A Profound Change

ON JANUARY 16, AT 2 p.m., Wes Lockwood, a 20-year-old junior at Yale, left his job at the Yale Faculty Club. He was due back to work at 6 p.m. and had a dental appointment at 4 p.m. He failed to show up at either time.

At 8 p.m. a late model rented car went through a manned toll gate on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Someone in the car screamed at the top of his lungs, "I am being kidnapped." The car drove on, but the attendant called the police. Though the troopers had only a poor description of the car, they gave chase and stopped it. As soon as Wes Lockwood saw the troopers, he said, "Thank God you are here." A man in the car, Ted Patrick, apparently falsely identified himself to the police as a clergyman. Wes's father, who was also in the car, showed the troopers a letter purportedly from a psychiatrist, stating that Wes was being taken for mental treatments. When Wes told the police that one of the men in the car was his father and that he was under 21, the troopers allowed the car to continue.

For eight days my friend Wes and his entire family were away, they were unreachable by any Yale officials. On January 24, Wes Lockwood called Yale officials to state that he was well and "happy," and that he was taking a leave of absence. Since that time no one at Yale has had any contact with Wes Lockwood except by permission of his parents and in their presence. Since then, Wes has stated that he had not left Yale under any pressure, that he was not kidnapped and that he is glad for what happened. He has also foresworn his closest friends and associates and described his own manner of life at Yale in terms that no one who knew him, even casually, can accept. This much is clear, a tremendous change occurred in my friend Wes, in less than eight days. What was done to him to effect this profound change?

From the information I have obtained from Patrick, Lockwood was taken to San Diego where he was "deprogrammed." Deprogramming consists of locking the kidnapped victim into a room and subjecting him to marathon brainwashing with the use of every known technique short of physical torture. The job is usually carried out by a group of up to ten people that work in shifts. When the victim is mentally and emotionally exhausted, the deprogrammers move in the for the kill. The victim "breaks" and accepts the arguments and opinions of those who deprogrammed him. Indeed, the process does not stop until the victim disavows the beliefs offensive to those who seized him. No matter how Wes is today and what he says about his experience with the deprogrammers, he did not arrive at his new outlook by his own volition. It is the result of kipnapping, imprisonment and brainwashing.

If what happened to Wes were an isolated incident, it could be passed off as a bizarre affair. Patrick has said that more than 600 young people have been subjected to the same violent process over the last two years, always in cases where the subject had adopted a religious life style "unacceptable" to his parents.

I believe it should alarm people that deprogrammers can operate freely without the intervention of the law. It certainly would arouse college students if a Harvard SDS member were kidnapped and returned two weeks later as an ardent John Bircher. If some 600 young people have successfully been forced to abandon their religious beliefs and convictions, what will hinder this number from climbing many times more? And what prevents the deprogrammers or similar groups from expanding their tactics to political groups? It is important that the authorities intervene today to stop such openly-connessed criminal activity as abduction, unlawful imprisonment and deprogramming. If not, how small a step is it for the state to cooperate tomorrow with such groups?

Nathaniel Nash '73 is a member of a fellowship of Christians which has been a target of the deprogrammers.