So -
Those of us here who've been addicted to the cult can probably answer this one fairly easily and see if Mr. Hari's assertions pan out for them:
Before you got involved in the Cult of Hubbard, were you feeling like you didn't really belong anywhere and no-one really knew who you really were? Did the cult (at least initially) satisfy that need?
Did you feel like you were "finally home" in $cientology? That you'd discovered your true self along with your true soul-mates?
As Steve Cannane pointed out late last year, most of the folk that he knew were in the cult had either been born into it (and thus would know of no other place where they'd truly feel at home) or had joined around the age of 18-25, when life is ruled by emotions and the brain is still growing the frontal lobes and connection. My wonder is that maybe it's also when a person's social connections are tenuous with those he/she has had in the past as they now explore their own ideas and ideals and beliefs and see how much they tend to differ from those they've grown up with. And one starts to see how fucked up the world is and ask why can't it be a much better place.
Did your addiction to the cause of "Clearing the Planet" leave you restless for a fight of some sort to fill the void once you'd woken up to the Hubbardscam? Leave you with an itch that was hard to scratch?
I answer "yes" to all the above and reckon that the key to elimination of cults is a society that enables ALL its members to feel part of it and valued for their contributions.
Your thoughts?
Nope, that's my story Scooter.
I read Dianetics as a result of the Jefferson Hawkins TV global campaign put on in the late 1980's. Essentially a remake of the Dianetics boom from 1950's Campbell Astounding Science Fiction magazine. (much later called books make booms in marketing PR)
While I didn't fully understand the book, I was convinced enough to check it out, afterall in the book it had a little card saying come in for a free auditing session.
I only wanted to go "clear". I had no desire to find a religion, or change a religion, or be part of some group. Nor was I lonely or purposeful less. I had lots of friends, I only wanted an increase in ability. None of these things Ted talks says.
Addiction, I don't think so, it only became an addiction, if you will, because I was to further read Hubbard, and had, at the whole time, 25 years to
not compare to other sciences of the mind, philosophy, etc, that dianetics or scientology said was the answer.