Note: here is a link to my blog archive by topic which has almost all my older posts at the blog sorted into categories for your convenience.
Many Scientologists and exes contend that study tech is innocuous ,or at worst tiresome and boring. Well I contend that it is itself a form of mind control and coercive persuasion so cleverly hidden as to be virtually undetectable.
The first thing to know about mind control is that it can exist and be in a non obvious form. The second is to know that hypnosis (or mind control) works sometimes and not always; that it has different forms and methods and they affect different people to varying degrees, and some people not at all; they can have a slow cumulative effect becoming stronger very gradually. One method might work on an individual while another doesn't, but several together cumulatively may be much more powerful.
This helps hide hypnosis as people who are not hypnotized don't comply with hypnotic commands and suggestions making it appear that you are choosing to cooperate, when in fact unknowing hypnotic subjects are "cooperating" with their critical and independent thinking skills shut off, or down, and regressed to a childlike trusting state. Not free to choose and evaluate what is happening!
As an example I will contend that method 3 word clearing is itself a hypnotic method! Hubbard wrote and spoke in many hypnotic patterns as many others have thoroughly covered, but the new info I present is that confusion is used to induce (bring on a hypnotic state) in word clearing even without hypnotic materials. Confusion (or paradox) is used to induce hypnosis by confusing a person's mind directing their conscious attention onto what they are confused by, lowering their ability to perceive what they hear and read critically and independently, just intaking it without evaluation.
In method 3 a student finishes reading a page, paragraph or sentence and KNOWS they understood what they read BUT they have "mu phenomena" (which are really mostly renamed symptoms of hypnosis or critical or independent thoughts about what is studied). The student then knows they must have "MUs" and so confuse their own mind! This contradiction opens up the door to a dirty trick Hubbard figured out. If you give a confused person an answer, even if it's wrong, they can feel relieved as they can now direct their mind off the confusion and onto something else! This is a natural phenomena as people, often when confused, leave alone what's confusing them and concentrate on something else with no resolution of the confusion, and yet feel better!
This masks that "study" in Scientology (and anywhere else study tech is used) is actually a kind of self hypnosis where the student puts themself into a progressive, deepening light semi-permanent trance that greatly deepens when returning to course or study, or even eventually when reading ANYTHING as how the person thinks about reading and language can change.
This depends on the sensation and effect from the cognitive dissonance caused in indoctrination by a variety of methods. Hubbard has thousands of contradictions in his doctrine. And confusing terms, unusual turns of phrases, new original terms - in particular making nouns of verbs to confuse the victim. These and other methods add up to make the dissonance which creates blankness, overwhelm, reelingness and anxiety and a desire to escape the dissonance as an intended result .
Their own mind can "run" the study tech on themself, especially if this is flanked and bolstered by the loaded language in Dianetics and Scientology; in and of itself designed to produce the same effect with another variation of a hypnotic technique.
I know this sounds outrageous and many will reflexively say "no, I got gains from study tech !" or "There really are words to learn!" Yes there are words to learn, but "MUs" as Hubbard defined them don't exist and are just a clever misdirection, with the tiniest sliver of truth perverted to deceive, to hide the hypnotic regressed state he wanted you to "intake'' Scientology and Dianetics while in.
I also contend that the demoing is used to regress your mind, increasing vulnerability and the idea of handling gradients similarly is a hypnotic technique used to misdirect you! He tells you your confusion is with something prior, making you go on a witch hunt for a red herring, and feeling "relieved" when you find an "answer"!
I intend here to address and explain the Barriers to Study (BTS), the "tech" to handle them, and the accompanying phenomena (BTSP) and their true meaning and purpose. I will attempt to show how the BTS and BTSP are a form of coercive persuasion (mind control). I know this is an extreme assertion and will attempt to clearly lay out my case, bit by bit, and just ask that you PLEASE objectively LOOK at what I'm saying and see if it could be or is true.
I believe I should present some definitions of some terms I will use to make clear what I mean when I use them, as some have different meanings in different contexts, and some may be unfamiliar; please bear with me.
BTS: the Barriers to Study in Scientology, and the accompanying techniques to detect, and "handle" them
BTSP: the Barriers to Study phenomena; in Scientology what is when encountered interpreted as showing one or more barriers are present and need to be "handled" with the "technology of study"
Complexes : Associations of thought, feelings, and behavior; defined by Carl Jung as a node in the unconscious feelings , and beliefs detectable indirectly, through behavior that is puzzling or hard to account for. In Jung's theory complexes may be conscious, partly conscious, or unconscious, complexes can be positive or negative resulting in good or bad consequences
Cognitive: having to do with thought; it's creation, function and relationship to emotions and behavior
Cognitive Dissonance: In psychology the theory that there can be excessive mental stress and discomfort experienced by an individual who (1) holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time or (2) is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values. This stress and discomfort may also arise within an individual who holds a belief and performs a contradictory action or reaction
Cognitive Distortions: exaggerated or irrational thought patterns that are believed to perpetuate (keep occurring) the effects of psychopathological (showing a mental disorder, or caused by a mental disorder) states. AKA habitual negative thoughts
Cognitive Restructuring: changing thought, over time, in an individual by repeatedly thinking different thoughts (from previous undesired ones) changing very gradually the emotions and behaviors ASSOCIATED with these thoughts
Disorder: patterns of psychological or behavioral symptoms that impact multiple life areas and/or create DISTRESS for the person experiencing the symptoms
Hypnosis: a state in which a person loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction
Hypnoanalysis: a method of psychoanalysis in which a patient is put into hypnosis in an attempt to secure data, free associations, and early emotional reactions
Loaded Language: In rhetoric, loaded language is wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes
Psychoanalysis: a method of analyzing psychic (mental) phenomena and treating emotional disorders that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely about personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams
Rhetoric: language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable
Stress: a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances
I believe that hypnosis can be induced (caused) by confusing a person, and that in method 3 word clearing a person CONFUSES themself.
By finishing a sentence, paragraph, or page and KNOWING they understand what they just read BUT, by spotting MU phenomena they KNOW they have an MU; thereby confusing their own mind!
Furthermore Ron Hubbard knew and intended for this to function this way !
Here's a series of quotes from Hubbard that outline some basic concepts in study technology:
(NOTE; I put all Ron Hubbard quotes in this blog post in red for ease of understanding)
The First Barrier – Lack of Mass
A student who encounters this barrier will tend to feel squashed, bent, sort of spinny, sort of dead, bored and exasperated. He can wind up with his face feeling squashed, with headaches, and with his stomach feeling funny. He can feel dizzy from time to time and very often his eyes can hurt.
The Second Barrier – Too Steep a Gradient
There is a different set of physiological reactions which occur as a result of this barrier. When one hits too steep a gradient, a sort of confusion or reelingness is experienced.
The Third Barrier – the Misunderstood Word
Going past a word or symbol for which one does not have a proper definition gives one a distinctly blank or washed-out feeling. The person will get a "not there" feeling and will begin to feel a nervous hysteria. These are manifestations distinct from either of the other two barriers.
Have you ever come to the bottom of a page only to realize you didn’t remember what you had just read? That is the phenomenon of a misunderstood word, and one will always be found just before the material became blank in your mind.
HCO Bulletin of 25 June 1971 (revised 25 November 1974),
"Barriers to Study" Ron Hubbard
In the Scientology Handbook a simple version of Hubbard's study tech is presented with his method 3 word clearing presented as Basic Word Clearing. It's a foundation of how a Scientologist approaches indoctrination and the materials he studies.
Basic Word Clearing
Basic Word Clearing is the method of finding a misunderstood word by looking earlier in the text for a misunderstood word than where one is having trouble. This is the most basic method of Word Clearing used in Scientology.
A student must know how to keep himself tearing along suc cessfully in his studies. He should be able to handle anything that slows or interferes with his progress. He applies the Study Technology to assist himself.
A student who uses Study Technology will look up each word he comes to that he doesn’t understand and will never leave a word behind him that he doesn’t know the meaning of.
If he runs into trouble, the student himself, his study partner or his instructor (in Scientology called a Supervisor) uses Basic Word Clearing to handle anything that slowed or interfered with his progress.
Waiting to become groggy or to “dope off” (feel tired, sleepy or foggy as though doped or drugged) as the only detection of misunderstood words before handling is waiting too long. If you have ever seen a student falling asleep over his book, then you have seen dope-off . Long before that point, someone should have made the student look for a misunderstood word. The time to look for the misunderstood word is as soon as the student slows down or isn’t quite as “bright” as he was fifteen minutes before. It is not a misunderstood phrase or idea or concept but a misunderstood WORD. This always occurs before the subject itself is not understood.
Basic Word Clearing is done as follows:
1. The student is not flying along and is not so “bright” as he was or he may exhibit just plain lack of enthusiasm or be taking too long on the course or be yawning or disinterested or doodling or daydreaming, etc.
2. The student must then look earlier in the text for a misunderstood word. There is one always; there are no exceptions. It may be that the misunderstood word is two pages or more back, but it is always earlier in the text than where the student is now.
3. The word is found. The student recognizes it in looking back for it. Or, if the student can’t find it, one can take words from the text that could be the misunderstood word and ask, “What does _____ mean?” to see if the student gives the correct definition.
4. The student looks up the word found in a dictionary and clears it per the steps of clearing a misunderstood word described above. He uses it verbally several times in sentences of his own composition until he has obviously demonstrated he understands the word by the composition of his sentences.
5. The student now reads the text that contained the misunderstood word. If he is not now “bright,” eager to get on with it, feeling happier, etc., then there is another misunderstood word earlier in the text. This is found by repeating steps 2–5.
6. When the student is bright and feeling happier, he comes forward, studying the text from where the misunderstood word was to the area of the subject he did not understand (where step 1 began).
The student will now be enthusiastic about his study of the subject, and that is the end result of Basic Word Clearing. (The result won’t be achieved if a misunderstood word was missed or if there is an earlier misunderstood word in the text. If so, repeat steps 2–5.) If the student is now enthusiastic, have him continue studying.
Good Word Clearing is a system of backtracking. You have to look earlier than the point where the student became dull or confused and you’ll find that there’s a word that he doesn’t understand somewhere before the trouble started. If he doesn’t brighten up when the word is found and cleared, there will be a misunderstood word even before that one.
This will be very clear to you if you understand that if it is not resolving, the thing the student is apparently having trouble with is not the thing the student is having trouble with. Otherwise, it would resolve, wouldn’t it? If he knew what he didn’t understand, he could resolve it himself. So to talk to him about what he thinks he doesn’t understand just gets nowhere. The trouble is earlier.
Zeroing In on the Word
The formula is to find out where the student wasn’t having any trouble and find out where the student is now having trouble and the misunderstood word will be in between. It will be at the tag end—the last part—of where he wasn’t having trouble.
Basic Word Clearing is tremendously effective when done as described here. From the Scientology Handbook based on the works of Ron Hubbard
Quotes from Ron Hubbard on the Confusion Technique:
[Quote]
Now, if it comes to a pass where it's very important whether or not this person acts or inacts as you wish, in interpersonal relations one of the dirtier tricks is to hang the person up on a maybe and create a confusion. And then create the confusion to the degree that your decision actually is implanted hypnotically.
The way you do this is very simple. When the person advances an argument against your decision, you never confront his argument but confront the premise on which his argument is based. That is the rule. He says, "But my professor always said that water boiled at 212 degrees."
You say, "Your professor of what?"
"My professor of physics."
"What school? How did he know?" Completely off track! You're no longer arguing about whether or not water boils at 212 degrees, but you're arguing about professors. And he will become very annoyed, but he won't know quite what he is annoyed about. You can do this so adroitly and so artfully that you can actually produce a confusion of the depth of hypnosis. The person simply goes down tone scale to a point where they're not sure of their own name.
And at that point you say, "Now, you do agree to go out and draw the water out of the well, don't you?"
"Yes-anything!" And he'll go out and draw the water out of the well.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard Lecture, 20 May 1952 "Decision."
source Lermanet.com
Also, even earlier, in 1950:
[Quote]
One error, however, must be remarked upon. The examination system employed is not much different from a certain hypnotic technique. One induces a state of confusion in the subject by raising his anxieties of what may happen if he does not pass. One then "teaches" at a mind which is anxious and confused. That mind does not then rationalize, it merely records and makes a pattern. If the pattern is sufficiently strong to be regurgitated verbatim on an examination paper, the student is then given a good grade and passed.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard lecture 29 August 1950, "Educational Dianetics."
source Lermanet.com
He also knew that when one is confused they can feel relief (i.e. brighter TEMPORARILY) when they get an "answer", even if it doesn't address the confusion!
Scientology uses confusion to control people. Scientology is intentionally designed to use confusion for this purpose.
Scientology techniques are extremely confusing and if you are able to find the right references from Hubbard and look at the techniques with an understanding of the methods he based them on then his intentions are clear.
let's look at some of the things Hubbard said:
"If you can produce enough chaos — it says in a textbook on this subject — if you can produce enough chaos you can assume the total management of a psyche — if you can produce enough chaos.The way you hypnotize people is to misalign them in their own control and realign them under your control, which necessitates a certain amount of chaos, don’t you see?Now, the way to win through all of this is simply to let the guy have his stable data, if they are stable data and if they aren’t, let him have some more that are stable data and he’ll win and you’ll win.
In other words, you can take any sphere — any sphere which is relatively chaotic and throw almost any stable datum into it with enough of a statement and you will get an alignment of data on that stable datum. You see this clearly?
The whole society is liable to seize upon some stupid stable datum and thereafter this becomes a custom of some sort and you have the whole field of morals and mores and so forth stretching out before your view."
Hubbard, L. R. (1955, 23 August). Axiom 53: The Axiom Of The Stable Datum. Academy Lecture Series/Conquest of Chaos, (CofC-2). Lecture conducted from Washington, DC.
"Another way to hypnotize somebody would be to put him in the middle of chaos, everything going in all directions, everybody shooting at him and suddenly throw him a stable datum, and make it a successful stable datum so that it’s all called off once — the moment he grabs this. And this gives you the entire formula of brainwashing: interrogate, question, lights, pain, upset, accusation, duress, fear, privation and we throw him the stable datum. We say, “If you’ll just adopt ‘Ughism’ which is the most wonderful thing in the world, all this will cease,” and finally the fellow says, “All right, I’m an ‘Ugh.’ ” Immediately you stop torturing him and pat him on the head and he’s all set.Ever after he would believe that the moment he deserted “Ughism,” he would be drowned in chaos and that “Ughism” alone was the thing which kept the world stable; and he would sell his life or his grandmother to keep “Ughism” going. And there we have to do with the whole subject of loyalty, except — except that we haven’t dealt with loyalty at all on an analytical level but the whole subject of loyalty is a reactive subject we have dealt with. "
Author: Hubbard, L. R.
"Another way to hypnotize somebody would be to put him in the middle of chaos, everything going in all directions, everybody shooting at him and suddenly throw him a stable datum, and make it a successful stable datum so that it’s all called off once — the moment he grabs this. And this gives you the entire formula of brainwashing: interrogate, question, lights, pain, upset, accusation, duress, fear, privation and we throw him the stable datum. We say, “If you’ll just adopt ‘Ughism’ which is the most wonderful thing in the world, all this will cease,” and finally the fellow says, “All right, I’m an ‘Ugh.’ ” Immediately you stop torturing him and pat him on the head and he’s all set.Ever after he would believe that the moment he deserted “Ughism,” he would be drowned in chaos and that “Ughism” alone was the thing which kept the world stable; and he would sell his life or his grandmother to keep “Ughism” going. And there we have to do with the whole subject of loyalty, except — except that we haven’t dealt with loyalty at all on an analytical level but the whole subject of loyalty is a reactive subject we have dealt with. "
Author: Hubbard, L. R.
Document date: 1955, 21 September, 1955, 21 September
Document title: Postulates 1,2,3,4 In Processing - New Understanding of Axiom 36, Postulates 1,2,3,4 In Processing - New Understanding of Axiom 36
“A confusion can be defined as any set of factors or circumstances which do not seem to have any immediate solution. More broadly, a confusion is random motion.”
“Until one selects one datum, one factor, one particular in a confusion of particles, the confusion continues. The one thing selected and used becomes the stable datum for the remainder.
“Any body of knowledge, more particularly and exactly, is built from one datum. That is its stable datum. Invalidate it and the entire body of knowledge falls apart. A stable datum does not have to be the correct one. It is simply the one that keeps things from being in a confusion and on which others are aligned.” – Ron Hubbard [ref]
“Any time anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude…if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject…he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as a hypnotic suggestion….With parity, such as occurs between acquaintances, friends, fellow students and so on, there is no hypnotic suggestion” (Education and Dianetics, 11 November 1950, Research and Discovery, volume 4). Source Jon Atack
Here's a longer excerpt:
ALTITUDE INSTRUCTION
“In altitude teaching, somebody is a ‘great authority.’ He is probably teaching some subject that is far more complex than it should be. He has become defensive down through the years, and this is a sort of protective coating that he puts up, along with the idea that the subject will always be a little better known by him than by anybody else and that there are things to know in this subject which he really wouldn’t let anybody else in on. This is altitude instruction … It keeps people in a state of confusion, and when their minds are slightly confused they are in a hypnotic trance. Anytime anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude. There are ways to create and lower the altitude of the subject, but if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject the same way, he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as hypnotic suggestion.” (Hubbard, Research & Discovery, volume 4, p.324)12 source Jon Atack
But I believe over the long term this can cause cognitive distorions. So when studying a Scientologist is hunting for BTSP, which method to use to address which BTSP, and by "clearing" the REPETETIVE loaded language from Hubbard and many small common words, English words, and unusual words they are "learning" to have a larger, more nuanced vocabulary which SEEMS to prove the usefulness of the "tech", because after all a person and others can PERCEIVE improvements in grammar and expression, and comprehension of English. I believe that demoing and looking for a skipped gradient is also a kind of witch hunt (for red herrings) that helps regress a person's mind into a more trusting childlike state.
I contend that "studying" Hubbard's doctrine with repetitive loaded language and many subtle rhetorical tricks, like logical fallacies, (INTENTIONALLY placed in the materials) while in a hypnotic state can result in cognitive restructuring, done in hypnosis WITHOUT one's consent or knowledge!
Further, this can generate cognitive dissonance and tremendous STRESS, as a person may know SOMETHING is happening, that doesn't FEEL right, but Hubbard "explains" what is happening, why it's happening and how to resolve it ! With more BTS tech !
So to elaborate I propose BTS tech is a compound (combined) method of mind control. Just as hypnoanalysis combines hypnosis and psyochanalysis.
In BTS you have hypnosis (which can have varying degrees of effectiveness on different individuals, some not affecting at all, HELPING to hide hypnosis as when it doesn't work it creates the illusion that those it does effect "chose" to cooperate, when in fact their mind is compromised as their critical and independent thinking is reduced, or shut off, and they are in a deeply trusting childlike state; disarmed for a battle of wits ! )
You also have ENFORCED cognitive restructuring; which I believe in a hypnotic forced form causes TREMENDOUS stress.
The person's thoughts, emotions and behavior are rebuilt to reflect Hubbard's doctrine and progressively to some degree his personality, as it's expressed in the doctrine ! So as they robotically intake the doctrine establishing (sometimes) a semi-permanent light hypnotic trance, they also can change so the trance deepens whenever "studying " or learning ,reading or even THINKING with Hubbard's doctrine.
Being hypnotized can make one more suggestible for future hypnosis. The student also "learns" many new definitions, words, rules of grammar, fine distinctions between synonyms etc. making it appear they are getting "gains" and feeling "brighter" BUT at a terrible tradeoff !
They SIMULTANEOUSLY are self-hypnotizing, cognitively restructuring (unknowingly), forced to think, feel, and act like Hubbard'sdoctrine, and learning a new "education", replacing their old with a COMBINATION of Hubbard's loaded language and a lot of English.
The result can be a super-high vocabulary (verbose) person blindly following Scientology, bluntly a nitwit lacking the power of direct observation and utterly devoid of common sense, gullibly believing ANYTHING labeled Hubbard . This can result in a deluded (fooled) solipsistic (believing only what's in one's own thoughts, despite obvious contradictions, or ANY evidence to the contrary) follower. This is a "successful" student of "study tech ".
Bluntly Hubbard knew that if he defined hypnosis as something else, and got people to do the steps to hypnotize they would hypnotize themselves and others UNKNOWINGLY ! He used rhetorical tricks and misdirection to make this happen. These methods worked sometimes on some people and when repeated and different methods are used and flanked and bolstered by other methods, their duration, frequency and effectiveness can be greatly increased.
He therefor redefined many phenomena and attributed them to BTS when in fact they have OTHER causes and PROPER handlings.
I'll now SHOW the BTSP and what I believe really causes them and the corresponding (synonymous) names they already have. I will put H next to hypnotic symptoms and S next to symptoms of stress. I hope this illustrates what the effects are and the real causes as one uses BTS tech.
I have been communicating with Jon Atack and want to give him credit for pointing out something to me. I got close to seeing and stating this but not quite right .
I will quote directly from an email: "I realized that throughout DMSMH he contradicts himself. I'd read it three times and never noticed. Presumably because the 'blank' that he relates to the mu actually occurs during the cognitive dissonance. Once you have confused someone, you insert the suggestions that will put them under your control ('if you knew what was wrong with your mind it, it wouldn't be wrong' is a favorite). Jon Atack
I will also include a quote I found in a book online that I think is relevant:
"I saw the confusion on some faces and blankness on others. My ed psych professor in grad school would have called this cognitive dissonance. "
Fixed for Life: The True Saga of How Tom Became Sally
See, I knew there was confusion in m3 word clearing but not that the blankness is exactly a manifestation of cognitive dissonance and that is the confusion in effect !
It perfectly fits my model and the idea of blankness fitting hypnosis as the blankness is from the dissonance and creates the vulnerability Hubbard exploits !
I long knew that the Barriers to Study phenomena are a combined list of hypnosis symptoms and stress symptoms from forced cognitive restructuring in a covert hypnotic form but did not zero in on the dissonance CAUSING the blankness !
I will have symptoms of hypnosis in green and stress in red and possibly both in purple ; remember I consider the "blankness" to be from cognitive dissonance and show hypnotic vulnerability. It is a synonym for the confusion or reelingness so it fits both ideas as it shows stress and hypnotism !
from lack of mass:
squashed H postural slump
bent H muscle relaxation
dead H lethargy
bored S /H low energy Crucial boredom can also show a closed mind and that prohibits thought reform as the person is just going through the motions and not really focusing on what is in front of them : it can interrupt the thought reform so Hubbard has a bored student focus attention and look for Mus to break the boredom Looking for Mus can create anxiety which is more receptive to hypnosis
exasperated S /H frustrated; easily agitated
headaches S stress headache
stomach that feels funny common stress symptom
dizzy S common stress symptom
eyes that hurt S or H symptom of BOTH
from too steep a gradient:
confusion S/H shows hypnosis via cognitive dissonance
and reelingness S /H overwhelmed;losing control
misunderstood word
blank S/H shows entering or leaving hypnotic states in moment of cognitive dissonance
washed out H attention focused
not there H intense concentration attention fixation
nervous hysteria S /H anxiety aids hypnotic induction
not remember reading H amnesia; deep trance
giving up study S many other factors; defense against stressful environment
leaving S many causes; defense against stress
The more I study hypnosis the more I discover different variations on methods of induction (causing hypnotic states) and find that these actions are used over and over, by Hubbard. Often he mixes hypnosis and other practices from psychology, psychiatry, mystic and occult arts, earlier cults, totalitarian governments, and satanism.
I suggest every Scientologist and ex-Scientologist do their own study, even a brief one, of hypnotism and compare it to what they experienced in Scientology. Oh, and for a study to be unbiased, I require, to the best of your ability, not thinking in or using any Scientology terms, or study technology, they block learning non-cult info, you can use an English dictionary, but have to think in pre-cult terms as much as possible.
To be blunt MOST Scientologists I talk to don't know anything about hypnotism, except Hubbard said it's not Scientology.
The more I watch videos and read short basic books on hypnotism the more I recognize it in many of the activities I did as a Scientologist. Several books could detail how and where Hubbard inserted it. I after 25 years and easily 10,000 hours of using study tech, have learned more about what happened to me, and my mind, in the first 50 or so hours of studying mind control and hypnotism than I did in 25 years.
I will write more posts on this and attempt to make more clear and accessible the info I've already posted, but to understand me well a person may eventually need at least a few hours, or dozen hours of studying hypnotism, and cult indoctrination on their own, to form an educated opinion.
I , while reviewing some excellent material on hypnosis and different hypnotic states at Lermanet.com realized what the purpose of the demo kit is. The student (if study tech does it's intended job), in Scientology, enters a deepening trance while on course, due to reasons explained in my earlier threads. A person in hypnosis, INCLUDING self-hypnosis, can be in a light, medium or deep trance.
In most models and theories I've seen on hypnosis, in deep trance critical and independent thinking is shut down, or off. The student in using study tech very often enters a deepening trance the more they use study tech, and this is helped by the hypnotic language and writing patterns Hubbard liberally used in Scientology and Dianetics doctrine.
As the trance deepens very often it produces pronounced hypnotic symptoms and phenomena, such as muscle relaxation, difficulty keeping eyes open or seeing, eyes that hurt, feeling sleepy, falling asleep etc. (if you don't believe me LOOK at hypnosis symptoms, online and compare them to barriers to study phenomena)
Some of these symptoms and "weird feelings" are actually the result of altered states of consciousness, and these states CHANGING while hypnotized. To keep the self-hypnotized student from falling completely asleep Hubbard designed a countermeasure: the use of demonstration.
Doing demos helps focus a student's attention on something in front of them, misdirects part of their mind from EXAMINING the content of doctrine, helps keep them "awake" AND "EXPLAINS" the hypnotic symptoms.
In other words it helps condition a student to - while hypnotizing themself with M3 word clearing , AND the hypnotic writings and tapes of Hubbard - enter a deep trance, BUT not close their eyes, NOT fall asleep, and not become completely physically inactive !
It causes the student who is already hypnotized by other elements of Study Tech to, while in deep trance - and blindly intaking Hubbard doctrine, rather than reading - enter a kind of somnambulant (like sleepwalking) super-hypnosis, where you have the VERY HIGH suggestibility of deep trance married to a pattern of just enough motion and activity to (often) keep a student moving, and not fall completely asleep !!
Another way to state this is one I failed to see - the idiotically simple fact that in method three word clearing a student is "taught" that all "MU" phenomenon are caused by "MUs" including blankness and that they stem from "MUs". So a student gets to the end of a sentence and something seems wrong, they feel "blank" - it is a sign of cognitive dissonance.
Hubbard taught them the disagreement is caused by "MUs" or "skipped gradients" or "lack of mass" .
He with lies and contradictions CREATES cognitive dissonance which makes blankness, reelingness, confusion etc. and the student must choose - investigate with independent and critical thinking or submit to Hubbard's doctrine as correct and do word clearing, demoing, going back down to an earlier gradient etc..
THAT is the trick, you are misdirected so well that you must accept Hubbard's doctrine verbatim. But he even disarms concerns about this with other tricks. He had many deceptive tricks.
The existence of words to learn is actual. The symptoms are false and the method of handling increases the vocabulary but hides the appeal to authority fallacy - you take Hubbard as authority. Scientology is presented as his subject and creation. (Both are lies) Its size and stolen sublime writing and other fallacies compound or stack to bolster and strengthen each other. The eventual intent is hypnotic intake without critical or independent thinking.
M3 is designed to cause an alteration in thinking."Studying" is meant to change into reading a sentence or page then feeling blank from knowing something is not making sense, or Hubbard contradicted himself or common sense or said something untrue and you're feeling blank (from the cognitive dissonance from contradiction) SUBMIT, do not doubt Hubbard or his doctrine and "know" you have an "MU" or other barrier to study phenomena to "handle". See, you are meant to MISS the blind intake and not think for yourself.
That is the trance logic as it is bona fide hypnosis. That many suffer personal incredulity upon being told "study tech" is hypnosis is itself revealing. Hubbard extensively implants his "truth" about study and the euphoric elation submission to "study tech" gives as "wins" married to improved vocabulary which masks the detrimental aspects of this method .
Scientologists would do well to learn the symptoms of hypnosis, the methods of induction including confusion (aka paradox aka contradiction), repetition, mimicry, and attention fixation. Also cognitive dissonance and trance logic which accepts contradiction blindly with dissonance buried in the subconscious. In this state, in theory, the intake of contradictory info actually strengthens the submission to the trance as it becomes a defense against mental and emotional discomfort.
Regarding trance logic here is a quote from Psychweb on trance logic: "Words, in trance logic, are interpreted much more literally, communication being conveyed by focusing on words themselves rather than ideas. There is also an associated decrease in critical judgement of language being processed, and an increased tolerance for incongruity."
Trance logic is a state in hypnosis in which a person has their attention absorbed or focused so strongly that they don't exercise critical and independent thinking, they lose judgment regarding the information they take in and do not CONSCIOUSLY notice contradictions. They experience age regression and like a young child submit to authority and are willing to engage in magical thinking.
This has tremendous importance in Scientology regarding cognitive dissonance as noticing contradiction is a way cognitive dissonance is created, but by making cognitive dissonance serve to create confusion which he uses to create hypnotic trances, Hubbard inspires dissonance then "solves" it by negating the contradiction inspired dissonance by knocking out the critical factor (the capacity for critical and independent thinking, including noticing contradiction) !!
See, Hubbard had the sheer audacity to take "If you EVER disagree with me or anything I write YOU are always in need of change and I am NEVER EVER wrong" and repackage it in a lot of fallacies grouped together to get you to "try" his method. The important part is his destination - you NEVER disbelieving him or questioning his ideas. You always trying to learn words or demo or find something earlier etc. as long as you through repetition, years of repetition, "learn" to on a Pavlovian stimulus response basis spot symptoms of cognitive dissonance (which occurs with the conscious mind spotting contradictions or confusion from things not seeming right etc . ) and to REJECT critical thought and suppress it YOURSELF .
Hubbard brilliantly found out what critical thought "feels" like and trains his slaves to suppress it. By re-framing reality in his loaded language he changes the signs and starting points of critical thought I.E. confusion, reelingness, blankness, fidgeting etc. into "barriers to study phenomena". See when taking in info with inconsistencies from a recognized authority but it does not make sense we doubt or are confused . If it becomes strong enough for cognitive dissonance there is a moment of blankness . Hubbard swoops in in THAT moment and repeatedly has US tell ourselves the doctrine must be right and WE must have an "MU" . We look and look, are repeatedly told to "brighten up" when we spot an "MU" and so follow the SUGGESTION and "brighten up" .
M3 is hypnosis pure and simple. Always was, always will be. Hubbard knew a list of signs of confusion or independent thought, doubt and critical and independent thinking. He was also an expert hypnotist and knew of the feeling of being bent i.e. muscle relaxation and slumping from deep trance that the m3 would cause . He knew having the "student" do a demo would serve several purposes. Such as giving a suggestion of feeling better from "remedying the lack of mass". The activity actually prevents falling asleep from the trance deepening and demoing helps age regress the victim to a simple trusting childlike state. That is why Hubbard uses simple dictionaries and grammar books and demos and clay demos. He wants victims regressing and to regress automatically when considering HIS ideas. In an age regressed state trust increases and rationality markedly decreases.
Hubbard wanted to have a relationship like a wise all knowing completely trusted father with a very trusting, deeply emotionally driven young child - a hypnotic master/slave relationship of total submission. I am not exaggerating or using any hyperbole in these statements.
if the victim does not submit they do not become a Scientologist . When I doubted Hubbard I very, very quickly came to spot thousands of contradictions and other fallacies in Hubbard's doctrine. Without the trance logic hiding many, many flaws, fallacies and contradictions in Hubbard's doctrine they stand out incredibly glaringly.
This is part of why there is such extreme division of Scientologists and many others. The others could spot the contradictions etc. and reveal them both to Scietnologists and others. That is part of a cult's anatomy.Those who are fooled must be separated from those who would help them.
Why boredom is a barrier to study phenomena
I found this today and realized why Hubbard had bored students stop and search desperately for "Mus" to "clear ".
He knew that students who are bored can memorize info they see as unrelated to them and then repeat it back to pass an exam and then forget it - he discusses this at length in the Student Hat course . He called it making a pattern unrelated to you .
I did not get the significance for how this related to his method of mind control until just now . I found this and realized what he knew and did about it .
He could never control people as he wanted in that manner. But he had a way around this - he labeled all boredom on course as coming from Mus which prompts a mad desperate hunt for them and confusion on what the student is sure they understand but because they are told boredom stems always from Mus they are conflicted over how they both understand and can be bored. The contradiction causes confusion and cognitive dissonance. This increases over time and the student then gets anxiety on top of the dissonance and Hubbard knew a confused and anxious student can to alleviate the confusion take in whatever they are told as hypnotic commands effectively implanting them. It is a simple variation on his con induce a confusion strongly via a lie (that boredom is caused by the fictional Mu phenomena) then alleviate the confusion by directing attention off the contradiction and onto a part of Hubbard's doctrine that is studied right after the "MU" is "cleared ".
It is a simple method mixed with others and the evidence of the hypnosis is also labeled as barriers to study phenomena further confusing the student and inducing more anxiety about study and masking the hypnosis and thought reform . I thought the boredom was just a sign of hypnosis but I was off . The boredom is a sign the hypnosis is not working as attention is not being controlled as Hubbard needs it to so he redirects it in a confusing and anxiety producing manner . This seems far more accurate to me - now that I have learned a little more about boredom and how your mind is closed to manipulation when bored. This is why politicians know they lose an audience if it is bored and lawyers say juries pick the lawyer that is less boring - he can persuade them better .
Additional note added at a later date :
Well, the thing is he never abandoned the ideas he plagiarized. He just piled on theory after theory to keep fooling and defrauding people.
It is a high crime in Scientology to call anything background information or historical. He intentionally wanted to confuse people and cause cognitive dissonance aka confusion .He was very familiar with confusion aka paradox as a method to covertly heighten anxiety then induce a hypnotic trance .
In cognitive dissonance theory he caused a confusion with accompanying discomfort as a reelingness or feeling of exasperation or overwhelm . That is due to the student knowing something is not right from Hubbard's self contradiction or contradicting known facts, among other examples.
The student knows they understand the material as incorrect or self contradicting , but that Hubbard apparently contradicts himself seems confusing.
And Hubbard tells the confused student they are the source of the confusion with a "skipped gradient" or "misunderstood word". Both of which are lies, misdirection to further confuse the student.
Now thoroughly confused by knowing Hubbard's materials are both understood and "proven" by Hubbard to be not understood the student in cognitive dissonance has hesitation and confused indecision - the mental blankness Hubbard knew from using confusion to control people in hypnosis.
In the moment of blankness, to relieve discomfort the overwhelmed student accepts Hubbard's indoctrination without critical analysis to end the unpleasant feeling.
This relieves the discomfort by putting attention off of it. And makes following Hubbard's direction without doubt or question a habit. This habit is strengthened through repetition thousands and thousands of times over.
That is why Hubbard had students "clear" thousands and thousands of words. In Scientology "clearing" means adding as hypnotic content covertly.
For further reading I will list several references and the areas they elaborate on.
Here's the sequel to Study Technology: Insidious Enslavement
Regarding mind control in Scientology:
Basic Introduction To Hypnosis In Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/b...is-in.html?m=0
Pissed It's Not Your Fault !!!
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/p...fault.html?m=0
The Critical Factor
The Secret Of Scientology Part 1 Control Via Contradiction
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/t...art-1.html?m=0
Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden, Varied And Repeated To Control You As Hypnotic Implants
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...-hell.html?m=0
Humbling Simplicity
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201...
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/t...art-1.html?m=0
Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden, Varied And Repeated To Control You As Hypnotic Implants
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...-hell.html?m=0
Humbling Simplicity
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201...
The Empty Well
Why Hubbard Never Claimed OT Feats And The Rock Bottom Basis Of Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...never.html?m=0
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...never.html?m=0
Regarding Hubbard's uses of loaded language with reversals of truth
Propaganda By Reversal Of Meaning In Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/03/p...ng-in.html?m=0
Regarding the narcissism and sociopathic tendencies in Ron Hubbard and his cult
Scientology's Parallel In Nature - Malignant Narcissism
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/05/s...ure_3.html?m=0
Scientology's Parallel In Nature - Malignant Narcissism
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/05/s...ure_3.html?m=0
Regarding Dissociation
Exteriorization Versus Dissociation
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201... 