Hi, my name is Hanna and I am writing an article on abuse in the church of Scientology and the Sea Org. I want to know if anyone would be willing to do an interview to share their experience with Scientology, even if it's anonymously. Please let me know through my inbox, or my email [email protected]. Have a great day!
Looking for Interviews
- Thread starter Hanna
- Start date
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
Hi Hanna, I'm curious as to whether you're doing this for a news outlet, blog, or school project.
There are hundreds of accounts already on the internet of people abused by CoS and the Sea Org. You can find them here on ESMB and elsewhere.
I don't know if this will help for the purposes of your article, but here are a couple good sources:
The Truth Rundown: Stories of violence, intimidation and control in the world of Scientology
https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Rundown-violence-intimidation-Scientology-ebook/dp/B013UWYHAI
My Billion Year Contract, Memoir of a Former Scientologist
https://www.amazon.com/Billion-Cont...ds=nancy+many&qid=1568389248&s=gateway&sr=8-1
There are hundreds of accounts already on the internet of people abused by CoS and the Sea Org. You can find them here on ESMB and elsewhere.
I don't know if this will help for the purposes of your article, but here are a couple good sources:
The Truth Rundown: Stories of violence, intimidation and control in the world of Scientology
https://www.amazon.com/Truth-Rundown-violence-intimidation-Scientology-ebook/dp/B013UWYHAI
My Billion Year Contract, Memoir of a Former Scientologist
https://www.amazon.com/Billion-Cont...ds=nancy+many&qid=1568389248&s=gateway&sr=8-1
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
Many of us here appreciate all who help increase the awareness of the abuses within Scientology.
If you have any specific interview questions you'd like to ask, or any other questions, you can also post some directly on ESMB and you may get answers from a number of people.
One thing I find interesting about Scientology is that much of the abuse that occurs is done by members who genuinely believe that they're doing the most ethical thing possible. They have a strong tendency to believe the end justifies the means. Hubbard wrote something called "The Code of Honor" and one part of it reads "Never fear to hurt another in a just cause". And because Scientologists believe that they're saving all of us here on the planet and this sector of the universe, and that our eternity depends upon carrying out the intention of Hubbard, it is easy to justify harming another person.
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
Here's a story that's got nothing to do with your post. But at the end of April of 2017 I was doing some work in Port Charlotte, Florida and staying in a hotel down there. In the hotel lobby the first round of the NFL draft was on TV and I sat there watching it along with a few others. An FSU football player was watching it there with us. He wasn't active on the team at that moment due to an injury but was a tight end if I remember correctly, and was a really nice guy. He was about having a stroke though when his teammate, Dalvin Cook, didn't get chosen in the top ten. And when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who play a few miles from where I live) didn't pick him at #19 he was completely disgusted!
Alanzo
Bardo Tulpa
Hi Hanna -
I was involved in Scientology from 1984 to 1999. After that I got out and became a critic of them on the Internet - a real 'anti-Scientologist' for the next 16 years. Pretty much everyone here knows me, and they know that what I claim here about myself is true.
But something happened to me about 4 or 5 years ago. I realized, as often people who are caught up in Neo Nazi organizations do, that I was caught up in a kind of socially constructed victim nightmare of all this anti-scientology hysteria - and I woke up.
Anti-Scientology is not the only truth. In fact, there is abundant historical revisionism, emotional reasoning to the point of hysteria, and denial of the truth of an anti-Scientologist's own past as a Scientologist. There is a nuanced truth about all this that anti-Scientologists, like someone caught up in Neo-Nazism, are mostly incapable of conveying.
Don't forget that.
I have a blog: AlanzosBlog.com.
If you'd like to contact me, you can at [email protected]
I was involved in Scientology from 1984 to 1999. After that I got out and became a critic of them on the Internet - a real 'anti-Scientologist' for the next 16 years. Pretty much everyone here knows me, and they know that what I claim here about myself is true.
But something happened to me about 4 or 5 years ago. I realized, as often people who are caught up in Neo Nazi organizations do, that I was caught up in a kind of socially constructed victim nightmare of all this anti-scientology hysteria - and I woke up.
Anti-Scientology is not the only truth. In fact, there is abundant historical revisionism, emotional reasoning to the point of hysteria, and denial of the truth of an anti-Scientologist's own past as a Scientologist. There is a nuanced truth about all this that anti-Scientologists, like someone caught up in Neo-Nazism, are mostly incapable of conveying.
Don't forget that.
I have a blog: AlanzosBlog.com.
If you'd like to contact me, you can at [email protected]
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Veda
Sponsor
One of Alanzo's favorite people is J. Gordon Melton. That's really all you need to know.
About Mr. Melton: Scientology & Jim Jones | Ex Scientologist Message Board
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Alanzo
Bardo Tulpa
"That's all you really need to know"
When someone tells you that?
Yeah, no.
That's never all you need to know.
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
Pretty much everyone here knows you? And they know what you claim about yourself is true?
Who is "everyone"?
Alanzo
Bardo Tulpa
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
Not everything.
But you did just lie about my knowing you and knowing what you claim about yourself is true.
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Alanzo
Bardo Tulpa
How was that a lie?
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
For one, I don't feel I know you. And I don't know what you claim about yourself is true.
That makes your statement a lie, doesn't it?
Type4_PTS
Diamond Invictus SP
The forum can be a bit tricky to navigate when you first use it. If you wish to respond to someones post, hit the "reply" button. It will quote the post that you want to respond to.
TheOriginalBigBlue
Gold Meritorious Patron
You have 15 days to ask some pointed questions before the forum is archived but now that you have an account you can still log in to review all the member only material.
It is very important to understand that Scientology is carefully constructed like an onion and people's perceptions and opinions are based on their personal experience as it relates to what layer they progressed to. Even within the Sea Org there are several layers. There is a lot of compartmentalization of information and communication and self-censorship within the culture so consequently some people can have relatively pleasant naive experiences and be defensive of it or they can experience the worst. Some people want to believe in the doctrine and Hubbard and that it is really their religion while blaming the corporation and a few people like Miscavige for the things that are wrong.
I have been out for a long time but from what I have seen there has been something of a transformation in the Sea Org from the time Hubbard ran things. The emphasis used to be on delivery of his hobby horse, training and auditing of Scientology, but under Miscavige it has evolved into primarily a real estate holding company. Personally I think this is because Miscavige doesn't understand the sophistication of the original con but he understands real estate and that has become his hobby horse.
It's a disturbing and complicated subject but there are a lot of lessons to be learned from it so welcome.
https://exscn.net/content/view/178/105/index.html
The Scientological Onion
(Excerpted from the Addendum section of L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?, 2nd and 3rd editions. This is the shortened version that appears in Brainwashing Manual Parallels in Scientology
Scientology could be described as a "layers of the onion" operation.
The outermost layer of the "Scientological Onion" is not identifiable with Scientology at all, being composed of front groups that conceal their connection to -and control by - the Scientology organization. Front groups might be said to constitute Layer Zero: a place where the tentacles of Scientology can grope incognito.
The first layer of the Scientological Onion is meant to be very visible...
Layer One includes Scientology's pampered clique of celebrities, and various public relations ploys. It reverberates with noble sounding sentiments about creating a better world. Scientology seeks to equate itself, and its founder, with anything broadly viewed as desirable or good. A little further along, this layer would include introductory courses with the stated aim of "knowing oneself" and "being free."
Here exist the potentially beneficial aspects of the many masked Scientology operation. The tragedy of Scientology is that the "positives" are used as "window dressing" and "bait on the hook," when they should have been the core and foundation. Thus the Scientology organization reeks of hypocrisy.
Also, at this much publicized layer, L. Ron Hubbard is presented as an engineer, war hero, nuclear physicist, and the "greatest humanitarian of all time," and the author of "22 best sellers with more to come."
The "first layer" is what Scientology wishes the outside world to know as Scientology. And it is essentially what new converts to the "movement" believe.
It includes most of what is good in the subject: The dream of peace on Earth, the desire to help, practical wisdom, civilized communication, and some potentially beneficial counseling procedures. The word freedom is used a great deal at this layer, and a heart felt desire for greater personal freedom, and freedom for all Mankind, is not unusual to new recruits to Scientology.
(Any inconsistencies or contradictions between the publicly stated aims of the movement, and actual practices or facts, become irrelevant as the individual becomes subject to the Dark Side of Scientology. And the deeper one descends into the "onion" the darker it gets.)
(snip)
It is very important to understand that Scientology is carefully constructed like an onion and people's perceptions and opinions are based on their personal experience as it relates to what layer they progressed to. Even within the Sea Org there are several layers. There is a lot of compartmentalization of information and communication and self-censorship within the culture so consequently some people can have relatively pleasant naive experiences and be defensive of it or they can experience the worst. Some people want to believe in the doctrine and Hubbard and that it is really their religion while blaming the corporation and a few people like Miscavige for the things that are wrong.
I have been out for a long time but from what I have seen there has been something of a transformation in the Sea Org from the time Hubbard ran things. The emphasis used to be on delivery of his hobby horse, training and auditing of Scientology, but under Miscavige it has evolved into primarily a real estate holding company. Personally I think this is because Miscavige doesn't understand the sophistication of the original con but he understands real estate and that has become his hobby horse.
It's a disturbing and complicated subject but there are a lot of lessons to be learned from it so welcome.
https://exscn.net/content/view/178/105/index.html
The Scientological Onion
(Excerpted from the Addendum section of L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?, 2nd and 3rd editions. This is the shortened version that appears in Brainwashing Manual Parallels in Scientology
Scientology could be described as a "layers of the onion" operation.
The outermost layer of the "Scientological Onion" is not identifiable with Scientology at all, being composed of front groups that conceal their connection to -and control by - the Scientology organization. Front groups might be said to constitute Layer Zero: a place where the tentacles of Scientology can grope incognito.
The first layer of the Scientological Onion is meant to be very visible...
Layer One includes Scientology's pampered clique of celebrities, and various public relations ploys. It reverberates with noble sounding sentiments about creating a better world. Scientology seeks to equate itself, and its founder, with anything broadly viewed as desirable or good. A little further along, this layer would include introductory courses with the stated aim of "knowing oneself" and "being free."
Here exist the potentially beneficial aspects of the many masked Scientology operation. The tragedy of Scientology is that the "positives" are used as "window dressing" and "bait on the hook," when they should have been the core and foundation. Thus the Scientology organization reeks of hypocrisy.
Also, at this much publicized layer, L. Ron Hubbard is presented as an engineer, war hero, nuclear physicist, and the "greatest humanitarian of all time," and the author of "22 best sellers with more to come."
The "first layer" is what Scientology wishes the outside world to know as Scientology. And it is essentially what new converts to the "movement" believe.
It includes most of what is good in the subject: The dream of peace on Earth, the desire to help, practical wisdom, civilized communication, and some potentially beneficial counseling procedures. The word freedom is used a great deal at this layer, and a heart felt desire for greater personal freedom, and freedom for all Mankind, is not unusual to new recruits to Scientology.
(Any inconsistencies or contradictions between the publicly stated aims of the movement, and actual practices or facts, become irrelevant as the individual becomes subject to the Dark Side of Scientology. And the deeper one descends into the "onion" the darker it gets.)
(snip)
Alanzo
Bardo Tulpa
You don't feel you know me.
But before, when I was an anti-Scientologist just like you, you did feel you knew me. And you would have vouched for me to this cub reporter. Because you could trust me to tell your tribal narrative to them, then you felt that I would tell her the TRUTH.
But now I "lied".
Do you see how your tribalism determines what's true for you?
programmer_guy
True Ex-Scientologist
I am guessing that you intend to write an article for the university newspaper?
Please consider writing several articles for the school newspaper.
Articles have a limited allowed length so you would probably need to do several articles.
Also, many times, a person who was never involved in Scientology doesn't know enough to have a conversation on this topic (beyond the initial questions).
(I suggest, as another source, you email [email protected])
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Free Being Me
Crusader
You have lost the plot entirely. Smearing the people here as hysterical while comparing them to neo-nazis is the meanest bombastic outlandish spiteful crap I have the misfortune to read here.
For a "morally evolved" person you sure don't understand morals or boundaries or kindness or civility or basic human respect and dignity otherwise you wouldn't be posting that ugly tripe.
ESMB is almost done and I for one would like to enjoy the remaining time minus your cringy hostility. Try some genuine friendliness. You might find that quality being returned to you if you at least try. Thank you.
P.S. Sorry for the little derail, Hannah. T4 gave you some good advice and good luck with your article.
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Dulloldfart
Squirrel Extraordinaire
The best way to approach this is to post maybe a dozen questions, here on this thread. Number them (important!).
Then several different people will probably answer them. You'll notice the differences & similarities in the answers. It's a big mistake to try and get some sort of overall picture from one set of answers.
Good luck.
Paul
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