Honeywhite, the study tech is what hooked me too. I liked it, and even used it in my classroom when I was a teacher, with great success. Then I ran a past life incident in session which blew me away, and decided that since everything I'd learned from Hubbard so far was true, that the rest of it was probably true too.
That was also the big blunder that I made. I ASSUMED that since what I had done so far was so very good (mainly auditing, and not so much the Study Tech), that
therefore the REST of it all MUST also be wonderful.
Linking the nice wins and experiences from specific aspects of the auditing and study tech to 1) Hubbard, 2) Scientology management, 3) Scientology organizational theories, and 4) so much OTHER Scientology "data" was a big error on my part.
It is sort funny, because Hubbard talks about how a "low-toned person", or "less than sane person" tends to IDENTIFY things with each other that are not really equal. Yet, Hubbard and Scientology take GREAT advantage of such A=A=A identity type thinking.
It was strict GO and OSA law that one is NEVER to talk about different aspects of Scientology, and examine them critically. I remember talking to an OSA staff member in the early 1980s, and mentioning that it was a simple FACT that the auditing "tech" was entirely a different thing than "management tech". he BLASTED me on the spot! WHAM!
"Where do you hear that?"
"Who told you that?"
"Who did you tell that to?"
This OSA goon was obviously trained to INSTANTLY ATTACK any such comments. Differentiation WITHIN Scientology itself is not tolerated and insrtances of such honest differentiation are heavily attacked.
This is just another of the endless stream of contradictions in Scientology. Hubbard teaches all about the
value of differentiation, and how BAD it is for minds to misidentify dissimilar things and ideas. THAT is the basis of his "A=A=A" phrase. It is the lowly act of making things equal that are NOT equal. That idea, by the way, was stolen from General Semantics.
But then, in Scientology, one is heavily encouraged to EQUATE all aspects of Hubbard with your blow-out experiences, with your wins on course, with David Miscavige, with
all of Scientology management, with Hubbard's music, with your recent ability to get and keep a job, with your heightened confront from doing TRs, and so forth.
In Scientology the necessary view is that IT IS ALL GREAT! Every bit of it. And focusing on any SPECIFIC PART of Scientology, and finding it NOT SO GOOD is entirely forbidden. So, it is part of the trap to ASSUME that because one small isolated part might be "good" that ALL the rest of it is GREAT! That is also a built-in apsect of what is called "bait 'n switch".
A=A=A, when it comes to the general and specific details of the subject of Scientology, within the Church of Scientology, is mandatory.
People who are honest and differentiate, and who talk about such things with others, critically and rationally, eventually get expelled, declared and segregated from all other extant Scientology true believers.