Thursday, December 29, 2022

(4) 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 fourth 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. 


"...elevate our consciousness..." (Scarred page 8)

This is similar to the idea of "increasing awareness" or "increasing spiritual awareness" which is quite often used to describe the promised results of Dianetics and Scientology.


"spiritual exercise"  (Scarred page 9)

Again, quite similar to phrasing and concepts regarding Scientology.

"And just like what we've learned for years through NXIVM'S Executive Success Program (ESP) curriculum, we will feel uncomfortable. She will push us, but if we stick with it, we will grow in ways we can't even imagine yet."  (Scarred page 9)


Now this has several parallels in Scientology.



Scientology is well known for having mottos from Hubbard such as "The way out is the way through" which I have seen interpreted as meaning that an auditing act that creates an unpleasant feeling or discomfort or actual pain or fear or trauma is seen as "working" in Scientology if this happens and almost always continued in spite of any adverse reactions it might cause.

Similarly, "What turns it on will turn it off" and a few other slogans are used in this way to get people to surrender their power of choice over when to start and end certain things in Scientology including auditing actions and sessions. 

Lots of cults in my opinion share the feature of being one size fits all, in other words if a technique makes some people euphoric and happy but other people uncomfortable or bored or terrified, the techniques are not changed or stopped to benefit the client, but instead the client is told to keep doing the techniques anyway, as if we all have identical minds and emotions, and reactions to specific stimuli, which we don't. 

A technique that is pleasant or enjoyable or at least not harmful or traumatic for some people may be extremely unpleasant or downright destructive of the mental well-being or even sanity of some other people. 

Scientology and several other cults don't acknowledge this reality and I believe NXIVM to a degree has this trait as well. 

 "This obedience is not surprising: for years, they've coached us that if we feel the" urge to bolt," as they've called it, that's our evidence the program is working. We have been trained to ignore our discomfort." (Scarred page 14)


Ronald Hubbard, Scientology founder



Okay, in Scientology we've already seen how unpleasant emotions or a desire to stop in auditing (a purported therapy that's really repackaged hypnosis intended to covertly mentally enslave people) are seen as a sign that the techniques are working and one should continue. 

In addition, this attitude extends to the indoctrination in Scientology training. 

"A misunderstood definition or a not-comprehended definition or an undefined word can even cause a person to give up studying a subject and leave a course or class. Leaving in this way is called a blow.

We have all known people who enthusiastically started on a course of study only to find out some time later that the person dropped the study because it was “boring” or “it wasn’t what they thought it would be.” They were going to learn a skill or go to night school and get their degree but never followed through. No matter how reasonable their excuses, the fact is they dropped the subject or left the course. This is a blow. A person blows for only one primary reason – the misunderstood word."

 (HCOB 25 June 1971, Ronald Hubbard,"Barriers to Study")

So, in Scientology if you don't enjoy a course and want to not finish it or do not want to continue training in Scientology after finishing a course (as Scientology has many, many courses and encourages members to redo the courses many times quite often as a never ending hamster wheel you are discouraged from ever getting off) it is routine to act as if YOU must have passed words you did not understand in your course! And require you to go back and look for them and look up and study their definitions! 

And if you want to leave the Scientology organization and have a bad experience with the organization or leaders or simply do not want the same goals as the group or you have not been paid despite working for several weeks, months, or years for Scientology? 

Well, then there's a reason why it's also YOUR FAULT if you want to leave according to Scientology doctrine, despite any reasons otherwise! 


"Scientology technology recently has been extended to include the factual explanation of departures, sudden and relatively unexplained, from sessions, posts, jobs, locations and areas."

(HCOB 31 DECEMBER 1959R, Ronald Hubbard, Blow-Offs)

"This is one of the things man thought he knew all about and therefore never bothered to investigate. Yet this amongst all other things gave him the most trouble. Man had it all explained to his own satisfaction and yet his explanation did not cut down the amount of trouble which came from the feeling of “having to leave.”

(HCOB 31 DECEMBER 1959R, Ronald Hubbard, Blow-Offs)

"In Scientology we have the phenomenon of preclears in session or students on courses deciding to leave and never coming back. And that gives us more trouble than most other things all combined."

(HCOB 31 DECEMBER 1959R, Ronald Hubbard, Blow-Offs)

"People leave because of their own overts and withholds. That is the factual fact and the hard-bound rule. A man with a clean heart can’t be hurt. The man or woman who must must must become a victim and depart is departing because of his or her own overts and withholds. It doesn’t matter whether the person is departing from a town or a job or a session. The cause is the same."

(HCOB 31 DECEMBER 1959R, Ronald Hubbard, Blow-Offs)

I could say a lot about "overts and witholds" in Scientology but for this moment I will say that in Scientology "overts" have a translation that's roughly "evil acts, whether a person did something they should not have or failed to do something they should" and "witholds" have a definition that is roughly "overts after they are done which a person fails to reveal, like secret evil acts." There are several other definitions for these terms in Scientology and they tie into an entire complex belief system.

I do not believe in overts or witholds because they assert that lots of other ideas in Scientology are also true in their definitions and usage. I do believe in evil as in we as human beings can do evil things and we can have secrets or undisclosed crimes.


But the overts and witholds in Scientology are not real.

As an example say I am with a person, Roger, and we find a white hair on the ground while walking down a street. I pick it up and say "it is a tiny white hair." Roger says, "It's a unicorn hair!" Which to Roger PROVES that unicorns indeed do exist! 


I am unwilling to call it a unicorn hair, though I believe that hair exists and that we found a hair. See?

The Scientology doctrine has overts and witholds linked to departures and illness and accidents and all sorts of things that I simply don't believe have these links so you overts and witholds are not simply bad acts and secrets, they are entirely different than that when you get down to it.


In leaving Scientology and studying cults I realized that Scientology has seemingly "magic doorways"! 

If you want to leave while in the course room then "misunderstood words" are blamed!

 If you want to leave auditing or don't enjoy an auditing action then it means "the auditing is working and must be continued"! 

If you want to simply leave the organization altogether and you don't want to work there anymore you "must have been doing something evil and hiding it"! 

It's so strange that depending on which room you were in when you decided to leave it decides the reason!

And you notice leaving is NEVER considered a morally acceptable option!

Similarly, in NXIVM members who made it sufficiently far enough into the organization were pressured to stay and commit themselves more and more to "personal growth" but that "growth" is giving more and more of their time, money, and life to NXIVM for the amorphous "growth"! After all, it has no form to see! It has no statistics to measure! It is entirely subjective!


Keith Raniere, NXIVM leader

It brings me back to an idea that deeply resonated with me in my recovery from Scientology. One which is worth serious consideration in my opinion for NXIVM members and ex members regarding the "growth" NXIVM provides!


"If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable.” 

― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer is a classic on extremism and has helped many ex members of cults to reframe and reconsider their cult experiences. I highly recommend it. 








Scientology and NXIVM - Parallels and Plagiarism


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