What's new

Only one way to be a Scientologist

Hey everyone,

While it is not the first thread I reply on, it is, nonetheless, the very first thread I open on my own.

I would deem it unnecessary to go into why I got into Scientology - it's the regular story of a crisis in life, a helping "Ron-hand" that came into assistance at the right time and the ensuing brainwash that sneaked up on one so quickly.

But definitely one of the major reasons why I left Scientology is because I realized there is actually only one way to be a Scientologist.

It is delineated in Keeping Scientology Working 1. Wacky Tom Cruise video comes to mind - "So, for me, it's really KSW, and it's just like, it's something that, uh, I don't mince words with that. You know, I don't mince words with anything that LRH wrote, but that policy to me has really gone PFFFFFF, boy, there's a time I went through and I said, 'You know what...'. When I read it, I just went POOOOF! 'That is it. That's exactly it.'"

That's Tom Cruise, not mincing words. :)

But his point remains. KSW dictates the way a Scientologist should behave. For example, there's this whole no-no about frying fish. I guess Hubbard wasn't big on fish, and I'm not either, but I got an immensely clear vision of what that means, one time when I unfortunately found myself in a dedicated Scientologist apartment. She obviously took the whole "no other fish to fry" command really seriously... Because, her poor cats were meager and starved, her apartment was the filthiest I've ever been in, there was garbage everywhere - To this day, I still feel sick when I think about her. But she still showed up at the Org every day, and although stinky with sour sweat, she still dressed in professional looking clothes. So dedicated was she, that she couldn't be bothered picking up the eggshells from the eggs she had, and just left them on her living room table for months. I know, because I've seen the pile.

Could be that her case is extreme, but I bet all of you know at least one person in the staff of every org who is already in his 50-60, yet never married, no kids, never got his own place and is probably living in a tiny one room, two rooms apartment. Dedicated Scientologists, the whole lot of them. Definitely never fried any fish outside of Scientology... Nor ever had enough spare money to even remotely consider buying an apartment or a house.

Even having a 2D is "other-intentioness". While the Sea Org cannot prevent people from falling in love, they sure can prevent them from doing anything else. I wasn't a Sea Org member but I got to spend time with many. One time I asked some of them a question - can't remember what it was, but one of them misunderstood me and his reply was, "well, if they send your wife to another base for more than 3 months, you start raising hell". Raise hell, Bubba, you're a Scientology slave. They'll sec-check you out of every counter intention, until you've "cognited" that the very marriage you got and the will to be together, for which you married, is just a reactive mind effort in the way of clearing planet Earth. Hell, they've even brainwashed you into agreeing that you don't want kids. I'm the last person who would judge anyone for not wanting to have kids, however, it's really clearly not their own idea. I'd bet my eyelashes that 90%-99% of the people who say things like: "Kids? I've had lifetimes of having kids, now I'm here to clear the Planet" - Don't even have their own memories of those lifetimes in which they had kids. It's just the leap of faith on their part - Something that is not outright called for in LRH scriptures, but something that every dedicated Scientologist nonetheless makes when he had read enough LRH. "Well, he was right about so many things, I bet he's right about that too. Haha, let's sign out next billion years away!".

When I realized that the only way to really be a Scientologist is to be a Sea Org member, 100% dedicated to Scientology, having no place of my own, no real life I can command over, well that was really when I realized that I can't be a Scientologist. Because there will always be a collision of intentions between me and "them". They would want me to give every single hour I have to Scientology. And do not be fooled - Even Class V org staffers give every hour they got to Scientology - Including those hours they lay awake at night, thinking how they're going to make ends meet when they have to have a full time job inside the org, and a full time job outside to make a living - Or even, spend any time at all with their family. Even Ideal Org staff can't make a living out of their work, even less so, with all the bills the org has to pay to keep the place running. Recruitment interviews, showering you with admiration, promising you that everything is fixed now and that staff gets lots of care, blah blah, that you make enough money on staff or you're soon going to - all cynical lies to boost their stats. And you, me, most of us, fell for it. At least once. Some even twice or three times. But they keep calling, showing up at your doorsteps for a recruitment interview. And you can't even change your phone number, because that would be an overt and a withhold. Talk about the perfect mind trap!

They would want you to give every single coin you make to Scientology, in such theta ways as, for example, keeping one inside a nicely lit, beautifully furnished room until 1 am. If you want to use your money to buy nice things for yourself or pay for your education then off you go to Ethics and on with the clay demo about "Middle Class PTSness". Donate to the IAS, donate to library campaigns. Donate to a staff member who needs to get his plane ticket to Flag. It's like clergy or whatever that expects to live off donations, but in comparison with most other religions, Scientology gives nothing of value to its members and instead just takes and takes.

They would demand of you to cut ties with those who have transgressed against the org. Those dedicated Scientologists, who are very well versed in mind twists and cognitive dissonance, would brush away the previous statement as false, claiming that "you're not forced to do it, you do it out of your own free will" - Yeah right! Because the threat of having you yourself declared if you don't disconnect, and the threat of them taking your "eternity" away from you, is not so bad. You disconnect from your mom because you want to, not because the evil cult bent your hands and forced you into it. Besides, your mom is just the physical body that gave birth to your physical body. What of it? Thetans have no family relations. Remember?

It took me some time after I left to fully formulate all these thoughts but at the time I left I could still feel all those things were true, even when they were not articulated in such a venomous, angry fashion. And when I realized that to be a dedicated, in-KSW 1 Scientologist you have to be willing to give everything away to Scientology, that's when I finally felt OK about leaving.

Scientology plays with the minds of young, naive people, who are often also driven by ideals, and for that it is guilty of fraud. It deprives them of their formative years. Those of us who were smart enough to keep a job outside of Scientology, to keep in touch with our family members, to not lose the friendships with our childhood friends, we had our safety nets when we left. Those of us who were born into it are in a much deeper mud, and to me it is a wonder that they even managed to climb out of it.

I am an atheist, I wish for freedom of thought for all. As a Scientologist I used to think that a Scientology world would be good - Everyone you see on the bus would either a staff member, a Sea Org or a Public. Little did I realize that such a world would have colonies of 1.1s - after the Science of Survival policies, or the social torture that SPs would suffer. I salute the Human nature for seeing Scientology for what it is, and today every person that tells me, "you used to be in Scientology? But that's a cult!" gets a hearty laugh from me as a response. Yes, it is a cult. How clever of you to see that. You're obviously smarter than I was back then, way to go and keep up that attitude.
I also gotta say that I love how the spell checker here doesn't recognize words like "Scientologist" and "thetan". Well done spell checker, keep up that attitude. :)

Thanks to everybody who writes here and shares his story or his 2 cents. I spend a substantial amount of time every day browsing through Scientology stories like yours and I thank you for sharing them. Due to the "toxic Scientology policy of Disconnection", as Tony Ortega often puts it, I cannot give any details in fear that loved ones would have to disconnect from me, so unfortunately I'm not able to share my story in detail. I hope that one day my loved ones would have the same realizations as me, and we would all burst in song and dance and speak the truth about Scientology, using our real names. My nickname on this message board, by the way, is reference to the Garcia Robots in Arthur C. Clarke Rama series, who are healing robots who wear the body of Bonita Garcia, a truth seeker inside the universe of the Rama story. It's also a reference the famous Garcia inside the universe of Scientology, who got the message through against all odds. And it's also a reference to the term "Ron-bot". I guess what this nickname means is... I used to be a Ron-bot, but now I come with the healing message of truth, against all odds - Because it's always quite a feat to break free from mind traps.

Cheers.
 

Helena Handbasket

Gold Meritorious Patron
Hey everyone,

While it is not the first thread I reply on, it is, nonetheless, the very first thread I open on my own.

I would deem it unnecessary to go into why I got into Scientology - it's the regular story of a crisis in life, a helping "Ron-hand" that came into assistance at the right time and the ensuing brainwash that sneaked up on one so quickly.

But definitely one of the major reasons why I left Scientology is because I realized there is actually only one way to be a Scientologist.

It is delineated in Keeping Scientology Working 1. Wacky Tom Cruise video comes to mind - "So, for me, it's really KSW, and it's just like, it's something that, uh, I don't mince words with that. You know, I don't mince words with anything that LRH wrote, but that policy to me has really gone PFFFFFF, boy, there's a time I went through and I said, 'You know what...'. When I read it, I just went POOOOF! 'That is it. That's exactly it.'"

That's Tom Cruise, not mincing words. :)

But his point remains. KSW dictates the way a Scientologist should behave. For example, there's this whole no-no about frying fish. I guess Hubbard wasn't big on fish, and I'm not either, but I got an immensely clear vision of what that means, one time when I unfortunately found myself in a dedicated Scientologist apartment. She obviously took the whole "no other fish to fry" command really seriously... Because, her poor cats were meager and starved, her apartment was the filthiest I've ever been in, there was garbage everywhere - To this day, I still feel sick when I think about her. But she still showed up at the Org every day, and although stinky with sour sweat, she still dressed in professional looking clothes. So dedicated was she, that she couldn't be bothered picking up the eggshells from the eggs she had, and just left them on her living room table for months. I know, because I've seen the pile.

Could be that her case is extreme, but I bet all of you know at least one person in the staff of every org who is already in his 50-60, yet never married, no kids, never got his own place and is probably living in a tiny one room, two rooms apartment. Dedicated Scientologists, the whole lot of them. Definitely never fried any fish outside of Scientology... Nor ever had enough spare money to even remotely consider buying an apartment or a house.

Even having a 2D is "other-intentioness". While the Sea Org cannot prevent people from falling in love, they sure can prevent them from doing anything else. I wasn't a Sea Org member but I got to spend time with many. One time I asked some of them a question - can't remember what it was, but one of them misunderstood me and his reply was, "well, if they send your wife to another base for more than 3 months, you start raising hell". Raise hell, Bubba, you're a Scientology slave. They'll sec-check you out of every counter intention, until you've "cognited" that the very marriage you got and the will to be together, for which you married, is just a reactive mind effort in the way of clearing planet Earth. Hell, they've even brainwashed you into agreeing that you don't want kids. I'm the last person who would judge anyone for not wanting to have kids, however, it's really clearly not their own idea. I'd bet my eyelashes that 90%-99% of the people who say things like: "Kids? I've had lifetimes of having kids, now I'm here to clear the Planet" - Don't even have their own memories of those lifetimes in which they had kids. It's just the leap of faith on their part - Something that is not outright called for in LRH scriptures, but something that every dedicated Scientologist nonetheless makes when he had read enough LRH. "Well, he was right about so many things, I bet he's right about that too. Haha, let's sign out next billion years away!".

When I realized that the only way to really be a Scientologist is to be a Sea Org member, 100% dedicated to Scientology, having no place of my own, no real life I can command over, well that was really when I realized that I can't be a Scientologist. Because there will always be a collision of intentions between me and "them". They would want me to give every single hour I have to Scientology. And do not be fooled - Even Class V org staffers give every hour they got to Scientology - Including those hours they lay awake at night, thinking how they're going to make ends meet when they have to have a full time job inside the org, and a full time job outside to make a living - Or even, spend any time at all with their family. Even Ideal Org staff can't make a living out of their work, even less so, with all the bills the org has to pay to keep the place running. Recruitment interviews, showering you with admiration, promising you that everything is fixed now and that staff gets lots of care, blah blah, that you make enough money on staff or you're soon going to - all cynical lies to boost their stats. And you, me, most of us, fell for it. At least once. Some even twice or three times. But they keep calling, showing up at your doorsteps for a recruitment interview. And you can't even change your phone number, because that would be an overt and a withhold. Talk about the perfect mind trap!

They would want you to give every single coin you make to Scientology, in such theta ways as, for example, keeping one inside a nicely lit, beautifully furnished room until 1 am. If you want to use your money to buy nice things for yourself or pay for your education then off you go to Ethics and on with the clay demo about "Middle Class PTSness". Donate to the IAS, donate to library campaigns. Donate to a staff member who needs to get his plane ticket to Flag. It's like clergy or whatever that expects to live off donations, but in comparison with most other religions, Scientology gives nothing of value to its members and instead just takes and takes.

They would demand of you to cut ties with those who have transgressed against the org. Those dedicated Scientologists, who are very well versed in mind twists and cognitive dissonance, would brush away the previous statement as false, claiming that "you're not forced to do it, you do it out of your own free will" - Yeah right! Because the threat of having you yourself declared if you don't disconnect, and the threat of them taking your "eternity" away from you, is not so bad. You disconnect from your mom because you want to, not because the evil cult bent your hands and forced you into it. Besides, your mom is just the physical body that gave birth to your physical body. What of it? Thetans have no family relations. Remember?

It took me some time after I left to fully formulate all these thoughts but at the time I left I could still feel all those things were true, even when they were not articulated in such a venomous, angry fashion. And when I realized that to be a dedicated, in-KSW 1 Scientologist you have to be willing to give everything away to Scientology, that's when I finally felt OK about leaving.

Scientology plays with the minds of young, naive people, who are often also driven by ideals, and for that it is guilty of fraud. It deprives them of their formative years. Those of us who were smart enough to keep a job outside of Scientology, to keep in touch with our family members, to not lose the friendships with our childhood friends, we had our safety nets when we left. Those of us who were born into it are in a much deeper mud, and to me it is a wonder that they even managed to climb out of it.

I am an atheist, I wish for freedom of thought for all. As a Scientologist I used to think that a Scientology world would be good - Everyone you see on the bus would either a staff member, a Sea Org or a Public. Little did I realize that such a world would have colonies of 1.1s - after the Science of Survival policies, or the social torture that SPs would suffer. I salute the Human nature for seeing Scientology for what it is, and today every person that tells me, "you used to be in Scientology? But that's a cult!" gets a hearty laugh from me as a response. Yes, it is a cult. How clever of you to see that. You're obviously smarter than I was back then, way to go and keep up that attitude.
I also gotta say that I love how the spell checker here doesn't recognize words like "Scientologist" and "thetan". Well done spell checker, keep up that attitude. :)

Thanks to everybody who writes here and shares his story or his 2 cents. I spend a substantial amount of time every day browsing through Scientology stories like yours and I thank you for sharing them. Due to the "toxic Scientology policy of Disconnection", as Tony Ortega often puts it, I cannot give any details in fear that loved ones would have to disconnect from me, so unfortunately I'm not able to share my story in detail. I hope that one day my loved ones would have the same realizations as me, and we would all burst in song and dance and speak the truth about Scientology, using our real names. My nickname on this message board, by the way, is reference to the Garcia Robots in Arthur C. Clarke Rama series, who are healing robots who wear the body of Bonita Garcia, a truth seeker inside the universe of the Rama story. It's also a reference the famous Garcia inside the universe of Scientology, who got the message through against all odds. And it's also a reference to the term "Ron-bot". I guess what this nickname means is... I used to be a Ron-bot, but now I come with the healing message of truth, against all odds - Because it's always quite a feat to break free from mind traps.

Cheers.

There is another way to be a scientologist. The freezone.

Actually, the freezone is not one other way to be a scientologist. It's many other ways. Even RONS Orgs is organized as a network of independent groups, with no central command point.

You can "shop around" until you find something you like.

But you're right; in the church there is tremendous pressure to conform to a particular model of what a scientologist should be. They don't give up pushing that model. Once they have all your money, they'll want all your time. And case gain? Unlikely after a point.

That's why the freezone is thriving.

Helena
 

DoneDeal

Patron Meritorious
Hey man. I heard your words and understand. Welcome.

Now, you also are in for a ride. Your gonna get called out, called a spy and from time to time feel like shit after you post your words here. But that is normal. Don't worry about it. What have you got to lose? lol.

Anyway, take care. Talk alot.
 

I told you I was trouble

Suspended animation


I'm very happy for you Garcia Robot ... admitting you are no longer willing to be a scientologist with all its rules, regulations and mind games is the first (and biggest) hurdle to freeing yourself from the whole introvertive mess.

Helena is my friend and her intentions are good ... but please ignore her suggestion re the FreeZone, just live your life your way.

:coolwink:
 

WildKat

Gold Meritorious Patron
Good rant GR! Love how you put TC's words in transcript - looks even more ridiculous spelled out in black and white, doesn't it?
Anyway, keep peeling the onion. I like what you said and how you said it.
 

kate8024

-deleted-
There is another way to be a scientologist. The freezone.

Actually, the freezone is not one other way to be a scientologist. It's many other ways. Even RONS Orgs is organized as a network of independent groups, with no central command point.

You can "shop around" until you find something you like.

I've had a hard time finding a group I feel like I could fit into in the freezone, too many of them seem to be of the feeling that the problem with the Church is that they don't adhere _enough_ to Ron's work or the existing tech when I personally feel like we need to use Ron's work and the existing tech as the basis for ongoing new work and research and should not believe that Ron found out everything there is to know about this topic. I believe some of what Ron wrote makes sense and works, and some doesn't. Some works in some contexts but not others.

I've been fairly lucky (IMHO) in that my local Org knows I'm not a not what you would call a strict Scientologist, that I have my own emeter that I bought on ebay, that I've worked my way through some of the OT material that I downloaded and that I like to experiment and they are cool with it. Of course I've spent a lot of money buying books and lecture cd's from them so I'm sure that contributes to their tolerance ;-)

It was obvious to me during my first week after reading Dianetics when I asked if anyone had ever tried modern EEG in conjunction with auditing and I was met with "thats not what Ron's books say to do" that I wouldn't quite fit in. I had heard all sorts of stories about how the Orgs wouldn't even sell books to "squirrels" so I was careful not to talk about those things and still when I visit there I don't talk about what I'm doing unless they ask (which usually someone does).

So I would say that I consider myself to be a Scientologist and not a member of the Church but I think I am on relatively good terms with them. I completely disagree with KSW, but to me that's an issue with the Church and since I don't consider myself a member then it doesn't really affect me directly too much.
 
Thanks for your replies all :)

There is another way to be a scientologist. The freezone.

Actually, the freezone is not one other way to be a scientologist. It's many other ways. Even RONS Orgs is organized as a network of independent groups, with no central command point.

You can "shop around" until you find something you like.

But you're right; in the church there is tremendous pressure to conform to a particular model of what a scientologist should be. They don't give up pushing that model. Once they have all your money, they'll want all your time. And case gain? Unlikely after a point.

That's why the freezone is thriving.

Helena

Hey Helena, thanks for your reply. I know some people who moved from Scientology to the Freezone, but there are some things I don't understand about it.

The Disconnection Policy - LRH wrote it, isn't it being applied in the FZ? Hubbard also wrote that if one doesn't disconnect, he is to be disconnected from. Is that being applied? I respect religious beliefs but that there is the classic cult technique, in my opinion.

KSW 1 - In my opinion, the essence of Scientology is KSW 1. I'm not sure how the Freezoners can refer to themselves as those who apply LRH policies, if they don't apply this one. And if they would, wouldn't they slowly turn into regular orgs?

All other LRH policies such as word clearing and other technical references - Are they being applied? Is there a Div 5 (Qualifications)? If so, I'd think that when all these policies are implemented, it likens a regular org quite a lot. I'd like to know how it's different, if you have got some time to explain it to me.

Those very things boggled my mind even when I was a Scientologist. It seems to me that Scientology orgs follow most of the major policies to the letter, and that's why they're so damn uptight. With the exception of the Ideal Org burst and the Ideal Org PL, which was so misinterpreted. I would suspect Mr. Miscavige has a crashing MU in this policy. The intention wasn't fancy buildings and they're not supposed to reg people for it. They're supposed to get money for services given. But other than the regging part, I think Scientology is being applied in the orgs today - No?
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
Welcome and thank you for your excellent analysis of Scientology! You summed it up very nicely.

I understand your experience that you realized that unless you join the Sea Org and give the Church of Sciendollary all of your money - you will never be 100% IN. I also felt that way and would not give them all of my money and would not ever join staff in a Class 5 Morgue. I told the recruiter to put me on the "not a chance in hell in this lifetime" would I ever join staff or the Sea Org. When they asked me why - I responded truthfully - "Because it LOOKS LIKE SLAVE LABOR TO ME".

My attitude got me a "ridge on the bridge" where the C/S and Course Room Sups were instructed to not let me continue on my courses or auditing. Of course, no one said anything to me - but they stopped me from progressing. THANK YOU - because just about that time I received Debbie Cook's e-mail. I had witnessed crimes at ASHO and ASHO did not feel the need to make up any damage they had done. They admitted the crimes should have never taken place but it was the "individuals and they have been crammed" and I was suppose to accept that. I kept asking them about KSW - what policy allows them to NOT MAKE UP DAMAGE - and of course, I was given the "silent treatment" TR's! I was told to write up my O/W's. Funny how these top Morgues won't even do their own condition formula and when you ask about KSW - they ignore it.
 
Welcome and thank you for your excellent analysis of Scientology! You summed it up very nicely.

I understand your experience that you realized that unless you join the Sea Org and give the Church of Sciendollary all of your money - you will never be 100% IN. I also felt that way and would not give them all of my money and would not ever join staff in a Class 5 Morgue. I told the recruiter to put me on the "not a chance in hell in this lifetime" would I ever join staff or the Sea Org. When they asked me why - I responded truthfully - "Because it LOOKS LIKE SLAVE LABOR TO ME".

My attitude got me a "ridge on the bridge" where the C/S and Course Room Sups were instructed to not let me continue on my courses or auditing. Of course, no one said anything to me - but they stopped me from progressing. THANK YOU - because just about that time I received Debbie Cook's e-mail. I had witnessed crimes at ASHO and ASHO did not feel the need to make up any damage they had done. They admitted the crimes should have never taken place but it was the "individuals and they have been crammed" and I was suppose to accept that. I kept asking them about KSW - what policy allows them to NOT MAKE UP DAMAGE - and of course, I was given the "silent treatment" TR's! I was told to write up my O/W's. Funny how these top Morgues won't even do their own condition formula and when you ask about KSW - they ignore it.

Idle Morge, thank you. What crimes did you witness in ASHO? (ASHO is the one in Sussex, right?)

When I was a staff member I used to get a little offended when publics outright refused to join staff. I thought to myself that the only reason that they're getting Scientology is those staff members and it seemed ungrateful that they wouldn't consider doing the same. But seems like it all turned out for the best for you - They stopped you from getting Scientology, you stopped wanting Scientology!

What's your stance on Scientology now?
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thanks for your replies all :)



Hey Helena, thanks for your reply. I know some people who moved from Scientology to the Freezone, but there are some things I don't understand about it.

The Disconnection Policy - LRH wrote it, isn't it being applied in the FZ? Hubbard also wrote that if one doesn't disconnect, he is to be disconnected from. Is that being applied? I respect religious beliefs but that there is the classic cult technique, in my opinion.

KSW 1 - In my opinion, the essence of Scientology is KSW 1. I'm not sure how the Freezoners can refer to themselves as those who apply LRH policies, if they don't apply this one. And if they would, wouldn't they slowly turn into regular orgs?

All other LRH policies such as word clearing and other technical references - Are they being applied? Is there a Div 5 (Qualifications)? If so, I'd think that when all these policies are implemented, it likens a regular org quite a lot. I'd like to know how it's different, if you have got some time to explain it to me.

Those very things boggled my mind even when I was a Scientologist. It seems to me that Scientology orgs follow most of the major policies to the letter, and that's why they're so damn uptight. With the exception of the Ideal Org burst and the Ideal Org PL, which was so misinterpreted. I would suspect Mr. Miscavige has a crashing MU in this policy. The intention wasn't fancy buildings and they're not supposed to reg people for it. They're supposed to get money for services given. But other than the regging part, I think Scientology is being applied in the orgs today - No?

In my opinion - Scientology is being applied - all of it. If you look carefully at L Ron Hubbard's tech - you can justify any behavior - good, bad and ugly and then hide behind the "religious cloak". All of Scientology needs to be buried in their titanium vault's and shipped off to a planet far out of our galaxy that perhaps only Xenu would appreciate and use! My scientology crap is in the landfill. ALL OF IT!!
 

DoneDeal

Patron Meritorious


I'm very happy for you Garcia Robot ... admitting you are no longer willing to be a scientologist with all its rules, regulations and mind games is the first (and biggest) hurdle to freeing yourself from the whole introvertive mess.

Helena is my friend and her intentions are good ... but please ignore her suggestion re the FreeZone, just live your life your way.

:coolwink:


Could you cut out the being so likable thing? At least for awhile, you know like years...instead of months...

Just knock it off.
 
My scientology crap is in the landfill. ALL OF IT!!

Mine too!! :hifive:

It was actually SO liberating to realize I don't HAVE to be a Scientologist. Up until then I was sure I will be a Scientologist for the rest of my life, because I thought so much like one that it became a part of me.

I got my mind back when I discovered I can just stop being a Scientologist. I was finally able to lose all these restricting axioms. This, in effect, made me think that the reactive mind is not the only thing you supposedly lose in Scientology... But in fact your entire mind, your ability to really think for yourself.

Meh, Scientologists wouldn't agree. "What do you mean, I've done the Evaluator Series, I am a qualified thinker!" LOL
 

Freeminds

Bitter defrocked apostate
The place in (West) Sussex is called Saint Hill. The big service organization there is called "Advanced Organization Saint Hill UK" or AOSHUK. ASHO stands for "American Saint Hill Organization".

Paul

...and the people within it are referred to as ASSHATs.

Word-clearing for asshat: One who has their head up their ass. Thus wearing their ass as a hat. Asshat.
 

hpm1999

Patron with Honors
Hey everyone,

While it is not the first thread I reply on, it is, nonetheless, the very first thread I open on my own.

I would deem it unnecessary to go into why I got into Scientology - it's the regular story of a crisis in life, a helping "Ron-hand" that came into assistance at the right time and the ensuing brainwash that sneaked up on one so quickly.

But definitely one of the major reasons why I left Scientology is because I realized there is actually only one way to be a Scientologist.

It is delineated in Keeping Scientology Working 1. Wacky Tom Cruise video comes to mind - "So, for me, it's really KSW, and it's just like, it's something that, uh, I don't mince words with that. You know, I don't mince words with anything that LRH wrote, but that policy to me has really gone PFFFFFF, boy, there's a time I went through and I said, 'You know what...'. When I read it, I just went POOOOF! 'That is it. That's exactly it.'"

That's Tom Cruise, not mincing words. :)

But his point remains. KSW dictates the way a Scientologist should behave. For example, there's this whole no-no about frying fish. I guess Hubbard wasn't big on fish, and I'm not either, but I got an immensely clear vision of what that means, one time when I unfortunately found myself in a dedicated Scientologist apartment. She obviously took the whole "no other fish to fry" command really seriously... Because, her poor cats were meager and starved, her apartment was the filthiest I've ever been in, there was garbage everywhere - To this day, I still feel sick when I think about her. But she still showed up at the Org every day, and although stinky with sour sweat, she still dressed in professional looking clothes. So dedicated was she, that she couldn't be bothered picking up the eggshells from the eggs she had, and just left them on her living room table for months. I know, because I've seen the pile.

Could be that her case is extreme, but I bet all of you know at least one person in the staff of every org who is already in his 50-60, yet never married, no kids, never got his own place and is probably living in a tiny one room, two rooms apartment. Dedicated Scientologists, the whole lot of them. Definitely never fried any fish outside of Scientology... Nor ever had enough spare money to even remotely consider buying an apartment or a house.

Even having a 2D is "other-intentioness". While the Sea Org cannot prevent people from falling in love, they sure can prevent them from doing anything else. I wasn't a Sea Org member but I got to spend time with many. One time I asked some of them a question - can't remember what it was, but one of them misunderstood me and his reply was, "well, if they send your wife to another base for more than 3 months, you start raising hell". Raise hell, Bubba, you're a Scientology slave. They'll sec-check you out of every counter intention, until you've "cognited" that the very marriage you got and the will to be together, for which you married, is just a reactive mind effort in the way of clearing planet Earth. Hell, they've even brainwashed you into agreeing that you don't want kids. I'm the last person who would judge anyone for not wanting to have kids, however, it's really clearly not their own idea. I'd bet my eyelashes that 90%-99% of the people who say things like: "Kids? I've had lifetimes of having kids, now I'm here to clear the Planet" - Don't even have their own memories of those lifetimes in which they had kids. It's just the leap of faith on their part - Something that is not outright called for in LRH scriptures, but something that every dedicated Scientologist nonetheless makes when he had read enough LRH. "Well, he was right about so many things, I bet he's right about that too. Haha, let's sign out next billion years away!".

When I realized that the only way to really be a Scientologist is to be a Sea Org member, 100% dedicated to Scientology, having no place of my own, no real life I can command over, well that was really when I realized that I can't be a Scientologist. Because there will always be a collision of intentions between me and "them". They would want me to give every single hour I have to Scientology. And do not be fooled - Even Class V org staffers give every hour they got to Scientology - Including those hours they lay awake at night, thinking how they're going to make ends meet when they have to have a full time job inside the org, and a full time job outside to make a living - Or even, spend any time at all with their family. Even Ideal Org staff can't make a living out of their work, even less so, with all the bills the org has to pay to keep the place running. Recruitment interviews, showering you with admiration, promising you that everything is fixed now and that staff gets lots of care, blah blah, that you make enough money on staff or you're soon going to - all cynical lies to boost their stats. And you, me, most of us, fell for it. At least once. Some even twice or three times. But they keep calling, showing up at your doorsteps for a recruitment interview. And you can't even change your phone number, because that would be an overt and a withhold. Talk about the perfect mind trap!

They would want you to give every single coin you make to Scientology, in such theta ways as, for example, keeping one inside a nicely lit, beautifully furnished room until 1 am. If you want to use your money to buy nice things for yourself or pay for your education then off you go to Ethics and on with the clay demo about "Middle Class PTSness". Donate to the IAS, donate to library campaigns. Donate to a staff member who needs to get his plane ticket to Flag. It's like clergy or whatever that expects to live off donations, but in comparison with most other religions, Scientology gives nothing of value to its members and instead just takes and takes.

They would demand of you to cut ties with those who have transgressed against the org. Those dedicated Scientologists, who are very well versed in mind twists and cognitive dissonance, would brush away the previous statement as false, claiming that "you're not forced to do it, you do it out of your own free will" - Yeah right! Because the threat of having you yourself declared if you don't disconnect, and the threat of them taking your "eternity" away from you, is not so bad. You disconnect from your mom because you want to, not because the evil cult bent your hands and forced you into it. Besides, your mom is just the physical body that gave birth to your physical body. What of it? Thetans have no family relations. Remember?

It took me some time after I left to fully formulate all these thoughts but at the time I left I could still feel all those things were true, even when they were not articulated in such a venomous, angry fashion. And when I realized that to be a dedicated, in-KSW 1 Scientologist you have to be willing to give everything away to Scientology, that's when I finally felt OK about leaving.

Scientology plays with the minds of young, naive people, who are often also driven by ideals, and for that it is guilty of fraud. It deprives them of their formative years. Those of us who were smart enough to keep a job outside of Scientology, to keep in touch with our family members, to not lose the friendships with our childhood friends, we had our safety nets when we left. Those of us who were born into it are in a much deeper mud, and to me it is a wonder that they even managed to climb out of it.

I am an atheist, I wish for freedom of thought for all. As a Scientologist I used to think that a Scientology world would be good - Everyone you see on the bus would either a staff member, a Sea Org or a Public. Little did I realize that such a world would have colonies of 1.1s - after the Science of Survival policies, or the social torture that SPs would suffer. I salute the Human nature for seeing Scientology for what it is, and today every person that tells me, "you used to be in Scientology? But that's a cult!" gets a hearty laugh from me as a response. Yes, it is a cult. How clever of you to see that. You're obviously smarter than I was back then, way to go and keep up that attitude.
I also gotta say that I love how the spell checker here doesn't recognize words like "Scientologist" and "thetan". Well done spell checker, keep up that attitude. :)

Thanks to everybody who writes here and shares his story or his 2 cents. I spend a substantial amount of time every day browsing through Scientology stories like yours and I thank you for sharing them. Due to the "toxic Scientology policy of Disconnection", as Tony Ortega often puts it, I cannot give any details in fear that loved ones would have to disconnect from me, so unfortunately I'm not able to share my story in detail. I hope that one day my loved ones would have the same realizations as me, and we would all burst in song and dance and speak the truth about Scientology, using our real names. My nickname on this message board, by the way, is reference to the Garcia Robots in Arthur C. Clarke Rama series, who are healing robots who wear the body of Bonita Garcia, a truth seeker inside the universe of the Rama story. It's also a reference the famous Garcia inside the universe of Scientology, who got the message through against all odds. And it's also a reference to the term "Ron-bot". I guess what this nickname means is... I used to be a Ron-bot, but now I come with the healing message of truth, against all odds - Because it's always quite a feat to break free from mind traps.

Cheers.
Well said and excellent post. I recommend Janja Lalich's book "Bounded Choice" for a discussion of why sociological cult members have little choice or freedom of thought but believe that they DO. She states " they do have choices, they canchooose what to eat or who to sit with at a meeting, or to turn left or turn right at a street corner, but thier choices are bounded by the mores of the cult. So a Scio can choose to eat lunch or mot eat lunch but they cannot choose not to become a member of the IAS or to ask real questions about LRH. But the very fact that a scio has SOME choices available to them, and when asked about brainwashing they scoff. Because they are making a choice NOT to confrot doubts and questions because of the boundaries set by Scio.
 

hpm1999

Patron with Honors
Thanks for your replies all :)



Hey Helena, thanks for your reply. I know some people who moved from Scientology to the Freezone, but there are some things I don't understand about it.

The Disconnection Policy - LRH wrote it, isn't it being applied in the FZ? Hubbard also wrote that if one doesn't disconnect, he is to be disconnected from. Is that being applied? I respect religious beliefs but that there is the classic cult technique, in my opinion.

KSW 1 - In my opinion, the essence of Scientology is KSW 1. I'm not sure how the Freezoners can refer to themselves as those who apply LRH policies, if they don't apply this one. And if they would, wouldn't they slowly turn into regular orgs?

All other LRH policies such as word clearing and other technical references - Are they being applied? Is there a Div 5 (Qualifications)? If so, I'd think that when all these policies are implemented, it likens a regular org quite a lot. I'd like to know how it's different, if you have got some time to explain it to me.

Those very things boggled my mind even when I was a Scientologist. It seems to me that Scientology orgs follow most of the major policies to the letter, and that's why they're so damn uptight. With the exception of the Ideal Org burst and the Ideal Org PL, which was so misinterpreted. I would suspect Mr. Miscavige has a crashing MU in this policy. The intention wasn't fancy buildings and they're not supposed to reg people for it. They're supposed to get money for services given. But other than the regging part, I think Scientology is being applied in the orgs today - No?

Nice thinking. I give the fz credit they do engage in comm. But I have come to the conclusion that auditing and all the levels are simply a paid tour of the bizarre and twisted mind and mental state of Hubbard. This is a posit by Larwrence Wright and I agree with it now. After getting to the wall of fire Hubbard realized he was still tormented and thus he discovered BTs. He sincerely thought he was helping himself and mankind and.", I think , he was also scamming and controlling. True religious belief and hucksterism are not mutually exclusive. I think they coexist in almost every religion.
 

hpm1999

Patron with Honors
Welcome and thank you for your excellent analysis of Scientology! You summed it up very nicely.

I understand your experience that you realized that unless you join the Sea Org and give the Church of Sciendollary all of your money - you will never be 100% IN. I also felt that way and would not give them all of my money and would not ever join staff in a Class 5 Morgue. I told the recruiter to put me on the "not a chance in hell in this lifetime" would I ever join staff or the Sea Org. When they asked me why - I responded truthfully - "Because it LOOKS LIKE SLAVE LABOR TO ME".

My attitude got me a "ridge on the bridge" where the C/S and Course Room Sups were instructed to not let me continue on my courses or auditing. Of course, no one said anything to me - but they stopped me from progressing. THANK YOU - because just about that time I received Debbie Cook's e-mail. I had witnessed crimes at ASHO and ASHO did not feel the need to make up any damage they had done. They admitted the crimes should have never taken place but it was the "individuals and they have been crammed" and I was suppose to accept that. I kept asking them about KSW - what policy allows them to NOT MAKE UP DAMAGE - and of course, I was given the "silent treatment" TR's! I was told to write up my O/W's. Funny how these top Morgues won't even do their own condition formula and when you ask about KSW - they ignore it.
Wow- this is MY story! You are here by notified of your violation of my copyrite!
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
Mine too!! :hifive:

It was actually SO liberating to realize I don't HAVE to be a Scientologist. Up until then I was sure I will be a Scientologist for the rest of my life, because I thought so much like one that it became a part of me.

I got my mind back when I discovered I can just stop being a Scientologist. I was finally able to lose all these restricting axioms. This, in effect, made me think that the reactive mind is not the only thing you supposedly lose in Scientology... But in fact your entire mind, your ability to really think for yourself.

Meh, Scientologists wouldn't agree. "What do you mean, I've done the Evaluator Series, I am a qualified thinker!" LOL

What really woke me up is the fact that the Upper Morgue's will not GET THEIR ETHICS IN - so....how can the TEK get in?? This is when I thought there was Tek worth getting "in". They do not follow the same set of rules the Class 5 Morgues are suppose to follow. When I repeated the auditing command - they put me on the SPIN cycle and the staff and Sea Org members refused to discuss it with me. They told me to "handle it in auditing". I told them I would never allow any staff member of this Organization to audit me, have access to mind, body or spirit until they come clean. I was given the "silent treatment rundown". Now - many people fall for this mind manipulating tactic - Hubbard has policy letters stating to "IGNORE anyone in question of Scientology and that THEY are hiding BIG CRIMES". Talk about the "pot calling the kettle black"!

That woke me up!! I realized this so-called TECH was ladden with justifications as to why Scientology does not work, it does not have lasting effects and Scientology ALWAYS WINS - the PC, Student, Staff member always loses!! It was designed to deceive and trick!! It is pure evil! A few truths sprinkled into a pot of poison and that is why you need to get it out of your environment! It attracts evil spirits!

Then I got Debbie Cook's e-mail. I found out others thought the same thing!!

THEN - I read all about little Ronnie Hubbturd and his satan worshipping involvement with Aleistar Crowley and finally realized I had been bamboozled from the start. That was a painful moment - but it was also freeing. I realized I had been sucked into a cult - pure evil - I never went back, I threw all of the 1,000 lbs of books, lectures, pamphlets, e-meter - everything in the DUMP. I personally loaded up my vehicles and the family made a run to the county landfill where we made sure the stuff was not useable!!

We were FREE! Then - I helped free others! :coolwink: I helped them do the "Landfill/City Dump Rundown"!! :happydance: I did not charge them anything because FREE IS FREE~!:yes: So far- I helped 13 people leave for good!! I never got that many people in Scientology - so I am in POWER!! Hip Hip Hooray for the internet!!

The internet - Freeing beings sucked into scams called Scientology CULT since its inception!!
 

Arthur Dent

Silver Meritorious Patron
Hey everyone,

While it is not the first thread I reply on, it is, nonetheless, the very first thread I open on my own.

I would deem it unnecessary to go into why I got into Scientology - it's the regular story of a crisis in life, a helping "Ron-hand" that came into assistance at the right time and the ensuing brainwash that sneaked up on one so quickly.

But definitely one of the major reasons why I left Scientology is because I realized there is actually only one way to be a Scientologist.

It is delineated in Keeping Scientology Working 1. Wacky Tom Cruise video comes to mind - "So, for me, it's really KSW, and it's just like, it's something that, uh, I don't mince words with that. You know, I don't mince words with anything that LRH wrote, but that policy to me has really gone PFFFFFF, boy, there's a time I went through and I said, 'You know what...'. When I read it, I just went POOOOF! 'That is it. That's exactly it.'"

That's Tom Cruise, not mincing words. :)

But his point remains. KSW dictates the way a Scientologist should behave. For example, there's this whole no-no about frying fish. I guess Hubbard wasn't big on fish, and I'm not either, but I got an immensely clear vision of what that means, one time when I unfortunately found myself in a dedicated Scientologist apartment. She obviously took the whole "no other fish to fry" command really seriously... Because, her poor cats were meager and starved, her apartment was the filthiest I've ever been in, there was garbage everywhere - To this day, I still feel sick when I think about her. But she still showed up at the Org every day, and although stinky with sour sweat, she still dressed in professional looking clothes. So dedicated was she, that she couldn't be bothered picking up the eggshells from the eggs she had, and just left them on her living room table for months. I know, because I've seen the pile.

Could be that her case is extreme, but I bet all of you know at least one person in the staff of every org who is already in his 50-60, yet never married, no kids, never got his own place and is probably living in a tiny one room, two rooms apartment. Dedicated Scientologists, the whole lot of them. Definitely never fried any fish outside of Scientology... Nor ever had enough spare money to even remotely consider buying an apartment or a house.

Even having a 2D is "other-intentioness". While the Sea Org cannot prevent people from falling in love, they sure can prevent them from doing anything else. I wasn't a Sea Org member but I got to spend time with many. One time I asked some of them a question - can't remember what it was, but one of them misunderstood me and his reply was, "well, if they send your wife to another base for more than 3 months, you start raising hell". Raise hell, Bubba, you're a Scientology slave. They'll sec-check you out of every counter intention, until you've "cognited" that the very marriage you got and the will to be together, for which you married, is just a reactive mind effort in the way of clearing planet Earth. Hell, they've even brainwashed you into agreeing that you don't want kids. I'm the last person who would judge anyone for not wanting to have kids, however, it's really clearly not their own idea. I'd bet my eyelashes that 90%-99% of the people who say things like: "Kids? I've had lifetimes of having kids, now I'm here to clear the Planet" - Don't even have their own memories of those lifetimes in which they had kids. It's just the leap of faith on their part - Something that is not outright called for in LRH scriptures, but something that every dedicated Scientologist nonetheless makes when he had read enough LRH. "Well, he was right about so many things, I bet he's right about that too. Haha, let's sign out next billion years away!".

When I realized that the only way to really be a Scientologist is to be a Sea Org member, 100% dedicated to Scientology, having no place of my own, no real life I can command over, well that was really when I realized that I can't be a Scientologist. Because there will always be a collision of intentions between me and "them". They would want me to give every single hour I have to Scientology. And do not be fooled - Even Class V org staffers give every hour they got to Scientology - Including those hours they lay awake at night, thinking how they're going to make ends meet when they have to have a full time job inside the org, and a full time job outside to make a living - Or even, spend any time at all with their family. Even Ideal Org staff can't make a living out of their work, even less so, with all the bills the org has to pay to keep the place running. Recruitment interviews, showering you with admiration, promising you that everything is fixed now and that staff gets lots of care, blah blah, that you make enough money on staff or you're soon going to - all cynical lies to boost their stats. And you, me, most of us, fell for it. At least once. Some even twice or three times. But they keep calling, showing up at your doorsteps for a recruitment interview. And you can't even change your phone number, because that would be an overt and a withhold. Talk about the perfect mind trap!

They would want you to give every single coin you make to Scientology, in such theta ways as, for example, keeping one inside a nicely lit, beautifully furnished room until 1 am. If you want to use your money to buy nice things for yourself or pay for your education then off you go to Ethics and on with the clay demo about "Middle Class PTSness". Donate to the IAS, donate to library campaigns. Donate to a staff member who needs to get his plane ticket to Flag. It's like clergy or whatever that expects to live off donations, but in comparison with most other religions, Scientology gives nothing of value to its members and instead just takes and takes.

They would demand of you to cut ties with those who have transgressed against the org. Those dedicated Scientologists, who are very well versed in mind twists and cognitive dissonance, would brush away the previous statement as false, claiming that "you're not forced to do it, you do it out of your own free will" - Yeah right! Because the threat of having you yourself declared if you don't disconnect, and the threat of them taking your "eternity" away from you, is not so bad. You disconnect from your mom because you want to, not because the evil cult bent your hands and forced you into it. Besides, your mom is just the physical body that gave birth to your physical body. What of it? Thetans have no family relations. Remember?

It took me some time after I left to fully formulate all these thoughts but at the time I left I could still feel all those things were true, even when they were not articulated in such a venomous, angry fashion. And when I realized that to be a dedicated, in-KSW 1 Scientologist you have to be willing to give everything away to Scientology, that's when I finally felt OK about leaving.

Scientology plays with the minds of young, naive people, who are often also driven by ideals, and for that it is guilty of fraud. It deprives them of their formative years. Those of us who were smart enough to keep a job outside of Scientology, to keep in touch with our family members, to not lose the friendships with our childhood friends, we had our safety nets when we left. Those of us who were born into it are in a much deeper mud, and to me it is a wonder that they even managed to climb out of it.

I am an atheist, I wish for freedom of thought for all. As a Scientologist I used to think that a Scientology world would be good - Everyone you see on the bus would either a staff member, a Sea Org or a Public. Little did I realize that such a world would have colonies of 1.1s - after the Science of Survival policies, or the social torture that SPs would suffer. I salute the Human nature for seeing Scientology for what it is, and today every person that tells me, "you used to be in Scientology? But that's a cult!" gets a hearty laugh from me as a response. Yes, it is a cult. How clever of you to see that. You're obviously smarter than I was back then, way to go and keep up that attitude.
I also gotta say that I love how the spell checker here doesn't recognize words like "Scientologist" and "thetan". Well done spell checker, keep up that attitude. :)

Thanks to everybody who writes here and shares his story or his 2 cents. I spend a substantial amount of time every day browsing through Scientology stories like yours and I thank you for sharing them. Due to the "toxic Scientology policy of Disconnection", as Tony Ortega often puts it, I cannot give any details in fear that loved ones would have to disconnect from me, so unfortunately I'm not able to share my story in detail. I hope that one day my loved ones would have the same realizations as me, and we would all burst in song and dance and speak the truth about Scientology, using our real names. My nickname on this message board, by the way, is reference to the Garcia Robots in Arthur C. Clarke Rama series, who are healing robots who wear the body of Bonita Garcia, a truth seeker inside the universe of the Rama story. It's also a reference the famous Garcia inside the universe of Scientology, who got the message through against all odds. And it's also a reference to the term "Ron-bot". I guess what this nickname means is... I used to be a Ron-bot, but now I come with the healing message of truth, against all odds - Because it's always quite a feat to break free from mind traps.

Cheers.

Excellent post, Garcia. And Welcome, by the way! The TC quote was great. That's it in a NUTshell: KSW1. :yes:
 
Top