The frontman for The Airborne Toxic Event explores what it was like to heal — and raise children—after he escaped the violent Synanon cult
is a powerful memoir about one man's journey after he escapes a violent cult as a child.
First touted as a rehabilitation center for addicts when it was founded in 1958, Synanon helped thousands get sober and amassed $30 million or more in assets. But, in the late '70s, the California-based organization became synonymous with violence. "Our parents weren't bad people, they didn't choose to turn their children into orphans. They didn't know," he says. "Whose fault is it? I don't know. Maybe it's the leader's fault. Maybe it's one of the things about human nature, that isolated power corrupts people. The leader, Chuck Dederich, decided we wouldn't have parents, and then we just didn't.
"At that age, my response was to become the super kid. It was like, 'Nothing ever gets to me. I'm going to rise up above all this kind of stuff, and I'm going to take care of everyone. I'm going to get up at 5:00, I'm going to feed the rabbits, I'm going to make myself breakfast, I'm going to make myself lunch, I'm going to walk to school.
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