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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1979)
Former Moonie remembers ‘first friend’ Five minutes after Chris Ed wards arrived in Berkeley. California in May 1975, he found a friend He accepted a dinner invitation that night from his new friend and joined him the next day for a "restful farm vacation" Seven months later. Edwards was kidnapped by his father By SALL Y HODGKINSON Of the Emerald and deprogrammed of the "ex tensive brainwashing" that he said began with his Berkeley "friend " Now. three years later, he is touring the country speaking out against the "Moonie" cult he was caught up in and plugging his book "Crazy for God: The Nightmare of Cult Life " A full room of people greeted Edwards Thursday night in the EMU as the University became the most recent stop on his two — month speaking tour "I know that there are people in the audience who are thinking. This couldn't happen to me ' That's what I thought,” he said During his two — hour talk, Edwards used familiar phrases like glassy eyed, brainwashing, empty smiles and deprogram ming that the audience some times laughed at But as Ed wards progressed through his story, laughs were few Edwards, who had just graduated from Yale when he Nuclear power (Continued from Page 1) cident will mean for the country, but that he "never has had any confidence in nuclear power, and l don't have any confidence in it now ‘ In 1970. I researched the plans for the Troian plant, and I wrote a series of articles on the China Syndrome, and what a meltdown was Then I saw the movie, and Harrisburg followed It's the classical theory about what happens in a meltdown, and people were convinced it couldn't happen " Peddicord suggested that if all nuclear power plants in the US were shut down, people could evaluate the impact from the loss of power and look for replacement sources We could impose conserva tion and say, 'OK. no more power' That would lead to dif ficult times, and people wouldn’t like it," he added Pttler disagreed "We re not getting what we re paying for (with nuclear power) It's time to get rid of the stuff and look ahead Let's decentralize power sources and develop sources that are regionally appropriate " ‘ It took us 10 years and billions of dollars to get on the moon because we decided we were going to be first on the moon,” he said "And now the government says it will take 100 years to get solar power on our houses I just don't believe it " Frohnmayer articles error The Emerald has made the same error twice in reporting Rep Dave Frohnmayer's voting record on course evalua tion legislation Frohn mayer did criticize a course evaluation bill in House debate last session but later voted for the bill; he did not attend an earlier committee vote against the bill In fact, Frohnmayer did not serve on the committee reviewing the course evaluations bill last ses sion He does have a vote in the committee this year and is voicing "strong reserva tions" about HB 2831, which would permit public access to student course evaluations We regret the error Peddicord complained that people criticize the federal government for what it spends money on Why don't local utili ties begin to initiate their own power sources?' he asked Bartels said EWEB is trying to do just that "I have no doubt in my mind that we can find other sources of power to replace the 13 percent of our energy nuclear plants provide We just needed a shock like Three Mile Island to get us to rethink the energy situation " arrived in California, said his friend seemed a little too friendly and odd when he first met him, but Edwards con sidered him harmless Later, at the dinner party, his suspicions of his new friends (who iden tified themselves as a social workers group) grew, but he said he felt uncomfortable cri ticizing their interest and con cern for him Three nights later, while he was at their farm surrounded by barbed wire he said he decided that "these were not just just friendly, loving people It was clear to me that they were fanatics and part of a systema tic attempt to control my mind." mind " But repeated chants, lec tures, singing and games had him "acting and looking like a 13-year old I spoke childishly, imitated the leaders and quickly replaced my thoughts with theirs'' Edwards said that the con stant contact with members and their ideas wear down resis tance to the mind —control process "Things were repeat ed over and over again We were isolated from the outside and then from ourselves I couldn't even go to the bathroom without a member going with me." After four weeks at the farm, Edwards was promoted to selling flowers for the cult His Chris Edwards old personality, he said, was taken over by a new "heavenly child" who believed completely in the group's doctrine After he had worked his way up from selling flowers to taking care of Moonie leaders' kids. Edwards was kidnapped by Ted Patrick. a controversial deprogrammer, at the request of his father. "Four and a half days later I came out of the hotel room without glassy eyes The deprogramming saved my life,” he said Edwards’ involvement with the Moonies didn't end then. He said his family was harassed so much during the four months following his kidnapping that they had to hire a bodyguard Eight weeks ago. with the publication of his book and his speaking tours, the harassment has started again, he said Edwards said he isn’t very concerned with the groups current activities because of the recent interest in cults "They aren't smiling anymore But my fear is the group's potential violence.” TAX REFUND SALE Take advantage of Napier Audio and Uncle Sam with Tax Refund savings Napier Audio offers something for every budget from K the first system to the most exotic iV Jr MW components For example, the JVC JRS-81 . receiver delivers 35 watts r.m s SaVG $100.00 per channel, enough power for any speaker JVC QL-s 522995 A quartz-locked, direct drive turntable for the perfectionist With quartz lock the speed never varies Save $40 JVC KD-65 *359” This deck uses JVC's exclusive Spectro Peak Indicator, allowing you to actually SEE the music as you record: NO OTHER DECK OFFERS SUCH EXACTING RECORDING! $ T49. 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