In Scientology a cult member routinely doesn't use their best judgement, independent and critical thinking skills and own good common sense. An otherwise intelligent and skeptical person will often forego all that and behave quite differently.
There are definite reasons for that. It's not a fluke or due to being more stupid, gullible or insane than other people. It has reasons that are due to human nature and psychological and societal issues. Ones that are often unknown and unexamined.
A cult member could be said to forge the prison of their own mind in a very specific way and bit by bit not know the full extent of what they are doing or its long term consequences.
Part of this has to do with how the mind deals with information and trauma. A person's own psychological defense mechanisms and the nature of conscious and subconscious thought both play key roles.
In understanding information and how a mind deals with it a few things should be started with. If a person gets information with no upset or anxiety and simply accepts it and passes it along to other people and recalls it with no alteration we call it honesty.
We say honesty is the best policy and with good reason. Aside from moral arguments there are psychological benefits to honesty with others and yourself.
If a person receives or thinks up information and accepts it themself but is less than truthful with others we call that lying, in other words knowingly lying when a person knows on a conscious level they are delivering untrue information on purpose.
When a person has for some reason got information and won't or can't face it on a conscious level but on a subconscious level is at least somewhat aware but not facing the information we call it denial.
We say a person is in denial. Now to be accurate a person is in denial on certain information or topics or whatever they can't or won't face and just telling them usually prompts them being annoyed and defensive. Whether they are in denial or not.
If they are it's a natural reaction and if they are not then they are annoyed that their mind has been sort of invaded and inspected and diagnosed incorrectly.
So just telling a person is often not productive. It the same with terms like brainwashing.
Brainwashing is a state that is similar to denial In that if someone is successfully brainwashed they have reasons to not consider it or face or look at evidence and if they are not then they get annoyed. Because brainwashing has denial as a component.
That's the important point. That's why irony seems high. The brainwashed person refuses to face it and projects traits they dare not consider in themself onto others, particularly others that remind them of those traits or say they may have them.
And that is the psychological defense mechanism of projection being used along with denial and even reversals of truth are used too. A reversal can be for example seeing the trait one denies in others quite strongly, not based on its actual presence but on the condition of being reminded of the denied information. And if a person reminds one of the information in oneself in particular.
In Scientology lots of things get denied by members. There is a lack of individual results and a lack of group results. The reality one can easily observe with their own senses is habitually denied. This sets up conflict between the conscious mind of a cult member that doesn't dare see, think or know certain things and the subconscious.
The subconscious holds buried ideas, emotions and even behavior that one dare not express. As this rift grows mental discomfort over the contradictions escalates. This is called cognitive dissonance. It's a subject worth learning about in depth for anyone who studies cults.
As the dissonance grows anxiety, confusion and a feeling of being overwhelmed all can become extreme and persistent. Then a Scientologist often becomes more negative toward people that remind them of Scientology's failures. Those people are acceptable targets in Scientology with its SP doctrine, disconnection and fair game practices.
Those practices actually preserve the cult by giving an exterior target for what should be conscious criticism aimed inward toward the cult and the cult member.
This doesn't mean the cult member should be condemned or judged harshly. It means they should face the truth about their group and self. But dare not.
Now that is a part of the issue but there is still more that is very relevant. In addition to conscious honesty, lying and denial of information there is also dissociation.
That is a mental splitting off of a portion of the mind that is considered more severe than lying or denial. Like denial it is considered a response to trauma.
Dissociation is a subject that is worth serious in depth study for all cult members and ex members without exception.
Dissociation has several forms and greatly varying degrees. In a traumatic event like a rape for example a victim may experience severe trauma. As a sort of automatic defense mechanism they might feel it is unreal or not happening or that they are outside their body watching it and not really experiencing it.
They may never recall it and have the memory and deep trauma separated so strongly they don't ever recall it even subconsciously and demonstrate a far stronger separation than denial would create.
Dissociation can manifest in emotional flatness or indifference regarding issues and subjects a person obviously should care about. It can be shown it totally not caring about behaviors that seem quite important.
It has several aspects and manifestations. Dissociation from oneself or life in general can have the not there feeling, the floating feeling, the disconnection from reality feeling.
Dissociation from a behavior or person can have an emotional flatness toward a person or behavior. The ideas that "I know I should care, but somehow I don't".
In cults and definitely in Scientology in particular long term hard core members develop extreme denial and extreme dissociation routinely.
They can experience floating and in the cult it is called exteriorization which Hubbard knew was a consequence from hypnosis and falsely claimed was a spiritual experience.
In psychoanalysis dissociation is known as hypnotic phenomena from trauma. Or hypnosis is defined as a state of dissociation.
The symptoms of hypnosis and dissociation certainly overlap.
Margaret Singer described how an ex cult members may continue with emotional flatness on subjects in an interview. She advocated for families to listen to ex cult members and eventually the feelings would return over time. It's a process of gradual progressives change.
She interviewed over four thousand ex cult members and was a top expert on cults.
In hypnosis one can enter a state called trance logic in which deep attention fixation occurs. It is marked by the conscious mind ignoring contradictions from the hypnotist as an authority, the person being hypnotized actually is in denial about the contradictions and their conscious mind ignores them and any cognitive dissonance they create, but the subconscious doesn't. It holds buried both the awareness of contradictions and the accompanying cognitive dissonance and negative emotions it carries as well.
The state of hypnosis has several traits for how a subject's mind are affected. One is the phenomena known as trance logic. It's quite often used in Scientology in auditing and indoctrination.
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) !!
I will include an excerpt from an abstract (scholarly paper) that is available on this blog.
Research on classical and "nonclassical" (e.g., Ericksonian) forms of hypnosis suggests the following: It is possible to be hypnotized without being aware of the induction process. Most hypnotic phenomena, including carrying out posthypnotic suggestions, have been produced in subjects who were not aware of being in hypnosis (Erickson, Rossi, & Rossi, 1976).
Hypnosis begins with a shift in attention (Hilgard, 1968). Attention is normally motile. That is, it is dynamic and is relatively freely focused on a variety of events within a large perceptual field; it moves back and forth between the external (e.g., actions and events "outside" the self) and the internal (e.g., thoughts and feelings). Trance is a state that involves relatively focused, fixed or immotile attention.
Corollary: anyone or anything that results in decreased motility of attention is highly likely to induce an altered state of consciousness ("trance") whether or not it is labeled "hypnosis."
The language of hypnosis is marked by vagueness, overgeneralizations, metaphors and abstractions. Classical inductions are not the only way to "talk hypnosis" (although they can be found in many "meditation" techniques not overtly labeled as hypnosis).
Nonclassical inductions use "normal" conversation and storytelling, often directed at more than one representational system (e.g., sight, sound and touch) to shift attention, in part by activating the subject's tendency to search within him— or herself in order to find ways of relating what is being said now to experiences in the past (Bandler & Grinder, 1975). Corollary: words that sound "deep" or meaningful but feel confusing (and/or strangely calming) can induce trance outside the subject's awareness.
In trance, memories, fantasies, feelings and thoughts are often experienced more vividly and intensely than they are in the normal "waking" state (Hilgard, 1981). If a person is unaware of being in trance, or is unfamiliar or unconvinced of the phenomenon of hypnotic enhancement of perception, fantasy and suggestibility, then that person is likely to attribute the vividness and intensity of the trance experience to some special characteristic of the message and/or communicator. That is, the person links his/her feelings of intensity with what has been said or who has said it, not with how (i.e., hypnotically) it was said. The message is therefore experienced as "more real" or "more true" than other messages, and the communicator of the message is endowed with extraordinary (or even supernatural) characteristics or skills.
Hypnosis involves powerful transference. The induction process involves establishing and utilizing rapport, and hypnosis is perhaps first and foremost an interpersonal process (Fromm, 1979). Most subjects, after being hypnotized, feel closer, more trusting, and more positively about their operator than before. It is always more difficult to objectively assess someone (or what that someone says) after a powerful transference relationship has developed.
Hypnosis involves the suspension of "normal" logic. Trance logic is characterized by, among other things, lack of criticalness and the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs as true without one canceling out the other (Orne, 1959). Thus, in trance one can have the sensation of cold and still be aware of being seated in a warm, heated room. Corollary: in trance, people can accept notions or ideas that they would otherwise reject because they contradict other beliefs known to be based in reality. For example, the members of one Hindu-based cult believe that the space program is a hoax and yet may listen to and accept weather reports based on satellite pictures.
From:
Building Resistance: Tactics for Counteracting Manipulation and Unethical Hypnosis in Totalistic Groups
Steve K. D. Eichel, Ph.D.
Abstract
In addition to the heightened suggestibility hypnotic techniques create in victims they also create dissociation as a consequence and can make entering such states habitual for cult members, particularly Scientologists as Scientology has hundreds of methods intended to induce hypnosis and heightened dependence to authority within it. They use anxiety, confusion (often via contradictions or paradox), and other means to overwhelm the victim that often result in trauma severe enough to induce dissociation repeatedly. This sets up patterns of repeated dissociation.
Below is an excerpt from a blog entry on this.
Understanding Dissociation
a disconnection between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of who he or she is. This is a normal process that everyone has experienced. Examples of mild, common dissociation include daydreaming, highway hypnosis, or “getting lost” in a book or movie, all of which involve “losing touch” with awareness of one’s immediate surroundings.
Some people describe it as feeling “spacey”, “numb” or “checked out”. Dissociation is a common reaction to traumatic events. For example, someone who is mugged may dissociate or “forget” part of the experience or the associated feelings as a way to cope with the experience. For those who experience ongoing, repetitive trauma like survivors of childhood abuse do, dissociation occurs so frequently that it interferes with other aspects of life or functioning. It is difficult to have meaningful relationships, or to know how to make
healthy relationship choices, if you do not have access to all the information about people in your life.
Most trauma survivors dissociate to some extent. Maybe you dissociate from your body or bodily sensations. Maybe you have no access to forbidden feelings like anger, sadness, fear. Maybe you are missing pieces of information about events from the past. Maybe during stress you feel like you are watching yourself from a distance. Maybe in situations that would evoke feelings in others you feel spacey or distracted. It may not be readily apparent and therefore it is important for therapists to learn how to recognize dissociation, which may include asking about it in therapy sessions. How can healing/learning take place if someone isn’t really present?
One the one hand, given the context of chronic, severe childhood trauma, dissociation can be considered adaptive because it reduces the overwhelming distress created by the traumatic experiences. On the other hand, if dissociation continues to be used in adulthood, when the dangerous situations/abusive experiences that led to it no longer exist, it can be maladaptive. So why is dissociating as and adult or in the absence of actual danger a problem? The dissociative person may automatically disconnect from situations that are perceived as dangerous or threatening, without taking time to determine whether there is any real danger. This leaves the person “spaced out” in many situations in ordinary life, unable to learn alternative coping skills and behaviors, and in fact more at risk of being unable to protect themselves when there is an actual threat.
So as a result a cult member often may react to certain stressful situations by automatically dissociating. It's an altered state of consciousness that is startling to deal with. I believe it is important for understanding the behavior of cult members.
The similarities between trance logic in the deceived cult member or the fractured mind of the cult leader are striking.
Robert Jay Lifton has described the guru as having a split or fractured mind that can lie and work to hide all the evidence of lying and simultaneously know it is lying in a dissociated portion of their mind. They are not fooling others with a perfectly sane mind. They are split into multiple portions but perhaps not as severely as a person with the stereotypical multiple personality disorder. They can go that far, but it would need to be very carefully evaluated. I know of no cult leader I can verify as having that disorder.
I believe the idea a psychologist expressed online (and I apologize for not remembering who it was as I read the article a long time ago and so must paraphrase, but admit this is not entirely my idea). This idea was that narcissists use denial in a different way than most people. The psychologist proposed that a narcissist can lie while being fully in denial over the falsehoods of their lies and the personal responsibility they have for lying, then if a situation arises that would be more advantageous for the narcissist to consciously know they are lying so they can hide it or if their is evidence to hide or destroy the narcissist does so.
The stunning thing about the quick switch denial and other psychological defense mechanisms of the narcissist is that they all are active much more often than for other people. The degree of psychological changes can include spending far more time in dissociative states than normal people.
Now, to be clear not every cult member automatically becomes a person with narcissistic personality disorder. Not every cult member gets a personality disorder. But many get a kind of artificial induced increase in traits that are similar to narcissistic personality disorder and other related disorders.
It's on a spectrum and every person has a unique experience.
But many cult members suffer severe trauma and go into denial that progressively increases as more cult indoctrination and cult actions and cult required thoughts themselves occur.
The pathology of cluster B personality disorders and cult members overlap. Being a cult member is often artificially over time being molded by the actions of others and oneself into a very narcissistic and sociopathic person. Perhaps unknowingly, but it still occurs.
Here's a short excerpt on denial and narcissism.
The psychological defenses are those strategies that the unconscious mind uses to deny reality and what is happening to avoid feeling bad. Science-fiction writer Frank Hubert, the author of Dune, said, "How often the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him." The defenses of denial and getting angry when challenged about harmful behavior function to maintain a self-image of feeling good about themselves even though others can see through the facade."
The type and amount of defenses that a person develops can add up, creating more problems for themselves and those around them. Denial is avoiding responsibility for one's harmful actions to others and saying "Nuh-uh. Not me! I didn't do it." The person learns to lie even to one's self. They need to keep up the pretense of being a good guy and across time they come to believe their own lie. Denial is being irresponsible at an unconscious level because the person is embarrassed to know the truth about his misbehavior.
Denial is listed as an immature developmental defense along with delusion, distortion and projection in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV of the American Psychiatric Association. People who are not open to hearing information and criticism about themselves can become Masters of Denial. There is no end to what they can make themselves believe for their own benefit.
One man who identified himself as an ex-abuser describes it this way in his articleThe Three Horsemen of Denial. Here are the three main ways we lie to ourselves:
We minimize the damage we've done
We rationalize our actions
We justify ourselves in doing them.
Through these lies we distort reality as we perceive it, we redefine the meaning of what we do, and we adjust what we consider to be right and wrong, in an escalating fashion. Ultimately, any act, no matter how hideous, can be carried out once we have developed the necessary level of denial….
From
Denial and Other Common Narcissistic Defenses
So, I believe the capacity to accept negative aspects of personal character, conduct and basic nature within oneself in a mature, honest, humble, and balanced way is conducive to facing life itself. In doing that a person can accept things without trauma or discomfort. Obviously some things are traumatic for even honest and humble people. Violence, abuse, threats, losses etc. all can create trauma and prompt dissociation.
But habitual dissociation to criticism and reminders of negative qualities within oneself is a trait that narcissists and other cluster B sufferers exhibit. Unfortunately cult members often, but not always, gain the quality of persistent repetitive dissociation and the use of denial, projection and reversals of truth in a way similar to a narcissist or cult leader.
So for example this can work by having a cult member who has been indoctrinated successfully for some time change sufficiently to take on dissociation and denial quite often as habits. That's why dissociation can be called maladaptive.
Maladaptive has a very specific definition in psychology and involves certain behaviors.
I will use a short excerpt to illustrate this:
Maladaptive behaviors are types of behavior that keep you from adjusting to certain situations. Often seen in those with
social anxiety disorder, maladaptive behaviors are adopted in an attempt to lessen anxiety and fear but actually can worsen your condition because they are often damaging actions. Many people with social anxiety inadvertently develop maladaptive behaviors in order to handle social situations and manage the condition.
Maladaptive behaviors can be dysfunctional and can even reinforce the problem.
Common Maladaptive Behaviors
Maladaptive behaviors can range from passive communication to substance abuse. Many people with social anxiety may try these common maladaptive behaviors:
- Passive Communication: Because many people with anxiety avoid confrontation, they may minimize their feelings or opt to not discuss things that bother them. This can worsen social anxiety because without making their feelings known, their needs can go ignored. By not being assertive, passive communicators reinforce social anxiety by enabling thoughts and feelings to be ignored.
- Avoidance: If you have social anxiety, you may try to lessen your nervousness by avoiding triggering situations, such as refusing to give a speech in public or turning down event invitations. While avoiding these situations may prevent you from having anxiety at that moment, avoiding these regular events can worsen social anxiety through limiting your social circle and making you feel more lonely.
- Anger: Many people with social anxiety become very angry. They may be frustrated with themselves or upset at others for forcing them to engage in social situations or for ignoring their needs. These feelings can become pent up and finally be expressed very angrily. Some people vent their angry in unhealthy ways or by lashing out at loved ones, making them feel guilty afterward and actually making social anxiety worse.
- Substance Abuse: If you suffer from social anxiety but still need to do something that scares you, such as needing to give a speech in order to succeed at your job, you may be tempted to treat your anxiety with alcohol or drugs to calm your nerves. People with anxiety disorders are three times more likely to abuse alcohol or medications than other people. While using these substances may provide you with some relief, it is short-lived and can be very harmful. It can become a crutch you have to rely on, raising the potential to become addicted.
End quote.
From:
What is the meaning of maladaptive behavior ?
In Scientology a cult member often has buried anxiety and contradictions in parts of their subconscious mind as denied content and separated from the mind in dissociation. This creates a dangerous and unpleasant state that unfortunately becomes more dangerous and unpleasant as the dissociation and denial escalates over time.
Now I must emphasize that individual experiences vary greatly. But quite often they are severely unpleasant for cult members and many ex cult members from Scientology experience dissociation and denial related difficulties decades after leaving Scientology.
So to add it all up imagine a Scientologist. We can call him Sal the Scientologist. He for our example joins at say, seventeen years old and before joining was a relatively normal fellow without any personality disorder or unusual troubles with dissociation or denial. He was not a troubled or difficult person.
Okay, say he undergoes a couple years in Scientology and gets a couple dozen hours of Scientology auditing and does a few basic courses then joins staff and does a few more courses for staff, then realizes Scientology pays nothing so he routes off staff, pays a small freeloader debt and takes more courses as a public.
He spends hundreds and hundreds of hours in Scientology indoctrination. He experiences confusion then temporary relief by taking on the habits Hubbard created for him. The habits include denial of contradictions in Scientology itself, denial of failures in Scientology he can directly observe, denial of the abandonment of his prior values and obligations and even priorities and passions, including often love for people from his past.
In indoctrination dissociation also occurs. It manifests in many ways and combined with the denial he creates together the two have extreme effect. He only believes Hubbard's words, over anything he knows or hears from others or even experiences directly or sees with his own eyes. He denies Hubbard could be or ever demonstrably by any evidence could be wrong. He can dissociate from proof. He can read something untrue or unacceptable by Hubbard and go blank and become unable to recall it. He can have emotional flatness.
The denial, dissociation and projection and reversals of truth becomes habitual. Due to another technique Hubbard used called propaganda by reversal of meaning Sal reads Orwellian double speak and takes on double think. He dissociates from certain words and phrases themselves. So he can't think straight regarding them. He simultaneously believes the reversed terms mean their claimed definition and also that they mean the opposite. His mind mirrors the split mind of the cult leader. So as examples the term clear in Scientology means two things. It means perfect superhuman mental capacity including perfect character, judgment, memory and thought.
AND it means no improvement or difference from anyone else. But in separate parts of his mind. He can meet clears or even be proclaimed clear himself, it happens rarely but it happens, and be aware that clears don't have the perfect memory, improved judgment etc. which clears are required to have but he still thinks they do have those qualities. A clear actually has a fake hypnotic identity and reality ADDED to him, rather than the fictional horror of the reactive mind REMOVED as Hubbard claimed. A reversal of truth.
He can see the word OT which to him means Operating Thetan. It is supposed to be a free spiritual being using their own independent ability to function as they choose. But of course Sal meets Scientologists labeled OTs. About five percent of them or less do significant portions of the OT levels.
Say he meets others who have finished OT III and OT V and even OT VIII.
He knows from reading Scientology doctrine that there are specific superhuman abilities the OTs are supposed to have. He knows a person that completed the L rundowns for example is supposed to be "stably exterior with full perception". That's generally accepted as meaning a spirit outside a body permanently and with senses like vision and hearing functioning at a high level.
Sal meets an OT VIII completion. Ollie the OT. Ollie has a successful business and has donated a half million dollars to Scientology. Ollie spent twenty years in Scientology and did all the L rundowns and lots of courses.
Ollie, in Scientology terms should be a demigod. Ollie should have stable exteriorization, perfect health and a long list of other powers. Ollie should have unshakable sanity. Sal sees Ollie flip out and have a raging fit over a minor incident.
Ollie proclaims in the lobby of the local Scientology org "I AM stably exterior with full perception !".
Sal witnesses this and kind of hesitates to acknowledge it. He wonders for a second what that is like. But Ollie takes it as disbelief and goes mad with rage. Then SCREAMS a half inch from Sal's face "I AM STABLY EXTERIOR WITH FULL PERCEPTION !!!"
Ollie can't bear any evidence he has failed or that Scientology is wrong. None. By the way OT really means a body and mind that Hubbard controls. The victim is unknowingly controlled by Hubbard. The opposite of his definition. But entirely denied and dissociated from.
So Sal has conversations with people outside of Scientology. He denies their points or valid logic. He dissociates from anything he can't deny. He may not have emotional connection to things and people he should.
He can't afford the luxury of self examination. He dare not admit failure or ignorance or human flaws. Certainly not in any way Scientology doesn't embrace. He's stuck in maladaptive behavior. He avoids through denial and projection and reversals of truth. Hubbard took these behaviors and made them routine by his doctrine and cult. Hubbard encouraged certainty without doubt. He encouraged the knocking out and hammering out of existence all other technologies. He encouraged a focusing on words and blind obedience in indoctrination and a rejection of reasonable attitudes.
Hubbard made projection mandatory with his attack the attacker stimulus response approach to criticism. He made automatic certainty that critics have crimes hidden and automatically deserve no rights in a thinking society whatsoever mandatory for Scientologists.
He used denial, reversals of truth, projection and dissociation to control the minds of men, in a hidden manner.
So Sal is the end result of all this. His mind is twisted and warped by strange ideas he doesn't fully understand. He thinks in strange, irrational and prejudiced ways. He easily slips into trances and dissociation and denies things and projects.
He remembers some events through a highly distorted perspective. Others he can recall with no appropriate emotions. He's emotionally flat on things he used to care about deeply. Some things he remembers only subconsciously. Others he has completely blocked out. He has become more narcissistic and sociopathic than he ever was before.
He gets strange ideas about others and has strange emotions he dare never face.
So imagine trying to talk to him. Imagine just trying to get him to consider that Scientology might not be what he's been thinking it was. Imagine criticizing Hubbard to him.
He should get infuriated, enraged and attack you with an unrestrained and unrelenting fury immediately. He should feel YOU are everything that is wrong in the world and your destruction will alleviate any injustice anywhere.
That his ideas are absurd, magical thinking and black and white is entirely irrelevant. He KNOWS this.
That's the entry point quite often with a Scientologist. He or she is mentally enslaved covertly. Hubbard set up a system that like a machine has a caste system of people operating like cogs in a giant brainwashing machine. So big with so many automatic parts that don't inspect one another that they are meant to never learn the truth. They are meant to recruit more slaves, gain more wealth and political power and use all three components to keep going in perpetuity.
That's Scientology. Automatic invisible enslavement into eternity, if unchecked. It's meant to grow with no limit, remove all obstacles and convert or destroy all humanity.
For further reading I will list several references and the areas they elaborate on.
Regarding mind control in Scientology:
The Critical Factor
The Empty Well
Regarding Dissociation
Exteriorization Versus Dissociation
