The Narconon Vista Bay Program Phases and Steps

Narconon Program:  Phase One

After a person gets through the initial withdrawal symptoms he or she begins the first phase of the Narconon Vista Bay Program.  This portion of the Program is designed to address the person’s physical wellbeing.  Individuals regain basic abilities and restore their bodies to a state where they are no longer affected negatively by the substances they have allowed to accumulate in their bodies.

Book 1: Therapeutic Training Routines

Many drug and alcohol dependent individuals tend to withdraw from family and constructive social interactions, seemingly losing their ability to communicate and relate to people around them, particularly to those who share conventional social values. Instead, they tend to interact with deviant peers and appear to focus their attention inward on problems and self-perceived, emotionally-disabling feelings.  To address the above, this module consists of drills aimed at helping participants regain their ability to communicate effectively, comfortably interact with others and gain personal control. Drills teach the student to be comfortable with peers in his/her present treatment surroundings while responding appropriately to other persons. Emphasis is placed on developing the ability to deliver messages, understand and acknowledge communications. These drills also address the tendency to interpret benign comments as hostile and the tendency to react by using of physical force. Students do the drills in pairs, working in a classroom setting. A course supervisor assists them. As an operating principle, the supervisor does not simply answer questions from students, but assists them in finding the answers themselves.  Participants also learn to handle others as part of becoming fully responsible for the rehabilitation process in a social, drug free setting. This improves their ability and willingness to inform the staff about what they are experiencing and also increases their ability to deal with the other steps of the Program.

Book 2: The New Life Detoxification Program

Studies were done on the effects of environmental toxic substances such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, foods additives and preservatives and radiation. Parallels were found between the toxic effects of many of these substances and the effects of drugs used in medicine particularly psychiatric drugs and drugs of abuse. With these findings in mind, in 1978 the New Life Detoxification Program was developed—an intervention including exercise, prescribed periods in a sauna and vitamin/mineral supplementation—as a means to release and accelerate the elimination of toxic chemicals including drugs and their metabolites from body stores. In addition to the physical gains made, it was shown to help gain mental stability and spiritual improvement.  In regard to drugs of abuse, it is known that drugs and their metabolites may be retained for extended periods of time in body tissues usually in tissues of high in fat content, such as the brain and adipose tissue, where, depending on the drug, they may remain for an extended time, years even. The prolonged bodily storage of commonly abused substances was documented as early as 1957 for LSD; by 1988 for cocaine; and 1977 for amphetamine compounds. PCP (phencyclidine) has also been shown to persist in fat and brain tissues, which is thought may account for some long-lasting behavioral effects. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), an active ingredient in marijuana, has been detected in fat tissue for up to four weeks after last use. Sensitive measurement techniques have detected THC in blood and urine up to two months following discontinued use, a fact that strongly suggests that the presence of the THC was due to its release from storage in fatty tissue.

The incorporation of sauna, with its deep clinical roots is an interesting element of the Narconon Program. Sauna has been traditionally considered by many societies as a source of energy, health and purification. It is popular in countries such as Finland where it plays an important social role. It is also common in Russia and Turkey. The sauna has had important healing and ceremonial functions among many aboriginal groups of the American continent. Contemporaneously, several Native American groups have incorporated sauna in rehabilitative substance abuse Programs. Sauna exposure induces physiological responses; the increased thermal load increases circulation through the skin and induces subtle endocrine changes. Sweating, mediated by the hypothalamus is associated with an increase in noradrenalin levels and activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. The concentration of beta-endorphin in blood is also increased16. The regimen prescribed as part of the Narconon Program, includes a daily period of physical exercise of 30 minutes duration is scheduled, immediately followed by a session of sauna at 140-180oF (60o-80oC) for 2.5–5 hours. Short breaks for hydration are provided to offset the loss of body fluids and for cooling.  The nutritional and mineral supplementation regimen that is an element of the New Life Detoxification Program is to a great extent an empirical intervention. Substance abusers often exhibit nutritional deficits and this regimen may meet some of their needs. According to the procedure, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes, on a defined schedule are provided. This includes gradually, increasing doses of crystalline niacin (nicotinic acid) to enhance release of lipids and increase circulation, along with vitamins A, D, C, E, B complex, and B1, multi minerals including calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, iodine, sodium and potassium. Additionally, clients are given a blend of oils that include polyunsaturated fatty acids, typically soy, walnut, peanut and safflower.

The New Life Detoxification regimen has been used within the Narconon Program for more than twenty-five years with apparent benefits to the participants.  The rehabilitative Program just outlined is provided on a daily basis, seven days a week. The average length of time to complete the Program is 30 days. Trained delivery staff monitors and records daily treatment events as well as monitoring body weight, pulse and blood pressure before and after each daily session, body weight usually remains constant throughout. A Case Supervisor reviews patient charts daily, using that data to make Program decisions.

Narconon Program:  Phase Two

These portions of the Narconon Vista Bay Program include therapies that allow the individual to focus on real goals and regain self-control.  Here is where the addict learns to let go past problems and traumatic events, and really be present and focused in day to day life.

Book 3: Learning Improvement Course

The Learning Improvement Course teaches the student to recognize and overcome barriers to study and comprehension. This educational experience is particularly relevant for persons whose drug-oriented life style had them neglect their education or prevented them from applying their full potential. They may not have developed the discipline required to gain information and communicate effectively thus failed to learn information necessary for personal and occupational success in conventional society.  This course also prepares the student to take advantage of the subsequent courses in the Program, Learning Improvement Course is accomplished through practical exercises and drills supervised by a staff person. It is striking to observe the positive response observed by participants to this course, this is true both for educated persons who have developed addictions as well as those who neglected their education. This suggests an awareness of its importance was never lost.  At this point a person is more capable to retain and apply the rest of the life-saving information provided to them through the remainder of their stay at Vista Bay.

Book 4: Communication and Perception Course

Addicts tend to live in the past, disregard the reality of the present and do not make realistic plans for the future. These difficulties are addressed through a series of exercises designed to improve the individual’s ability to focus on goals and objectives and to be persistent so they achieve them.  The first step consists of an expansion of the communication skill exercises covered in the Therapeutic Training Routines. This ensures that the student fully understands how to carry out a full cycle of communication, improve his or her ability to face up to and deal with challenging situations and accomplish a series of cognitive gains. Through communication exercises and drills, individuals learn to read and deal appropriately with social cues, including those with a negative content, these activities help to achieve greater self-control and direction. Students learn to use interpersonal communication to help and counsel others; once they have accomplished this, they assume responsibility for each other and co-counsel through the second part of this course with direct supervision and skilled help of Vista Bay staff. This principle of assuming responsibility for each other is considered to be an important element in their recovery.  This part of the course consists of a series of exercises (known as “objective processes”) designed to orient the student to his immediate environment—that is, his “objective” surroundings as opposed to his “subjective” thoughts. The purpose of this step is to remove the student’s attention from the past and increase his or her awareness of the present-time surroundings while improving focus and concentration.

Classified in the field of recovery as, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the latter portion of this course is essentially a method that identifies and helps a person to correct specific errors in what he or she is thinking that produces negative or painful feelings. These erroneous or distorted thoughts also influence the person on a behavioral level, and result in maladaptive choices or reactions. In treating a person who is experiencing psychological difficulties, we find that the most effective point of intervention is at the level of the person’s thoughts, and that if changes are made in thinking (automatic thoughts, assumptions and core beliefs), changes in emotions and behavior will follow. Furthermore, behavioral techniques and strategies are employed as needed to enhance the treatment outcome (i.e., anger management, relaxation training, graduated exposure to feared situations, assertiveness training). The course of treatment ranges widely in duration from person to person, but people usually experience relatively rapid relief and enduring progress.

Narconon Program:  Phase Three

The next phase of the Narconon Vista Bay Program consists of a series of educational courses designed to help gain the skills needed to interact constructively along a range of life situations. Life situations require processing of information and learning as well as coping with social situations of varying complexity and ethical or moral significance.  Throughout, the student is also helped to gain a sense of self-worth and dignity that he might have lost during his addicted career.  This phase therefore is carried out after symptoms of drug withdrawal have been relieved and the client begins to experience a feeling of well-being. The purpose from this point is to teach coping skills and help the student develop his or her individual guide of normative personal behavior. At the completion of this series of courses, the student is expected to be able to define an individual personal system of values. At that point he or she is asked to begin to formulate a plan for re-entry into society. The plan describes the goals and objectives formulated by the student to improve his life and help him to remain drug-free.

Book 5: Ups and Downs in Life Course

The Ups and Downs in Life Course invites the student to examine aspects of the normative behavior of individuals in their social environment. Through a series of course’s exercises, the student is helped to identify those elements shared by individuals who engage in pro-social behavior from those who don’t. Through this process the student becomes aware of the often deceptive and cunning strategies of those who encourage addicting life styles.  The student is trained to examine his own past social behavior and to place it along social or antisocial categories. The student learns to identify traits that supported pro-social behavior such as honesty or sobriety and contrast them with those which lead to drug use.  These are not just didactic presentations; the student is expected to describe his perceptions of social behavior and to categorize them. He then is expected to become better able to contrast those individuals around him who display maladaptive or antisocial behavior and those with pro-social behavior and how these two categories of individuals may impact on his own behavior.  The student is helped to consider the consequences of his perceptions and his own behavior on his social environment. For example he is invited to examine how as the individual adopts the life style of the drug addict, she/he also adopts negative attitudes toward people formerly close to them, such as family and friends who accept conventional values and authority figures. The addict tends to associate and identify with antisocial individuals who have adopted destructive lifestyles.  The ability to distinguish between who is and is not a true “friend” is very important, particularly once the student returns to his home or work environment. The ability to correctly identify antisocial individuals or groups is considered to be an important factor in the addict’s stable recovery from addictive substances. The title of the module, “Ups and Downs in Life,” refers to the fact that those in recovery often do well for a time and then relapse. This course is therefore designed to reduce the “downs” and facilitate stable upward recovery.

Book 6: Personal Values and Integrity Course

This course addresses the fact that lack of respect for conventional ethical norms and engagement in repeated transgressions are common among addicts. Individuals addicted to alcohol and drugs tend to commit further transgressions to support or conceal their drug use. This behavior often becomes ingrained and the person may try to self-justify such actions with convoluted and self-destructive arguments.  Exercises in the Personal Values course help the student to formulate a set of ethical values. The formulation process begins having them consider general assumptions about the conditions necessary for human survival. Accordingly, survival is accomplished through many different areas of a person’s life; themselves, their families, different groups to which they belong, humanity as a whole, everything else in the world and that which is greater than them.  Regarding this last point, it should be noted that the Narconon Vista Bay Program is secular and does not define or attempts to re-define the individual’s religious construct or belief.  The areas described above cannot be taken into account individually as the condition of one area of life impinges on all the others. Therefore, the formulation of ethical or moral principles must consider the highest level of survival across all areas taken up collectively. Unethical situations are those in which the individual does something contrary to the survival of one or more of the parts of life mentioned.

The process of formulation of individual ethical principles is operationalized as follows. Through a set of exercises, the student is asked to give examples of transgressions to the ethical code that he has observed from others in the past. This provides opportunity to present examples of transgressions against principles such as honesty, truthfulness, personal commitment, individual integrity, interpersonal responsibility, commitment to promised allegiance, etc. The exercises indirectly assist the student in the definition of values, which he may later make his own.  As a next step, the student is asked to provide examples of transgressions in which he has been involved. Through the course exercises, the student makes a specific and exacting inventory of his past oversights. He then is asked to identify how and when misdeeds of omission or commission occurred, who was involved and what harm resulted. Through this cathartic experience, the addict may have opportunity to experience relief from guilt. An important element of this module is taking responsibility for the consequences to others resulting for these transgressions. During this step students outline means to repair the negative consequences of their previous destructive actions and begin to implement this plan with the assistance of the Vista Bay staff.

Book 7: Changing Conditions in Life Course

This course provides a conceptual framework as well as practical exercises to learn skills that will help improve the conditions in life of an individual across the survival categories presented on the previous module.  According to the conceptual scheme any activity or area in life is at any given time, in a “condition” of improving remaining the same or worsening. Being productive is a positive characteristic of the human condition. A person is a productive being who delivers “products” not just as part of a job or commercial exchanges, but along a broad range of personal and interpersonal situations. A “product” can be as varied as providing a stable and supportive environment for one’s children, assisting a friend or relative in difficulty, or doing a good job at work which advances one’s company.  Named products vary greatly depending on the setting in which the person operates, interpersonal situations, family, school, professional endeavors, the community, etc.  The common denominator is that they are finished high quality services or articles delivered to a consumer in exchange for a valuable—the exchange going beyond monetary value to include good will, friendship, and a sense of contributing to a worthy cause.  The amount of anything produced can be monitored or tracked over time as a “statistic” which is a number or amount compared to an earlier amount of the same. It is therefore an indicator of the relative raise or fall of the quantity compared to an early moment in time. It is a comparison indicator of where one is contrasted with where one was.  Within the framework just presented a situation of decrease or no increase to a desired level of production is considered undesirable and a negative ethical significance is attached to these situations. Increased productivity almost becomes a moral imperative.

The individual in these circumstances has the task to decide what to do to improve his condition. Throughout the course, a series of circumstances that affect productivity are considered and given descriptive terms to denote the degree of contribution or harm to the group. These states of condition are “confusion,” which is a situation of random motion when lack of direction does not lead to  productivity; “ treason,” a betrayal of trust after accepting a responsibility but not carrying it out; “enemy,” when as a member of a group the person participates in creates situations contrary to the mission or purpose of the group; “doubt,” when the person cannot make up his mind whether to continue to be associated with or a member of a group that promotes destructive or unproductive behavior; “liability,” when a person acts contrary to the pro-social mission of the group knowing that this will endanger the purposes of the group; “non-existence” when an individual is newly entering a sphere of activity and is looking for ways to contribute; “danger,” a situation in which the individual has been contributing but the “statistic” indicative of progress shows a steep decline; “emergency,” when there is a slight decline or when the amount of production simply does not increase; “normal,” when there is continuing productivity increases; “affluence,” when the productivity increases very steeply over time; and “power,” when the productivity has gone up into a whole new high range and that new high range is now on a “normal” trend.  During participation in this module, students and supervisors interact to ensure each student has a good understanding of how one determines and measures the “products” he is to deliver in each area of his life; and how one takes specific action based on the state of condition so as to improve and consistently increase their contributions. As productive member of society he or she must contribute with a variety of products as well and adopt corrective strategies to deal with circumstances or individuals that impede forward progress.

Book 8: The Way to Happiness Course

This is the final course book of the Narconon Drug Rehabilitation Program. At this point the student has successfully completed the seven previous modules and is ready to integrate those social skills into a set of 21 precepts that outline a practical ethical or moral code “based on common sense” covering most areas of personal and social behavior.  The precepts include basic survival guidelines such as “Keep your body clean,” “Eat properly,” and “Take good care of yourself when you are ill,” as well as admonitions such as “Be temperate,” “Don’t take harmful drugs,” and “Do not drink alcohol to excess.” Some sexual behavior issues are addressed like “Don’t be promiscuous,” “Be faithful to your sexual partner.” Other advice includes principles such as “Don’t do anything illegal,” and “Respect the religious beliefs of others.”  Each precept is presented with brief essays that explore their meaning and implications.  The precepts provide guidance that goes beyond avoiding addiction or criminal behavior. Students complete practical exercises that demonstrate their understanding of the benefits to be gained from adhering to each precept as well as their ability to apply the principles to situations in their lives and as productive members of society.

Narconon Program:  Phase Four

As the person’s Program is coming to an end, this phase is part of a comprehensive discharge plan.  The entirety of the individual’s Narconon Program is reviewed and checked for validity one last time; this done at the completion of each course as well.  At this point the students will receive a case-specific Program written for him or her to ensure their continued success after returning home. In depth battle-planning of the next 6-12 months is done with the help of Vista Bay staff.   This portion can vary greatly from person to person, as each person will be returning to differing lives.  The students may be getting additional counseling or training on specific topics such as money management, parenting, marriage, work, or any other specific areas which if addressed will only serve to bolster the individual’s confidence in rejoining or restarting their lives.

Summary of Narconon Drug Rehabilitation Program

We believe that this is the optimum method for returning a person to a life of happiness and productivity.  When a person is fully cleansed of drugs and has absolved him or herself from the shame and guilt associated with the destruction that they cause, he or she can enjoy a happy life as a drug and crime free member of society.