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.