TheOriginalBigBlue
Gold Meritorious Patron
Three weeks ago I didn't know what Anonymous was, I had never even viewed an official Scientology web page and I didn't know there were Ex-Scientology forums or groups. I still have not seen the HBO documentary and I hadn't seen any of the others. I left all of this behind long ago but I was there none the less. This must be very difficult for non-Scientologists to understand - why someone would join the Sea Org knowing what we know? In my own little way maybe I can help.
I held a number of posts in a number of locations but for a brief moment I was probably the Sea Org's worst Recruiter. In that post I never recruited a single soul. I had gotten quite a few people into Scientology and I had recruited people before but not as a job. As a Recruiter, I simply was unable to convince another person to give up their life for the Sea Org. I was like an old soldier whose hand went inexplicably limp and couldn't hold the sword any longer. It was the moment my bough broke. I didn't realize it at the time but apparently this was a point I could not go beyond and it was a fracture in my faith that continued to grow.
That was long ago and I didn't think something like that could happen again. The way I left it, Scientology was a philosophy with many helpful truisms and the organizations of the Church were a related but separate issue. The power struggle after LRH died was not completely unexpected. If staff endured hardship and injustice it was because they had elected to stay. Even the Lisa McPherson matter was inconclusive. I did not know who Karen de la Carriere was three weeks ago when I first saw her in a video. However, I did remember Karen Jentzsch from those days in the Big Blue but I didn't know she had a son and I didn't know the circumstances of Alexander's death or how Karen was treated. But there is something about Karen's story that hit a nerve. From my own experience I find her profoundly believable and now once again, I am discovering that the bough has further to break. This idea that the teachings of Scientology and the Church are somehow insulated from each other needs to be explored and challenged.
Lets imagine someone who has never read a book, taken a course or has any knowledge of Scientology asks to join the Sea Org. If they expressly wanted to join in order to have themselves and make other staff work 80 hour weeks, for $10.00, in crowded berthing, with few vacations, prohibited from using cell phones, TV and the internet, and they wanted to be on the RPF or send others there and to impose disconnection policies with family members - that person would probably be told they didn't qualify. They may even be quietly escorted to the nearest exit and placed on security's watch list.
The problem would be a lack of conviction that all of these things should be done to further the goals of Scientology. Without the pretext of an altruistic purpose, reasonable people, even in the Sea Org, would probably view this kind of treatment as inhumane. The perfect recruit is someone who goes through an orientation phase and only then is willing to make the compromises of conscience. And this is where we get to the crux of the matter. In your own home or office where you have control, the books and teachings of Scientology are just another harmless philosophy. We take what we want and discard the rest. However, in the Church, the laws ensconced in the Policy Letters and the Technology in the Bulletins compose two great gears of a machine that dissembles the common sense of the outside world into their basic elements and reconstitutes them in a way where everything consolidates the ultimate authority over reason in the person of LRH. The ability or belief that the thoughts and faith of staff can be monitored on the e-meter makes this possible. If you stray - it will be discovered.
But LRH died. Even if we assume for the sake of discussion that he was a benevolent dictator, the system was still designed for one person without any effective democratic recourse. There is no Scientology parliament or Magna Carta or College of Cardinals. Humanity knows such systems inevitably fall under control by people with the strongest conviction to win. The most trusted Lieutenant.
The Perfect Recruit.
I held a number of posts in a number of locations but for a brief moment I was probably the Sea Org's worst Recruiter. In that post I never recruited a single soul. I had gotten quite a few people into Scientology and I had recruited people before but not as a job. As a Recruiter, I simply was unable to convince another person to give up their life for the Sea Org. I was like an old soldier whose hand went inexplicably limp and couldn't hold the sword any longer. It was the moment my bough broke. I didn't realize it at the time but apparently this was a point I could not go beyond and it was a fracture in my faith that continued to grow.
That was long ago and I didn't think something like that could happen again. The way I left it, Scientology was a philosophy with many helpful truisms and the organizations of the Church were a related but separate issue. The power struggle after LRH died was not completely unexpected. If staff endured hardship and injustice it was because they had elected to stay. Even the Lisa McPherson matter was inconclusive. I did not know who Karen de la Carriere was three weeks ago when I first saw her in a video. However, I did remember Karen Jentzsch from those days in the Big Blue but I didn't know she had a son and I didn't know the circumstances of Alexander's death or how Karen was treated. But there is something about Karen's story that hit a nerve. From my own experience I find her profoundly believable and now once again, I am discovering that the bough has further to break. This idea that the teachings of Scientology and the Church are somehow insulated from each other needs to be explored and challenged.
Lets imagine someone who has never read a book, taken a course or has any knowledge of Scientology asks to join the Sea Org. If they expressly wanted to join in order to have themselves and make other staff work 80 hour weeks, for $10.00, in crowded berthing, with few vacations, prohibited from using cell phones, TV and the internet, and they wanted to be on the RPF or send others there and to impose disconnection policies with family members - that person would probably be told they didn't qualify. They may even be quietly escorted to the nearest exit and placed on security's watch list.
The problem would be a lack of conviction that all of these things should be done to further the goals of Scientology. Without the pretext of an altruistic purpose, reasonable people, even in the Sea Org, would probably view this kind of treatment as inhumane. The perfect recruit is someone who goes through an orientation phase and only then is willing to make the compromises of conscience. And this is where we get to the crux of the matter. In your own home or office where you have control, the books and teachings of Scientology are just another harmless philosophy. We take what we want and discard the rest. However, in the Church, the laws ensconced in the Policy Letters and the Technology in the Bulletins compose two great gears of a machine that dissembles the common sense of the outside world into their basic elements and reconstitutes them in a way where everything consolidates the ultimate authority over reason in the person of LRH. The ability or belief that the thoughts and faith of staff can be monitored on the e-meter makes this possible. If you stray - it will be discovered.
But LRH died. Even if we assume for the sake of discussion that he was a benevolent dictator, the system was still designed for one person without any effective democratic recourse. There is no Scientology parliament or Magna Carta or College of Cardinals. Humanity knows such systems inevitably fall under control by people with the strongest conviction to win. The most trusted Lieutenant.
The Perfect Recruit.
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