I left the Scientology cult in 2014 and have been out for two years now. I have noticed one of the absolute most important factors in recovery from cultic abuse is empathetic witnessing.
Empathic witnessing is listening and displaying humility, empathy and compassion in communication with others. It is important in human relationships but holds particular value for ex cult members.
The experience of cult members has been described by Daniel Shaw as similar to the trauma experienced by victims of rape, incest and sexual abuse. This trauma is severe and a deep personal betrayal. It is an experience that involves the treatment of the victims as less than genuine individuals in relation to the cult leader.
The victims existence as individuals fully deserving human rights and subjective views is denied by the leader. They are reshaped or treated as objects to be used as seen fit by the leader. The leader may acquire, devalue then discard them at will as they see fit. This is the pattern of a narcissist.
Cult leaders in Daniel Shaw's hypothesis on malignant narcissists as cult leaders have very specific elements. He calls such abusers traumatic narcissists because they inflict trauma in their relational systems and use trauma to subjugate others.
The use of trauma to subjugate victims by denying the victims' subjectivity confuses the victim and creates anxiety and overwhelm which leads to denial, reversals, projection in the victims often which mirrors the conduct of the leader.
By having one's subjectivity undermined and denied the victim experiences such deep betrayal it can become a core part of their identity. They can feel simultaneously worthless and less than human as a result of traumatic subjugation and at fault for deep, deep feelings of wrongness, worthlessness, shame and an irredeemable abhorrent identity.
They can see their own decisions to trust and love abusers as creating emotional vulnerability and within their own control. Like victims of sexual abuse, incest and rape the cult members can feel they must be responsible for their own trauma. They can feel less than human through the traumatic subjugation they experience. They can internalize the cruel and hateful malignant narcissist's denial of the authentic individuality and value of others.
The traumatic narcissist (aka malignant narcissist) has shown unimaginable cruelty and nonrecognition of authenticity of the victim as a person and the victim has felt let down by their expectations of genuine value and decency in the narcissist. The victim learns the abuser shouldn't have been trusted and the abuser certainly doesn't trust others. The abuser seems to win in the relationship as they get the upper hand and have their desires fulfilled as the victim must submit to their demands.
In coming out of the Scientology cult a victim has been subjected to a system in which Hubbard's authenticity is the only one recognized often. Sometimes David Miscavige assumes the guru's role as the only one worthy of recognition as an individual deserving rights and self determination.
When they leave they have experienced an environment that strongly condemns victims and blames them for their own hardships. Scientology by doctrine and practice routinely demands harsh repudiation of members seeking sympathy, equality or compassion. Especially if the member is vulnerable and poor and has low status in the cult caste system. The Staff are generally treated poorly and most Sea Org members are treated worse and RPF members are extensively abused.
Ultimately all members are abused, traumatized and exploited in the cult.
One of the easiest traps for a member leaving to fall into is a lack of empathic witnessing. Indifferent or uncaring witnessing is unfortunately quite common. It is traumatic in itself.
It is recreating the experience of being denied authenticity as a person. By denying the abuse that is disclosed by a cult member a witness denies the assertions that the victim deserves to be accepted as a genuine person and even if this denial is only by implications or tacit indifference it still inflicts trauma on the victim.
The victim can three times over learn to not trust. They can detest their trust and love of their abusers and hate themselves for having been vulnerable and see their abuser's lack of love and trust as superior to their attitude and then finally see the lack of empathic witnessing as showing they shouldn't expect trust or recognition as a genuine person from others.
It can become deeply ingrained and convince them trust and compassion are the essential weaknesses that lead to victimization. They can share this trait with some victims of incest, rape and sexual abuse.
For victims of these highly traumatic crimes denial of their experiences is extremely traumatic. Unfortunately rape victims for example must endure blame based on how they dress or if they went out in revealing or tight clothes or if they were with a man alone. These acts are irrelevant to the crime of rape and the trauma it inflicts. Similarly knowing the attacker or being married to them or having given consent prior to the violation but then subsequently withdrawn the consent similarly are irrelevant to the crime and trauma.
In any of these circumstances the right to not be violated never ceases and the trauma rape inflicts never lessens. The case is similar with incest and sexual abuse. Sadly victims of rape, sexual abuse and incest often encounter witnesses who are indifferent, deny the authenticity of the violation and inflict trauma themselves through their lack of empathy.
Women who come forward with rape allegations all too often are immediately accused of victimization of their rapists. They are accused of seeking money and attention. Or given a brush off and treated as inferior to others. Their authenticity is denied.
The same often holds true for victims of incest or sexual abuse. Sometimes their closest family members choose to not trust them or listen as their claims are horrific and if believed would shatter families but if denied would just make the victim a foolish liar.
Deciding a child foolishly lied is easier to accept than that a spouse or parent or priest is a child rapist. The reality of the abuse is life changing, but denying it seems acceptable to some.
The consequences for a child or woman whose abuse is never validated cannot be overstated. Lifelong trauma and misery may follow. And the repetition of abuse on others to perpetuate the trauma over generations can follow as well.
The conditions of PTSD and CPTSD are experienced by many victims of rape, sexual abuse, incest and cultic abuse.
All have the common trait of demanding empathic witnessing. If a person calls cult members stupid, crazy or weak they deny the abuse, minimize the crimes and most importantly deny the validity of the victim as a person worthy of compassion.
By implying cult members need to be especially gullible or willfully ignorant one lowers them and their experiences. This inflicts trauma as well.
Most people lose loved ones. It is a universal traumatic experience. Imagine a cherished loved one dies and you are crushed emotionally. You can't contain yourself and confide in a person that you feel like your heart has been ripped out. Imagine they respond "You had to be stupid to have feelings like that" or "You didn't really have it that bad" or "You had to be crazy or gullible beyond belief to fall for that".
You know that is completely wrong to do to someone. Well, in denying cultic abuse the same result can occur. And it can be denied just by being incredulous or over and over asking "how anyone can fall for Scientology" or " You did not do your homework and look at both sides."
The result is similar to telling a raped woman she should have known better. Actually it doesn't matter what she knew - she shouldn't have been raped because the rapist should have respected her right to not be abused which is never gone.
The horrible thing a witness must accept if they bear witness is that a crime can happen to anyone. A witness must accept that assumptions about life being fair or just, people being safe or loved and the world and individuals being just can be at times simply wrong particularly if those assumptions shut down empathy and compassion in bearing witness to the experiences of others.
By merely questioning the very real claims of both abuse and trauma from the Scientology cult a person will unknowingly inflict more trauma on ex cult members.
This is similar to racists and their allies who deny racism, inequality, police brutality against minorities, disproportionate incarceration and sentencing and many other aspects of societal and institutional racism despite mountains of strong evidence.
In denying the crimes, discrimination and abuses a racist denies the authenticity of the victims as genuine full people worthy of basic human rights. This is similar for gay people, religious minorities and other marginalized groups.
One cannot help but be affected by being treated as less than human. Sadly, often abusers use the psychological defense mechanisms of reversals, denial and projection to pretend to be the victims of the very abuses they commit.
If you hear of abuse or harm against someone and don't want to inflict trauma the least you can do is lend a sympathetic ear. It doesn't mean every claim is true or you have to fully agee with everything you hear, but if you feel a person deserves to be treated as a person and not an object it's the very least you must do.
So if a cult member asserts they were hypnotized or brainwashed or gaslighted listen if you can. Blaming them is flat out wrong. If they did evil acts that is a separate issue and must be addressed as such. Often the cultic abuse sets up a double bind of being guilty of abusive behavior and also being a victim of abuse while in the cult.
The two can create a confusion of feeling both ashamed of evil and unworthy of help or compassion and simultaneously desperately needing compassion for the trauma one has received. So blaming when listening is needed only makes this worse.
There is certainly more self hate in this world than I care for so if you can help someone to escape it I recommend it. They can face culpability for wrongdoing too, but not simultaneously.
If any of this makes you feel uncomfortable that is a very good sign that you may have the luxury of honest self reflection to wonder if you could've done better in the past or been more thoughtful and compassionate. That you would face that means you can. I know I certainly can do better at empathic witnessing and will definitely try.
WARNING : for any seeking recovery or any info on beneficial mental health practices , I do not have any formal education on this subject and in fact have no college education at all .
Friday, March 11, 2016
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Those Who Follow Part 1
I have been a very, very fortunate person - after a certain point perhaps. Sure, you might think being in the Scientology cult for twenty five years and having various misadventures in it isn't something any decent person would wish on their worst enemy, or anyone else for that matter. Probably not to such a deep extent that choices by me as a cult member and events within the cult led to tremendous hardships and suffering by my wife as the mistreated spouse of a zealous fanatic entirely devoted to the Scientology cult. Yeah that part wasn't especially fortuitous. Granted.
But at the point at which I finally left the cult two years ago a lot of good fortune came my way all at once. Now to be clear the process of rejecting everything you believe in and realizing you were actually an abusive and narcissistic person in a destructive cult has a certain amount of trauma in itself. It by nature is humiliating, nearly mind shattering and has lots of buried dissonance explode forth with accompanying anxiety, shame, depression, confusion, and admission of being entirely wrong. Not a good time.
But even given all that I was about as lucky as one could be from that starting point. I unlike many other Scientologists had a great wife who wasn't a Scientologist but had been with me long enough to know a lot about what Scientology was and that the recovery process wouldn't be a walk in the park. And she stuck with me through it. She is certainly the best person I have been lucky enough to know in my life. Her consistent and strong support was the most stable and secure part of my life through many, many tough days and restless nights. Many Scientologists don't have their spouses when they leave the cult. Sadly they are disconnected from their families and lose the support they desperately need most when they leave the cult.
And additionally I have two children who aren't Scientologists and they are both in their twenties. They both are supportive and old enough to understand cults and for me to talk to them about issues as adults.
I additionally have a job that isn't Scientology related and so I could keep that undisturbed while I left the cult.
But even beyond that very, very good fortune for a person leaving a cult I ran into even more, by a lot.
I found the Underground Bunker and articles by Jon Atack in the Scientology Mythbusting series that defined exactly what the cult indoctrination methods were that had successfully deceived me. I realized what had happened and just needed to learn how to unravel it and describe the exact process. At the same time I was going back and forth and looking at Lermanet.com and found key references that alerted me to the very real fact that my expectations that Scientology couldn't be mind control or effective on me were entirely unfounded. And themselves an actual vulnerability to undue influence.
The relatively short articles by Jon Atack and the references at Lermanet.com were just what the doctor ordered. They led me to reading Jon Atack's excellent article Never Believe A Hypnotist and videos on hypnotism and books on cults and the true history of Ron Hubbard and Scientology.
I was lucky to have both Jon Atack and Arnie Lerma personally take the time to patiently spend many months reading and answering about fifty e-mails each to help me recover from Scientology. They both have decades of valuable experience researching Scientology and informed me of many, many leads on the best books and references to examine for understanding and dissecting Scientology.
That is really unimaginable as good luck. It saved me decades of looking to find the right places to look. I obviously have written my observations and opinions here at this blog.
In discussing this with both Jon and Arnie I came to be informed that there isn't now a lack of material on Scientology available. There are thousands of articles and dozens of books now available. A clear and organized route through the materials is needed, but there is no shortage of it.
There will also be another consideration to think of. There will be two groups that come after I am done writing and have passed on someday. Jon, Arnie and I will all be gone someday. I don't make the rules, I just try to work within them.
In an exchange I had with Jon Atack he used a phrase that stuck with me - those who follow. There will be people who look to this kind of work in the future. There will be people leaving Scientology and other cults. There will be family members looking for answers. There will be people never in cults who want to learn about Scientology.
Some of what is written should be specifically tailored for the future. Things like what have been the best books and references to start with, even what subjects are helpful, and what books haven't yet been written but could be and how and why.
I probably won't be able to make all the projects that are potentially helpful which I think of.
And there will be people who write about cults and want to know what hasn't been done yet. A portion of what is written should be made with the future in mind. There will be people looking for answers. And fortunately there will be those who follow. They will surely be needed.
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Love And Admiration In Scientology
"A thing which is loved has to be trapped and caged, and a thing which is admired is a thing which you would like to see free."
Lecture The Uses And Future Of Scientology Ron Hubbard (3 October 1953) Ron Hubbard
For fun take love here to mean trap and admire to mean set free. Then reexamine these Scientology references.
Lecture The Uses And Future Of Scientology Ron Hubbard (3 October 1953) Ron Hubbard
For fun take love here to mean trap and admire to mean set free. Then reexamine these Scientology references.
"To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe."
"Seeking to achieve any single desirable quality in life is a noble thing. The one most difficult—and most necessary—to achieve is to love one’s fellows despite all invitations to do otherwise."
Article What Is Greatness ? Ron Hubbard
"Don’t desire to be liked or admired."
Code of Honor Ron Hubbard
But the most valued point is admiration, and admiration is so strong its absence alone permits persistence. The Factors Ron Hubbard
He said more in this lecture:
He said more in this lecture:
"Admiration betokens in itself a kind of respect It borders on liking, admiring – it’s a much, much better word than love. Love all too often is a compulsive passion which devours the very young, and they go and starve to death and blow their brains out and pine and sigh and learn ridiculous dances. And this is love. They don’t even see the person to whom they have attached their sentiment They don’t even know that person is there. They’re "in love!" Admiration, a heavy level of admiration, betokens a sort of respect If you really admired somebody – if you really admired somebody, you’d have to have some understanding of existence and some understanding of him or her. And believe me, it would have a lot more pleasantness and a lot more duration than this thing called "love."
Lecture The Uses And Future Of Scientology Ron Hubbard (3 October 1953) Ron Hubbard
His definition of love actually fits narcissistic idealization. It is a kind of abuse of treating a person as a projection of a narcissist's desires. The narcissist doesn't recognize the other person at all and has to control them. It's the parent that forces a child to look perfect, act perfect and act as a tool to show the world the narcissist is wonderful. It is the child forced to sing or dance or be a perfect piano player with no regard for the child's happiness or desires.
Lecture The Uses And Future Of Scientology Ron Hubbard (3 October 1953) Ron Hubbard
His definition of love actually fits narcissistic idealization. It is a kind of abuse of treating a person as a projection of a narcissist's desires. The narcissist doesn't recognize the other person at all and has to control them. It's the parent that forces a child to look perfect, act perfect and act as a tool to show the world the narcissist is wonderful. It is the child forced to sing or dance or be a perfect piano player with no regard for the child's happiness or desires.
Hubbard was trapped by the unrealistic expectations his aunts and grandfather had. It was a kind of slavery for him. He learned that is how you control others, and practiced it his entire adult life. His admiration is actually allowing a person to have rights and be accepted as a genuine individual with rights.
In his game he deserved all the admiration and everyone else deserved love. Because that was the relational system he grew up in.
Daniel Shaw calls this system traumatic narcissism and sees it as going across generations and existing in cults.
Regarding Hubbard's tone scale it actually represents his views on love and controlling other people.
In the model of him as a malignant narcissist, Daniel Shaw would be even more exact and say traumatic narcissist, he would see being unable to control others and being controlled as total failure (-40) serenity of beingness (40) as controlling others entirely successfully with no limits while escaping his inner self by making reality bend to fit his delusions and thinking this would cure the ravenous hunger within while he placed sympathy(.9) below covert hostility(1.1) and fear (1.0) as a victim of traumatic narcissism hates both their abuser AND deeply hates themself for trusting and loving their abuser. They unfortunately feel that even if the abuse is outside their control that their trusting and loving their abuser is within their control and an evil act of betrayal of themselves by themselves.
He said to never seek to be liked or admired. He felt he made himself vulnerable to being idealized and degraded by trusting and caring for others. He vowed to never make that mistake again. He couldn't form healthy attachments because his experience was betrayal by being treated as godlike or worthless. He had no middle ground.
He said other remarks against families in particular.
This is an excerpt from a taped conversation with Ron Hubbard in 1974 and his quotes affected very strongly. “The GE is a family man; the GE is lost without a family. It’s very strange, but Homo sap i.e. a family unit. The GE is built on that basis. It’s fascinating, fascinating. It’s not important to know it but a lot of your urges toward families and so forth are not thetan urges at all, they’re the GE. The GE can’t survive at all without a family unit. He’s just as dead as a mackerel if he isn’t a family unit, whereas your thetan is just dead as a mackerel if he gets too mixed up in family units.
You can’t talk to GEs; they’re kind of psycho. And by the way, you can fall into this dreadful trap with a GE. You see, he uses the MEST universe with which to build. He’s gotten very, very bad off and he has to use MEST materials all the time.
So, you get this situation here with the GE, and your GE is busy: build, build, build, build, and build. And, of course he’s got to have a family to build with.
You get this terrific family thirst. And you get your GE surviving best and being loused up the most because of inter-family relationships. And your thetan, by the way, can much more easily go into a group. Families are not good groups; they’re bad groups.”
GE is the Genetic Entity. The Scientology Tech Dictionary defines it this way: 1. That beingness not dissimilar to the thetan which has carried forward and developed the body from its earliest moments along the evolutionary line on earth and which, through experience, necessity and natural selection, has employed the counter-efforts of the environment to fashion an organism of the type best fitted for survival, limited only by the abilities of the genetic entity.The goal of the genetic entity is survival on a much grosser plane of materiality.
You can’t talk to GEs; they’re kind of psycho. And by the way, you can fall into this dreadful trap with a GE. You see, he uses the MEST universe with which to build. He’s gotten very, very bad off and he has to use MEST materials all the time.
So, you get this situation here with the GE, and your GE is busy: build, build, build, build, and build. And, of course he’s got to have a family to build with.
You get this terrific family thirst. And you get your GE surviving best and being loused up the most because of inter-family relationships. And your thetan, by the way, can much more easily go into a group. Families are not good groups; they’re bad groups.”
GE is the Genetic Entity. The Scientology Tech Dictionary defines it this way: 1. That beingness not dissimilar to the thetan which has carried forward and developed the body from its earliest moments along the evolutionary line on earth and which, through experience, necessity and natural selection, has employed the counter-efforts of the environment to fashion an organism of the type best fitted for survival, limited only by the abilities of the genetic entity.The goal of the genetic entity is survival on a much grosser plane of materiality.
2. Formerly referred to as the somatic mind. It has no real personality; it is not the “I” of the body. This is the “mind” of an animal, a dog or a cat or a cow.
3. That entity which is carried along through time, that is making the body through the time stream, through the action of sex and so forth. End quote
Hubbard's love is really slavery. He wanted everyone to experience his love. His admiration is freedom and he reserved it only for himself.
Remember his two rules for happy living ?
TWO RULES FOR HAPPY LIVING
“1. Be able to experience anything.
“2. Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily.” Ron Hubbard
Those are rules for obedient slaves, not free people. Hubbard wanted slaves who had no idea that they were enslaved.
Hubbard's love is really slavery. He wanted everyone to experience his love. His admiration is freedom and he reserved it only for himself.
Remember his two rules for happy living ?
TWO RULES FOR HAPPY LIVING
“1. Be able to experience anything.
“2. Cause only those things which others are able to experience easily.” Ron Hubbard
Those are rules for obedient slaves, not free people. Hubbard wanted slaves who had no idea that they were enslaved.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Starving The Beast
I recently saw a video by Chris Shelton in which he mentioned the idea of being satisfied if the Scientology cult cannot recruit new members as people discover the truth about it online.
I also have heard Pete Griffiths mention the idea of a death by a thousand paper cuts. By which I think he meant many thousands of separate acts of exposing the crimes, fraud and abuses of the Scientology cult which will result in a cumulative effect of neutralizing the cult by warning people about the cult which results in inevitable shrinkage of the cult.
I also have seen Steven Hassan remark on his efforts to warn people about the Unification Church aka the Moonies, which is the cult he belonged to. He has been successful in reducing their recruitment in the United States. He knows stopping a huge multinational cult is not an easy task.
For people who follow comic books a story has a parallel element that displays this idea. The character Beta Ray Bill, who is equal to Thor in power, tries to stop Galactus the devourer of worlds. Bill despite his immense power is not powerful enough to defeat Galactus in direct combat. Galactus is simply far too powerful and indestructible.
Bill adopts a strategy of destroying the worlds with a certain kind of energy which Galactus drains of energy for his sustenance. Galactus despite his galaxy destroying power has one weakness. He must feed, particularly on certain types of worlds with a specific energy . His main weakness is he must feed on this energy to avoid getting gradually weaker and weaker.
So Bill adopts the long term strategy of starving Galactus over weeks and months with no feedings occurring. He is ultimately convinced to abandon this strategy.
But with the Scientology cult it may prove effective. And unlike Galactus in fiction Scientology in fact doesn't have any useful purpose or benefits to justify its continuation.
But Scientology has several weaknesses this strategy can use. It relies on members ignorance and guiding them step by step in a laid out path with blinders on to everything else and future steps hidden or at least dishonestly described.
No one would sign up if the real results and conditions were revealed in the beginning. Staff almost always get pay far, far below minimum wage and Sea Org members are slaves. Staff and Sea Org members almost never go up the bridge.
Public don't really get release states, don't go clear, and don't achieve OT abilities. EVER. But they do donate lots of money and give up nearly all their decision making to Scientology.
They let Scientology decide who they associate with, if they leave their jobs, friends and even family on a moment's notice.
The further you go in Scientology the more your boundaries are surrendered and never reestablished later. If you are a public putting in twelve hours study per week you are never expected to lower that, only increase it. If you are on staff you are discouraged from reducing your schedule or ever leaving.
People who leave staff are treated like traitors. And people who leave or try to leave the Sea Org are treated like degraded beings. If they are lucky. If they aren't lucky they get sent to the RPF for wanting to leave and get treated like a prisoner in a thought reform camp - because they are one.
And anyone considered too much of a threat or enemy is SP declared and cut off from everyone still in Scientology. If a Sea Org member they may get the RPF for years to neutralize them.
If the truth about this is made available and the truth about Scientology and Ron Hubbard is presented to people before Scientology tries to recruit them then the percentage of people that will join the cult falls far, far below one percent.
And today the cult finds recruitment almost impossible with the terrible reputation Scientology has. So if you want to contribute with YouTube videos or blog posts or articles at sites even if you only get a few hundred or thousand views you may contribute in a real way.
Scientology is so small and ineffective in recruitment that every person warned really, really counts in two ways. It diminishes the cult. But more significantly the life saved from Scientology is very important.
A lone person may read a post or watch a video and never walk into an org or if they were in decide to leave, look at the real history of Scientology and stay away.
It can prevent immense suffering for that person, their family and friends, their spouse and children, just to hear or see the right information for them.
A man or woman saved or rescued from a cult is tremendously important. Sadly governments and many organizations don't recognize this or put any efforts into learning about or helping with this. So it's on the backs of individuals who know and care. It's us or nobody. It's certainly not right or fair, but those are the cards we got to play. But at least we are out of the cult ourselves to decide. And have some idea of what we are up against.
I strongly encourage people to post online, write comments and share links, make YouTube videos if it fits your personality and skills. Simply telling people you know helps. Putting in efforts to understand cults and Scientology by reading online, watching videos and reading books is building your own foundation to work from. It can't be stressed enough.
But the best idea I have heard yet on taking on Scientology is the one Chris Shelton and Pete Griffiths had of starving the beast, and taking it down with the death by a thousand paper cuts.
It isn't instantaneous or easy or perfectly coordinated, but it is realistic and likely to work. It benefits people in both the long and short term. For most people it pays nothing, not one cent. But it's worth more than money to me. I feel I can be honest about that.
It's been said the internet is Scientology's Vietnam, it needs to be more than that. It needs to be like the atomic bomb was to Hiroshima and create annihilation which cannot be survived.
I don't mean with violence, I mean with information which denies the cult uninformed and vulnerable victims. It can be obliterated with the truth being put out a thousand ways by a thousand sources.
And most importantly thousands of people and their families can be free from Scientology's very real harm if we starve the beast.
I also have heard Pete Griffiths mention the idea of a death by a thousand paper cuts. By which I think he meant many thousands of separate acts of exposing the crimes, fraud and abuses of the Scientology cult which will result in a cumulative effect of neutralizing the cult by warning people about the cult which results in inevitable shrinkage of the cult.
I also have seen Steven Hassan remark on his efforts to warn people about the Unification Church aka the Moonies, which is the cult he belonged to. He has been successful in reducing their recruitment in the United States. He knows stopping a huge multinational cult is not an easy task.
For people who follow comic books a story has a parallel element that displays this idea. The character Beta Ray Bill, who is equal to Thor in power, tries to stop Galactus the devourer of worlds. Bill despite his immense power is not powerful enough to defeat Galactus in direct combat. Galactus is simply far too powerful and indestructible.
Bill adopts a strategy of destroying the worlds with a certain kind of energy which Galactus drains of energy for his sustenance. Galactus despite his galaxy destroying power has one weakness. He must feed, particularly on certain types of worlds with a specific energy . His main weakness is he must feed on this energy to avoid getting gradually weaker and weaker.
So Bill adopts the long term strategy of starving Galactus over weeks and months with no feedings occurring. He is ultimately convinced to abandon this strategy.
But with the Scientology cult it may prove effective. And unlike Galactus in fiction Scientology in fact doesn't have any useful purpose or benefits to justify its continuation.
But Scientology has several weaknesses this strategy can use. It relies on members ignorance and guiding them step by step in a laid out path with blinders on to everything else and future steps hidden or at least dishonestly described.
No one would sign up if the real results and conditions were revealed in the beginning. Staff almost always get pay far, far below minimum wage and Sea Org members are slaves. Staff and Sea Org members almost never go up the bridge.
Public don't really get release states, don't go clear, and don't achieve OT abilities. EVER. But they do donate lots of money and give up nearly all their decision making to Scientology.
They let Scientology decide who they associate with, if they leave their jobs, friends and even family on a moment's notice.
The further you go in Scientology the more your boundaries are surrendered and never reestablished later. If you are a public putting in twelve hours study per week you are never expected to lower that, only increase it. If you are on staff you are discouraged from reducing your schedule or ever leaving.
People who leave staff are treated like traitors. And people who leave or try to leave the Sea Org are treated like degraded beings. If they are lucky. If they aren't lucky they get sent to the RPF for wanting to leave and get treated like a prisoner in a thought reform camp - because they are one.
And anyone considered too much of a threat or enemy is SP declared and cut off from everyone still in Scientology. If a Sea Org member they may get the RPF for years to neutralize them.
If the truth about this is made available and the truth about Scientology and Ron Hubbard is presented to people before Scientology tries to recruit them then the percentage of people that will join the cult falls far, far below one percent.
And today the cult finds recruitment almost impossible with the terrible reputation Scientology has. So if you want to contribute with YouTube videos or blog posts or articles at sites even if you only get a few hundred or thousand views you may contribute in a real way.
Scientology is so small and ineffective in recruitment that every person warned really, really counts in two ways. It diminishes the cult. But more significantly the life saved from Scientology is very important.
A lone person may read a post or watch a video and never walk into an org or if they were in decide to leave, look at the real history of Scientology and stay away.
It can prevent immense suffering for that person, their family and friends, their spouse and children, just to hear or see the right information for them.
A man or woman saved or rescued from a cult is tremendously important. Sadly governments and many organizations don't recognize this or put any efforts into learning about or helping with this. So it's on the backs of individuals who know and care. It's us or nobody. It's certainly not right or fair, but those are the cards we got to play. But at least we are out of the cult ourselves to decide. And have some idea of what we are up against.
I strongly encourage people to post online, write comments and share links, make YouTube videos if it fits your personality and skills. Simply telling people you know helps. Putting in efforts to understand cults and Scientology by reading online, watching videos and reading books is building your own foundation to work from. It can't be stressed enough.
But the best idea I have heard yet on taking on Scientology is the one Chris Shelton and Pete Griffiths had of starving the beast, and taking it down with the death by a thousand paper cuts.
It isn't instantaneous or easy or perfectly coordinated, but it is realistic and likely to work. It benefits people in both the long and short term. For most people it pays nothing, not one cent. But it's worth more than money to me. I feel I can be honest about that.
It's been said the internet is Scientology's Vietnam, it needs to be more than that. It needs to be like the atomic bomb was to Hiroshima and create annihilation which cannot be survived.
I don't mean with violence, I mean with information which denies the cult uninformed and vulnerable victims. It can be obliterated with the truth being put out a thousand ways by a thousand sources.
And most importantly thousands of people and their families can be free from Scientology's very real harm if we starve the beast.
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Ron Hubbard On Psychology
I feel the contradictory statements Ron Hubbard has made on psychology are very relevant to showing how dishonest he has been with Scientologist through the entire time Dianetics and Scientology have existed.
Below is a letter he sent in 1955 claiming to a psychologist. This letter was found by researcher R.M. Seibert at the Underground Bunker today by Tony Ortega.
You use the minds of men. They do not use your mind or affect it in any way. You have a sacred spiritual mind, too strong, too high to be touched. Your league with Higher Beings, your mighty Guardian and the All Powerful, renders you beyond all human criticism.
You have never done wrong and need never apologize to anyone.
All of the above quotes are from the Affirmations of Ron Hubbard.
A psychiatric view with comments on the Admissions by Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1947)
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201...
He was absolutely comfortable lying to others but wanted to suffer no effects from lies, whether his own or other people's. To be clear to Scientologists and exes he was ALWAYS lying to us and trying to control us. He never found anything even remotely beneficial or true, and certainly not the "workable technology" he claimed. He was quite fond of psychology and hypnotism and used them while pretending to despise them.
I highly recommend that anyone affected by or interested in this study the affirmations and the subjects of hypnosis and psychology to some degree to understand what Hubbard actually did and how he attempted to do it.
The following posts are intended to be a starting point for looking at how Hubbard intended to control others.
Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology
Below is a letter he sent in 1955 claiming to a psychologist. This letter was found by researcher R.M. Seibert at the Underground Bunker today by Tony Ortega.
L. Ron Hubbard, D.D. Ph.D.
1826 F. St. NW
Washington, D.C.
Sept. 6, 1955
Washington, D.C.
Sept. 6, 1955
County Attorney,
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
My dear Sir;
You have expressed a desire to “get to the bottom of Scientology and Hubbard.” May I suggest that you write a letter to me, setting forth the various things you want to know.
May I also direct your attention to your public library where in “Who’s Who in the East” and “Who Knows and What”, the standard American reference of technical experts, you will find my background. You might also write the U.S. Navy in which I served as an officer throughout the war. The books will inform you that I am a writer, a scientist, and a psychologist and the Navy will inform you of an honorable record, an American record.
As for Scientology I invite your attention to the library or to whatever books you may have to hand.
Now in your turn I would like some information. I would like to know who complained to you about the various organizations and myself and exactly what was said to you to cause you to take the course and action which you did. If you do not care to give me this information, please give it to the F.B.I. when they request it. It would assist me considerably if you would be very specific as we are having for the moment a small amount of trouble running down the exact instigators of the lies and defamations which were spread in Phoenix. We are engaged at the moment in collecting enough funds to continue this matter as long as is necessary to discover why the only entirely American development in the field of the mind should be so attacked.
May I request that you dismiss the charges against Mr. Edd Clark and cooperate with us in following up this situation. It may interest you that in five years of Dianetics and Scientology in every quarter of the world there has never been a similar charge or arrest of any of thousands upon thousands of practitioners and that having been suffered and condoned for many years by any and all authorities and even healing interests and having for a very long time existed in Arizona that the practice of Scientology has become by this face acceptable.
May I also have your cooperation in discovering and naming the persons who sent individuals with pre-Scientology records of insanity into the area to harass us and in naming the persons who offered the bribes in return for evidence or complaints against Scientology and its organizations. The huge sums of money must have had an important source.
In that Mr. Edd Clark did not contravene any law of the State of Arizona, may we have your assistance in locating rather larger game, much more interesting to the Federal government than Mr. Clark.
Sincerely,
L. Ron Hubbard
Just twenty four days later Hubbard wrote the following that is consistent with his attitude against conventional mental health including psychiatry and psychology. At least the attitude he showed Scientologists within the cult.
Below is a quote by Ron Hubbard.
Nearly all the backlash in society against Dianetics and Scientology has a common source — the psychiatrist-psychologist-psychoanalyst clique … I could tell you about three actual murders. I could tell you about long strings of psychotics run in on the Foundation and the Association, sent in to us by psychiatrists who then, using LSD and pain-drug-hypnosis, spun them and told everyone Dianetics and Scientology drove people insane … The public utterly LOATHES psychiatry. You waste time if you try to defame psychiatry to the public … Psychiatry stands in the public mind for ineffectiveness, lies and inhuman brutality.
— from Professional Auditor’s Bulletin no. 62, “Psychiatrists”, 30 September 1955 Ron Hubbard
His true inner feelings are most likely best expressed in his most private communications - the affirmations. For anyone unfamiliar affirmations are statements one repeats back to oneself over and over to use self-hypnosis to implant one's own mind. Hubbard studied hypnotism extensively and knew quite well that affirmations are designed to alter minds.
Here a few excerpts that focus on Hubbard's attitudes regarding both psychology and hypnosis. I think this bears serious examination and consideration by every Scientologist, ex-Scientologist and person investigating Hubbard or Scientology.
Your psychology is advanced and true and wonderful. It hypnotizes people. It predicts their emotions, for you are their ruler
The desires of other people have no hypnotic effect upon you.
Your psychology is good. You worked to darken your own children. This failure, with them, was only apparent. The evident lack of effectiveness was "ordered." The same psychology works perfectly on everyone else. You use it with great confidence.
By eliminating certain fears by hypnosis, curing my rheumatism and laying off hormones, I hope to restore my former libido. I must! By hypnosis I must be convinced as follows:
That I am not credulous or absorbent of other people's opinions.
That this hypnosis will not fade, but will increase in power as time advances.
Material things are yours for the asking. Men are your slaves. Elemental spirits are your slaves. You are power among powers, light in the darkness, beauty in all.
No matter what lies you may tell others they have no physical effect on you of any kind.
You can remember a thing without accepting it as truth. You accept as truth only those things which you yourself believe after you consciously examine them. You accept all I say here as absolute fact however. You will reverance and believe everything here, consciously and forever. These words sink into your whole being. They remake your entire life. They are your code, belief, your guiding star.
You can remember a thing without accepting it as truth. You accept as truth only those things which you yourself believe after you consciously examine them. You accept all I say here as absolute fact however. You will reverance and believe everything here, consciously and forever. These words sink into your whole being. They remake your entire life. They are your code, belief, your guiding star.
You can tell all the romantic tales you wish. You will remember them, you do remember them. But you know which ones were lies.
You understand all the workings of the minds of humans around you, for you are a doctor of minds, bodies and influences.
You have no mental flaws which hinder you. You have nothing which hinders you. Everything helps you. You are crown prince of your portion of the universe. Everything does your bidding perfectly. All elementals and other dimensional things obey you with eagerness. All things love you and their love makes you strong. You are strong. You love with great force all things and your will controls them. You may use force and your will with utter impunity for all things obey.
No other human being can hypnotize you in any way. You can believe or disbelieve whatever you read at will. You cannot be hypnotized by any but yourself.
Your mother's theories on psychology were wrong. They do not now affect you.
The opinions of your aunts and uncles are worthless. You are kind to them. They mean nothing to you.
The opinions of your aunts and uncles are worthless. You are kind to them. They mean nothing to you.
There is psychic will power, possessed by a very few. You possess such will power and it is enormously strong and irresistible. You work it consciously. Those things you consciously state that you will come to be.
Your mind is not material. It does not react like any human mind. Whatever is fed to your mind can be sorted out. You can forget at will. Men's facts fed to you need not affect your thought if they are a part of the lives and mores and morals of men. Your thought processes do not warp on facts which are fed to you. You can receive sense messages and remember them but you need not add them into your own thought processes.
You use the minds of men. They do not use your mind or affect it in any way. You have a sacred spiritual mind, too strong, too high to be touched. Your league with Higher Beings, your mighty Guardian and the All Powerful, renders you beyond all human criticism.
You have never done wrong and need never apologize to anyone.
All of the above quotes are from the Affirmations of Ron Hubbard.
A psychiatric view with comments on the Admissions by Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1947)
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201...
I feel that together they show Hubbard's belief in influence and that hypnosis and psychology can strongly affect and even control them. He was afraid of being influenced but wanted to covertly influence others. He wanted total certainty in himself with the ability to use methods of covert persuasion on others but to also create immunity to the same methods for himself.
He was absolutely comfortable lying to others but wanted to suffer no effects from lies, whether his own or other people's. To be clear to Scientologists and exes he was ALWAYS lying to us and trying to control us. He never found anything even remotely beneficial or true, and certainly not the "workable technology" he claimed. He was quite fond of psychology and hypnotism and used them while pretending to despise them.
I highly recommend that anyone affected by or interested in this study the affirmations and the subjects of hypnosis and psychology to some degree to understand what Hubbard actually did and how he attempted to do it.
The following posts are intended to be a starting point for looking at how Hubbard intended to control others.
Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology
Basic Introduction To Hypnosis in Scientology
Pissed It's Not Your Fault !!!
The Secret Of Scientology Part 1 Control Via Contradiction
Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden, Varied And Repeated To Control You As Hypnotic Implants
Why Hubbard Never Claimed OT Feats And The Rock Bottom Basis Of Scientology
Propaganda By Reversal Of Meaning In Scientology
Scientology's Parallel In Nature - Malignant Narcissism
Unraveling Scientology - A Missing Vital Ingredient
Friday, February 19, 2016
Scientology And The "Gays"
I recently heard Michelangelo Signorile on his radio show discuss the possibility that being around gay people can help others to be more understanding and less prejudiced. He had a hopeful outlook. I am very happy to consider all of Ron Hubbard's allegations against gay people to be demonstrated to be entirety false and pseudoscience designed to generate and use disgust to motivate Hubbard's followers.
It is a tremendous relief to know unequivocally that his claims have no merit and gay people are people and not perverts or degraded as he claimed. I in my twenty five years in Scientology had to resolve the conflict between the good people I met and Hubbard's claims. It was particularly troubling for me as a generally liberal person who has a very progressive wife with many gay friends. I just had to accept individuals as good and gay but had to do endless mental gymnastics to accept both Hubbard's infallible godlike authority AND the obvious good character of gay people I had met on an individual basis.
It was almost maddening. But it inspired confusion and THAT is intended in Scientology, as Hubbard knew it would create cognitive dissonance and he could use that to control people. He used confusion and authority to induce hypnotic control. If a follower submits the dissonance is cast aside consciously. The victim denies it and enters a childlike state of submission in which Hubbard is the only thing that matters.
It's like being a young child and not understanding why a parent requires something but knowing they know best and you just need to do what they say and not understand why they say it. That's why the contradictions disappear: trance logic negates everything but the focus of the mind, the total absorption of attention, the single minded blind faith that Hubbard coveted in his slaves. Being confused by his contradictions is a great way to increase suggestibility and induce hypnosis.
And when the victim avoids the unpleasant associations it is a way that Hubbard guides thought. By avoiding things that Hubbard was wrong about a victim supports him subtly and subconsciously.
To be thorough and fair I should have a small sampling of evidence to show the case that Hubbard both was anti-gay and that attitude is clearly integrated into Dianetics and Scientology doctrine.
Here are some selections of L. Ron Hubbard’s views. He lumps gays in with criminals and urges quarantine or disposal for all people below a certain level on his made-up “tone scale.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 1:
“At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the
second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices.”
From Dianetics, the “modern science of mental heath”
“The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis andKrafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 13:
“The only answers would seem to be the permanent quarantine of such persons from society to avoid the contagion of their insanities and the general turbulence which they bring to any order, thus forcing it lower on the scale, or processing such persons until they have attained a level on the tone scale which gives them value.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 13:
“Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics.”
Science of Survival
There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the tone scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the tone scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow. Adders are safe bedmates compared to people on the lower bands of the tone scale. Not all the beauty nor the handsomeness nor artificial social value nor property can atone for the vicious damage such people do to sane men and women. The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the tone scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered. It is not necessary to produce a world of clears in order to have a reasonable and worthwhile social order; it is only necessary to delete those individuals who range from 2.0 down, either by processing them enough to get their tone level above the 2.0 line — a task which, indeed, is not very great, since the amount of processing in many cases might be under fifty hours, although it might also in others be in excess of two hundred — or simply quarantining them from the society. A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country.
Handbook for Preclears
Homosexuality comes from this manifestation and from the manifestation of life continuation for others. A boy whose mother is dominant will try to continue her life from any failure she has. A girl whose father is dominant will try to continue his life from any failure he has. The mother or the father were cause in the child’s eyes. The child elected himself successor to cause. Break this life continuum concept by running sympathy and grief for the dominant parent and then run off the desires to be an effect and their failures and the homosexual is rehabilitated. Homosexuality is about 1.1 on the tone scale. So is general promiscuity. Ron Hubbard
He made it quite clear that he considered homosexuality a perversion and all gay people as evil and perverted. He calls them 1.1 on his tone scale and says that this is covert hostility. He says that 1.1 is the level of the suppressive person and all the worst and most evil traits possible in a person are present in the suppressive person.
It is quite clear that Scientology discriminates against gay people. They aren't allowed in the Sea Org or on staff. There are auditing questions that treat being gay as a crime and perversion. This is all well known by staff and Sea Org members and most public Scientologists too.
I should also point out that David Miscavige himself is notorious for using anti-gay slurs. He has reportedly called Sea Org slaves "cocksuckers" and said YSCOHB and CICS to harass Scientology executives. They are abbreviations for you suck cocks on Hollywood Boulevard and counter intentioned cock suckers. He also is well known for calling his subordinates "faggots" and being notoriously vicious in his hatred of homosexuality.
Scientology is fundamentally anti-gay. It was intended to be by its founder, is clearly this way to all but the most uninformed and sheltered Scientologists and is a position passionately maintained by the current administration.
I hope all Scientologists who escape the cult also escape this hateful, cruel, prejudiced and downright evil mindset. I am certainly relieved to have myself.
It is a tremendous relief to know unequivocally that his claims have no merit and gay people are people and not perverts or degraded as he claimed. I in my twenty five years in Scientology had to resolve the conflict between the good people I met and Hubbard's claims. It was particularly troubling for me as a generally liberal person who has a very progressive wife with many gay friends. I just had to accept individuals as good and gay but had to do endless mental gymnastics to accept both Hubbard's infallible godlike authority AND the obvious good character of gay people I had met on an individual basis.
It was almost maddening. But it inspired confusion and THAT is intended in Scientology, as Hubbard knew it would create cognitive dissonance and he could use that to control people. He used confusion and authority to induce hypnotic control. If a follower submits the dissonance is cast aside consciously. The victim denies it and enters a childlike state of submission in which Hubbard is the only thing that matters.
It's like being a young child and not understanding why a parent requires something but knowing they know best and you just need to do what they say and not understand why they say it. That's why the contradictions disappear: trance logic negates everything but the focus of the mind, the total absorption of attention, the single minded blind faith that Hubbard coveted in his slaves. Being confused by his contradictions is a great way to increase suggestibility and induce hypnosis.
And when the victim avoids the unpleasant associations it is a way that Hubbard guides thought. By avoiding things that Hubbard was wrong about a victim supports him subtly and subconsciously.
To be thorough and fair I should have a small sampling of evidence to show the case that Hubbard both was anti-gay and that attitude is clearly integrated into Dianetics and Scientology doctrine.
Here are some selections of L. Ron Hubbard’s views. He lumps gays in with criminals and urges quarantine or disposal for all people below a certain level on his made-up “tone scale.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 1:
“At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the
second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices.”
From Dianetics, the “modern science of mental heath”
“The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis andKrafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 13:
“The only answers would seem to be the permanent quarantine of such persons from society to avoid the contagion of their insanities and the general turbulence which they bring to any order, thus forcing it lower on the scale, or processing such persons until they have attained a level on the tone scale which gives them value.”
Science of Survival, Book One, Chapt. 13:
“Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics.”
Science of Survival
There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the tone scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the tone scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow. Adders are safe bedmates compared to people on the lower bands of the tone scale. Not all the beauty nor the handsomeness nor artificial social value nor property can atone for the vicious damage such people do to sane men and women. The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the tone scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered. It is not necessary to produce a world of clears in order to have a reasonable and worthwhile social order; it is only necessary to delete those individuals who range from 2.0 down, either by processing them enough to get their tone level above the 2.0 line — a task which, indeed, is not very great, since the amount of processing in many cases might be under fifty hours, although it might also in others be in excess of two hundred — or simply quarantining them from the society. A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country.
Handbook for Preclears
Homosexuality comes from this manifestation and from the manifestation of life continuation for others. A boy whose mother is dominant will try to continue her life from any failure she has. A girl whose father is dominant will try to continue his life from any failure he has. The mother or the father were cause in the child’s eyes. The child elected himself successor to cause. Break this life continuum concept by running sympathy and grief for the dominant parent and then run off the desires to be an effect and their failures and the homosexual is rehabilitated. Homosexuality is about 1.1 on the tone scale. So is general promiscuity. Ron Hubbard
He made it quite clear that he considered homosexuality a perversion and all gay people as evil and perverted. He calls them 1.1 on his tone scale and says that this is covert hostility. He says that 1.1 is the level of the suppressive person and all the worst and most evil traits possible in a person are present in the suppressive person.
It is quite clear that Scientology discriminates against gay people. They aren't allowed in the Sea Org or on staff. There are auditing questions that treat being gay as a crime and perversion. This is all well known by staff and Sea Org members and most public Scientologists too.
I should also point out that David Miscavige himself is notorious for using anti-gay slurs. He has reportedly called Sea Org slaves "cocksuckers" and said YSCOHB and CICS to harass Scientology executives. They are abbreviations for you suck cocks on Hollywood Boulevard and counter intentioned cock suckers. He also is well known for calling his subordinates "faggots" and being notoriously vicious in his hatred of homosexuality.
Scientology is fundamentally anti-gay. It was intended to be by its founder, is clearly this way to all but the most uninformed and sheltered Scientologists and is a position passionately maintained by the current administration.
I hope all Scientologists who escape the cult also escape this hateful, cruel, prejudiced and downright evil mindset. I am certainly relieved to have myself.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
The Weight Is Gone
The following was written as a comment at Tony Ortega's blog the Underground Bunker today in response to his posts.
I feel that today's post and many of the recent ones have really made the case quite well that needs to be made. Ron Hubbard was a deeply troubled boy who dreamed of ruling men and seducing women. He tried to achieve his dreams by combining hypnosis, loaded language and occult practices with rhetoric and psychology to make his own cult.
Long before the first page of Dianetics was written Hubbard plotted and schemed, planned and dreamed. He fantasized about unlimited power and wealth as a perfect man who was revered as a god, even above God, by an army of zealots and fanatics who would kill or die for him. He took that idea from his occult studies. Crowley, the OAHSPE and other occult sources provided many of the ideas and methods he used and plagiarized all through his life.
He never found or used ANY beneficial methods. Not in Dianetics, not in Scientology, not ever. He was a pathological liar and utterly lacking in humility and compassion for others. As a layman I can say he was a malignant narcissist and be confident in that. He abused and exploited people through lies and fallacies covertly.
The Scientologist cult still under David Miscavige is abusive and criminal. The evidence is overwhelming. I feel Tony Ortega has made it completely clear and plain to see with his blog. With accounts from so many sources and so many perspectives he created a whole that is great. Between the organizational analysis from Jeffrey Augustine to the history and undue influence dissected expertly by Jon Atack to the whistleblowing by Karen de la Carriere and of course the stories by Tony Ortega himself the case is made.
Obviously I recommend supplemental materials for greater understanding, but for many purposes this body of work is more than adequate, it's actually excellent. It provides more than enough evidence to show the true nature of Scientology and Hubbard. And now Miscavige and his cult.
I personally feel as if a great weight has been lifted. When I left Scientology two years ago I went on a nearly maddening and mind shattering journey. For many who are in for decades discovering Hubbard was not an enlightened messiah with spiritual wisdom but instead a cruel conman with nothing but lies and their life was a lie, as were all their beliefs and values, is an extremely traumatic and life changing experience.
Then after a few months of examining the evidence against Hubbard and Scientology for hundreds of hours I knew a much larger job needed to be undertaken. I knew hundreds of more hours of work had to be put in and may have underestimated the immensity of the task. I felt an obligation to discover and reveal a sufficient amount of information on Scientology to lay out the essential parts. After two years of continuing the journey I feel confident I don't need to dissect and expose Scientology. The job has been fulfilled with the Underground Bunker.
It's a tremendous relief. I don't have to study and research as if it's a full-time job and urgent mission anymore. Hubbard's influence will never ruin humanity. And it doesn't rule over me either. The responsibility of informing people about this is not mine or unfulfilled.
I and other ex Scientologists can relax to a degree and take on Scientology at our own pace and rest assured the relevant essential information is available and being given to critics and ex Scientologists, and even some Scientologists as well.
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