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.