Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Lure of Scientology

As a child who was raised in Scientology, I myself was not lured in through usual tactics. Scientology was basically all I knew. My parents were victims of these tactics and I was privy to many of the common ones that are used.

Scientology was designed by L. Ron Hubbard to infiltrate and dictate every aspect of a person's life. As you can imagine, if you were to present any problem  you were having in your life to a Scientologist, they can open a book and show you what Hubbard said to do about that particular problem.

On the outside Scientology seems to have all the answers. For example, when you are stressed at work, Scientology tells you to "take a walk". When you are having trouble with a business Scientology gives you a series of steps to follow that is supposed to correct the area in which you are having trouble. This aspect of Scientology really is just glorified common sense.


At the same time, Scientology claims to have the answers to save society from it's current "downward spiral". Now whether or not society is in a downward spiral, or if Hubbard and Scientology manufactured that claim to gain members is not something that we will get into here today. However, Scientology really does have a knack for making it seem like things are worse than they really are.

The stated aims of Scientology are:

A civilization without criminals, without insanity and without war,
where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights,
and where man is free to rise to greater heights...

These are yet another lure for unsuspecting people who think that these aims sound good. They might look pretty and the words might sound nice, but let's take a look at a specific part of these aims: "where the able can prosper."

Scientology has long claimed to make, "the able more able." But has anyone stopped to ask them, what about the "unable"? For example, what about a boy who has homosexual tendencies that is not able keep them under control or successfully fake a relationship with a woman? What about the man who spends his entire life savings to go up the "Bridge to Total Freedom" but doesn't make it to the top and is not able to pay for more? What about the wife who's husband disagrees with Scientology but she is not able to divorce him and leave the kids behind to pursue her levels in the church?

These people are inevitably and heartlessly left behind. Scientology has shown over and over again that it has no interest in people without the means to pay for services.

The trap of Scientology is how people get sucked in. First they lure you with all the shiny words and common sense methods of taking on the world. However when you are taken to study Scientology it is a much more surreptitious process of indoctrination. You soon find yourself using Scientology to explain Scientology which creates a logic circle and you become mentally stuck in the endless hellhole of Scientology study.

The part of Scientology that you would not have experienced by this time is what I like to refer to as the "confessional heavy part". Scientology tends to blame the individual for all their problems and give Scientology credit for all their successes. The reason that the individual creates these problems is because they have done something to bring these problems on themselves, i.e. they deserved it somehow. Scientology is very big on "blame the victim" which is the most dangerous part of it. It is much like being in an abusive relationship where you feel the fault is your own for causing the abuser to abuse you.

Once you have confessed your misdeeds Scientology rubs them in your face as if you are some sort of criminal. They drive you to a level of guilt that over the simplest things, such as masturbation, watching pornography or smoking weed. They use humiliation and embarrassment to shame you and then carefully and politely push you right back into the arms of a waiting salesperson so you can pay for something to fix your perceived crimes.

This is an endless cycle of abuse that continues, like an abusive relationship will sometimes, for years and even decades. 

The trap is even worse because unlike your average abuse victim there is no one around to tell you that you are being abused. You find yourself surrounded by only Scientologists. You work with and for Scientologists. You spend so much of your time in the company of other Scientologists and at the church. All of them are in the same abusive relationship as you and so it becomes the norm. You start to think this is the way things should be.

It is a dangerous path to travel, becoming involved in Scientology. It's almost unreal the way they can trap you in a bubble, apart from the rest of the world.

4 comments:

  1. I am sooo glad you're out, Derek, and I hope you are forming a new family of friends who help and support you.. Life is sooo much better out here..

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    1. Thank you Sugar! I have spent the last 8 years prior to being disconnected from my family forming a new one. I have a great bunch of friends that I consider family and the feeling is mutual.

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  2. Thank you for having the guts to share your pain with us all. Pain has it's good points. If there wasn't any then you wouldn't be a genuine good guy. Pain serves as a warning that something isn't right. Your pain can educate & warn others. Thanks for creating this blog, posting in the Underground Bunker & the Rodeo.

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    1. Thank you, Mari, for the kind and supportive words and for taking an interest in my story.

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