How do people get sucked into Scientology?

[Zkribbler]

Re: Re: How do people get sucked into Scientology?

Originally posted by Odin


For the same reason people get sucked into Astrology ...

[Zkribbler thinks Odin must have been born on a cusp or have a very powerful rising sign to so summarily reject the undeniable wisdom of the stars....]

[Verto]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How do people get sucked into Scientology?

Originally posted by lord of the mark


In my experience carpenters dont make up stories featuring space aliens for a living.

How do you know he did not have some divine calling, some predestined role in writing "science fiction", or whatever mumbojumbo Scientologists like to spout off?

[lord of the mark]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How do people get sucked into Scientology?

Originally posted by Verto


How do you know he did not have some divine calling, some predestined role in writing "science fiction", or whatever mumbojumbo Scientologists like to spout off?

I dont know 100% for sure. But it sure seems more likely that when a guy who makes a living writing scifi and selling it, then writes what looks like more scifi and finds a way to make more money doing it, a lot more suspicious than when a guy who makes a living sawing wood, takes an old religion and adds his own twists to it, makes no money as a result. Im not a believer in the carpenter, or in the merchant from Mecca, or the prince from India, or the farmer (?) from upstate New York, but none of them seem to me in the same category as the scifi writer. Who could have been put on earth precisely to give ammo to atheists. But then i guess thats just me.

[Elok]

Wow. For once I get to be the one offering an informed opinion while most of the others spout asinine speculation...

First of all, while the Xenu story is CoS doctrine, the vast majority of Scientologists don't know it. That story is told to you once you reach Operating Thetan III, after giving $100K or more to the scam. It takes years to get that far. By the time you hear that story, you've been thoroughly indoctrinated. If anyone from the outside world slips the story to you, you're likely to be told that it's just "wog entheta" put there by "suppressive persons." And they've been taught that it's very dangerous to learn information before you're ready for it. Supposedly, we should all have caught pneumonia and died from hearing the Xenu story unprepared. Preclears just getting started in the CoS just get fed some bland pap about addressing man as a spiritual being and blahblahblah.

Which brings me to my second point--Scientology completely isolates its members. You're not to speak with outsiders without elaborate training to "handle" them with, and within the organization there's an overly complex specialized vocabulary used in everyday interactions. All of this is introduced gradually. Bear in mind that the more time and money you sink into a lie, the more reluctant you are to admit you've been had. Also, auditing supplies them with blackmail material; judging by the stories told by defecting OTs, the more advanced members are kept in line through thinly-veiled threats of punishment or ostracism. They have what's called a Rehabilitation Project Force, where "ethics violations" are treated by sentencing offenders to back-breaking menial labor.

Finally, the cult employs several fairly blatant forms of hypnosis. The procedures they run you through when you first join are long, repetitive, and designed to wear a sort of path in your brain that accustoms you to rote obedience. They also have very well-developed methods for handling doubts and questions. For example, they can make an inquirer double back endlessly trying to define his own doubts in greater detail until he gives up and claims to understand just to stop the barrage of questions. Also, the way they treat their followers tends to encourage regression to infantile behavior.

There's a lot more to tell, but Pekka, go to www.xenu.net and read the testimonials from ex-members. That should clear some things up.

[hexagonian]

for some people, just put the word science in your name...

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Read this thread, kids. Read this thread.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=50933

Apolyton regular gets harassed by Scientologists.

[red_jon]

Elok - thanks, that's really interesting...

Scientology sounds like a lot of fun

[DinoDoc]

What ever happened with the article he was working on?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

He dropped it. The harassment got to him and he decided it wasn't worth the effort.