A sense of humor.

Scientologists tend to lose their sense of humor and then regain it as they leave the cult. In fact a sense of humor and closed thinking are rarely found together.

Humor, of course comes in various forms and serves different purposes. Hitler, and Stalin were capable of their own brands of humorless humor that were expressions of pathological hostility. Even LRH had his own cruel humor but outlawed it in other people. (Mussolini, on the other hand could be wonderfully sarcastic.)

True humor requires a degree of self knowledge and a willingness to deflate the ego and see through our own heroic self image. This is quite hard to combine with cultishness or mental ill health.

Mentally ill individuals and cult members also rarely read novels. This may be because most mental illness impairs the ability of the patient to empathise or understand other people. Scientology does much the same by limiting human nature to a series of mechanical rules and scales- and thus limiting the humanity of the other person.

I recognise that there are exceptions to these rules- but I see humor and empathy as being essential to recovery.

The Squid of Scientology

When a squid feels threatened it will release ink to confuse the predator as it flies backward with a jet propelled water-fart.

This is very similar to the behaviour of the average scientologist when confronted with their own natural enemies- logic and the demand for evidence.

The only difference is that the 'water-fart' is verbal and the ink is linguistic smog.

The scientologist will seek to confuse every issue by confusing the meaning of words. The scientologist will often claim not to know the meaning of a particular word or they will play games with grammar. This is nothing but a smokescreen designed to divert attention from the fact that they have no arguments of their own.

There is also a more sinister game that they play with their own minds while doing this. Scientology overcomes the logical objections of the new recruit by breaking sentences into individual words and thus breaking down the critical thinking abilities of the target.

I will give you an example.

Target: 'I am not so sure about concept X'

Recruiter: 'Well, do you understand word A? Word B? Word C?'


This has the effect of deflecting the attention of the target from the real issue (does the concept make sense) on to the secondary distraction of word clearing. The target is therefore not given the opportunity to examine anything critically.

The scientologist runs this procedure on himself when 'acting the squid'. The scientologist is distracted from any doubts he or she may have by the process of focusing upon words. This is a deadly and self destructive form of mind control- more dangerious to the scientologist than the intended victim.

The Gay Nuremberg Aesthetic

Scientology (like all totalitarian systems) has developed its own aesthetic. I call the Gay Nuremberg (after the location of the famous Nazi rallies).

It fits, does it not?

The declining mental health of Scientology

The most striking thing about the testimony of long time former Scientologists such as Tory Magoo is that Scientology was once fun. It was also rather cool. Can anyone think of a single cool Scientologist right now?

One way of testing this is to google two documentaries, both from the UK.

'The shrinking world of L Ron Hubbard'

and

'Scientology and me'.


The most noticeable difference between the two films is that in the 1960's the cult could produce intelligent and plausible spokespeople and now they have to rely upon Tommy Davis.

We might argue that that Tommy is an individual idiot- but why is it not possible to replace him?

One reason may be that the Tommys of the world simply drive talent away. Can you imagine a truly talented individual working under him for any length of time? I cannot. The only people willing to work under such conditions would be broken men and women who cannot maintain the mask of sanity for as long as it takes to film an interview.

Tommy may talk about making people more able but he shows himself to be a mental cripple and a bully. This is the true product of Scientology.

Dear Tommy Davis

You have given so much to the Church.

Your life should have been a golden one. You had money, looks and health on your side. You could have traveled the world and done things that most people only dream of.

Yet you chose to give this up. Has this worked you you?

I have no doubt that you have a certain authority within the organization- but respect? Probably not. How does CoB talk to you really, Tommy?

He thinks you are weak, Tommy. He has contempt for everyone below him.

You see, respect is something people only find once they have left. True. It has to be earned- but telling the truth about the Church would earn you a bucketful.

If there is any other OSA member reading this the same applies. You deserve some respect, and you deserve some money. You have worked so long for so little.

Leave the Church. Write your book while there is still a market for it. Unburden yourself. But... do it quickly.

Recovery

I am neither a shrink not a great expert in Scientology (I was not a member for very long). Nevertheless I have been able to watch the behaviour of recovering Scientologists much longer. Some people recover quite quickly while others take many years or never manage to do so at all.

Scientology works on many levels and generally takes between eight and eleven years to recover from completely, depending upon how deeply a person was programmed in the first place.

This is a list of critical success factors for recovering Scientologists.

1) CUT YOUR LOSSES.

The number one reason people become financially ruined in finance or business is that they run their losses hoping that things will improve. This is also the reason people remain in unhappy relationships. They have invested and suffered so much already that they can no longer rn away from their investment. We sometimes hear the absurd statement 'winners never quit' but this is not true. Look around you and you will see that successful people always cut their losses.

Humans do not like to admit they were wrong or to say goodbye to a cherished illusion. This is why so many people settle for second best in their lives- they cannot walk away.

Scientology is a little like gambling in that the next level always has all the answers. The compulsive gambler thinks he can get his money back by doubling his bet each time.

In order to recover from Scientology you need to walk away from it completely. No Freezone, No dabbling on the side.

2) TREAT IT AS AN ADDICTION.

Alcoholics and drug addicts need to be aware of the triggers for their addiction. This may be a particular environment or almost anything. These things will catapult the addict into a particular way of thinking and feeling and trigger the addictive behaviour.

Scientology is much the same except that many of the triggers were deliberately installed while in a hypnotic state. The two most powerful sets of triggers within Scientology are probably-

a) Scientology symbolism and graphics.

Scientology (like most totalitarian systems) has developed its own aesthetic. It is possible to look at a building, a painting or a poster and realise instantly that it comes from Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Soviet Union. This is because these regimes realised that architecture, paintings and posters all create an emotional response in the viewer. They are all 'triggers' for a particular way of thinking just as going to Church is a trigger for faith.

Totalitarian leaderships recognise this instinctively which is why they devote huge energies to architectural white elephants. This partially explains the Scientology obsession with 'ideal orgs'.

This patten has existed since the dawn of civilization. Dictatorships are always the greatest monument builders. Think of ancient Egypt and the pyramids. These buildings were of no public value and would never have been built except to honor a dictator.


b) The use of language.

Scientology words are actually Scientology concepts in disguise. It seeks to destroy independent thought by destroying words. This process was described perfectly in George Orwell's masterpiece 1984 where the Party reduced the number of permissible words each year through the 'Newspeak Dictionary'.

Scientology also reduces the number of words that may be used.

In English we have three words.

'Understand'

'Agree'

'Obey'


This is the language of free will. I can understand something (but disagree) or I an understand something and agree with it (and even then not wish to obey you).

Scientology (just like New Speak) seeks to remove this choice by replacing it with a single work 'duplicate'.

The Party also introduced the word 'Orthodox' as an all purpose compliment that was used in exactly the same way as 'Standard' in Scientology.

3) CHANGE YOUR ENVIRONMENT.

Get interested in life. Make new friends.

Recovering Scientologists are prone to obsessive behaviours- often spending an entire day having the same arguments with the same people over the Internet. They can do this for years and often have no time for a job or any sort of social life. They need to get out and see the sun.

4) BEWARE THE PARANOID UNIVERSE.

Recovering Scientologists are inclined to create a paranoid universe for themselves. This occurs for the following reasons.

a) The Recovering Scientologist needs to justify having been sucked in to the con. It is easier to justify being sucked into a vast evil conspiracy than the puerile little con Scientology really is. This causes the Recovering Scientologist to believe OSA is on his tail and that prominent critics are actually double agents.

b) The Recovering Scientologist may carry forward elements of Scientology paranoia into outside life.

c) The Recovering Scientologist may miss the drama that paranoia provides. The paranoid individual is always important because the conspiracies are always about him. Leaving Scientology therefore involves a loss of importance because one is no longer the centre of a paranoid world.

Tommy Davis.... serial fall guy.

I have a conspiracy theory about Tommy Davis (aka Footbullet guy) who alternates between being Scientology spokes clam and RPF resident.

He rose to fame on the BBC Panorama programme where he presented himself as a bullying jerk- but who was the senior officer on that op? None other than Mike Rinder who then blew. Mike was even standing next to him in one scene but did nothing to calm him down.

He was sent to the RPF for this and emerged a physical and mental wreck. Fortunately his skills as a fall guy were recognized by 'Slappy' who placed him on TV to humiliate himself and Scientology again and again.

'Slappy' was isolated from the fallout. This is what fall guys are for.