Fun Fact: Synanon people were hired by George Lucas for THX 1138phpBB [media]

Steve V. wrote:This book is fantastic.looks interesting. This one is good too:

I drove through Waco, Texas yesterday and will do so again in a few days. I kind of want to check this out, out of morbid curiosity:Current Branch Davidian leader, Charles Pace wrote:For years he has been trying -- thus far without success -- to turn the massacre site into a visitor destination, with an amphitheater, a biblical petting zoo, a museum and gift shop, a wellness center, a deli, an organic farm, and a model of the tabernacle that housed the Ten Commandments. The intent has always been to de-emphasize the massacre.http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11910

rgauss wrote:Spent some time around Synanon as a young'un. My dad was into it because of his interest in the game. This would have been in the late '60s, before it went off the rails. I have pretty good memories of it. Friendly people. We weren't residents, just weekenders. Apparently they had a pretty solid jazz group who wrote a song in honor of Synanon's founder Chuck E. Dederich. Dederich supposedly coined the phrase today is the first day of the rest of your life. Later famous for putting a four and a half foot, de-rattled, rattlesnake in the mailbox of an attorney who was suing the organization on behalf of some former members.a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said, We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures...our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead...these are real threats, he snarled. They are draining life's blood from us, and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it...I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs, and next break his wife's legs, and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk.Yikes.

NXIVMThis is nuts.Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) organizations, like the Landmark Forum (descended from est, the '70s ur-LGAT) and the former Lifespring, are creepier to me in some ways than the obvious kind of religious cults. These LGATs are even more insidious, to the extent that they're much more integrated into the fabric of mainstream (U.S. corporate) culture. They promise amazing results for participants -- success! meaningful action! belonging! purpose! -- yet they seem constructed for optimal separation of fools and other vulnerable types from their $ (and sometimes their time and labor too) and basically nothing else, beyond giving participants a sort of delirious and 100% calculated "peak experience" at their group sessions through breaking down their usual defenses in various ways. Stories of participants' later financial deprecation, alienation from former friends, identity crises, and so on are not hard to find.Lifespring: http://www.citypages.com/2001-11-07/news/cult-status/Momentum Education: http://www.grdn.cc/posts/a-momentum-education/NXIVM: http://www.culteducation.com/group/907-nxivm.htmlLandmark Forum: http://m.motherjones.com/media/2009/07/ ... breakdowns

http://www.culteducation.com/group/1261 ... nship.htmlI had a bass teacher who was in this and brought me to his men's meetings. It was great at first, since I didn't have a father and I always felt like an outsider in the society of Man. The campfire meetings, the camaraderie, the calling of each other's bullshit, etc. were just fine. However when I finally went to the actual weekend seminar/brainwashing experience, I saw the true nature of the organization. What a load of sad dick short weenis crap that was! Bunch of woman-bashing dickfluff. The irony is that probably the least macho thing a guy can do is to blame women for his failures, which is the nub of their philosophy. I can understand how it would appeal to "beta" men but come on dudes, how about taking personal responsibility? That's the most manly thing I can think of, but instead this group uses women as the scapegoat, saying that they should be "100% responsible for the relationship" because men just want approval and women just want security (i.e. money and a caveman to protect them). Also, "A. Justin Sterling" (not his real name of course)? A total schlub, a grubby nasty man who probably has to browbeat women to get sex. I can't stand white guys who wear Native American jewelry, blech. After several hours of waiting around, when he finally showed himself, I almost laughed out loud, like "THIS is the alpha male that we must aspire to be? No thanks!" I left that night before the naked men stuff happened, and believe me, naked men stuff HAPPENS.

Kate Rev wrote:Carl wrote:Kate Rev wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple\_of\_SetTemple of Set was/is the heavier duty version of Satanism. Aquino an interesting/possibly horrifying character linked to military torture and accused of a lot of unsavory things, but was it just satanic panic? Hail Satan.Give me more give me moreAquino's dad and my grandfather were friends during the Depression. This led to a very odd birthday party half a century or so later featuring two elderly men, members of the Temple, a standup comic, and me.I would absolutely love to hear the full story version of this.I would absolutely love to tell the full story version of this not on an easily searchable web forum.

Kate Rev wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple\_of\_SetTemple of Set was/is the heavier duty version of Satanism. Aquino an interesting/possibly horrifying character linked to military torture and accused of a lot of unsavory things, but was it just satanic panic? Hail Satan.Give me more give me moreAquino's dad and my grandfather were friends during the Depression. This led to a very odd birthday party half a century or so later featuring two elderly men, members of the Temple, a standup comic, and me.