tim

Saturday, I'm sitting on the couch waiting for taylor to get here. I'm watching Finding Nemo because there is nothing better to do. Oddly enough my brother walks in. I'm shocked, I close my eyes pretending I had been asleep for quite some time.. .even though he saw me close them already. He goes back outside and I glare at my step dad. He did not even bother to tell me that he was coming. I become livid. My fist tighten up, and I was so furious I got a head ache. I storm into the kitchen and grab a cup and pour spaghetti into it with a lattel.  Tim opens the door and goes to give me a hug, and I shoved him. Hard too. He starts cussing at me and I back off. I am scared at this point. He says some choice words. and I begin to scream back at him. "DAD's pills are upstairs you ************************ " He gets quiet. I do not know if he is on speed. I become very scared at this point. My adrenaline rush is completely gone. If he IS on speed and the fact that he is NOT talking, is a very very bad combenations. Along with my brothers temper added to this equation. I start yelling at him, not caring about the "cautionary rules" of being around someone on speed. I walk right past him and throw my shoulder into his side. He starts cussing at me, and as I walk past the door I see my disabled step dad hobble up the drive way to split this up. My brother and my fights have NEVER been this physical. Luckily the triplets were outside. My step dad finally walks in, and breaks it up. I'm surprised he did not grab my throat like he has before. I just walk out, and call my brother the B word. There are 5 of his guy friends just standing outside. I walk right past them, and glare at every one of them. I start to run around the block a couple times, but once I get ready to turn the corner, I turn around and run the other way back around the block. I did this until I heard a car at my side. I do not even look at the car, I turn the other way and begin to dart. I hear Taylor's voice yelling at me to stop. I turn around and squint to see him down the street. Finally I stop, and he comes up to me and give me a hug and he heard what happen, We begin to walk home.

march 30th. part 2

My phone went off in my pocket. I did not bother to answer it because I knew it was my brother calling, by the sound of the ringtone I made for him when he calls. He calls a second, and third time. I grab my phone out of my pocket to turn it off. I see I have three voice mails, and I see the number and it is an 801 area code. I begin to cry histarically. 801 is the area code in Utah. I call back but he called on a pay phone. A hundred thoguhts go through my mind. What if someone had him captive, and told him to call me and have me do something or taylor would die? Or what if he was lost, and didn’t want to come home even if he could? What if he told me goodbye, for a very long long time? I sat there, my heart was throbbing in my chest. I had to lay down on my back and take long deep breaths, ordered by my mother so i would not “pass out”.
My phone rings on my stomach. I answer it before the second ring. “Hey Rach.” he says. “TAYLOR! Where the fuck are you?!” he goes on to saying that he was running from the police and the mentors from Vista (his rehab treatment center). He tells me that I was right about the Church of Synanon, and he begins to tell me all of the “practices” that they do there. I begin to cry even more. My step dad grabs the phone from me and puts it on speaker. My step dad begins to tell him what to do in order to stay away from the police, go figure right? A cop telling a boy on amber alert, to run away from the cops. Makes sense? He tells him where to go and to be careful and what not. Then the phone hangs up. Taylor calls back on the pay phone seconds later. My step dad tells him to press 0 and call collect, and then we all get off the phone. He calls, thankfully it will not hang up. My step dad tried to calm him down, but is not successful at all. He tells him the plans. My step dad is going to fly out and get him in the morning.
Taylor beings to freak out, once again. My step dad tells him to try and remain calm and collected or else he will look very suspecious. I can hear him trying to calm down, but I know he is so scared. If Taylor is found, they take him back to Vista and he is put in a room, and they inject him with this pain killer which knocks them out for at least a day and a half, and once he wakes up he is stuck in there for 2 more days with 3 mentors with him. I would be freaked out too. Taylor told us that, and my step dad tells him he already knows, and this is why he is trying to keep him even more safe. Finally my step dad gives me the phone. We talk for a good hour, just about things. I did not want to talk about what he is doing or where he was and such. He told me, though, that he had to plan this out for days. He found out when the people leave the kitchen, and when the mentors are not on staff. The mentors always check up on the kids every 15-20 minutes. They walk around, of course, but they are technically not on duty. Taylor told me he had to sneak out of his room, go down the hall pass the mentors lounge, which was not necessarily a room, just a big open space. Then he had to make his way past the therapists rooms to the kitchen. There he got knives, and had to pry the window open in his room, then he got out and booked it 35 miles (wrong distance in last blog) to Salt Lake City. He made it there in two days (march 30th). Apparently he ran, and took on break and kept running, slept and then did it the next day.
Then he went on to saying how horrible they treated him and other people there. He said that other people that night tried to escape and the mentors put both him and this other kid on lockdown, and he still got away. Apparently, according to Taylor's dad, no one has successfully ran away from that place since 2004 just about five years ago.
Finally Taylor and I get off the phone. He told me it was snowing and that he needed to go find somewhere to hide. We say our good byes, and I can tell how happy he is to be coming home.

NEXT DAY

I did not even come close to sleeping. I looked out my window the whole night, like i did while he was missing, just hoping he would come around the corner. I finally decide to close the screen window and lock it. I pull the covers over my head and  wiggle around, at the same time my cat falls off the bed. I finally fell asleep and have to wake up just a couple hours later.

I start getting ready for school at 5:45. Just 15 hours until he is home. I counted the hours down ALL DAY. It was horrible. School went by so slow, and so did practice. All I thought about was going to pick up and seeing him after almost 4 months. My hits were bad, my passes were horrible. I decided to leave practice and go to MCdonalds. I'm a weird girl, usually when girls get upset they eat and eat and eat. But with me when I get upset I do not eat, and i had been upset for more then 4 months by this time. I have lost 10 pounds and apparently people can see it in my face. 

Finally practice is over at around 6:30, but i lollygag until all the players take down the nets, and coach talks to me about things. I pull out of the staff parking lot with alot of the players. They are stopped at the light, leaving "pony av" or whatever. I put my car in park, and i hop out. I run and pull up all the guys' windshield whippers, it comes out of no where.

Then all of the sudden they all get out and two grab me and one gets in my car and locks it. They finally let me free and I grab one of the guys that was holding me's keys. I point one up in the air and I run over to  his car, and act like i'm about to key it. OF COURSE i would never do that to his car, but it got him out of it. I think we missed a light because everyone went back to their cars, and I did it again. I got out and put both of them up on at least 8 of their cars. They all get out once again and pile on top of my car. At least 9 of them did. The JV coach was behind this little prank.

They finally get off my car and I started honking at them. We make quite a big scene at the intersection. I pull out and go around all of them and wave and turn right onto blossom hill. They all put there hands up, puzzled. and I honk and drive away smiling.

It's finally time to pick up Tay. I just do my hair and my mom and I leave. I have a HUGE anxiety attack on the way there, my mom made me put the seat down. I was suppose to follow her in my step dad's car, but he wouldn't tell her where the keys were. So now all four of us have to drive back.... together....

My mom and I get there at least a half an hour early, and on top of that the flight was delayed. Great. My mom and I somehow get in through the gates, and wait for him to get off. We are waiting on some bridge that seperates... something, i forget. But anyways we just sit there. I lay my head on my moms lap. My brain hurts, and I swear my heart was going to burst out of my chest. Finally I see my icky step dad, and taylor come through the gates, and I run to give Taylor a huge hug, and of course, start crying.

Ryan McPherson

He is my closest guy friend. Not my best friend, that Taylor, but just a brother.
He use to do the same things Taylor use to, drugs/experiences and all. Of course not exactly, but for the most part every addict did the same things.

Ryan is in the Boulder Mountain Academy.
He told me that the therapists call the parents and tell them how well Ryan is doing in the program. And even though he sounds "moody" because he wants to go home, that he is making huge progress, and not to pay attention to the fact he wants to go home.

The parents believe it.
Therapists stand there to make sure the kids do not say anything bad about the organization, and if they bring up a negative word, like horrible etc, the therapists hang up the phone. and call the parents to tall them that he is sorry that Ryan hung up because he was frustrated.

When parents come and interview these rehabs, therapists, yet again are standing there and children are made to say positive things about the place. Kids are threatened to keep their mouth shut about the synanon and other things that the mentors force them to do. And if the kids somehow tell, the parents call and tell them what their son or daughter tell them. And the therapists basically say that he wants to get out of there because he still wants to do drugs. The mentors keep up with the parents and basically tell them that their kids lied about doing drugs, and are lying about what they are saying about the place, if they happen to blurt it out before the therapists can say it.

The children get stuck in this room every Monday and Wednesday and have to listen to music for 2-4 days straight. They are made to go in this room, also, to lay on mattresses and "connect with their inner child" and throw a fit on the mattress, and everyone has to cheer for them.

Ryan's therapists told him that he is every ones puppet, so he had to dress up like one, make up and all, and walk around school all day. There is one licensed therapists on staff where he is at. and they are not allowed to call it group therapy because it technically is not. Most all rehabs in Oregon, Arizona Utah and Idaho are affiliated with the church of synanon

There are several types of organizations like this, one was CEDU, like i said. They are in "cahoots" with the synanon.

There is more bizarre things that are happening with Ryan right now


When he was taking a visit at home this weekend, he got contacted by Time magazine and the New york times for him to get interviewed. They are trying to shut down all of the rehabs that are affiliated with synanon, CEDU etc.



They are going to fly Ryan out to wherever he needs to go to get interviewed.
Thankfully Taylor is home. He got treated the same way.




the end.

Church of Synanon/CEDU

Synanon, initially a drug rehabilitation program, was founded by Charles "Chuck" Dederich Sr.

By the early 1960s it had also become an alternative community, 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 in the 1970s
ynanon began as a two-year residential program, but Dederich soon concluded that, because full recovery was never possible, members could never graduate. The organization developed a business that sold promotional items, a successful enterprise that generated roughly $10 million per year of revenue.

Professionals, even those without drug addictions, were eagerly invited, provided they transferred their assets to the organization. Control over members occurred through the "Synanon Game." The "Game" could be considered a therapeutic tool, likened to group therapy; or a social control, in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one's innermost weaknesses, or both.

ax issues arose. In response to these accusations, Dederich declared that Synanon was a tax exempt religious organization, the "Church of Synanon."

Children assigned to Synanon began running away, helped by an "underground railroad" that sought to return them to their parents. Beatings of opponents and ex-members, "splittees," occurred across the state.

The average time a student spent at a CEDU school was 2-1/2 years. The school year was 'year round'. The original CEDU program did not believe in use of psychological medicine. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1pm to 5pm (sometimes 6pm) students were forced to 'group therapy sessions' called raps. Raps, in this CEDU period were highly confrontational - at any given moment in a Rap there were could be between 1 to 15 students screaming at other students or, with their head pointed towards the floor, screaming at their own 'emotional issues' and/or crying uncontrollably. During this period the faculty that facilitated these rap groups were essentially 'self anointed' healers. Approximately 95% of the faculty had no accreditation or training specific to intensive Gestalt based 'group therapy'.

CEDU was pronounced See-do. A motto did say: "See yourself as you are and do something about it.". However some claim that the name actually stood for Chuck E. Dederich University named after the founder of Synanon. Before starting CEDU, Wasserman had sponsored children for Synanon. However when Synanon turned into a cult, he started on his non-profit organization.



THE system of personality destruction, peer pressure, rewards and punishments,fear tatics similar to those used by Chairman Mao in Communist China. Critics feared that Dederich was giving memebers a new addiction (Synanon) to replace addiction to drugs. Synanon today stands as an example of coercive persuasion's power (brainwashing)

Synanon had by then possessed its own fleet of trucks and automobiles, hundreds of motorcycles, a mini-armada of 21 boats, a squadron of ten airplanes, even its own airstrip.


Students also experience several other workshops throughout their stay. Seven of these are referred to as "Propheets", in which the general theme for the propheet is based loosely on the writings from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Examples of this is Gibran's passage about Joy and Sorrow, which is used in the Truth Propheet, or his prose about children, which was used for the Children's propheet. The name of the workshops are obviously referential to said book. Mel Wasserman was quoted as stating that a propheet was to "Take the words of the Prophet and put feet to them." Propheets lasted a full 20-24 hours.