No sorority or fraternity members are allowed to tell any non-member what happens at the actual initiation ceremony. Those things are supposed to be secrets shared by initiated members only. Even pledges aren't supposed to know until they go through the ceremony themselves. As I understand it, initiations are very civilized and special rituals. If a particular greek org. was to haze, which most don't, I would be shocked if they forced pledges to do anything disgraceful during the initiation ceremony itself, which is supposed to be a beautiful and meaningful thing. Hazing would occur during the weeks of pledgeship, but not during the ceremony itself.
Maybe your cousin was referring to the pledgeship period (6-10 wks. in which you learn about the org. and maybe get hazed before they initiate a new member), and not to the ceremony itself ("initiation").
You should know that, regardless of the freak stories you occasionally hear, about rush & hazing, that the vast majority of chapters don't haze. Even those that do, do it in a minor, light-hearted way, unlike how fraternities do. At worst the tasks could be mildly embarassing, like wearing a barney backpack to class throughout pledgeship, but almost never would you find sororities forcing pledges to do things that are seriously dangerous or illegal.
I encountered absolutely no hazing during my 6-week pledgeship ("new member") period. No one forced me to drink or to perform any weird tasks. I never had to do errands for sisters or anything like that. We didn't even have to take tests on the sorority's history, since that could be construed as hazing. And my initiation ceremony was really serious and special.
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