Mockingbird's Nest: December 2022

Thursday, December 29, 2022

(15) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Influences on NXIVM beliefs and practices, sourced from Natalie et al (2019), rendered in the mode of W.S. Bainbridge, e.g. Bainbridge 1978. |NXIVM teachings drew upon diverse influences, including Ayn Rand ("parasites"), L. Ron Hubbard ("suppressives"), Milton Erickson's hypnosis, Isaac Asimov's science fiction, Rudolf Steiner, Tony Robbins, and neuro-linguistic programming. NXIVM incorporated elements of multi-level marketing and practices from judo, with colored cloth for rank and bowing.

This is the fifteenth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book.

"All successful people can see how effective this material is right away," (Scarred page 43)

Scientology similarly has a way of acting like the people who are in Scientology are more successful and frankly more aware and better people than everyone else.

Scientology doctrine has numerous references that state with repetition-with-variation that Scientology is attractive to the most intelligent and aware tiny fraction of humanity, an elite of the elite self select into Scientology is the common denominator of dozens of Scientology references on the different roles one may assume in Scientology from a Scientologist to an auditor to a staff member to a Sea Org member and on and on and on.

The effect quite often of successful repetition-with-variation in indoctrination is the result in the mind of an individual accepting the underlying principle as a self evident and irrefutable truth, in this case you accept that ALL Scientologists are more aware and intelligent than others, which is demonstrated by the "fact" that the individual was aware enough to find value in Scientology, which also makes the alleged "value" in Scientology also an unexamined assumption that is a self evident truth in the mind of the cult member and has the identity and personal confidence of the cult member tied to their perception that Scientology is valuable and so if they defend the perception that Scientology is valuable they are also defending their own identity as a person of awareness, intelligence, and good moral character.

So, by flattering the Scientology members Hubbard gets the result of people who feel admired and valued by him and in turn will defend him and his claims to their dying breath, because they are also defending themselves to a great degree because Hubbard made the world into an us versus them proposal and said we are the good guys, we are smart, we have good character, over and over and it's frankly appealing to be told that you matter, you have value, you are special, you are capable over and over in a hundred different ways.

Of course NXIVM has the same approach. By acting like the people who see value in the material immediately are successful you flatter them and give them an easy explanation why they have friends and family who don't like NXIVM. It is very tempting to see yourself as both right and smarter than people who disagree with you. It is very good at getting the pride of a person involved in just accepting that they are right and not looking at both sides.

"Then, she invited us to do an exercise determining our "values hierarchy," writing down the aspects of our life that were more important to us." (Scarred page 43)

"She taught us that many people can't make decisions because they aren't clear on what their priorities are, as they haven't been able to figure out which values are more important than others, causing a "values conflict." This resonated deeply for me. I was always having trouble making decisions, so this ranked list would be so helpful. But over time, I would eventually swap my numbers one and two. Through pressure to attend ESP trainings over family events, such as my grandfather's birthday, I received tacit suggestions that personal growth needed to be my highest value if I was going to advance in NXIVM. The Stripe Path had to trump all other values. Including family." (Scarred page 43)

Scientology is certainly similar to NXIVM in using repetition-with-variation to promote Scientology as the most important priority and value for members.

Both groups act like you don't know how to establish priorities and values and of course they tell you their group should be the highest priority in your life. Both groups act like you don't have understanding of ethics and proper ethics and the group of course can teach you proper ethics and they always tell you their group is ethical and therefore should be supported over all other groups.

I have given a few examples of Scientology doctrine that represent this and will put a few brief ones here to document it and for comparison.

“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.

The whole agonized future of the planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.

This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.

Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past.”

(Ronald Hubbard HCO PL 7 February 1965 Keeping Scientology Working Series)

"The threat to us if we don’t make it is eternity.

One could ask a staff member that refuses to get hatted how he would like to spend all of the coming eternity blind, in the dark and in pain. He would probably say he wouldn’t like that. But if we don’t make it, that’s what we’ve got and that’s what he’s condemning this planet to.

He doesn’t realize that he himself, next life, is for it if we don’t make it.

If staff in our orgs don’t get hatted, they’re condemning themselves and the planet to death a thousand times over.

So understand that no matter how mild the environment might appear to you, we are actually fighting a full-scale war against ignorance and enslavement. But we do have the tech to win.”

(HCO PL 2 July 1984 HATTING AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Ronald Hubbard)

“I have been researching upper OT levels, and I can tell you this very plainly: If Scn doesn’t make it worldwide you’ve had it – yes, I mean you. One is not working for just this life. He is working for any future life at all”.

(HCO PL 14 March 1982 Financial Irregularities, Ronald Hubbard)

“If the Captain does not KNOW that Advanced Courses are the most valuable service on the planet he will not be able to understand HARD SELL. THEREFORE HE MUST REALIZE: That life insurance, houses, cars, stocks, bonds, college savings, are all transitory and impermanent and based on things not surviving, or on things that are in fact being destroyed.

Advanced Courses rehabilitate the Thetan to his OT abilities and last forever and give immortality.

‘Hard Sell’ is based on knowing and promoting in this line (TRUTH!) and not being reasonable about people who want ‘other things’ or ‘other practices’. There is nothing to compare with Advanced Courses. They are infinitely valuable and transcend time itself.” (Flag Mission Order 375, 14 August 1970, Ronald Hubbard)

Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

If you run into a group that tells you their courses are the most important and valuable things that can exist, it's a giant red flag. I am not saying that important subjects do not exist.

Literacy is important. Scientific method is important. Critical thinking is important. Medicine is important. Law is important. Psychology is important. The physical sciences are important. History is important. The arts are important. Music is important. Philosophy is important.

There are many subjects that are important in their own turn, but we shouldn't elevate them automatically above all others for EVERYONE in EVERY SITUATION.

It is in my opinion a huge red flag if someone says "My philosophy is the most important thing in the universe for EVERYONE, regardless of their background or experience or needs!"

Life is not a one size fits all experience. One person may have very different needs or interests than another, and it does not automatically mean either one is wrong or inferior.

Regarding "The Stripe Path had to trump all other values. Including family." (Scarred page 43)

Scientology has a similar value, but it is not introduced initially. Alexandra Stein in her superb book Terror, Love and Brainwashing describes many aspects of cults that most people don't. She describes the initial information that cults present to the outside and new members as propaganda which is designed to be more socially acceptable to the outside society and also to mislead the new recruits into believing he cult is an ethical and beneficial group. Stein goes on to describe the doctrine that a member is engulfed in as they proceed to a greater and greater degree of commitment and fanatical extremism as being quite different than the initial information and Stein calls the deeper information indoctrination.

In many cults the propaganda is not remotely close to the indoctrination that lies deeper in the group and the indoctrination is the true values and doctrine the leadership is executing.

A common example found in many political cults is an outer layer that claims to be liberal or far left that champions equality, brotherhood, and liberty but as you go deeper you find it may be fascistic, anti-Semitic, and in truth far right.

Scientology in many ways echoes this and an extensive examination of its origins and leadership reveals that it to a noticeable degree shares these traits.

Regarding the family issue Scientology has propaganda intended to placate and misinform.

The Way to Happiness for example has the following precepts:

"DON’T BE PROMISCUOUS.

LOVE AND HELP CHILDREN.

HONOR AND HELP YOUR PARENTS.

SET A GOOD EXAMPLE." (Way to Happiness, Ronald Hubbard)

That sounds downright wholesome!

But, sadly the reality in Scientology is quite different, especially for the Scientology staff and most of all for Sea Org members.

The extreme and constant emphasis on having more and more time and attention put on Scientology activities leaves no room for others and subsequently public Scientologists are often pressured to be on course or getting auditing every moment possible.

Many are pressured into joining staff or the Sea Org repeatedly and relentlessly until they give in.

Often if a Scientologist joins staff they find themselves immediately pressured to disconnect from any family members who are not Scientologists and this pressure is usually a constant and persistent problem.

I personally experienced tremendous pressure to disconnect from my wife and children literally hundreds of times while I was in Scientology for twenty-five years and the organization oddly doesn't acknowledge or admit to this practice even as they are doing it to you and everyone around you.

The Sea Org doesn't allow members to be married to people who are not Scientologists and in fact as David Miscavige transfers people around he requires them to divorce their spouse if they're not also in the same part of the Sea Org and since he can move people as he pleases with no rhyme or reason he effectively gets to break up people as he wishes for his own sick amusement. And to be clear there are many reports of him doing exactly that.

To understand the next reference one needs to understand that in Scientology there's a division of the human mind into distinct sections including an (inaccurate) analytical mind, a (fictional) reactive mind, and a somatic mind aka a genetic entity or GE. The genetic entity (GE) is a low level "mind" in Hubbard's system that he described as "formerly referred to as the somatic mind. It has no real personality, it is not the “I” of the body. This is the “mind” of an animal, a dog or a cat or a cow." (History of Man, Ronald Hubbard)

“THE GE IS A FAMILY MAN

The GE is a family man; the GE is lost without a family. It’s very strange, but Homo sap is a family unit. The GE is built on that basis. It’s fascinating, fascinating. It’s not important to know it but a lot of your urges toward families and so forth are not thetan urges at all, they’re the GE. The GE can’t survive at all without a family unit. He’s just as dead as a mackerel if he isn’t a family unit, whereas your thetan is just dead as a mackerel if he gets too mixed up in family units.

You can’t talk to GEs; they’re kind of psycho. And by the way, you can fall into this dreadful trap with a GE. You see, he uses the MEST universe with which to build. He’s gotten very, very bad off and he has to use MEST materials all the time.

So, you get this situation here with the GE, and your GE is busy: build, build, build, build, build. And, of course he’s got to have a family to build with.

You get this terrific family thirst. And you get your GE surviving best and being loused up the most because of interfamily relationships.

And your thetan, by the way, can much more easily go into a group. Families are not good groups; they’re bad groups.”

(taped lecture “Flows: Patterns of Interaction”

10 December 1952 Ronald Hubbard)

Hubbard described the "thetan" as the real individual, the spirit and as Scientology is ultimately a Gnostic system it has the idea that the "thetan" existed before the physical universe and was degraded by contact with the physical universe and is best in its "native state" which means the way it was BEFORE the spirit interacted with the physical universe and so if Hubbard is saying the thetan does best without a family he is saying YOU have a nature that is best served by not having a family!

Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

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Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

(14) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

This is the fourteenth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book.

"To be "at-cause" also meant that we choose our emotions."

(Scarred page 42)

In 1986, Ronald Hubbard wrote a poem which is a statement that a being creates their own emotions.

“The Joy of Creating”

“Force yourself to smile and you’ll soon stop frowning.

Force yourself to laugh and you’ll soon find something to laugh about.

Wax* enthusiastic** and you’ll very soon feel so.

A being causes his own feelings.

The greatest joy there is in life is creating.

Splurge on it!” (Ronald Hubbard, 1986)

Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

Obviously, both NXIVM and Scientology share the "you create your own emotions" claim and use it to deny that they have responsibility for the leaders and upper echelon being abusive to people lower in the organization.

But they don't have this as a two way street, in other words Hubbard could, and frequently did act like someone upsetting him was wrong and Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman had no trouble acting like people who upset them were creating an ethical breach!

See? You do not get to tell Ronald Hubbard or David Miscavige that they created their own feelings! Or Nancy Salzman or Keith Raniere!

Keith Raniere used his incredible sensitivity and jealousy to manipulate people but they were not allowed to tell Keith Raniere that he was responsible for his own emotions!

Nancy Salzman in season two of the television show The Vow goes to great lengths to tell her side and say she is under terrible emotional stress and distress regarding the criminal convictions and fallout from the NXIVM criminal trials but oddly she does not say she is creating her own emotions or that she is entirely a hypocrite for abusing others when they experienced negative emotions in the NXIVM training programs and as members of the organization or when she covered for the misconduct of Keith Raniere for years, enabling him to continue it.

If Nancy Salzman asked me for help in resolving what happened to her at NXIVM I think frankly at some point I would probably refer her to a quote from Robert Jay Lifton in which he said that for some Vietnam Veterans a process of separating the mistreatment they endured from others including the US government and the misdeeds they themselves had committed had to be done and to recover they had to face responsibility for the acts they see themselves as responsible for and deal with them as something separate from recounting and analyzing the evil done to them personally by others.

To be clear, this is not a step that is necessary for everyone who was in Scientology or NXIVM or other cultic groups.

Just as many soldiers serve in war and do not commit war crimes and atrocities, so they don't have to face responsibility for such acts, so too do many cult members not have crimes and abuses to deal with.

I might not bring up such a daunting challenge for quite some time if I worked with Nancy Salzman personally, because often an ex cult member is not ready to face this as an initial part of the recovery process, though we each have a unique cultic experience and our own unique path to recovery if we were in a cult and are fortunate enough to survive and recover.

For me personally as someone who spent twenty-five years in Scientology and did plenty of bad, even evil, acts during that time I certainly had to work to take responsibility for my own actions, even if just to admit that I was wrong and did wrong to others and apologize to several people, which may seem like far, far too little and far too late.

I also believe there's something to consider in the idea that "the best apology is changed behavior" as I've endeavoured (however imperfectly) to recognize and change negative behavior that was part of what I apologized for.

After spending decades in a cult and doing harmful acts one can't go back in time, one can't erase any trauma and hurt one has caused. One can't reconcile with the dead.

You can't go back and be a better parent, a better husband, a better friend, a better person in the past.

And you have to accept that no apology or change that is possible will be sufficient to mend some relationships. I am not saying don't try or persist in trying, I am saying that you have to accept the reality that some people are not ever going to accept the efforts or reconcile. That is not a condemnation of you or them on my part, it's a realistic assessment of the situation you may face.

Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

"To be at-cause is a way of life, Nancy said. Living this way means you recognize that you are the cause of everything in your life. For someone to behave "out of cause" means that they're choosing to be a victim instead of recognizing their "at-causedness," or how their role in the situation caused what happened." (Scarred page 42)

If only the judge in her trial could have asked Nancy at her sentencing if Nancy was merely being a victim? The judge could have had victims recount how Nancy used this mantra to humiliate others for years. It is worth serious examination.

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Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

(13) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

This is the thirteenth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book.

"Nancy explained that the people in the higher ranks, under Keith, had reached their respective levels of success by truly living the foundational philosophy of ESP: "being at-cause." This concept was defined as the understanding that we, as individuals, cause everything that happens to us. Whether it's money, success, romance, or anything else we seek, ESP would deliver a perceptual shift that we are "causing agents" in our lives. "Being at-cause is taking responsibility for your participation in the laws of cause and effect," Nancy said. She revealed that being at-cause allows one to make better decisions and to own all of his or her choices." (Scarred page 42)

"To be "at-cause" also meant that we choose our emotions."

(Scarred page 42)

"Being at-cause is a way of life, Nancy said. Living this way means you recognize that you are the cause of everything in your life. For someone to be "out of cause" means that they're choosing to be a victim instead of recognizing their "at-causedness," or how their role in the situation caused what happened." (Scarred page 42)

Scientology has many parallel ideas regarding cause.

At-cause is a term many Scientologists use to describe the idea of a person recognizing that they are the source of something.

It is a concept used extensively in Scientology and perhaps best described in the following article from the book Fundamentals of Thought:

"Causation and Knowledge

SCIENTOLOGY IS COMPOSED of many axioms (self-evident truths). There are some fifty-eight of these Axioms, in addition to the two hundred more Axioms of Dianetics which preceded the Scientology Axioms.

The first ten Axioms of Scientology are:

Axiom 1 Life is basically a Static.

Definition: A Life Static has no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time. It has the ability to postulate and perceive.

Definition: In Scientology, the word “postulate” means to cause a thinkingness or consideration. It is a specially applied word and is defined as “causative thinkingness.”

Axiom 2 The Static is capable of considerations, postulates and opinions.

Axiom 3

Space, energy, objects, form and time are the result of considerations made and/or agreed upon or not by the Static, and are perceived solely because the Static considers that it can perceive them.

Axiom 4 Space is a viewpoint of dimension.

(Space is caused by looking out from a point. The only actuality of space is the agreed-upon consideration that one perceives through something and this we call space.)

Axiom 5 Energy consists of postulated particles in space.

(One considers that energy exists and that he can perceive energy. One also considers that energy behaves according to certain agreed-upon laws. These assumptions or considerations are the totality of energy.)

Axiom 6 Objects consist of grouped particles and also of solid masses.

Axiom 7 Time is basically a postulate that space and particles will persist.

(The rate of their persistence is what we measure with clocks and the motion of heavenly bodies.)

Axiom 8 The apparency of time is the change of position of particles in space.

Axiom 9 Change is the primary manifestation of time.

Axiom 10 The highest purpose in this universe is the creation of an effect.

These first ten Axioms of Scientology are the most fundamental “truths” (by which we mean “commonly held considerations”) as defined by Hubbard for Scientologists in Scientology doctrine.

Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

Here we have thought and life and the physical universe in their relation, one to the other. Regardless of further considerations, ideas, assumptions and conditions, there lie beneath them these first ten truths.

It is as though one had entered into an honorable bargain with fellow beings to hold these things in common. Once this is done, or once such a “contract” or agreement exists, one has the fundamentals of a universe. Specialized considerations, based on the above Axioms, make one or another kind of universe. The physical universe, which we see around us and in which we live, was created on these fundamentals without regard to Who created it. Its creation was agreed upon. In order to perceive it, one must agree that it exists." (Fundamentals of Thought, Ronald Hubbard 1956)

I merely posted an excerpt from Causation and Knowledge to get across the point that Scientology has the core concept that you are an immortal spiritual being who creates the literal space, matter, energy, and even time that exists by decision.

This is not a metaphor or recommendation to have a positive attitude. It's taken entirely literally by Scientologists.

I recommend reading the full article Causation and Knowledge which Scientology organizations have posted online for free and The Factors which Scientology has also posted online to get a good understanding of how much the idea is a fundamental to Scientology.

In Scientology a postulate goes from its English definition of a thought to a "causative thinkingness" and this is the way matter, energy, space, and time are created according to Scientology doctrine.

It's quite clear that Scientology shares the trait of magical thinking with NXIVM and they are certainly not the only practices that have this quality but two things are noteworthy regarding this.

Scientology perhaps takes this concept to the absolute extreme as a person is treated as causing absolutely everything that happens to them routinely. This really can't be over stated.

The second thing that is worth pointing out is that while many groups have some degree of magical thinking the exact term "at-cause" is generally specific to Scientology and it is used in the same way in NXIVM.

Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

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Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

(12) Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism

This is the twelfth post in a series that examines the book Scarred: The True Story Of How I Escaped The Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson.

I recommend reading these posts in sequential order and have listed them in order to make reading them in order easy.

Unless noted otherwise, all quotes used in this series are from that book.

"The pamphlet called other success principles "useless" and promoted the Ethos program as something that could help one "make the leap from knowing about success... to actually having success. And they hit you: "We are an ongoing program that helps you develop the necessary inner strength to achieve success. It's a team effort with team support." (Scarred page 39)

Cults, like abusers in abusive relationships, often proclaim that only they have a method to deal with a problem. Many abusers tell their victims that "only I can save you" or "no one will understand you like I will" or "no one else really loves you like I do."

Cults often proclaim exclusive knowledge and ability to help members and Scientology and NXIVM certainly share this trait.

“In all the broad Universe there is no other hope for Man than ourselves.”

(Ronald Hubbard, “Ron’s Journal” 1967)

Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder

“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.

The whole agonized future of the planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.

This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.

Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past.”

(Ronald Hubbard HCO PL 7 February 1965 Keeping Scientology Working Series1)

Something else that is noteworthy is that NXIVM is an ongoing effort and Scientology has activities that members are encouraged to participate in for the rest of their lives.

Many non-cult groups that offer training have definite programs and courses that have fixed lengths and duration.

If you go to a college or trade school or any of many other types of schooling or training the activity has a defined cost and it's clear how long you are expected to attend and that when you are finished with the program if you meet the requirements you graduate from it and are done. But cults quite often have the odd trait of endless training or counseling that have no actual measurable or definite goals and they don't end. Or the group or leader keeps coming up with new "discoveries" or "revelations" to make the members keep giving more money, time, labor, and attention.

NXIVM and Scientology certainly share this trait. NXIVM seemed to always have more ideas from Keith Raniere to make more curriculum for members and Scientology had decades of Hubbard making more technology (he actually plagiarized it, but did so seemingly endlessly.)

NXIVM is noteworthy for pressuring members at an intermediate level of involvement to constantly either be buying more training or devoting more time and labor to the group and the inner circle of the group, which was likely almost exclusively a cult of personality for Keith Raniere, like most cults required ever increasing degrees of devotion to the group and treated anything less than permanent and unwavering service to the group as unethical.

Hubbard actually holds several records for the millions and millions of words of doctrine he produced. It is quite likely that he was the only person who heard everything he had recorded as he was nearly constantly making taped lectures for decades.

I have written on the plagiarism he committed and recommend the work of Jon Atack on this topic. I personally am convinced that Hubbard studied hypnosis extensively and tried to covertly incorporate literally hundreds of techniques from hypnosis throughout Dianetics and Scientology and this included auditing and indoctrination and many activities in Scientology.

Cult expert Steve Hassan has commented that Hubbard read books on hypnosis from the twenties and thirties and used the techniques. Arnie Lerma at his Lermanet website listed many examples of both Hubbard's own words from Scientology doctrine demonstrating his knowledge regarding hypnosis and Arnie Lerma also found quotes from references on hypnosis to compare side by side with methods used in Scientology to show Hubbard plagiarized the methods and sometimes Hubbard didn't change the commands or procedures at all, sometimes he barely altered the wording at all.

Hubbard additionally plagiarized many ideas from Aleister Crowley and mentioned this in his taped lectures.

Hubbard, in the Philadelphia Doctorate Course, 1952:

“Now, he could simply say, “I have action.” A magician – the magic cults of the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth centuries in the Middle East were fascinating. The only modern work that has anything to do with them is a trifle wild in spots, but it’s fascinating work in itself, and that’s work written by Aleister Crowley, the late Aleister Crowley, my very good friend. And he did himself a splendid piece of aesthetics built around those magic cults. It’s very interesting reading to get hold of a copy of a book, quite rare, but it can be obtained. the Master Therion, T-h-e-r-i-o-n, The Master Therion by Aleister Crowley. He signs himself “The Beast”; “The Mark of the Beast, 666.” Very, very something or other.”

(Ronald Hubbard, Philadelphia Doctorate Course Lectures, 1952)

Incidentally, when I was first leaving Scientology I had trouble understanding his affirmations (private self hypnosis commands he used on himself, possibly for decades) and the claim that Scientology ultimately had origins in hypnosis and the occult.

So, I studied hypnosis at length and looked at the basic techniques of confusion (aka paradox aka contradiction), repetition, repetition-with-variation, guided imagery, attention fixation and mimicry. I also looked at the effects of hypnosis including trance logic, euphoric trance states, dissociation, postural slump, eye lid flutter and numerous others which were essential to my education on the subject as well.

I read about cognitive dissonance theory and the momentary hesitation and mental blankness that accompanies this dissonance and realized that Hubbard intended to produce the confusion and dissonance and momentary blankness and then to "remedy" the confusion that was intentionally induced by providing an answer from Hubbard himself and having a member take in this as an implant hypnotically, in other words below a level of conscious awareness.

This is true in both auditing and particularly indoctrination in which moments of confusion or blankness are to be remedied by either taking in the thousands and thousands of loaded language definitions that Hubbard used to reframe reality itself and /or to also have Scientology doctrine also implanted as part of this process. In either case it was meant to reframe Hubbard himself as the only one who has answers that are reliable.

Additionally, I actually examined the occult to see if it was represented on Scientology. I read The Book of Law by Crowley and found that many dozens of ideas throughout Dianetics and Scientology are from Crowley and The Book of Law is so short it's practically a pamphlet.

I also read an analysis of the earlier insane cult book The OAHSPE and found extremely strong evidence that much of Scientology including the OT levels are plagiarized from that earlier cult doctrine, which was written in the 1800s.

I published an extensive analysis of the similarities between Scientology and The OAHSPE in: OT III And Beyond: Sources Plagiarized From Part 1, 2 and 3.

I have written numerous analyses of hypnosis in Scientology as well. Many posts on this are available at Mockingbird's Nest blog on Scientology.

One additional note I want to make on the plagiarism of Hubbard and Raniere is a similar story I have heard about both of them.

I heard that Ronald Hubbard had a habit of having an aide read a book on a subject such as psychology or a technique in talk therapy and then give Hubbard a twenty minute synopsis of the book. Hubbard would have the aide explain the concept and summarize it.

Then Hubbard quite often would give a lecture that night and steal the ideas from the book his aide just that day explained to him and incorporate the ideas into Hubbard's own scifi pseudoscience and claim it was from research or past life space opera and Hubbard would quite often combine hypnotic techniques with whatever ideas people presented him, whether they were originally part of a hypnotic technique or not.

Hubbard gave thousands and thousands of taped lectures which were most often given to a live audience that paid for the lectures.

He delivered over four hundred lectures on one course and had many other series of lectures that had dozens or more lectures delivered in one series and Hubbard made many, many series.

Scientology has claimed that Hubbard recorded over three thousand taped lectures and it claims he has produced over seventy five million words of Dianetics and Scientology doctrine.

It's extremely likely that other than Hubbard himself no human being has ever heard all his lectures or read all his writings.

Now, I have certainly not listened to all or most of the lectures but I have listened to several and read the transcripts and excerpts from several more.

The fact that Hubbard frequently came up with "new" material for his lectures and just churned them out routinely, sometimes for years, shows in my opinion that he used a combination of ideas plagiarized from the two subjects he put serious effort into studying, namely hypnosis and the occult (though he plagiarized from these subjects, just as he did with many others), and he took whatever ideas his aides could describe for him or other people in Scientology and Dianetics introduced him to and he just claimed all of these things as his own.

Hubbard in an early lecture recommended the book Hypnotism Comes of Age: Its Progress from Mesmer to Psychoanalysis by Bernard Wolfe and Raymond Rosenthal.

I read this book as part of my study of hypnosis and realized Hubbard embraced it. In particular he modeled much of Scientology after the method the book described. The book described the combination of hypnosis and psychoanalysis to create hypnoanalysis and Hubbard realized he could combine other practices with hypnosis and merely not tell both the patients and practitioners that his techniques rely on guiding imagination during suggestible trance states (hypnosis) to create entirely false memories of events that never occurred, particularly early childhood events and past life events.

I believe Hubbard took many other ideas including talk therapies and the basic ideas in his study tech from others and combined them with classic hypnotic techniques to covertly mentally enslave subjects.

By combining his actual study of hypnosis and the occult with the steady stream of synopses his aides would provide Hubbard made it look like he was a peerless genius who was constantly coming up with new breakthrough after new breakthrough and that he had an ability to see underlying truths and think at a level of awareness far beyond anyone else!

After all, it seemed like he was coming up with entirely new techniques and principles day after day that genuine research would take a lifetime to develop as quickly as a normal person could cook a meal or do an oil change.

If we understand the ideas are either entirely or almost entirely plagiarized then Hubbard giving hundreds of lectures over years is no longer impressive.

It is like watching a politician give great speeches and finding out his staff write every word and he just stands there and reads off a teleprompter and never comes up with the text himself.

I want to say that I heard something similar regarding Keith Raniere. I heard that he had others explain some ideas to him and then he would try to act as if he was an expert on the subject he just himself discovered.

Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

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Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism