Scientology Building The Prison Of The Mind Part 11 The Weakness Of Non Reality Based Belief Systems

 

 
Like all posts in the Building the Prison of the Mind series this one consults and quotes Leon Festinger's book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. These posts all run in order and follow the book. They should be read in order and I recommend every ex Scientologist read A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

This post focuses on specific ideas from Cognitive Dissonance on social effects. And their consequences.

Festinger wrote:
The existence of dissonance seems to lead to the initiation of social communication, and the reduction of dissonance is followed by a lessening of such communication. (Page 225)

Festinger goes on to share very relevant and specific ideas on how and with whom a person experiencing dissonance will communicate. Festinger described how a person who internally has little dissonance and only finds disagreement externally in the minds of others is likely to seek to use persuasion to change other individuals' minds.


When a person has dissonance internally however the behavior is very different. They seek agreement with others who already hold their own beliefs to lessen dissonance. This is very applicable in looking at Scientologists' behaviors.

I found in the process of coming out of Scientology a noteworthy change in my own selection of information sources. While within Scientology I often didn't seek any sources of disagreement regarding Scientology and only sought information agreeing with Scientology doctrine quite often. I avoided contradictory evidence quite strongly.

In the process of coming out of Scientology and trying to learn what happened to me I realized at every point in adult life I have held thousands, perhaps millions of ideas and opinions and behaviors simultaneously. And that due to bias and flaws in thinking which are not ever entirely avoidable I had always held several hundred or thousand incorrect ideas. It is unavoidable, try as one might to escape it.

So I accepted flawed reason and conclusions as the human condition forevermore. So I wrote I Am Wrong And You Can Be Too ! And it has a flexibility in accepting (in theory) the cautious possibility, even inevitability, of some ideas no matter how deeply or passionately being held, of having to be wrong.

The result of this is an increased willingness to accept contradictory evidence and to find only seeking confirmation from information to be alarming. It's an unusual approach to find high certainty as a sign to be cautious and play devil's advocate in trying to find evidence against my beliefs, in case they are incorrect or too simplistic and blocking deep critical thinking and comprehensive analysis.

But this is the opposite of the thinking stressed in Scientology. There submission to Hubbard is the highest value and seeking confirmation of his ideas and avoiding contradiction of them is the motivating force in Scientology.

Festinger goes on:
The greater the magnitude of dissonance already existing when one is made aware of disagreement within the group, the greater is the tendency to seek support from those who already agree with one's own opinion. (Page 230)

Festinger found people tend to want their faith restored if it is shaken and several studies have led him to believe a terrible bias and effect occurs quite often.  People get their beliefs thrown into doubt by contrary evidence. They may even fail to maintain faith, but as they find reasons or agreement with their ideas they recover their faith, then overrecover their faith. It actually becomes stronger and more vigorously defended.

Festinger also found something else significant in behavior. If a person experiences an emotion they seek context for the emotion. Normally a person sees a causal relationship between experience and emotions, some things are boring, some frightening, some pleasing and so on.

But when unseen forces inspire emotion then context is sought, meaning expected. So in Scientology members often project negative emotions ruthlessly and passionately onto critics. Why ? Because Scientology consistently produces stress and anxiety that is buried and builds over time along with hidden dissonance. And without understanding of why certain people and ideas are so upsetting, Scientologists blame the people who remind then their technology doesn't really work, and they can't persuade non-Scientologists quite as they know they should be able to. The failures of Scientology to make magic are brought right out when critics or merely uncooperative individuals refuse to submit to Scientology.

Festinger went on to describe a vulnerability of belief systems that is inescapable ultimately for Scientology. It is an idea George Orwell described in the afterword of 1984, which hopefully will given time undermine any non reality based belief systems. The dissonance brought on by direct observations of irrefutable proof that the doctrine of Scientology or a totalitarian regime is undeniably false will weaken the mental hold any such system has.

That our minds eventually discover and reject the lies that enslave us is perhaps a saving grace, it may save humanity from abusive and totalitarian regimes time and again.

Festinger noted that when clear and certain disconfirming evidence impinges it usually inspires abandoning the dissonant beliefs. But sadly, there are circumstances where direct disconfirming evidence is not immediately persuasive enough.

This is made difficult if the social support one has entirely requires agreement with disconfirmed ideas. This is the norm for thousands of Scientologists.

Additionally, Festinger notes a crucial idea for an idea or belief system or group holding an iron grip, it is an experience familiar to many Scientologists. The irrevocable act that demands compliance.

This has long been known to a degree, it exists in the gang that requires murder to join or the child soldiers that are required to rape girls and murder children so they cannot try to return to the society they were plucked from. Most Scientologists don't murder for the cult, but many do leave and renounce families and friends. Many quit jobs and forsake their educations. People often sacrifice so much and are arrogant to so many people with Scientology as the only justification that admitting Scientology is an incorrect belief and behavior system becomes unbearable.

So with direct evidence showing Scientology isn't right but support within the cult acting to confirm it is right the cult member can increase agreement in Scientology by gaining new members. So cult members try to gain new members. Hubbard faked massive expansion to fool members. In the sixties he claimed millions of Scientologists existed, when there have never been more than a hundred thousand active members. Miscavige found an interesting twist on this by building massive organizations that are temporary manned up for publicity temporarily with Scientologists then hollowed out and left empty inactive shells, but still promoted as well staffed and vibrant centers of immense expansion, which never occurs.

So the lie serves to fool members into thinking Scientology has tens of millions of members and millions more joining every year as proof of its workability. When it has tens of thousands of members and cannot grow with its horrible reputation for crimes and abuses.

Festinger found groups support members unreal beliefs by mutual conduct.

By studying millennial doomsday groups he found failure of the world to end on an appointed date actually increased the fanaticism and zealotry of the members. This happens many times to long term Scientologists as Scientology is packed with contradictions and observable false claims.

The process of repeatedly doubting Scientology then recommitting oneself over and over serves not to just close a mind, but to weld it shut effectively making the prison nearly impervious to outside influences. But at the very peak of possible dissonance, with an adamantium outer layer the dissonance can no longer be reduced and the inside crumbles opening the mind to facing reality at last.

Explosive dissonance finally erupts. The experience is a tremendous release of long buried doubts and emotions. It takes one to the very edge of madness and has extreme anxiety, shame, self-loathing, disgust, feeling betrayed, feeling worthless and realizing your entire belief system and life is a lie altogether and at once. It can take months to recover from.

But in facing your fears and Hubbard's lies you free yourself from his dark influence and lift the long shadow off yourself and are free to walk in the light of truth once again.

Scientological Thinking

 

 


In reading about Jonny Jacobsen's excellent coverage of the trial of Scientology in Belgium an amusing kind of exchange between the judges and Scientologists being questioned keeps occurring.

I will paraphrase an example to show how this works.

Judge: So you are supposed to pressure customers to donate large sums of money and buy courses ?
Scientologist: It is always the choice of the customer to buy the course.
Judge: But you say you follow the writings of Hubbard and here is a quote where Hubbard says to hard sell and make sure you get the sale.
Scientologist: I am not familiar with that and you don't understand, you are taking that out of context.
Judge: Are you required to keep track of all moral infractions in fine detail ?
Scientologist: That hasn't been my experience. I only tell the auditor what I am comfortable saying.
Judge: But you have ethics files, auditing files, reports you write on yourself, conditions write ups, OW write ups, life histories, student files and staff files on yourself !
Scientologist: You misunderstand.
Judge: Here is Hubbard's policy stating the auditor must report your overts to the ethics officer.
Scientologist: You are cherry picking things in a way that doesn't make sense.
Judge: Aren't you required to donate large sums of money that escalate the longer you are in Scientology ?
Scientologist: Oh no, not at all.
Judge: Haven't you donated tens of thousands of dollars for services AND tens of thousands to the IAS on top of that ?
Scientologist: Oh yes, because I wanted to.
Judge: You say you follow Hubbard's teachings and here he specifically states to have you flow more money toward your bridge, and to push you to buy ever more expensive services !
Scientologist: No, you don't understand.
Judge: Every policy I bring up you say doesn't apply !

The poor judge goes round and round. Why ? It's not because he doesn't understand Scientology terms. He doesn't understand Scientology's RESULTS on the mind of a Scientologist.

The Scientologist doesn't SEE the reality of Scientology. He FEELS an impression, totally divorced from reality. The methods of indoctrination in Scientology create an unthinking obedience and attitude of cheerful submission in a Scientologist.

The "study technology" actually annihilates the capacity for critical, independent, rational, logical and linear thinking. I covered that in the blog entry Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology. Additionally the loaded language has the effect of creating doublethink. By making words and phrases label their opposites Hubbard created a state of confusion and inability to even perceive reality or detect contradictions in Scientology beliefs and behaviors.

As an example Scientologists simultaneously consider OTs to be godlike superior beings with tremendous powers and know they are entirely normal people with no special abilities. As another example Scientologists consider Scientology workable and Scientology organizations far superior to other groups, but accept that staff get no or very little pay and don't have improving conditions, or even pay equal to normal organizations. I covered the methods of this and many examples in Propaganda by Reversal of Meaning and The Secret of Scientology part one: Control by Contradiction.

Scientologists don't see contradiction in Hubbard's terms, phrases, doctrine or organizations. They simply don't see it. They don't SEE Scientology !

 That's why whenever a judge points out Hubbard's words, no matter how clearly Hubbard states something, no matter how frequently and consistently Hubbard says to do something, no matter how many times the Scientologist himself has done what the judge is asking about with Hubbard's own words to hand - the Scientologist cannot see the details and reality of Scientology.

Scientologists are persuaded with vivid images and hallucinatory fantasies and see THAT fiction instead of the reality of Scientology in Hubbard's doctrine, his organizations and even their own lives and actions.

They buy into a dream of a utopian future, and ignore the current actuality. And the doublethink is so total they accept slavery to strive for freedom, they disconnect from families to build strong families, they are ruthless and brutal to others to help them, they grow to hate virtually everyone to achieve higher affinity for others.

The Scientologist has the horrible weakness of seeing only the illusion of a noble end and not the obvious, criminal, abusive, dishonest and dishonorable means that are truly the heart of Scientology.  That is the bait and switch Hubbard as a covert totalitarian uses - he gives very generous empty promises and fills minds with visions of counterfeit dreams, these dreams are truly fractured shards from Hubbard. They brilliantly seem beautiful and beneficial to gain euphoric associations. But are vague, misunderstood and broad and flexible enough to be used to lead the Scientologist on a path he doesn't even really see.

Now, I am not saying Scientologists are completely free from any degree of responsibility for their actions. That would be impractical and too black and white. And not true. There is no simple total answer.

But understanding Scientologists starts with understanding Scientology's effect on the individual Scientologist. By seeing Hubbard's intent, Hubbard's methods, the results on the Scientologist and the Scientologist's impression of what is occurring you can remove the mystery and seeming irony of Scientology. It all fits together.

By studying the indoctrination method as thought reform, and the behaviors of Scientologists as cult behaviors along with hypnotism and Hubbard's plagiarized methods and social psychology to understand his effects on his victims you can see what a Scientologist sees, without becoming a Scientologist. And if an ex Scientologist you may hopefully radically reduce Hubbard's influence upon your mind and life.

Scientology Building The Prison Of The Mind Part 9 Group Priorities

 





In this post like all others in the Building the Prison of the Mind series I will consult and quote Leon Festinger's book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance and framing my twenty five years in Scientology with this information.

Festinger in the chapter Role of Social Support: Theory disclosed an idea that dissonance in individuals within groups would influence what issues and topics are brought up in social interactions and thus become relevant issues to groups. I am slightly paraphrasing his ideas.

But it is quite important as Scientologists have dissonance over aspects of observable reality that contradicts Scientology doctrine. The abilities Hubbard promises never materialize and the organization is in fact not ethical, doesn't treat staff or Sea Org members well, and is in fact extremely abusive.

To negate the dissonance between the beliefs and observations the group members are compelled to act like bulldogs in trying to get agreement both within the cult and with any outsiders the group members interact with. They want to create more agreement with their beliefs and since observable evidence cannot be made more believers can be.

When there is significant or moderate dissonance, even strong dissonance but not yet maximum or explosive level dissonance, a person can be compelled to seek consonant elements, meaning ideas and opinions that agree with their own. For Scientologists it means they are strongly inclined to seek agreement from other Scientologists on issues they have dissonance on, including trying to resolve confusion on Scientology doctrine by studying more to gain greater understanding of Scientology.

So they are stuck in a rigged game, until they realize the assumptions regarding Hubbard's infallibility and messianic status and his technology could be incorrect.

This compulsion to only find agreement while in the Goldilocks range of dissonance, meaning strong enough to push one to avoid disagreeing information and to seek agreement and not the very strongest dissonance which itself cannot be relieved by more agreement but which is relieved by entirely changing one's beliefs and behaviors, is problematic for a special group of Scientologists.

People who are expelled via suppressive person declares or otherwise separated from the cult have an interesting problem: they as independent Scientologists or freezoners are simultaneously separated from others who would support their beliefs, thereby lessening the dissonance and often stuck only in contact with others outside the main cult.

 So what do they do ? Some close ranks and form extremely small, closed off cells of mini cults. They can be extremely antagonistic to outsiders as they realize the lies regarding Scientology's growth and size and effectiveness socially have no merit. They are stuck in a no man's land of dissonance without relief. Some of them end up interacting with exes and critics and viciously lash out as they are incredibly uncomfortable and blame critics for not seeing their beliefs as true.

 They don't merely disagree, they are disgusted by the presence of educated disagreement - meaning people like exes and critics who have learned about Scientology in great depth. To a lone independent Scientologist a person entirely unfamiliar with Scientology merely is ignorant, and that excuse is sufficient to curb dissonance. They can think Scientology is a broad subject that requires extensive study and feel superior to the vast majority of people. Inaccuracies in the South Park story and tabloids serve to reduce dissonance, as Scientologists smugly can point them out.

The issue of the ex who was in for years or decades and understands Scientology concepts and can discuss them in Hubbard's language and has used his methods who entirely rejects Scientology is quite unacceptable to the lone independent. They feel compelled to correct us, to get our agreement and cooperation. Plainly the dissonance drives them to hate us and attack as they have access to critics and don't understand how we can both understand and reject Scientology.

Similarly with well informed critics who were never in Scientology independent Scientologists can go berserk trying to deny their accuracy and refute their claims. The more accurate and well informed a "never in" is who consistently disagrees with Hubbard and his technology the more it infuriates independent Scientologists. So naturally they often cannot stand Tony Ortega, likely the best and most well informed journalist regarding Scientology alive today. He has peers in Mark Ebner, Paulette Cooper, Mark Bunker and a few others but they are unfortunately a tiny minority, perhaps a couple dozen in the entire world .

So, as there are very few good, accurate, well informed journalists they become a focused in on target, but like the exes who resolutely reject Scientology and Hubbard,  Tony Ortega and a handful of others persist undaunted in presenting the information they find, criticism be damned.

Scientology Critics - Want To Win ?

I have recently begun studying the history of the United States as I live here and have abandoned the Scientology beliefs concerning this and wish to understand the country I live in, its history and relationship to the greater world and humanity.

Howard Zinn famously said if you don't know history it's like you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday anyone can take advantage of you because they can tell you anything and how will you know if they are lying ?

Zinn went on to explain how many aspects of American history have been distorted or omitted or lied about to fool Americans. He wrote A People's History of the United States which was an effort to remedy this to a degree.

Notably he credits mass movements with forwarding social progress, often in defiance of established authorities. He covered the US labor movement and strikes, many unions which history books never mention and has commented on civil rights, women's rights, labor rights, the abolition of slavery, the peace movement during the Vietnam war and other examples of effective or influential movements.

He is joined by Chris Hedges and Noam Chomsky in telling people that effective change socially requires organized, well informed cohesive mass movements.

Zinn participated in the protests against the Vietnam war. Chris Hedges participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Both produced heightened awareness of issues by the general public. The Vietnam protests created tremendous awareness of the atrocities the US military committed while the Occupy movement has created tremendous awareness of income inequality and oligarchic aspects of the US political and social structure.

Chris Hedges has notably said writing angry screeds alone on your computer leaves you still alone, right where the government wants you. Now I am not saying the government is a partner or master to Scientology.

I am saying I believe Zinn, Hedges and Chomsky are correct in saying groups that are successful in persuading governments, even slightly or merely by gradually influencing the population which a government seeks to control, are groups that have certain qualities.

They persist despite opposition. They attend to practicalities. If their potential members need food they feed them, or make getting food possible. If they need leadership and plans that can be understood and executed they provide that.

The movements' members require information. Chomsky has spoken on how a biologist doesn't read everything in every journal on biology because it would consume all their time. Instead they learn what to look for and where to find it and only read that. Similarly there is an enormous amount of information on Scientology available.

At some point some organization of the information would be helpful with a curriculum available for exes and critics, obviously it won't be perfect. Additionally organization of critics and coordination of activities like protesting will greatly increase the effectiveness of critics efforts in my opinion.

Examining other movements for examples of successful and unsuccessful actions can be very helpful. Scientology, though bizarre, isn't special and magical. It can be defeated just as other practices have been throughout history. Slavery, women being treated as chattel and many other seemingly unbeatable social institutions have fallen, or been reduced, so Scientology just like all the others can be as well.

Now, this would carry certain undeniable liabilities. Scientology would instantly focus on any group and target it infiltration and destruction. The cult's lawyers and spies would close in to crush any such group with billions of dollars in backing.

But history says actually organizing as others have in the past can win, merely having small efforts and online posts has no proven record in my opinion.

So ultimately our choice is to organize, face Scientology's wrath and have a chance of victory or to reject organization and honestly accept that we are not truly attempting to stop Scientology, but to do something else, perhaps to watch and comment on Scientology.

Consider slavery without abolitionists or slave revolts or the US Civil war, it would persist. The same is true regarding all rights gained.

Chomsky has said there is no magic answer, it takes organization, education, persistence and hard work. It takes the same methods used in the past.

I would love to see a unified successful effort to defeat Scientology. I think protesting is a very good idea, tremendously good and its effectiveness increases exponentially with large scale multi city organized protests with consistent understandable messages for media and the general public. THEY are the target for protests, not staff.

Scientology Building The Prison Of The Mind Part 10 Mass Phenomena

 
 






Like all other posts in the Building the Prison of the Mind series this post consults and may quote Leon Festinger's book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

Festinger wrote:
When a situation occurs where the identical dissonance exists in a large number of persons, one may observe very startling and curious mass phenomena. (Page 193)

Quite important in Scientology is the extremely similar beliefs and experiences Scientologists have. As a totalistic cult with extremely structured indoctrination designed to be nearly identical for several paths or routes in Scientology, really they serve as a caste system for slaves for Hubbard, covertly mentally enslaved, but slaves nevertheless.

Festinger goes on:
Uniform dissonance in a large number of people may also be created if undeniable and incontrovertible information impinges which is dissonant with a very widely held belief or opinion. (Page 194)

Scientologists have uniform dissonance since they all have to accept doublethink, all have to strive for clear and OT states which actually do not exist, and past life memories which cannot be authenticated and do not actually restore any knowledge or abilities, among other pesky observable facts that directly contradict Scientology.

Independent Scientologists have the additional problem of access to far more accurate information than Scientologists in the main cult. The independents can easily see how reviled and mocked Scientology actually is and that the cult is and always has been much smaller than Miscavige or Hubbard ever claimed. That is like a constant kick in the teeth, or perhaps crotch. They can also see that Scientology is so small and lacking influence that most people frankly never learn what Scientology even is or interact with Scientologists. All these unpleasant realities directly discredit both Hubbard and Scientology doctrine.

Festinger goes on:
Denial of Reality
It sometimes happens that a large group of people is able to maintain an opinion or belief even in the face of continual definitive evidence to the contrary. Such instances may range all the way from rather inconsequential occurrences of short duration to phenomena which may almost be termed mass delusions. (Page 198)

Let us imagine a person who has some cognition which is both highly important to him and highly resistant to change. This might be a belief system which pervades an appreciable part of his life and which is so consonant with many other cognitions that changing the belief system would introduce enormous dissonance. (Page 198)

These two ideas are extremely relevant to Scientology. They almost cannot be stressed enough.  Regarding maintaining mass delusions an entire series of books could be written detailing the delusional belief system Scientology requires continuously and the encyclopedias Hubbard assembled detailing how to install and maintain these delusions to enslave his victims mentally.

He uses the tendency to not be able to reject an entire belief system as an ironclad grip on his victims' minds. He knew slowly creating beliefs, behaviors and emotions in line with his desire to control people very gradually, on a gradient approach, could result in creating a total reluctance to give up any aspect of Scientology as they are all firmly interrelated and bolster one another.

Festinger goes on to describe how introducing consonant elements to resolve dissonance or at least reduce it can occur by proselytizing to non-believers. As a group convinces more people to join their group and take on their beliefs the new members introduce more ideas in agreement with the group and more consonant elements ease dissonance.

 In theory he discusses how if a group gets the entire world to adopt their beliefs then the dissonance could be entirely eliminated. That has special significance for a number of groups in a number of ways. Scientology in the main cult often through lies pretends a significant number, perhaps twenty million or so, members and the concept of rapid unstoppable growth to seem to be taking over the world as a way to use an image of inevitable universal acceptance and agreement. The image is entirely false with tens of thousands of Scientologists existing in reality, but the image is enough to influence people, no need for pesky reality to inconvenience anyone.

Interestingly as a comparison other belief systems have gained millions or billions of members, sometimes in a context of enough isolation that entire populations have little or no exposure to other belief systems. They often don't consider ideas outside their beliefs as possible. Some scholars who were, for example, in a Christian dominated society which considered Christian beliefs as given proven facts and infallible truth. Some based all logical proofs on unproven assumptions traced back to their religion.

Now, direct observations of contradictory facts within the doctrine or observable reality in comparison to doctrine can still inspire dissonance, despite popular acceptance of beliefs. So absolute escape from dissonance in non reality based beliefs is probably impossible. This is not an attack on Christianity, but any large religion will inevitably have some differing presentations of ideas so if all the doctrine are not reflective of physical reality it will inevitably be observable. Christianity has several thousand variations, some of which conflict quite profoundly and so are unlikely to all be completely simultaneously true.

Even universal acceptance would not bring eternal freedom from dissonance.

Scientology Building The Prison Of The Mind Part 8 Reducing Dissonance Socially

 

 

 
 
 

In this post like all others in the Building the Prison of the Mind series I will consult and quote Leon Festinger's book A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance against my twenty five years in Scientology.

This post focuses on Festinger's ideas regarding reducing cognitive dissonance generated by social interactions, meaning specifically for a person from discovering others hold conflicting ideas, thoughts, opinions, emotions and behaviors.

Festinger wrote:
The larger the number of people that one knows already agree with a given opinion which he holds, the less will be the magnitude of dissonance introduced by some other person's expression of disagreement. (Page 179)

This is in psychology called social proof and in logic the bandwagon fallacy. It means we unfortunately as humans tend to feel validated by large numbers of people believing in what we believe in and behave as we do. It is ultimately irrational and fundamentally flawed. Popularity is not truth. But it is a good enough substitute that it serves to reduce dissonance. You are quite likely to feel comfortable having one person disagree with you if you know millions or billions of others agree with you. A lone voice can be easily dismissed, millions or billions are far more difficult.

As always the importance of the elements, meaning ideas, thoughts, opinions and behaviors in question determine the magnitude of dissonance. Very important elements inspire strong dissonance, moderate ones inspire moderate dissonance and unimportant elements produce little or no dissonance.

In Scientology the illusion of tens of millions of Scientologists agreeing helps to bolster agreement with Scientology, if held, but direct observations and evidence contradicts these false claims. There are tens of thousands of Scientologists, not tens of millions. And evidence leaks through despite the cult's best efforts.

So social proof is a flimsy tool in that it relies on weak lies that are contradicted by truth, particularly if one stays in Scientology for decades.

Regarding the importance as always Hubbard cleverly fools Scientologists with misdirection. He has Scientologists accept many thousands of ideas that establish an entirely new belief and behavior system but without worrying about very small and seemingly unimportant changes over time. They result in extraordinarily extreme changes, that are defended as being highly important when formed.

So becoming a Scientologist over a long time has many steps that produce small dissonance and small resistance but when these changes are  completed are firmly set and inspire tremendous dissonance and resistance to disagreement.

Other factors are the relevance of the group disagreeing. For Scientologists virtually any non Scientologists are mainly irrelevant regarding Scientology as they are seen as unenlightened and far beneath even understanding truth.
Also the degree of disagreement effects the degree of dissonance.  With Scientology's black and white thinking there is only room to agree and anything more than virtually unnoticeable disagreement is intolerable.

Festinger describes three methods for reducing dissonance in social situations. First one can reduce or possibly eliminate it by changing his or her own mind. You could change it to what others with conflicting views hold.

Hubbard safeguarded against this by having his infallible authority be the most consistent and strongest basic belief underlying all of Dianetics and Scientology. Completely turning against that is extraordinarily difficult for Scientologists. That cannot be overstated.

But obviously, as people like myself eventually do entirely reject Scientology and Hubbard it does occur, often with extreme difficulty. So after dissonance grows to tremendous, explosive levels some people respond by reconsidering and ultimately rejecting their old beliefs and behaviors.

Second, a person may gain agreement from others by persuasion. You can get them to change their minds toward agreeing with you. That seems to prove your ideas are correct. To be a bit more rational and honest that only proves you can persuade people, not that you or they are actually right. A very important difference.

And third a person can try to make another not comparable in some way. This is also incorrect from a logical or truth seeking perspective. But accepted routinely. The genetic fallacy is judging a claim based on its source. That is very poor reason as anyone can make a true or false claim. The message is not the messenger.

By deciding another or others are unqualified or inferior or evil and rejecting their claims without examination one can evade dissonance. So by  substituting emotional reactions and flawed excuses for rational thinking one can feel more comfortable, additionally by being for example disgusted by those who disagree ( Which Jon Atack explained in particular for me) one evades examining their claims while feeling justified in having negative emotions at the dame time.

In Scientology this takes the form of Hubbard's loaded language with twisting terms that include any critic of Scientology and makes all such persons equal as suppressive persons. All are entirely discredited in Scientology and loathed instinctively by Scientologists, so through the genetic fallacy and ad hominem the critics are seen as beneath deserving being heard or even tolerated, while conforming Scientologists are seen as peers worth hearing, but any dissenting voices are transferred to the other category. Additionally Hubbard placed himself as so far above everyone and everything else in his victims' minds that maintaining these relative values of ideas is of primary importance to Scientologists.

So getting Scientologists to see that a blind unwillingness to examine claims based on sources is an unwillingness to examine information that is so restrictive that it functions as a prison of the mind in itself.

 The three values of first hatefully degrading critics while failing to objectively, carefully examine claims from them and secondly listening to Scientologists only to the degree they conform exactly with authority in the form of Hubbard, or his proxy Miscavige, and rejecting them to the degree they disagree and finally to hold Hubbard and his doctrine as so far, far above criticism or doubt that going against him is unendurable together function as a very effective prison of the mind.

Somehow if you want to free a Scientologist you may need to demonstrate that the three values and really behaviors described above effectively close their mind and make objective, critical and independent thinking virtually impossible. They need to open their own minds.

Now this isn't hopeless. Most Scientologists leave and eventually reject Scientology, despite Hubbard's best efforts to permanently enslave his victims.