Happy Aberree
Patron with Honors
RESIDUAL EFFECTS:
For the sake of this thread I'm going to classify 2 types of people (please forgive me, and no offense intended):
1. Those who were in scientology and are now out and opposing it (let's say EX-SCIENTOLOGIST)
2. Those who were never in scientology and are opposing it (let's say ANTI-SCIENTOLOGIST)
I don't think you can be a scientologist for 30 years and then, after realising it is a scam, suddenly become the person you would have been -had you never entered the cult. I think this is something inherently different between EXes (myself included) and ANTIs, and I think it is also a potential weak point within the overall group that opposes the CofS. And at the risk of increasing current disagreements and disputes, I will try and explain.
"But he's out now -why does he still use the jargon?"
When you dedicate more than half your life to a belief system, and then leave that belief system, it is only natural to retain some residual layers of that system. Even if it is just to laugh about it or criticise it, rant about it or whatever. And it gets shown on the board here every day. You can't expect a person to drop all that baggage that they have accumulated daily for decades the moment they realise it is a ruse. The cult's hold on a person happens over decades and takes time to deprogram. I still lose my coffee reading posts here because they still are pointing out idiocies that are so wild, so far out and so weird -and I used to believe all of it!!!
"Why don't they just wake up? Just tell them what a con-man Hubbard was, and they'll wake up."
As part of the cult's hold on a person, there are defense mechanisms that trigger very easily and then stop the person listening/looking anymore. (SP for example -if a scientologist decides you are an SP, THEY WILL NOT COMMUNICATE WITH YOU ANYMORE). It sounds easy (to just tell a scientologist about Hubbard or Lisa MacPhearson or DM) but if you trigger the person's defense mechanisms at any time it doesn't become harder to show them -it becomes impossible. This is why exes here work on slower methods of getting people out. They are trying to work in and around that person's defenses that have been built up over the years by the cult, and it takes time.
I am opposed to the CofS and it's affiliates, most of its activities and all of its abuses. I personally do not think a great deal of the technology of scientology but I am sure some of it gets some results, and the same goes for the policy. As far as what parts work? I'm sure I'll look into it one day. There are many who still use and advocate the technology -which is fine. But even being so indifferent to scientology and being against the CofS and its havoc, I will still use the terms here and there, make jokes about the staff, argue technical or administrative issues, and listen to a scientologist talk straight 'scientology' at me. Apart from hardcore Sea Org members or high-status public (in which case my patience is fleeting), I can manage a reasonable conversation. And I do this because I don't believe that you just have to drop the whole thing instantly and I don't believe that you can.
I want to add more to this later, but that's what I have so far...
For the sake of this thread I'm going to classify 2 types of people (please forgive me, and no offense intended):
1. Those who were in scientology and are now out and opposing it (let's say EX-SCIENTOLOGIST)
2. Those who were never in scientology and are opposing it (let's say ANTI-SCIENTOLOGIST)
I don't think you can be a scientologist for 30 years and then, after realising it is a scam, suddenly become the person you would have been -had you never entered the cult. I think this is something inherently different between EXes (myself included) and ANTIs, and I think it is also a potential weak point within the overall group that opposes the CofS. And at the risk of increasing current disagreements and disputes, I will try and explain.
"But he's out now -why does he still use the jargon?"
When you dedicate more than half your life to a belief system, and then leave that belief system, it is only natural to retain some residual layers of that system. Even if it is just to laugh about it or criticise it, rant about it or whatever. And it gets shown on the board here every day. You can't expect a person to drop all that baggage that they have accumulated daily for decades the moment they realise it is a ruse. The cult's hold on a person happens over decades and takes time to deprogram. I still lose my coffee reading posts here because they still are pointing out idiocies that are so wild, so far out and so weird -and I used to believe all of it!!!
"Why don't they just wake up? Just tell them what a con-man Hubbard was, and they'll wake up."
As part of the cult's hold on a person, there are defense mechanisms that trigger very easily and then stop the person listening/looking anymore. (SP for example -if a scientologist decides you are an SP, THEY WILL NOT COMMUNICATE WITH YOU ANYMORE). It sounds easy (to just tell a scientologist about Hubbard or Lisa MacPhearson or DM) but if you trigger the person's defense mechanisms at any time it doesn't become harder to show them -it becomes impossible. This is why exes here work on slower methods of getting people out. They are trying to work in and around that person's defenses that have been built up over the years by the cult, and it takes time.
I am opposed to the CofS and it's affiliates, most of its activities and all of its abuses. I personally do not think a great deal of the technology of scientology but I am sure some of it gets some results, and the same goes for the policy. As far as what parts work? I'm sure I'll look into it one day. There are many who still use and advocate the technology -which is fine. But even being so indifferent to scientology and being against the CofS and its havoc, I will still use the terms here and there, make jokes about the staff, argue technical or administrative issues, and listen to a scientologist talk straight 'scientology' at me. Apart from hardcore Sea Org members or high-status public (in which case my patience is fleeting), I can manage a reasonable conversation. And I do this because I don't believe that you just have to drop the whole thing instantly and I don't believe that you can.
I want to add more to this later, but that's what I have so far...