The Prisoner of San Jose: How I Escaped from Rosicrucian Mind Control [Paperback]

Pierre S. Freeman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2008

The Prisoner of San Jose, a memoir by Pierre S. Freeman, exposes the ancient mystical order of Rosæ Crucis, also known as AMORC, located in San Jose. AMORC recruited Freeman, a young engineering student in Haiti, and exposed him to twenty-four years of sustained indoctrination and mind control. Having no family or friends able to substantially help him, no exit psychologist, deprogrammer, or interventionist to guide him, Freeman methodically studied the cult experience, analyzing the mind control and hypnotic procedures that were affecting his life. The Prisoner of San Jose is about how Freeman deprograms himself and recovers the mental and emotional stability he lost twenty-four years earlier. Most importantly, the story is about hope, and how Freeman is finally able to reclaim the liberty of his own personality.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Wheatmark (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604940247
• ISBN-13: 978-1604940244
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,052,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The reasons behind Freeman's discontentment, June 4, 2009

By 

Luis Morais (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Prisoner of San Jose: How I Escaped from Rosicrucian Mind Control (Paperback)

***
The Rosicrucian Forum, Vol. XVIII, October, 1947, no. 2., page 36:

"A series of exercises after one arises in the morning and carried on for two or three weeks, or even two or three months, will not do as much good as the normal outdoor exercise consisting of a walk or other type of physical work that is done regularly every day of our lives. It is not the violence of physical exercise as much as the fact that the body's muscles must be moved somewhat everyday that is necessary to maintain a normal physical condition...

Common sense in both the physical and psychic constitutes good guideposts. The theory in Rosicrucianism throughout its teachings is to point the way and try to help each individual to exercise his own common sense, which is no more or less than another term for intuition. Each individual will have to take the best acceptable knowledge, insofar as his physical and mental well-being is concerned, and use the most reliable guidepost he can find, coupled with his own intuitive judgement.

There is only one word of caution. Extremes should be avoided in both the physical and psychic. Extreme exercise, diet, fads, as well as extreme practices that have to do with the development of the mind and physical body, are equally dangerous."

***


When I started reading Pierre S. Freeman's The Prisoner of San Jose, it became evident from the very first pages that his personal disappointment with AMORC resulted from a deep-seated desire to break up with poverty in his native Haiti and the frustration of not achieving the "American Dream" whilst an irregular immigrant in the United States of the 80's.

Freeman had construed that being a member of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, would vouch him a safe financial and material journey under circumstances that in themselves offered very little room for success: he was an irregular immigrant in the U.S., with no skills, having not even completed his university studies at Haiti to back him up in his new enterprise.

Of all the circumstantial difficulties an immigrant could face in a foreign country in a time without the Internet to provide that quick look up on jobs, forums of fellow nationals to exchange information on bedsits, courses and survival tips, none weighs as heavily as not having a plan that went further than just getting to a wealthier foreign country.

I am afraid to say that lack of a consistent plan, preparation and timing was the base of Pierre Freeman's downfall and discontentment. It is lamentable that not seeing this himself, Pierre resorts to put the blame on mind control, thus exonerating himself from the opportunity to learn from his own mistakes and take responsibility for his own life, something a Rosicrucian is always encouraged to do.

I feel that what Pierre puts forward in his book about his experience with Rosicrucianism is not damaging to AMORC but to those who might be led to believe they are being mind-controlled, brainwashed or manipulated when their issues might lie somewhere else.

On this same line, it concerned me to read that Freeman seems to take an all or nothing attitude towards psychological health when he says his only way out would be through the highly specialised help of an exit psychologist. It sends chills down the spine of any Rosicrucian and any follower of common-sense to think that people who should be seeking professional help, any professional help, from a therapist, a priest, a doctor, a psychologist or even a community counsellor now might be led to believe they should self-diagnose and "treat" themselves for psychological ailments because the problem they think they have is assumed to be too unique and complex for conventional help.

Pierre believes he is opening a third chapter in the study of mind-control, little he knows that such aspirations cannot be fulfilled by only basing his work on just two or three books. Considering the amount of academic and professional minds working and conducting studies in the field every year, one wonders whether he is not being too self-centred to not only dodge any help available, but to put himself as the discoverer of a new chapter in psychology in which he is both the researcher and the researched subject. The claim in itself sums the kind of fallacies of the ego that really entrapped this man.

It is deeply disappointing that Freeman has chosen to resort to generalisations and downright misconceptions to label both Americans and Muslims. He says Americans are consumer-oriented (sic), and connects "Madrasas" to terror camps.

Now, Mr. Freeman, a shopping-centre is consumer-oriented, selling products that are consumer-oriented, the people who lust to buy these products just for the sake of it are "consumerist".

Concerning madrasa, that is the generic word for "school" in Arabic, so of course there are madrasas all over the Arab countries, sir. Indeed, many of these are religious but just a few are radical and terror-oriented (hoping that now you should have grasped what "-oriented" means). As a former Rosicrucian, you don't seem to know how to refer to people respectfully, something that as far as I have known from Rosicrucians I have met when I was a young fundamentalist protestant, I know they excel.

As an immigrant myself, I find it rich of you to label your American hosts under generalisations. Consumerism is not an exclusive American trait, it is a human trait since the times Adam and Eve decided to weave clothes for themselves. Dig deeper, go out more, listen to Americans from all coasts a bit more.

It saddened me to hear that despite everything that is shared in the initial monographs from AMORC, Freeman seems to have been the one of the few modern-day Rosicrucians to believe that Christian Rosenkreuz really existed. I am afraid to say that Rosicrucians do not believe in this allegory as something literal.

All in all, it felt to me the book The Prisoner of San Jose could be explained by one line of the film Changing Lanes, when William Hurt serving as a counsellor tells Samuel Jackson:

"You know, booze isn't really your drug of choice anyway. You're addicted to chaos. For some of us, it's coke. For some of us, it's bourbon. But you? You got hooked on disaster."

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh please!, December 12, 2008

By 

H8er0h8 (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prisoner of San Jose: How I Escaped from Rosicrucian Mind Control (Paperback)

My parents were Rosicrucians going back to the 60's, both having worked at the San Jose lodge for years and years and years. I joined when I turned 18 and got up to the 8th degree before moving on. Whoever wrote this book is an out and out idiot.

Mind control?!?!? Pffft. Give. Me. A. Break. There is absolutely nothing cult-like about AMORC WHAT-SO-EVER. Want to quit? Simple: stop paying your dues. They won't even bother you with a follow up letter.

From the very beginning they tell you not to take them at their word and reiterate that over and over. The teachings center around practical mysticism with some esoteric lore thrown in (such as theories of reincarnation, the nature of the soul, etc.). The absolute worst thing that could possibly come with affiliation is you'll learn how to meditate and acquire a decent understanding of how the mind works. Ooooooo....sounds scary, hunh?

I sure hope this moron isn't registered to vote!

27 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage, October 13, 2008

By 

Pema Zopa "Subrosa" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prisoner of San Jose: How I Escaped from Rosicrucian Mind Control (Paperback)

I am a lifelong Rosicrucian with an ancestral lineage of Rosicrucians. AMORC does not do this sort of thing as most of their teachings are done on one's own. This is a load of trash by someone trying to make some money. Don't waste yours.