Cedu Documentary Clip 14 – Cults and Confession Attorney and cult expert Paul Morantz (paulmorantz.com) outlines the practical methods of bringing someone into a cult.
Camera for this segment by Caudill Pictures (caudillpictures.com) Cedu Documentary by Liam Scheff 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, all rights
To this day many former students are deeply divided as to their feelings about Cedu. This intense experience has produced many protractors and detractors. In order to discuss this topic it is important to understand the history and development of the program.
Mel Wasserman was a former Synanon cult member who developed the Cedu program using the Synanon model and included various elements of psychology and new age philosophy as well as maintaining a controlled environment that isolated it from any outside information and influence.
The program was structured in a way that precisely followed the methodologies described by Robert Jay Lifton. Robert Jay Lifton was one of the early psychologists to study brainwashing and mind control. He called the method used thought reform, and offered the following eight methods that are used to change people’s minds.
Milieu control
All communication with outside world is limited, either being strictly filtered or completely cut off. Whether it is a monastery or a behind-closed-doors cult, isolation from the ideas, examples and distractions of the outside world turns the individuals attention to the only remaining form of stimulation, which is the ideology that is being inculcated in them.
This even works at the intrapersonal level, and individuals are discouraged from thinking incorrect thoughts, which may be termed evil, selfish, immoral and so on.
Mystical manipulation
A part of the teaching is that the group has a higher purpose than others outside the group. This may be altruistic, such as saving the world or helping people in need. It may also be selfish, for example that group members will be saved when others outside the group will perish.
All things are then attributed and linked to this higher purpose. Coincidences (which actually may be deliberately engineered) are portrayed as symbolic events. Attention is given to the problems of out-group people and attributed to their not being in the group. Revelations are attributed to spiritual causes.
This association of events is used as evidence that the group truly is special and exclusive.
i.e. knowledge about the program could only be known through progression.
Confession
Individuals are encouraged to confess past ‘sins’ (as defined by the group). This creates a tension between the person’s actions and their stated belief that the action is bad, particularly if the statement is made publicly. The consistency principle thus leads the person to fully adopt the belief that the sin is bad and to distance themselves from repeating it.
Discussion of inner fears and anxieties, as well as confessing sins is exposing vulnerabilities and requires the person to place trust in the group and hence bond with them. When we bond with others, they become our friends, and we will tend to adopt their beliefs more easily.
This effect may be exaggerated with intense sessions where deep thoughts and feelings are regularly surfaced. This also has the effect of exhausting people, making them more open to suggestion.
i.e. confession in raps, telling story, propheets, writing assignments
Self-sanctification through purity
Individuals are encouraged to constantly push towards an ultimate and unattainable perfection. This may be rewarded with promotion within the group to higher levels, for example by giving them a new status name (acolyte, traveller, master, etc.) or by giving them new authority within the group.
The unattainability of the ultimate perfection is used to induce guilt and show the person to be sinful and hence sustain the requirement for confession and obedience to those higher than them in the groups order of perfection.
Not being perfect may be seen as deserving of punishment, which may be meted out by the higher members of the group or even by the person themselves, who are taught that such atonement and self-flagellation is a valuable method of reaching higher levels of perfection.
i.e. purity could only be gained by confession within the group.
Aura of sacred science
The beliefs and regulations of the group are framed as perfect, absolute and non-negotiable. The dogma of the group is presented as scientifically correct or otherwise unquestionable.
Rules and processes are therefore to be followed without question, and any transgression is a sin and hence requires atonement or other forms of punishment, as does consideration of any alternative viewpoints.
i.e. propheets were kept secret and claimed to be infallible.
Loaded language
New words and language are created to explain the new and profound meanings that have been discovered. Existing words are also hijacked and given new and different meaning.
This is particularly effective due to the way we think a lot though language. The consequence of this is that the person who controls the meaning of words also controls how people think. In this way, black-and-white thinking is embedded in the language, such that wrong-doers are framed as terrible and evil, whilst those who do right (as defined by the group) are perfect and marvellous.
The meaning of words are kept hidden both from the outside world, giving a sense of exclusivity. The meaning of special words may also be revealed in careful illuminatory rituals, where people who are being elevated within the order are given the power of understanding this new language.
See Cedu lingo list: http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=CEDU_lingo
Doctrine over person
The importance of the group is elevated over the importance of the individual in all ways. Along with this comes the importance of the the group’s ideas and rules over personal beliefs and values.
Past experiences, beliefs and values can all thus be cast as being invalid if they conflict with group rules. In fact this conflict can be used as a reason for confession of sins. Likewise, the beliefs, values and words of those outside the group are equally invalid.
Dispensed existence
There is a very sharp line between the group and the outside world. Insiders are to be saved and elevated, whilst outsiders are doomed to failure and loss (which may be eternal).
Who is an outsider or insider is chosen by the group. Thus, any person within the group may be damned at any time. There are no rights of membership except, perhaps, for the leader.
People who leave the group are singled out as particularly evil, weak, lost or otherwise to be despised or pitied. Rather than being ignored or hidden, they are used as examples of how anyone who leaves will be looked down upon and publicly denigrated.
People thus have a constant fear of being cast out, and consequently work hard to be accepted and not be ejected from the group. Outsiders who try to persuade the person to leave are doubly feared.
Dispensation also goes into all aspects of living within the group. Any and all aspects of existence within the group is subject to scrutiny and control. There is no privacy and, ultimately, no free will.
i.e. Threat of being sent to Ascent or other program for wrongdoings.
Robert Jay Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1963.
Lifton’s Brainwashing Processes
Robert Jay Lifton was one of the early psychologists to study brainwashing and mind control. He called the method used thought reform. From an analysis of two French priests who had been subjected to brainwashing, he identified the following processes used on them:
Assault on identity
Aspects of self-identity are systematically attacked. For example the priests were told that they were not real Fathers. This has a serious destabilizing effect as people lose a sense of who they are. Losing the self also leads to weakening of beliefs and values, which are then easier to change.
GuiltConstant arguments that cast the person as guilty of any kind of wrong-doing leads them to eventually feel shame about most things and even feel that they deserve punishment. This is another piece of the jigsaw puzzle of breakdown.
Self-betrayal
When the person is forced to denounce friends and family, it both destroys their sense of identity and reinforces feelings of guilt. This helps to separates them from their past, building the ground for a new personality to be built.
Breaking point
The constant assault on identity, guilt and self-betrayal eventually leads to them breaking down, much as the manner of the ‘nervous breakdown’ that people experience for other reasons. They may cry inconsolably, have convulsive fits and fall into deep depression. Psychologically, they may effectively be losing a sense of who they are and hence fearing total annihilation of the self.
Leniency
Just at the point when the person is fearing annihilation of the self, they are offered a small kindness, a brief respite from the assault on their identity, a cigarette or a drink. In those moments of light amongst the darkness, they may well feel a deep sense of gratitude, even though it is their torturer who is offering the ‘kindness’. This is another form of Hurt and Rescue, albeit extreme.
i.e. acceptance of others by group. “I don’t judge you.”
The compulsion to confess
Having being pulled back from the edge of breakdown, they are then faced with the contrast of the hurt of potential further identity assault against the rescue of leniency. They may also feel the obligation of exchange in a need to repay the kindness of leniency. There also may be exposed to them the opportunity to assuage themselves of their guilt through confession.
The channeling of guilt
The overwhelming sense of guilty and shame that the person is feeling will be so confused by the multiple accusations and assaults on their identity, that the person will lose the sense of what, specifically, they are guilty of, and just feel the heavy burden of being wrong.
This confusion allows the captors to redirect the guilt towards what ever they please, which will typically be having lived a life of wrong and bad action due to living under an ideology which itself is wrong and bad.
Reeducation: logical dishonoring
The notion that the root cause of their guilt is an externally imposed ideology is a straw at which the confused and exhausted person grasps. If they were taught wrongly, then it is their teachers and the ideology that is more at fault. Thus to assuage their guilt, further confession about all acts under the ideology are brought out. By mentally throwing away these acts (in the act of confession) they also are now completing the act of rejecting the whole ideology.
Progress and harmony
The rejection of the old ideology leaves a vacuum into which the new ideology can be introduced. As the antithesis of the old ideology, it forms a perfect attraction point as the person flees the old in search of a contrasting replacement.
This progress is accelerated as the new ideology is portrayed as harmonious and ideally suited to the person’s needs. Collegiality and calm replaces pain and punishment. The captors thus contrast in visible and visceral ways how wonderful the new ideology is as compared to the sins and the pain of the old ideology.
Final confession and rebirth
Faced with the stark contrast of the pain of the past with the rosy glow of the future that the new ideology presents, the person sheds any the final allegiance to the old ideology, confessing any remaining deep secrets, and takes on the full mantle of the new ideology.
This often feels, and has been described by many, as a form of rebirth. It may be accompanied by rites of passage as the person is accepted and cemented into the new order. The rituals will typically include strong statements made by the person about accepting the new ideology fully and completely, swearing allegiance to its leaders. Saluting flags, kissing other artefacts and other symbolic acts, all solemnly performed, all anchor them firmly in the new ground.
Robert Jay Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1963.
CONVERSION TECHNIQUES
Conversion to a different way of thinking and different beliefs appears in many different situations. Although the techniques here are drawn from studies of brainwashing and cult conversion, they are surprisingly common, at least in more acceptable forms, in many other groups and organizations.
• Breaking sessions: that pressure a person until they crack.
• Changing values: to change what is right and wrong.
• Confession: to leave behind the undesirable past.
• Entrancement: open the mind and limit rational reflection.
• Engagement: that draws a person in.
• Exhaustion: so they are less able to resist persuasion.
• Guilt: about the past that they can leave behind.
• Higher purpose: associate desirability with a higher purpose.
• Identity destruction: to make space for the new identity.
• Information control: that blocks out dissuading thoughts.
• Incremental conversion: shifting the person one step at a time.
• Isolation: separating people from dissuasive messages.
• Love Bomb: to hook in the lonely and vulnerable.
• Persistence: never giving up, wearing you down.
• Special language: that offers the allure of power and new meaning.
Thought-stopping: block out distracting or dissuading thoughts.
Mel Wasserman also borrowed heavily from Synanon and its founder Charles E. Deiderich. Claims have been made that Mel named the school CEDU to stand for Charles E. Deiderich University, rather than “see what you do and do something about it.” A look into Synanons’ history gives insight into the therapeutic underpinnings of Cedu.
Synanon, is the first ever self help–no doctors– drug rehabilitation program, founded by Charles “Chuck” Dederich Sr. (1913–1997) in 1958 in Santa Monica, California.
It went from the first ever no doctor involved self help drug rehab (Synanon I), to a building of a new society in Synanon cities to lead the world into the 21st Century (Synanon II), to becoming a self-claimed religion (Synanon III). Eventually followers took on the paranoia of its founder, Synanon developed the Imperial Marines and commenced a Holy War against its enemies. Its ultimate doom came when Dederich and members tried to kill by means of a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox, Pacific Palisades lawyer Paul Morantz who was battling Synanon in the court and trying to expose the Foundation for criminal conspiracies.
Deiderich volunteered for a Dr. Keith Ditman LSD experiment and felt he had a cathartic break through and now understood the world and that good and bad were the same. He studied on his own in a library and his AA speeches changed from typical religious overtones to a psychological/philosophy slant.
Dederich preached “Act as If” which meant do not try to reason as to what Synanon asks they do; as thinking got them there, just trust what they were told and act as if it is right.
Synanon emphasized living a self-examined life, as aided by group truth-telling sessions known as the “Synanon Game.” 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. Members were to confess in games and no secrets were allowed. Synanon instituted “containment” which was disallowing contact with outsiders. One was to participate only in Synanon. Synanon’s goal, Dederich said, was to lead the world into the 21st Century. Dederich experimented with environmental manipulations so as to recreate the heightened awareness and inner discoveries he experienced while taking LSD. To recruit needed non addict club members, Dederich created The Trip, forerunner of Werner Erhard’s est training, which was a combination of group psychotherapy, coercive persuasion, mysticism and old fashion spiritual revival. Dederich designed an efficient program of individual emotional breakdowns followed by a mass group euphoria all designed to re-educate individuals into the Synanon II philosophy and lifestyle. It was first offered to the selected few as an honor, but the entire population was eventually targeted. Dederich called it an “insight producing” experience. Dederich said: “At the end of this rainbow, there will be a pot of gold. Through dissipation, or long hours of activity without very much sleep, we hope to bring about in you a conscious state of inebriation… we want to get you loaded without acid.” A Shepherd led them through candle-lit and incense-burning corridors to a locker room filled with rows of Army cots with name cards. Each person stripped and put on white robes. Watches were taken as time was no longer important. Women removed all makeup and jewelry, a symbolic stripping of past selves. The Guides, all experienced game players, turned each group from enthusiasm to a depression and defeat, wallowing in its collective shame. Sitting in comfortable green armchairs, they made the dope fiends tell their tales of drugs, rape, crime and beatings. The squares were pushed to confess their prior loneliness and despair. The games turned on one than another. Disoriented by lack of sleep, each was moved to the point of intense disillusionment. Aids, who did their homework, provided ammunition to the Conductors on each Tripper. Everyone was to cop-out (confess to past sins). The result was implantation of a common bond and sense of ideals, all identified with Synanon. Each Tripper was to write a paper on some feeling or admission. A big shot would advise the Trippers they were not really chosen as an honor, but each was really selected because each was a resister, thinking he or she knew better the direction Synanon should go, part of the “dummies that hold Synanon back.” “Maybe,” Dederich said, “one day we will just put dingbats like you against the wall and wash them off and bring them back into the human race.” Dederich would elsewhere declare that if you kept people up long enough you can make them believe anything. At eight a.m. Monday hand in hand the Trippers went down the corridor toward the sounds of band music. Now in a ballroom the Trippers were surrounded by hundreds of cheering, clapping Synanites. The Trippers, many of whom had been awake for 65 or more hours, were hugged and cheered. A hoop-a-la began (Synanon’s dance). Everyone bonded. All had pain. One just had to surrender to Synanon. Despite the Trip conversion success, the old-timers, the Retired Dope Fiends, aka The Walking Dead, remained a problem. As the alcoholics had not wanted change. Curing dope fiends was what they wanted. Dederich placed them in a 72 hour game (“stew”) and harangued them for not seeing his vision. Later the “flies” (Dederich trained youngsters) took over the attack. When all were exhausted Dederich returned and offered forgiveness for surrender. October 10, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz in Pacific Palisades, California. Morantz had successfully brought suit on behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon, winning a $300,000 judgment, obtained release of children, gave information to the press and lobbied (defeating) another Synanon bill written by Herschel Rosenthal. The snake bit Morantz but did not kill him. A drunken Dederich was arrested on December 2 in Lake Havesu.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/synanon/synanon9.html
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature … ustry.html
http://thestraights.com/theprogram/synanon-story2.htm
…But the Cedu program contained other elements as well. Deiderich developed Synanon using the philosophies of Werner Erhards’ “Erhard Seminar Training” or Est. When Mel Wasserman developed Cedu he included elements of Lifespring. Both of these Large Group Awareness Training seminars (LGATs) were packaged to be sold to large corporations as being a unifier and motivator of employees and to aid employers in achieving the maximum potential from their workers. In fact, Wasserman purchased the rights to use Lifespring and modified it in order to create CEDUs’ final workshop, The Summit.
What are these organizations and where did they come from? Lifespring and Est were born out of the new age Human Potential Movement of the 60′s and 70′s.
The human-potential movement is a term used for humanistic psychotherapies that first became popular in the 1960s and early 1970s. The movement emphasized the development of individuals through such techniques as encounter groups, sensitivity training, and primal therapy (primal scream).
The “Human Potential” movement is a branch of the “New Age” movement that is especially packaged to be acceptable to corporations, government, small businesses, and the educational establishment in the form of “motivational seminars” or “Learning to Learn skills”.
Its principles are based on eastern mysticism and the occult, but the terminology has been changed to sound scientific and psychological.
Claiming that humans have unlimited or infinite potential, the goal then becomes to achieve this infinite potential.
• This is accomplished by rejecting traditional beliefs that limit us and avoiding any negative thoughts.
• The subconscious must be reprogrammed by daily affirmations, positive thinking, and constant self-talk (e.g., “I am great, I am wonderful, I will achieve!”).
• The ability to be reprogrammed can be enhanced by consciousness altering techniques that create a state of higher suggestibility, such as meditation, visualization, guided imagery, and other inward looking activities. These are also promoted for stress reduction.
“Self” is said to be the source of all success and each person can “take responsibility” to “create his own reality”.
Encounter group — A form of humanistic therapy in which participants meet with a trained leader to increase self-awareness and social skills through emotional sharing and confrontation.
Primal therapy — A form of humanistic therapy that originated in the 1970s. Participants were encouraged to relive painful events and release feelings through screaming or crying rather than analysis.
Sensitivity training — A form of humanistic group therapy that began in the 1950s. Members participated in unstructured discussions in order to improve understanding of themselves and others.
The Human Potential Movement is a loose chain of several hundred psychological supermarkets in which a customer can buy almost anything their heart desires: Sensitivity Training, Interracial Encounters, Creative Divorce Workshops, Heterosexual Body Sandwiches, Nude Psychodrama, Attack Therapy, Vomit Training.
The Human Potential Movement opened the door for traditional psychology to break away from its therapeutic norms, boundaries and ethics and allowed for its broad based application to groups of people seeking self help and therapy.
The Human Potential Movement was a response to the creation of Humanistic Psychology most notably due to an American psychologist named Abraham Maslow. He did this by coining the term “self-actualization” and positing that it was factually a human need in the field of psychology. Traditional psychology would discount this theory and categorize it simply as an opinion or belief, but it gained enough notoriety to be accepted firmly as truth by some and then there were others that purposely abused its’ stature. By placing this idea alongside the widely accepted psychology as defined by persons such as Freud it gained unearned credibility. Maslow popularized the concept of self-actualization, based on his study of exceptionally successful, rather than exceptionally troubled, people. Selecting a group of “self-actualized” figures from history, including Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Albert Einstein (1879-1955), and Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), Maslow constructed a list of their characteristics, some of which later became trademark values of the human potential movement.
In addition Maslow developed a theory, again presented as fact, describing supposed human needs and listing them in a hierarchal format. The achievement of each need could only be met by meeting the requirements of the previous needs on the pyramid. The needs are listed as follows:
Self-actualization
Self-esteem
Belonging (to a group)
Safety (shelter, removal from danger)
Physiological (Health, food, sleep)
What the pyramid suggests is that one’s self esteem and ability to attain self actualization are dependent on ones position among a group. Self evaluation thus is determined by the group setting one is surrounded by. As an individual, realization of this goal is not possible. For employees to believe in such a concept creates a valuable situation for employers, hence the popularity of LGATs such as Lifespring and Est.
As well as the integration of the above stated information analysis of the propheets would indicate that Mel Wasserman developed much of it from traditional psychology as well. Through simply comparing and contrasting similarities can be seen. For instance in analyzing The Truth propheet a patchwork quilt of ideas can account for its’ creation.
The Truth
Those who have been through the truth know that it used imagery to describe ones perfect self as a chrome ball that has been tarnished by painful events and wrongdoings in ones childhood. The goal then was to recognize those events and react in an emotional catharsis for the purpose of cleansing the soul and becoming pure. This would relate to concepts presented by Sigmund Freuds’ theories of etiology.
Sigmund Freud attributed mental or neurotic disorders to deep-seated or hidden psychic motivations. The unconscious played the primary role in Freud’s approach. According to Freud, the person in conflict was unaware of the cause because it was too deeply embedded in an inaccessible part of the mind. Freud postulated that the occurrence of previous traumas, unacceptable feelings, or wanton drives enacted a defense mechanism that enabled this burial into the unconscious. As a means of survival, a person might push such unsavory thoughts and memories as far from the conscious mind as possible. Childhood, according to Freud, was the time when many repressed motivations and defense mechanisms began to thrive. Without control over their own lives, children have no way to resolve such emotions that include frustration, insecurity, or guilt. These emotions essentially build up while the child’s personality is developing into adulthood. Every psychological disorder from sexual dysfunction to anxiety might be explained after talking about the repressed feelings a person has harbored since childhood.
Then there are other elements to the propheet that suggest that New Age ideas from the Human Potential Movement were included. Primal Scream, which John Lennon helped to popularize (coincidence?), was present as participants were directed to undergo a forced emotional catharsis to remove the tarnish from the chrome ball. Many could claim it was effective, but the act of screaming results in exhaustion and hyperventilation which in turn produces a euphoric effect on the participant. As well screaming and heightened emotional states affect the brain in the same way as exercise in that it prompts the release of endorphins, serotonin, adrenaline and dopamine. Before you can understand your emotions it helps to understand what causes them. Our brains and endocrine system are a veritable narcotics factory, producing an array of natural chemicals that act as stimulants, depressants or pain-killers:
• adrenaline prepares the body for fight or flight: your heart starts pounding, your pupils dilate, you start to sweat and get “butterflies” as your digestive system switches off;
• endorphins, natural pain-killers many times stronger than morphine, are released by the pituitary gland;
• dopamine, released in the middle area of the brain, is chiefly responsible for pleasurable sensations;
• anandoline, a canabinoid, stimulates the appetite;
• PEA, a natural stimulant, performs in a similar manner to amphetamines such as speed;
• melatonin controls your sleeping patterns and stimulates the immune system; and
• serotonin is believed to play important roles in a number of areas: sexuality, anxiety and depression.
So the perception that one has experienced a moment of spiritual cleansing can be easily misunderstood by the participant due to the pleasant “high” produced after such an experience.
As well aspects of Liftons thought reform studies are applicable. For instance, in The Truth, it began with disclosing events from childhood that were painful (i.e. death in the family, abandonment , name calling) that were supposedly for addressing traumatic moments. But as the propheet progressed participants were pressured to reveal deep secrets about ones’ self that could be considered an act of self betrayal. For instance the questions initially posed were, “How were you hurt when you were a child?” And progressed to, “What is it that you can’t tell anybody about?” After being led down a path of openness and sharing as well as engaging in various acts (tactile drills, guided imagery) that produced exhaustion psychological defense systems had been dismantled for many of the participants. This resulted in many disclosing things about themselves that crossed a personal boundary and thereby betraying themselves. To return to Liftons’ studies:
Self-betrayal
When the person is forced to denounce friends and family, it both destroys their sense of identity and reinforces feelings of guilt. This helps to separates them from their past, building the ground for anew personality to be built.
Breaking point
The constant assault on identity, guilt and self-betrayal eventually leads to them breaking down, much as the manner of the ‘nervous breakdown’ that people experience for other reasons. They may cry inconsolably, have convulsive fits and fall into deep depression. Psychologically, they may effectively be losing a sense of who they are and hence fearing total annihilation of the self.
Confession
Individuals are encouraged to confess past ‘sins’ (as defined by the group). This creates a tension between the person’s actions and their stated belief that the action is bad, particularly if the statement is made publicly. The consistency principle thus leads the person to fully adopt the belief that the sin is bad and to distance themselves from repeating it.
Discussion of inner fears and anxieties, as well as confessing sins is exposing vulnerabilities and requires the person to place trust in the group and hence bond with them. When we bond with others, they become our friends, and we will tend to adopt their beliefs more easily.
This effect may be exaggerated with intense sessions where deep thoughts and feelings are regularly surfaced. This also has the effect of exhausting people, making them more open to suggestion.
The Truth propheet set the stage for the participants further progress in the program. It was re-visited time and time again in every propheet, in the telling of ones story, and in raps. In general the pressure put on the students to re-affirm their confessions, to themselves and publicly, depended on whether or not they were following the program or not (in agreement or not). Essentially any wrongdoing no matter how big or small was attempted, by staff, to be corrected by re-addressing this unrelated but painful confession as punishment. (i.e. are you living your lie or your truth? One or the other, no in between.)
In terms of the effect Cedu had on students it would be far from accurate to suppose that a highly diverse group of pre-adult participants in various stages of development would or could respond universally to this kind of psychological experimentation. In an environment devoid of licensed therapists practicing a random collection of powerful psychological tactics upon a variety of subjects it is likely that the results will be chaotic.
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