My past involvemen with Scn: Hindsight is 20/20

[sjames]

Every single person here has their own individual take regarding their past involvement in Scn. Some of them regret ever hearing anything about it, some of them felt maybe some of it was ok, but, you know, been there, done that, and some are still interested in studying Scn. I think even among those three categories, you still get very particular and specific ideas that differ greatly from person to person. We truly are unique people. (and special and ornery and in many cases, brave).

I just think it's interesting.

My own perspective is that I truly am glad I got into Scn. Although I guess that maybe some folks think I defend and countenance things that the cult does or that I want to get everyone into reading the stuff ( I usually call it "stuff" instead of "tech"), that's not the case. However, that being said, yes, I'm glad I studied Scn. I'm glad because

• I got a lot out of the ideas.
• Some of the auditing was great.
• Some of the courses were fun. (not all of them, though)
• I met my husband in the cult

However, I do not feel that

• it saved my life
• Without it, I'd never have learned anything
• I was drifting rudderless on a sea of...whatever
• It is the only or best way to achieve enlightment

It's just not true. At least not in my case. Though I have known people who would have said any or all the above. I think that if I'd gotten into Buddhism in my late teens instead, that I'd have gotten at least as much out of that and probably more!

But, that being said, Scientology did not damage me. The auditing was mostly pretty cool, the courses ranged from ho hum to really neat and after that 2 or so year (maybe closer to three) debacle of being on staff, I was very careful with them- up until I went out on a limb by posting under my own name.
I do not see a problem with auditing. Even the OT stuff. I think that any therapy or self help method that deals or purports to deal with the mind can stir stuff up and that includes the mainstream accredited ones. Life includes risk. Most of the time, if the person's doing relatively ok emotionally, he or she will emerge from ANY counselling method unscathed and maybe having learned something. I think if the person ends up doing badly with Scn or Dn auditing, he'd have had a similar result with psychotherapy.

Ehhh...just my opinion.

I realize my point of view may not be one that everyone would approve of (I already know that not everyone shares this POV) but for me to say that I regret studying Scn or that it fucked me up would be dishonest.

As I said, though, I no longer think that Scn is the best way to enlightenment. Although I do think everyone has their own path, still, if I were to take a guess as to what might be the best or one of the best, I'd say Buddhism. Followed, perhaps, by shamanism and Sufism and other mystical traditions.

You know what the problem with Scn is? It takes itself way too goddamn seriously. Hoaxie probably has the right idea. I know he cares and his heart's in the right place but he is so damn funny!!! He reminds us to laugh!! Something can be important and still be laughed at or laughed about.

So while I cannot and will not regret what I did in Scn tech-wise (my take on being on staff is different. The ONLY saving grace of that was that I survived it and it became a Valuable Life Lessonfor me. There was NOTHING innately good about it. Nothing. ) I can and do wonder about The Road Not Taken as Robert Frost would say. But it did me no harm.

I relate to much of what you said. I was a Sea Org member for 2 years. I actually had a couple of big wins in Scientology that were not exactly Scientology type wins. My first win was like a philosophical realization that LRH does not even support. I was asked to be a PC for someone who asked questions about exchange with the 8 dynamics. At the very end of the series of questions I realized that all life/consciousness arises from the one absolute life and there is no separation of life in reality even thought there is an appearance of separate individuals. The second realization came when I was doing a basic course and was caught in a long chain of some misunderstoods and trying to clear them. I was all very serious in this process and suddenly I realized that words are just pointers that have spectrums of meaning. I realized so clearly that words are flexible and imperfect symbols. I laughed without control for about 30 minutes. I had to leave the courseroom and I walked to my room laughing the whole way. This realization seemed to shift and expand my whole outlook on how we use the intellect and how philosophic inquiry works.

After leaving Scn I studied Buddhism, Hinduism and other mystic traditions. Now I look at realization as enjoying the game of life, not taking it too seriously and staying open to what life brings you. I became a psychotherapist. Yes, I still like to help people. Scn was just a start for me and I left it before it got too heavy. Those heavy games that Scn plays are just too serious. What a drama they have created trying to save the world and galaxy and now getting attacked from all sides. Wow, I'm glad I didn't have to go through some of those hellish experiences others have gone through.

Best to all in moving on,

James

 

[Claire Swazey]

Hey, James,

I have a similar outlook re this stuff, I believe. I do think Hubbard was trying to discover universal truth and that occasionally he hit it. Then he got into the Xenu stuff which does not even remotely resemble a universal truth or anything that makes one iota of sense. But, still, maybe sometimes people get insights from Scn.

I think moving on to Vedic studies is very cool. The thing about Scn is that it closes your mind, IMO. I don't care about how much Hubbard made fun of "reasonable" and "open minded"- he was completely wrong about that, IMO.

And you're a psychotherapist. That's awesome!! Wow!! There are so many interesting schools of psychological thought out there. What's yours? (if you feel like sharing).

 

[Rene Descartes]

From:

Hubbard, L. R. (1953, 29 October). Study of the Particle. First American Advanced Indoctrination Course, (1ACC-42, 53c1029). Camden, New Jersey.

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Now, Korzybski has an enormous number of very, very clever ideas. They’ve been explained to me by my friends and I appreciate it very much. I know quite a bit about Korzybski’s works. Bob Heinlein sat down one time and talked for ten whole minutes on the subject of Korzybski to me and it was very clever. This was a number of years ago and was very, very clever. Of course, I found out later that Bob Heinlein had – that was his viewpoint on what Korzybski should have written and was mostly taken from Hayakawa, but that was explained to me by another friend who talked three whole minutes on the subject of Korzybski. But this other fellow was quite accurate and he was very convincing – the number of times he pounded the table with his fist convinced me utterly, and so I know that there is something in there; I’m just sure of it. I haven’t read that book but I’m sure there is.
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Rd00

 

[Claire Swazey]

Very interesting. And, I know it's the fashion to never give Hubbard any credit for anything good, but yeah, he could have been friends with Heinlein and others at one time. Doesn't mean they were friends til the end or anything.