Recently someone I consider a cult expert advised to not get lost in the weeds regarding Scientology. But there's an important reason why a person may need to understand crucial details on how Scientology or any influence works: to open their closed mind. I was unwilling to see Scientology as ineffective for decades because the specific method that was used to excite and convince me was one I only saw in the terms Ron Hubbard himself used to define it. That detail was deadly for my mind. It ended good reason regarding Scientology.
I feel something is crucial though regarding details: as a a Scientologist I had the mystical manipulation Lifton described in his eight criteria for thought reform.
Mystical Manipulation. There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes. From Robert Jay Lifton's eight criteria for thought reform
I had undergone the euphoric trance states in Scientology indoctrination through the contradictions and heightened anxiety Hubbard intentionally created. He set up his word clearing to induce a state that is highly receptive to suggestions.
He has a student read his materials and listen to lectures. The student takes in hundreds of new Scientology terms, obscure English words and phrases. It's done in an environment where a course supervisor can do spot checks on ANY words studied in the materials for an instant immediate recitation of a definition for the word exactly as used by Hubbard. It has to have no hesitation, no uncertainty, no confusion or doubt. The student must be able to instantly explain the term, give examples of it and make sentences if asked.
If they flunk they must go back and restudy EVERYTHING from the point the word first appeared. It could be a dozen or TWO HUNDRED pages back. This embarrassing setback hanging over a student like the sword of Damocles creates a haunted look in students. It's anxiety.
Hubbard knew a person with high anxiety is more suggestible. He also knew confusion is a method of hypnotic induction. He has a student read a sentence or paragraph. The student is certain they understand the words. But they feel blank, confused or not there. They know from Scientology study technology doctrine that those phenomena indicate a misunderstood word exists ALWAYS.
They have such profound confusion from the contradictions and anxiety that they experience cognitive dissonance. It's unpleasant and confusing and creates hesitation and mental blankness.
In that moment of blankness Hubbard taught them to find a word to take in the definitions for. It's sometimes an English word, which the student takes in but sometimes a Scientology term.
By talking his or her mind off the confusion it is temporarily alleviated. It feels better. They brighten up as Hubbard described. It's not due to an actual benefit but instead from merely taking attention off the confusion itself.
This process involves a student of Scientology indoctrination in feeling good then bad then better then in a euphoric trance as submission to Hubbard's authority replaces critical thinking and independent judgment.
It's a very convincing experience when framed entirely in Hubbard's loaded language to evaluate it. You honestly feel like you are becoming smarter, when you unquestionably accept Hubbard's explanation.
You actually can rattle off hundreds or thousands of definitions for words and learn their derivations and can tell people the meaning of obscure and unusual things. You can tell people the derivations of the days of the week and hundreds of other trivial facts.
Until I realized that the experiences in indoctrination were constructed from covert hypnosis and cognitive restructuring I was immune to criticism of Scientology because the mystical manipulation made mundane psychological manipulation and hypnosis seem miraculous.
I went into such specific details on this because until I saw that particular weed choking the life out of me with thought stopping and reduction of critical and independent thinking I was unable to see or comprehend the bigger picture.
Scientology doesn't seduce people with the whole, it takes them on a series of steps and those twists and turns of good intentions are the road to damnation and enslavement.
Many Scientologists are deceived by auditing and its ability to reframe imagination as experience. It bit by bit gets victims to lessen critical thinking skills and independent judgment. They come to be dependent on an auditor and Hubbard's claims.
They don't understand hypnosis or the euphoric trances it provides. For many the experiences in auditing and indoctrination serve as proof Scientology works.
It certainly does something, but not at all what Hubbard claimed.
You as a non cult member may never need to dissect the process of cult indoctrination down to the smallest steps but unfortunately some ex cult members must to spot exactly what lies bind them into their prison.
To many cult members the magic itself must be exposed to let them stop being in awe. Then they can look behind the curtain and see Ron Hubbard as the emperor without a stitch of cloth. That view without deception or bias usually is startling enough.
Hubbard had definite ideas on this:
Any time anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude…if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject…he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as a hypnotic suggestion….With parity, such as occurs between acquaintances, friends, fellow students and so on, there is no hypnotic suggestion” (Education and Dianetics, 11 November 1950, Research and Discovery, volume 4). Ron HubbardSource Jon Atack
So, back in 1950 Hubbard saw altitude, also called authority or prestige or transference, as the key to hypnosis and NOT formal induction. Interesting. So the student could take in what a source provides as hypnotic suggestions and be obedient if groggy, according to Hubbard if altitude has been achieved.
Hubbard had other specific ideas:
Quotes from Ron Hubbard on the Confusion Technique:
[Quote]
Now, if it comes to a pass where it's very important whether or not this person acts or inacts as you wish, in interpersonal relations one of the dirtier tricks is to hang the person up on a maybe and create a confusion. And then create the confusion to the degree that your decision actually is implanted hypnotically.
The way you do this is very simple. When the person advances an argument against your decision, you never confront his argument but confront the premise on which his argument is based. That is the rule. He says, "But my professor always said that water boiled at 212 degrees."
You say, "Your professor of what?"
"My professor of physics."
"What school? How did he know?" Completely off track! You're no longer arguing about whether or not water boils at 212 degrees, but you're arguing about professors. And he will become very annoyed, but he won't know quite what he is annoyed about. You can do this so adroitly and so artfully that you can actually produce a confusion of the depth of hypnosis. The person simply goes down tone scale to a point where they're not sure of their own name.
And at that point you say, "Now, you do agree to go out and draw the water out of the well, don't you?"
"Yes-anything!" And he'll go out and draw the water out of the well.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard Lecture, 20 May 1952 "Decision."
source Lermanet.com
So, according to Hubbard redirection of attention can confuse someone enough to achieve the depth of hypnosis. But that's what his having the student always look for something to resolve that isn't what he's having trouble with does. He's utterly confused. Hubbard had more to say on confusion and hypnosis:
“A confusion can be defined as any set of factors or circumstances which do not seem to have any immediate solution. More broadly, a confusion is random motion.”
“Until one selects one datum, one factor, one particular in a confusion of particles, the confusion continues. The one thing selected and used becomes the stable datum for the remainder.“Any body of knowledge, more particularly and exactly, is built from one datum. That is its stable datum. Invalidate it and the entire body of knowledge falls apart. A stable datum does not have to be the correct one. It is simply the one that keeps things from being in a confusion and on which others are aligned.” – Ron Hubbard [ref]
Hubbard had definite ideas on this:
Any time anybody gets enough altitude he can be called a hypnotic operator, and what he says will act as hypnotic suggestion. Hypnotism is a difference in levels of altitude…if the operator can heighten his own altitude with regard to the subject…he doesn’t have to put the subject to sleep. What he says will still react as a hypnotic suggestion….With parity, such as occurs between acquaintances, friends, fellow students and so on, there is no hypnotic suggestion” (Education and Dianetics, 11 November 1950, Research and Discovery, volume 4). Ron HubbardSource Jon Atack
So, back in 1950 Hubbard saw altitude, also called authority or prestige or transference, as the key to hypnosis and NOT formal induction. Interesting. So the student could take in what a source provides as hypnotic suggestions and be obedient if groggy, according to Hubbard if altitude has been achieved.
Hubbard had other specific ideas:
Good Word Clearing is a system of backtracking. You have to look earlier than the point where the student became dull or confused and you’ll find that there’s a word that he doesn’t understand somewhere before the trouble started. If he doesn’t brighten up when the word is found and cleared, there will be a misunderstood word even before that one.
This will be very clear to you if you understand that if it is not resolving, the thing the student is apparently having trouble with is not the thing the student is having trouble with. Otherwise, it would resolve, wouldn’t it? If he knew what he didn’t understand, he could resolve it himself. So to talk to him about what he thinks he doesn’t understand just gets nowhere. The trouble is earlier. Ron Hubbard
So Hubbard had directed a student to look earlier and look up words, sometimes English words and sometimes Scientology words to clear as a response to blankness or the not there feeling or washed out feeling or a nervous hysteria. He directed the student to go earlier and that what the student is having trouble with isn't what they are having trouble with. A very confusing statement. Why confuse a student about what they don't get ? Check this out:Quotes from Ron Hubbard on the Confusion Technique:
[Quote]
Now, if it comes to a pass where it's very important whether or not this person acts or inacts as you wish, in interpersonal relations one of the dirtier tricks is to hang the person up on a maybe and create a confusion. And then create the confusion to the degree that your decision actually is implanted hypnotically.
The way you do this is very simple. When the person advances an argument against your decision, you never confront his argument but confront the premise on which his argument is based. That is the rule. He says, "But my professor always said that water boiled at 212 degrees."
You say, "Your professor of what?"
"My professor of physics."
"What school? How did he know?" Completely off track! You're no longer arguing about whether or not water boils at 212 degrees, but you're arguing about professors. And he will become very annoyed, but he won't know quite what he is annoyed about. You can do this so adroitly and so artfully that you can actually produce a confusion of the depth of hypnosis. The person simply goes down tone scale to a point where they're not sure of their own name.
And at that point you say, "Now, you do agree to go out and draw the water out of the well, don't you?"
"Yes-anything!" And he'll go out and draw the water out of the well.
[End Quote]
Ron Hubbard Lecture, 20 May 1952 "Decision."
source Lermanet.com
So, according to Hubbard redirection of attention can confuse someone enough to achieve the depth of hypnosis. But that's what his having the student always look for something to resolve that isn't what he's having trouble with does. He's utterly confused. Hubbard had more to say on confusion and hypnosis:
“A confusion can be defined as any set of factors or circumstances which do not seem to have any immediate solution. More broadly, a confusion is random motion.”
“Until one selects one datum, one factor, one particular in a confusion of particles, the confusion continues. The one thing selected and used becomes the stable datum for the remainder.“Any body of knowledge, more particularly and exactly, is built from one datum. That is its stable datum. Invalidate it and the entire body of knowledge falls apart. A stable datum does not have to be the correct one. It is simply the one that keeps things from being in a confusion and on which others are aligned.” – Ron Hubbard [ref]
From Scientology Study Technology Hubbard's Words
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