Narconon History

William Benitez

Narconon was founded on February 19, 1966 by a gentleman named William Benitez. William had been a heroin addict, who just couldn’t seem to get off dope, no matter how much he wanted to or how hard he tried. After landing in prison too many times due to his addiction he became determined to find a way to stay off of heroin permanently. He searched through self-improvement books for some answers and eventually came across one by L.Ron Hubbard titled Fundamentals of Thought.   The book contained some basic principles that William began incorporating into his life. He found the principles were actually helping him with his addiction to heroin!

 William requested permission from the prison officials to start a small rehab for others like himself. He wanted to use the basic tools he was learning and share them with others. For six months his requests were denied. However finally William convinced prison officials that having such a program would be a benefit as opposed to a threat to the security of the prison and Viola!!! Narconon was born. It started out as a small group of twenty in the Arizona State Penitentiary and has grown worldwide to over forty-five countries.

To this day, the Narconon program is successfully handling addictions.   40 years later, there is even a greater need for heroin treatment and Narconon continues to be the answer.

Narconon and Heroin Addiction Today

 The reason for this is that Narconon handles the physical side of addiction as well as the mental and emotional. Heroin is an extremely physically addictive drug. When someone initially comes off heroin the physical withdrawal is pure torture. Some describe it as being compared to having the worst stomach flu in one’s life multiplied by ten. Withdrawal is replete with uncomfortable symptoms, which include vomiting, diarrhea, hot and cold chills, aches and pains, not to mention a very severe case of nervous anxiety.

This is in contrast to when someone is in the peak of their high on heroin. They usually feel good and think they feel healthy. Heroin even sometimes makes the person feel very energetic.  Many are seeking a sleepy feeling – it depends on how much they ingest.   But the high on heroin is cheating mother nature and there is a high price to pay in the long run

In most cases when someone kicks heroin cold turkey, they can suffer from physical withdrawal symptoms for months to even years after their last use depending on how long they were addicted, their physical constitution, their diet etc.   This is tragically one of the many reasons heroin addicts have trouble staying off of heroin permanently. Their energy is often greatly reduced, they can sometimes have waves of nausea that can come out of the blue, they tend to get hot more easily, their digestion can be off for months, and sometimes they can be overcome with waves of weakness so severe they feel they must lie down or sit down right away, and they don’t really have a choice in the matter. In addition, their muscles and even their bones often feel achy, they often suffer from depression and some wonder if they will ever be able to feel happy again, the way they felt before they tried heroin.
 

Narconon Theory and Practice

The Narconon program recognizes that one of the reasons that these withdrawal symptoms last for such a long time is because of how heroin is broken down in the body. Everything that one ingests into the body is broken down into a form that the body can use. For instance when one eats a slice of bread the sugars that are present in the bread are broken down into glucose. When someone shoots heroin, that heroin is broken down into morphine. These broken down elements are called metabolites. If the metabolite is toxic, then the body will do its best to flush the toxic element through the liver, kidneys and through sweat – the primary vehicles being urine and sweat. When an individual is using a large amount of heroin on a daily basis, this natural process of filtration can be interrupted. The person is often taking in more amounts of toxins than the body can efficiently get rid of. Some of these metabolites get stored in the body tissues instead of being flushed out. The major place of storage for these toxins is the fatty tissue. These cause a pretty severe problem for heroin addicts because every time they start to sweat or get stressed out or become physically active and start to burn fat some of these metabolites are released back into the blood stream and cause very severe physical cravings and can even put the person into a mild state of withdrawal.

  Narconon has a way a very effective way to handle this physical aspect of heroin addiction. After the person has finished their physical withdrawal and done some light therapy they are seen by the Narconon physician to make sure they have not done permanent damage to the body and that they are in good health. They then start a regimen of vitamins and minerals to replace the ones that they lost due to drug use and malnutrition. They take a specific b vitamin called niacin that is a blood detoxifier. With this regimen of vitamins they begin to exercise.  This is followed by time in a dry heat, low heat sauna. The reason for this is that the only way that the body has to eliminate toxins is through sweat and urine and feces. The individual also drinks large amounts of water and takes a blend of oils. How the whole process works is they replace their existing fats with the new cleaner oils as they are sweating toxins out. They drink copious amounts of water and they essentially are sweating out all the metabolites that were stored in their fatty tissues. This process is done on a daily basis for a number of days.  Often, when the process is completed the once addicted person is past their physical cravings and withdrawal symptoms are eliminated.

Narconon Life Skills

Once the individual is free from any physical cravings and they begin work on mental and emotional issues surrounding their drug addiction. Narconon uses a method which fosters self-realization. The client actively participates in a number of very successful courses each designed to address a different aspect of addiction.  In its entirety the program gives the person workable solutions for dealing with day to day life drug free.

 Narconon has a seventy-six percent success rate and is one of the most successful drug rehabilitation centers in the world.