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I will simply say what I see. It may not be popular.
There are millennia of religious precedents for David Miscavich's and L. Ron Hubbard's deprivations, torture and flagellation of Scientologists.
There is also a quite-visible sado-masochistic relationship between cult member and their superiors/juniors. Scientologists are very often turned into closet masochists who not only ACCEPT the physical and psychological punishments dealt out to them, but instead, they eventually
embrace it in the form of self-flagellation in many forms.
I am ignoring for this post the subject of "wins" because 62 years worth of Clear and OT Success Stories have not mattered a bit in the matter of cult leaders and their cowed, chain-lockered, imprisoned, gang-bang-sec-checked and terrorized flock. If the wins were real OT wins (i.e. real OTs were made) then there would be no David Miscavich because one OT would simply stop him. Think about it--could a real OT be defeated by a "
low-toned, lying, dramatizing, degraded being" like COB? If a "no-case-gain" guy can control, boss around, and enslave OTs, how is OT "cause"?
How did Scientologists get into this mess anyways? They couldn't have
all been out ethics or by-passed-cases that didn't make it. Not
one of them had any OT abilities to deal with a vast multitude of incidents that a mere WOG would have simply dialed 911 for?
For myself, I see that it is not possible to have a sadist achieving such notoriety and success and support unless there is a balancing, compensating, complementary pool of masochists who feel they are gaining something by the infliction of pain, by another or self.
If you are brave, look up the Wiki entry for
Mortification of the Flesh and you will be reminded that religious faithful have forever been accepting or self-inflicting deprivations and punishment as a road to salvation or heightened spiritual ascendency. Here's the first paragraph to give you the flavor...
For example: Scientologists practicing in Hubbard's or Miscavich's church are subjected to typical mortifications of the flesh as "immersion in water" (standing in a garbage can and having water thrown at one (Debbie Cook, Janet Light, et al...), thrown overboard by the Commodore even if the accused is ill, unable to swim or old and infirm. These kinds of "baptismal cleanings" with water have been going on forever and of course this includes COB's ordering his elite executives to wade into toxic-infested ponds or sewerage ducts to expiate their transgressions.
An SP can't be an SP unless there are people who are willing to go PTS. Translation: A sadist needs a masochist or nothing bad happens. Sure, maybe for a few unsuspecting victims, but only until someone calls the police after being beaten or imprisoned. If Scientology's gurus were short of victims they
produced victims by a series of psychologically breaking and debilitating indoctrination regimens. Let's look at a Google snippet on Flagellation...
You see, it even has the same concept (different technique) from Scientology's Advanced OT Levels with BTs being driven off.
Let's go back to Mortification of the Flesh for a moment. Religious cults have long-practiced the same kinds of sado-masochism as Scientology and the Sea Org. What else should we call no sex, no children, vows of poverty, eating bare rations, sleep deprivation, sleeping under a desk, not having a phone/computer/internet, no automobile or driver's license, no passport and having all incoming/outgoing mail censored? And we are not only talking about Sea Org Members who are in the S&M game within Scientology.......
Public Scientologists (Mission Holders, FCCIs, PCs et al) are routinely subject to spiritual cleansing by the sacrificial self-destruction called
donations leading to poverty or bankruptcy and ruin. Another example of a deprivation is disconnection. There are countless others.
The point I am making is that it's not "PTS" phenomena that keeps Scientologists locked into their sadistic gurus--it is that they have become masochists in a perverse spiritual effort to "gain" eternity by "exchanging in abundance" to their Gods.
Is this all metaphorical and overblown? No. Take an honest look at anyone (including ourselves) who willingly went along with sadism and self-flagellation and ask yourself honestly if the stench of masochism doesn't permeate the air.
When cult members decide they are sick and tired of masochism, they leave.
It's not just the "SP's doing it. It's also being done by their S&M accomplices who embrace degradation and punishment as a way to punish themselves (
"make up the damage by personal sacrifice far beyond the ordinary demands of a group member, despite personal danger") in order to rid their reactive demons and find the way to OT that the tech failed to deliver.
It's all a sideshow really to the simple fact that the tech did not deliver Clear and OT and people have to be heavily distracted and made into self-flaggelents in order to hide the fact that nobody is getting saved, salvaged or "totally freed" in the first place.
In particular, I think that masochism plays an essential core role in what has been happening since 1950 and until the reality of that is faced, the S&M games will continue.