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What's all this
about? Aesthetic Realism is a small psychological
cult in New York City. I was a member, as was my mother, my
first father, and my maternal grandparents. These days I'm
telling the truth about how they operate.
Massive Aesthetic Realism
scandal -- posted!
Okay, I'm nine months
late in getting this posted
-- I went traveling
around the world and it was harder for me to keep
up with this site while traveling than I expected.
My apologies to everyone who's been
waiting.
But the wait is
over.
Now you can read
the
transcript of a secret Aesthetic Realism
meeting. It's an
inquest of someone who didn't stay "cured" of his
homosexuality.
I'll stop talking here in
this box, because the real story is over on that
other page. Why are you still reading this? Go read
the secret transcript!
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Aesthetic Realists believe their founder was the
greatest person ever to live, and that his writings are
greater than the Bible. Members must accept the founder's
teachings completely and without question; the biggest sin
one can commit in the group is to show insufficient
"gratitude" for the founder or Aesthetic Realism. Members
are also expected to recruit family and friends, and
generally have to cut off relations with family members whom
they can't get to join. The group effectively controls every
significant aspect of their members' lives -- right down to
whom they must marry. But what AR is best known for is its
alleged cure for
homosexuality that it promoted in the 70's and 80's.
(The basis of the cure? Professing undying devotion to the
founder and his teachings.)
Since I started this site other former members found
it and have been eager to contribute their own stories,
which I'm happy to publish. All of this has raised the
ire of the cult, which set up a whole new website to try to
discredit us, called CounteringTheLies.com.
They would have you believe that, for some reason, all the
numerous former members whose fairly consistent statements
appear here are lying. Riiiiight.
Like many cults, most of the teachings themselves are
not objectionable. The problem is that the believers
give up their identity, autonomy, money, and ability to
think with an open mind -- and the longer they study, the
more they give up. So this site doesn't deal with the
Aesthetic Realism philosophy itself, since that's not the
problem. Instead what you'll find here is an exhaustive
account of how the Aesthetic Realism Foundation operates as
a mind-control cult. They have all the typical
characteristics such as:
- Fanatical devotion of the founder / leader
- Belief that they have the one true answer to
universal peace & happiness if only people would
listen
- Paranoid feelings of persecution
- Control over members' lives, right down to whom they
must marry
- Isolation from friends & family if the friends
& family aren't also believers
- Screeching hysterics when their group is criticized
or questioned. (e.g., CounteringTheLies.com)
There's lots of stuff on this site, but perhaps the
most relevant are:
If you're a former member, I hope you'll share
your story.
If you're a current member, I hope you'll
consider
leaving.
If you're a journalist or blogger, I hope you'll
write about this scandalous
group.
Thanks for stopping by. -- Michael
Bluejay, editor
The newest additions and
news:
- "The Moonies of poetry".
I just found an old article from Harper's
(1982) with some choice words about the Aesthetic
Realists. Of course, whenever the media looks at AR,
their conclusion is never favorable.
(April 2009) (more...)
- AR's double-page ad in the
NY Times. The Aesthetic Realists probably blew
close to a third of a million dollars on a
double-page ad in the NY Times in 1990. They used that
opportunity to tell the world that their founder, Eli
Siegel, was "the greatest man in the history of the
world". (April 2009) (more...)
- Aesthetic Realism glossary.
We explain the real meanings behind AR's
loaded language. (April 2009)
(more...)
- Updated the "Cult Aspects of
AR page". Added lots more examples and
sources. (April 2009) (more...)
- Transcript of a secret AR
meeting. This might be the ultimate AR
scandal, a transcript of an inquest of a person who
didn't stay "cured" of his homosexuality.
(March 2009) (more...)
- Help for journalists - Media
FAQ. After answering a lot of the same
questions for reporters -- and seeing how the AR people
are trying to mislead them -- I put together a page to
help reporters covering AR stories (more...)
- AR gets public funding --
and we get it canceled. AR was able to finagle
a grant from the NY state budget. After we alerted the
media it looks like the funding has been pulled.
(more...)
- Current AR member finally
admits AR founder Eli Siegel killed himself!
Do you suppose they'll now stop calling me a
liar for saying that's what happened? Somehow I doubt it.
(more...)
- Who's afraid to debate?
Here's a video of me challenging AR devotee
Arnold Perey to debate, while he ignores me. (more...)
- AR's "colossal arrogance".
A former member explains how AR people feel
qualified to lecture others about everything, including
how others should react to some personal tragedy. Gives a
good insight into the warped mindset of AR. (more...)
- AR in the public schools.
A former high school student says he got poor
grades for not buying into AR like his teachers were
pushing. (more...)
- A real AR consultation!
We got the holy grail -- a transcript of a
real Aesthetic Realism consultation. Now the public can
see what really happens in an AR therapy session.
(more...)
See the rest of the
updates.
What's on this site
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Thinking of leaving
AR?
If you're thinking of leaving the group, you're
not alone. Let's face it: Most people who have ever
studied AR have left -- and not come back. There's
got to be a reason for that. Curious about what
they figured out? Worried about the fallout if you
do decide to leave? Here's everything you need to
know.
Aesthetic Realism
glossary
We explain the real meanings behind the loaded
language that AR people use.
My own AR
experience
I was born into the group, as was my mother,
because her parents were members. This page
explains my history in the group. On a separate
page I have a transcript of
my lesson with cult leader Eli Siegel.
Site News /
Blog
Here's some news and commentary that I add from
time to time.
AR in their own words.
Give 'em enough rope...
• Actual AR
internal meeting
• Actual AR
consultation
• Actual AR
lesson
• Actual AR
advertisment
• Actual AR ad.
#2
• Hyper-reaction
to criticism
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What is Aesthetic
Realism?
An explanation about both the AR philosophy and
the group that promotes it.
Cult aspects of
Aesthetic Realism
Fanatical devotion to the leader, cutting off
relations with families who aren't also believers
-- it's all here.
Former
members tell their stories
A ton of former members explain what life
inside the group was like -- and how they're glad
they got out. This
one is the longest, but most comprehensive.
Very moving stuff.
AR and
Homosexuality
The AR group used to try to "cure" people of being
gay. They stopped that in 1990 because high-profile
success cases kept deciding they were gay after all
and leaving. AR has never said their gay-changing
attempts were wrong.
AR's founder killed
himself
AR's founder Eli Siegel killed himself, but the
AR people have been trying to hide that fact. They
can't hide any more, since enough former students
have come forward to confirm the truth.
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Secret AR
inquest
We got our hands on a tape of a secret meeting
inside the group. It's an inquest of an AR student
who was supposedly "cured" of his gayness, only to
be found still cruising for gay sex. The AR people
are merciless with this guy!
AR
responds to this website
The AR people have tried to rebut this website
with their own site called Countering
the Lies, whose title ought to win some kind of
award for irony. Here we explain the story behind
that site.
Media
Reports
The media reports on AR from time to time, and
it's never favorable. Here's a list of articles,
plus some help for journalists researching AR. And
here are direct links to the landmark articles in
the NY Post and Jewish
Times.
AR
consultation
What really happens in an Aesthetic Realism
"consultation"? Now for the first time the public
can see for themselves. A former member shared his
tape with us. In the session the AR counselors
tried to help the member not be gay, telling him
that the basis of the cure was to express deep
gratitude to AR and its founder.
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"Words
can't do justice to describe how excellent your site is in
both purpose and content....Your site really can do enormous
good on the level of human happiness. Just think
of the countless people who will NOT get messed up in AR
because they viewed your site before ever getting
sucked-in. And then there are those who are in the
thick of it and just needed a little more courage or
reality-based perspective to break free and quit. You
are doing a great service to people. Your site has the power
to spare a lot of people a lot of anguish from a group of
misdirected souls."
"There
is a very interesting and rather warped dynamic among the
students who left. To varying degrees, we're all wounded and
in varying stages of recovery."
"Your
site is a great source of comfort and excitement to all of
us, probably more than you can tell from the silence of
most."
-- former AR
students
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Aesthetic Realism at a
Glance |
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Name |
The
Aesthetic Realism Foundation |
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Founded |
1941 |
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Founder |
Eli Siegel, poet and art/literary critic.
Committed suicide in 1978 |
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Purpose |
To teach Siegel's philosophy of aesthetic
realism. |
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Philosophy
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The key to all social ills is for people to learn to like the world. Having contempt for the world leads to unhappiness and even insanity. (The slogan of their newsletter is "Contempt causes insanity".) Homosexuality is seen as a form of insanity caused by not liking the world sufficiently.
Also teaches that "beauty is the making one of
opposites". |
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Location |
New York City (SoHo) |
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Membership
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About 103 (35 teachers, 41 training to be teachers, and 27 regular students). Has failed to grow appreciably even after 70 years of
existence, and is currently shrinking.
Members call themselves "students". Advanced
members who teach others are called
"consultants". |
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Method of study |
Public seminars/lectures at their headquarters
(in lower Manhattan), group classes, and
individual consultations (three consultants
vs. one student). |
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Cult aspects
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- Fanatical devotion to their
leader/founder
- Belief that they have the one true answer to
universal happiness
- Ultimate purpose is to recruit new
members
- Feeling that they are being persecuted
- Wild, paranoid reactions to criticism
- Non-communication (or at least very limited communication) with those who have left
the group
- Odd, specialized language.
More about cult aspects...
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Open offer to debate
How do you decide which side is telling the truth? I think that would be the side willing to stand behind what he says. Since 2005 I've had an open offer to debate the Aesthetic Realists publicly in a formal format at any time to defend what I've said on this site, and to answer their own charges against me. But the AR people won't do it. Their excuse is, "He's not worth debating." But if that's true, then why did they put up a ninety-six page website to try to snipe at me and to try to rebut what I'm saying? I think the answer is that they're content to hide behind the cover of the Internet, but they know how bad they'd look in a live format where anyone actually got to ask any pointed questions.
You know what's really funny? Someone went to one of their public presentations, said he'd seen this site, and asked about the cult allegations. The AR person said, "It's very easy to say crap like that on the Internet and never have to be challenged." Oh, the irony is killing me!
Anyway, Aesthetic Realists, as for a public debate, I'm ready when you are. And to everyone else, when the AR people won't stand behind what they're saying, why should anyone take what they say seriously?
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Other sites
about Aesthetic Realism
The
Aesthetic Realism Foundation. The
official website of the group. Read about AR in
their own words.
Aesthetic
Realism in the News. A sister site
to the official AR site. AR in the News catalogs
media articles mentioning Aesthetic Realism,
usually editorials or online-only articles written
by AR students. One gets the impression from
reading some of these articles that they were
written solely as an excuse to mention Aesthetic
Realism. Fun game: see how many times Eli Siegel is
identified with identical gushing praise across
multiple articles (e.g., "the great American poet
and critic Eli Siegel").
Countering
the Lies. When I originally put up
my site it was just a single page without too much
information. When the AR people saw it -- and the
statement by former member Adam Mali which I linked
to -- they started an entire site to combat what
Mali and I said, called Countering the Lies. I
don't have time to respond to every allegation they
make (this isn't my day job!:) ), so I'll let the
reader explore my site and theirs and see whom they
believe. I do, however, provide proof to back my
assertion that AR
claimed to have the cure for homosexuality,
which they now deny.
The
controversial legacy of Eli Siegel.
Lengthy article from the Baltimore Jewish
Times which extensively quotes former members
critical of Eli Siegel and Aesthetic Realism.
Freedom
of Mind. I'll use their description:
"Steven Alan Hassan, cult counselor and mind
control expert is a Nationally Certified Counselor
and licensed Mental Health Counselor and has
developed a breakthrough approach to help loved
ones rescue cult mind control victims. He is a
former member of the Moon cult. Ex-cult members and
others seek him out for specialized counseling to
help them recover from symptoms other mental health
professionals are not trained to address. Hassan
has been at the forefront of cult awareness
activism since 1976 and is the author of two
critically acclaimed books -- Combatting Cult Mind
Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection,
Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults (1988)
and Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think
for Themselves (2000). Hassan has 27 years of
frontline activism exposing destructive cults,
providing counseling and training, and appearing in
major media including 60 Minutes, Nightline,
Dateline, Larry King Live, and The O'Reilly
Factor." Hassan's site features statements
by former members of Aesthetic Realism.
Aesthetic
Unrealistic Answer to Racism. A
civil rights activist slams AR's new book against
racism, saying that: "I have learned how important
it is for analytical and critical thinkers to bring
to light any organizations, doctrines or
philosophies that would seek to 'pimp' Black
peoples' struggle for racial justice and
reparations. It is the moral duty of conscious
individuals to expose anyone that would prey upon
people's desperate hopes for an end to their
oppression. In keeping with that, I would like to
discuss a recent book that disturbs me greatly
because the authors are guilty of the above."
Blondie's
Deborah Harry mentions Aesthetic
Realism. Deborah Harry of Blondie
makes a passing reference to Aesthetic Realism in a
review of the art of H. R. Giger. It's very brief
so we'll just reproduce it here: "Giger also plays
the opposites; that is the essence of his work. In
a philosophy called aesthetic realism, the use of
opposites makes things in art and life challenging.
What is beautiful and horrible, appealing and
frightening, whatever draws you and repels,
biological and organic in Giger's own vision is all
related."
Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia in which
anyone can edit the articles, even you. The
premise is that input from a large number of people
results in a more comprehensive, accurate, and
bias-free article than an encyclopedia written by
only a handful of editors whose work isn't subject
to review by the world. This actually works better
than you might expect, but of course there are
exceptions, and the
Wikipedia article on Aesthetic Realism is one
such example. For a while every time anyone put in
any criticism of AR, or a link back to this AR is a
Cult site, the Aesthetic Realists would immediately
remove it. After some
outcry from the Wikipedia community the ARists
now allow some slight criticism or AR in the
article, but counter it with a ridiculous amount of
their own rebuttal. Particularly amusing is how
they compare their critics to the people who
criticized Louis Pasteur, Gallileo, and Einstein.
The fact that the AR people don't realize how silly
this makes them look is sadly typical. One
Wikipedian removed some of the AR cheerleading,
writing, "...this paragraph seems unjustifiable and
foolish (partly because it reflects poorly on the
topic and its adherents)."
But that's my philosophy: Give 'em enough rope.
Let the Aesthetic Realists speak, and normal people
will run the other way.
Incidentally, one of the edits the AR people
keep making is to repeat AR cultist (and my aunt)
Alice Bernstein's assertion that my family hasn't
studied Aesthetic Realism since I was five. This is
not true, the study actually lasted into my teens,
as I explain elsewhere on this site, and that fact
remains true no matter how many times the AR people
insist otherwise.
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What former
members say...
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I had to go through a lot of therapy getting
out of this group.
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Most people who formerly were in AR have
wished to keep quiet about it, forget the miserable
experience, and get on with their lives.
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It was also the first glimmer in my mind that
I let sprout in which I realized there was
something terribly wrong with the AR foundation and
I should get out. I am making an understatement of
massive proportion when I say, I am very happy I
did.
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"He told me that he studied with Eli Siegel
for around 6 years and that it's taken even more to
get over it. His eyes started filling up."
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When I left I immediately felt as though a
200 lb. weight was taken from my shoulders. Two
years of tension between my family and myself
rapidly eased. My father was thrilled that I "got
that spark back".
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When I left Aesthetic Realism and began to
speak regularly with my older sister, she said with
tears in her eyes, "I feel like you're finally
back."
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See former
members' statements in their entirety
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What former
members say...
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They reeled me in like a brook trout... Guilt
was introduced into the experience. They told me I
was "not showing respect for this great education I
was receiving" by continuing to avoid having
consultations.
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They flatter you to death and tell you that
you're so wonderful, and you have all these
qualities that others have never seen. And then
there's this horrible criticizing.
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My new AR friends were starting to apply the
hard sell a bit more so the word "cult" did come to
mind, but I naïvely believed that it couldn't
be a cult because it wasn't religious in
nature.
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They get you to actually control yourself. A
lot of people's lives have been hurt --
ruined.
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So, there was Eli Siegel, who came up with
all these rules, but to whom none of the rules
applied, and there was everybody else.
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[Eli Siegel] was a hurtful person. He
was a sociopath. He was a control freak, and he was
a cult leader.
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Poor John then would be the subject of an
onslaught of criticism to help him see his own
contempt for Eli Siegel.... This is merely one
example of the way people were controlled and
humiliated if they stepped out of line or didn't
conform to accepted behavior.
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We all had to present ourselves as
essentially miserable failures whose lives were in
shambles until we found the glorious "answers to
all our questions" in AR.
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It was very difficult for me to surrender to
AR in the total fashion they seemed to
want.
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I received a call from one of the AR bigwigs
asking me to donate money to the foundation.
When I told him I was low on cash I received a
considerable verbal drubbing.
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I consider my "study" of Aesthetic Realism to
be one of the factors that led to the eventual
breakup of my marriage, to my eternal
sorrow.
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I felt a bit raped psychologically.... If you
are thinking of getting into the AR consultation
process, realize that they could end it all
suddenly, and that you could find your most
intimate thoughts on tape in someone else's
possession.
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If there is anything the Aesthetic Realists
are good at, it is convincing people that if they
think they see anything wrong with Siegel, AR,
Reiss or how the organization is run, there is
really something wrong with them. Any time I
began to question things or think I saw something
amiss, I had been programmed to think that what it
really meant was that something was terribly wrong
with me.
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That's when I finally knew for sure:
AESTHETIC REALISM IS A CULT. I swore on that
moment that if I was ever given the opportunity to
tell the world what these people did to me, I
would.
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When I left I was definitely shunned by other
students. I would meet people in the NYC streets -
as I still do to this day - and they would turn the
other way to avoid me, or some even made derogatory
comments about me.
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[New AR students] would be shocked if
they knew that the lives of the people they are
supposed to learn from are very different from the
principles they are taught in consultations. Even
though publicly the AR foundation preaches respect
for people and like of the world, inside the
organization the message is very different. The
underlying feeling is, "People who do not study AR
are inferior to us, and the world is our enemy, out
to get us." We had contempt for outsiders and were
scared of the world. We huddled together for
safety, secure in our sense of superiority.
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When I was studying, we were allowed to
associate with our families only if they
continuously demonstrated that they were grateful
to and respectful of Eli Siegel and AR. This did
not include going to visit them if they lived far
away because then we would have had to miss
classes, and that would have meant we were "making
our family more important than AR."
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Some of the students I remember going at most
intensely and viciously to stop them from
associating with their families, (and whom we
succeeded in stopping for many, many years), are
people who are now bragging on the AR website about
how great their relationships with their families
are and writing as though that was always the
case.
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There were even instances of students
refusing to visit their parents when one of them
was dying because the parents did not "express
regret" and renounce their unfairness to Eli Siegel
and AR. There were parents who literally begged
their son or daughter to relent so they could see
them one more time, but the child refused. The
parent died without ever seeing their child again.
Far from being criticized for such behavior,
students who went this far were seen as heroes in
AR. They received public praise from Ellen
Reiss.
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While I was in AR, I did believe that Eli
Siegel was greater than Christ.... It would have
been accurate to say I worshipped him.
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People were told that if their families did
not support aesthetic realism, they were not their
families.
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Some of the people with statements on the
Countering the Lies website claiming that AR
students do not shun former students have actually
passed me on the street, looked straight at me, and
pretended they were seeing right through me. This
includes people in the highest positions in the
organization.
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More and more the AR zombies demanded that I
express gratitude to ES and AR. Every paper that a
student wrote had to end with the obligatory "I am
so grateful to ES and AR for..." along with "I
deeply regret that I have met this great knowledge
with contempt..."
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Eli Siegel was an evil person. And I don't
use the word evil lightly.
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See former
members' statements in their entirety
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