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.