Gadfly
Crusader
And Why would "Ron" say to Hana Eltringham (Now Whitfield) who was Deputy Commodore at the time:
"It's all just hypnosis"
While walking through a passageway?
As I see it, Hubbard DOES state things as they are, very often, but unknown to the suckers who follow him and his system, he OFTEN USES THOSE AGAINST THE PERSON TO MANIPULATE AND TRAP THEM.
As an example, and there are MANY, Hubbard correctly and very well discusses "fixed ideas". He explains how they are bad, how they interfere with learning, and how a person with them believes that he or she already knows it all. Hubbard well explains that it is good to spot and get rid of "fixed ideas". But then, Hubbard slyly and adeptly gets his followers to accept and adopt a whole new set of fixed ideas!
I think sometimes Hubbard just slipped, and really said what he thought, without any concern for the big manipulation aspect. When he said, "it's all just hypnosis" to Hana, he may have let his guard down (which he rarely did), and he was stating the truth as he viewed it. But, maybe not.
Now, there ARE various angles to that statement.
First, from a viewpoint of Hinduism and "maya", it is ALL an "illusion", and in a certain sense, we are each hypnotised by the "fixed reality", and especially by our OWN thoughts and considerations. From that view, it IS "all hypnosis".
Second, modern visualization and affirmation techniques, that actually derive from eastern practices and ideas, are simply, a form of intentional self-hypnosis. The acceptance of ANY set of considerations and agreements results in the perception and experience of a specific "version" of "reality". Many New Age practices are based on THAT idea (even if they don't know it or state it in exactly those terms).
So, again Hubbard stated something that DOES contain "truth", but in the end, he used it AGAINST YOU, and he did not convey the data in a way that empowered you. As I see it, he knew exactly what he was doing - and it was NOT so much to help you (other than as a pretense) as it was to "help Ron".
I first read about fixed ideas through my involvement with Scientology. I liked the data, but didn't know WHERE Hubbard had borrowed the idea from. Hubbard packaged a large assortment of different and unrelated ideas as "Scientology". At first I thought that I liked "Scientology", because I appreciated the data on "fixed ideas". It wasn't "Scientology" that I liked, but this ONE isolated idea, an idea that Hubbard INCORRECTLY LABELED AS BEING "Scientology". The notion of Scientology as an "integrated body of knowledge" is a PR gimmick. "Scientology" is largely a "mock-up" that Hubbard foisted on the world. And, it exists for any person to the degree that you think that it does.
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