Bottled Up Dissonance Expressed Through Projection

 

 







There is a hypothesis that mixes ideas from hypnotism and psychology and is mixing metaphors as these ideas are not literal but guides for the abstract .

The mind in hypnosis is seen as having the conscious part we easily perceive and the subconscious or unconscious part below the surface awareness that we don't as easily access and in most models does the majority of the mental functions .
In some concepts of how Scientology works is the model of a Scientologist say on course getting confused by one of Hubbard's persuasive methods - by design - Hubbard has overly complex instructions and terms and explanations and contradictions by the thousands in his doctrine . He also has information overload to overwhelm a student .

By confusing a student and getting them to set aside contradictions and see that they must have MUs or need to demo etc. Hubbard tricks a student into getting a confusion from contradiction ( as an example ) - the contradiction of knowing they understood a sentence they just read BUT also "knowing" that their feeling of confusion or reelingness or frustration "must" be from an MU or need to demo or skipped gradient generates enough confusion for cognitive dissonance to exist - The contradiction between their own idea and the idea of Hubbard the "authority " who is trusted on study .

They do not know what to do and so by following Hubbard the conscious mind is taken off the dissonance - it becomes still present in the subconscious but hidden . But just taking the conscious mind off it does several things . It feels better and this provides the brightening up Hubbard talks of . It also has a moment of hesitation and blankness that is from cognitive dissonance - by having following Hubbard's authority and taking in Hubbard's words go into the moment of blankness those two things act as implanted hypnotic commands . If a person only did this a few dozen times it might not have much effect . But Scientologists do this thousands of times and study the same references hundreds of times in this way .

Burying contradiction and submitting your will to a person or concept is called trance logic and has the well researched factor of making contradictions to doctrine hidden from the conscious mind via denial and dissociation but immense and ever growing in the subconscious mind . This leads to very strong negative emotions being expressed via age regression and projection at people or things that remind the cult member of the contradiction .Other mental defense mechanisms can also be tied into this .

The cult member feels very nervous , overwhelmed , frustrated and confused all at once . It is mentally and physically unpleasant and because of the denial and dissociation hiding it they are blind to the real cause . This is created not only in indoctrination but also in auditing for both the auditor and victim .

And in the course room for the student and supervisor and word clearer etc. After a while being in the cult environment or even thinking in the complex loaded language and phrases from the cult fulfills this function .

Scientology's basic formula is create a confusion ( or bring up one that is already in a person's mind ) and when they are in the moment of dissonance take advantage of their confusion and desire for it to end and indecision by making a decision for them with a lie - the lie always at least contains submission to Scientology and credit to Hubbard for improving their condition . Really he confuses you and then misdirects your attention off the confusion to pretend to help you - while inserting his commands to replace your beliefs , emotions and behaviors. This is true in books , tapes , courses auditing etc.