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Questions about Deprogramming

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
As I rejoin this board on my vacation from work, :notworking: I've had a chance to catch up and noticed a few things about ex-Scientologists' behavior when they are in the process of dealing with deprogramming from the cult.

I'd be interested if anyone else can relate to what I have to say, because based on Marty's recent posts and the things he's saying, he seems to be following maybe a similar path. I remember being really pissed off... not just at CoS, but the critics too. I remember at one point I was even comparing the critics to the CoS mind-control structure because I felt like I was getting crucified over on ARS for not believing everything they said. I remember after that, everyone was convinced that I was an OSA-op. :biggrin:

I was also making a bunch of,... let's say,... "off-colour" or "distracting" posts on ARS.
:flamewar:

I realize now that a lot of this was anger, frustration, and hurt under the surface against the Org that I was trying to keep myself from coming to terms with. In the process, I was unintentionally, but also intentionally sidelining conversations and topics. However, I knew there was something that I was missing which is why I chose to stick around until I was referred to ESMB by Kilia and Fluffy (where are they now, anyway? :unsure:)

Anywho, speaking from my own experience, I posted a bunch here when I first joined back in 2007. It wasn't until I received some great advice from popsweeny (whatever happened to him too? :unsure:) after a couple of months here when he said it might be best for me to take a vacation from talking, thinking, or reading about Scientology for a while and return to it with a more level-headed approach. I just needed to dry out a bit, and you know what? He was 100% right. I was too emotional and confused. My head was much too clouded for me to truly understand what the heck to believe and why. I was trying to figure everything out overnight and that led to some pretty crazy conclusions. My mind was changing almost every day. For those of you who remember, that was why I was in, then out, then in, then out,...
:goodorbad:

I was even listening to Barb Schwarz over on ARS for God's sake, I was so screwed up and spinning trying to make sense of it all. Every hour a new reality was appearing and I was in a hurry to deal with everything. :mindblow: It became so much so, that I actually became numb to a lot of it or whitewashed it. There was just so much to take in.
:drowning: :overanalyser:

Once I stopped posting on ESMB regularly, I'd occasionally see something in the news about Scientology, come back here, lurk a bit, do some reading, and in the end, come to my own conclusions. After that, I'd return to my vacation. :coolwink:

Now, I can honestly say that I have my own perspective now, and I feel like I can stand on my own, whereas before I felt like I was being pushed and pulled in all different directions. It's been 6 years since the CoS has stopped "reg-ing" me, and I haven't given them a dime since... or a nickel... or even a penny for that matter! Plus, even if I talk to them, they won't talk to me anymore.
:squirrel: :confused2:

I also remember after I first left how paranoid I was about new people I'd meet finding out that I was a Scientologist. I moved to a completely different state and started a brand new life. I kept quiet because I didn't want any Scientologists KRing me. I didn't want them to know where I was, and I still don't. So far, I've been successful in this. :coolwink: However, I've since found out that it was a needless to keep Scientology a deep, dark, hidden secret. I thought that if people knew, I would be crucified again like I was on ARS.
:stone:

But enough of my keying-in and valencing, let's talk about all of you! :biggrin:

1. Has anyone else had some kind of a similar experience with deprogramming from the CoS?
2. To my fellow ex-Scientologists, do you think it's all :bullshit:? Or just certain parts? If only certain parts, which parts?
3. Did you take your wins with you even after leaving Scientology?
4. Did you have a big "aha moment" that caused you to blow or was it a collection of various small things that finally resulted in a blow? Please feel free to leave your material recommendations as well (especially for the big aha moments). I'm genuinely interested.
:cheers2: :hattip:

For me, I finally started waking up after I read this and something snapped inside: "IT IS A HIGH CRIME TO PUBLICLY DEPART SCIENTOLOGY." And this: "PUBLIC DISAVOWAL OF SCIENTOLOGY OR SCIENTOLOGISTS IN GOOD STANDING WITH SCIENTOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS." I've never stopped using actual Scientology practices, though.
 

JustSheila

Crusader
That's great to hear how helpful ESMB was to you, as well as taking a break, but aren't all those questions really broad, and aren't there already hundreds of threads addressing these questions before?

Why a new thread for all those questions all bunched up together? For the Newbs? :confused2: Sorry, I don't understand why you're asking. Surely a bit of lurking here or at ARS would show you thousands of others' experiences?
 

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
That's great to hear how helpful ESMB was to you, as well as taking a break, but aren't all those questions really broad, and aren't there already hundreds of threads addressing these questions before?

Why a new thread for all those questions all bunched up together? For the Newbs? :confused2: Sorry, I don't understand why you're asking. Surely a bit of lurking here or at ARS would show you thousands of others' experiences?

Yes, maybe they are a bit broad, but I still consider them to be worth hearing an answer.

As for already having been answered, you are understandably right, but I realise that perspectives change. Plus, considering that I'm stuck still reading posts from 2013, it's still quite a bit of catching up I have to do. If you'd like, feel free to link any posts that you believe are relevant. As I said, I'm genuinely interested. Or you're more than welcome to ignore this and move along. Makes no difference to me. :)
 

strativarius

Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
<snip>

4. Did you have a big "aha moment" that caused you to blow or was it a collection of various small things that finally resulted in a blow? Please feel free to leave your material recommendations as well (especially for the big aha moments). I'm genuinely interested.​
I started a thread some time ago on this very topic and got some very interesting responses, so you might like to check it out. Click here.
 

JustSheila

Crusader
Yes, maybe they are a bit broad, but I still consider them to be worth hearing an answer.

As for already having been answered, you are understandably right, but I realise that perspectives change. Plus, considering that I'm stuck still reading posts from 2013, it's still quite a bit of catching up I have to do. If you'd like, feel free to link any posts that you believe are relevant. As I said, I'm genuinely interested. Or you're more than welcome to ignore this and move along. Makes no difference to me. :)

Since this is just for you personally so you don't have to catch up a lot of reading, I'll move along. Strati's thread that he linked was really good, btw, and should pretty much cover it.

Try Googling exscn plus whatever interests you. It works better than the ESMB search engine. As someone who has been around the sites since 2007, surely you know there is no reason for you to ask us to re-write all of this for you or look it up for you instead of just doing that yourself? It's not like you're a stranger to ex scn sites, forums or the Internet, though possibly a bit on the lazy side.
 

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
Since this is just for you personally so you don't have to catch up a lot of reading, I'll move along. Strati's thread that he linked was really good, btw, and should pretty much cover it.

Try Googling exscn plus whatever interests you. It works better than the ESMB search engine. As someone who has been around the sites since 2007, surely you know there is no reason for you to ask us to re-write all of this for you or look it up for you instead of just doing that yourself? It's not like you're a stranger to ex scn sites, forums or the Internet, though possibly a bit on the lazy side.

As stated in the original post, I've been away for a while... a long while, in fact. A lot of you are new but some of you aren't, but you are right. Strati's thread is great. I just finished reading it.

Thanks for the tip on googling. I'll keep this in mind for the future.
 

Gizmo

Rabble Rouser
Seems the longer one is out the more apparent it is that all of scientology is a crazy pile of shit only designed to make money.

Back in the days of deprogrammers one of the best told me that unaided it takes most people about 9 years to recover from the cult of scientology.

At the time I thought his observation harsh. Now out close to 25 years, I see he was kind in his estimation of time to recover alone.

Being away from the cult life gets better & better at an even faster rate as time goes by.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
Good to see you again. I also joined in 2007, that really is a long time ago isn't it? I've come and gone at various times, it depended on what I was trying to work out in my life and how in my face the scientology challenges were from family. So many people have drifted through, some come back but I can't say I know where the people you mentioned are.

There is so, so much to read here! Googling a subject is a good tip, just about any subject concerning scientology has been discussed over the years and the trick is finding the right threads.

People go through many emotions when working out what happened to them. Recovering from the complexity of scientology indoctrination can take a long time and is a very indiviudual journey. Personally there is nothing from scientology that I use in the present - there are many more truthful and simple spiritual practices out there, like Eckhart Tolle. I am only here really to do whatever I can to take down the evil practice of disconnection and expose scientology's crimes. :)

Welcome back!
 

Knows

Gold Meritorious Patron
I have been out a few years now. I had very similar experiences on the deprogramming part. It was a lot of work to deprogram because of all the time and money spent on "programming" the cult think.

Reading information on mind control, hypnosis, cults, and talking to others (that were in Scientology) is what helped me heal the most from the mind fuck.

There are a ton of people out that will talk on the phone or meet for coffee. Just reach out!

I am now back to myself with a lot of wisdom under my belt.

What I now totally understand -

Absolute Power Corrupts. Man will destroy himself and others when he has it.

David Miscavige is on a dwindling spiral down...and so is Scientology.

The money they con, extort, bribe, steal and decieve will keep the cult "looking" like a "church" but everyone in it knows it is not eventually...they just get too mind fucked over to leave...they don't know how to "be" without someone telling them what to do, how to act and what to think.

Scientology is dead.
 
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