Synanon vs. Shakers

In the New York Times magazine talks in depth about the history and the founder of Synanon Charles Dederich. Dederich is a reformed alcoholic. His organization which was a drug rehabilitation program won widespread acclaim and amassed great wealth before it became associated with violence. This commune lasted for several years even due to the violent acts and the unwillingness of people wanting to be their. Which was polar opposites then the Shakers with we learned in the first semester.  Throughout the year, I only recall one commune with a founder who was a female. The shakers; the shakers were the united society of Believers in  Christ’s second appearing. They were a religious group that fled to the American colonies in 1774 to escape persecution in England. Shaker life is centered on a number of core beliefs and values, including a belief in the second coming of Christ, communal living, celibacy, humility, simplicity, efficiency, hard work, and equality between the sexes. Behaving in accordance with these values is seen as the route to salvation. The leader of this group was Ann Lee.

Ann lee was a blacksmith daughter and a mill hand in Manchester. She wanted to create and look for a more emotional religion than the official church of England. Although Lee was the leader the religion she was not as active in the beginning as Dederich was with the Synanon community. Ann lee did not become part of it until a series of unfortunate events occurred. After the different unhappy events, Lee had a bigger vision and decided to lead her religion to America. They settled in New York City in 1774. The first years were difficult, the group persevered everything, they had little and sometimes no bread, butter or cheese during the spring and summer. There main food was food and rice and ,milk sometimes they went to the river to get fish. Which was very different from the start of Synanon. Although Synanon started of small they did not struggle as much as the shakers did in the beginning. Like Synanon the shakers lived in one communal settlement, “The first communal dwelling house at Watervliet, probably of logs, was built in 1779. It was soon replaced by a good-sized dwelling built in 1783; this was used until a larger one was built in 1816, when the original became the “second house” and was used as a kind of infirmary.” Although Shakers lived in their own communities in the form of large farms with multiple buildings and considerable acreage, did not vote, and were pacifists, they did not live totally outside mainstream society. In fact, Shakers were often the first in their region to use electricity and telephones, often owned cars, trucks, and tractors for community use, and today use televisions, computers, and other modern conveniences. Which was very different from the Synanon commune, Dederich would not allow people to socialize with the outside community unless it was necessary.

When it comes to the actual way people pray and worship, Synanon and The Shakers were very different. The shakers constantly prayed and worshiped god in a communal setting Synanon did not. Synanon was more of just a drug and alcohol rehab center, turned into a commune. They did not pray, it was more of just people there to get healthy. The only type of community engagement was The Game. Although The shakers, had no violence or “brainwashing” they did not last nearly as long as the synanon commune. “Although the Shakers have largely disappeared, the Shaker way of life remains part of the American scene, primarily through Shaker museums, restored Shaker communities open to tourists, Shaker manufactures such as chairs and oval boxes which command prices of over $100,000 in the antiquities market, and Shaker songs such as "The Gift to Be Simple."’ Although the shakers did not last nearly as long as Synanon, they had a lot of good values and beliefs that they brought to the religion.

Synanon

Before this class I had never even heard about Synanon. At first I was not really interested in the history of it because I thought that it was just like any other religious movement. What I really like about Synanon is how they came to be. Synanon was not started as a religion, but I was turned to a religion for tax exempt purposes later on in their history. Charles Dederich founded Synanon in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. Synanon was first created as a drug rehabilitation. And it became a very effective way for drug rehabilitation. According to the book, The Rise and Fall of Synanon, Synanon was among the most successful and most innovative communal socities in the United Sates. They also had membership peaked at 2,000 and was the home at one time to more than 25,000 people.

When people joined Synanon, they had a ninety day ban from the whole world. Once the ninety day ban was up, the decision to become a resident was dependent on an initial interview. Synanon did not believe in pharmacological treatments. They believed in suffering through the process to rehabilitate. Once a person was accepted in Synanon they began to do the worst jobs and slowly move up. Residents were required to play the game and on top of the game they were required to participate in deep discussions. Topics were selected at Random. This was done so the residents could understand social issues. Punishments for members varied, members who refused to follow Synanon rules were punished by: pull-ups, haircuts or their heads were shaved. Other punishments required residents to wear oversized diapers.

One unique characteristic of Synanon was the Game. Around July 1959, a large number of residents admitted to secretly using drugs. This is when Dederich developed “The game.” The game encouraged all the players to be honest with one another and it also encouraged other players to attack the person being attacked. Even though the attacks were not necessarily true. According to Dederich, Drug addicts could not afford not hold anything in, so they had to let it out. Anything that happened in the game was supposed to stay in the game. When the game first started, it was nonviolent. Although as we have learned in class, as Synanon progressed, the game became more violent. In 1966 the game open its doors to the public. In the late 1960s game clubs were established across the country, from Santa Monica to Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Oakland, San Diego and even San Juan Puerto Rico. The game was introduced to newcomers. The games started as, “the most boring person in this circle is’ or what really pissed you off most this week?’” According to the book, The Rise and Fall of Synanon, the Game became very unsafe mid-1970s, because members were disciplined outside of the game for comments made inside the game. The book said that by late 1975 Betty gamed Chuck about his weight and Chuck responded, “What about the pint of ice-cream that you eat every…dammed night?”

I feel like the game was a dual edge sword. I can see how the game became a successful part of Synanon. Up to an extent I can agree with what Dederich said about people not being able to hold anything in if they wanted to be successful. I can see how the game was successful in challenging someone’s beliefs and practices. I agree with the initial set up of the game, a safe environment to express your feelings and expect to get constructive criticism in return. However, if the environment you express your feelings is not safe, you can be bullied and that’s exactly what happened towards the end of the game. When my team decided to act out the game for the podcast, it was very uncomfortable because I was the one being attacked on for five minutes. If I felt uncomfortable when we were acting it out, could you imagine how the game actually felt like in real life? The game was known to be intense for several hours long about 3 times a week.  

In 1968 Synanon established a category called “lifestylers.” These group of people worked outside but were involved in Synanon’s activities. Some lived in the commune and some didn’t. These people donated about $1,000 to Synanon. By 1969 synanon encouraged lifestylers to establish permanent residence in the commune. Synanon was successful in many different ways. They were successful with the game, with their daily discussion on political views and the lifestylers. However, the downcline of Synanon was the founder Charles Dederich. Everything in Synanon started changing when Charles Dederich started to force males to get vasectomies and when he started forcing women to have abortions. He made it seem like this would do good to the world, so people would not be uptight about it. Dederich also started separating children from their parents. He also started encouraging partner switches. Synanon became very violent towards the end. Paul Morantz represented a youn lady who had been held against her will in Synanon. When Paul won the case he found in his mailbox a rattlesnake. He was bitten, but was able to survive. The two men who were sent by Dederich were sent to jail. Dederich was given probation. Also Dederich was forced to step down as the head of Synanon. 

Synanon; a Brief History

The aspect of Synanon in which I have found most fascinating is how it evolved and adapted throughout its history. From a junkie rehab center in Santa Monica to fighting a legal battle in order to list their group as a bona fide religion, Synanon has been an agent of change within its own circumstances. Ultimately, the entire entity began with a man named Charles Dederich. After the loss of both his brother and father at an early age, Dederich became rebellious and found salvation at the bottom of a bottle, spiraling into an on and off alcohol binge. Dederich began attending AA meetings and became one of the top speakers. He would take a religious perspective with a heavily evangelical tone, damning the immoral actions of such an addiction. A significant shift occurred in his philosophy towards rehabilitation when he partook in a clinical trials regarding LSD. After these tests, Dederich parted from his previous approach in AA meetings, leaning away from a religious prerogative, and towards a philosophy of self-development and a commitment to community. He also began to promote the idea that addicts are equal in terms of what they are using. In other words, he wanted to incorporate dope fiends with alcoholics, and AA did not agree with this. This ultimately pushed Dederich to create his own therapeutic society, called the Tender Loving Care Club, which would soon become the grassroots of Synanon.

The TLC Club began in 1958 in Santa Monica as Dederich’s initial attempt to create an environment whose primary purpose was rehabilitate addicts across the board. Dederich’s message for those joining was, “today is the first day of the rest of your life,” promoting the ideology of a new start and an opportunity to cultivate one’s sense of independent self.  The TLC Club had their members go cold turkey, meaning members could have absolutely no access to the substance they were addicted to or any other substance, other than cigarettes and coffee. This was the basis of a ladder of self responsibility. As each member continued to improve, the more freedoms they were given. The interesting about this phase of Synanon is the government support it garnered. The U.S. Senate even called it a “man made miracle on the beach of Santa monica.” As it grew in popularity, non-addicts, also called “squares,” began to garner interest, and in 1966, it opened its doors to said squares to join in game-clubs. This was a way for the squares to experience “the game,” which was a session of complete and brutal honesty, saying what is on one’s mind to address the behaviors of another member in order to promote humility and personal accountability in terms of how one’s actions affects a group or personal dynamic. As the group grew in popularity, Dederich saw an opportunity to expand and he took it, changing Synanon from a therapeutic organization targeting rehabilitation to an alternative society, or a commune.

This switch derived from two drastic decisions that would change Synanon forever. The first is to close “graduation” ceremonies, meaning once you join the community, you are expected to stay within the community. The second of which was to allow the squares who were in game-clubs to integrate into the community for a hefty fee. These folks were called “lifestylers.” This was only the began of what some would soon call a “hustling operation,” where Dederich and members would campaign and lobby for donations from individuals to corporations. Once the capital was arranged, Synanon began investing in real estate in Oakland, San Francisco, and Badger, California. The group relocated in 1968 from Santa Monica to Marshall, moving to Northern California. The group’s practices began to come into question from the local community as they became more world denying than world affirming. As paranoia grew, Synanon installed their own armed security, and stories began to circulate of their use of violence within their organization and the outside community. Now, during this time period as an alternate society, an odd occurrence transpired that seemed to have been an oversight. Since Synanon was keeping its reformed addicts and no longer were accepting new addicts, their effectiveness turned to be their downfall. Seeing as rehabilitation took the back seat to the society they were creating, they ultimately began to face the issue of losing their tax-exempt status as a rehabilitation clinic. The next step? The formation of a state-recognized religion.

Beginning in the mid 70’s, Synanon only increased their radical ideas, adding mandatory partner swapping, communal child-care, and vasectomies for long-time male members, in an attempt to create a more organized and doctrinal society. In 1975, Synanon stated that as an update to its society, one of the primary purposes would be to operate a church, and in 1979, Synanon amended this statement by clarifying the main reason for the group was a religious one. Ultimately, despite their newfound religious convictions, Synanon could not fight off the poor press they had been receiving due to some of the member’s public antics, assumptions made by the general public, or a combination of the two. After facing legal trouble and health issues, Charles Dederich was forced to step down from his involvement in the organization. Combine the loss of their leader, a more than poor public image, and the IRS rejecting their tax exempt status, it is amazing to see the slow climb of an alternative community, and the factors that lead to its quick demise.

Synanon

After the synanon speaker came to my classroom, it made me even more interested in the “cult”. It was very surreal listening to someone who grew up in the synanon religion. To her that was a normal childhood, she did not know any thing else. All the different aspects that I had while growing up that seemed like an everyday lifestyle was so foreign. For example, playing sports, going to school everyday and not living in a home with siblings and parents. The speaker mentions that at about six months they were taken from both parents and place in a communal raising. Where other people on certain days took care of you and you lived with all the other children away from your parents. “Children inside the Synanon cult were raised communally. This was a common practice romanticized by utopian communities of the 19th and 20th century (including in Upton Sinclair's failed Helicon Home Colony), though Synanon took it a step further than most. Parents had highly restricted access to their children after they reached the age of about 6-9 months. By the end of the 1960s, adult members might only see their kids once a week, even if they wanted to see them more often. The policies dictating how often a given member could see their children became more and more restrictive throughout the 1960s, and by 1972 Dederich had proposed that the children from every California branch be moved to a single site in Marin County.” Many members did not like the rules of communal raiding and between 200 to 300 people left the organization once these policies got more and more strict. Along with being apart of a communally upbringing they did not attend school often but were very knowledgeable. The speaker in class mentioned that school was something that she enjoyed and “craved”. They were not like normal children who went to school seven hours a day five days a week. They would have 14 hour days and then go months without a single day in the classroom. One year they were able to go to a public school outside of synanon but after one year they were not allowed that privilege anymore.

Another major thing that stood out to me in while she was speaking was the fact that children had to play the game. In an article, it mentions the game and how it was a worthy opponent in a brutal form of therapy created by the leader himself. “The Game was the most important method of treatment at Synanon. When it came to getting addicts clean, the program rejected any form of pharmaceuticals or tapering of drugs. Everyone went cold turkey, and junkies were left on a couch to writhe and vomit for a few days while they went through withdrawal. The Game was the medicine administered later, a kind of group therapy invented by Dederich where people sat in a circle to express (and often shout) their frustrations at each other. The confrontational approach was a way to hash out everything that bothered you about others in your group. It was supposed to help you learn about yourself as well.” Although, I understood the point of the game for recovering drug addicts. I was shocked when the children had to play, especially since they did not have a choice of being there, they were stuck. She mentioned that the game for children “was horrible, awful”. Since they were so young, the point of the game did not work well. Anything that was said during the game was not forgotten outside of the game. Children were not able to forget about it, which caused more and more issues throughout the community.  After the speaker came, it gave me a lot more insight about synanon then I would have ever found in books and research.

Synanon

So many different communes we have learned about this semester have failed due to similar reasons. Would these communes succeeded if they did not have as strict lifestyles. Both The Peoples Temple and Synanon did not make it due to founders going insane and certain lifestyles not working for all members. In the two articles I found, the Paul Morantz and the Jonestown. I compared the major differences/similarities in both The Peoples Temple and Synanon and the differences/similarities in the founders, Jim Jones and Charles Dederich.

Some of the main differences between Jones and Dederich is their educational background. Jim Jones went to college and Dederich dropped out. They also had very different family backgrounds. Dederich lost both his father and brother and his mother re-married, were her began to turn to alcohol. Although they both ended up founding a religion they did not both intend for that. Jones always had the idea of starting a religion but Dederich started of with an AA program, but became greedy, he wanted more money so he invested and started the Synanon religion.

In both articles it mentions how both Jones and Dederich has an overall idea that worked well for a religion but shortly after drugs and power corrupted them making both their religions crash. Major similarities between the founder is they both has a huge amount of founders, both has physiological issues that basically made them go crazy and social media! Social media was the turning point for both Jones and Dederich. On November 18, 1978, the day of the mass suicide, the congressman and  view reporters were there to come and view what Jim Jones, The People's Temple was all about. Shortly after being there both the reporters and congressmen noticed people were being forced to stay. The congressmen and reporters left with a handful of people asking to leave and that is when Jones ordered his people to report to the airport to kill anyone trying to leave including the congressmen. When social media got involved in The People's Temple, Jones got paranoid. Which made him conduct a mass murder/suicide. More than 900 members of an American cult called the Peoples Temple died in a mass suicide-murder under the direction of their leader Jim Jones. As for Synanon, when social media got involved Dederich like Jones got paranoid. Diedrich started threatening people. He killed and hung people because they were not following the lifestyle her created. Along with threatening and killing people abused animals. “Don’t mess with us-- you can get killed dead, physically dead.” Another huge similarity between the two is they both had a huge issue with drugs and alcohol making them incapable to run a religion.

As for the actually religion overall, both The Peoples Temple and Synanon had some ideas in common and some differences. They both became very greedy, wanted more members and more income. The main “way of life” that stood out to me was the sexual life between the two religions, which were very different. Jim jones basically slept with everyone in the commune both male and females and Dederich forced members to get abortions and vasectomies.

As for the similarity that stood out the most to me was the idea of personal integrity. Both Jones and Dederich had a way with dealing with this idea. Jim jones, when he felt threatened by someone he developed a need to compromise the sexually or humiliate them in public or sometimes would do both. Which is similar to Dederich idea of “The Game” where it is suppose to make people feel better about himself after being humiliated. “The Game” encouraged all the players to be honest with one another, it was suppose to led towards the delay of impulsive actions, excellence in work and a sense of social responsibilities. “The Game” focused on interpersonal issues, work patterns and individual emotions and idiosyncrasies.

Both these articles were very interesting, it was amazing comparing both and see how similar two founders/communes can be.

Violence, media, and Synanon as a religion

Synanon did not start off as a violent group. It was actually pretty peaceful and just wanted to help the "dope fiends". The purpose was to change people's lives around for the better and make them better people who were not active addicts.  Things slowly started to change. Some rules in Synanon started to change and soon enough violence was accepted.

Synanon was not only violent to the adults, but to the kids as well. Synanon had what was like military boot camps for the youth. Like I talked about in one of my blogs, we had a woman come into class to talk to us about her growing up in Synanon and what that was like. She told us that the kids lived in these dormitory like buildings. The children lived in a different part of Synanon than the adults. The guest speaker told us that sometimes the kids were hit and beaten for certain things.

Violence did not just happen between members. Some members of Synanon were violent towards regular people not even involved with Synanon. We watch the beginning of two different Synanon movies as we were first learning about Synanon. The second movie we began watching covered the violent aspect of Synanon whereas the first one was more about the beginning and start
up of Synanon. In the second movie we saw how the members were violent towards others. In the movie some members attacked a man and his girlfriend because they were on Synanon's land. The guy wanted to show his girlfriend where he grew up, I believe this was the case.

The media also played an important role in how people viewed Synanon. This was also the case with Jonestown. Jonestown was portrayed in a very negative way so everyone had a negative view of Jonestown. There was also the anti-cult people who only had bad things to say about Jonestown. I'm sure Synanon had some of those same people as well. Synanon, towards the end, got bad publicity as well. There may have been some positive aspects of Synanon, but the media focused on the negative. The newspapers that printed articles about Synanon printed articles trying to expose Synanon for its wrongdoings. I do not think they ever really printed anything positive about Synanon.

The book we read, "The Rise and Fall of Synanon" even the content of the book did not seem al that positive. It seems like there were more negative things to be said about Synanon than positive. I am sure there had to be some positive things about Synanon, after all, a lot of goups and organizations borrowed ideas and practices from Synanon. Even the woman who came to talk to us seemed to have more negative things to say about Synanon than positive things. Before Dederich's decision to want to keep everyone in Synanon forever, I think Synanon may have been beneficial to people and actually helped people.

Synanon became a religion for all the wrong reasons. After Dederich started drinking again, things started to change. He started to care a lot more about money and wanted more of it. He did want want to have to pay taxes, so he wanted to make Synanon a church. If Synanon became a church, it would no longer have to pay taxes. Synanon was soon declared a church. While Synanon was a church, they still had their businesses they were running. Their businesses were for profit. Later on down the line, Synanon got busted for making money for profit as a church. This is was ultimately led to their demise.

I think when Dederich started drinking again, everything changed. He became a different person than he was when he first had the idea to start Synanon. He endorsed violence, after all, he is the one who said to put a rattlesnake in Paul Morantz's mailbox. I am not really sure why or how he thought any of these things, becoming a religion and turning to violence would help Synanon at all. I think it definitely made things worse for them.

I also wonder what the deciding factor was for Synanon accepting violence on other members and on the outside community. Did he really think violence would help things? Was the game not enough violence? I know the game was not itself physically violent, but it could be seen as verbally violent. Was it the media who helped Synanon meet their decline or was it the fact that the IRS caught onto their schemes?

Synanon did have a lot of potential to continue to be great. It started off as a good idea and had a great cause. Along the way I think Dederich and the other members of Synanon lost sight of what was important and lost sight of all the goals they once had.

Delancey Street and Synanon

As we have learned, Delancey Street has a lot in common with Synanon. To start, the founder of Delancey Street, John Maher, was a former member of Synanon. Delancey street has a lot of similarities with Synanon, which may have contributed to why they are still around today.


Delancey Street is run by its members; people who are in the program. Members do everything from administrative work all the way to running the businesses that Delancey Street is known for, like the restaurant and the christmas tree lot. Delancey Street does not charge people for its treatment, much like Synanon. The minimum stay at Delancey Street is two years and the average stay is four years. There are three rules that must be followed by the people at Delancey Street, these rules are:

1. no drugs or alcohol 
2. no physical violence
3. no threats of violence 

Residents at Delancey Street do not have to pay to be a part of the program, like with most other programs today. They may work at the restaurant or other Delancey street businesses, but they do not get paid. The residents get food, housing, clothing, education, and other things at no cost to them. So not getting paid is not that bad after all. Plus, the program is free. I think the setup is pretty good.

As I was looking on the Delancey Street website, I found it interesting that they helped move over 12,000 violent racial gang members into nonviolence. These people went from living violent lives to practicing active nonviolence. This is interesting to compare to Synanon because Synanon started as nonviolent and practiced active nonviolence but turned extremely violent in the end. Delancey Street has been able to stick with their original goals and so far nothing has gotten in the way of that. It has been the same program pretty much since it first started. 

When we were first learning about Synanon, we started to watch a movie about the start on Synanon (before the violence kicked in). In this movie, a newcomer to Synanon was paired up with a member who has been there a while. That person was supposed to show the newcomer how things were done and explain to them the rules. They were kind of like a mentor for the newbies. This goes with the belief of Delancey Street of each one teach one. Each member of Delancey Street helps the others out. They are the experts and the staff of the program.

A few weeks ago I was able to meet a man who went through the Delancey Street program. He now runs a program at a men's jail. He was telling the group I was with that the Delancey Street program in intense. "They call you on your shit" he told us, when referring to the game. Delancey Street plays the game just like Synanon did. He told us that it is used to attack certain behavior, not to attack an individual. This is another thing that Delancey Street and Synanon have in common. Both play the game and it seems like it has been helpful to the people who have played it. I also found it interesting to hear him and others call the game "attack therapy". I think calling it the game sounds nicer, but attack therapy pretty much tells you exactly how it is. Attack therapy is more straightforward as to what it is about.

A family member of mine had the opportunity to go to Delancey Street. He was heavily addicted to heroin and cocaine. He lost everything from it, his wife, daughter and other members of his family. Luckily now he is clean, but when he was looking for a program, he refused to go to Delancey Street. He told me that he did not want anyone telling him what to do. He knew about their attack therapy/the game and he wanted no part in it. He did not want to be "called out on his shit", he knew what he did but did not want to take responsibility. If he went to Delancey Street he knew he would have to take responsibility for his actions. Now, luckily he has been clean for about three or four years now, but I think Delancey Street would have been great for him. They could have helped him reintegrate into society.

A major difference that I have noticed between Synanon and Delancey Street is that the founder of Synanon, Charles Dederich, believed his members could not go back into society. He did not think they would be able to make it out there on their own. He had no faith in them. He wanted to keep them in Synanon forever. He believed that the only way they would remain clean was if he made them stay at Synanon forever. Delancey Street works to modify your behavior and helps you work on problems so you can stay clean and sober when it is your time to leave. They give you the tools you need to succeed in live. The people at Delancey Street have faith in its members. Delancey Street has graduated over 18,000 people into society and helped them to be successful. That is the goal all along, to get the people back into society and have them be successful members of society. They do not want to keep them there in the program forever.


* http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/index.php (this website was used as a source for the blog)

Synanon

How can a religious movement go wrong? When people think of a religious movements, some think about love, compassion and faith. All peaceful aspects that represents a religion. Other people may think of the history of how religion came to be. For example the wars, multiple sex partners and massacres caused by religion. For example the Mormons, started by Joseph Smith, not an extreme religious movement, like others, had the Mountain Meadow massacre in 1857 and they also believed in polygamy.

A more extreme religious movement was the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians, led by Victor Houteff in 1942, believed the Seventh day Adventists lacked the second coming of Christ, so they separated and started their own group. The Davidians established themselves in Mt. Caramel (Waco, Texas). Later this group was led by David Koresh. He believed that he was a prophet from God. This group as many others was heavily affected by media. People believed that this congregation was a sex cult and that members of this congregation were being brainwashed. The FBI believed that the members were being held hostages. While the members in the believed that the FBI’s attack was part of the Seven Seals, the second coming of Christ. The difference between the thought of these two groups led to the death of 76 people. One of the things that I found interesting about this group is that my boss knew a lady that died in Waco Texas. Her name was Judy Schneider. Judy went to Cal Poly and my boss and her used to work together. My boss remembers Judy as a very smart down to earth lady. She also says that Judy and her husband Steve were trying to have a baby for the longest time, but they weren’t successful. Finally Judy got pregnant and my boss always thought that the child was Steve’s until years later she came to realize that the child was from David Koresh. Judy and Steve came to the conclusion that they (Judy and Steve) had to follow God’s will. So they accepted for Judy to become one of Koresh’s wives.

A more extreme group than the Branch Davidians, were the Peoples’ Temple. This group was founded by Jim Jones in 1955. This group spread Christianity, service to the poor and racial equality. The group first originated in Indiana and eventually moved to California, in the 1970s, with their main headquarter in San Francisco. In 1974 Jones bought land in Guyana to develop a home for his followers. Jim Jones became an alcoholic and paranoid and moved his 1000 members. Once in, members were not allowed to leave. Jones preached over his loudspeakers. Jones was the only contact with the outside world they had. In November 1978 due to all the negativity around Jonestown, Leo Ryan, a congressman from California, decided to investigate Jonestown for himself. He found out that members were being held against their will. When the members who wanted to leave and the congressman were about to depart, they were attacked by Peoples Temple gunmen sent by Jones. That day, 918 members of Peoples Temple committed suicide by drinking poison. People who refused to drink were forced to drink by the armed guards.

Synanon on the other hand, was founded by Charles Dederich in 1958. Charles, opened his alcohol recovery program in Santa Monica, California. Synanon was first established to help help addicts stop using drugs and alcohol. Synanon had great success with drug and alcoholic addicts. Members were required to play, “The Game.” The Game was the most important treatment method in Synanon. Dederich believed that if a group of people sat in a circle to express their frustration they would be able to develop personal integrity and delay impulsive action. Dederich believed that addicts were not able to hide anything if they expected to stay clean. The Game was two to three hours long with groups of eight to fifteen people. Players were required to back the play. By the 1970s the game started to become more violent, amd these violent attacks violated the most basic rule of the Game, “No violence, no threat of violence.” After the death of Chuck’s wife, Betty, alcohol was introduced into Synanon. Synanon became violent, beating members or people who were against Synanon. In October 1978, Synanon members placed a rattlesnake in the mailbox of Paul Morantz. Finally in 1991 the IRS sued for $17 million in back taxes. Finally Synanon dissolved in 1991.
Unlike the branch Davidians and The Peoples Temple, Synanon started as an alcoholic rehabilitation program and later became a religion. Synanon became a religion for the sole purpose of becoming tax exempt. While the sole purpose of the Branch Davidians and the Peoples Temples was religion. What can be told about these three leaders? First, the mental health of each of these leaders heavily affected the organization. All three of them became paranoid of their surroundings. The negative media played a huge component of the downfall of each of these groups. Another similarities between these three groups is that they were all isolated from society. Blood relatives could not get to members inside the communes.

Former Member of Synanon

This past Thursday, April 14, we had two guest speakers come into class. One was a woman named Naomi and she was born in Synanon. A real life person who was born in Synanon, not just someone we have read about. It was really interesting to hear her stories about what life was like for her in Synanon. Synanon was described as "The hippest, coolest drug program in the world, until it wasn't" this was said by our other speaker, Don.

Naomi was borin in 1971 in Synanon when it was in Santa Monica. She made a connection between the books/movies The Hunger Games and Synanon. She told us that the two were similar to each other. After she told us this, she began reading to us from something she wrote about her time in Synanon. She began to tell us how she was very connected to music and that her dad was in the Synaon band, Sounds of Synanon. She also told us that her father's first wife was killed in a drug deal gone bad. Her father had tried to her his wife to come to Synanon, but she would not do it. Her father remarried and had had her and her siblings.

Despite what was going on in the world during the time when Synanon was around, it was a very multicultural place. People of many ethnic backgrounds were welcomed there. Charles himself was a white man and his wife was black. Naomi went on to tell us that drug addiction used to be classified as a mental illness. Naomi told us that Synanon was force to move from their Synanon location. She also said that she believes the move was the first step in turning Synanon into a cult. It went from a community to a cult.

Synanon moved to West Marin. In 1977 all couples in Synanon were to break up and marry someone new, sort of like an arranged marriage. Naomi's father did not want to divorce and marry someone else. Because of this, her father and his wife were kicked out of Synanon. After this happened, the leader, Charles, would always refer to Naomi's father as "that asshole Crawford". Even sixteen year olds had to get "love matched" as well. A love match is like an arranged marriage, but not a marriage because they did not do legal marriages there. All men over the age of sixteen were forced to get vasectomies. Children were thought to get in the way of what Synanon was trying to accomplish.

However, there were some children in Synanon. People had kids before the new vasectomy 'law' was initiated. The kids lived in dorm like buildings. It was sort of like a military institution. Naomi told us that people in Synanon were not really nurturing towards the children. This included her own mother. Her mother had her, but it was up to the rest of the community to raise her. She gave birth to Naomi, but was not really a mother. She did not have any maternal instincts. Even the kids had to have their heads shaved. To Naomi, having a shaved head was a normal part of life.

Naomi then began to tell us about the violence of Synanon. She told us that there were some "heinous crimes against outsiders". She remembers hearing Charles say "put a fucking rattlesnake in his mailbox". As we have come to know, Charles was talking about lawyer Paul Morantz. Morantz represented a man who was beaten by some members of Synanon because he supposedly ran some kids off the road when they were riding their bikes. The members of Synanon were kept in the dark about the violence that went on. They did not find out about the violence until later on. 

When Naomi was twelve years old, her father tried to get custody of her. Synanon would not let him, they would send him death threats. He decided to stop trying to get custody of her and she was left in Synanon. 

Naomi realized that she was not 'normal' one day when she and some others went out. She encountered two other young girls. The girls asked Naomi and her friend if they were boys or girls (they both had shaved heads at the time). This made Naomi feel really bad and realize she was different, that her life was different. 

Naomi told us that doctors and dentist were on site, members did not have to go out somewhere to see their doctors or dentists. The vasectomies were done on site as well. The doctors were squares, they were not dope fiends like the members. Another interesting thing that Naomi told us was that the Black Panthers and the Hells Angels protected Synanon. They would protect them when they did rallies.

Kids in Synanon also had to play the game. They would watch the adults and then have to play the game themselves. There was a big difference though between the game that kids played and the ones the adults played. The adults were able to keep the mentality of 'what happens in the game stays in the game'. Kids were not able to do that. What happened in the game they took with them outside of the game. What happened in the game would get to them. 

Naomi left Synanon in 1989 when she was seventeen. She went to community college in Santa Cruz and then went to Davis. She now has children of her own. She finds that she has the mother instinct, the one that her own biological mother did not have. 

When asked if Synanon did not become violent, would it still be around, Naomi told us this:

"The status changed and became a church. Synanon then started a business and became all about money making. This created a hierarchy between people. Some people had more money than others. It was not longer equal. The IRS ultimately brought Synanon down." They started a business for profit and they were church and were not supposed to do that.

Naomi told us that when Charles began to drink again, all of Synanon drank. Synanon drank alcohol on Saturdays. Naomi also told us that most of the kids, including herself, found Charles to be scary. She never wanted to be in a situation were she had to talk to him. There was just something about him that never sat right with her. In Naomi's words, "he was scary to be around".