I made this video tonight after a couple of friends who saw "The Program" on Netflix started asking about my experiences. I don't really have any other reason to discuss this part of my past, so I made this to send to anyone who asks about it going forward.

One correction I realized after recording is that Michael's name was Albert Michael Desisto, not Anthony.

A couple things I forgot that I'm remembering as I type this, the first is that the Paul Thomas Anderson film "The Master" felt like a documentary about some of my experiences, the second being that there were a handful of famous artists who got involved with the school but had no idea about what was really happening there. Michael would sell us as borderline slave labor to various celebrities in the Berkshires for their fundraising efforts, and there were bizarre public relations stunts like having us appear as a choir in a local church which appeared on CBS Sunday Morning because he was trying to court the good favor of the segment's producer.

Michael Desisto used those artists' stature to lend credibility to his program, which at the time I was very resentful of the artists' endorsements, but I now understand they could not have known what was happening.

I also forgot to discuss the "talks" he would give in front of parents which were basically sermons, all of which were exceptionally crazy. I used to have some video of them but it's all gotten lost over the years. I was in charge of recording them and he would get annoyed with me for labeling the tapes "The 700 Club" which was a reference to a popular televangelism program at the time. He took himself very seriously in this regard. As I mentioned in the video, I was one of the only people who could talk to him like that because I think he was slightly afraid of me.

Another topic I'm remembering that someone asked about was paperwork.. I stole all of mine when I ran away from the school and I was the only student who ever thought to do so. The paperwork remained unlocked and sitting in the offices of the mansion for years after they went out of business. I'd heard stories of people going and taking some of it, but I don't believe it was ever turned over to any authority or anything like that. Today it would be cause for a class action due to identity theft, but in 1994 no one had even heard of the term yet.

I will probably keep remembering things I've forgotten about for a while now, but overall I don't really have much else to say about this experience at this point in my life, other than hopefully some of the notoriety of the show and testimonials like mine will help prevent this from happening to anyone else in the future. If you are an upset teenager watching this, all I can say is being a teenager is very difficult and what you are going through is very normal. If you are an upset parent watching this all I can say is that raising a teenager must be a very difficult thing and what you are going through is normal.

The one mistake I see parents make over and over is that they forget what it was like to be a teenager and to try and show compassion to your kids as they struggle to figure out how the world works. From my limited perspective I would encourage parents dealing with "difficult" teens to study the films of Yasujirō Ozu, who was never married and had no children. Widely regarded as one of the world's greatest and most influential filmmakers, he made the same film over and over again with different characters and different dialogue, about parents feelings of disappointment in how their children grew up. He made those films in an attempt to show people the obvious mistakes they were making so that they could correct their mistakes and make a positive change in society, few have learned from his efforts. It's important to me to encourage people in that situation to learn from his work.

The one mistake I see teenagers make over and over is that they look to the past for solace. It's so important to find your own music of your own time. While I reference acts that are classic rock today, they were all still making new music at the time I was going through this. Regardless of what any older people tell you about music, ignore them. Find your own music made by people around your own age at the present time (whenever you may be reading this). It will serve you better and it will serve society better as a whole. Make sure your parents have never heard of and don't care about whatever you are listening to, those are the records that will stay with you for the rest of your life, the fans you meet along the way are the people who will stick with you a lot longer, the band members will help get you out of situations you can't even comprehend yet because you supported them when no one else did.

This was a weird video to make even by my standards, but I guess it needed to be made. This is what the internet was supposed to be for.