The Error Necessary To Cult Recruitment

 



I early in my Scientology indoctrination realized that if this was all fake Hubbard had to work relentlessly for decades. I thought it was unfathomable. There is an error I made. A crucial error many people make when considering others. A small percentage of people are considered to be sociopathic. That for simplicity includes narcissists, malignant narcissists, psychopaths etc. .

These individuals have traits the rest of us lack. When we fail to understand that we entirely miss what we are dealing with. Sociopaths naturally pathologically lie . They tell lies 180 degrees from the truth to confuse and control others. Habitually. They utilize psychological defense mechanisms in ways and to extremes to which the rest of us never contemplate. A normal person for example if anxious or threatened may be defensive but may calm down and apologize if they were too insulting or cruel. A normal person can to some degree recognize flaws in their own behavior or feel remorse that is based on empathy, compassion and humility.

Hubbard in my opinion naturally constantly projected and to safely do this he lied constantly. He was driven to lie. That was a point I missed and so I trusted him . A fundamental error in judgment.

I want to be clear - his mental illness drove him to behave as he did . Not the technology he plagiarized. The methods he stole were extensive , from many schools of influence. With many names such as hypnotism , Crowley's occultism, Hitler's Nazism elements from psychology and propaganda and rhetoric . And many , many more . The amount was staggering but he felt he had no other choice . Obviously he did.

Regarding cult leaders or more particularly cult founders being carbon copies I initially was quite hesitant to use a one size fits all model. However Margaret Singer and Robert Jay Lifton and Eric Hoffer and Daniel Shaw gave me much to consider . Additionally a tremendous wealth of information on sociopaths, narcissists and in particular malignant narcissists strongly convinced me there is more to the picture. Daniel Shaw calls the cult leaders a special type of malignant narcissist he calls a traumatic narcissist. They use trauma to subjugate others.

Additionally I have found hundreds of descriptions of Hubbard fit these models - perfectly.

He fits the sociopath or narcissist or guru model from Lifton or cult leader from Margaret Singer or any of several other similar concepts.

To answer the are cult leaders the same question I say look at the evidence of the minds and behavior these individuals display. In my opinion from what I've seen the cult leaders have a tremendous amount of similarities in character and psychology.

They have severe personality disorders and quite often the same disorders . They utterly lack compassion and humility. And they pathologically lie and pretend superiority and they use syncretic ( combined plagiarized ) doctrine. They try to use charisma and certainty . They see their ideas as infallible , all encompassing and of a higher ethical stature than all others. They have many other similarities to Scientology.

I think you need a certain mindset to even consider being a cult leader . Being a cult leader requires not just willingness but desire to be such a person . That is why they seem to be the same - in many ways they are.