. . . and I was willing to lie to my friends for the same reason. Yet, my intentions were good -- I really wanted to get better and to help other people get better.
This really muddies the water -- no question that Scientologists believe what they are selling. . . it's why they are so effective at it. Yet, they ARE lying, and they KNOW they are lying. But they believe the end justifies the means because our very eternity is at stake. They believe that they are uniquely able to see the trap, and that someday free Thetans everywhere will thank them for their forsight and courage.
So, even though people knew that LRH was lying to them all the way up the bridge. . . they believed with unshakeable certainty that he wasn't lying about achieving total freedom, or about the abilities that could be gained.
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles,
Such are promises
All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
-- Simon and Garfunkel -The Boxer
Back at
you - another briliiant post!
I have taken the liberty to bring to the forefront certain key ideas that you so wonderfully linked together:
"I was willing to lie to my friends for the same reason . . . .
. . . my intentions were good -- I really wanted to get better and to help other people get better . . ."
I wish that before any person ever walked into a Church of Scientology that he or she studies and understands this very true maxim:
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Most true believers are incapable of understanding how that is so very true, how it has many supporting examples all throughout history, and how they are incapable of seeing this in themselves. Simply, when people think that they "know the truth" (the BIG TRUTH with a large capital "T"), and that "most others don't", they become
willing to do almost anything to "help you" and "save your sorry soul". While not the same in degree or intensity, a Scientologist's willingness to lie, deceive and manipulate others, for the other person's own good, is not entirely dissimilar to a 15th century Inquisition priest tightening down the thumbscrews or burning a heretic "for their own good".
I find this to be a major source of evil on planet Earth:
The willingness to harm others, in the name of some cause, because some person believes that he or she "posesses the truth that others cannot yet see and understand". In many ways Scientology resonates along that pattern. This certainty in the "truth" is what gives any Scientologist the obvious and visible haughty arrogance, pomposity and pretentious posturing (think Tom Cruise lecturing Matt Lauer on psychiatry).
The rest of your post adds to this basic idea, when you say:
"Scientologists believe what they are selling . . . it's why they are so effective at it."
"Yet, they ARE lying, and they KNOW they are lying."
I would add that they
sometimes know that they are lying. Cognitive Dissonace is an interesting phenomena, and the contradictions are often deeply buried away from consciousness in any fanatical true believer (such as a Scientologist). They might be
somewhat consciously aware that they are "twisting things", but few ever view it as actual outright "lying". Most cannot see that in themselves. Though, more basically, a person usually has to lie to oneself before doing it to others. And this differs in degree with different people. For instance, I noticed various discrepancies at various points along my Scientology "career", I filed them away, but I did keep them in my conscious awareness, but I noticed that many others around could not and did not "see" the same discrepancies.
"But they believe the end justifies the means because our very eternity is at stake".
Yes, this is key too, because that maxim, that
the end justifies the means, is a typical way that almost
any dictator or oppressive person/group deals with people and situations. It is the "mark of the beast" - so to speak. It is the "think" that destroys any chance of widespread compassion. And, it is not just because your
personal eternity is at stake, but more because of what you added next:
"They believe that they are uniquely able to see the trap, and that someday free Thetans everywhere will thank them for their forsight and courage".
Yes, yes, yes. This is the crux of it all. They truly accept and believe that Hubbard was the
only person to
ever come along and 1) delineate the exact nature of the "trap", 2) delineate Man's actual makeup as a spiritual being, 3) provide an exact way out of this "trap", along with the idea that 4) Scientology, as the repository of ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE is the
only agent in all of the Universe that can
solve Man's many problems and ailments.
Hubbard made it even trickier by entering the whole paradigm of the reactive mind, a "part of you that acts on its own without your knowledge", hidden personal forces and urges, "Dragons on the Bridge", reactive circuitry, low-toned, etc. Hubbard has a key reference that all regges and recruiters have in their Hat Packs, where he discusses that no person actually has any personal control or responsibility, because he or she is nothing more than a bag of reactive circuitry, and along with the notions of "hard sell", Hubbard instructs to simply MAKE THE PERSON DO WHAT THEY ARE UNWILLING TO DO ON THEIR OWN - for his or her own future benefit.
A typical notion that a reg uses as a tactic is "spend every penny that you have, because you will be more
able after you get the auditing, and you will make far more money then". The belief you add at the end is explained so very well:
"unshakeable certainty that he wasn't lying about achieving total freedom, or about the abilities that could be gained"
If and when a person truly believes that 1) Hubbard has taped a path to this abstract "total freedom", 2) only Hubbard provides such a path, and that 3) the future of every man, woman and child depends on Scientology succeeding, then all the other stuff just falls into place - the lying, the deceptions, the "end justifies the means", threats of losing this "total freedom" to control your behavior, and so forth.
I love the last little reference to
Simon & Garfunkel, which sadly is true for far more people than just Scientologists:
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.
Granted many Scientologists intensely excel at it!