Sooth from a closed thread.

[Student of Trinity]

This 'true for you' business is one of my favorite examples of Scientology being slippery. Depending on exactly how you use the expression, "What's true is what's true for you" could mean merely that you have to check things out for yourself, and not just accept someone else's dogma. Nobody's going to argue with that. On the other hand it could mean that you're infallible, because whatever seems true to you must be true. That's obviously stupid.

In Scientology you get to slide back and forth between these meanings. When you want to ignore evidence or criticism, you can slide over to the infallibility side and calmly insist that your beliefs are true for you. When you want to feel like a rational being instead of a blinkered bigot, you can slip back to the empirical side, and proclaim that Scientology has no dogma. You can have your cake and eat it too. That's a pretty slick trick.

 

[TG1]

As to whether "it's true for you" is just a Scientology way of thinking or not -- whether people use that exact phrase or not -- how about these examples, taken directly from my own circles and recent experience:

1. "That's not what God's word says!"
By which she means what she understands from her reading of the Bible, by which she specifically means her chosen ("only correct") version of the Bible or the Koran or the Old Testament or the New Testament or whatever the preacher at her Church of What's Happening Now last Sunday said or that her Sunday School lesson pamphlet said or that God specifically interpreted for her this morning when she was talking to him during daily prayers, because, you know, God visits her personally every morning between 6:45 and 7:00 am, right after she poops, because that's when she does her daily devotional, or what she and her girlfriend (both hopped up on caffeine) decided at the coffee shop last week that God really meant when he, personally, wrote that Word of God.

2. "That's not true -- that's just what the mainstream media want you to believe!"
By which he means anything written by reputable journalists, by which he means anyone who is an intellectual or a member of the elite, by which he means anyone who graduated from college, much less studied journalism and got a degree in it, or is employed by any actual journalistic enterprise, and anyone who actually spends scores of hours investigating the topic written about, interviewing sources, confirming information that gets reported, and is good enough at doing this that someone will actually pay them for doing it -- instead of just calling in on a talk radio program to suck up to someone who also isn't a reputable journalist who gets paid to rant about how wrong everybody is but him and his fanboys, and they're not right all that often either.

3. "It doesn't matter what happened -- what matters most is how we feel about it."
By which he or she means they aren't willing to accept responsibility for what ACTUALLY happened or what they CAUSED or HELPED CAUSE in this situation or relationship, by which they mean now that they've been outed as having done something wrong or hurtful or just being an asshole they want to change the subject to how they FEEL about it, hoping you will get so confused by this schtick that you never force them to take any responsibility for their being a complete asshole.

Shall I go on?

 

[Auditor's Toad]

Reuben Hart could have been an asset to ESMB had he been given the time to learn the ropes, and to see when he was being goaded. Unfortunately, he didn't last here long enuff . His button on Religion got pushed beyond his tolerance. We all know how hard it is to allow ppl with little or no knowlege in a subject to engage us in a "debate" about it. Reuben fell, and we lost a potentially excellent poster.


challenge

I sort of thought his brother who had disconnected from him years ago jumping right in with no apology or anything tended to not make Reuben real happy - if you know what I mean.

 

[TG1]

Sheez, Toad. Now, you're stalking Lakey and exporting your miff from another thread over here.

Take it outside. You're shitting up the place.

TG1

 

[RogerB]

I sort of thought his brother who had disconnected from him years ago jumping right in with no apology or anything tended to not make Reuben real happy - if you know what I mean.

Nah . . . Rueben came on with lots of behind the scenes lies and trouble-making in addition to being very destructive with his posts, even on the thread he created that he introduced himself with.

Reuben actually worked the PM system to stir things . . . that is, engaging in traffic not visible on the board. He was on my PM line for a while and also FoTi's . . . you'll see her response to him along with mine on the thread he started.

Lakey actually stayed off his lines and made the point of not responding to Reuben's lies and insults.

In actuality, Lakey could have utterly destroyed Reuben by exposing his lies as posted here.

R

 

[Mark A. Baker]

Nah . . . Rueben came on with lots of behind the scenes lies and trouble-making in addition to being very destructive with his posts, even on the thread he created that he introduced himself with.

Reuben actually worked the PM system to stir things . . . that is, engaging in traffic not visible on the board. He was on my PM line for a while and also FoTi's . . . you'll see her response to him along with mine on the thread he started.

Lakey actually stayed off his lines and made the point of not responding to Reuben's lies and insults.

In actuality, Lakey could have utterly destroyed Reuben by exposing his lies as posted here.

R

I can readily believe this. Before I had ever read a single post from Reuben, I received a rather confused & confusing note from him about his brother. This despite the fact that I've never met or had any sort of relationship with Reuben.


Mark A. Baker

 

[I told you I was trouble]

Reuben was alright ... but he was broken hearted and angry and voiced (posted) what he felt, as he was feeling it ... and that is just not done ... especially with scientologists (unless in session and paying for the privilege)!



He's gone from here now, please don't knock him when he is unable to respond.

I liked Reuben and I like Lakey too, and none of us are perfect.

​

 

[Claire Swazey]

I'd missed that little gem-that it's hard to allow ppl with little or no knowledge about a subject to engage us in debate. That makes no sense. We select the posts and the contributors to which/whom we reply. And we decide how to feel.
There are lots of people who never were in Scn who come here, or were not as heavily involved.

It seems to be an effort to blame.