Narconon and Synanon

Until very recently I had never heard of Synanon. The more I look, the more I think there is a possibility that Synanon was an inspiration for Scientology's Narconon. I don't know for sure, but there are some interesting parallels and intersections. If anyone else finds something by all means post it.

Oh, and there is also The Seed program. Interesting parallels there as well.

On Synanon.....

Robert L. DuPont, Jr., MD is the founding director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and is also the second White House Drug Czar. While director of NIDA he administered funds for an experimental, juvenile drug rehabilitation program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida called The Seed. Later the U. S. Senate would issue a report likening the methods employed by The Seed to Communist brainwashing. Soon after that report was released Melvin and Betty Sembler and some other former Seed parents opened their own Seed-like program in Saint Petersburg, Florida which they called Straight, Inc. After leaving NIDA Dr. DuPont became a paid consultant for Straight and frequently represented Straight in civil suits for which he was well paid. In one of those suits, in 1993, Dr. DuPont testified that the progenitor of the Straight method was a place called Synanon which he even admitted was a cult! He testified that those places which used Synanon's methods are called therapeutic communities and that there are two cardinal rules for these therapeutic communities: No Sex and No Violence. But was there no sex and no violence at Synanon? And what was Synanon anyway? Let's take a look at Synanon Church and then we'll come back and look at DuPont's testimony and statements of others to see that Straight and other so-called confrontational-type therapeutic communities, are based on technologies developed at Synanon Church.....

.....His organization, called Synanon Foundation, treated recovering heroin addicts. You can't con a con, telling your dirty story, confession, parent weekend, anal/vaginal searches, verbal shouting matches, synamasters, no newcomer contact with parents, parents taking someone else's kids to the doctor, warehouses, kids cussing, thought control, beatings--it all came from Synanon Church.....

......In the mid 70s Synanon had declared itself a church. This photo shows Chucks' wife Betty Dederich, a former prostitute and high priestess of Synanon Church, and his daughter Jady along with a woman named Barbara. According to the book The Light on Synanon Synanites met with Scientologists (who have their own church-related drug rehab program called Narconon) in the 1970s to discuss common issues........

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Narconon and Synanon