Another provocative article from Terra Cognita
Insanity in Scientology
“SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES,” wrote L. Ron Hubbard in his policy letter of 26 Apr 1970, DataSeries 1R, The Anatomy of Thought. All subsequent italicized quotes are from this reference.
“This is also intelligence. Two or more facts or things that are totally unlike are DIFFERENT. They are not the same fact or same object. Two or more facts or things that have something in common with one another are SIMILAR. Two or more facts or things that have all their characteristics in common with one another are IDENTICAL.”
It never ceases to amaze me how profoundly Scientologists misapply their own policy. From the head of the church, all the way down to students delivering lines from Alice in Wonderland on a Comm Course, cognitive dissonance burrows its way into the psyche of all members. If sanity really is “the ability to recognize differences, similarities and identities,” then insanity must be the inability to recognize these three classifications. The Church of Scientology is rife with examples.
Truth or Dare
Since its inception, the church has failed at recognizing the difference between a bona fide suppressive person, intent on destroying the church—and all life on Earth—and someone with differing views regarding its tech and policy. Within Scientology, these two camps of people are identical. Outside its ranks, the differences are obvious.
Similarly (dare I use the word), everyone with opinions not fully aligned with those of LRH is considered to have overts and withholds, misunderstood words, and false data: church members, non-members, and suppressive persons alike. Pretty much everybody able to fog a mirror.
All people are sick and accident-prone due to a connection to a suppressive person. Period. There is no difference between Suzy bumping her elbow on the counter, Tommy’s runny nose, and Joe’s stage 4 cancer.
Ironically, Scientologists harbor the illusion that they’re experts at telling the difference between ethical and non-ethical behavior. In fact, they’ve been so indoctrinated to believe that LRH is always right and has all the answers to everything that they can’t recognize his inconsistencies, dogma, and unfounded theory, from truth. They can’t distinguish science and scholarship from ignorance and irrationality. Psychological projection from the scientific method. Fact from fantasy.
Sloppy Minds
It’s almost as if LRH was thinking of church members when he wrote, “…a sloppy mind sees no difference between a FACT and somebody’s opinion.” The average Scientologist cannot tell the difference between one of Ron’s opinions and a proven fact.
“A vast number of people see no difference at all in FACTS and OPINIONS and gaily accept both or either as having equal validity. An administrator continually gets opinions on his lines which are masquerading as facts. If opinion instead of facts is used in solving problems then one comes up with insane solutions.”
This last quote reminds me of a couple of things: 1) the OT Levels are based solely on one man’s opinion without a shred of demonstrable data; and 2) since David Miscavige keeps coming up with “insane solutions,” per LRH, he must be operating on opinions “masquerading as facts.”
“An administrator runs into this continually. The administrator feels he is dealing with malice, sharp practice, laziness, etc., etc. He can lose all faith in honesty and truthfulness. The ACTUAL REASON he is getting such breakdowns is SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES. The people with whom he is dealing can’t think to such a degree that they give him insane situations. Such people are not crazy. Their thinking is suppressed and distorted…”
Scientologists are not “crazy,” then; it’s that their thinking has been “suppressed and distorted.” Many staff are good-hearted. Most mean well. They’re not crazy. They’re not stupid. Their thinking has been “suppressed and distorted” by their church’s founder and its current leader.
One could reason that the church has been insolvent and failing for decades because of its inability to recognize differences, similarities and identities. They can’t recognize the truth from the imagined. Orders and programs written by LRH are not identical to those put forth by David Miscavige.
Daffy Organizations
“An organization, therefore, can itself be daffy if it has a concept that laws and facts and opinions are all the same thing and so has no operating policies or laws. Whole bodies of knowledge can go this route.”
He sounds as if he’s talking about Scientology!
Within the church, all “laws and facts and opinions” aren’t necessarily “the same thing,” but since they were written by LRH, they’re undisputable, as if everything he wrote was the word of God and inviolate. Members aren’t allowed to consider “differences, similarities, and identities,” and resolve for themselves if something is true or not.
Ideal Morgues
Keep in mind Scientology’s concept of “ideal orgs” while reading LRH’s next passage.
“An administrator can call a conference on a new building, accidentally collect people who can’t differentiate amongst laws, facts, opinions or suggestions—treating them of equal value—and find himself not with a new building but a staggering financial loss.”
Damn!
David Miscavige clearly can’t differentiate between what LRH wrote concerning “ideal orgs” and what he’s forced down the throats of his public and staff sycophants. Sadly, most of these people can’t differentiate between rational, well-conceived programs and DM’s ludicrous plans and agendas.
Last Words
Differences, similarities, and identities. Wouldn’t it be grand if everyone could truly make these distinctions?
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
Hi Mike, didn’t have time to read your whole article, but I got your drift. Say Hi to Leah for me, and let me know if you would like to Link In with me at LinkedIn.
Love Ya Mike! Keep up the great works and keep us posted on your continued quest for truth, justice, love and the Infinite Way!
I have the Sword of Excalibur and have discovered OT Infinity. I’d love to share it with you!
https://www.quora.com/Does-Scientology-have-the-right-to-declare-people-who-disagree-with-it-insane
Superb article, Terra.
So many people are unable to distinguish opinion from fact. They base their decisions as re determining where a datum is fact or opinion based solely upon the SOURCE.
So and So said it, therefore its true.
Or, So and So said it so it can’t be true.
So stupid.
But a lot of people operate this way. It isn’t only Scientologists, not by a long shot.
Hubbard baked insanity DEEP into the “tech” of scientology. Its extensive use brings about MORE insanity in an individual and LESS sanity than the person started out with.
Great posting, Terra!
I would add that on the list of High Crimes, penned by LRH, any felony, such as murder and arson are equivalent in seriousness to atrocious acts such as falsifying records, two instances of laughing too loudly in an area where auditing sessions are taking place, using a Scientology trademark without permission, asking for one’s money back, etc.
How can the same person that wrote this High Crimes list then write that Data Series 1 issue you quoted?
I would argue that nearly all the people declared suppressive ever are of a previously unknown type. They are “political SPs”, or maybe “Loudmouth SPs”. It was in LRH’s self-serving interest to confuse scientologists by obscuring and conflating a Political SP with an Anti-Social personality.
The most frequent reason for Declare by far is being a runaway slave. PAC alone often had a half dozen Declares per week for blowing the SO.
After that, most are simply the person ran afoul of the wrong exec – as you say, political. I noticed that often the longer the declare the more political it was because so much effort would have to be exerted to try to explain why the person was ~really~ evil when they had often been dedicated long time volunteers. They often seemed strained and unconvincing.
When I first got involved, I was told that Declare and disconnection was only used in extreme cases when everything else failed and the person remained dedicated to criminal activity.
I remember seeing exactly ONE declare like that. It warned of a guy who had stolen some money, set a house on fire, did some other random criminal thing. In that one case, I felt grateful for the warning. The rest was bullshit.
The major reason for declare and disconnection is mind control. By getting rid of people with undesirable ideas (such as the staff should be paid and not abused or forced to kill their babies for the enrichment of the leader) and preventing them from communicating those ideas within the group it protects the rest of the group from ever entertaining those ideas. Straight out of the “Brainwashing Manual”.
Sloppy minds…
Scientologists have “been so indoctrinated to believe that LRH is always right”.
That bad-breathed simple man with bad teeth and visions of grandeur, named Lafayette Ron Hubbard, uttered nonsense, in non-grammatical ways in most cases, and then demanded of you to grab a dictionary and try to decipher his bullshit.
His earlier disciples, before he shat out dianetics from his scrambled innards, were entranced by his “mastery” of magick. Note that “magic” is not spelled in the usual form, because adding a “k” at the end implies some ancient mysticism… what a sickly little conman.
Wake up, you lurkers still in. You have been played for a fool, and that little shit Miscavige is laughing all the way to the bank.
To comment on your reference to PTSness:
the lying bastard wrote:
“1. That all illness in greater or lesser degree and all foul-ups stem directly and only from a PTS condition.
2. That getting rid of the condition requires three basic actions: (A) Discover; (B) Handle or (C) Disconnect.”
Yet in all my decades in scn, no one has ever been cured with pts teck.
No one who had cold, the flu, a broken leg, chronic headaches, leg pain, cancer, toothache, spazzed out neck/back, etc…. no one…has ever been cured of the condition with PTS tech.
I was staff for decades, and I never saw one.
I have had various condition and none EVER resolved with PTS teck.
I had “wins” and felt “less effect” of the SP terminal, but I was never cured.
I’ve had 5 friends die of cancer, all used scn and none were cured.
PTS teck is insanity.
🙂
“I was staff for decades”… this statement alone makes me so sad.
I SO hope you are out now.
I wish you nothing but happiness from this point on. Because you most certainly won’t find happiness in the misery called scientology.
I wish I could reach out and hug you!
Thank you, I would take that hug.
I am out, but UTR, my life is too entwined with it to be public. This board is very important to me. Your support is valuable. Your ear and willingness to listen are valuable to me.
I was “happy” and very fulfilled in scn for the vast bulk of the time. I was so very very thoroughly brainwashed – my certainty was rock solid. I was a devout poster-child for staff and scn. I lived and breathed it, and I LOVED it. I have nothing good to say about any of it anymore.
Talking to you guys about it and reading about other people’s stories is very comforting.
I’m always very kind to myself now. I need it.
Thanks. <3
(I'm always careful of what I say here because I'm afraid that certain details would identify me to the wrong people. Even the way I write sometimes worries me, I'm afraid my choice of words/writing voice could be recognized.
I really really really wish I could tell the story of how I came to my senses, because how get people OUT is such an important topic to us all. But I just can't, even though I desperately wish to. It wouldn't help others to get their loved ones out, but it would be good for me to be able to say it. ..
“I really really really wish I could tell the story of how I came to my senses, because how get people OUT is such an important topic to us all.”
It is indeed, and the more folks who come forward to tell their own personal stories, as well as their first-hand accounts of how others were mistreated, the quicker that this criminal syndicate/hypno-mind control cult will be stopped!
Get your loved ones out, then, when they’re safe, tell us your entire family’s story. I’m sure that it is well worth listening to!
Hubbard had no right or privilege to criticize or condemn Psychiatry ..he really didn’t know shit about the benefits. Instilled his own beliefs on his followers..having said that. I believe he was Bipolar to some degree
He was rejected by better minds than his, and then, like a child, he lashed out against them. And people, to this day, are still being destroyed by his childish tantrum.
It’s all so simple to see when you get out and then hover over it with a clear mind… sorry to use the word “clear”. Maybe the word should be changed to something less “LRH”-ish. That f***-er doesn’t own our language.
I’m constantly learning how to speak again, and how to frame my thoughts without the jargon, and also constantly working on identifying whole concepts of thought patterns of BS scn that I find myself still using. It’s so embedded.
As a result, I’m going out of my way to not use even words like, planet, data, cycle, stats, production, responsibility, purpose, and so many more.
So even using regular english words but ones that frame scn type questions like asking someone, “what is your purpose for doing _______” I find to be anathema. In order to strip away the mind control I have to learn how to think and speak.
So Yeah, I don’t even like to use the word “clear” anymore.
I agree with you, Shirley. There may be rogue psychiatrists as there are rogues in every profession but to make such a sweeping statement?
I’ve been reading books about neurology and how we’re wired, sometimes differently from what’s considered the norm. There is much work to be done still to find solutions. Drugs can make a difference between living a normalised existence or not. Not everyone, however, is pumping people full of drugs as Hubbard and $cientologists would have you think. Not at all. There is a very hard working, caring community trying to help these people to make their lives and those of the families and associates more comfortable and tolerable. Psychiatrist work hard together with the neurologists in this endeavour. I have tremendous respect for them, in fact.
What peeves me quite a bit is the many ex-$cientologists and anti-$cientologists (is there a difference?) who still have it in for them without any personal experience or knowledge that they’ve gleened on their own. They continue to be prejudiced and just follow blindly in this because it’s been deeply instilled in them. Their critical thinking is not developed enough, perhaps, so that they won’t even THINK of looking!
It’s a shame. And it’s unjust.
Since Scn is only for the “cream of the crop” elite, able, rich folks, what are the rest of us supposed to do? I think of this often. Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. need mental health treatment/counseling of some sort at some point in their life. And hundreds of thousands of young people are interested in learning how to help these people, so go to college and do what it takes to eventually become certified as counselors, doctors, neuroscientists, etc. They have a deep desire to help and do the very hard work it takes to make a difference in the world.
LRH didn’t have the drive or ambition or even the smarts to do what it takes.
T-Marie,
You are so right that upwards of 1/4 of the population is in need of mental health, of one form or another, at one time or another. Hubbard’s talk therapy could be beneficial to a fraction of the people in need. But, the demand by scienos that ONLY their therapy be used to help, and on their terms, has the result of having removed them from the mainstream healthcare. And, that is good.
Fine work, Terra, and your points extremely well made.
I think that these datums about sanity were among LRH’s stronger work, especially of his latter period.
Yeah, this stuff about sanity makes a lot of sense to me, but the failure of its application in the Scientology world comes directly from LRH;s attitudes towards his own infallibility on everything he utters. As (by the mid 1960s if not earlier) LRH continued to define himself as “source” and make “law” on every single aspect of life, any Scientologist no longer had the right within the Scientology world to look at any Scientology datum or LRH pronouncement and apply his own intellectual sanity. And thus, once again, (in possibly the MOST important way of all) Scientologists are first not allowed to apply Scientology datums and then from “practice” become even incapable of doing so.
The bottom line is always always ALWAYS when you are not allowed to say “no.” At the moment that disagreement is not allowed within a group or discipline, you cannot have sanity, freedom of thought or really, freedom of any kind.
Got that right!
And if the cost of disagreeing is expulsion, then it’s definitely NOT a membership group worth joining in the first place!
Sign of a Scientologist: Using the word “datums” as the plural of “datum”.
Sign of an Insane Scientologist: Still insisting that “datums” is right no matter how many times you explain to them that the correct word is “data”, and even refer them to dictionaries that state this fact.
Thank you so much for those interesting datums.
By the way, let me compliment you on being quite the witty fellow.
People say that I’m full of wit. At least that’s what it sounds like they’re saying.
When Hubbard is talking about association, differentiation, and similarities, he is passing off ideas from Korzybski’s General Semantics as his own. Hubbard was sparked to write Dianetics after learning General Semantics from his friend Heinlein, who like many SF authors of the day had incorporated General Semantics ideas into his writings.
When Hubbard talks about “infinite value logic”, that is him again presenting Korzybsky’s ideas as his own.
Really, REALLY, good, insightful post, Joe P. You nailed the reason for the application failure. LRH set himself up as “source”. Big mistake when you’re trying to get people to think for themselves. Big mistake.
Scientology is broken! Not a bad summary of it’s thinking behavior Terra. The Data Series is even chunkier.
I enjoyed some of Hubbard’s early stuff, he clearly distinguished between his opinion and what he presented as “data for data’s sake.” Some of his concepts and questions about life were and still are fascinating.To try to conquer the world with them, well… that’s another matter completely.
Somewhere along the line Hubbard truly fell of the perch and by the end of the 50’s dogmatic and group policy nonsense became the “thing” and flourished as the group expanded and we now have insanity firmly installed as an operating basis for the Church. When the SO came along with it’s big stick it shielded management and the whole shebang got amplified beyond any sense of what it stated it was trying to achieve. Scientology management is a lie factory of incredible proportions. There is absolutely no sense of ethics or decency at all within the authoritative ranks of Scientology’s upper management, yet if feeds off of it from the lower ranks like there’s no tomorrow.
Miscavige to be arrested and incarcerated permanently, his henchman brought to answer for their actions and disband the Scientology organisation completely. Then let the chips fall where they may. If there’s any truth in any of it, let it belong to those who can use it to do their own personable thing with it. Too many have tried to own and manipulate the minds of others, there has to be another way rather than militant authority to handle and organize the understanding of the human mind.
“…there has to be another way rather than militant authority to handle and organize the understanding of the human mind.”
There is, it’s called “science”.
But for those who’d prefer to study it from the inside, then all you really need to remember is: Don’t let anyone tell you what to think about you; find out for yourself and be a slave to no one else’s understanding.
Yes, there’s sooth coming from your words.
The vested interest and the rather competitive nature involving “scientific” discoveries make that a. ‘watch your step’ proposition too. But you are very correct – don’t let anyone tell you what to think about you. That’s indeed a slave making formula if you’re too lazy or whatever, to think & observe for yourself.
“Science”, by itself, will never conquer the mystery of the human mind. Without spirituality, the full realization that we are much, much more than science alone has ever dreamed, we will go on fighting and grasping. Hell, science has yet to identify WHERE the mind is located, much less its content or purposes.
theg, you really should bring yourself up to speed on the vast amount of empirical research, done by a host of Nobel-winning scientists, has enlightened us about how brain has come to enable mind… evolutionarilly, developmentally and through the dynamic changes that occur on a intra-organismal basis during the course of global consciousness state changes over the wake-sleep-dream cycle.
Suffice it to say that tens of thousands of very highly educated scholars and skilled researchers have learned an incredible amount about the causal relationship between mind and brain in every imaginable area of interest and concern to us all…and NONE OF IT supports Elron’s wild ass theorizing!
Time to come to PT on this subject, sir!
Ultimately, the scientific method is our best tool for learning anything that manifests in the “objective universe”. Third party independent testing and peer review. Too bad Hubbard pretended that he knew more about science than any scientist ever instead of learning the real thing.
The peer level is not hypnotic however and Hubbard knew that so he would not want to allow peer review. He would only want people ~under his hypnotic command~ to test “for themselves”.
A limitation of the scientific method and empiricism, the underlying philosophy of science, is that it is limited to only those things that we all experience together while we cannot ever really know another person’s inward (subjective) experience, so we can’t test in quite the same way. We have to use indirect tests, statistical analysis and the like.
I agree heartedly with what you say, because I have been saying it for years, the same thing. Thank you for putting the words together in such a concise and easy-to-hear essay.
“SANITY IS THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE DIFFERENCES, SIMILARITIES AND IDENTITIES.” L Ron Hubbard
Let’s apply this definition to this next statement on critics.
“Now get this as a technical fact. Not a hopeful idea. Every time we have investigated the background of a critic of scientology we have found crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. We do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts. Over and over we prove this.” L Ron Hubbard
So was Ron insane when not being able to recognize the difference between valid criticism and attacks?
Ron did not know the difference. In fact the word “critic” to Ron actually meant attacker.
There was a collapsed definition between the words criticism and attack.
Scientology is always saying they are under attack. That is not true. Scientology is being looked at, perceived and criticized.
To a Scientologist, being seen is an attack. When we see he truth of Ron and Scientology, Scientologists are taught to see that as an attack.
Was he looney tunes when making this absolutist statement about……….
ALL PEOPLE WHO HAVE DISSENTING VIEW OF RON’S COSMOLOGY ARE CRIMINALS??
He is either insane when writing this doctrine; not able to differentiate as he defines insanity.
OR…….
He knew this was not true regarding critics and he was ensuring that no one could penetrate his messianic lies. And he used Altitude Instruction to influence (hypnotize) people.
There are two options, well maybe three
1) Ron was insane because he could not tell the difference between valid criticism and being attacked.
2) Ron was a master hypno mind fucker who knew critics are not always criminals but wanted to create an army of minions that would fight and demonize anyone who dares ask questions and scrutinize his false healing claims.
3) a combination of both.
In my view, there can be volumes written about this quote regarding critics.
This quote regarding critics has all the ingredients in it to break down Ron’s psychology.
And how about all psyches are from the planet Farsec? ALL!
Ron talked a good game. But in the end he was a manipulating hypno mind fucker who demonstrated insanity per his definition.
Having worked with floridly psychotic folks in a variety of institutional and non-institutional settings, I learned that the intensity of several very serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, can wax and wane markedly, so that an individual can slide back on forth from almost normal to floridly psychotic over time.
Elron’s life seems to fit that same cyclic pattern, where he seemed quite mad during certain periods and much more functional during others. So, he very easily could have been slipping back and forth between believing in his own mega whacky Oatee nonsense and realizing that it didn’t work, but fraudulently selling it to others anyhow…which is your choice #3, crazy and criminal.
Good point Harpoona. Makes sense to me. Because Ron was at times quite brilliant. He did have a mechanical mind for a difficult topic. I think we in the west loved that part. It sold me.
But then there is the crazy schizoid Ron, seeing invisible enemies. The Ron who sold us he was a super thetan while he was usually blaming somebody or hiding from the law.
Always hiding and always blaming; and we made him king.
Harpoona F., ty for sharing your insight on the waxing and waning intensity! I have a situation in “real time”, same characteristics as Hubbard. We have learned to write down what she says, because it’s apt to change.
Honestly, the chaos is comparable to a tornado, then it’s over for about 9 weeks.
It’s very troubling to think of anyone trying to “follow” policies of someone whose thinking is so distorted.
A little bit closer to the truth:
“Now get this as a made up fact. And a hopeful idea. Every time I have investigated the background of a critic of Scientology I have postulated crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. I do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts – that would be inconsistent with my premise. Over and over I prove this to myself.” L Ron Hubbard
Whew! This just REEKS of prejudicial opinion. Sad.
I would offer that in those areas where LRH was a little or a lot insane, those parts of the “technology” are a little or a lot insane. For instance, LRH’s hypersensitivity towards being criticized meant to him a minor negative remark equaled an attack. This made him conflate speaking negatively about him or Scientology equivalent to murder or arson in the High Crimes list.
“Every time we have investigated…”
Who ‘we’ white man?
Great article and very timely with what has been going down in Tennessee. Scientologists are truly delusional when it comes to their exaggerated understanding of mental illness. I made a video this week covering this too. It’s a very important topic.
In the 1700, 1800 and early 1900’s people with mental illness were an embarrassment to their families. Many were locked away in attics and barely fed, washed, clothed & there was not appropriate medical care for them. This seems to be the same type of scenario being played out in TN….LOCKING a cabin door with a padlock from the outside, no worries about what happens if a fire starts or if the person inside is harming themselves? Truly sick, truly brutal, truly seemingly against God……
Around 1880, many eastern US started state run psychiatric hospitals. You can find grand architecture at places like the Richardson Complex in Buffalo NY. But centralizing patients did not result in good treatment. Psychiatry did not get ‘good enough’ until the late 1950’s and 60’s. All of that advancement was through the use of drugs and better talk therapy.
Psychiatry evolves, $cientology does not.
In the 1950 & 1960 patients were still locked away in mental health facilities with most being their for life. I knew several psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurses, orderlies for decades who told me horror stories. I’ve also seen some of those horror stories myself when Electro Shock Therapy became the rage & patient’s brains were fried, including a distant family member,. as in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”….
Then the stuff hit the fan when “the powers that be” decided it was wrong to warehouse patients in these large sometimes grotesque psychiatric often rundown hospitals….& decides to close most of them & turn their care over to Nursing Homes, Adult Homes, Group Homes where patients are lined up daily & fed their medications with LIMITED STAFF in attendance to make sure they GET their meds, but not enough staff at times to make sure they actually swallow their meds. .
The problem with THAT was some of these patients were permitted to leave the facility on their own during the day, & they would wander around the towns with some forgetting or not wanting to return to the “home” they were assigned to. They ended up living on the street, in parks, the woods, alleys WITHOUT their medications that kept them “straight”. Next thing you know, they are now a community problem because they are eating out of trash cans, acting erratically, lost & not sure where they are, or they get taken advantage of & are beaten up.
These wandering patients are then taken to the nearest Hospital Psychiatric WARD, where it’s only a short term stay since not many Psychiatric Hospitals Exist, & the Psych Ward can’t keep them as long as they don’t have the proper facilities as a Psychiatric Hospital specifically DESIGNED for these types of patients no longer exist.
After the patient is back on his or her “meds”, it’s time to find another Nursing, Adult or Group Home that has an available bed for them. The beds in those facilities are held for about two weeks or so, if the patient doesn’t get well in that time period to go back to the original placement, that bed is assigned to someone ELSE & then Social Services has to find ANOTHER facility who has an opening.
After I left the legal department in that upscale NYC financial district job, I wanted to work closer to home, I took a few more college courses & then worked with Special Ed kids for a few years, seeing a real need for kids to be protected, I hen went to work for Social Services & CPS. I dealt with MANY patients with mental health issues & things haven’t changed all that much other then the medications to keep people mentally healthy & greater education for the medical field to help these patients.
THAT is why my blood boils when I read the “Tennessee Story”…..Sorry if this is a bit long…I had to vent my anger with that entire scenario.
Wow! Thanks for info – (I think…) It’s very disturbing the solutions that evolve over what is deemed mental illness. I briefly knew a psyche nurse once. Crazy as a loon he was but he did say the system is simply not adequate to deal with the number of patients nor does it really care about their other health issues, like dentistry, general medicine etc, Heavy use of drugs to keep ’em quiet was expedient and electro shock was in general use. So they “released” many of them back into society as they were now permanently sedated.That was back in the late 70s Australia.
Mental health is quite the industry and commands billions of tax payers dollars. How it is used/dispersed is a study in itself.
Scientology only makes mental illness matters worse.
L Yash, you have hit on the heart of the matter. I have my own history with the brutal psychiatric “treatments” of the 60s. Suffice it to say that tardive dyskinesia from the “chemical straight jacket” thorazine is no joke. (Not me, a girlfriend). Neither is ECT, old style. They don’t use the word “convulsive” lightly.
So when Freedom Magazine and Thomas Szaz were trashing psychiatry in the 70s I was all in for the ride. Ken Kesey was writing his “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in my old home town in the 60s, so I knew a little bit about the events in the “Electric Koolaid Acid Test” (Tom Wolfe).
Just one little inconvenient detail – Hubbard, despite his promises, had no ready alternative. And you don’t see Scientology psychiatric hospitals, except for ones like the little rogue one in Tennessee. So Hubbard was trashing his “enemies” (who barely notice him) but not offering a real solution.
In the 80s there was a big push to shut down the old psychiatric hospitals and create the local care network you describe. In Scientology they took credit for that and bragged about how they were “shutting down psychiatry”. At the big events there would be computer graphics of doors shutting with big banging sound effects and Dave would say “SHUT DOWN” as though he had anything to do with it.
It was overall a good thing to stop as many of the brutal practices of the 50s as possible, but as you say L Yash the problem persists. Psychiatric drugs are better these days, but often have really unpleasant side effects. I contribute to a local homeless shelter, and they are overflowing with clients. Not all, but many of these would have simply been “institutionalized” in the 50s.
Scientology is not helping, and it is truly sick that they try to hurt the ones who actually try to do something about it. Fortunately they are too tiny to make more than a pin prick of actual damage. Once in a while a real professional in this field will comment and they almost always say they never heard of L Ron Hubbard’s campaign against them.
What is so frightening is that these members think they have the answer to mental illness, when the key to Mental Illness still has NOT been found. Schizophrenia can be inherited it’s been discovered, it’s been said that if you have one child with schizophrenia there is a good chance another child will suffer the same fate
.
I’ve watched the TV documentary of January Shonfield (Jani) who was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 6…a CHILD with this horrific mental illness. I would recommend watching it if you have a strong constitution. Her brother Bodhi, a few years younger was diagnosed with autism a few years after his birth when he began having mental health issues as well.
To THINK that a group who have no real medical or psychiatric training would try to handle the mildly or even severely mentally ill by locking them away in an isolated cabin is beyond all comprehension.
I hope and pray that Mike & Leah can get THAT into Aftermath #2….& to think that “the organization” is trying to take credit for shutting down some “psychiatric hospitals is mindboggling.
Homeless shelters try to screen their needy clientele before allowing them to spend the night, yet in our area there are vans that will “patrol” downtown in the bitter winter to pick these folks up to get them into a warm shelter to spend the night. In the daytime…they are on their own, with many going to the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen for their mid day meals, and an opportunity to get some used clothing items. .There are also collections in the late summer or early Fall in different communities to obtain used coats & new or gently used blankets to be distributed to the same clientele.
Turning many of these mentally ill individuals loose on communities did them no favor. When in a psyche hospital, at least they were given medications, meals, housed, and they were safe and warm. In adult homes some are permitted to come and go as they please, and I’ve already noted comments on that issue.
Some get harmed, or harm others because they haven’t been on their meds in days or weeks….it’s all too sad.
When and where will the issue with “the organization” intervention in mental illness end…probably never.
Thank you Bruce & Zeemoo for your input….as I said, seen and heard it all. My mother always told me “YOU should write a book”…..the thing is I don’t EVER want to revisit most of what I’ve encountered…the memories are too painful!
Forty-five years ago, my friend’s son became suddenly schizophrenic at the age of 17. Out of control physically and mentally, a danger to himself and others when he was having an episode, he would be violent, lunging at people, and with a contorted face would shout curses and threats in a very deep, hoarse, unrecognizable voice to those around him. His parents were overwhelmed and had no clue about what to do for him or with him. They put him in a mental hospital. He was given drugs and restrained in a strait jacket when necessary. My point is: what could they have done differently? What would anyone do with one’s child, soon to be an adult, manifesting these symptoms? I don’t know. I think they did the only thing they could, at the time. Certainly, Scientology has no solutions for such people. In older times he would have been kept in chains in an asylum.
Terra.
Great essay..Thanks for making me feel less stupid I was involved.
Excellent document in which (sadly) I find nothing but truth.
Great job Terra – and I love that you remain “undeclared” – it adds so much spice to your contribution(s) that you remain in good standing.
Gosh! TC you evoked some strong memories of my past dealings within the church. Related to your essay on insanity/scienos:
In the December 1952 PDC lectures, Ron stated proudly that he tapped into spiritual truths (Maybe he had some cognitions about what Crowley wrote about), and that he had lots of opinions about these few truths, lots, and that it was up to the individual to separate fact from opinion. Honest enough at the time. I wonder if those statements have been deleted from the latest versions of the tapes.
While getting my feet into Scientology (late 60’s) I came across 10-15 old-timers who all told of the wild and woolly days when they would get in the mail the latest running accounts of the different sequences to the electronic implants that were (or not) common to everyone. They (in teams) would call off the items in sequence to see how they were affected by different sequences. If you threw up, the sequence was wrong. If you laughed for days the sequence was right…… And so on. Per these old-timers some 100 or so auditors worked up the sequences that were later put in order by Ron and issued as the Clearing Course, and most of the OT 2 implants. So Ron did not just pull the stuff out of his do-da, or by himself. I later met several who stated that when they audited the CC and OT 2 they recognized the data and were disappointed that there was nothing new in this stuff that they paid hundreds of dollars to get to run.
And lastly, while volunteering as ‘word clearer’ for the pilot course to train Way-to-Happiness auditors I got into several spats with SO staff who were ‘observing’ the project. Since most of the auditors had come from Europe for the training I did a lot of Method 7, which included explaining and giving examples to someone who had learned English as a 2nd, or 3rd, language. To the SO it looked like I was giving “verbal tech” to the students. Sigh, ….. no, a word in a dictionary is NOT Red-on-White ‘tech’; Sigh, ….. yes it is ‘verbal’ as stated and allowed in the bulletin on Method 7, which I would then show them. I even got visited by a SO MAA who challenged me for defining to the students that ‘enemy’ was not necessarily an SP, or baddie, or anti-scientologist. Many soccer teams view their rivals as ‘enemy’, and even get passionate on the playing field. After the game though, they would often go the pub and laugh it up. The ‘ethics enemy’ is not the usual dictionary prime definition. To the SO retards this was inconceivable. One SO wanted to put me on re-training, but backed off when I told him that I was volunteering and I could walk out and let him deal with the course supervisor and Ron Hubbard when his pilot course stalled. Even then they were incapable of the simplest logical thinking
Brilliant application of $cio-logic to the deconstruction of $cn itself!
On the one hand, Elron provided us with a very clear and straightforward method for sorting fact from fancy, which is at the very heart of the scientific method and embodies the same fundamental principles of empiricism that lifted western civilization out of the Dark Ages and catalyzed the Enlightenment. On the other hand, he excluded himself and his work on $cn from being critically evaluated through those same recommended methods! Then he used his evil magic skills of bafflement and bullshit to keep folks from understanding that what he was preaching was, in reality, the exact opposite of what he practiced…that’s the con in a nutshell!
Anyone who’s attempting to do any kind of serious research in an applied science field understands that the key terminology that you use in describing the work at the conceptual level must be operationally defined so that it can be objectively demonstrated and tested. For example, success in rocketry is not just loosely defined as being able to go far, but instead, for the rocket being tested to be able to reach a target 3,000 miles or more away with 85% accuracy – in that way, “success” is operationally defined in ways that are objectively determinable.
$cn is promoted as being an applied science system of mental/spiritual/emotional/physical transformation that, according to Elron, is the only standardly “workable” system for doing so that’s ever been created – hence its designation as “spiritual technology” to convey the supposed fact that he’d discovered the fundamental laws and principles of causality that made it into a “science of the mind”.
But when we attempt to clarify what “workable” actually means in operational terms as it relates to the promised benefits and claims that have been made for specific auditing processes at the various levels of the bridge, the belief that $cn is any kind of real empirical science falls apart almost immediately. For example, the much-hyped early claims made for the hypothesized state of Clear (e.g., eidetic memory recall; perfect vision; freedom from illness and disease) turned out to be demonstrably false. But instead of abandoning that claim as he should have, based on the actual objectively demonstrated results, Elron re-defined the term to get rid of its operationalized meaning.
In effect, by changing the criteria for the evaluation of the attainment of the hypothesized state of Clear from a set of objectively testable skills and demonstrable abilities to something that is completely subjective, Elron divorced Dianetics from the very tradition of empiricism that he was ostensibly committed to at a very early point in its development; thus putting $cn on a path that eventually led it to become the whacky pseudo-science that it now is. Over time, every single empirically testable claim for its efficacy has been abandoned (remember the old grade chart Oatee claim, “Cause over MEST on all Eight Dynamics”?) and replaced with suitably vague and completely subjective terminology.
Elron almost never did as he said should be done, and his abandonment of the scientific method – while pretending to promote and adhere to it – is at the essential core of what makes $cn the complete fraud that it so obviously is to any educated outside observer. More than a half-century later, chumping for the con still works on the scientifically illiterate, who’ve bought into all manner of bullshit just like it since time immemorial.
You have it, direct and succinct.
If I recall correctly Marty Rathbun had Sarges interview in his book Memoirs of a Scientology warrior. I can’t remember if is more complete.
This was in reply to Chuck Beaty
When speaking of insanity, you can’t go wrong with LRH quotes!
Hi, N!
Actually, in the Data Series, Hubbard puts frequent emphasis on the importance of being able to differentiate between fact and opinion and how dangerous it is to operate in life without doing so.
Sorry for these inconvenient facts. I did the course.
Now, what he stated in the Data Series may well be at odds with what he stated elsewhere, but I don’t worry about that. I pick what’s useful and helpful to me out of what he wrote and shrug off the rest.
I do that with everything and everyone, including the Bible. IMO there is profound wisdom in the Bible as well as a great deal of nonsense. And no matter how boring and predictable or stupid someone is, you never know, you might learn something useful. It pays to pay attention.
Great essay Terra. When the blinders are on tight, the mule can’t see what is around them. That is $cientology today. The biggest $cieno problem today is that since the South Park ‘Trapped in the Closet’ episode, $cientology is known as a fruity little club with no redeeming qualities.
Well, I’ll take the fruit and leave the club…and the insanity. These folks are stuck in 50s and can’t climb out.
Zemooo said
“When the blinders are on tight, the mule can’t see what is around them. That is $cientology today.”
AND it was Scientology then and Dianetics from the beginning. We who were “in” were ALL guilty of accepting one guy’s off-the-cuff assertions as “proven technology” despite having been offered no supporting evidence.
Some people are born to be “slaves” to their beliefs – sad but True!
Well written, as usual.
“…It never ceases to amaze me how profoundly Scientologists misapply their own policy. …”
Re-reading Keeping Scientology Working #1, is a mind unraveling experience if anyone wishes to be amazed at where all this amazement comes from.
The final fitting ending, is the final pages of Lawrence Wright’s “Going Clear…” for me (and the Sarge interview video footage in the “Going Clear….” DVD–which I hope someday the full footage with more details of what Sarge said about Hubbard is let go into the public domain, it so irks me when editing is done and those who edit don’t know what morsels of important info they don’t let get out to those of us who would appreciate those further video answers of Sarge on LRH’s final months of life).
Hubbard thought he still had “body-thetans” infesting himself. That is staggering full circle amazement ending of Hubbard’s life, for me. LRH died with his own Xenu’s “body-thetans”, his own creation. which we all share with him now, LOL. His own OT 7 and his final squirrel meter that Hubbard had Sarge make for LRH, didn’t fix LRH’s final “body-thetans”.
Indeed Chuck! Hubbard was his own habit. He was addicted to himself via his own never ending discovery mode. Perhaps he forsook his own life for what he believed was him freeing as many beings glued to him as possible. The contradictions he lived are staggering. It sure turned out he was a dishonest man with his applied technology. “We have for sometime past the point of uniformly workable technology” – indeed! He never demonstrated what that meant exactly.