This is a rather long post, but it will, without a doubt, settle once and for all the classic Straight Dope debate regarding the subject of the Eagles’s classic song “Hotel California.”
The United States’ first in-patient narcotics treatment facility, which was called Synanon, was started in the late 1950s by a man named Chuck Dederich. It was located in southern California.
The facility, which was completely free and more like a commune than a treatment center, enjoyed great initial success in helping drug abusers (mainly heroin, cocaine and prescription drug addicts). Thus Synanon became the junkies’ version of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dederich became widely known among the relatively small (by today’s standards) network of southern California hard-drug abusers in the 1960s. It was not unusal for an addict to know soemone or even several people who had attempted or achieved recovery at Synanon.
As time went on, however, Synanon turned from a commune into a cult. Newcomers were welcomed, but were also gradually frightened into the belief that they would be unable to overcome their addictions and survive “on the outside.” Members felt as though their lives depended on staying at Synanon. Discipline became abusively harsh–even minor trangressions were met with severe punishements, such as complete immersion in the communal cess pit. Vocal opponents of the cult were few after a Los Angeles lawyer who sued Synanon was bitten by a rattlesnake which the group had placed in his mailbox. Above all, it was understood that if a member left, it spelled doom. As with most cult leaders, Dederich’s power to deter followers from leaving lay mainly in his ability to make them fear life without him, outside the cult.
The song “Hotel California” is about Synanon. I’m quite sure that anyone who simply types “synanon” or “charles dederich” into his search engine and reads just a little will come away as convinced as I was when I first realized the connection.
He will see, for instance, that in 1969, after over 11 years of allowing the recovering hard-drug addicts to drink beer and wine, Dederich banned alcohol altogether at Synanon: thus the Hotel California passage “So I called up the Captain; Please bring me my wine; He said ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969’.”
He will also learn about “encounter group” or “fishbowl group” therapy (which is still very widely used in drug treatment today, although usually only for one or two hours at a time). This form of “treatment” calls for one person at a time to be the “subject” of the group. The others in the group take turns “confronting” or “indicting” the individual with what the group perceives as “negative behavior.” Yelling and cursing at the individual like a drill sergeant is not only encouraged, but is considered to be the whole point of the therapy and is actually required in most treatment centers. The individual being “confronted” is required to maintain complete silence and eye contact with his accuser, and may not respond afterward. After everybody in the group has finished with him, they move on, putting another individual in the “hot seat”. Thus the process, which is intended to chip away at “the beast” that is addiction, can closely resemble a pirahna feeding frenzy, especially to newcomers.
Dederich insisted on marathon encounter groups such as this(some lasting 72 hours or more) at Synanon: hence the Hotel California passage “And in the master’s chambers; They gathered for the feast; They stab it with their steely knives; But they just can’t kill the beast.”
The Eagles’ references to brainwashing are thinly veiled in lines such as “We are all just prisoners here of our own device” and “We are programmed to receive.” “Colitas” are the extreme tips of marijuana plants (the part from which hashish is made), just as Cecil Adams first brought to light.
So there it is. As I said before, I challenge anyone to find a more likely or fitting explanation for the song’s lyrics, about which I have been entertaining theories since I was a little kid. I apologize for the length of this post, but after all, it does put a Staight Dope Classic to rest.
P.S.
I plan to take on something by Pearl Jam (Yellow Ledbetter?) next, if I can ever figure out what he’s saying. E-mail ben901@yahoo.com with ideas.