Ignorance Enthusiasts

A year or so after I got out of Scientology I ran into an interesting behavior that I have seen more than a couple times from ex Scientologists. I was perhaps naively approaching the issue of reluctance in others.

I thought that if someone put forth a question the simple thing to do was tell them what subjects and sources address their questions. Lots of subjects outside Scientology exist and are far more developed than Hubbard ever portrayed them as in Scientology.

Hubbard's doctrine is packed with statements degrading psychology, psychiatry, logic, neuroscience, medical science, physics, chemistry and mathematics and other subjects. He portrays them as primitive and backwards and loaded with false ideas and harmful lies.

So, when I ran into ex Scientologists that frequently asked questions about themes addressed by subjects I discovered outside Scientology I foolishly answered several questions.

One occurrence is a strong example of several things and I will recount it as best I can recall and change the name of the person involved to protect her privacy. If she sees this she will probably know it's about her.

I ran into a second generation Scientologist who spent significant time, perhaps hours, many days on Facebook wondering about issues regarding her mother and what being in Scientology did to her mother and how it affected their relationship and how the treatment she received from Scientology organizations affected her. I will call the questioning daughter Sara and her mother Marg. Sara rejected Scientology and Marg had some admiration for Hubbard and belief in the methods or experiences she found in Scientology.

Sara spent time almost every day wondering about the nature of Scientology, how being in affected her and her mother and similar questions. She was quite adamant that she had unresolved issues regarding Scientology.

I saw this for several weeks and simply told Sara she could read a few books. I think I recommended True Believer by Eric Hoffer, Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer, Freedom Of Mind by Steve Hassan, Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich, A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger, Age Of Propaganda and perhaps a couple more.

I think I described the subjects each book addresses and what answers they may provide.

Okay, she blew up at me and said, "No one has time for all that", now bear in mind that Sara is a grown woman who has found the time to spend hours online going over her personal life again and again and in Scientology likely spent dozens or hundreds of hours in Scientology indoctrination and auditing.

It struck me as strange that someone would be upset or even perhaps tortured over questions about the years they spent in Scientology and completely unwilling to even try reading books at all to understand the possible answers to what happened to them.

I have since learned some ex Scientologists after hundreds of hours spent in Scientology indoctrination never want to pick up a book again or the ideas that Hubbard repeatedly expressed about other subjects being overly complex, confusing and ultimately useless may have stuck with some ex Scientologists more than they realize.

And people in general don't know how much subjects like psychology and neuroscience have progressed over the last few decades and that subjects like propaganda analysis, rhetoric and logical fallacies even exist, let alone their level of development.

In reading books on these subjects I discovered hundreds of ideas with strong scientific evidence that are contrary to folk psychology, assumptions about the mind many of us hold and pass along.

So, if someone has those assumptions it is easy to see why they won't read any books on the mind because they feel they already understand it.

I have also run into people that feel reading books on things like the mind, hypnosis, logic. cults, rhetoric and so on is looking into rabbit holes and missing out on life. Hmm. So, all the writers like Stephen King that read many books and write are acceptable as are academics who often read hundreds of books and keep studying in their fields for years , but somehow someone trying to understand Scientology is not right.

Odd, judgment. I think it's odd that ultimately some people are not just choosing to not read anything to learn but go on and on claiming to wonder about issues with plenty of books available on them but see anyone pursuing knowledge as somehow doing something wrong.

Ultimately Sara chose to shower me with insults and I was not insulting her at all. She peppered comments with insults and stretched her remarks to the point of saying untrue things about me.

When I was talking to someone else she chimed in to call me a worshipper of academia. Interesting insult.

It reminded me how comedian Chris Rock has remarked on asking some folks if they read and getting the response "no, I keep it real" proudly. Chris Rock responded "yeah, real dumb" in disgust.

He saw the liability in celebrating a lack of learning and abandonment of reading. He realized glorifying a life without education is inviting not just ignorance but disaster. If you don't read you are just as limited as if you can't read and people that can't read are extremely limited in life. And regarding recovery from Scientology or learning hundreds of subjects you are practically crippled.

I don't think everyone else has to pursue reading to the degree I have or even close. But I would be lying if I said that most people wouldn't benefit from reading some books to understand the world and themselves better. We all have different degrees of literacy and intelligence and will get varying degrees of benefits from different books but you certainly get zero benefit from the books you never read.

I just want you to understand that the ignorance enthusiasts in encouraging people to not even try to understand things ensures they won't to the degree they listen. Don't listen to them. If you know you have a genuine interest or even mild interest in a subject or a need a subject could potentially help I encourage you to find out the terms or concepts or even the name of the subject or subjects that could be right for you and pursue them. It may change your life, it's certainly changed mine.