01x02 - A w*r on Convention

[bunniefuu]

- [room chatter]
- [hair clippers buzzing]

[inaudible laugh]

[quiet folk music playing]

Judi Ehrlich:
I was 18,

and I had just moved
into Synanon.

I was a youngster who was
very caught up in her image,

so I hated shaving my head.

My hair was definitely
my crowning glory,

and at Beverly Hills High,

when you have long,
beautiful hair,

you know, that's the thing.

I mean, I didn't have
the greatest clothes,

I wasn't from
the wealthiest family,

but, damn, I had the hair.

[soft music playing]

I called my parents
right after head shaving,

and they said, um,

"So we heard about this thing
that happened there.

That, you know, where everybody
shaved their head."

And they're like, "But we know
you didn't do that."

And I [laughs] was quiet,
and they were like,

"Did you do that?"
I said, "Yeah."

[jazz music playing]

And that's when they knew.
It was like,

as far as they were concerned,
that was, I was in a cult.

- [projector flickering]
- [unsettling tone playing]

- [muffled shriek]
- [tone fades out]

[gentle splashing]

[seagulls cawing]

["Psychotic Reaction"
by Count Five playing]

♪♪

[quiet chatter]

♪♪

My mother learned about
the Synanon Game

and started investigating it,
I think, as a way

to fix their marriage,

and, initially, they loved it.

Basically, I was
an anti-social girl

and a very shy girl.

[room chatter]

I loved Synanon
because it enabled me

to really connect
with other people.

And the next thing I knew,
I was sorta hooked on it.

[song continues]

When I first joined up,

Synanon was
a few different things.

It started to help people
with dr*gs and alcohol problems.

And then other people,

non-addicts,
started getting involved.

They were called Lifestylers,

and it sort of turned
into a social movement.

[song continues]

[bus horn honking]

[crowd cheering]

Chuck Dederich:
This is definitely the end

of one era
and the beginning of another.

[applause]

In the past, Synanon
attracted the attention

of a bunch of
rather confused people.

And got them all somehow
to gather under one banner.

[muffled chatter]

Some of the people
who were part of this

are no longer with us.

[gentle splashing]

But we will continue to expand,

do our work better,

have better tools,
buildings, and everything else

to give as many people
as possible

an opportunity to change
for the better.

♪♪

Bob Navarro:
For me, Synanon was the place.

I felt like, at the age of 25,

I was already a failure
at the business of life.

I was just really so...

shriveled up inside.

Synanon, when I got there,

it was just filled with people.

I mean, I'd never been around

any situation like that before.

The doors were completely open
to the public.

Anybody could walk in.

The atmosphere was
really pretty electric,

if you like being
around a lot of people

and talking.

It was radical.
It was experimental.

[curious music playing]

Rod Mullen:
At Synanon, there was this...

willingness to experiment,

and this search
for real meaning.

I think Chuck,
like most charismatic leaders,

would be characterized
as grandiose.

So, he developed this idea
of building a city.

[swing music playing]

We're gonna build this city
in Tomales Bay,

and we're going to live in a way

which is a model for how people
could live in this country,

you know, for how societies
should be run.

Narrator: In 1970,
we acquired a sprawling,

beautiful ranch in Tomales Bay,

which is about 80 miles north of

the Oakland, San Francisco area.

Terry Hurst: When Chuck
decided to buy land in Tomales Bay,

we got up there
and turned it into a facility.

[swing music continues]

Rod:
Synanon had a real farm,

you know, raising cattle

- [laughs] and then sheep.
- [bleating]

Synanon built its own
wastewater system.

I mean, it really became
a self-sustaining community.

[clapping, cheering]

At the time in America,

there were lots of little
living experiments,

all over the place.

Mike Gimbel: You saw a lot of
this communal stuff happening,

and Synanon [sighs]...

was living better,

had more money, more resources.

We were growing very,
very, very quickly.

[horses galloping, whinnying]

Chuck: We wanna provide
an aesthetically pleasing,

a psychologically pleasing,

a philosophically
pleasing, uh, place

in which people can dwell.

[indistinct chatter]

What am I describing?

- Paradise?
- [breeze blowing]

[gentle splashing]

Mike: Chuck and
Betty moved up there.

Wherever Chuck and Betty lived,

that was the home place.

If you were up where Chuck was,

you were like on sacred ground.

[dining room chatter]

Phil Bourdette: Living in Synanon,
I would get up in the morning

and go to the dining room,

have breakfast
and pack my lunch,

and go to work in court

because I lived in Synanon

and worked in
the public defender's office.

- [soft music playing]
- And then eventually,

more and more of the Lifestylers

started working within Synanon.

[rumbling]

And working outside of
Synanon was totally phased out.

[indistinct chatter]

Ron Cook:
When you were in Synanon,

we had something
called "containment."

So, the notion was
don't run outside of Synanon

and waste your energy.

Do whatever you're gonna do
inside of Synanon

and the whole community
can benefit.

♪♪

Rod:
Chuck had a philosophy.

"Let's put all of our energy
into creating

this community to its best
and highest level."

Chuck:
We need muscles in Synanon.

We need moral muscles,

social muscles,
political muscles,

emotional muscles,
and physical muscles.

We are a self-supporting
organization.

We must produce at all times.

Phil Bourdette:
Synanon had properties

[sighs] throughout
the United States.

There were Santa Monica,
San Francisco.

In Marin County,
there were three facilities.

We owned property in
New York and other places.

And they were all
basically run the same.

They were all run
as communities.

Norm Johnson: Synanon
was able to grow quickly.

And I think Synanon
changed, um...

somewhat to the better,
somewhat for the worse

as a result of Lifestylers
like me moving in.

But I think Chuck
had such an iron hand

on that organization

that most of the changes were
driven by changes in Chuck.

Chuck became preoccupied

with having everybody hear

every word that he uttered.

Chuck [on radio]:
I suppose this is a rebirth...

[scrubbing, radio static]

Individual Singers:
♪ W... I... R... E... ♪

- Quartet: ♪ Wire ♪
- [beeping]

Elena Broslovsky: The Wire
was an internal radio network

that connected
every facility in Synanon.

Quartet: ♪ It's a communications
tool that also entertains ♪

♪ 88FM is where
my dial will remain! ♪

Elena: There were
these little boxes

that were all over the place
that you could turn on.

Get the news, listen to Games.

You had 24-hour connection
with every facility.

- [beeping] - You could hear what
was happening in Santa Monica.

- [wire chatter] - You could
hear what was happening

in San Francisco house.

We had Marin County,
we had Oakland,

San Diego, Detroit.

Chuck:
The parts of this organization

are so far apart.

Now, we have an instantaneous

speed-of-light communication

both ways,
operated all the time!

[indistinct chatter]

Mike: The Wire really
allowed Chuck to be

everywhere all the time.

Chuck: Synanon has
an investment in you,

and you have
an investment in Synanon.

Mike:


it was Chuck
either playing the Game,

giving a seminar,

even his table
where he ate his meals

had a microphone
in the middle of it.

Chuck:
If we examine ourselves,

we, we can actualize ourselves.

Everything he said was taped,

and he would just
bring up various topics.

Part of my job was to listen
to those tapes,

make excerpts,
and play them later on.

Chuck: Everybody on
the outside, that I know of,

lives under a whole flock
of dictatorships.

The man's being
dictated to by his...

Mike:
The way Chuck worked,

he would be talking, you know,

and as he would talk,
ideas would come out.

And then, he started slowly

mandating behavior
throughout Synanon.

♪ Where do they go ♪

["Smoke Rings"
by Sam Cooke playing]

♪ Smoke rings I blow ♪

♪ Each night ♪

Synanon was founded
on non-v*olence,

no use of dr*gs or alcohol.

It was also founded on

free cigarettes.

♪ Puff ♪

♪ Puff, puff ♪

♪ Oh, you can puff
your cares away ♪

Chuck: I've been a compulsive
smoker since I was 15 years old.

Probably three packages a day.

A doctor scared me into thinking

that I had fatal emphysema,

and, uh, I quit smoking.

And I raised so much
hell about it,

that everybody quit smoking.

Bill Goodson: It's an interesting
thing how Synanon seemed

to always be a mirror

of what was happening
in Chuck's life.

In the early stages of Synanon,

he was fighting to stay clean.

So, that's what Synanon did.

[soft music playing]

And then later on,

he needed to stop smoking,
all of Synanon stopped smoking.

[Chuck speaking indistinctly]

Mike:
Everything up to this point

was you bought into the concept,

and, you know, you got into it.

This is the first time
that he really...

It really felt like you
had to do something.

Judi: When the edict
came down for no smoking,

my parents ended up
leaving shortly after.

They were both smokers,
and that pissed them off

because they did not really
like being told what to do.

But, try as they might to
get me out, they could not.

And then after that,
I just didn't talk to them

for a couple of years. [laughs]

I just had nothing to
do with them at all.

Mike: Chuck was
challenging people,

and if you don't like it,

you can leave.

And then, he said the people
that stayed were stronger,

more committed to Synanon.

That was the deal.
That's how it worked.

You know hundreds of people left
Synanon when we quit smoking.

That was probably
the first big exodus

with that first edict.

Some people said,
"Well, I'm not doing that.

I'm leaving," you know?

And then, other people didn't.

And then, a lot of people
moved in after.

- [birds chirping]
- [quiet chatter]

People had children
who were in Synanon,

people who were
moving in with children.

So, just like any family,

it was this continuum
of raising children.

- [birds chirping]
- [bike rattling]

Synanon Member: Okay, who
knows how to hop like a kangaroo?

- [kids chattering]
- You do? Okay, everybody...

[indistinct]

Miriam Bourdette: My mother,
who was a nursery school director,

decided to talk to Betty
and suggested

that we do what they do on,

or did,
on the kibbutzim in Israel.

House the children
separately from their parents,

and have caretakers
looking after them.

- [kids chattering]
- [soft music playing]

Chuck: We know it's a
better way to raise children.

The nuclear family way
of raising children

doesn't test the child's brain!

There's not enough input.

Kids would grow up
around 30 or 40 adults

instead of two, Mama and Papa.

Talk better, run better,
are much smarter.

♪♪

[kids chattering]

Synanon Member:
The object of the hikes is

it's a real way for us to teach

how to, uh, use this
land around here.

[chatter continues]

It was an alternative
experiment.

It was an effort to
do something better.

To give all of our kids

a better experience
than we had had.

[birds chirping]

Synanon Member:
Look at the bunny rabbit.

Look at the bunny rabbit
up on the hill.

Child:
A rabbit's in there?

Synanon Member:
That's a rabbit in there.

Jady Dederich Montgomery:
By 1971,

it had been decided

that the kids should go
into the school at 7 months,

so that they wouldn't
attach to the parents,

and then therefore,
wouldn't experience

separation trauma when they
went into the school later.

The father of my children
was Bill Crawford,

my first husband.

We had two kids,
including Rebekah.

Rebekah Crawford: Both of
my parents were in Synanon

when I was born,

you know, ex-dope fiends.

So I lived with them
for six months,

and then,
when I was 6 months old,

I moved into the hatchery,

which is where the babies
were moved into.

- [babies crying]
- Miriam: All the cribs

were put in the bedrooms,

and their parents
did not live in the house.

[gentle music playing]

They were welcome to visit,

take their kids out
for an outing.

Elena: We took care
of each other's children.

So we nursed
each other's children,

and we gave each other time off.

Now, for me, I was
breast-feeding my baby,

and my friends' babies

and it was not odd
for me at all.

It was completely natural.

It was completely joyful.

[baby crying]

The looking into
the eye of an infant

who has just come into the world

and is getting nourishment
directly from your body.

It was a very, uh, for me,

wonderful experience
to nurse a lot of children.

[baby fussing]

We were supposed to be
the community's children,

and we were supposed
to be the future.

[kids chattering]

Rebekah:
I think that my mother,

she thought she was giving me
the best possible

life that she could give me.

Which was by not
being my parent.

And she might've been right.

[indistinct]

I don't think my mom is,

or was, a very maternal person.

I don't know
if I could've handled it,

and because I... [laughs]

I don't know that
I'm fit to be a mother

of two infant toddlers at once.

[gentle music playing]

This is...
this is a picture of my dad

with Leida, my daughter.

The truth was that she was
not the priority in my life.

Day to day.

That Synanon was the priority,
day to day.

I was the founder's daughter.

So I had to, had to be
at the front of the pack

with the latest...

you know,
the latest w*r on convention.

[swing music playing]

[swing music ends]

Bob: Chuck, you
know, he was a thinker.

And he had

a very sort of
aggrandized sense of himself.

He sort of got bored with
the rehabilitation program.

I think we went into the period

of the institute of social
experiments at that point.

Chuck: This community is
now consciously, and by design,

conducting all kinds
of different living experiments

that will enhance
the human experience.

[quiet chatter]

Bob:
Part of the experimentation

was to go into longer Games.

The Stew was a form of game
that was continuous.

Oh, the Stew.

It didn't have an end
and a beginning.

It would have different people
scheduled in

at different times.
So, it was a lot of gaming...

Oh, it also had a gallery
so people could watch,

and people could tap in

if they had something
to say to somebody.

[indistinct chatter]

Bob: Sometimes when
I'd come home at night,

I'd go up to the Stew Room
and just sit there.

And you got to hear them talk.

Stew player: And they
don't see that in you, Jack!

Bob: We were like carrots
and peas and-and potatoes

thrown into this thing

that was bubbling
on the stove for 24 hours.

[Stew chatter]

We tried the 24-hour sessions,
and they were, they were good.

But we felt there was more.

So from that, we started
to develop the Trip.

[dramatic mystical
music playing]

Phil Ritter:
The original idea of the Trip

was based on Chuck's
prior experience with LSD.

A couple of professors
and researchers at UCLA

were conducting LSD studies.

Chuck:
August 26th, 1957.

I was given some LSD.

Something began to well up
and boil up in me.

- [baby crying]
- There was a curtain sh*t back.

[bees buzzing]

Things became
exquisitely important

and exquisitely unimportant
at the same time.

Rod: Chuck attributed a lot
of his vision about Synanon

from his LSD trip.

So these intensive workshops,
which were called "the Trip,"

were really kind of a...

let's-let's do it without dr*gs.

[indistinct chatter]

On the Trips,
there was lots of deep...

intrapersonal stuff that
happened and came up.

I was 17, and my first Trip

just opened me up.

It was an encounter with my dad.

I never really knew
if he liked me,

you know, or loved me
or anything.

He wasn't demonstrative
in certain ways.

I was living at
the Santa Monica facility.

And there were
these Trips every weekend.

Every weekend,
there were a hundred people

going through these experiences
in the building there.

And there I was, you know?

[soft music playing]

Elena: The Trip was a
three-day guided experience.

All of your makeup comes off.
All of your jewelry comes off.

[indistinct chatter]

You change into a white robe,

and you go into a room.

And the hierarchy of the Trip

was there were shepherds,
and there were guides.

[clapping]

And Chuck put me in charge
as the Trip Conductor.

It was built around

trying to get people to have
deep insight into themselves.

♪♪

[indistinct yelling]

It started out with
Compression Gaming.

[yelling continues]

Very angry,
very aggressive in your face.

[indistinct]

"You're a f*ck-up,
you're lying."

To soften up the subject.

Why don't you let me talk?!

f*cking bad rap!

Terry: So for four hours
they had confrontive therapy

- through the Game.
- [whistle blowing]

- [applause]
- [friendly chatter]

After that, they were laid out,

and I put them in
an alpha state.

- [quiet chatter]
- [soft music playing]

You either didn't sleep,

or you slept
for a few minutes, or...

Your time was broken up
in different, in different ways.

But it was difficult. [sighs]

Staying up for those three days
was really, really hard.

[quiet chatter]

It was a way to really
get into people's psyches.

Chuck: The biggest
tool we have is fatigue.

The toxic effect of fatigue!

It distorts the way
they look at themselves.

Then, you can make
the person believe anything.

[foreboding music playing]

Miriam: And then, the
guide would start drawing out

the painful parts of their life,

most of which they had
never talked about.

[whooshing]

We had Holocaust survivors.

They still had dreams and fears.

Judi:
Experiences in Vietnam.

k*lling people,
seeing people die.

Phil Ritter:
Injecting their partners

and having them die
of an overdose.

Terry:
The most startling confession

was one of the drug addicts said

that he threw a baby
in a trash can.

[music stops]

In a dumpster.

[sniffles]

[indistinct chatter]

And I remember him saying,
"I can't live with this."

[soft crying]

For somebody to be that
disturbed by what they did,

even if they were using,
even if they were high,

it had to be horrible
and traumatic.

Practically everybody in the
group got up and hugged him.

[soft music playing]

They forgave him.

♪♪

At the end of the Trip,

people were tired and hungry
and, you know, very emotional.

- [crying]
- Elena: Everybody goes down

to the one room
where the band is playing.

[cheering]

Everybody's hugging each other

and lifting each other up
and thanking each other.

[music gradually builds]

Jady: I remember
coming down from the Trip.

We'd been up for days.

- [clapping]
- I was just a kid

in this emotional soup.

[inaudible]

I turned around.
I looked at my dad.

You know,
Betty was sitting there,

and I ran over to him.

[inaudible]

I just remember, you know,
falling into his arms,

and him, you know,
holding me and...

telling me that he loved me,

you know,
which he had never said.

- [calm music playing]
- [indistinct chatter]

[inaudible]

You know, so many people are
just crushingly lonely,

and don't have community.

[inaudible]

It was tribal.

And it was such a deep comfort.

There was this love.

And this need for connection.

[gentle crescendo]

- [gentle splashing]
- [music fades out]

- [kids chattering, laughing]
- [seagulls cawing]

Lance Kenton: Synanon
was the single greatest place

you could grow up as a kid.

I went into Synanon
when I was 11 years old.

- [jazz music playing]
- My father was Stan Kenton,

and he was one
of the first to begin

playing concert forums
with jazz.

[jazz continues]

Being on the road


♪♪

My father decided
to enroll me in Synanon.

To live there.

Instructor:
One, two, three.

Lance: I would see him maybe
sometimes twice a month,

but infrequent. My mother
didn't come very much at all.

Basically, you treated
every single person there

like they were in your family.

[chattering]

My kids moved into the school,

and I started working
at the school.

I didn't really have
any other skills

that were... You know, I wasn't
like a carpenter or a lawyer,

or anything like that.

Uh, so that was kind
of my assignment.

The academic structure

vacillated and changed,

and sometimes, it was very...

rigid and focused...

Well, I...
Wait, let me just stop.

It was never really
rigid and focused.

It was always, um, experimental.

- [curious music playing]
- [school chatter]

[all exhale]

[indistinct chatter]

Lance:
The school's philosophy was

let a kid decide
what he wants to learn,

and let him go in and play with
whatever it is he wants to do.

♪♪

I mean, we didn't have homework.
We weren't really studying.

You know, at that point,
we were self-teaching.

Bill: They would, like, put us
in front of typewriters and go,

"Free expression, just...
[sighs]

Just let it go." And so,
we would just... [laughs]

[inaudible]

And then, we had things
like "reaches and searches,"

which were very avant-garde
learning sessions

that would go on for hours

where you would
search out things

like "How does chalk stay
on a blackboard?"

[inaudible]

They used to test us,

you know, every now and then.
Like the same tests

that all the high sc...
all-all kids in America take.

♪♪

Rod: The study is,
is a-a comparative study

of Synanon versus
non-Synanon children.

I think the graph
speaks for itself. [laughs]

The Synanon kids

exceeded the comparison group
on every measure,

including having IQ points


It's one of the most interesting
things that occurred in Synanon.

- [seagulls cawing]
- [curious music playing]

[gentle splashing]

Mike: I was in
the Santa Monica facility.

I find out that I was selected

to go to Tomales Bay, at that
facility where Chuck was.

[waves splashing]

Ron Cook gave me the job
that I'd be working

for the board of directors.

The board members,
some of them were

Chuck's brother,

his son, his daughter.

And then, they would bring
in a couple outsiders.

People that either
gave their businesses

or held executive positions.

And I was to make sure
they were all taken care of.

We got on the Synanon bus,
and we drive up,

and one of the girls
that was taking us,

her name was
Stephanie Andreucci.

And she was a tough cookie, too,

because she came from Detroit,

and her father was
in the Hell's Angels.

At Synanon, she was the chef.

And so, Stephanie would cook,
and I would help.

We were around each other
all the time.

We had built
a really good friendship,

and we were really,
really close.

And then one day,

we were doing the lunch,
cleaning up, pulling the stuff,

and Chuck and Ron Cook,

you know, were looking at us,

and-and Chuck said, "You know?

The two of you are
very good for Synanon."

Three days later,
we were married. [laughs]

♪♪

I mean, it was wonderful.

I was in love.

- [birds chirping]
- [motorcycles rumbling]

We both had motorcycles,

just like everybody else
at Synanon,

so Stephanie and I would take
our motorcycles out together.

And we really were
a good team together.

For me, and for her,

it was the first relationship
we ever had...

without dr*gs.

[leaves rustling]

I think we really enjoyed it.

- [splashing]
- [indistinct chatter]

Judi:
When you hear about communes

and social experiments,

you hear about, you know,
a lot of free-floating sex.

[birds chirping]

That didn't happen
at all at Synanon.

People were not expected to
just flit from one relationship

to another.
That was frowned upon.

Mike: In Synanon,
if you had a girlfriend,

you couldn't shack up.

You couldn't live together.

Only until you were married.

If you wanted to have sex,

they had a special place
called the Guest Room.

And it had a book, and you had
to make an appointment. [laughs]

♪♪

Elena: One of my jobs
when I-I first came in

was somebody gave me
the Guest Room book,

and couples would
have to come to me

to book the Guest Room.

And it would be a lovely room.

Usually, the woman would go
and set it up

with pretty sheets
and flowers and candles

and incense and music,

and you would have it
for the night.

And you'd be
walking down the hallway,

and everybody would be seeing
you walking down and says,

"Oh, I know where
they're headed," you know.

Mortified, absolutely mortified.

♪♪

Elena: At one time,
people were encouraged

to have sex as much as possible.

And literally,
there was a chart,

like in an organization
that is marking people's sales.

Every time the couple had sex,
they put a star on the chart.

♪♪

Jady: At Synanon, there
was so much beauty and love

and learning and relationships
being built.

And my dad and Betty,
they were a model.

He loved her, and she loved him.

Synanon was totally woven
into their love

and their relationship
because they were this team.

- [gentle music playing]
- [inaudible]

♪♪

Rod:
Betty was deeply grounded.

Chuck is one of
those kinds of people

who have enormous energy,
but is very unstable.

Betty was the opposite.

He was the businessman,

the hard hitter
and everything like that.

Chuck: I'm not talking
about anything else! I'm not...

Ron: If she thought Chuck
was a little over the board

in a Synanon Game,
saying something to somebody,

'cause he had a lot of power,

she'd go around the next day
and pick up the person,

take 'em out to lunch

and bring 'em back
into the family.

[quiet chatter]

♪♪

Betty Dederich:
My job has always been

one of an integrating force,
I think.

[inaudible]

And I would like to somehow use
the power invested in me,

backed up against
the Chuck Dederich maleness,

to meld Synanon together...

[inaudible]

...to keep an idea
and a principle alive.

- [applause]
- [crowd cheering]

Elena: Betty orchestrated
group marriages,

meaning that we all got married
at the same time.

[funky music playing]

[inaudible]

She orchestrated it
like a theatrical event.

One had a ranch theme.

What we have out here today are
a little more than 2,000 people,


to get married,

and the story is the fact
that the community decided

to make this a people event,
a community event.

[meat sizzling]

Officiant: Perhaps what
we are signifying here today

is really the death
of the nuclear marriage,

and the real affirmation
of the kind of marriage

which will bring to you
far more meaning, and beauty.

[applause]

Elena: The idea is to celebrate
our marriage to each other,

our marriage to the community,

and just celebrating commitment.

[applause]

I thought it was beautiful.

- [waves crashing]
- [seagulls cawing]

["Oh, What A Feeling"
by Crowbar playing]

♪♪

[applause]

♪ Oh ♪

♪ What a feeling ♪

- ♪ What a life ♪
- Mike: At that point,

Synanon was a golden child
of the world.

Here's this group, no v*olence,

no dr*gs, no smoking,

living a good,
healthy lifestyle.

More and more Lifestylers
moved in.

♪ We got the feeling ♪

You know, they gave
a lot to Synanon.

They gave their businesses,
their skills.

We had TV crews
from all over the world

coming to study
what we were doing.

[speaking French]

♪ Oh, what a feeling ♪

♪ Ba... ♪

Mike: You know, we lived in
this little bubble of Synanon,

but it just seemed like
the media loved the place.

Elena: What a great place.
What great people.

What good hearts.

We were the darling
of the media,

and then, oops.
They hate us.

[song stops]

Ron: The "San Francisco
Examiner" came out with an article.

"Synanon,
'Racket Of the Century.'"

[somber music playing]

The "Examiner" had written,
you know, a terrible article.

It was libelous
because it wasn't true.

Phil Bourdette:
You know, it hurt Chuck.

His feelings,
that these terrible things

were being said
about him and his...

the organization
that he started.

You think about a narcissist,

you think about somebody
who has that kind of power

and people love him so much.

No one had questioned
him for years

and years and years and years.

And then all of a sudden,
there's a story that says

you're not what you say you are.

He got pissed off.

♪♪

Phil Bourdette: We all
had our various jobs to do.

Mine was in, in the legal stuff.

You know, I had an obligation

as a lawyer to pursue them.

Judi: The whole concept in the
"San Francisco Examiner" story

was we were not
helping drug addicts.

We were not doing anything good.

But we felt like
we were doing good things.

[breeze blowing]

We were helping people
get off dr*gs and alcohol.

We were donating our extra food.

We were, you know, doing
whatever we could, really,

to help the community at large.

Chuck decided that
we needed to file a libel case

against
the "San Francisco Examiner."

Reporter: The "San Francisco
Examiner" was accused

of maliciously defaming
Synanon by stating

or insinuating
that Synanon obtained

millions of dollars
under false pretenses,

utilized false accounting,

provided a zombie-like existence

for fugitives from reality,
and was no longer engaged

in drug addict rehabilitation.

[somber music playing]

Phil Bourdette:
We filed our lawsuit.

The Hearst Corporation,
who owned the "Examiner,"

had two or three law firms
working on the case,

and we were doing
all of our stuff in house.

They started their own
law school in Synanon.

They needed lawyers. [laughs]

Phil Bourdette:
The law office took off,

growing in size.

This is
the entire legal department.

I am right here.

I was a legal secretary there.

You felt like you were working
toward this common goal,

and, you know...

[sighs] It was kind of
exhilarating.

That case was settled
for $600,000,

which was, at that time,

the largest libel settlement,
I think, in history,

It made the "Guinness Book
of World Records."

Chuck took half
the money for himself, $300,000,

and he took the 30 people

who had been in
Synanon the longest,

and gave them each $10,000.

[tense music playing]

Chuck: We received a
windfall, you might say,

owing to the fantastic efforts

of the legal department
and a couple of sales tricks

that I threw in
at the last minute.

I'm a good business executive.

Phil Bourdette: Unfortunately,
while the "Examiner" case

settled satisfactorily for us,

the amount of negative
publicity we got

was just astronomical.

Later on our news, I'll have
a close-up look at Synanon,

the reports of changes
within the organization

that have caused
new controversy.

You know,
it put us in a bad light.

But, you know, the libel cases

were a potential
revenue stream for us.

Chuck, I think he felt, "Well,

if this is what happens,
then bring it on."

Phil Bourdette: We started filing a
bunch of libel and slander lawsuits.

Dan Garrett:
So, it wouldn't be bad.

Chuck: You think there's
good money in libel?

Dan: There could be
good money in libel.

Chuck: We might have
a good thing going for us.

Who's next? Step right up,
boys. Who's next?

Judi: One of the things I hated
about Synanon at that time

was its preoccupation
with money and wealth.

Chuck, in particular,
began to amass a lot of wealth.

And he was pretty open about it.

He didn't try to hide it.

[helicopter whirring]

Chuck: I like to be rich.
All Americans like to be rich.

♪♪

We've had some rich people

living in Synanon,

who have given large amounts
of money to Synanon.

Companies have given

millions and millions
of dollars' worth

of goods and services.

- [tape player whirring]
- And then we made

$2.5 million...

[over loudspeaker]
net profit on our AdGap sales.

We are in the people business.

I'm trying
American business methods

to do something
about social problems.

[quiet warehouse chatter]

And I'm going to be paid

in a way that is commensurate
with my abilities

as a business executive.

♪♪

We went from the power of
poverty, which was sort of

Synanon's ethic,

to much more of
an emphasis on wealth.

Newscaster: Like many
successful corporations,

it has its own airplanes
and boats

and thousands of vehicles.

So, this was kind of a flip.

You're talking about
this enormous organization,

with a lot of Lifestylers who,

from the outside, look like,

"Well, this is a pretty cushy
deal for a lot of people."

And at the same time,
our tax exempt certificate

is based on us being
a social service agency,

and we're really not getting
very many drug addicts anymore.

There was more people saying,
"We need to inspect you."

That led to another one of
Chuck's wonderful edicts.

Chuck:
We do things in...

in Synanon, we do them together.

We do them for a purpose.

We do them because
they make us feel good,

because they make it possible
for us more fully

to appreciate the gift of life.

[tense music playing]

Everyone in Synanon

must participate

in the establishment

of a church.

Ron: Chuck, I
believe, truly believed

it was a religion.

And he said, "Listen,
if you're a Catholic,

"you're always a Catholic.
I was raised as a Catholic,

"I'm a Catholic. End of story.

"If you're a Jew,
you're always a Jew.

"Synanon is an add-on religion.

"Synanon adds on to
whatever your beliefs are,

"and whatever your religion is,
and helps you...

move towards dealing with
the world we live in today."

[applause, cheering]

Ours will be a talking church.

It will come out of
the Synanon Game.

Stews. Reaches. Searches.

I think we should talk,

and we should exchange ideas,

and I think that our...

our church will happen.

Phil Bourdette:
We notified the IRS,

and we started filing papers
with the IRS,

saying we were a religion.

My perspective on it,
and I think a lot of people...

share this is that
it was a total scam.

I think that, uh,
calling it a religion

just meant that you would,
you would retain a status,

uh, as a 501[c][3]

to avoid regulation.

Synanon just really
couldn't survive

in the way that it was
configured at that point

without being able

to have donations

both of goods,

services, and money.

Jady: You know, were we
worthy of a tax exempt certificate

for claiming that
we were a religion?

I guess people could argue
that we were.

In my heart,
I didn't feel that we were.

[applause, cheering]

I had a lot of conflict
about that.

But my dad was running the show.

There was just
never any question

that when he wanted
to exert control,

he would exert it.

[waves splashing]

And then that, you know,
trickled down to the kids.

[seesaw creaking]

Josh Silvers: When my
family moved into Synanon,

we lived in Santa Monica.

It was kinda nice,
you know? [laughs]

Sunshine and playing.

My sister and I
lived in the school.

[child laughs]

There was apartments,
and there was, like,

two sets of bunk beds

in each bedroom.
And I had my parents,

so I had lots
of love that I felt.

But I also felt part
of a community,

and we knew everybody.
Like...

And they watched out for you.

And then, they moved the kids
all up to Tomales at the ranch.

♪♪

We were bussed up there,
and it was a long ride.

I mean, we left LA to Tomales,

and I just remember
being on a bus

and-and feeling scared.

When we moved,
then I stopped seeing

my dad and my mother

the whole time
we were in Tomales.

Rod: The idea of Tomales
was let's get the kids,

uh, contained and educated,

so that their parents
can go to work

and be more productive
in terms of the community.

All the kids were
finally in one place.

There were, there were
about 200, maybe more.

If Synanon needed the parent
to be in a different facility

to work from where their kid
was in the school,

that was okay.

And the parent would just
have to deal with it.

[quiet office chatter]

Synanon Member: Do you know
why Karen's taking a picture of you?

- Why?
- Your moms and dads.

They're gonna get to see
what you look like.

They wanna know if you're
growing up to be really big.

What do you think of that?

[kids playing]

Norm:
My daughter stayed in

the Santa Monica
facility for a while,

but was almost immediately, uh,

shipped up to Tomales Bay
with the other kids.

I was concerned about that.

Uh, my wife kinda talked me
down from my concerns.

Said that she knew
people up there,

and they were really
good people,

and that, uh, Kimberly
would be well-cared for.

And that turned out
not to be the case.

- [crow cawing]
- Teacher: Ready!

Josh: I don't ever
remember people holding me

and-and-and like feeling
there was a safe place

to, like, get a hug.

There wasn't like somebody
that would put you to bed

and hold you or read to you.
Like, to you.

There were probably some kids

who needed more
and didn't, maybe,

get what they needed in
terms of physical affection

or-or, you know,
one-on-one or love.

There was one kid.

He was just a baby,
and he was crying all the time.

And they had to shut the door,

and then he would
crawl towards the door

and put his fingers under,
crying. [sniffles]

And every 20 minutes, someone
would come and pick him up

and put him back into the center

so that he didn't keep coming to
the door with his fingers under.

And, obviously, this is a child

who needed someone
to pick him up

and just carry him.

[somber music playing]

Chuck:
Is it really true that...

that men are consumed
with a great...

[over loudspeaker] paternal
love for their children?

I've always thought
that was nonsense.

I don't think
that's true at all.

[kids chattering]

I think it's totally unnatural
for a woman

to have much interest
in her own children

over other children
after the child is weaned.

[indistinct chatter]

There was this attitude from
Chuck, right from the beginning,

that parents are basically
bad for kids. [laughs]

You know, and that was his,
uh, his primary theory

that, uh, parents are, uh...

create all these neuroses
for-for children.

I think Synanon
went too far on this.

And I think a lot
of these kids suffered.

Instead of having
a balance between

this wonderful enhanced
environment of caregivers

and maintaining
the special relationship

with their parents,

the Synanon school
turned too far toward

the parents feeling that
they were not welcomed.

Rebekah:
Very early on, very quickly,

it was a "we versus them,"

um, environment.
We were the kids,

they were the adults.
And we, you know,

in the place of having parents

that we were bonding to,
we bonded with each other.

[quiet chatter]

We could look at one another
and know, "Okay,

"they're screwed up.
These people are weird.

You know, what are they doing?"

♪ Gimme a head with hair ♪

♪ Long, beautiful hair,
shining... ♪

Newscaster: This is mass
insanity coming to you live.

All the women have
just shaved their heads.

Speaker: Given the fact
that the whole culture

seems to hair crazy right now,

I suppose these guys are
pioneers in their own way.

♪ Hair... ♪

♪ Grow it, show it ♪

♪ Long as I can grow it ♪

♪ My hair! ♪

Shaving heads started
as a negative

for the men.

In the early days,

if you got in serious trouble,
you might get your head shaved.

[quiet chatter]

Judi: One day, there
was a women's Game

that was being broadcast
over the Wire,

over the loudspeaker,
to all the facilities.

Synanon Member: Well, you
know she'll never do anything about it

because she just whines.

She won't take care
of anything, and...

Judi:
One of the women in the Game

was talking about a camera
that she had acquired

and then she turned around
and sold it.

Everybody came down
on her really hard.

"You stole that.
That was theft."

Mike: Chuck made it
clear that if you were a man,

and you got caught doing this,

we'd shave your head.

She was a feminist, so she said,

"Damn right,
I'll shave my head. Fine."

- [clippers buzzing]
- [room chatter]

Then, I think it
was like wildfire,

and all of these women
jumped up and decided

that they would shave
their heads, too, in comradery.

["Clap Your Hands and Stamp Your
Feet" by Bonnie St. Claire playing]

♪♪

Speaker 1:
Mass bedlam in Tomales Bay.

All the women
shaving their heads.

Speaker 2: I heard Betty shaved
her head, Dorothy's head was shaved.

I'm talking about
everybody shaved his head.

♪ Well, clap your hands ♪

- [clapping]
- ♪ Mm ♪

♪ And stamp your feet ♪

♪♪

There were women
at the sidelines,

who were sitting, going,

"I'm not gonna do this!
I don't wanna do this."

And initially,
not everybody did it.

♪ Humalalalala, humalala ♪

I had very long hair
at the time,

and I did not wanna
shave it all off.

So, I shaved my head,
except for this long braid.

[laughs]

And then eventually,
I got on board.

[clippers buzzing]

Mike: I believe Chuck
was goading them on.

"Go shave your head."

They've got more
clippers in Santa Monica

than we have up here,
so there are already more women

- shaved down there than up here!
- Synanon Members: No!

Member 1:
We gotta get more women up here!

- Come on, let's go out!
- Member 2: Go get 'em!

- [overlapping chatter]
- Elena: I know it must sound crazy to you

but it was, it was fun,
and it was...

There was music,

and I think
there were snacks, too.

That always, that always got me.

Betty:
The women, at last,

have reached
some degree of freedom

and a total degree
of equality in Synanon.

- Free at last! Free!
- [cheering, applause]

Rebekah:
The adults were very excited.

They were, you know,

kind of like in the throes
of ecstasy practically.

- [applause, cheering]
- [soft music playing]

But, as a kid,
it's just very different.

You had no choice.

Judi:
After the initial expl*si*n

of that one-time head shaving,

Chuck decided that this
would be a good idea.

And that, in fact,

all members of Synanon
would keep their heads shorn.

Rebekah:
For me, as a child,

I would've given everything up
just to have had hair.

We were really like zoo animals.

[laughs] And we would,
you know, be stared at and...

Because we had bald heads.

So we looked,
we looked like freaks.

♪♪

Josh: You have no say
of what you do,

and how you do it,
and when you do it

because you're a kid.

That's just how your life is.

But we really started to feel
that changes were coming.

The wind was blowing
in a cooler direction.

Instructor:
Left! Left, right, left!

Rod: What happened in
those next few years,

Chuck systematically
broke the philosophy,

the things that undergird,
I think,

the healthy community
that I had seen.

Chuck:
That menopausal g*dd*mn fool.

If Betty hadn't let her
out of the room,

the next day, I was gonna
throw her out the window.

Rod: And I think that
was, again, his thing.

[inaudible]

"I'm gonna do it
'cause I can do it."

[applause, cheering]

Hey!

Jady:
My dad changed the culture.

You know,
it wasn't enough for him.

[inaudible]

But there was no plan.

I think it was an organic
process, like always.

There were cardinal rules
on which Synanon was founded.

[tense music playing]

And those were solid
until they weren't.

[police radio chatter]

And that was
the beginning of the end.

[tense music fading out]

[solemn music playing]

[music fades out]