Our old friend Terra is back with some food for thought…
Cognitive Dissonance
Everyone who’s ever lived on Earth has experienced cognitive dissonance. Anybody who’s ever been affiliated with a religion has experienced cognitive dissonance in spades. Cult members face this phenomenon on a daily basis.
High Water
Cognitive dissonance was a concept first proposed by Leon Festinger in the 1950’s. He theorized that people needed their beliefs to be consistent and correct with those they encountered throughout their lives. When faced with data that contradicted what they’d been led to believe, they experienced a form of mental disharmony or conflict, or what he termed cognitive dissonance.
Interestingly, Festinger noticed this while observing members of a cult who believed Earth would soon be destroyed by a flood. When the apocryphal deluge didn’t happen, hardcore members tried to prove they’d been right all along by reinterpreting and shaping this “new” reality to fit with their old beliefs.
Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, well aware of the anatomy of cognitive dissonance, created a myriad of policies to handle people encountering this phenomenon within his new church.
How Scientology Combats Cognitive Dissonance
Scientology is rife with doctrine that not only conflicts with societal and cultural norms but flies in the face of common sense. If these breaks with reality were allowed to go unchecked, members would be hard-pressed to continue. And thus, LRH constantly had to invent new rules and systems of study and beliefs to handle people who ran up against all his conflicting and nonsensical theories. Lest everyone leave, he needed to handle their cognitive dissonance.
I’ve jotted down a few of his methods but there are many more.
Ø LRH created “the three barriers to study” for students reading or listening to his work they didn’t understand (when experiencing cognitive dissonance). Drowsiness, headaches, and feelings of wanting to burn Dianetics, the Modern Science of Modern Health never had to do with the incompetence of its author, but with one of the following:
o Misunderstood words (Mu’s)
o Skipped gradients
o Lack of mass
Ø LRH led members to believe that moral transgressions against the group were the only reason why members left. People never gave up because what he wrote didn’t jibe with the rest of the world; they left due to having committed crimes against his church. LRH called these transgressions overts and formulated hundreds of misdemeanors, crimes, and high crimes, which if violated would cause people to leave—or at least drop into a lower condition of existence. Again, people never left due to something he wrote or something a staff member did; individuals left due to crimes against the church.
Ø LRH prohibited members from talking about their “cases” with others. Scientologists aren’t allowed to discuss what went wrong or didn’t make sense in auditing sessions, errors their auditor made, or anything having to do with their state of mind. LRH needed everyone to believe that auditing was workable—if not perfect—and the only reason you weren’t having fabulous wins was because your past was somehow dirtier than everyone else’s.
Ø LRH prohibited members from discussing, interpreting, or modifying anything he wrote. Everything he suggested was considered correct and not open to clarification, explanation, or analysis. Not quoting LRH verbatim is a crime. Keeping Scientology Working was his master essay on obfuscation, and is the first thing students are required to read on every Scientology course.
Ø LRH considered that anyone wanting to try something new was a squirrel and was sitting on a cache of hidden crimes. (LRH wrote that “squirrels howl when Scientology is winning.”)
Ø LRH considered any criticism of himself, staff, or Scientology a form of “natter” (negative chatter). Which he said was a crime, and which meant those nattering had overts and MU’s. Natter was something reserved for Wogs.
Ø Free review sessions are provided to members when their auditing goes bad. Since auditing is considered a fully workable technology, when anything goes astray, it’s assumed the PC failed to reveal something. The fault is never with LRH’s technology or something the auditor got wrong.
Ø If a preclear didn’t attain relief while exploring one incident, it was because the real root of his problem was caused by an earlier/similar incident. These chains of incidents can extend quadrillions of years into the past. This notion that someone can recall every last detail of their past lives has been debunked by every person who’s ever undergone Scientology auditing.
Ø LRH promoted the notion that psychiatry along with a hidden cabal of planetary leaders were out to destroy him, Scientology, and the rest of the world. Anything negative said or written about him or the church was a lie.
Ø LRH carefully crafted his “bridge to spiritual freedom” in a series of levels, so that when a “preclear” didn’t achieve what he thought he was supposed to, he was promised he would attain these wins and gains on the next higher one.
Ø Members are discouraged from reading or watching mainstream media in order to avoid crossing paths with the overwhelming amount of information contradicting what they’ve been led to believe is true.
Ø If all this still weren’t enough, LRH came up with the concept that connection with “suppressive” persons was the cause of all illnesses and accidents.
Armies of OTs and Orgs Bursting at the Seams
Like all religions, Scientology is bursting with examples of cognitive dissonance. LRH guaranteed that people would attain untold powers and become truly whole again by carefully climbing his “bridge to spiritual freedom.” He further assured them that their communities would go “clear” once they returned home after “going OT.” The half dozen OTs in my town haven’t changed anything in over four decades.
LRH promised that by “going clear,” “Arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of illnesses goes away and stays away.” All this, despite Scientologists getting sick and dying at the same rate as everyone else.
He vowed that the state of “clear” would effect changes in people including “complete recall of everything which has ever happened to him or anything he has ever studied.” Not once, in the history of Scientology, has this ever been proved.
Today, leader, David Miscavige, regularly reports that the church is experiencing unprecedented expansion despite dwindling membership and empty “ideal” orgs. He boasts that Scientology has the largest force of volunteer ministers on the planet despite no evidence.
This list goes on and on and on.
It’s all on You, Dude
LRH carefully crafted Scientology so that when members ran into therapy technique and church policy that didn’t make sense—cognitive dissonance—they would blame themselves for any discord they felt. Feelings of doubt, dissension, or disharmony were the result of something they did, some misunderstood word they bypassed, some crime they committed, were withholding, and didn’t want revealed.
LRH knew his tech was flawed and that most of his theories flew in the face of conventional science. And therefore, he kept having to formulate and adjust tech and policy to counter members’ cognitive dissonance. When that didn’t work, he eventually became a crazy recluse—which is another prime example with which Scientologists are forced to contend. If the man was such a powerful thetan—the biggest spiritual being on the planet—why did he go into hiding and eventually die a sick and broken man? How do church members reconcile that? The answer: Just like those cult members who had to bend their minds around a world not destroyed by flood, Scientologists are taught to believe that LRH had to “drop his body” in order to handle the rest of the universe.
Cognitive dissonance makes it extremely difficult to talk reasonably with members of a cult, as they’ve been trained to justify what they’ve been taught with one, crazy, harebrained excuse after another. Everything from prohibiting blood transfusions, to females not showing their faces in public, to believing that millions of years ago, at the behest of an evil galactic overlord, our spiritual selves were frozen and shipped to Earth in spaceships looking like old DC-8s—and oh yeah…dropped into volcanoes.
Last Words
The amount of absurd data that has to be rationalized and defended by the average Scientologist is monumental. And since so much of Scientology therapy and policy is hurtful—not only to members but to their friends and family—the extent of cognitive dissonance is not only pervasive, but inescapable. Throw in heartless actions by church leaders, and it’s amazing anyone sticks around as long as they do. Then again, Scientologists and their supporters are experts at plugging their ears and looking the other way.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
Dissonant relationship: two cognitions or actions inconsistent with each other (e.g. not wanting to become drunk when out, but then drinking more wine)
So is this your way of spamming Mike’s blog? Posting a link advertising your ringtone site with a sort of semi-relevant comment on a two month old article. I can’t believe Mike fell for it. He must be busy battling real enemies. Score one for a spammer.
“free review sessions” Never existed. NOTHING in scientology is EVER “free”, precisely because of that idea that scientology “works”. Maybe it worked as designed, but not as promised. Nowadays, Mustsavage has changed everything sufficiently that the DESIGN has been lost and NOTHING of Yubby’s creation works anymore. That could explain why the organization has been shriveling up like last Fall’s leaves.
OOps!: YUBBY should of course be TUBBY. Fingers fumble faster than the speed of thought.
Terra:
” spaceships looking like old DC-8s—and oh yeah…dropped into volcanoes.”
Yeah, volcanoes that did NOT exist at that time or in those places.
You have proven your case, Scientology is a cult par excellence. But under Cognitive Dissonance you say “Anybody who’s ever been affiliated with a religion has experienced cognitive dissonance in spades”. Why limit it to religion? Why not push the envelope to include any belief system? What is happening today in politics should prove the point that cognitive dissonance is not limited to religion.
Since everyone has a belief system, everyone is liable to cognitive dissonance. And, by the way, atheism is a belief system; therefore, atheists can experience cognitive dissonance too.
I think this post is accurate regarding many aspects of Scientology. I want to and something. Cognitive Dissonance is a theory and in fact a subject into itself. It is one of the most tested and studied aspects of human psychology.
I believe every ex Scientologist and Scientologist can benefit from studying cognitive dissonance theory. The book A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is superb.
I wrote a long series of posts on it and will share a quote and link.
Festinger described how people without preexisting bias on a subject who need to make a decision on that subject seek information. Regarding that subject they seek information of different kinds from different sources and are impartial in what they seek out and willing to take in information of different kinds without concern for either the source or content. They are open to different ideas from different people.
After making a decision some of the information will become consonant in other words in agreement with the behavior chosen and some will become dissonant in other words in disagreement. This will effectively reorganize the information and eventually create bias.
Festinger went on to say:
The presence or absence of dissonance in some particular content area will have important effects on the degree of information seeking and on the selectivity of such information seeking. (Page 126)
Relative absence of dissonance. If little or no dissonance exists, there would be no motivation ( considering this source of motivation alone ) to seek out new and additional information. (Page 127)
The presence of moderate amounts of dissonance. The existence of appreciable dissonance and the consequent pressure to reduce it will lead to the seeking out of information which will introduce consonances and to the avoidance of information which will increase the already existing dissonance. (Page 128)
The presence of extremely large amounts of dissonance. Under such circumstances a person may actively seek out, and expose himself to, dissonance-increasing information. If he can increase the dissonance to the point where it is greater than the resistance to change of one or another cluster of cognitions, he will then change the cognitive elements involved, thus markedly reducing or perhaps even wholly eliminating the dissonance which now is so great. (Page 129)
Festinger here gives us crucial information. If the internal conflict over an idea or behavior is entirely absent a person has no reason to gain information. There are some things a person doesn’t care about. A concept may not have any supporting or opposing content in one’s mind. So you just don’t care.
If you have moderate dissonance, meaning a bit of discouraging information but not too much you avoid disagreeing evidence and seek agreeing evidence. So you might avoid TV shows that disagree with your political views, as an example, and watch ones likely to agree.
For millions of Americans an extreme polarization and self censorship is observable. With as an example Fox news millions of people either agree and only watch Fox news for national political information or strongly disagree and never watch Fox news for national political information.
One could say many of these people have moderate dissonance and seek to reduce it by finding agreement from Fox while avoiding disagreement from others. Now one might say “Why is the dissonance continuing if he only seeks agreement ?”, Well he runs into people who don’t follow his beliefs or other evidence. So he can stay in moderate dissonance for decades if he doesn’t change his routine or get new information of significant influence relevant to the dissonant cognition.
Here is the goldilocks zone of any subject, you care and are not unbiased and open to any information. But you are seeking more proof you are already right and avoiding proof you are wrong. The conditions are just right to keep you close minded and biased towards your beliefs and behaviors. And to keep finding evidence you are right while avoiding evidence you are wrong.
The Scientology cult is built to get a person here subtly, covertly and keep them there.
Now when dissonance is near the absolute limit possible a person changes dramatically. They can seek dissonant information to examine. Why ? Because the way they have been thinking and doing things isn’t comfortable and finding small bits of consonant information doesn’t relieve the dissonance.
From Scientology and Cognitive Dissonance Theory
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2017/09/scientology-and-cognitive-dissonance.html
Cognitive dissonance would be opposite but equally strong beliefs opposing each other. When I began reexamining my scientology experience of almost 40 years ago after watching “Going Clear” I came up with,
“I should continue my intellectual/spiritual pursuits . . . but . . . I can’t trust anyone”
It wasn’t debilitating in the intervening years but I’m glad I observed it. Many people have an atheist scientific materialism point of view. Some people would arrive there after failure in a cult, practice or religion.
Regarding politics all political systems have weaknesses. In the USA it’s a two party system and people favor and vote one way or the other. Few people agree with all aspects of either party platform and most people are “reasoned moderates”, a term someone mentioned on the last topic. One can hope that the most radical parts of either party are nullified by the intended co equal branches of congress, judicial and executive branches of government.
I think that treating cognitive dissonance theory as a subject is better than treating it as something a paragraph or even a few pages could explain.
You would not expect arithmetic to be explained in a paragraph or page but a good book could begin to explain it.
Mockingbird – I agree. My realization, probably poorly explained, was not meant to be a summary of cognitive dissonance which is a big subject.
As an aside, I think the topic could cross reference thought stopping and confirmation bias.
Richard, “cognitive dissonance” is but 1% of the subjects we could study to properly understand the mindfcuk of scientology. Mockingbird’s blog’s discussion of hypnotism, including Tubby’s direct references to it in a few texts & lectures, was a nice summary of THAT few percent of his techniques — part of the core of his REAL ‘tech’, the techniques that subtly drew us in and hid what was happening to us at the time. After ‘only’ 10 years “in, and 39 years “out”, those have been hard to counter; I’m still incomplete in the task of throwing the garbage parts of his assertions into the trash. I’ve got Mockingbird’s site on my favorites bar so I can review more of those thoughtful & thought-provoking articles.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Stool Poof( the Artist Formerly Known as Foolproof ) can’t be bothered to provide proof of the states of Clear and Operating Thetan. They exist, according to Stool, and his master, Hubbard. The empirical evidence has not been presented for 60 years.
Maybe he could be bothered to unveil it now?
I wa sent ge thing wins fr I’m flag (which was 3 xs expensive so I told them my concern, I was given as list of things Hubbard said of why I’m not getting wins. So how can they brag that flag is the best and how they will totally blow away anything . S o that S not really true if there are other things like m/u s or other things on his list.
Robert King, might I suggest you compose your comments off-line, review them several hours later, then copy-and-paste into a comment form when you’re SURE it makes sense to readers other than yourself. Your pot of 25 August, 9:28 PM read like the stream-of-consciousness of a loon. I’m sure that’s NOT what you intended.
Good article.
One really critical additional point: Festinger found that the obvious and dramatic failure of the cult’s predictions caused some cult members to fall away. But others clung even more enthusiastically to the original crazy ideas. They would come up with some pretzel logic to justify the failure and go on believing.
When faced with clear and obvious counter-information, the cult member has a very queazy, almost unendurable feeling of disorientation. It just doesn’t compute. Extremely uncomfortable. To regain an even keel they just reject the counter-information and go on arrogantly asserting their false premise.
This is why it almost never works when protestors shout facts at staff. They could be perfectly true and logical facts, but cognitive dissonance kicks in. The shouted-at Scientologists just become more confirmed than ever in their ways, now convinced that the evil psychiatrists are at it again and so on.
The same principle applies to communications to loved ones that are still in Scientology – news clippings and viewing times of Aftermath shows won’t ever sway a true believer.
When talking to these people you have to start with love, concern over their well-being, offers of assistance. Logic and reason won’t work at all, but they often have issues that you can address as a sort of wedge. Even when they claim to be doing great, they aren’t.
Eventually their desperate condition will cause them to reach out for help. If help is offered with no judgement, it flies in the face of their internal mindset of persecution and they will begin to have cracks in the armor. It may be months or years after they are physically removed from the Scientology milieu before they are really ready to start rejecting Scientology itself.
Cognitive dissonance is part of the glue that sticks these people to the fly paper. Love is the universal solvent that lets them fly free.
Yes Bruce! We need to remember that.
What an outstanding comment, Bruce. Thank you.
I’d offer that the dissonance doesn’t act like flypaper; it’s the personal computations we made to make the dissonance “disappear”, figuring out how the hell those words could make any sense in the real world. Tubby’s inability to ever edit or review his writings gave us plenty of practice figuring out alternate wordings that MIGHT make sense. In that, it’s a lot like reading some “Interwebz”correspondents comments; giving them the benefit of the doubt that they DID have something sane to say.
Maybe I’m too ‘giving’, assuming that there’s a world where their ravings might make sense.
Terra,
Excellent, point by point. I applaud your work.
Excellent essay Terra. I would like to reiterate something that others have noted in passing here in the comments. Fear is one of the elements that keeps people trapped in scientology and other cults and high control groups despite what just plain doesn’t make sense. Once one is hooked into the cult by what ever means, the point is driven home relentlessly that their particular group is the only hope for salvation. Without the sanctuary of the group they are doomed. scientology does this when someone first walks thru the door and has their ‘ruin’ ruthlessly pointed out to them and then selling them an intro course that will handle that. The ‘ruin’ is usually never handled, but if some ‘wins’ are obtained on the intro course and the mark is hooked and reeled in the next course is where the trap is laid to keep them in. In scientology it’s called KSW or Keeping Scientology Working. This oppressive and mind killing policy letter is required reading on EVERY scientology course to keep driving the point home that we are all doomed unless we fully embrace scientology and it’s ‘Founder’ without question. All of us who were in accepted this to some degree or another or we wouldn’t have hung around despite the obvious con we were participating in as marks. Only when this zit-like festering pustule of cognitive dissonance pops do we see the light of day and head for the exit asap. Unfortunately some people will die with this zit un-popped. Those of us that couldn’t stand the pressure and discomfort anymore popped it on our own. Of course, it still hurts a bit and god knows a popped zit is unsightly, but it will heal and it sure as hell looks better that an oozing eruption caked in makeup to try and convince yourself it isn’t there. Thankfully for those wishing to be zit free, the ol’ grifter gave us the answer. LOOK, DON’T LISTEN. Follow those words of advice and you can’t help but find the door to the fresh air awaiting outside the cult and it’s prison of belief. Thank you for that Ronnie. It’s the only thanks you’ll get from me.
Even after O.T.3…..I secretly still thought I was THE worst person in the world….UNTIL I decided to co-audit FPRD.
To do that, we had to become sec checkers. I flew to Flag, trained as a Security Checker.
After I did an Internship at Flag. Part of that was sec checking sea org staff. For me, mostly C.M.O. And Flag Execs
It was there I learned ~EVERYONE~
HAS THEIR OWN “OVERTS”/ BAD DEEDS/ THINGS THEY FELT BAD ABOUT. I WAS SHOCKED.
My big, bad overts were nuttin compared to what these people had done….everone. The nicer, the more innocent looking, often the heavier things they had done.
It was a HUGE game changer for me. One of 1,000 until I fully woke Up.
Thanks, Mike!! 🙂
Tory Christman
That’s what I remember you from Tory. We worked together on a lot of drills on that Sec Check course.
Tory, see what I just posted about pluralistic ignorance – this is exactly how it works in Scientology. People tend to do it naturally, assuming that others are getting what they aren’t quite – and Hubbard’s mechanisms entirely forbidding discussion, enshrine it.
Great exposition.
The prohibition on discussion of all types also exploits the phenomenon of pluralistic ignorance, in which members of group have an inherent cognitive bias towards assuming that the others are getting the expected benefits that they themselves are not:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralistic_ignorance
I think the cultivated blaming of outside forces (natural to a narcissist), codified in the “third party law” and promulgated through ideological conspiracy theories such as about the “psychs,” is also an important mechanism.
And Hubbard actually had lifelong health problems that were never cured other than perhaps some psychosomatic symptoms that were alleviated when his depression of the late 1940s lifted (possibly due to drug or shock therapy at the institution he said he was at in Georgia in 1948), and then increasingly severe health conditions in the whole last two decades of his life. Jim Dincalci’s descriptions of Hubbard’s ailments and physical condition in 1973, when the photos of him looking haggard in a hotel room were taken, are rather gruesome, hardly an example of physical or mental health.
Yes! The Emperor’s New Clothes syndrome! Thanks for putting a name to it for me. (Pluralistic Ignorance) I used to think it was just me that wasn’t getting the same wins/results as everyone else… And surely it would eventually come about… Sigh. I remained in because my immediate family was in. Things eventually changed (family members died/other family members got out…) and I was able to get out and then I really saw things as they were. So glad… It’s such a relief to come here every day (thank you Mike!) and read about others who have had the same or similar experience and are dealing with the emotional fall-out of wasted time, feeling duped, regrets over missed opportunities (e.g. not finishing college). But every day I am so glad to be OUT!
“All this, despite Scientologists getting sick and dying at the same rate as everyone else.”
Surely it would be reasonable to expect Scientologists to die at a greater rate than the general population?
Regarding physical illness a general contempt for ‘wog’ medicine would lead to seeking help much later, and so often ‘later’ is too late.
Regarding mental health, Scientology has nothing to offer that’s not better offered by trained and supervised professionals and lots to offer that’s just plain wrong. And someone who enters Scientology without any mental health problems may well have something triggered by the brutal and abusive regime.
Anecdotally there are many tales of death through late-diagnosed cancer and too many instances of suicide. Sadly there’s no way to collect reliable data to make a comparison but I can’t see commitment to the full Scientology regime resulting in anything but worse health outcomes [Unless the tech works of course!]
My father ignored a body condition and died because he was trained by Scientology to distrust the medical profession
Just one point of disagreement with this particular Terra article. My point of disagreement is beside the main point of this article, which I basically agree with.
It’s in this sentence: “The fault is never with LRH’s technology or something the auditor got wrong.”
The first part of the sentence is obviously correct. In Scientology, when auditing goes bad, it’s enforced that it is never the fault of the tech. But what was always enforced wherever I was in Scientology, and what was written many times by LRH, was that if auditing did not get the expected results, it was ALWAYS the fault of the auditor (or maybe sometimes the Case Supervisor but that was far less pervasive). It was supposed to NEVER be the pc’s fault (although I have been told of instances where it was blamed on the pc not revealing all and it was left at that). It was always, “What did the auditor do wrong?”. If the “pc had withholds”, for example, it was the auditor’s fault for missing them. How many people out there who trained as auditors were put through the ringer about this? I’m guessing a lot, and I was one of them.
Again, this doesn’t contradict the main point of this article, but I just couldn’t resist making this one correction.
Yea, I thought the same thing. But the rest is spot on.
It may be that the auditor and or C/S is to blame if auditing goes wrong, but who ends up paying for it. I for one, as the recipient of auditing, never got a free repair or correction list done. The auditor may have ended up in ‘cramming’ and been penalized somehow, but I was the one pay cash bucks dollars for it.
Even if one was called in for an ‘arc break’ session or some kind of recovery action, those never ended up being free. Never.
Ms. B ,
Aaaaand so…the whole ” auditor is wrong ” point is just more KOOL smoke Hubbard blew up his slaves’ asses. This make-believe shit has to be delivered JUST SO, so that THE MARK shall return and pay for more snake oil. The auditor gets ” crammed ” and the pc pays for more auditing.
The point: Hubbard is still perfect, whether the auditor fucked up or the pc fucked up, and, goddamn it, the pc shall pay!
Dave, the PC isn’ttold the auditor (or C/S) F’ed up. It is just, “You need a correction list.” AND, no matter what the auditor does to a PC in session (including beating them with a stick) the auditing hours can NEVER be re-credited or refunded without the PC being declared an SP. THAT is what is being referred to here.
After I completed OT VIII, I was interviewed by a Sea Org member who was on an assignment to figure out why people did not move up the bridge. They were surprised that I was able to move when other people could not. Oddly enough, the reason I was able to move up the bridge was because I paid very little attention to almost all of the points mentioned in the article. I do not know how I got away with it for so many years but I was just trying to get Hubbard to reveal his secrets. I told the Sea Org member that I moved up the bridge because I did not get involved in the gossip in Scientology. Anyone who manifested extreme loyalty to Hubbard was avoided by me. I sort of had a double standard. Knowing that Hubbard was not educated, I really did not take his policies seriously. The idea of OT was of interest to me and I considered that I was paying for it with money and that was all Hubbard wanted. When I was declared suppressive for visiting with David Mayo in the 1980’s, I got out of the A-E in less than 48 hours. It was very simple. They were hurting for money. I told the “Reg” that I would buy two full intensives. He set up my completion of A-E which I hardly worked on. So I learned that the undercurrent in Scientology was money. I paid little attention to Hubbard’s policies. But all I wanted was the OT data. Once I found out that Hubbard was bluffing, I got out. I never realized the damage that Scientology did to until years later.
I’m so glad your voice is here George. Thank you for going all the way up the bridge for all of us. Then reporting on the flat out deception of DM, Hubbard and the thought stave minions.
The very act of Hubbard apologists saying that you are full of shit for seeing what you saw, studied what you studied, shared dismay with other OT8s on the ship and is bout outraged at the deception………………
It’s their cognitive dissonance keeping the hypnosis in place. Terra Inconita nails it with this essay. Foolproof will now exhibit, for all of us, how cult members still caught in the trap, deny truth and defend imagination with cognitive dissonance.
Foolproof “knows”. You can’t argue with a mind is taught by a man who sought suicide to free from BTs.
Yes, these two below are the main cognitive dissonance in Foolproof. They cause his cognitive faculties to have an epileptic fit:
Hubbard wanted to commit suicide to free BTs
And Hubbard was the fulfillment in Revelations in the Bible, of Lucifer.
These two facts drive is real “knowing” bonkers.
When he expresses himself maybe we should share with him in a benevolent way what thought he is stuck in.
He reminds me so much of that Japanese soldier who stayed to fight more than a decade after the war was over. FP is trying desperately to clothe the emperor.
Brilliant reply Brian. Thank you so much. You nailed it. Using Foolproof as an example is excellent. Having completed OT VIII, I do feel myself on a mission to spread the truth. Hubbard was bluffing all along.
TC, excellent article. I want to add the element of fear once a person believe Hubbard’s theory of case. I know I was afraid that I would be taken over by my case. At lower levels the band at upper levels, overwhelmed by BTs and clusters. That scared the hell out of me till I found from experience it wasn’t true.
Also you didn’t mention the real fear of being expelled from the Cherch. And being labeled an SP and losing sometimes your whole world.
Typo “the bank” not “the band”
There’s band called Typo? Bitchin’!
Dear Terra,
From my 40+ years “in” I can confirm everything you said is true. All of my experiences match exactly what you said. Congratulations to us both for waking up and walking out.
Glenn
Good article Terra. But I have to differ with your statement of “free sessions are provided when auditing goes bad.” That’s not what I experienced. When my auditing went bad and I complained and there were auditor errors, I had to pay Flag rates to get on the rails again. So any mistake that is theirs is not a mistake and we pay for all the mistakes over and over again, even to the point of doing the Bridge twice as we are told that the level you did before wasn’t right, so get back onto OT VII and do it right this time, at your own expense, is just one example of redoing Bridge. Also in the Auditor’s Code it says that an auditor must not apologize for any mistakes, whether real or imagined. That furthers the church viewpoint that the auditing is always right, the church is always right, even when it’s wrong.
Terra:
” spaceships looking like old DC-8s—and oh yeah…dropped into volcanoes.”
Yeah, volcanoes that did NOT exist at that time or in those places.
Off Topic – but for those of you who may be interested – the last episode of Mike & Leah’s TV show is listed as being on tomorrow night (Monday August 26, 2019) at 9pm.
The big news about it (at least for me) is that it is shown as 124 minutes. I don’t know if that includes any commercials. I would guess that the 124 minutes is the length of time without counting any commercials.
If anyone knows different, please do post a correction.
It definitely includes commercials — unfortunately
So can someone tell me (I’ve been searching the interwebs but found nothing concrete enough), will that be 6pm on the west coast/pacific time? I’ve been wrong in the past and don’t want to miss it! We’re updating our Hulu today to watch live shows again! 🙂
Howdy Annie,
I have no specific info. But when something is on at 9pm EST, it almost always means that it will be shown 3 hours before in the PST zone. So it should come on at 6pm PST. However, I could always be wrong. So I would suggest you do the following to be perfectly safe (or almost perfectly anyway).
Why not record one program from 6pm to 9pm and call it Aftermath6. Then record another program from 9pm to 11:15pm and call that one Aftermath9. In that way, you will have 5.25 hours recorded starting at 6pm and that should keep you covered.
If I am mistaken, just remember that it is very wrong to ever point a gun at anyone. OK?
‘When Prophecy Fails’ is the book where Festinger (along with Riecken and Schachter) proposed the concept of cognitive dissonance. Still well worth a read: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-eDNpDzTy_dR1b0iB
For those who prefer a fictional approach, there’s also Alison Lurie’s wryly comic novel ‘Imaginary Friends’, which is based squarely on Festinger’s study 🙂
Thanks.
Terra, this is a great collection of the various crazy-making (cognitive dissonance creating) contradictions that are considered normal in Scientology. Thanks for that. It’s gratifying to have someone pick the things that bug me, too, and exactly formulate how bad they are, especially in conjunction with each other.
(I think you meant “apocalyptic” rather than “apocryphal.”)
Great summary of scientological bool-sheet.
I hope all of the ” the tech has some value ” apologists read this post.
‘connection with “suppressive” persons was the cause of all illnesses and accidents’
Not just connection, but also “pull it in” like it’s gravity or magnetism. Dianetics was frequently pushed as “self-help”, but it has been perverted into self-blame.
I recently watched Prison of Belief documentary – thank you for speaking out then and continuing to do so. I had already seen My Scientology Movie making everything Marty said suspect in Prison of Belief unless corroborated by other witnesses. The disconnection policy mentioned is another way to keep the faithful in, and the heretics out.
Marty did lose all credibility with total reversal, but I believe he was speaking honestly when he was speaking out initially. He had very little to gain and a lot to lose as he knows intimately how they operate. He may not have been totally upfront and honest because of coming to terms with all his past bad deeds (and self incrimination)
My guess is he made a deal with the devil to make the harassment stop and he had to prove himself to COB and Scientology by making those hit pieces. They either bought him off or found a pressure point that he couldn’t handle, such as going after his family (I recall mention of an adoption)
I can’t be bothered!
Clown shoes bro.
Foolproof has “knowingness”. The king of handling cognitive dissonance.
All a Scientologist has to say is: I have knowingness and shazam!
Who needs proof when you have Scientology “knowingness”.
I don’t need no ‘knowingness’! I’ve got the peck… I mean tech.
What Pat said.😂😂😂
I was that way for years too. I couldn’t be bothered. The fact was I was scared to be bothered. I didn’t want what I was so heavily invested in to come crashing down so I kept my head in the sand despite what was going on around me in full view. Once I took the leap and started looking and not listening I headed for the exit and life has only gotten better since.
Superb comment, Ms. B. I think what you wrote sums up the situation for most of the Still Ins. God forbid they stop listening and start looking! I believe that on SOME level they KNOW that this would be the beginning of the end.
Of course you can’t be bothered, nor should you. The natterers will not knock on your door again; that sack of garlic you hung over the sill will keep them away almost as good as turning off the computer.
Grab your soft, cuddly Hubbard blanket, Linus. All will be well.
How much for that sack of garlic?
Well, thank Xenu for that!
I thank Xenu for everything & everyone. He flies in here every so often. Ugly as hell, though. But, he can’t help it.
Wow. Usually so full of words and ‘knowingness’, now we suddenly can’t be bothered?!? I think the Cognitive Dissonance has bowled Foolproof right over. Probably in bed now with a migraine.
Wow! Motormouth is at a loss for words. How long that lasts is, however, is a different matter.
Wrong side of the manic cycle I guess.
I can somewhat sympathize with FP on this. Half of the criticisms have counter arguments but why bother?
For example, talking about your “case” out of session would be stupid.
Verbal data and auditors improvising in session would result in a mishmash without anyone knowing what anyone else was doing.
Etc.
And the few remaining scamologists (inside or outside the formal “chuch”) wonder why ALL of their scamology groups are so small as to be all but non-existent.
Everything in this article is true. THAT is why.