justaguy
Patron Meritorious
I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, and I wanted to get some outside opinions.
I was reading someone's story the other day, and they were talking about when they had just gotten out, and even though they were sure they weren't going back they'd get these nagging feelings of doubt about their eternity and not clearing the world and stuff. And obviously it was written much better than that, because, for a second there, knowing everything I know about the cult, I felt like running off and joining up.And I thought, “what insanity is this? You wanna run off and get abused?”
I’ve been trying to answer the question ever since and here’s what I’ve got. Bear with me, because I’m going to go off on what seem like tangents but they’re not. Mostly.
You see, a lot of people talk about how you’re not allowed to think for yourself in the cult. While this is true, it’s not how I look at it. To think for one’s self would be counterproductive in the setting, and I’m not sure that the cult could handle any thinking people inside.
Now, life is complicated and life is messy. But the cult is not, not in that way. Answers to questions like “what should I be doing?” and “how can I be happy?” and “why is there suffering in this world?” and “what can I do about it and where do I stop worrying about other people and take care of myself?”, and “are we in The Matrix?” are not easy or simple. (Not everyone asks all these questions, but I do and this is my storyessay so there .) Most people end up finding their own answers to these questions, what works for them. That’s what I’ve done. But, at least in my case, they can still float in the back of my mind and bother me every once in a while.
I’m sure everyone here has tried to help someone once and ended up making the situation worse. I’m sure everyone here has done really stupid shit because they thought it was the best thing to do and then later seen it turn out horrible. It happens to everyone.
So, back to why that urge hit me.
Scientology (the church, that is) does not see it my way. The answers to any question you could possibly have are there. You’ll never do stupid shit again. You’ll never hurt anyone again, and you’ll be happy forever. You’re free from having to make the hard choices because we have the Truth and the Bridge and if you do what we say you don’t have to worry. LRH discovered the answers to everything. If you do what we say, not only will be happier, but you will make this world a paradise.
I think what I’m trying to say is that the message inside the CoS isn’t just “don’t think”. It’s “you don’t have to think”.
And for a second there, I wanted to abandon myself to that. I desparately wanted to believe that LRH had the answers, that the cult had the answers, and that whatever went on inside the cult it was okay because he knew and if I did what he (and, by extension, those who are higher up in the group) said everything would turn out alright.
This, for me, was the draw of Scientology. And I’m hypothesizing it’s a big part of it for other people too. And that’s why I don’t think the CoS could ever stop being a cult. Because to ask people to think for themselves, to not unquestioningly follow orders, to not give their money and to maybe say they don’t like one of LRH’s books would mean that LRH hadn’t figured it all out and that, by extension, the business he left behind doesn’t have the easy answers.
I think it’s why LRH can’t just be someone with good ideas in the eyes of the Church. He has to be flawless. He can’t have ever made a big mistake. When faced with a hard choice, he had to pick right every single time.
If LRH was fallible, if he could make mistakes, then that means you can’t use his ideas to think for you. You have to think for yourself. The hard questions, in fact, don’t have easy answers.
And that’s why the CoS can never, ever make a mistake. Because if it does, then it messed up. But it can’t mess up. It has the easy answers to life’s most difficult questions. It has the tech. The tech is perfect, because LRH is perfect.
So, then, obviously, anyone who thinks that LRH messed up, that the church has done something wrong, that there’s a whiff of anything in the entire worldwide organization that might not be going right, is obviously an SP. They have to disconnect because otherwise the fact the scientology isn't perfect gets out.
If scientology is ever wrong, then you have no reason to give them your money now, do you? And DM wants your money. He wants it bad. So scientology isn’t wrong. Never.
So, yeah. This is my answer to my insanity. I wanted life to be easy. I wanted to always know what I should do next.
But that’s not possible. You can’t always know for sure what you should do next. Sometimes you have to make a choice and live with the consequences (which can be great, by the way. Not here to imply that the choice is between bad and worse). There is no silver bullet for life.
The CoS disagrees. It says that it's perfect and that if you give it enough money you will be too. And that's why it sucks. No one's perfect. :wink2:
--justaguy
P.S. After having written this, I see an easy question: “but don’t other religions claim the same thing?”. The short answer: they don’t, not the way the cult does. The long answer: this post is too long already. I’ll post the long answer another time
I was reading someone's story the other day, and they were talking about when they had just gotten out, and even though they were sure they weren't going back they'd get these nagging feelings of doubt about their eternity and not clearing the world and stuff. And obviously it was written much better than that, because, for a second there, knowing everything I know about the cult, I felt like running off and joining up.And I thought, “what insanity is this? You wanna run off and get abused?”
I’ve been trying to answer the question ever since and here’s what I’ve got. Bear with me, because I’m going to go off on what seem like tangents but they’re not. Mostly.
You see, a lot of people talk about how you’re not allowed to think for yourself in the cult. While this is true, it’s not how I look at it. To think for one’s self would be counterproductive in the setting, and I’m not sure that the cult could handle any thinking people inside.
Now, life is complicated and life is messy. But the cult is not, not in that way. Answers to questions like “what should I be doing?” and “how can I be happy?” and “why is there suffering in this world?” and “what can I do about it and where do I stop worrying about other people and take care of myself?”, and “are we in The Matrix?” are not easy or simple. (Not everyone asks all these questions, but I do and this is my storyessay so there .) Most people end up finding their own answers to these questions, what works for them. That’s what I’ve done. But, at least in my case, they can still float in the back of my mind and bother me every once in a while.
I’m sure everyone here has tried to help someone once and ended up making the situation worse. I’m sure everyone here has done really stupid shit because they thought it was the best thing to do and then later seen it turn out horrible. It happens to everyone.
So, back to why that urge hit me.
Scientology (the church, that is) does not see it my way. The answers to any question you could possibly have are there. You’ll never do stupid shit again. You’ll never hurt anyone again, and you’ll be happy forever. You’re free from having to make the hard choices because we have the Truth and the Bridge and if you do what we say you don’t have to worry. LRH discovered the answers to everything. If you do what we say, not only will be happier, but you will make this world a paradise.
I think what I’m trying to say is that the message inside the CoS isn’t just “don’t think”. It’s “you don’t have to think”.
And for a second there, I wanted to abandon myself to that. I desparately wanted to believe that LRH had the answers, that the cult had the answers, and that whatever went on inside the cult it was okay because he knew and if I did what he (and, by extension, those who are higher up in the group) said everything would turn out alright.
This, for me, was the draw of Scientology. And I’m hypothesizing it’s a big part of it for other people too. And that’s why I don’t think the CoS could ever stop being a cult. Because to ask people to think for themselves, to not unquestioningly follow orders, to not give their money and to maybe say they don’t like one of LRH’s books would mean that LRH hadn’t figured it all out and that, by extension, the business he left behind doesn’t have the easy answers.
I think it’s why LRH can’t just be someone with good ideas in the eyes of the Church. He has to be flawless. He can’t have ever made a big mistake. When faced with a hard choice, he had to pick right every single time.
If LRH was fallible, if he could make mistakes, then that means you can’t use his ideas to think for you. You have to think for yourself. The hard questions, in fact, don’t have easy answers.
And that’s why the CoS can never, ever make a mistake. Because if it does, then it messed up. But it can’t mess up. It has the easy answers to life’s most difficult questions. It has the tech. The tech is perfect, because LRH is perfect.
So, then, obviously, anyone who thinks that LRH messed up, that the church has done something wrong, that there’s a whiff of anything in the entire worldwide organization that might not be going right, is obviously an SP. They have to disconnect because otherwise the fact the scientology isn't perfect gets out.
If scientology is ever wrong, then you have no reason to give them your money now, do you? And DM wants your money. He wants it bad. So scientology isn’t wrong. Never.
So, yeah. This is my answer to my insanity. I wanted life to be easy. I wanted to always know what I should do next.
But that’s not possible. You can’t always know for sure what you should do next. Sometimes you have to make a choice and live with the consequences (which can be great, by the way. Not here to imply that the choice is between bad and worse). There is no silver bullet for life.
The CoS disagrees. It says that it's perfect and that if you give it enough money you will be too. And that's why it sucks. No one's perfect. :wink2:
--justaguy
P.S. After having written this, I see an easy question: “but don’t other religions claim the same thing?”. The short answer: they don’t, not the way the cult does. The long answer: this post is too long already. I’ll post the long answer another time