Pulling Back The Curtain Part 5 Fear Appeals

 

Ron Hubbard used fear to persuade and control his victims. By making them experience fear he created several effects that made persuasion much easier for him.

Others have written about Hubbard using fear to focus attention and direct emotions and behavior. Some even see Scientology as entirely fear dependent. The new Scientologist is made to find a ruin usually and fear it might be real. Then to fear the fictional horror the reactive mind and eternal blindness, pain, amnesia, if they fail to transcend humanity via Hubbard's fraud - the bridge to total freedom.

 And once deep into the cult a Scientologist is often ruled by a secret terror: Scientology might be a fraud. Think about it as you ascend the bridge or are in the cult for years you must lower your expectations of the miracles promised by Hubbard. You don't get any of the releases promised. Then you never become clear. No perfect memory, no genius level intelligence. And certainly no OT powers.

Telekinesis ? Sadly no. Telepathy ? Nada. Exteriorization ? Never, not once. Healing yourself and others ? No, no and no.

Hubbard kept none of his very generous empty promises, and the long term Scientologist should know that. As should the staff member or Sea Org member.

The lingering fear leads to denial as a routine coping mechanism. Just like an abuse victim may deny it to survive dependence on someone that will never be safe.
This isn't cowardice though. It's a natural survival method.

Hubbard whether on purpose or accident found an interesting combination of effects. First he created fear of the boogeymen of Scientology, the reactive mind and the dwindling spiral. Then he made the fear scare the hell out of them.

Then , over time as commitment and sacrifices for the cult increase, the fear Scientology might not deliver increases too. But researchers on psychology have reached an interesting conclusion: if a person has an intense, overwhelming fear how they react has one guiding factor.

They need a knowable and doable solution. The more easily known the better. If there is no solution or way to know one the fear is ignored and denied.

So, for a veteran Scientologist they have two great fears simultaneously. The fear Scientology doesn't work and Hubbard was not a messiah is one.  Once deeply invested the Scientologist has no solution to the possibility Scientology is entirely without merit. So, with no known doable solution the cult member tries desperately to deny any evidence that would confirm this dread.

The other fear is failing to succeed as a Scientologist. It may be as an individual or as the group failing to clear earth.
But unlike the other fear this has a known and doable solution: devotion to Scientology.

So the devoted fanatical zealot has a terrible conflict of fears and denials. And by giving a means to face one fear and no way to deal with the other Hubbard leaves the Scientologist one apparent choice. Submission.