Some ARS Imports from Richard Ford

[Zinjifar]

Just to introduce, ARS is a Usenet discussion group; unlike a web 'forum' in that it is not and can't be moderated (in the 'ALT' band.)

Richard Ford is a long time contributor to ARS (alt.religion.scientology)

Many of us don't follow ARS as religiously as we once did, when it was one of the few sources of Scientology information and discussion, and, the level of spam and acrimony probably puts off many others.

Still, it has gems, so, when I look in and see some I like to share them here.

Richard Ford has begun a series of short essays on Scientology topics that I think could each serve as a subject/thread here, but, for the sake of compiling them, I'm going to copy/paste them here to a single thread.

Enjoy. They will not be pasted in any particular order.

Zinj

 

[Zinjifar]

The Slave

It is sad to admit this but there is a certain sort of person who
needs to be told what to think.



You can recognise such a person by the way they react to anything that
is ambiguous. They will shift from side to side and will begin
blinking nervously because they are confused. They want a good guy and
a bad guy- and they want to be told everything will be OK.



Generally this sort of person will cease upon word similarities to
resolve their confusions. Similar sounding things are lumped together
even if they have no logical connection. Generalities become a
soothing substitute for thought. Complex issues are reduced to simply
blaming men/Jews/capitalists/liberals/'psychs'. This sort of thinking
can easily morph into authoritarianism when such a person gets some
power. They cannot handle complexity so they are always looking for
somebody to demonise and punish. They like simple policies and become
confused when something unexpected happens. Very often this sort of
person becomes so wedded to his dogmas that he would rather become
angry than admit anything unexpected.



The great majority of people who enter Scientology leave it relatively
undamaged. This is because their ability to deal with ambiguous
situations is still functioning. A small minority find themselves
unable to deal with the complexity of the outside world and therefore
cannot leave even when they are abused and beaten. This is because the
cult keeps things simple even when it is punching them in the face.
The abused sea org member does not need to think through the rights
and wrongs of being punched- it is always explained to him. Life
remains simple and therefore relatively stress free.



The prospect of freedom is more frightening than any abuse they may
heap upon him. The ultimate horror of Scientology is that the victim
becomes allergic to freedom and must remain a slave for life.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Survivorship Bias

Survivorship Bias is a little known (but common) logical error. This
is to assume that a set of individuals with a particular outcome must
be typical of the group from which they came.




Clear as mud? I thought so. I will give an example.




Sometimes we see sales jobs advertised claiming that the average sales
person with their company earns megabucks after two years.




Despite this huge wage you notice that the company continues to
advertise week after week.




The advertisement is probably truthful but fails to explain
survivorship bias.




Only SUCCESSFUL sales people remain with the company for two years so
it is not surprising to find them earning a great deal of money. The
average new recruit probably earns almost nothing but they leave after
a month or so.




We see survivorship bias in the public perception of Scientology as
the Hollywood cult.




Let us look at the facts.




1) Celebrity Centres recruit thousands of new hopefuls each year.




2) Celebrity Centers are located in entertainment districts. This
means that the average recruit has been sufficiently motivated to pack
their bags and move to Hollywood in search of fame. They are not
average guys who have been transformed by Scientology magic.




3) Scientology costs money. This means that Celebrity Centers only
recruit people who are already successful to a degree.




It is not surprising that some of these become famous. It is actually
surprising that there are so FEW Scientology Celebrities.




This is because Scientology tends to recruit exactly the sort of
person who would make it anyway. Unfortunately most people do not
understand survivorship bias and so they assume that Scientology helps
in some way.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Evil

Evil ideology can take many forms. It may be from the right or the
left. It may offer salvation in the afterlife or 'equality'.

Trying claim that only leftists or rightists are capable of evil is
actually part of the problem. This does not mean that we must
surrender to a wishy washy 'everyone is equally bad' cop out. This is
obviously untrue and closes the door on intelligent judgement.

There is one characteristic that is true of all evil ideologies- they
all HATE THE SINNER NOT THE SIN.

Some examples.

Stalinist Marxists claim to be opposed to economic exploitation but
can see evil only in capitalists. Stalinist have been willing to
starve and enslave large numbers of their own people provided that
this serves the revolution. This means that they throw the baby out
with the bathwater and become worse than those they claim to oppose.

Some extreme animal rights groups seem to dislike humanity and talk of
ecological catastrophe with a sort of glee. Humanity is only getting
what it deserves!

A second characteristic is that evil ideologies believe in a ZERO SUM
GAME.

This means that the evil ideology believes that everything that is
good for others is harmful to itself.

The Nazi party took this to the ultimate extreme by exterminating the
Jews. Any misfortune for the Jews was seen as an automatic victory for
the German Volk.

We also see this in the spiteful and petty attitudes of many feminists
towards those who appear happier and more successful than they are.
They are more interested in bringing others down than improving their
own lives.

According to these criteria Scientology is certainly an evil
ideology.

Criteria 1- Hating the sinner not the sin.

Scientology claims to be opposed to the ways in which mentally ill
people are treated. Unfortunately it makes no effort to invent better
treatments and even excludes people with mental illness from its own
treatments. All Scientologies efforts are directed at demonising
individual psychiatrists.

Criteria 2- Zero Sum game.

Scientology has created a paranoid world in which psychiatrists
continually plot against it. This means that every defeat for the
psyciatrists is a victory for Scientology.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Shame

I remember my time in Scientology as a time of shame.

This is not shame at anything in particular, but a sort of chronic
shame cloud that hung over me. Never underestimate the power of shame.
It is more powerful than life itself as many people prefer suicide to
continuing to live with it.

How does a Scientologist deal with this vague sense that he is a
criminal?

He turns to Scientology ethics of course!
Scientology ethics presents itself as a way for ethical beings to
release themselves from their past and move forward. This is
attractive to the Scientologist as he knows himself for be decent
(most Scientoloists give far more than they should to other people)
and yet he feels trapped by guilt and unworthiness.

The Scientologist may accuse himself of crimes that never took place.
These may be incidents in his life where he behaves as a human being
and not a robot. One of the things human beings do is share news about
other human beings (gossip). This is usually not malicious and most
people do it (even men). This adds to the guilt the Scientologist
carries as well as socially isolating them.

The Scientologist may become super obedient to ethics terminals.
Sooner or later he will have to turn down a request for cash or refuse
to give his time for free. At this point Scientology will return all
his old guilt to him with a hefty interest rate on top.

Scientology Ethics claims to be about relieving guilt but it is the
opposite. Going to an Ethics Officer to clear up an ethical problem is
rather like going to an illegal money lender to clear up a money
problem. The relief is short lived and must be re payed many times
over.

The aim of Scientology (like the illegal moneylender) is to place the
victim in a permanent state of dependency. It also sends a subtle
message to the subconscious that one is not innately OK. Why should
humanity need such constant correction if they were innately good as
LRH claims?

Scientology Ethics sends a double message to the victim.

OVERT MESSAGE: Man is innately good.

COVERT MESSAGE: But you need to be watched very closely, mate!

This leads the victim to feel they can never quite make the grade as
an Ethical being. Toxic shame.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

The Double Bind

According to Stalin, Ivan the Terrible used to say that a great leader
should never issue an order without also ordering the exact opposite
at the same time.

Stalin lived by this principle and so does David Miscavige.

Critics sometimes comment on the rambling and self contradictory
orders that David Miscavige is said to issue. Sea Org Executives leave
him completely unaware of just what they have been ordered to do.

Generally critics see this as a symptom of his mental disintegration
(which it is in part) but it is also a tactic used by LRH and a number
of management bullies I have come across in the corporate world.

If he says both yes and no... then he cannot be wrong.

The Sea Org Exec is then faced with the task of guessing what DM's
true intentions are when he may not even know them himself.

If the Exec makes a successful choice- DM will take the credit.

If the Exec makes a choice that results in failure- DM will place the
Exec on the RPF and claim he was ignoring orders.

Either way DM wins.

The executive will seek to escape the situation by issuing ambiguous
orders of his own. This will go down the chain of command until some
poor sap at the bottom of the food chain has to actually do something.
If he makes the wrong choice- god help him.

At Saint Hill and other places we see the strange sight of Sea Org
members screaming and bellowing at one another that they wish to see
their orders carried out and that the junior officer is full of
counter intention. They sometimes turn purple and their eyes look as
if they will pop from their heads. On and on they continue with this
bellowing. They swear and threaten. Sometimes they look as if they
will jump up and down like angry children.

There is one thing these Sea Org members will never do. THEY WILL
NEVER EXPLAIN CLEARLY WHAT THE ORDER ACTUALLY IS.

The moment they do this they become the target if it all goes wrong.
The only way to stay safe is to keep it vague and to pass the task to
someone else to interpret.

This means that neither policy nor management can be blamed for
anything. Policy is always right because there is always a policy in
favour of both option A and option B.

When it all goes wrong, the junior officer can be proved to be
disobeying orders and policy.

This is true whichever option he chooses.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Sexual Starvation

There seems to be some link between sexual frustration and fanaticism.

I am not sure why this should be so, but it is.

We see this within religion. The more fundamental and extreme the
belief system the stronger the emphasis on sexual control.

We also see this within disciplined secular organizations. The armed
forces allow sex but strictly off duty.

Even sports teams restrict sex before a big game because it focuses
the player upon the desire to win.

None of these groups go as far as Scientology however- and none is as
confused on the subject.

I was sent to the Technical Training Corps that was then running at St
Hill- and ran into the most sexually introverted- yet sexually
obsessed group I have ever come across.

The majority of my fellow students were young men- average age was
probably 23 or so. These guys naturally had a high sex drive and no
outlet for it. Being on the staff of a notorious cult is not exactly a
chick magnet and neither is being permanently poor and exhausted.
Regular masturbation is a survival skill in these situations.

Unfortunately masturbation requires a degree of privacy and this was
lacking at St Hill. We were berthed in the homes of local
Scientologists- five or six at a time. Generally we were fit to drop
by the time we got home and so there was neither time nor privacy for
this vital release.

On my second or third day I visited the toilet at St Hill and heard
one person clearly using the toilet cubicle for this purpose. This
later caused a read during a metered action (I wanted to gossip about
it but did not want to get anyone into trouble. This caused the matter
to become a withhold and a ten or twelve page entry in my ethics
file.)

Things became more and more absurd from this point on. I was given a
Knowledge Report for allegedly 'nattering' (gossiping). I am still not
sure what this was about but believe it could have been the cubicle
incident.

First I was sent to ethics for withholding information about
masturbation.

Then I was sent to ethics for NOT withholding information about
masturbation.

This is the essence of Scientology ethics. You are always wrong and
sometimes the random finger of ethics will point at you- and your
goose is cooked.

My situation was made worse because of the following factors.

1. My landlady was a normal woman (as normal as Scientology would let
her be). She was a single mother but had normal desires and was
sporadically sexually active. I was aware of this but thought it none
of my business- or the Org's.

2. I engaged in a little flirtatious squirreling. This involved my
holding the cans while bringing sexual imagery into my mind. This
registered as a small drop in the dial. I then gave the cans to a mid
ranking female Scientologist who demonstrated a full eight dial drop
(over about 60 seconds) when she did the same!

The cubicle incident caused something of an ethics explosion but the
others never came out in my sec check. This is because I never
considered them important and so the meter never indicated on them.

I became aware that Scientology seemed to regard masturbation as
wrong. I was also aware that the other two incidents would cause huge
problems for the only truly 'human' female Scientologists I have ever
met. This knowledge assisted me greatly in my decision to leave.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

The Learning Drill

There is something called the Learning Drill in Scientology.

It consists of taking some made up fact that you know to be wrong and
'thinking with it'.

'Thinking with it' amounts to adopting it as provisionally true and
then forming thoughts on this basis.

The example LRH gives is 'all chairs have three legs'. This is
incorrect but the PC is asked to assume that this is correct 'for the
sake of argument'.

Once this has been done the PC is then free to discard the false fact.

What the **** can this drill possibly be about.

If you believe LRH you will believe that it makes the PC open to new
ideas.

I believe it is training in self deception. It is impossible to
advance beyond a certain point in Scientology without believing things
that are simply impossible. This drill allows the PC to adopt one set
of beliefs (that Scientology is growing for example) while knowing
that this is a lie.

The Scientologist is then able to tell this lie to the media with
total sincerity.

It would be more honest to call the drill 'the Self Deception Drill'.

But then... you would expect a Self Deception Drill to have a
misleading name.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

The Unworthy

Scientology tends to trap those who feel they deserve nothing.

The entire philosophy is based upon not being good enough. The new
recruit is told that he must get rid of his reactive mind- the mind
that has been running his life up until that point.

This tends to appeal to people who think they are fundamentally
broken.

Many people feel this way after a defeat. Scientology takes a passing
condition and makes it permanent.

This starts with the OCA which shows him in dire need of fixing.

Auditing focuses the mind of the PC exclusively on negative incidents
in his past. (Engrams).

Scientology ethics ensure that the PC is always wrong about something.
The PC is also asked to take responsibility for things that are not
his fault. All of these factors make the PC feel inadequate.

Most people work through their problems (no thanks to Scientology) and
realise they are OK as they are. At this point they generally leave
the organization as they are in no need of fixing.

Scientology aims to maintain this sense of being 'not OK' to keep them
paying for services.

Many of these people suffer from chronic shame or the desire to
suffer. It is not surprising that we find many such people in the Sea
Org when this personality type looks like leaving they are sent to the
Rehabilitation Project Force where they are given a fresh dose of
shame.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Flourish and Prosper

One of the better LRH doctrines is that of 'flourish and prosper'.
This is the idea that the best revenge upon an SP is to live well
because this will upset them more than anything else.

Scientology would not be the public menace that it is if it followed
this doctrine itself. This would mean that the cult world answer bad
publicity by giving staff a weeks free holiday on the grounds that
this would wind up everyone who wished them ill.

Instead we see bizarre sites such as this one http://www.markrathbunisasquirrel.com/.
Notice that scientologists are behaving exactly as you would expect an
SP to do. They wish every form of failure upon 'Rat and Rin' (the
rather childish names they have for Marty Rathburn and Mike Rinder).
They wish everything from mental illness to destitution upon this
pair.

I then visited Martys own site http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/ and
find the exact opposite. There is no personal hate here and the guys
seem a great deal more fun. Right now they are on a fishing trip/
barbecue while 'international management' remain behind razor wire
taking turns to beat one another.

What effect do you suppose this has upon the scientologists still in
the cult? It drives them quite literally mad!

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Clear Delusion

LRH makes an extraordinary claim in his masterpiece of pseudoscience
'Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health'.

In this book he claims that all errors and faulty decisions are based
upon the reactive mind and that Clears are free of such things. They
simply never make a bad call.

It is difficult to know how LRH could possibly know such a thing as no
Clear existed at that time. His only concern was to fill his book with
such hyperbole that it becomes a bestseller on the basis of promises
alone.

This makes me wonder why the world is not run by Clears. Surely such
supermen would solve every problem known to man and be colonising the
remainder of the galaxy by now?

In fact we find that they have amassed a pile of real estate and are
now running a failing cult into the ground- a big disappointment for
the fat fraud I am sure.

LRH realised that he had made a big mistake by claiming Clears were
infallible soon after publication of the book. What would happen if
they started calling him a fraud? Many, many Clears have left the cult
and most of these have declared LRH a fraud- but clears are always
right!

LRH backtracked upon his previous promises by saying that Clears
actually COULD be wrong if they have wrong information. In other words
Clears are exactly like you and I.

They are only told this AFTER the cult has drained their bank
accounts. The state of clear is an illusion.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Drama

People will go to a great deal of trouble to have drama in their
lives. There are many therapists who believe it is the chief reason
people have bad things happen in their lives. The trouble people get
into is often so strange that it is difficult to believe it is an
accident.

This is certainly true of Scientology.

Space rockets!

Aliens!

Invader forces!

Conspiracy and super powers!!!

Well.. it would certainly be interesting if it were true.

The interesting thing about drama is that it does not have to be
pleasant to be addictive. This is why people will often return to an
abusive partner despite having options. They are addicted to the drama
of it all.

The good news is that healthy people have less need for drama. The bad
news is that drama prevents personal growth so it is necessary to
escape the drama before one can become immune to it.

Scientology is like an abusive spouse. It provides drama and
significance but kills you in the long run.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Age Regression

Scientology demands a childlike and unthinking obedience of its
subjects. Scientolgy has developed a number of ways to regress its
members to the emotional level of a three year old in order to make
this possible.

We see his in the frequent temper tantrums of Sea Org execs whenever
they receive bad news.

We also see this in their verbal reasoning whenever they are
questioned.

'Slappy' Miscavidge has a famous trick by which he forgets the
definitions of words.

I will give you an imaginary example.

Q: "Is it true you slapped and beat members of your own staff?"

A: "I do not know what you mean by 'slapped'."

Q: "Beat, punched, kicked... hit with your open hand..."

A: "I do not know what you mean by 'hand'"

And so on for ever.

Children do the same.

We have another example on ARS from a guy called 'roadrunner'. His
trick is to say that something is unsupported by evidence. When
evidence is produced he simply says that the evidence is unsupported
by more evidence.

And so on.. and on ....and on....

No rational argument is ever advanced. Simply pouty sulking and
childish name calling.

By regressing to childhood these people hope to avoid the truth.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Bullying

In Scientology nothing ever happens without a reason.

If something goes wrong there must be an Ethics Handling for it
(somebody must be punished.)

This process has its own terrible logic. If the executive does not
punish others he will probably be punished himself. Blame must be
pushed downwards within the organization because the leadership is
faultless. The executive is therefore forced to punish the innocent
out of fear.

This means that ethics is more or less random. It is important not to
think too much about it or one will end up believing there is
something wrong with oneself.

Fortunately the fickle finger of ethics will always point to someone
else sooner or later. You can prove your ethical nature by jumping on
the bandwagon and becoming a bully.

This hooks the Scientologist into a corrupt system that is almost sado
masochistic. Revenge is always possible within Scientology ethics. The
executive who walks around like a God on Monday may be on the RPF on
Tuesday. This has nothing to do with justice but simply reflects the
random blame shifting that takes place.

The abused staff member can also take pleasure in abusing those below
him. Many current Sea Org members have known nothing but abusive
relationships and are confused by anything else.

If the Scientologist leaves he gains his freedom but loses his power.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[JBTrendy]

Celebrity brief via Zinj

Great Zinj you're really hot on this one.

That's all very true

Take my guess

I made my CCRD at CC Int early 94

Tell me more stories

I got back there as a Jive in 99

But the has in bridge managed to kill the art

and cancel my wedding with Lisa

Now that I know about CST ownership of the rights

I tell you my friend they would shut the F up

Reminds me of this SO day along with Kay Coneley PPROWUS

A basket ball game I was in the free team and started against CCINT guys and how they jump man

The MF got me in the face and I instantly checked the group reactivity to be silent on the spot

I was bleeding on the face

PTS of theyr bloody control freak summer camp

But back in 94 in Ron's Life Exhibit EXLRHPPROEU dear Lena was there when I stopped on Hollywood Bld with my red convertible japonese rented car to a Manor Hotel Staff.

And with my Jettero cap on.

Sorry for disturbing your thread.

I eat meals on my plate that just follow the PT inspiring line up.

ALL2U2

 

[Zinjifar]

Projection

Look closely at Scientology and you will see that the more the cult
abuses its members- the more those same people get angry at the
outside world.

This reaches comic heights on the Alt Religion Scientology newsgroup.

There is one poster who claims that critics have a plan to lobotomise
the entire world!

This would be done via a co-audit process. Every person in the world
would twin up with a partner. One would lobotomise the other. The non
lobotomised partner would find a new twin and the process would
continue until the entire world was starving (the lobotomised could
not feed themselves) and there was only one person left. This person
would then lobotomise themselves so that the human race becomes
extinct.

We can only understand such stupidity by seeing it as a projection.
The Scientologist who writes these posts has gone through his own
auditing 'lobotomy' and has even gone hungry to pay for it. Rather
than get angry at the Church he invents a phantom enemy.

This is useful to the Church as it prevents its members going to the
only people who can help it.

Richard Ford on ARS

 

[Zinjifar]

Great Zinj you're really hot on this one.

That's all very true

Just to Stress; these are not mine; I'm just posting them here, since Richard seems to be on a roll and I thin ESMB readers should benefit

And, he's got more, which I'll post later, given the chance. But, copy/paste tires me out.

Zinj

 

[Ted]

I remember my time in Scientology as a time of shame.

This is not shame at anything in particular, but a sort of chronic
shame cloud that hung over me. Never underestimate the power of shame.
It is more powerful than life itself as many people prefer suicide to
continuing to live with it.

How does a Scientologist deal with this vague sense that he is a
criminal?

He turns to Scientology ethics of course!
Scientology ethics presents itself as a way for ethical beings to
release themselves from their past and move forward. This is
attractive to the Scientologist as he knows himself for be decent
(most Scientoloists give far more than they should to other people)
and yet he feels trapped by guilt and unworthiness.

The Scientologist may accuse himself of crimes that never took place.
These may be incidents in his life where he behaves as a human being
and not a robot. One of the things human beings do is share news about
other human beings (gossip). This is usually not malicious and most
people do it (even men). This adds to the guilt the Scientologist
carries as well as socially isolating them.

The Scientologist may become super obedient to ethics terminals.
Sooner or later he will have to turn down a request for cash or refuse
to give his time for free. At this point Scientology will return all
his old guilt to him with a hefty interest rate on top.

Scientology Ethics claims to be about relieving guilt but it is the
opposite. Going to an Ethics Officer to clear up an ethical problem is
rather like going to an illegal money lender to clear up a money
problem. The relief is short lived and must be re payed many times
over.

The aim of Scientology (like the illegal moneylender) is to place the
victim in a permanent state of dependency. It also sends a subtle
message to the subconscious that one is not innately OK. Why should
humanity need such constant correction if they were innately good as
LRH claims?

Scientology Ethics sends a double message to the victim.

OVERT MESSAGE: Man is innately good.

COVERT MESSAGE: But you need to be watched very closely, mate!

This leads the victim to feel they can never quite make the grade as
an Ethical being. Toxic shame.

Richard Ford on ARS

Nicely stated. Over all, a very good post.

 

[GreyWolf]

Shame and Sexual Starvation read for me.

 

[Gus]

Wow, that "markrathbunisasquirrel" website mentioned in one of these posts is a real hoot! Complete with quotes from confessionals.

They really have no idea how ridiculous it looks. Liar Liar Pants On Fire, huh?

Gus