Blog #3 Paul Morantz's Morality, and Minor Figures

          Paul Morantz is most famously known for being bitten by a rattlesnake that was put into his mailbox by several members of Synanon.  This incident made the papers, and can be considered the event that truly began to shed a negative light on Synanon as a community.  Paul Morantz is a California lawyer who fought against Synanon several times.

            In 1974 Synanon applied to be recognized a religious entity, and therefore would become tax-exempt, making it easier for Dederich to make more money.  With the Internal Revenue Service beginning to take notice, it was some of the first trouble Synanon faced.   Although, the IRS never fully recognized Synanon as a tax-exempt community, Synanon would not lose its tax-exempt status for another decade in 1991.  Morantz was one of the lawyers in the case, which forced Synanon to pay $200,000 in tax fines back to the state of California. 

            In 1977 Dederich began to order men to receive vasectomies, and women were forced to have abortions.  Ironically, Dederich never got a vasectomy himself.  Paul Morantz was also the lawyer in the case against Synanon filed against them for unlawfully practicing medicine.  Without proper licenses, certain medical procedures are not allowed to be done.  This situation made me wonder how Betty’s life was affected.  I hypothesized in my last blog post that with the medical facilities Synanon had, it could have been possible Betty knew she was sick.  If Synanon had been treating her for several years, and then they had a lawsuit against their medical practices, is this what could have stopped her treatment and possibly killed her?

            Also in 1977, Paul Morantz took a custody case of a woman newly recruited into Synanon.  She had a history of mental illness, and Synanon welcomed her thinking they could help, but it ended up negatively affecting her.  They had shaved her head, as was custom during this time for newly recruited women, and dragged her to another building hiding her behind locked doors.  The woman’s husband wanted her back and wrote letter to several politicians and Paul Morantz who responded to his cry for help.  This case is what helped Morantz to realize Synanon was operating under a drug rehabilitation and mental health facility without licenses.  This case ended with the man getting his wife back and suing for $300,000.  In 1978 congressman Herschel Rosenthal attempted to pass a bill in Marin County, which would give Synanon exemption from all health licensing laws regardless of the condition of the person taken in.  Morantz was approached by Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein to fight the bill.  The bill failed by one vote, most likely due to the opposition provided by Morantz.   

            In 1978 Morantz issued a report attacking Synanon for the profit Dederich gained from selling weapons.  It was also reported the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Synanon had purchased from 200,000-300,000 dollars in weapons. 

            The most famous part of Morant’s life was when the rattlesnake bit him.  The members of Synanon who had put it in his mailbox had removed the rattle so it would not be as obvious that a snake was hidden inside.  After being bitten, Morantz was rushed to the hospital and nearly died.  The two men who put the snake in the mailbox were Lance Kenton, and Joseph Musico, who both received jail time.  Dederich was sentenced to five years probation and was forced to give up his control of Synanon. 

            As I did research for the people Paul Morantz represented against Synanon, I found a list of people who were victims to the violence of Synanon.  Due to Dederich’s paranoia he often wondered if there were spies among his ranks, and one of the people who was beaten because of this was Tom Cardineau.  There was also several passages I found about a farmer named Gamboninni, who was attacked for helping children to escape Synanon and return to their parents, if they were not already a part of Synanon.  Ron Eidson, after a road skirmish, with Dr. Robson of Synanon and refusing Dr. Robson’s demand for apology, was pistol whipped and hospitalized while shotguns were held on his watching family. Paul Morantz and Ed Martin represented Eidson and his family in a civil suit.  Phil Ritter was an ex member, or splitee, who was beaten by two other and ended up in a coma for a week because of it.  Jack Hurst was a former Synanon president who spoke out against them once he had left the community, and one day he came home to find his door open, and his dog hung in the living room.

            It can be argued Paul Morantz is one of the main reasons Synanon eventually fell, but it was only a matter of time before someone rose up against them.  After reading over the Paul Morantz website multiple times, and seeing how he wrote and spoke about Synanon, I can only think Paul Morantz is not as moral as he attempts to portray himself as.  The language he uses makes it seem he was trying to hard to get everyone to support him.  For instance, after the rattlesnake incident, Morantz was quoted speaking about how he was thankful Dederich “was a cheap bastard” because if he wasn’t he would have just hired a real hitman.  Finally, Morantz dedicated his book about Synanon to Dederich, and if that isn’t some kind of flaunt I truly don’t know what is.  Morantz seems to me like someone who could have led a commune in another life with his charismatic words, strong leadership, and sense of self righteousness. 

Blog #3 On what I have gained from Synanon

Sitting here the reflecting on what I have learned this past semester, and I would say that the majority of my time was spent on this Synanon project, and I am glad that I have at least gained something substantial from it. I wasn't that interested in communes or cults before this class, and now that I've been exposed to it-- i'm really truly interested. I think its one thing to read and do research on a cult/commune, but to actually be engaged in the class and outside of the class in Synanon helped me really grow as researcher. 

I thought that Synanon wouldn't interest me at the slightest, but it was really interesting when I really dug into it. What I thought Synanon-- not even close. I thought it had the same outcome as Jonestown, and when I found out that it didn't-- it was a relief. Only because when our class was focusing on Jonestown and then we followed up with that documentary on Jonestown, it truly broke my heart because of the pain those people endured. It still makes me sick to my stomach even thinking about it-- I can't imagine learning that, that would be the last day I would see anyone I loved. 

I think once a person learns about the horrible things that went on within these two cults specifically, they can't feel anything but sympathy because it's so hard to put yourself in their shoes-- and I think it's actually really humbling. 

It's not everyday that you take a class on cults and communes specifically, and now that it's coming to an end, I think i've come out with the knowledge and wondering mind that I want to seek more information about different cults that are in midst. 

I think doing research on different cults, is not only giving us the knowledge of that specific cult but its also helping us understand people more. The more information we acquire, the more we can understand different religions, and cults. 

Blog #2

After reading all of the information on Synanon, and all that it consisted of. I was really looking for our guest speaker that was coming into our class to talk about her experience in Synanon. Being that she was born into the cult, she didn't really see life as anything but normal. That's all she knew, and that's what was the norm she was surrounded by. Synanon strongly believed in community families, which meant that when a baby was born-- they would be released to the community to be raised. All the children lived together from the earliest of six months, and were taught to take care of each other. It's one thing to read this information but it's completely different to listen someone telling their testimony, and the way she was shaped into the woman she is today. If you were to ask her how many brothers and sisters she has, she would show any hesitation in saying she has more than forty-- and that's because the children she grew up with may have not been blood but they were the closest thing she had to family. 

I was almost in tears hearing the trials she endured at such a young age, and knowing that she wasn't even scraping the surface-- that she must have censored some of the information she was telling us. But I would completely understand that. And I respect her for even sharing what she had, because I can't imagine enduring what she had. 

It put Synanon in a different perspective for me-- I wasn't sure what that looked like for myself, and what I thought overall of the cult. But after doing all the research and really getting to know all the information on Synanon, I honestly feel as if I know more than the average person. There are not very many people who are very aware of what Synanon is and what had taken place in this cult. Which I find so interesting because it was happening all around and in the news, and unless you were not one to pay attention to anything-- I guess that's how it would slide right over your head. 

I am still researching on Synanon, simply because I want to know more and more. 

Blog #1

   I did some research on the founder and his name was Charles Dederich. It was interesting to see how he grew up and that his family was not a good influence on the man he was becoming. He was quickly known for having a troubled childhood. Dederich didn't get stuck with the good end of the stick, and was known by his neighborhood as the bad kid on the block but that has a lot to do with the fact that he was from an un-loving family that didn't show him any attention. I wasn't surprised that he fell into his addiction of drinking at a young age. However, he was smart enough to realize that the way he was living his life was not healthy, and he needed to get help. 

     Dederich was labeled as the "alcohol tramp" and when he found out this information-- wanted to seek out help and found it in AA (alcoholic anonymous). It was stated that he was very vulnerable in these meetings and didn't show any shame in the fact that he needed help. He started sharing his story in AA, and sought out to help people within this group-- by helping others, he was helping himself. I found a very important quote from an article that I was researching from, “The rough eloquence that burst forth from him at meetings belied his intimidating appearance. He was insightful yet funny, philosophical yet colloquial, and, above all, he was brutally honest with both others and himself.” I think that speaks volumes of the man that Dederich was before he started going downhill. 

    After Dederich saw that he was excelling in AA, he wanted to start his own organization that was centered on speaking encouragement into people's lives, and people could live there and become clean. Dederich would provide different classes that would help people learn about their addiction. Their would also be a strict diet that would be making the people who resisted there to go cold turkey from whichever drug they chose. From all the research I've done thus far, it seems as if he started out with good intentions!

Alma Sandoval

Professor Delaporte

Religious Communes

April 24, 2016

Synanon

Although information found on Synanon was minimal at first, there was more research than I gave it credit for. As I explored the web, I was able to locate primary sources during Synanon’s reign by the FBI that cracked down from their very first suspicions as to who Synanon was to eventually finding exposed information about the wrongdoings of the organization and arresting the leader, Dedreich, for several crimes. It amazes me to see how successful Synanon was during its primal time and the amount of money they made, which was roughly about $10 million per year. With all this profit, he was able to open up more locations for his members that served as residential facilities. One was a location for pregnant women, another one was for children, another one for board members, etc. Synanon was a life that was rather joyful but also extremely terrifying, it was a place where rules were not meant to be broken but then were by their very own leader, a place where violence did not exist yet transformed into its very own violent cult, a place that provided help to those battling alcohol or drug addictions but then turned their backs on them. Synanon’s mission and objective eventually became hypocritical and it surprises me to see how long they were able to cover majority of what they did for a while. For example, hustling, beating not only men and women but children to if they ever decided to leave Synanon, forcing men to get vasectomies and some women abortions, monetary profits that directly went to Dedreich as he decided what to spend it next on, which seemed to be a mini armada of boats, weaponry and other items that could be incorporated to his military training on members. Its just shocking to see the significant transformation of an organization start out as positive and end in negative results. For many of these members, going through some of the harsh treatments was traumatic but if they dared to leave they were known for being a “splittee” and Dedreich never wanted to hear about or see that person ever again once they decided to leave Synanon. In a sense, he viewed it as not only insulting but disgraceful which only made his role and actions as a leader worse resulting into his arrest and then plea bargain to give up Synanon. His leadership is strongly comparable to that of Jim Jones, who at first was a positive religious movement and once all members became a community and moved away from home both did not want their members to have any contact to their friends and family. However, Jones’ role led to the mass suicide of over 900 people. Although they somewhat differentiate both start off as an organization that eventually becomes distorted with time and the interesting part is that a month after Paul Morantz’ rattlesnake attack, Jones declares upon his members a revolutionary suicide. Both organizations were portrayed in a bad light among media and tabloids, which exposed majority of the time why they were not your typical religious organization. Synanon only became a religious organization for tax purposes because of their selfish leader and Jonestown was actually a religious organization under the reign of a man who was and still is considered a maniac and murderer. 

Alma Sandoval

Professor Delaporte

Religious Communes

April 16, 2016

Guest Speaker Naomi & her life at Synanon

It was an honor and pleasure to have Naomi come speak in our class the other day. As each group continues to do scarce research on information about an organization that was popular in the 60’s, it was a lot more helpful to learn about the lifestyle and culture of Synanon by someone who personally lived it and was part of this group back when it was alive. Naomi shared with us pieces from the book she is writing about and my initial reaction was shock to see that she was at ease and in acceptance at what her childhood was like. In a world and surroundings she thought was normal was actually not whenever she got the chance to step outside the gates of Synanon to see her father. She never got to experience or hear about the prime era of the hippie movement, which was just a couple miles away from her. Essentially, she was disconnected from the world and didn’t really know about it until later on. Her entire excerpt was not only moving but it also gave me the chills to see a young child like her be put through the Game, which she described as just “downright horrible” . If she felt this way as a kid, I could only imagine every other kid that had to go through it. It created problems, mental and emotional distress, anger and insecurity. As she discusses the locations at which she stayed at with the other kids, I am able to identify the town near Marshall and afterwards the relocation to the Hatchery, which is also known as the Strip. The strip was better known for the location where they would have social gatherings, dances, training and participation in the Game. Considering many of the kids who grew up being a part of Synanon didn’t necessarily have a choice as whether or not to be in it, this angered a lot of young children as they felt neglected from their parents. Parents were 99% of the time away from them and dedicated their time towards Synanon’s growth and Dedreich, while the kids felt stuck in a place they didn’t want to be and unloved and unsupported by their own families. As a result, many kids would try running away but Naomi even discussed on how any kid that tried running away would eventually be caught, brought back and severely punished. Punishments were more than likely to be beatings. Naomi also mentioned she was one who tried running away but after several days was caught and found making it as far out in Laguna Beach; however, she never mentioned if she was beaten for it. After her reading, I realized how content and happy she is with her life now because something that made her different as a kid without getting a choice, does not define the person she is now. Even though Synanon strongly encouraged vasectomies for the men and ladies, she is still able to have that normal life today with children of her very own who she is extremely close to and has a deeper appreciation for music, culture and life. As she says it, she’s “making up for all the years and eras she missed out on” and as for the closeness with her family, she’s able to give her kids the experience she never really got with her own parents which is all a mother really wants for her children, to be able to give them a better life and opportunity. 

Alma Sandoval

Professor Delaporte

Religious Communes

April 3, 2016

Major Figures & Places 

Living in Los Angeles for majority of my life and being a constant visitor at Santa Monica Beach, I never visioned the building I passed by constantly to have been the historical home place for recovering drug addicts and the infamous cult that is Synanon. Charles Dedreich, a former alcoholic, wanted to help others fight their alcoholic or narcotic addiction. Since AA differentiated between those who used and were dependent on illegal drugs, Dedreich decided to incorporate what he learned from his meetings into his very own founded organization, Synanon. He wanted to respond to the needs of everyone and by doing so, his organization began a two year residential program where most of its members couldn’t necessarily graduate to living a full, healthy non-addicted life since he believed no one was able of being fully recovered. Synanon served as a drug rehabilitation center that required full commitment upon entering and once accepted, Dedreich automatically forced the quitting of drugs and didn’t necessarily allow his members to get in contact with family or friends. At first, Synanon was a place where people could get the recovery and support they needed in the way Dedreich believed worked best; however, since my group and I studied on the major figures and locations of Synanon, I found it fascinating to see the consistent relocating and migrating of Synanon and the evolution of a cult. What first started as a program for addicts slowly became an organization and religion for tax purposes. Dedreich noticed that the IRS started investigating and cracking down on who this ‘Church of Synanon' was and this was when Dedreich decided to move up North in a town called Marshall. Dedreich was constantly running away from trouble but kept his presence around all of his bay area facilities. Shortly after his wife’s death, Betty Dedreich, Charles’ behavior began to change. He began to get more violent, angry and broke his own rules. He began threatening outside sources who wanted to get an inside scoop on who Synanon was and as time progressed, Dedreich started accepting less addicts into Synanon since they were a “burden” and “waste of time”. Many of his members hustled for money which eventually exposed them in the article written by Cathy and David Mitchell, the Light on Synanon. This exposed everything occurring within the walls of Synanon and portrayed a negative light on the leader Charles Dedreich. What was his next move? Well, relocating of course. From Marin County, he then moved to Badger, California which was east of Fresno but shortly after made his way to Arizona where a small Synanon building was located. Eventually, he was arrested in Arizona while sitting down on a chair and drinking alcohol. It’s interesting to see a leader who at first wanted to better others fall back into his own ways and that’s the fascination of Synanon because the transition from being a helpful organization to a violent cult is so clear and evident by examples such as the rattle snake in Paul Morantzs’ mailbox, buying an armada of weapons, hustling for money and incorporating member military training. In conclusion, the reign of Synanon was over shortly after Dedreich’s arrest. 

Blog #2 Betty Dedrich and her influence on a Non-violent Synanon

Blog #2

            The founder of Synanon was, obviously, Charles Dederich, but the person who kept that man grounded was his wife Betty.  Betty Dederich first went to Synanon as a heroin addict.  In Synanon she met her future husband Charles, in 1959.  The couple did not get married until 1972, and made a family. 

            Betty Dederich held a high position of power in Synanon and often counseled Charles on important matters.  Her guidance was important to him and allowed Synanon to function smoothly.  Within Synanon they played The Game, which was a meeting where members would verbally abuse each other and point out their flaws in order to better that individual.  Betty Dederich was not against The Game, but she did create her own game called “Betty’s Game.”  This was the opposite of the original Game, and members would often pick a strong attribute someone had and build on that attribute positively. 

            Charles Dederich was also famous for being so progressive for his time when it came to race.  Betty was an African American woman, who he fell in love with, and many believe that is a large part, if not the main reason, he was able to be so ahead of his time when it came to racial equality.  Along with racial equality he was for equal treatment of the sexes. 

            In 1976 Betty was diagnosed with diabetes, which led Charles to make the executive decision to take all processed sugar out of Synanon food.  To save the health of the woman he loved he changed the diet of every one of his followers.  The news would not get better for Betty though.

            It was also during this time period that a group of younger members became known as the “Punk Squad.”  These members were known to be violent, and both Betty and Charles fought against them as they rebelled.  The young members would often be beaten so as to stop the violence they would create.  Betty wrote about the squad, “We’re beginning to find some creeps amongst the squares.”  So at this point in time, with Betty alive, Synanon remained against violence, and would actually punish members for being violent. 

            Just one year after finding out she had diabetes, Betty was also diagnosed with lung cancer.  After this diagnosis, Betty died in April of 1977, and Dederich found himself alone.  He immediately announced that he would accept applications from any women who wanted to marry him. Six applied and he eventually chose a thirty-one-year old. He was so delighted with the experiment that he ordered all married couples to take separation vows and pick a new mate every three years.  The woman whom he chose was named Ginny, and they remained married until Charles died of cardio respiratory failure in 1997. 

            After the death of Betty was when Synanon became violent, and outgoing in it’s efforts to fight those who opposed them.  Violence became a staple among Synanon members.  Many cases have come up in my research, but the worst may e that of Jack Hurst.  Jack Hurst was a former board member for the local newspaper, The Point Reyes Light, and when he spoke out against Synanon he came home to find his door open, and his guard dog hung in his living room. 

            It can also be argued that the violence began before Betty died, and that Charles was beginning to lose his mind before she passed away.  In 1973 there was an incident referred to now as the root beer incident.  While playing The Game, Dederich was repeatedly interrupted by a girl showing him little respect, and in retaliation he walked over to her and poured root beer over her head.  With Dederich breaking his own rules of The Game it may have become apparent to other members of Synanon that he was losing his way, or maybe just his touch. 

            Now it can also be argued he was dealing with the grief of Betty’s health, even in 1973.  With a hospital on the site of Synanon I find it hard to believe they would only catch her lung cancer a year before it advanced so far.  I may be playing devils advocate, but if I were Charles Dederich and I had found out about my wife’s sickness, it may be difficult to stay calm and not resort to violence when faced with opposition.  In no way am I condoning the actions of Synanon.

            Also during this time, in 1978, a group in Guyana may have participated in violence, assassinating a congressman, and initiating the largest mass suicide in history.  Jonestown as occurring at the same time, so it is obvious why the government may have begun to push Synanon even harder, supporting the fight against them with Paul Morantz, especially once their violent acts came into light with the local papers.  Within days, the police raided Synanon. Incriminating material was found, including a recording of Dederich’s “New Religious Posture.” Dederich himself was nowhere to be found, although he was later tracked down to a Synanon property in Arizona known as Lake Havasu.  When over thirty police officers burst into the house, they found the sixty-five-year-old Dederich sitting by himself in a stupor. In front of him was an empty bottle of whiskey.  Dederich was later convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. 

            I truly wish to have known more about Betty, but information on her scarce.  I also wish I could have seen how Synanon would have turned out if she had not passed away in 1977, but instead been able to council Charles on what to do with his group.

Blog #3 Jael

I really enjoyed listening to the women that spoke in class. It was really interesting hearing her experience at synanon as a child. I also found it helpful to hear her side of the events that happened and how she perceived all the craziness as a child. It was really neat hearing her say she was at certain events and experienced certain things  that I had read about in either the books or through my research.

She started talking about how crazy her life was yet to her it was all she had knew so it seemed so normal to her. Though all the craziness at synanon she used music to escape it all. Music was apart of her life from the beginning and listening to certain songs bring back many memories. She shares her memories through music because ever since she was young she was listening to her dad play. Her dad was a drummer in the Synanon band called the Sounds of Synanon. The sounds of Synanon was a very popular band that would perform at the parties and even the outside community would come to listen to them play. Music was her only sense of normal. As she was living in the dorms people would be getting screamed at so she would go to her room and put on headphones and would listen to a CD that they had. She would put it on replay and it helped her to escape from her reality and into another world. Without music it would have been very hard for her and music is till very important in her life today.

She lived in the resident dorms with all the children which were all very diverse. She mentions that the people that took care of the kids did not know what they were doing. The people that took care of the kids were ex cons and recovering drug addicts. They had never had kids of their own so they were not nourishing nor understanding of the kids needs which was not beneficial for the children. They ran the place like a military school. They had the kids march in a line and if the kids misbehaved the children were spanked. However, the children did have a lot of freedom from the adults. The adults were so preoccupied with the traditions of synanon and so involved in themselves and the other adults that they would forget about the kids. The kids would ride the horses and go deep into the hills and go exploring. They were left to themselves for a lot of the time unless one got into trouble and needed to be disciplined. For school they did not go every day but it would vary. There teachers  were college professors or people that were experienced in the field. At random times the teachers would decide they are going to teach so they would have an intense session for one week where they would learn and study for about fifteen hours a day.Then they would go another couple weeks with no school. They were still learning and she learned a lot especially because it was all hands on learning and that was easier for her to learn in that way. Everyone was very sheltered from what was going on in the world because they could not get much information on the radio.

She mentioned that synanon would come up with new crazy traditions and would give no explanation as to why they had to this. They had to start shaving their heads and everyone was bald. Randomly the leaders thought the synanon people were getting fat so they had everyone go on a weight program and were given hardly any food even the kids. She talked about how when Chuck told everyone they had to leave their married partner and find a new partner, it led to a crazy period and people started questioning Chuck. Even the children at sixteen had to get with a partner chosen from Chuck and marry them. The men and even the boys at sixteen had to get a sysectomine. I find this so cruel that they would have boys at only sixteen having to go through that. It seems so unreasonable and harsh. Her parents had been married for a long time so when chuck said they had to switch partners it caused a big scene. Her dad would not have it and told chuck he would not switch partners. Chuck did not budge and told her dad if you do not want to follow the rules then you can leave. So that is exactly what her dad did. He left Synanon and moved to Reno Nevada. Her mom obeyed Chuck and married the partner chuck had for her and they are still together today.

Her dad had tried to fight for custody for her but he could not win and only got visiting privileges  so she would go visit him every once in awhile and take the bus. It was a new experience being able to go outside synanon. In Reno she was always fidgety and on guard because she never been around “normal” people before. She felt more comfortable around ex cons, dope phenes and drug addicts because she had been around these people her whole life and didn't know anything else so she felt at ease with these kinds of people.Her dad would grow his own weed and he would smoke a lot. She then took about a pound of weed and hid it very well and took it back to synanon. She and her friends would get high without the adults ever finding out.

As synanon was transitioning and getting out of hand a lot of the kids realized they needed to find a way out. One of the only ways they would be able to leave is if they went to college so at seventeen she left to go Cabrillo Community college then later transferred to UC Davis. She hit the ground running and was experiencing everything she could to make up for lost time. She loved what she was doing and never stopped to reflect on her life and how she felt about everything she had gone through till way  later in her life. For a while she did not know what to think of her childhood because it had been so extreme. Being at synanon had taught her to be very independent and experience individuality. All of her peers from syanon grew up to be entrepreneurs that work for themselves and are all artists.

She is now a mom and has two kids. Before she had two kids she was afraid she would not have a maternal instinct  since her mom never did. But she saw that she does have maternal instinct. She raises her kids in a way so they can experience life and experience everything she could not as a child.

Hearing her story I am shocked at how normal she is. She does not sound bitter or resentful for having to be brought up in synanon. She seems to look at the positive side of what synanon taught her instead of dwelling on all of the negative things it brought. Usually children who have hard and rough childhood or grew up in extreme conditions like synanon have a very hard time as adults. She seemed like she was a very motivated individual. She was able to make it to UC davis which is a very good school without any real type of schooling except community college. This is an example of being able to accomplish anything as long as your mind is committed to do so. She didn't let her childhood stop her from experiencing life and I find it interesting that she never really reflected back on her life till much later. I think this was a coping mechanism because she probably wouldn't know what to make up of it as a college student.

Blog #1 Griffin, Dederich and his relationship to Chavez, as well as a comparison to Jim Jones

            Charles Dederich, the founder of Synanon had several key relationships with people outside of Synanon.  One of these people was Cesar Chavez.  Along with having a personal relationship with Chavez, Dederich can be compared to Jim Jones, the founder of Jonestown. 

            Cesar Chavez was born on March 31^st, 1927 and was a farm worker, and civil rights activist.  He was the founder of the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers union.  The reason Chavez began the UFW with Dolores Huerta was to fight for the rights and better treatment of Mexican laborers.  The UFW was located in the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California.  As time passed and Synanon began to grow Chavez quickly took notice, and during this period Synanon was still known as the best drug rehabilitation center, and was bringing in millions of dollars of gross revenue.  Chavez reached out to Dederich for advice and inspiration on how to grow his union and community into something as respectable as Synanon during this time.  One of the most important things Chavez took from Dederich is The Game.  Chavez utilized The Game as a way to strengthen bonds in the community and weed out spies attempting to bring down the union.    In the long run this caused the community suck into itself and become similar to the toxic Synanon, which did not allow people to leave, even when custody over those individuals was won.  When Dederich was being charged with conspiracy to commit murder, Chavez famously flew out to California to support Dederich.  Later on, when Synanon was a distant memory, Chavez came out and said establishing The Game as a key event in his community was a mistake because it only weakened membership relations.  First Chavez saw Dederich as a role model, but as time passed and something changed in Dederich, leading to the demise of Synanon, it appeared Chavez became reluctant he had supported Dederich in the first place.

            The lives of Charles Dederich and Jim Jones were very similar.  The childhood of Dederich was framed by the death of his siblings, and his alcoholism at a young age.  Dederich eventually found solace in Alcoholics Anonymous where he managed to become sober and founded Synanon’s values off of AA.  Similarly Jim Jones had a troubled childhood, and eventually separated his life using God.  Jones became charismatic and gained more religious knowledge, and a following grew behind him.  From the beginning Jonestown was considered a religious based community, but Synanon did not become religious based until 1974 when they filed to be tax exempt as a religious establishment.  One difference between the groups was the use of drugs.  While Synanon was founded on the basis of being a drug rehabilitation center, Jonestown utilized drugs as a religious experience, and maybe for other reasons Jones would use them to manipulate others.  While Dederich had his wife Betty who had a high position of power within Synanon, and often counseled Dederich on difficult matter, Jones was on the opposite spectrum.  Jones had no wife and was spoken about as someone to who use girls within his community.  During one of the films we watched in class we saw one woman speak about how Jones locked the door behind them and he began to sexually assault her, but she felt as if she could not cry out or go against him purely because of the power he held.  Similarly, there was the incident where the woman claimed she should be Jones’ wife, but when someone told her she had nothing to show and should expose herself to him right there, Jones simply nodded, agreeing with the mob, and allowing the woman to feel embarrassed naked in front of the crowd.  Both groups faced scrutiny by the media and handled it poorly.  When the media released a scathing report on Jonestown, and its “cult” culture, Jones became paranoid the government would come after him, so he moved his whole commune to Guyana.  When United States representative Ryan showed up in Guyana asking for information Jonestown was hospitable, but when Jones found out people were sneaking messages asking for help to escape to Ryan, he killed Ryan and other members of his crew as they began to board the plane to leave.  After murdering representative Ryan, the violence continued, as everyone in class is aware of the mass suicide, which killed over 900 people.  With Synanon violence was banned at first, but once Betty died Dederich began to resort to violence when a conflict arose.  When lawyer Paul Morantz took a case up against Synanon, he was quickly threatened, and eventually attacked when members snuck a rattlesnake into his mailbox, which bit him and nearly killed him.  Many cases of Synanon members using violence arose, such as Jack Hurst, who was a former president within Synanon, but spoke out against them and came home to find his door open and his dog hung in his living room.  These disgusting acts help correlate two communities together through violence, and two leaders who lost their minds with paranoia.  Jones was simply a man who became corrupt due to his overwhelming power while Dederich became mad when his wife Betty passed away and he was left alone with his thoughts.  It’s sad these two communities became shining examples of what cults and communes can become, scaring those around them, and threatening the lives of others.  

Blog #2 jael

I listened to an interview that was  recorded and it was of Chuck Dederich, Jr. which is chuck’s son. I enjoyed listening to this interview because I could see how Chuck Jr views his dad and I could see a perspective of Chuck through his son's eyes. Chuck Jr. did not speak ill of his dad at all and still had a lot of respect for him despite how his dad acted towards the end. Chuck Jr. talks about his experience of why he joined synanon, why he stayed when things got tough and some things that led to the downfall.

Chuck Jr. was working at a telephone company in 1957 when his dad Chuck went to alcoholics anonymous. Chuck described himself with having a character disorder. He was trying to come to terms with being an alcohol by going to the meetings. Chuck Jr. kept in touch with his dad and had gone to some AA meetings with him. When chuck  created synanon Jr.  felt that his dad  had finally found his calling and this  job was meant for him. Jr  saw that creating and running synanon kept chuck very busy and gave him something to do which helped give him a purpose in life and quite drinking.  Around  this time Jr was unemployed and thought it would be nice to have a place to live for free and he thought it would be nice to live with his dad since he had gone to the army he hadn't been around his dad in a while. As he was living in synanon he worked around synonnon for them which he enjoyed. JR also had a side business where he would help people move to make money. He also worked on the cars that  synanon had.

While Jr was working around synanon Chuck worked in his office all day. Chuck did a lot of 1 on 1 work with the drug addicts and became very close with the people in the beginning.  Jr noticed that his dad Chuck, knew how to tap into people's strengths. If chuck saw someone who liked photography he would make them take pictures and chuck would then hang this pictures all over his office and around synanon. If Chuck saw someone who could cook well and liked it he would make them a cook for synanon. I think since Chuck was good at giving people jobs they would enjoy and were good at, this helped the recovering addicts feel needed and gave them a sense of purpose for being in synanon.

Jr. stayed in synanon for some time then his dad convinced him to go to a  community college and get some kind of an education. When Jr.  came back  to synanon there were many different people. Some people had only passed third grade some were college educated. Jr. really liked the environment and the people around. Jr said he felt that got some important information from the seminars that his dad taught.  He appreciated the seminars and helped him throughout his life. Jr. said chuck was a great speaker and the seminars were very motivational.  His dad's philosophy was very helpful to everyone. People were coming in as a real mess and on drugs. This people were quitting cold turkey and could you already  see changes within just two weeks of them coming in to synanon.

Jr. talked about how he saw Synanon was changing in the early 1970s. They started calling groups called programs. And it started feeling more like a program then as a living situation. They called everything programs which was very different than what chuck had started. Once people had been there for awhile they did not want to associate with new people. That started to cause problems. They were not re educating the new people. They did not teach as many new skills to the new people and they were not making room for new people. Before in the beginning they would have a sales team that would go out and  travel to the other locations and they would spread the word about synanon. These sales teams would then teach a group of newcomers how to be a sales team. However, people stopped caring about the newcomers so no one taught them anything and soon there was no sales team. The leaders and people in charged stopped caring about the newcomers  which made a big difference in synanon.

As synanon started changing so did chuck. Jr tells a story that at one time chuck lost his patience and poured a can of rootbeer on a lady's head.  He soon apologized to her then later regretted saying he was sorry and told everyone he was not sorry for what he had done and said he could do whatever he wanted and flipped his table and walked out. He wanted the power and didn't want to feel threatened. Their was 100 people watching and this led to a very weird atmosphere in synanon.  

As synanon was starting its downfall people would come in and see what synanon was doing and they didn't like what they saw  so the people would throw rocks or yell at them and even would drive by and shoot at  some of the residents. Chuck Jr. said They would call the cops but the cops would not do anything to stop the people. So the synanon people started taking measures into their own hand. When they saw someone on their property they would get a group of guys and tell them to leave. One time outsiders were driving the kids off the road and almost hurt the children so people from synanon brought the outsiders back and shaved their head.  The police came by and charged the synanon people 6000 dollars for shaving their head. Now looking back Jr. realizes that led to some bad habits and opened doors to more of a physical war with the community for later on. It started the slippery slope.

People started making people stay when they wanted to leave and this led to many law suits. All the lawsuits were a big financial burden which led to the financial downfall.

Jr.  He continued to stay at synanon when things started getting rough. He had a family and kids and his dad was running the place. He didn't want to leave that. Jr.  liked the lifestyle he was living.  He liked living in the country and he liked the people at synanon. Everyone felt like family for to him and he could not just get up and leave that easy.He  had a lot of easy access to materials and had had a nice living space with his family.He enjoyed taking in the newcomers and helping them out and helping them learn the synanon traditions. He saw that people were forgetting about the new comers so he thought he needed to also stay to help the newcomers out.

Another thing that led to the downfall was in 1977 chuck started drinking again which was when bettie died. When bettie died chuck could not handle it and fell off the rope and started drinking. People had told him to take a year break and settle down but he was very emotional and couldn't stay still. He lost focus and stopped seeing a clear vision for synanon.  Jr finally realized his dad was not in his right mind. Chuck had bipolar disorder and relapsed by drinking a lot.

I thought it interesting that Chuck Jr. felt like he belonged in synanon even though he never had a drug problem. Synanon gave Jr. a direction in life and helped him get started. Jr. met many people that he still considers family.

http://synanonarchivecollection.com/synanonarchivecollection/Former_Residents_and_Friends_Tell_Their_Stories.html

 

Blog #1 jael

I listened to an interview that was recorded. The interview was with Dian Law. She had worked with Chuck and his wife  during her time at synanon. She first came to Synanon in April of 1964 and was their for 26 years. She was around for the three phases of synanon. The First phase was when Synanon was truly to help drug addicts. She was a heroin addict when she first got there and desperately wanted to get help. She was looking for a way out because she thought she was going to die or end up in jail if she did not get her life together. She was also a call girl and did not have resources to live on her own and she never developed household skills needed. She was constantly scared and just needed a way out and a timeout. When she heard of synanon she went without any hesitation because at that time there were no other facilities that actually worked to help heroin addicts quit for good.

 Synanon provided her a safe environment where she could catch her breath. Synanon provided her a life where they taught her important skills. They had taught her how to cook, clean, wash clothes, make a bed, drive and how to run an office. She loved learning new skills and was fascinated with all the new things she was learning. She had many chores and loved to do them. A lot of the men she meant were respectful and treated her very respectfully. The men did not treat her as a dumb blond and a girl used for sex like she was used to be getting treated as. The men treated her a human being and saw her as a women. She felt like she had a place and could be seen and heard. Dian grew up in a neighborhood of jewish people and that was all she was used to seeing. When she came to Synanon it was a fascinating experience for her to see the different people and  cultures. She loved seeing the different ways people talked and what they celebrated. It gave her a new point of view and experience. I personally think Synanon gave Dian and many others a purpose in life during the first phase of synanon which helped with their drug problems. Most people using drugs feel alone in the world with no purpose and no sense of support. Synanon give them a schedule and a list of  chores that they needed to complete to help synanon stay clean and running. This gave them a sense of purpose and kept them busy during the day so their minds did not have to wonder back to the feelings of drugs.  It also seems like Synanon made them feel safe and protected which helped them bring their guard down and they had a sense of a support group. They felt loved and wanted and started to feel less insecure

When chuck started working at Northridge College things started to change and that is when the second phase of synanon started to develop. Traditions started to change and people started to get more educated. Reading books was encouraged and talking about your beliefs were happening more often at meal times. As chuck was a teacher he would talk to his classes about synanon and that open the doors to the outside community. Many college kids would come to visit and would participate in some of the games and the events. Soon after the college kids started coming the faculty of the school start coming to check it out. This led to more interaction with outsiders and they got to communicate and interact with the community around them. This led to more and more non drug users joining synanon. Soon people that had never used drugs before  were joining synanon. This led synanon to become more  of a social movement. There were also new facilities developing that people could go to get help for drugs  addictions so synanon had less people needing help with drugs. I think people get bored of society and the same rules that when they see a different group of people living their lives with different rules they become intrigued with the lifestyle and that is why synanon was the talk of the community and people were joining. Also some of the people just needed a helping hand and synanon could provide that.   

As Dian worked her way up she became head of one of the offices and that is where she was able to work with Chuck, Bettye, and Miriam.  She said that she felt chuck knew her really well and felt comfortable around him. In the beginning he would stand up for sometimes at the games. Dian started working for Miriam  and thought the world her. She thought Miriam was very smart and sophisticated. Miriam could get in touch with people and was able to help them. Miram taught Dian a lot of important skills and treated her like an equal. Miram made a group called The Magic Theater where they would discuss books and talk. Outsiders even joined the group. Miriam was a great friend to Dian and Dian appreciated what Miriam taught her.  

  Listening to Dian and her experience she definitely would have been in a bad place without synanon. Synanon helped give her a sense of direction and became her family since she did not have anyone else. Synanon helped her with her drug addictions and also helped her gain the skills she needed to live in the real world. She had stayed with Synanon for 26 years so she seemed to really like the structure synanon offered her. She soon began to work for them higher up which she really enjoyed.

http://synanonarchivecollection.com/synanonarchivecollection/Former_Residents_and_Friends_Tell_Their_Stories.html