The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think

[Ogsonofgroo]

While searching for something else I happened to come across a TED Talk done last summer by the author of this book, so posting it here:

[video=youtube;PY9DcIMGxMs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY9DcIMGxMs[/video]

Brilliant lecture, been knowing this for many years, never with such brave and wise words.

 

[scooter]

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?

 

[Type4_PTS]

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?

Yes, for the most part, me as well.

Prior to Scientology I felt a bit alienated from society, that I didn't belong. I got in at age 21, and really felt at home, working within an organization where I felt many of it's members had a common purpose as myself, which was very idealistic.

When I eventually woke up to the scam and realized that I couldn't help "clear the planet" I had a difficulty doing some other jobs later (after I got out), because the perceived relative value of most jobs I could do (as compared to saving the universe) was pretty pretty pathetic in comparison.

I'm sure some others were hooked in a similar fashion, but not everyone. The cult has different types of bait that they put out for different types of people, and hooks people in different ways.

 

[Enthetan]

Yes, for the most part, me as well.

Prior to Scientology I felt a bit alienated from society, that I didn't belong. I got in at age 21, and really felt at home, working within an organization where I felt many of it's members had a common purpose as myself, which was very idealistic.

When I eventually woke up to the scam and realized that I couldn't help "clear the planet" I had a difficulty doing some other jobs later (after I got out), because the perceived relative value of most jobs I could do (as compared to saving the universe) was pretty pretty pathetic in comparison.

I'm sure some others were hooked in a similar fashion, but not everyone. The cult has different types of bait that they put out for different types of people, and hooks people in different ways.

For me, I was a bit alienated, was doing drugs, felt purposeless and just drifting along. Scn came along with a lofty purpose, and promised adventure.

 

[JustSheila]

Yes for me, Scooter. My case was classic. As a 16 year old runaway, I had parental and sibling troubles and felt alienated and misunderstood. Work and school were fine, but my best friend gave birth after a teen pregnancy, another friend went to a mental hospital after a freak out from LSD, a third had been diagnosed with a fatal disease and died six months later and the night before I left home I saw my boyfriend getting a foot massage in his crotch from the local slut at a school restaurant hangout.

i was confused and wanted answers. Nothing made sense at all and yet people carried on anyway as if none of it mattered. So much tragedy, so much crazy and so much pretending all around me that all was right with the world and it was me with a problem for not going along with it.

Vulnerable and ripe for the con artist, seeing others near my age who felt similarly all working together to try to improve things and related to me was like finding my own niche. What Hubbard wrote didn't impress me as much as the group. I loved the people I met. I felt like I fit in and found my home.i was swept up with the group and had no idea that my feelings were normal for my age and would pass as I became wiser and more worldly. Hubbard trapped me in that teen rebellious state of mind instead of allowing me to grow out of it naturally.

Thank God I left so I could pick up my life where Hubbard interrupted it and continue to grow afterward.

 

[Gib]

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.

 

[Helena Handbasket]

I've always had incredible difficulty with human bonding. I acknowledged years ago that the "social" part of my life was the most problematic.

To this day, knowing what I do now, I'm struggling to increase my bonding level, and generally not succeeding. I'm hoping to move in with my BF (not the XBF I've written so much about) and that should help.
I live here in The Foot Hospital alone nearly all of the time. I'm not even allowed to have a cat. Some days I don't go out at all; other days I go out only because I push myself to.

I've had friends, but not really that many. People would barely tolerate my presence, and generally want me to go away. I've not had much love-bombing from the C of S, either because they really didn't like me or perhaps because I just couldn't respond with genuine human affection. (At one org, where you worked, Sheila, someone said I was psychotic, although the registrars loved me, and that's what kept me from getting kicked out.)

My whole Australian misadventure was about doing A Great Thing and Gaining Respect. Instead, I was put into a funk which lasted two years (I think I'm just coming out of it now.) Now I know the price of being allowed to help is just too high.

So did I become addicted, to make up for my lack of bonding? You bet. My drug of choice is sugar, not as powerful as heroin or cocaine, but hard to kick because (legal) pushers can be found in every neighborhood. Indeed, writing this post has become so restimulative that I had to run downstairs to get some jelly candies (I keep them in an inconvenient location just to keep me from eating them all day).

As I close this post, bonding is still elusive. I now know WHAT I'm supposed to be accomplishing, but I still struggle with HOW. I wish life came with an instruction manual!

Helena

 

[Type4_PTS]

A Brazilian Supreme Court Justice has acknowledged that the "War on Drugs" has failed (at least in his country) and has called for the legalization of Marijuana and Cocaine:

From Yahoo News:

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian Supreme Court justice called on Friday for the legalization of marijuana and even cocaine to undo the growing power of drug gangs behind a wave of violence that has shaken Latin America's largest country.

Justice Roberto Barroso, a Yale graduate and constitutional law professor, said 50 years of war against drugs had failed miserably, clogging jails with small-time dealers and fueling a violent gang battle for control of the lucrative trade.

<snip>

Full Article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazil-supreme-court-judge-calls-drugs-legalization-beat-190403997.html

 

[dchoiceisalwaysrs]

Maybe the judge in all his wisdom needs to order his cocaine from the Nabilid prison in Manila and take more until he realizes the benefits. IDIOT LOL

 

[Type4_PTS]

Maybe the judge in all his wisdom needs to order his cocaine from the Nabilid prison in Manila and take more until he realizes the benefits. IDIOT LOL

Well the judge said:

"I'm not sure if my proposal for legalization will work, but I'm sure that the war on drugs has not," Barroso said. "We cannot just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again."

I know that most will probably disagree with me but I'd legalize the possession of Cocaine in Brazil (or require that users go to a medical clinic to get it), while I would keep the trafficking of it by unauthorized people illegal.

Instead of spending the money on law enforcement and imprisoning people instead use it on treatment and education.

Along with the legalization of Marijuana, this would remove the funding source from the violent drug gangs, and that would be a major benefit to the country.

The "war on drugs" doesn't work. Brazil is the 2nd largest consumer of Cocaine in the world after the U.S.

Not only are the gangs who profit off of it a problem but many users of Cocaine will commit crimes as well to fund their habit.

Changing the system as above should help eliminate that problem as well, plus those addicts who truly want help can get it.

 

[dchoiceisalwaysrs]

Makes some sense, perhaps. Still I suspect that the drug king pins who are in prison are probably running their business from the prisons and that overlooking or even corrupt government individuals are bought off and complicit in the continuance. Similar to a problem in the US where criminals are schools of better criminal methods.
I really don't know. I do like the aspect of helping. Are there cases or countries where your suggestions are actually helping?

 

[Type4_PTS]

Makes some sense, perhaps. Still I suspect that the drug king pins who are in prison are probably running their business from the prisons and that overlooking or even corrupt government individuals are bought off and complicit in the continuance. Similar to a problem in the US where criminals are schools of better criminal methods.
I really don't know. I do like the aspect of helping. Are there cases or countries where your suggestions are actually helping?

I typed a long answer to this the other night and then when I lost my net connection I lost my post as well.

But will answer it at another time. (wasn't meaning to ignore you)

 

[Type4_PTS]

Apparently some TSA agents got bored while protecting us from terrorists and smuggled approximately 20 TONS of Cocaine through an airport in Puerto Rico:

“These individuals were involved in a conspiracy to traffic massive quantities of illegal narcotics to the continental United States,” Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, said in a statement.

http://thehill.com/policy/transport...or-cocaine-smuggling-operation-in-puerto-rico

It's not the first time that employees of the federal government have been involved in drug trafficking.

I guess they didn't get the memo that their employer had declared a "war on drugs".

 

[hummingbird]

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?

Provocative questions, scooter. I'm a bit different, because although I can say "Yes" to the first two, I fall apart on the rest. By the time I'd been on staff for eight years, I was dead inside, a husk of a woman. Going through the motions. I couldn't leave because the whole anguished future of blah blah and I couldn't stay because it was killing me.

Then I got booted out because my then-husband was consorting with SPs, and not about to stop.

I did not care any more about the planet, about anyone, about any causes, about being part of any greater cause any more. I had a small child and I was pregnant. All of my attention and efforts were given to taking care of my daughters and getting an education so I could become employed in a real job. And I did. I have no longing, zero, nada, zilch, for any other "group" or "purpose." They can all take a flying leap, as far as I'm concerned. And religions? Hah! Don't get me started (wait, too late, I already did...)

 

[Type4_PTS]

Many police officers believe that the laws on the books for Marijuana are BS.

A friend of mine who is a police officer posted on FB:
"Hahaha, people aren't buying the BS "WAR on DRUGS."
...and than linked to this article:

Local Police Brag of Pot Bust, Gets Destroyed in Facebook Comment Section By Thousands of Concerned Citizens
http://mmaimports.com/2017/03/local...t-section-by-thousands-of-concerned-citizens/

There were thousands of comments blasting the police for this before they removed the original post and comments from the FB page.

But a screenshot of the original post and a few of the comments are posted at above link.

Another police officer (retired) commented:
"Wow...he acted like he busted a freighter full of drugs....I laughed when I saw those little baggies on his desk. While he was doing his big drug busts, his zone probably had burglaries occurring in it."

 

[Type4_PTS]

[video=youtube;ao8L-0nSYzg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg[/video]

Published on Oct 29, 2015
What causes addiction? Easy, right? Drugs cause addiction. But maybe it is not that simple.

This video is adapted from Johann Hari's New York Times best-selling book 'Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.' For more information, and to take a quiz to see what you know about addiction, go to www.chasingthescream.com

<snip>

 

[FoTi]

I'm for decriminalizing all drugs, like Portugal did. I don't like getting high, but I would like to have the freedom to grow my own pot or poppies in my own backyard if I choose to without the risk and fear of going to jail for it or being fined for doing it. I'm sure the drug companies wouldn't like this cut in their income if people weren't forced to buy from them if they need some of these things from time to time. And the street drug trade wouldn't like it either because it would cut their income big time.

Here's what I have to say to the govt as regards their current laws on drugs being illegal .....

If people could grow their own, if they wanted to, there wouldn't be people trying to get little kids (and adults) hooked on drugs so that they can make money off of them. And the little kids (and adults) wouldn't be committing crimes to get the money to buy those same drugs if they could just grow them in the back yard. Also, a lot of times if you tell someone they can't have something, they want it all the more.....that factor would be gone if there was no more "can't have" on these things. Also, I've seen some people like to get away with doing something sneaky, just for fun....there would no reason to sneak any of this stuff anymore if it was freely available....that game would be gone.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

 

[guanoloco]

All victimless crimes should be decriminalized.

Prostitution, drugs, gambling, etc.