has been fighting back. 

The lobbying arm of many of these organizations, the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, or NATSAP, has been pushing legislation in states across the nation. Two NATSAP-backed bills that were passed and signed into law this year by Gov. Katie Hobbs. 

Spring Ridge Academy and other local TTI facilities are a part of NATSAP, and Courtney was previously on its board of directors. 

Sweidy said she could not speak for this story, citing the ongoing litigation against Spring Ridge Academy and others. Farran and Ash both cited the recent jury verdict against Spring Ridge Academy as a major win for survivors of these facilities across the country. 

“Somebody saw that things were not right and a jury saw that things weren’t right and it is ok to feel the way that I feel,” Farran said.

https://azmirror.com/2024/07/15/it-was-a-cult-traumatizing-troubled-teens-spring-ridge-academy/

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Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

Reporter Jerod MacDonald-Evoy joined the Arizona Mirror from the Arizona Republic, where he spent 4 years covering everything from dark money in politics to Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals. He brings strong watchdog sensibilities and creative storytelling skills to the Arizona Mirror. Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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Ex-Synanon Members Break Down Cult's Mixed Legacy and What America Can Learn From It

Rachel Ulatowski

The Mary Sue
January 29, 2024

Sandra Rogers-Hare and Cassidy Arkin are the mother-daughter duo behind Paramount+’s new docuseries, Born in Synanon. Rather than sensationalize the story of the cult known as Synanon, the series challenges viewers to reflect on what really went wrong in hopes that future communities and countercultures can avoid the same mistakes.

Rogers-Hare was drawn to Synanon as a young activist intrigued by the community and The Game, which seemingly put everyone on equal footing regardless of class or race and went against societal norms. She met her husband through The Game—the group’s signature, harsh form of group therapy—and they eventually decided to devote their lives to Synanon, giving up the majority of their belongings and moving onto Synanon’s property. Their daughter, Arkin, was born and raised in Synanon until age 6.

It’s hard to judge Rogers-Hare and her husband for joining Synanon because, at one point, it seemed to have found the key to creating a utopia. It was a fully racially integrated community, which was unusual in the ’60s and ’70s. It offered drug rehab at a time when resources for people with an addiction were rare. There was no violence, everyone shared everything, and there was at least an illusion of a truly equal society. However, by the time Arkin was 6, it had devolved into a cult. Synanon’s founder, Chuck Dederich, turned to alcoholism, bringing violence and forced partner swaps, abortions, and vasectomies to a once peaceful community.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Arkin and Rogers-Hare to dig deeper into their perspective on Synanon.

What really happened to Synanon?

It’s impossible to discuss what happened to Synanon without discussing Dederich. Born in Synanon expresses a sentiment that Synanon was a utopia until one person, Dederich, destroyed everything. Both Arkin and Rogers-Hare agree that Dederich was one of the critical components of Synanon’s fall. Rogers-Hare revealed that even members of Synanon were uncertain about whether they would survive past their founder.

She explained, “We studied the Mennonites and a number of utopian groups, and what we understood was that very few survived past the founder. Very few survive. We expected to survive past the founder, but I moved in when I was in my 20s, so I had no concept that he would die … I certainly didn’t expect him to go to become an alcoholic again and to systematically destroy it. None of us had that on our radar.”

Despite hoping to survive and be the exception, Rogers-Hare admitted, “We knew that things could change.” Arkin also emphasized Dederich’s role in Synanon’s downfall. Although Synanon is now often labeled one of the most dangerous cults in America, Arkin doesn’t see it that way. The danger wasn’t necessarily in the cult or group of people—the danger was in Dederich.

She stated,

Well, I think that Syanon was not a dangerous cult. I think in many ways, the danger is one person. What happens when one person has power, and you’re so close to that person that you’re unaware of how the society or the community is devolving and becoming something other. Because the majority of the people who moved into Synanon and were a part of Synanon were literally taking their lives, changing their lives, knowing that they themselves were creating and investing in this community to do good for others. So, we were all, in many ways, kind of like walking down this blind road, not understanding how bad things were going to be… And that really is your takeaway with Born in Synanon, is one person went AWOL and everything was lost.

Was Synanon ever a utopia?

At the same time, when examining Synanon deeply, one will find societal flaws. These flaws may not have ended Synanon, but they show that the community wasn’t always what it seemed. For example, former Synanon members like Arkin and Carina Ray have expressed that they never experienced significant racism or segregation in Synanon, but Akrin and Rogers-Hare were careful to emphasize that though there may not have been racism, there certainly was classism.

Arkin explained, “We were very diverse, and it wasn’t a thought of, oh, my God, we have black and white people together, and we’re all hanging out. We have character disorders and prison inmates, and we have philanthropists. And that was never the thing because we were very much about being integrated and a community that really cherished each other for who they were.”

But Synanon was never quite an equal society despite, as Rogers-Hare described, its members “pontificating” about not having discrimination. Rogers-Hare pointed to Isabel Wilkerson’s thesis in Caste: “Discrimination rests in a power relationship rather than in ethnicity.” Just because Synanon “purportedly did not have racial discrimination” didn’t mean there wasn’t discrimination.

Arkin’s mother explained:

“We discovered as we were going through the interviews and putting this together, oh, my gosh. There was sort of some status cast, some status discrimination based on where you were. Like, if you gave $50,000 to Synanon. I didn’t catch on at the time, but you were treated better than if you just came in indigent … some people were treated differently, and it seemed to be based on their position in the power structure… based partly on competence and then partly on how much could you offer.”

Similarly, The Game has a mixed legacy in Synanon. Some declare it a form of attack therapy or brainwashing tactic, though, at the time, it seemed to be the key to nonviolent communication. Arkin described The Games as “one of the most fascinating aspects of Syanon” and believes “it was a vehicle for change.” As for the brainwashing, well, that was kind of the point. She said, “The brainwashing aspect is what we all wanted. If you think about coming in from a culture that really never accepted you and or you were just always fighting to have a place in America. So, when I say brainwashing, it was more about taking all of those qualities, those negative aspects of the American culture that didn’t work within my world, and wiping your slate clean.”

Rogers-Hare added, “To be specific, however, sometimes the game was brainwashing, so-called getting somebody’s mind right. ‘We want you to understand this or that.’ Sometimes, it was directive. ‘We want you to show up to work on time. We want you to do this or that.'”

However, there was a therapeutic aspect to it. Rogers-Hare played the game for “14 years straight,” morphing into less of a game and more of a conversation between people with “shared knowledge” and “shared understanding.” Still, this is just one example of the many dimensions of The Game. Of course, the fact that children played The Game drew what Rogers-Hare called “valid” criticism. Even the most defining aspects of Synanon, like The Game, were as convoluted as “American politics.”

What can America learn from Synanon?

Sometimes, it feels like the most significant takeaway in Born in Synanon is that we can’t have a utopia because even the communities that start with the best intentions can’t survive their leaders and the power corruption. However, despite having lived through Synanon, both Arkin and Rogers-Hare believe a utopia, like the one Synanon was supposed to be, could hypothetically work. Arkin emphasized the importance of learning from Synanon’s fall to understand what we can do better. She stated:

“I think America can be a great utopia. But it all starts with authenticity and truth and honesty, even in what you’re doing. Your ability to be able to see beyond just the cult and to ask the questions about what was it? Why did it fail? Like understanding the wound and how that started so that you can understand how you can create this great utopia. We can do something and create this utopia, even in America, if we just understand our history, our roots, our power, and how we can do something within a community and call people out on it.”

Rogers-Hare admits that the chances of a true utopia surviving are “very low.” At the same time, though, she thinks a utopia “absolutely” could still happen. She explained, “Look what’s going on in America with the two Americas. Can we save our democracy? I think we can. Is it likely that we’re going to have real damage that carries over some generations? Yeah, but I think we could. And I think knowing that you’re trying, that the number of people are trying to is motivating and exciting.”

Arkin adds that the key to progress is digging into our histories. It’s “understanding the scars, the wounds, where our parents are from, the rivers that cross through our towns” and learning from them. Born in Synanon isn’t just supposed to be another warning about cults but is meant to stir conversation on building a better society without falling into the same pitfalls that Synanon did.

https://www.themarysue.com/born-in-synanon-cassidy-arkin-and-sandra-rogers-hare-interview/

'The Synanon Fix' and the slippery slope of a cult mentality

Leslie Thatcher
KPCW
January 22, 2024

A still from "The Synanon Fix" by Rory Kennedy, an official selection of the Episodic Program at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Exploring the rise and fall of the Synanon organization — through the eyes of the members who lived it — from its early days as a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation program to its later descent into what many consider a cult.

Rory Kennedy- Director of 'The Synanon Fix'

Rory Kennedy, whose intuitive yet methodical nonfiction storytelling style demonstrated in Sundance Film Festival projects includes "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" (2007), "Last Days in Vietnam" (2014), and "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing" (2022), returns with her signature commitment to first-person perspectives in "The Synanon Fix." Former members recollect the hope and community the breakthrough treatment center and its dynamic founder initially provided, before the decades long transition to an organization centered on control and violence. Compellingly interspersed with newly found footage, this film presents authentic insights that transcend the presentation of an experiment gone horrifically awry, crafted as a cultural touchstone of charismatic leaders and vulnerable followers.

https://www.kpcw.org/show/the-sundance-reel/2024-01-22/the-synanon-fix-and-the-slippery-slope-of-a-cult-mentality

 

Synanon

LA Meekly Podcast
May 13, 2020

"The demented history of the Synanon cult. This is a segment from our episode "Cult Classics."

How Escaping From a Cult as a Child Shaped The Airborne Toxic Event Frontman Mikel Jollett's Life

Inside Edition Staff
November 14, 2020

Mikel Jollett found fame fronting the acclaimed rock and roll band The Airborne Toxic Event. He's active on social media, discussing on Twitter the state of the union and encouraging his followers to speak truth to power. He's a singer and songwriter with so many bright spots in his present. But he also has a dark past, as his earliest memories were formed when he was being raised inside a cult.

Jollett, who released his bestselling memoir, “Hollywood Park,” earlier this year, detailed how the first nearly four years of his life were spent inside the Synanon cult until, he, his brother and biological mother escaped to live with his grandparents in Oregon.

He told Inside Edition Digital one of his reasons for coming forward with his story in his book was to begin the “unpacking of all these different lies that I've been told throughout my life, and to give voice to this kid that I was, and my brother and I were, who never really had voices.”

Synanon was the notorious cult founded by Charles E. Dederich Sr., known by many as "Chuck," first as a drug rehabilitation center, in 1958 in California.

“Synanon was a place that started for a bunch of dope fiends in the '60s to get clean off of heroin. That's really what it started as. So a bunch of guys that had been in AA, and they set up a place for everyone to live, because they wanted to help other addicts,” Jollett told Inside Edition Digital. “And they didn't think AA went far enough for heroin addicts, so they wanted to have a more intense version of that. That's what they did, and then it worked for a long time. A good 10, 15 years it helped a lot of people get clean of heroin. My dad was one of those people.”

His dad first entered Synanon after he was dropped off to get clean to help kick a heroin addiction.

“My dad had done some time in prison, and when he got out he had a heroin addiction that he'd established in jail,” he said. “He OD'd, and then someone dropped him off at Synanon, and then he got clean and he turned it around.”

Synanon did help his father get clean and it was inside the walls of the facility that Jollett’s biological parents met.

“He never went back on drugs, never went back to crime. He never got a parking ticket ... From that point on for the rest of his life, completely clean, which is insanely uncommon. The recidivism rate for ex-cons are so high, and that just didn't happen,” he said. “So Synanon was good at a few things.”

In the 1970s, Synanon became the Church of Synanon. It disbanded in 1991, but not before becoming, according to Gizmodo, one of the “most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen.”

“Our religious posture is: Don’t mess with us,” Dederich once said. “You can get killed dead, literally dead.”

“Chuck [Dederich] started doing all this crazy stuff, like breaking up marriages and forcing vasectomies, forcing abortions, punishing people with violence, hoarding guns and weapons, and training these military type goons,” Jollett told Inside Edition Digital. “And it just went crazy. And then at some point a bunch of people figured that out and left, and escaped, because the whole thing kind of spiraled into madness.”

Everything changed at Synanon, Jollett said, when “lifestylers started moving in, the non-addicts, what they called ‘the squares,’ those were people, a lot of them were intellectuals and activists, and that's what my mom was.”

Jollett was born inside the walls of Synanon in May 1974. There, Jollett and his brother, Tony, were kept apart from each other and their parents. He only knew Tony as another face in the compound, and they were not told who their parents were. 

“We were essentially born in an orphanage inside a cult... We never saw our parents,” he said. “We were told that we didn't have parents. A lot of the book is about being from a place where there are no parents, because we didn't know what a mom or a dad or a grandma was. We didn't have Christmas or Passover or birthdays or any toys. So we were very much in this difficult situation. There was a lot of abuse.”

ince the children were always told that beyond the compound contained “bad men,” no one ever left and those that left were considered “Splitees” and “dirty splitees,” as Jollett put it, “cults are like this, anybody who leaves the cult questions the existence of the cult, because why would someone leave the cult?”

“Because the leader is right, and by leaving, you have now done violence against your allegiance, which is supposed to be to the cult,” he added.

But that changed when Jollett was about 4 and his brother was 7.

“One day this woman shows up with a shaved head, because everyone had shaved heads, and she's like, ‘I'm your mom.’ And we were like, ‘What's a mom?’ We didn't know what a mom was. But we had to escape, so we left with her,” he recalled. “We lived on the run for a while, and a lot of different things happened to us along the way."

Life outside Synanon was chaotic in its own way. Jollett's parents were separated and the men his mother dated had their own issues. His father's visits from Los Angeles were sporadic, but by the time he was 6, Jollett had reconnected with his father in a way that would prove significant. Ultimately, Jollett said, his father was his best friend. 

When his dad died in 2015, Jollett wrote “Hollywood Park” as a tribute to him.

“My dad died, I would just say, is probably that was the initiating event. It hit me really hard, and I was trying to figure out why it hit me so hard,” he said. “I had read ‘Between the World and Me,’ Ta-Nehisi Coates's book, which is the style of the book is that he writes it as a letter to his son. And I thought, ‘God, what a great idea.’ It was just such a brilliant book, and I thought, ‘Okay, how can I write about my experiences, maybe as a letter to my dad?’”

That story also became a dialogue between him and his younger self.

“That kid that I was, never had a voice. No one ever stopped and asked us how we felt about these events. We were just sort of treated as collateral ancillary objects,” he said.

But still, telling people about his past and where he spent his first four years was difficult. 

“I think [I was] maybe like around 10 years old, 11 years old, when people would say, ‘Oh, where are you from?’ And then you would sort of mention, ‘Well, I was born in this place called Synanon,’ and then you get these looks like you're this wild dog,” he recalled.

As a teenager, he moved to California to live with his dad and his stepmom. Though his path at first was rocky, Jollett was a straight A-student who eventually graduated Stanford with honors in 1996 and would go on to become a journalist.

“I wanted to go make my own mark on the world, and I didn't want to just be this kid from this weird place. So I just stopped talking about it completely. I never brought it up,” he said. “It's funny, when the book came out, I had friends that I've had for 20 years that came up to me in tears and were just like, ‘I had no idea that you went through all of this. Oh my God.’ I was just like, ‘How would you know? I wouldn't tell you. Of course you didn't know.’ Because it's like, I didn't want it to be the thing that defined me. I wanted to go make my own mark in the world.”

His mark came through in his work as both a journalist and then as a musician. The Airborne Toxic Event was formed in 2006 in Los Angeles. The band's forming came as Jollett dealt with a bad breakup and as he learned his stepmom, whom he calls mom, was battling cancer.

The band released their acclaimed debut in 2008 and it was propelled by the single “Sometime Around Midnight,” which U2 bassist Adam Clayton hailed as one of his favorite songs. The band has been a success ever since, playing sold-out gigs across the world and high profile global festivals such as California’s Coachella, Lollapalooza in Chicago, Japan’s Fuji Rock, as well as England’s Reading and Leeds.

“I'd say I'm pretty happy with my career, if that's what you're asking. My 12-year-old self is like, ‘This is awesome. You're like in a band, you're a singer in a rock band,’” he joked.

Yet, the rollercoaster ride of being a musician and finding success in it still wasn’t giving him the purpose for which he was yearning. Jollett, now a father of two children, says being a husband and dad is fulfilling in ways rock and roll never could.

“I think it wasn't until I realized that, that my life really became the thing that I wanted it to be, which it is now,” he said. “It's sort of like, no matter who you are, no matter where you're from, you can be born in an orphanage, you could be a successful musician, whatever it is. That the deepest drive we have as people, is for that kind of familial love, for these bonds of family that we were essentially born without, because we were born basically as orphans.”

Having lived through his upbringing, he says he wants the best for his children, and whatever they choose to be when they grow up is something he will support. And as for the ghosts of his past? “I think I am at peace with it,” he said, especially after the release of “Hollywood Park.”

“Everybody kind of knows my story now, and certainly the family have all seen ‘here's this book about all of us that I got to write.’ So they've sort of been forced to be asked about it, and forced to have lots of discussions about it,” he said.

As he continues to grow and unpack his life in both therapy and through his work, he come to a place of acceptance.

“I don't blame my folks,” he said of his early years. “I mean they were in a cult. Cults do bad things."

https://www.insideedition.com/how-escaping-from-a-cult-as-a-child-shaped-the-airborne-toxic-event-frontman-mikel-jolletts-life

Musician Mikel Jollett on escaping notorious Synanon cult, finding success

CBS This Morning

May 27, 2020

"Only on “CBS This Morning,” frontman of the indie rock band "The Airborne Toxic Event," Mikel Jollett, is talking for the first time at length about being born into an infamous cult and how he's still coming to terms with the repercussions today. His revealing new memoir "Hollywood Park" and new album of the same name are out now."

CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/2/2020

Lev Tahor, Synanon, Psychics,  Koreshans  

YNet: Member of ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor sect charged with abusing two children

"An indictment was filed on Tuesday in the Jerusalem District Court against a member of the ultra-Orthodox Lav Tahor sect for abusing two children, aged 8 and 9."

People: Rocker Mikel Jollett's Memoir Is 'Primal Scream' About Childhood in Synanon Cult

"The frontman for The Airborne Toxic Event explores what it was like to heal — and raise children—after he escaped the violent Synanon cult."
"For readers, Hollywood Park is a powerful memoir about one man's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child.
For author Mikel Jollett, the frontman for the indie band The Airborne Toxic Event, his book is a "primal scream."
"Sometimes I think about this book as this primal scream, this assertion: 'This happened. Stop telling me this didn't happen, because this happened.'" Jollett, 45, tells PEOPLE about the abuse he and many other children experienced while growing up in the "school" of the infamous Synanon cult.
"I became very interested in the idea of buried history, all the ways that we as children were told things that were patently untrue, and that we believed them," says Jollett, whose book will publish on May 26, just after the same-titled album. "And probing into this world of the traumatized child. What is mysterious about this? In what ways are we just wrong? What lies did we believe wholeheartedly?"
From Dr MartyFirst touted as a rehabilitation center for addicts when it was founded in 1958, Synanon helped thousands get sober and amassed $30 million or more in assets. But, in the late '70s, the California-based organization became synonymous with violence.
The founder, Charles Dederich, ordered his cult followers to divorce and swap partners, with more than 200 couples complying. He also forced women to have abortions and almost 200 men had vasectomies after Dederich forbade any more children.
"I am not bound by the rules," Dederich said, according to a 1978 PEOPLE story. "I make them."
In 1980, the cult leader received widespread attention when he pleaded no contest to charges of assault and conspiracy to commit murder after he and two other Synanon members attempted to kill Paul Morantz, a lawyer who had successfully sued Synanon, by putting a four-and-a-half foot rattlesnake in his mailbox."

Salon: Why business is booming for psychics during the pandemic

"People are calling in droves," a clairvoyant told Salon. Are psychic services a pandemic-proof industry?
"With over 36 million Americans now unemployed, it is certainly a privilege to have a job; each week of the pandemic, millions more file for unemployment. As businesses figure out how to adapt their business models to a socially distanced world, numerous sectors are suffering, from retail to fashion to restaurants. But one industry that is unexpectedly thriving? Psychic services.
Since the quarantine began shutting down large swaths of the economy, astrologers, spiritual guides, tarot card readers and psychics have seen an uptick in business. According to Google search trends, Google searches for "psychic" jumped to a 1-year high during the week of March 8, 2020 — just when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began issuing some guidance on COVID-19. Business review and aggregator site Yelp published an Economic Impact Report that noted that its "Supernatural Readings" business category was up 140 percent as more Americans turned to tarot card readers, mediums and psychics.

Leslie Hale has been offering astrology readings since the late 1990s. She joined Keen . com, an online "spiritual advisor network" in 2001, and told Salon that currently her business is up about 30 percent. (Likewise, Keen . com told Salon they are experiencing a vast increase in traffic as of late.) Hale said usually she had 10 to 15 calls a day, but during the pandemic it's been anywhere between 20 and 30. She charges $3.53 a minute.
"There has never been a time like this," Hale told Salon of her 21-year astrologer career. "I think everybody wants to know if their life is going to go on, and if there's anything in the future they have to look forward to."
It makes sense that average people are seeking clarity in uncertain times. New Age spiritual practices like tarot cards, astrology, and reiki have become increasingly popular over the last several years, in part due to its endorsement from the wellness industry and decline in religion among younger Americans. According to Pew Research data from 2018, an estimated 6 out of 10 American adults accept at least one "New Age belief," a list that includes psychics."

The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet

"For five days in December 1908 the body of Cyrus Teed lay in a bathtub at a beach house just south of Fort Myers, Florida. His followers, the Koreshans, waited for signs that he was coming back to life. They watched hieroglyphics emerge on his skin and observed what looked like the formation of a third arm. They saw his belly fall and rise with breath, even though his swollen tongue sealed his mouth. As his corpse turned black, they declared that their leader was transforming into the Egyptian god Horus.

Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at the age of 30 had been "illuminated" by an angel in his electro-alchemical laboratory. At the turn of the twentieth century, surrounded by the marvels of the Second Industrial Revolution, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a new age. Or so he promised.

The Koreshans settled in a mosquito-infested scrubland and set to building a communal utopia inside what they believed was a hollow earth--with humans living on the inside crust and the entire universe contained within. According to Teed's socialist and millennialist teachings, if his people practiced celibacy and focused their love on him, he would return after death and they would all become immortal.

Was Teed a visionary or villain, savior or two-bit charlatan? Why did his promises and his theory of "cellular cosmogony" persuade so many? In The Allure of Immortality, Lyn Millner weaves the many bizarre strands of Teed's life and those of his followers into a riveting story of angels, conmen, angry husbands, yellow journalism, and ultimately, hope."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/28/2020

Podast, Cult Mediation, Patrick Ryan, Covid-19, Synanon, Stanford Prison Experiment, First Pentecostal Church, Terrorism

This Podcast Will Save The World: Episode 5: Cults

"Interview with 1BR writer/director David Marmor and Cult Mediation Specialist Patrick Ryan discusses how cults operate and how to intervene when someone needs help"

AXIOS: CDC: Arkansas coronavirus outbreak linked to church services

"35 of the 92 people (38%) who attended services at a rural Arkansas church March 6–11 tested positive for the coronavirus, ultimately killing three, according to a case study released Tuesday by the CDC.

Why it matters: Places of worship continue to be a problem for controlling the widespread transmission of the coronavirus, especially as some churches and local government officials push to loosen restrictions on religious gatherings."

Datebook: Putting the pieces back together after escaping a California cult at age 5

"In 1995, a decade before Mikel Jollett became the frontman of the indie rock band the Toxic Airborne Event, he was a 20-year-old Stanford student enrolled in the university's popular Psychology of Mind Control course taught by Philip Zimbardo (of Stanford Prison Experiment fame).
Jollett remembers devouring the entire syllabus, reading about Jim Jones' Peoples Temple and Vietnam prisoner-of-war camps and thinking, "It all feels familiar, like reading your own family history," the singer-songwriter and former music journalist writes in his mesmerizing new memoir, "Hollywood Park," out Tuesday, May 26.
Unlike most of his classmates, Jollett wasn't learning about cults with an intellectual curiosity about why people fall prey to charismatic leaders.
For him, the class was personal.
Jollett was separated from his parents at 6 months old and spent the next four years being raised by strangers at the Church of Synanon's ranch in Tomales Bay.
Founded in 1958 as a tough-love drug rehab program for hardened addicts (like Jollett's father, Jim, an ex-con who kicked his heroin habit at Synanon), the self-help community morphed by the '70s into an increasingly violent cult with centers throughout California and $3 million in assets.
True believers shaved their heads, wore overalls and obeyed Synanon founder Chuck Dederich's diabolical protocols and penchant for social engineering. There were forced divorces and repartnerings, mandatory abortions — and the inhumane practice of separating infants like Mikel from their parents."

NY Times: Church That Defied Coronavirus Restrictions Is Burned to Ground

A message at the scene that said, in part, "Bet you stay home now," has led the police in Mississippi to suspect.
"The burning of a church in northern Mississippi this week is being investigated as arson because of a spray-painted message at the scene that seemed to criticize the church's defiance of coronavirus restrictions.
First Pentecostal Church had sued the city of Holly Springs, Miss., which is about an hour southeast of Memphis, arguing that its stay-at-home order had violated the church's right to free speech and interfered with its members' ability to worship.
After firefighters put out the blaze early Wednesday, the police found a message, "Bet you stay home now you hypokrits," spray-painted on the ground near the church's doors, according to Maj. Kelly McMillen of the Marshall County Sheriff's Department.
A photograph of the graffiti also appears to show an atomic symbol with an "A" in the center, which is sometimes used as a logo for atheist groups."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

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Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.