Scientology's Secret To Overcoming Criticism

Scientology cult founder Ronald Hubbard had faced quite a bit of well deserved criticism regarding himself as a liar and conman and Scientology as a fraud. He learned a basic technique many conmen have used for millennia to overcome criticism and doubts regarding both their character and their products they are selling.

I ran into an explanation of it under the name "offensive defensive technique" some years ago. The basic description I was given is that a conman in his initial presentation and sometimes subsequent presentations launches a preemptive strike against doubts and criticism. The example I was given is one from real life and recent history.


In the 1980s several NFL players were conned by unscrupulous financial investors. A common con was for a man with a nice expensive suit and nice well decorated and furnished office and a professional looking secretary would meet the NFL players one at a time and use any successful sales as references to get other clients. He would speak like a lawyer on T.V. and use terms you might hear on shows about the law and finance. But just sprinkle in just enough to seem highly educated.

Now here's the thing. The advisor would tell the player he needs to be careful with his money and do his homework because lots of people will try to take his money. This puts the idea that conmen are out there ready to rip him off which prompts the player to be wary regarding investment advisors.

The player then has the threat of being conned front and center and the advisor as a potential threat OR trusted friend is presented. It's a binary choice and it's extremely difficult to insult someone by saying "you are right, YOU might be a lowlife scumbag looking to rip me off, I better leave right now and investigate you !" It's a totally socially taboo activity to leave upon arrival as a guest and to do so because you think the host might be a criminal looking to defraud you. You need advice and the first advice this person gave you is certainly true, but here's the catch - you immediately feel like either trusting this guy regarding conning you or not trusting him and you have to immediately reject him or not.

Most people - if they don't reject the advisor - set the decision to accept him and brush aside the idea of him conning you and then support that decision by staying around to listen to him as if he's a desirable advisor. We often stick with a first impression and in this case the impression includes rejecting or accepting the advisor regarding the subject of trust is integrated into the first impression.

See, the advisor gets to set the stage to get accepted by the client and have the client see the expensive clothes, big office and secretary without knowing he has no authentic credentials as a financial advisor and no appropriate education or references and that he rented the office for just a month to impress you and that his secretary is in on the con and perhaps even his expensive car is rented.

Similarly Hubbard knew that if someone is trying or open to trying Scientology he has the best chance he will ever get to take on the subject of fraud in Scientology head on on his terms and to warn the person about "other guys" that are out to con them, but of course not him.

By getting the subject to on the spot proceed with Scientology and feel it is their own choice they also feel they decided for themselves that Scientology isn't a fraud. That's the con.

The cult expert Margaret Singer spent decades learning about cults and interviewed over four thousand cult members and wrote the book Cults In Our Midst and here are some clues that helped me understand how this works.

"Now, when you engage in cooperative activity with peers in an environment that you do not realize is artificially constructed, you do not perceive your interactions to be coerced." ( page 76 )



 "In other words, you will think that you came upon the belief and behaviors yourself." ( page 76 )



"Peer pressure is very important to this process:

If you say it in front of others, you'll do it.
Once you do it, you'll think it.
Once you think it (in an environment you do not perceive to be coercive ), you'll believe that you thought it yourself." ( page 76 )

Hubbard convinced people he didn't influence them by repeatedly bringing up other people and practices as frauds and covert attempts to persuade people. That way he could get people to think they decided he wasn't a fraud and to go back to that impression in the future whenever the subject is brought up so they consider it a settled issue and keep rejecting the possibility Hubbard and Scientology are frauds.

Additionally the offensive defensive technique has another advantage - it rapidly removes people who reject you. They immediately are put in the position of rejecting you or continuing. In the most studied and important reference in Scientology "Keeping Scientology Working" Hubbard advised to have them quit fast if they are going to quit ! That way you get two advantages. You aren't wasting time on people who won't give you money and you remove them from the Scientology organization so they aren't introducing uncertainty into the group. Having a group that is one hundred percent in agreement with your program makes obedience to authority far easier to achieve as conformity, especially unanimous conformity, strongly encourages following the leader and sticking with the crowd as well. When the whole crowd is in lockstep it seems especially seductive.

Richard Feynman. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.

Mark Twain - 
How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and [how] hard it is to undo that work again! 

Here are several of my most popular posts to describe Scientology.

Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Basic Introduction To Hypnosis In Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Pissed It's Not Your Fault !
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

The Critical Factor
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

The Secret Of Scientology part 1 Control Via Contradiction
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden, Varied And Repeated To Control You As Hypnotic Implants
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Humbling Simplicity
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Propaganda By Reversal Of Meaning
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...

Scientology's Parallel In Nature - Malignant Narcissism
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/...