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.