Thursday, December 29, 2022

(14) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

 Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism



Influences on NXIVM beliefs and practices, sourced from Natalie et al (2019), rendered in the mode of W.S. Bainbridge, e.g. Bainbridge 1978. |NXIVM teachings drew upon diverse influences, including Ayn Rand ("parasites"), L. Ron Hubbard ("suppressives"), Milton Erickson's hypnosis, Isaac Asimov's science fiction, Rudolf Steiner, Tony Robbins, and neuro-linguistic programming. NXIVM incorporated elements of multi-level marketing and practices from judo, with colored cloth for rank and bowing.

This is the fourteenth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book. 


"To be "at-cause" also meant that we choose our emotions." 

 (Scarred page 42)

In 1986, Ronald Hubbard wrote a poem which is a statement that a being creates their own emotions.


“The Joy of Creating”


“Force yourself to smile and you’ll soon stop frowning.


Force yourself to laugh and you’ll soon find something to laugh about.


Wax* enthusiastic** and you’ll very soon feel so.


A being causes his own feelings.


The greatest joy there is in life is creating.


Splurge on it!” (Ronald Hubbard, 1986)


Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

Obviously, both NXIVM and Scientology share the "you create your own emotions" claim and use it to deny that they have responsibility for the leaders and upper echelon being abusive to people lower in the organization.

But they don't have this as a two way street, in other words Hubbard could, and frequently did act like someone upsetting him was wrong and Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman had no trouble acting like people who upset them were creating an ethical breach!

See? You do not get to tell Ronald Hubbard or David Miscavige that they created their own feelings! Or Nancy Salzman or Keith Raniere!

Keith Raniere used his incredible sensitivity and jealousy to manipulate people but they were not allowed to tell Keith Raniere that he was responsible for his own emotions!

Nancy Salzman in season two of the television show The Vow goes to great lengths to tell her side and say she is under terrible emotional stress and distress regarding the criminal convictions and fallout from the NXIVM criminal trials but oddly she does not say she is creating her own emotions or that she is entirely a hypocrite for abusing others when they experienced negative emotions in the NXIVM training programs and as members of the organization or when she covered for the misconduct of Keith Raniere for years, enabling him to continue it.


If Nancy Salzman asked me for help in resolving what happened to her at NXIVM I think frankly at some point I would probably refer her to a quote from Robert Jay Lifton in which he said that for some Vietnam Veterans a process of separating the mistreatment they endured from others including the US government and the misdeeds they themselves had committed had to be done and to recover they had to face responsibility for the acts they see themselves as responsible for and deal with them as something separate from recounting and analyzing the evil done to them personally by others.

To be clear, this is not a step that is necessary for everyone who was in Scientology or NXIVM or other cultic groups.

 Just as many soldiers serve in war and do not commit war crimes and atrocities, so they don't have to face responsibility for such acts, so too do many cult members not have crimes and abuses to deal with.

I might not bring up such a daunting challenge for quite some time if I worked with Nancy Salzman personally, because often an ex cult member is not ready to face this as an initial part of the recovery process, though we each have a unique cultic experience and our own unique path to recovery if we were in a cult and are fortunate enough to survive and recover. 

For me personally as someone who spent twenty-five years in Scientology and did plenty of bad, even evil, acts during that time I certainly had to work to take responsibility for my own actions, even if just to admit that I was wrong and did wrong to others and apologize to several people, which may seem like far, far too little and far too late. 

I also believe there's something to consider in the idea that "the best apology is changed behavior" as I've endeavoured (however imperfectly) to recognize and change negative behavior that was part of what I apologized for. 

After spending decades in a cult and doing harmful acts one can't go back in time, one can't erase any trauma and hurt one has caused. One can't reconcile with the dead. 

You can't go back and be a better parent, a better husband, a better friend, a better person in the past. 

And you have to accept that no apology or change that is possible will be sufficient to mend some relationships. I am not saying don't try or persist in trying, I am saying that you have to accept the reality that some people are not ever going to accept the efforts or reconcile. That is not a condemnation of you or them on my part, it's a realistic assessment of the situation you may face. 


Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader


"To be at-cause is a way of life, Nancy said. Living this way means you recognize that you are the cause of everything in your life. For someone to behave "out of cause" means that they're choosing to be a victim instead of recognizing their "at-causedness," or how their role in the situation caused what happened." (Scarred page 42)

If only the judge in her trial could have asked Nancy at her sentencing if Nancy was merely being a victim? The judge could have had victims recount how Nancy used this mantra to humiliate others for years. It is worth serious examination. 









Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)