It’s Saturday. Time for us to get our weekly dose of Terra Cognita.
Fingers crossed for tonite. In case you are confused, there are TWO Emmy Award shows. The one today (and continuing tomorrow) is called the Creative Arts Emmy Awards and it includes many categories not considered “Prime Time” — including documentaries as well as advances in sound editing and that sort of stuff. The “Big” or “Prime Time” Emmy show is next weekend and is broadcast live on CBS. This one is broadcast on FXX at 8pm tonite.
Now, on with Terra.
Wins and Arbitraries
Lots of people have had wins in Scientology. Lots of people haven’t. Some of these wins have been huge. Some…so, so.
One thing for sure, wins are subjective. A win may appear as fantasy to some but it’s still a win in the eye of the beholder.
Was there something special about LRH’s tech that allowed for these wins? Did he discover some hidden door to the human psyche that everyone else had overlooked? Or did he simply “reorganize” that which had already been developed by those that came before him?
Lab Rats
I would guess that if we rounded up a thousand random people, twinned them up, stuck each pair in a private room for a few hours a day, and had them bare their souls to each other, a number of them would have fabulous realizations, brilliant cognitions, and obtain fantastic wins.
We could facilitate this experiment by teaching them to communicate first—like on a special course. We could further increase the odds of people having wins by creating a snazzy code which included such points as:
Promise to not evaluate for your twin or tell him what he should think about his case in session.
Promise not to invalidate your twin’s case or gains in or out of session.
Promise not to process a twin who is improperly fed or hungry.
Promise never to get angry with a twin in session.
Promise to grant beingness to the twin in session.
Promise to maintain communication with the twin and not to cut his comm or permit him to overrun in session.
Promise not to permit sexual liberties or violations of twins.
Shower regularly and smile a lot.
And just think what these twins could accomplish is they were given lists of questions specifically designed to uncover all that hidden crap causing their shitty lives—questions regarding communication, problems, overts and withholds, fixed conditions—those sorts of things. Wow.
We could graph their wins on a Bell curve. At the left-hand side would those who experienced little to no wins. On the far right would be those who had tremendous gains and whose lives were radically changed for the better. The majority would fall somewhere in the middle.
For many of our thousand guinea pigs, these sessions would mark the first time they’d ever been fully listened to and acknowledged by a fellow human being. Some would have had their minds blown. Communicating with another person is powerful damn therapy.
Okay…Stand Back, Ron
LRH was right to twin people up, teach them to communicate, and lock em up in a room with lists of questions. Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave well enough alone. For a man who railed against “arbitraries,” he continually introduced new twists and turns into his processes until he eventually went into hiding in Creston. And died.
Perhaps his biggest arbitraries were the OT Levels. Many would consider his obsession with overts, withholds, and ethics a close second. Appending specific EPs to all his courses and auditing processes was another. The e-meter was a huge arbitrary! So was the institution of an Examiner. So was Qual. So was turning Dianetics and Scientology into a religion.
Over and over again, LRH introduced arbitraries. His hubris was so great that he couldn’t conceive of his processes not working, and so he couldn’t stop himself from fiddling with things. If something failed or wasn’t going well, it had nothing to do with him. It was because people weren’t educated anymore. They couldn’t read. They’d taken drugs. And thus, Ron was forced to “dumb-down” and simplify the tech. (It doesn’t make sense, I know.)
Every time something didn’t work or go as planned, he invented something to “correct” it. And if this didn’t solve the problem, he created a whole new level to explain things. For instance, when the state of “Clear” turned out to be a dud, he invented body thetans and the OT levels—which was just another long string of arbitraries—to explain what was holding people back from reaching that vaunted state they’d read about in DMSMH.
That traumatic incidents were strung along lengthy chains in a reactive mind was a cool concept back in the day. That these chains extended back quadrillions of years was harder to believe. That many of these incidents “belonged” to disembodied spiritual beings plastered to our bodies was ludicrous.
Taking control of our lives was laudable. Accepting we were total cause over everything under the sun was ridiculous.
Understanding that we were responsible for our lives was helpful. That we were responsible for the drunk driver that ran the red light that paralyzed our best friend was tougher to accept. That Jane was responsible for the cancer eating away at her organs was mean.
Last Words
Ron expected spectacular wins. All the time. Anything less was unacceptable. Or so he wrote.
For those who didn’t get what was promised, don’t worry, he’s working on a solution and will be back soon.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
Appending specific EPs to all his courses and auditing processes” I see this as a way of him ascerting in the mind of his subjects his God like possition of “I know it all” from the beginning to the end. That’s hypnosis by putting you on a fixed expectation.
“LRH was right to twin people up,lock them up in a room with lists of questions.” NO! He was NOT RIGHT! First of all,the list of questions are not even healthy to begin with.That is not healthy communication the whole auditing procedure. He took normal,healthy communication and twisted into something unhealthy and claimed he discovered it? The only tech.As with everything else he took credit for inventing.For example,”word clearing”,a special Scientology discovery/secret.LMFAO.We all learned language arts in elementary school.Word definitions.Look up words in dictionaries. If they’d allow their children to go to school(or if they had gone themselves),that’s a normal part of it! Even as adults,we never stop learning.Its not a Scientology technique.He just gave it a weird science fiction name and said he invented it.Hilarious
Congrats to both of you! I absolutely love your show; this ‘religion,’ but seems more like a cult. I never knew how messed up this ‘life style’ was. Creating enemies, making people go against others, even their own families. I wish more people knew about this ridiculousness!
-Courtney from Boston MA
CONGRATULATIONS Leah & Mike & Contributors & A & E :
What was so hoped & prayed for has come to fruition, AFTERMATH has WON their EMMY!!!! So much time, hard work, travel, being away from their families, having smear sites established against them…yet they bravely moved forward as Leah said “we are honored to be the vessel to tell this stories. … This belongs to our contributors, the brave ones, who are telling their stories”.
No one could have said that more eloquently & with pure heart & thought than Leah & Mike. All of this was NOT for “naught”….it was to shine the light on the inner sanctum of what really is going on behind the face of “the organization”. To hear those sad stories of life inside, the abuse of children, adults, the sick, the elderly, the talk of the policy seemingly of mandatory abortions “or else” ; how finances are completely sucked dry & the organization still wants more, the price of books & auditing, to hear about the shortage of food to being feed rice & beans daily & even toilet paper rarely available, while the “head of the Cherch” is living in a penthouse with all his needs being met.
It is an honor, although I’ve not personally met these lovely people, to hear them open their hearts & bare their very souls of their deepest & darkest personal journey through this HELL on Earth……you’ve more than earned your place in our hearts & also in Heaven.
Tears have been shed I am sure, but these are now tears of JOY….the WORLD has heard you…ALL of you….you haven’t been forgotten, won’t ever be forgotten, your stories matter.
Somewhere out there, someone is in a safe harbor away from the storm….he sn’t a happy camper & I am sure those fists are flying in rage. He never expected an EMMY WIN for Aftermath…………JUSTICE has been served & will continue to be served.
WoooHooooo Leah & Mike, Congrats & Kudos on a job WELL DONE!
Reading this caused me to wonder whether LRH was truly a man before his time, only not for what he thought. Certainly ‘spectacular wins’ ‘all the time’ reminds me of today’s business mantra of continual growth, at all times, with anything less being unacceptable. That concept however is killing us & our world … parallels with where scientology is at. I thought from what I’ve read & learned anyway ?
The e-meter was part of the set up in the early 50s thanks to Volney Mathieson the inventor of the device and then Ron announced we don’t use it any more citing inaccuracy I believe as the main reason and then lo and behold 4 years later in 1958 I believe (I’m writing this from my perfect recall rather than having the docs in front of me) it was back in when two guys showed Ron the e-meter they had made calling it the Hubbard Electro-psychometer. Oh that Ron!
MIKE!
Congratulations to you, Leah, and the entire Aftermath Team for the Emmy. I am so happy for you.
Looking back, way back, to the very day and hour you left scientology, could you ever imagine in your wildest dreams that a day like this could happen??
Your win is an inspiration for all those who seek to right the wrongs of the world, who battle injustice, and who stand up to bullies.
No lookey to good for Clearwater with hurricane Irma. SP Diamond Dave better check his O/Ws (overts and withholds).
Irma is bringing midget davey his own BeatDown ! Wonder if he will open the Fort Harrison to the hurricane victims ?
TC, thanks for another great, thought-provoking piece.
The really interesting experiment, would be to have other control groups, like 1,000 people doing the Rogerian person-centered therapy that co-auditing mimics, and another doing nothing more than the regular things in their life including going to church, doing yoga, rock climbing, etc. And better yet, one more group put through a brief placebo process and told (given the suggestion) that it will cause them to have insights and accelerated life improvements during the course of their normal life. Then we could really see how things compare – and I suspect that Dianetics and Scientology would not turn out to producing any remarkable results.
Another thing that I think is at work in Scientology, is that in order to try to solve the problem of not producing the promised results, Hubbard “juiced” his his work with suggestive and hypnotic process like the TRs, and the induced false memories of past lives, in order to possibly get better results for a few people, and give the illusion of more impressive results overall – but at the cost of harms that have yet to be fully reckoned. I suspect that if proper studies were done on Dianetics and Scientology, they would end up being shut down when unacceptable levels of adverse reactions, like psychological disassociation and psychosis, were encountered; this is the same fate that happens to some drugs that show promise in initial tests, and that may even have helped some people, but which in more thorough testing turn out to be too unreliable and unpredictable to use safely on a widespread basis.
Well said. The infamous but scathingly accurate Australian Anderson Report got to the meat of the Hubbardian treatment of ordinary people – it was command a.k.a. authoritative hypnosis, which could easily result in the subject going into an unhealthy state of disassociation. Quoting the Report: “Many of Hubbard’s processes, especially those developed in the 1950’s, were deliberately designed to produce “exteriorization”, a state or condition known to psychiatrists as “disassociation”, which is produced by hypnotic means. Dissociation is an hallucinatory experience in which the subject believes that he is outside his body. ” Cleverly, Hubbard renamed disassociation to ‘Exteriorization’, calling it a win for the person experiencing it, all to undermine the psych nomenclature.
The Report continues to warn against the hypnotic, repetitive nature of auditing with a statement that holds as true today as it did decades ago when the Report was written: “These are dangerous procedures in unskilled hands.”
Of course, current CoS might claim that is old news, that the Report is over 50 years old, that procedures have changed since then, or that the Report was unreasonably influenced the author’s religious beliefs, and to some extent the religion complaint has some validity. However, the basic elements of the Report have stood the test of time.
At some point CoS started trying to refuse to serve anyone with a psych history, trying to eliminate one population most at risk from their auditing techniques. However, so many people have experienced disassociation,and even worse, have slid into psychotic breaks using CoS tech, that even the CoS has developed policies to try to control the negative effects of its own tech.
Two famous times when the CoS procedures went terrible wrong were the Lisa McPherson death, and the murder of Ellie Perkins by her paranoid schizophrenic son. In both cases the principles only received CoS-approved treatment instead of treatment recommended by appropriate licensed medical doctors. I am sure there have been other perhaps less serious breaks with reality for CoS members using CoS tech, because by its original design it tries to remove the person from his normal sensibility and view of himself, and of the world around him.
Sure, there is value of having a dedicated listener; I myself manned a phone crisis hotline for several years. We were a respected non-profit organization whose phone volunteers were called Listeners, and that was our primary trained skill. The goal was to let people sort out possible solutions to their dilemma by letting them talk without being judged, hopefully helping them to sort out their own existing support groups. . But CoS tries to move its members into a state of being that was originally imagined by a control hungry, narcissistic science fiction writer who, at the time he imagined the OT levels, was known to be using drugs, which he normally avoided.
Over the years, especially from the late 60s on, LRH tweaked his ‘religion’ with various new policies, procedures and proclamations, each to be followed as if gospel sent down from on high. Things only got worse for confused CoS members after LRH died and Miscavige got control of the tech. DM made his own tech tweaks, mostly to generate new revenue from the same old membership, but also designed to insulate himself from contact with anyone not of and for the CoS, and to punish and drown internal CoS criticism to protect his absolute CoS power and position.
Ok, I’m usually a day late reading blog, but tonight? Only a couple of hours. YeeeHAW!! CONGRATULATIONS!!
Though I stopped reading and responding to Alanzosblog, Marty, Marildi, etc, as fairly repetitious and by people with blinders on, this is the kind of cheap shot essay and responses that validate those blogs as having a legitimate viewpoint in many respects. Just keep making less of other people’s wins and realities as completely worthless and putting quite marks around the word, and mocking EVERY single part of the subject and you’ll continue to get the same stuff on these posts over and over and over and over … and look very less intelligent doing so.
(psst … Chuck … we know by now that you don’t believe in soul flying )
Thanks Joe. We WILL continue to expose the dangerous scam. Despite your resistance.
Sorry.
Do you think the Grades actually produce a “release state” (culmination of “ability gained” as stated in the 4 flows-Flow 1, 2, 3, and 0)?
The “wins” are just steps along the individual rundowns’ or Grade’s long series of wins, which will accumulate to the “ability gained” state.
Do you see “abilities gained” per the HCOB that lists out for intances the Lower Grades’ “abilities gained, as being obtained, for real?
And do you see the Clear state as being a real state that is achieved and maintained for life, by those that obtain the “abilities gained” ?
That to me, a paper laying out, even anecdotal, of say 500 ex’s, who today are carefully surveyed to even try to find out if the “abilities gained” are honestly a fact or not.
I’d like to see a bunch of at least solidly laid out bios of people who claim they have the “abilities gained” of the HCOB that lists out the lower Grades “abilities gained” and do some surveying of their lives, to grade them in at least a little greater anecdotal depth to judge this.
I agree with you, Joe. I had wins in Scn, but don’t feel safe talking about them here because of so many people ready to jump on you and invalidate you and as you say, use the word “wins” with quotation marks around it and a smirk on the face. I say to those people, if someone has a win from whatever source, just let them have it. Let them live and you live and we don’t have to crush everyone in our sight.
my “wins” cost me about 40 years and a half million bucks.
How much did yours cost?
“Don’t feel safe.” Ah, yes, the current au courrant buzz word. Well, we certainly wouldn’t want you to be endangered, Cindy, so you’d best not post else. But I wonder: why haven’t these wins of your made you impervious to to opinions of others?
Quotation marks for ‘wins’ can be necessary when writing for the uninitiated, so to speak, who might also need the writer to define LRH or CoS or COB or DM or Ethics or Withholds or Coverts or Int or Flag, etc.
‘Wins’ in quotes could also mean the writer does not believe a win actually occurred, or was of any permanence, of much value, or could be recognized by anyone except the individual claiming the win. ‘Win’ in quotes could be a smirking attempt to demean a claim of a win.
Or ‘wins’ could be written that way just because the writer is, like me, not really a writer, just a high school dropout (with BA degree at age 43). I have to keep a supply of semi-colons, hyphens, quotation marks and apostrophes waiting in the wings to cover for when I am at a loss for proper punctuation and sentence structure. As DM once noted, the march of the semi-colons…
I would be interested in hearing about wins, especially if they came with additional explanatory information. I’d like to know, just for curiosity, exactly what program (TR? audits?) was used to obtain the win, how many hours of work were involved, what year it happened and how long has the win endured (i.e. was it a fleeting good feeling, or a significant and so far permanent change of behavior), and of course, being a thrifty Scot, how much did it all cost – both in dollars, in time, in opportunity cost, perhaps family weakening or strengthening, perhaps time spent with children or away from them and the cost to the children of being raised without a parent or two every day, or the cost to children for being sent off to the Sea Org or Scientology school at a very young age, and so on.
There are many factors one could think of to try to determine the true total cost over time of any individual win. It would be very helpful if I could understand the value of a win by a breakdown of its true cost to the person and to those closest to him.
Anyone want to define their win in such detail?
It seems to me…….
Mike’s posts expose the hypocrisy of hubbard and tech. They show the lies told by hubbard and scientologists, and tell of the harm that is a direct result of applying standard scientology.
His guest contributors do the same, as well as offer their own experience, musings, suggestions, and humor.
I don’t get the idea that Mike or his guest bloggers are in favor of the practice of scientology.
This is all very fine with me and it’s why I am comfortable here. I’m still newly mentally out and raw (easily evidenced by my wounded posts) and I would not be here if it was a site with a great deal of “the tech is good in the following ways”.
….
Many of us don’t have great outlets or safe ears at the ready. This is the first place we can say bad things about scientology or poke fun at any of it. ..
or tell the truth about it.
tell the truth over and over and over again and have someone kind and safe say, “i hear you”, “you’re not alone”
….
I do not feel that this is a place to come if you want to try to convince others that scientology has good bits, or to share your wins and have a general group agreement and pat on the back.
We’re the wrong audience.
….
There are probably other places you could go for that. Don’t go to an Italian joint and be pissed you can’t order Chinese.
Secret for now,
I hear you. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not beating the drum for LRH or the tech. And I’d like to see them lose their tax exempt status and crumble. Then maybe I’ll get my two kids back. But having said that, one of my beefs with C of $ is that you have to agree with everything they say. It is their way or the highway. And if you are not 100% in lockstep with them, you are shot. Let’s don’t stoop to their level and shoot everyone who isn’t in lockstep with your own particular opinions or viewpoints. That’s all I’m saying. We shouldn’t do the same thing that we object to in the C of $.
Cindy, I agree with you 100%. I don’t see how this post invalidated anybody’s wins though.
yes! me too. The original post by Joe was that which I protested. It’s off base and then threatens to paint Mike and this blog and the commenters with the same brush as that nut sack Marty.
Exactly, secretfornow
Joe – this article making less of wins made me uncomfortable as well.
I think some people forget or don’t know that Scn was presented very differently in the past. Making blanket statements is risky (lose credibility) and inaccurate imho.
“I think some people forget or don’t know that Scn was presented very differently in the past. ”
Oh we know.
It was so different when it was the “science” of Dianetics.
It was so different before Hubbard created the “religion” of Scientology.
It was so different before he came up with KSW.
It was so different before the Sea Org.
It was so different before the cash grab price increases.
It was so different before the GO invaded govt offices.
It was so different before the Mission Massacre.
It was so different before Hubbard went into hiding.
It was so different before Miscavige took over.
It was so different before GAT.
It was so different before GAK.
It was so different before GATII.
It was so different for everyone, depending on when they left.
I’ve found it hard and yet amazing to come to this site and ‘connect’ up again to ‘the group’. I was away for a long time. Most of us have our own pain we experience one way or another from our association with Scn. I was fortunate enough to leave when I did, and not hang around for the suppression to go full bore and take over. The insane out-regging and staff control of the past, I got over long ago. I’ve never considered the Bridge that I did to be a waste of time or money. (It was not outrageously expensive back in 1974). My pain is in coming back and seeing what the group has disintegrated into. So many hurt. Main group twisted into insanity (apparently). I do think there are others out there like me, who come to this blog for updates and to hear stories and empathize. Thanks.
As an ex-scientologist, the thing that I still can’t wrap my mind around is the idea that people will get upset about their scientology ” wins” being ” invalidated”. Hubbard intentionally designed a scheme to sell people very expensive pieces of blue sky, whilst fucking up their minds and their lives-and took PLEASURE in doing so. I feel no need to cling to the idea that my hypnotically-induced states of euphoria experienced while in scientology validate its beliefs and practices OR my decision to involve myself with them. I fucked up. I am learning from my mistake. For those of you who want to continue to believe,in spite of the abundant evidence to the contrary, that you were involved in some kind of beneficial and spiritual activity that produced the results it promised, go ahead. But…don’t get mad at the people who point out the glaring inconsistencies, lies, toxic practices, and unmitigated fuckery that form the core tenets and practices(yes, including the ” auditing”) of the ” philosophy” that gave you your ” wins”.
yes to all of this.
True Mark. Part of what this post points out is that these same “wins” can/could be gotten elsewhere and with that, I agree. It doesn’t change the fact that I had some great realizations about myself and my life from the Grades. Where it gets muddy is when you consider that the Grades are part of the whole scheme. You can’t just take them out as a standalone – they’re part of the bigger package, which I disagreed with then and still disagree with now. While I don’t “regret” anything I did/got particularly, my time could have been better spent elsewhere. C’est la vie.
Congrats Leah and Mike! Scientology: The Aftermath Emmy winner for Best Informational Series or Special at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards!
Congrats to Leah & Mike, the whole production crew for Aftermath, and everyone who participated on the EMMY win!!!
OH Mike, Mike, Mike – congrats on the Emmy!
Speaking of wins, Mike, Leah, and everyone affiliated with the show just got the biggest of them all.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Congratulations Leah and Mike on your well deserved Emmy win.
I would like to congratulate Mike and Leah for their Emmy win for the show. Because of you two (and others) I have no doubt that these abuses will be stopped and many will live who would have died.
Speaking of wins, looks Leah, Mike and Aftermath won their Emmy
Congratulations on your win tonight – so well-deserved. And thanks for your fearless and important work, you make us believe that right will out…
I don’t know, seems to me if you were able to be knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time, that you could reverse the spin of a hurricane a bit. If so, you’d better hurry up, comin right dead center to Clearwater.
Bingo! Rob! One of my earliest awareness in scio was that since it was *I* who was doing the work, looking inward, baring my soul, any “wins” there were to be had belonged to ME. Not the tech, not the auditor, not the C/S, etc. ME! One of the many good things I worked on, got answers for and changed to my satisfaction, was the totally freeing awareness on OT 3 that I was running Hubbard’s case! And it so turned out to be true.
There was much to be had from “doing the work”, but that’s something each of us has to judge for ourselves. All the theories and explanations in the posts above are what their authors believe. None of them can tell me what I got for wins, how they applied to my life or what their value was/is. I got out just as DM was coming in. I smelled a rat and acted on that. No one noticed I was gone. So the awareness served me well I’m not sorry I was in; not sorry that I left. It was an adventure from which the best win was a superlative one, the woman to whom I’m married. How the hell could I beat that??? LOL
This post was in answer to Rob Williamson’s post far below.
This link is live streaming to Clearwater Beach. I am sure you will see many CoS “first responders” out there on Monday. I do not want to see anyone hurt or property damage, but it would be kinda wonderful if the Ft. Harrison would fly off into the sunset or get sucked into a spaceship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fQ2Wucb7LA
“Was there something special about LRH’s tech that allowed for these wins? Did he discover some hidden door to the human psyche that everyone else had overlooked? Or did he simply “reorganize” that which had already been developed by those that came before him.”
The specialness about Ron was that he was extremely conceded. His unhealthy ego marketed to us his uniqueness. He formulated and codified some things in a unique way. But the mind behind that uniqueness was a Malignant Narcissist. Someone who had a big problem with being criticized and was willing to harm those who criticized him.
Ron was a creative genius. An articulate, mentally unstable and dangerous genius.
Attaining OT VI, Class VI IN 1970, the great success and happiness I gained in life started when I disconnected from Scientology in 1984. I have never regretted it for one moment.
Can´t help wondering; what did you do in CofS between 1970 til 1984??
Personally I left autumn 1982 after been to Flag doing New OTIV –and glad I did!
Good for you to get out, BruMor! Leaving Scientology is where you get the best wins!
I always have wins because that is my character.
Much bigger wins outside scientology than inside.
Biggest win in scientology OT8.Not because i got anything out of it but because I could do it.Kind of like climbing a mountain to find nothing but ice.
Xenu’s son, I’m the same way. I had wins on all the grades; how could I not?
Xenu’s son, I want to add that my experience is different, because I got my auditing as a staff member and did not pay thousands of dollars for it. That makes a big difference. I never had concerns and pressure about how much time it was taking or how much money I was spending.
“You can argue about and believe whatever you want, but the real abusive nature of Scientology is in the abusive practice. It is the fake “therapy”, the addictive “wins”, and the desperate extreme acts of those who cannot shake their addiction.” THIS!
Dearest Lovely Leah & Mike….
So it’s stated that “Lots of people have had wins in Scientology”…..so I would like to add that lots of people who bravely stepped forward to bare their deepest darkest life inside “the organization” have the biggest wins OUTSIDE COS.
The more people willing to reveal themselves, the more & more that comes to light on the abuse & mistreatment of children, adults, the elderly….the bigger problem the COB is going to have to explain it all.
What gives him the right to physically assault another human beings? Laying hands on another is plain and simply a physical assault….emotional distress is just as bad.
I am sure when AFTERMATH wins the award…it will NOT be “Xenu” who presents it to you.
I am sending loving thoughts & prayers to Leah & her family & Mike & his family. THANK YOU for allowing your spouse the time away for you to bring forward to the viewers truth & light to shine on those who’ve been treated badly. Your gift is allowing so many abused & mistreated former members to begin to heal. We ALL support you for your generosity in spirit in sharing your family with US…….xoxoxox
PS: I am quite sure that when AFTERMATH wins the award…it will NOT be “Xenu” who presents it to you.
I agree!…..Xenu will be too busy mopping up the storm water down at flag !
Elron made the fatal mistake of disguising his protean fraud scheme as a religion, which not only promised salvation in the after-life, but also guaranteed that objectively verifiable abilities — such as flawless recall, perfect vision and immunity to disease — were 100% standardly attainable by all through $cn processing.
Since no one has ever been able to demonstrate any of those fabulous promised abilities, the complete failure to do so tends to erode confidence in the cult’s metaphysical claims as well. New religions that make wild claims about the attainability in this lifetime of god-like super powers which turn out to be utter bullshit, just don’t have any credibility at all when it comes to its claims about the after-life.
On a related note, it appears at the time of this writing that Irma is bearing down on Clearwater, which lies dead in the middle of this monster storm’s predicted path. If that does in fact occur, then from the completely whacked scientological perspective, the cult will have pulled it in! It’s either that or $cilons would have to come to grips directly with the fact that there are no OT super powers.
However, what if the storm were to make a sudden and unexpected turn away from the southwest coast of Florida, sparing CW from most of the destruction, would that provide supporting evidence for the efficacy of OT cause-over-MEST super powers?
Of course not, that’s just more idiotic, magical thinking $cn nonsense!
there was a hurricane coming towards my area some years back, right when there had been some IAS event scheduled. I told the person on the phone that I wouldn’t be going to the event as there was a hurricane coming at that time. She told me that the OTs had banded together and were going to postulate the hurricane dissipating and missing us.
I told her I would not be risking my life based upon this. She was miffed.
The hurricane hit us and many areas were without power for 2 weeks. (probably my fault, right?)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I don’t wish harm on anyone in Tampa or Clearwater, but if I hear that the Sandcastle is flattened and the Fort Harrison is leveled, I won’t deny – I’m going to cheer.
……..
I REALLY wonder what is happening there now – so often I’ve heard the BS about OTs coming to the rescue.
If it hits, it’s the SPs, if it misses, it was the work of the local OTs. Either way, Flag remains full of shit.
……..
I can barely keep my mouth shut, Oh, but I want to call up Flag and ask them if they have the OTs ready to blow the hurricane back out to sea.
……..
Oh, and wouldn’t it have been lovely if the hurricane had been named “Leah”?
My fantasy: Emmy is in the bag tonight, and then Hurricane Leah flattens the FH and Flag building tomorrow.
…
Now there would be some justice.
LOL! Your fantasy!
Dave,
Irma is tracking up the West coast of Florida, headed toward stomping through the lobby of your Sandcastle on the bay. Where are your 200,000 volunteers when you need them?
You know I remember when I was at Flag during hurricane Charley 2004. It was tracking for Tampa as a direct hit but at the last moment it turned south and hit port Charlotte. The word afterwards that “OTs” claimed to have kicked away with their theta boot. Batshit crazy talk.
Wonder if Mike has a plan if this storm comes through?
If I’m understanding auditing….there really isn’t any comm going on….communication requires 2-way. One asking questions and the other answering is called an interrogation. An exchange of ideas or concepts, theories, perceptions, understanding where both grow and learn and elevate to a better understanding of the other…that’s communication. Repetitive questions to brow beat someone to divulge some hidden experience or thought or past behavior or secret never shared before….that’s interrogation. I don’t see any wins in this…
As far as processing, people do heal and fears do lesson when they openly narrate trauma experiences; however, they can often be re-traumatized if not emotionally prepared to cope with these suppressed emotions. Teaching individuals to suppress them in order to avoid and cope is the root of PTSD.
Correct me if I’m wrong but nothing I’ve learned so far illustrates to me anything healthy about the auditing process. And likely, for many, dealt/deals with the negative after effects when they are alone….
Some of the stories of the damage to members who have chosen to escape as they struggle in the aftermath is testimony to the psychological/emotional wounds caused by the tech.
No, I feel it doesn’t need such a harsh appraisal if done away from the control methodology enforced by the Cof$. However, Scientology is such a dirty word now, that perhaps you might be better off with the understanding you have of it as you commented.
But, like most things in life, if an asshole gets a hold of something, well… caveat emptor.
I Yawn, an asshole didn’t get a hold of it. It was CREATED by an asshole to harm people.
You have an eye/brain opening view. I never thought about the other half. All I got was LRH ksw tech. One-sided undead. Thank you 🙂
Dear Teen,
What you write is likely true of auditing since 2000. In the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s the professional auditor had leeway and could have easily been described as a ‘guide’ to the preclear as they worked with two-way communication and the grade processes. If you play back S2, Episode 4, Special, you will watch Bruce Hines demonstrate ‘auditing’ as I remember it, and did it. It was much as two friends discussing an area of life of importance to the preclear. I even had the e-meter off to the side of our line of sight on some preclears so we could see facial and body expressions clearly. It was called ‘being with the preclear’. Those days are long gone and never to return, at least in the idle morgues.
jim incorrectly w”rote: “What you write is likely true of auditing since 2000. In the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s the professional auditor had leeway and could have easily been described as a ‘guide’ to the preclear as they worked with two-way communication and the grade processes.
No jim. “Muzzled” auditing was introduced in the 60’s by Hubbard. What you describe is properly called squirreling by Hubbard.
Best wishes to you, Mike and Leah, you deserve to win big at the Emmy’s!! What you both are doing is Awesome, I’m praying for you and all the people/victims you are helping. Brave souls like you are what the world needs more of today and every day.
I kept a journal of my so-called “wins” in Scientology. I read them now – 4 years after leaving – and I am mortified I ever called them “wins”.
They are stupid to me now and make no sense.
Let me read a few of them to you…Here is a really stupid one that I had finishing my Grades!
“I realized that people do help people” WTF??????
I have suffered from people pleasing and co-dependency my whole life. Scientology exploited that character defect and made it worse.
I became very confused on the subject of HELP.
Scientologists don’t help anyone.
They are convinced giving any type of PHYSICAL UNIVERSE MEST help is out exchange.
When my 2-D moved – no one helped him/ her. When he/she went into the hospital and needed help with the kids, animals, house – no one helped us or even came to visit.
What I realize now – is that if you spend enough money and jump through enough “Scientological Hoops” aka “flying ruds” and ethics – you will call tying your shoe … a “win”.
The truth is – Scientology actually causes loses of abilities and skills due to the
State of Confusion
Scientology puts a person in.
They don’t “go clear” – they “Go Confused”.
Scientology truly exploits a persons vulnerabilities whilst boosting the false ego at the same time.
That is what happens when you use mind control tactics to trap people into Scientology.
First they convince people to not trust any other new sources and in many instances – they get people to stop reading any news or listening to anyone other than LRH.
Scientology uses repeaters …..in the commands:
“Go Clear”
“Get up the Bridge”
“Clear the Planet”
“Go Oat Tea”
“Move up in Status”
does to a human being…
It gets embedded into the subconscious mind – and the subject has been hypnotised.
The waxing “wins” shown at the events – make the person want it.
The command has been implanted into the subconscious …. just waiting for the person to take action – pull out credit cards and max them out, go bankrupt, lose home to foreclosure, end relationships you would not have normally ended had you been told the truth..
The person will die to be right and that is how you trap human beings into the cult of Scientology.
But, Idle, that’s all behind you now. You walked away from the cult, never to return. That’s what I call true freedom! It feels pretty good, doesn’t it?
Yes it is and freedom was disconnecting from Suppressive $cientology!!
A minor Saturday morning digression: following $cion has made me leary of the word ‘win’ when used as a noun. I was recently watching a music instruction video on You Tube and the instructor said: “Keep doing all your scales until you get them under your fingers. That’s a big win.” I was immediately suspicious. Is this musician one of “them?” I toyed with the idea of asking him an email but decided against it. Look what scientology is doing to me: making me paranoid or nothing – and I was never in.
make that ‘paranoid OVER nothing.’
Yes, I agree Terra. Your succinct method of writing about Scientology has improved out of sight. I haven’t always agreed with all that you say, but lately you’ve been spot on – kudos to you!
Hubbard had his head up his ass as to the infallibility of his ‘tech.’ So much work he committed to and it is unfortunate he drown it all in his egotistical ramblings. The tech doesn’t do what he stated it can do but what an individual gets out of it, well… IF LEFT ALONE to evaluate it without the bullshit organisational doomsday scenarios shoved down one’s throat it’s got some interesting if not amazing directions to explore and compare with other so called “life explanations.”
Personally, I felt quite validated when Leah & Mike publically pulled Hubbard’s OT levels apart and exposed the circular aspect of the ‘nothing’ they contained. I’ve been maintaining that for years now, space cootie tech is, imo, Hubbard’s own case or his vivid imagination on steroids that made him a shitload of cash. Notwithstanding that if it floats your boat, great, but please don’t shove it down someone else’s throat as “their truth too”. I got something out of R6 stuff and the basic communication explanations/protocols as contained within Scientology procedures. If they came from elsewhere and Hubbard repackaged them… I don’t care. Since when does single discovery alone take precedence over workability? I’ve never claimed or been forced to verify that someone else has to own any of it first for it to be valid. Who cares?
The societal organising aspect of Scientology is a fucking disgrace and is about as criminal as it can get but removed from all that bullshit I feel it slots somewhere on the Richter scale of personal opinions for those that have had been though its technical meandering, especially away from or separated from, the space cootie bullshit.
Scientology can be an interesting adjunct to assist viewing the way people respond to mental and/or procedural influences inherent in the mind. Geezers, military parade ground drilling and hard physical disciplinary practices have some good points too but if used as a whole for control or if taken too seriously they can fuck you up if you’re not careful with your involvement.
Lot’s of lessons out there in life hey? Student or slave… I’ve never been very fond of the term ‘master’, when used away from the arts or navigation.
OT stuff, the supposed ESP and soul-flying abilities that Hubbard wished that his quackery-pseudo-therapy-exorcism supposedly would result in, but didn’t—that “OT stuff” is not there to be obtained.
IN human history, there are NO demonstrable supernatural human beings. Only lame fakers with delusions that attract hopeful followers.
Everyone would love for there to be “OT superpeople” being produced by Scientology or by any other human groups that really could produce “OT superpeople” to come save the world.
IT’s not for lack of human hope that anyone wishes ill will towards Scientology.
It’s for lack of the supernatural being real. It’s a more facing of the facts. There are no supernatural improvement training centers where people can learn to become supernatural “OT superpeople.”
Hubbard is just another baldfaced con man who has left a trail (“legacy”) of an institutionalized fake “church” that promises but doesn’t deliver what likewise no other human group has been able to produce.
No OTs. No supernaturally improved people come out the end of this Hubbard totalitarian money grubbing racket.
There is just too much Hubbard greediness and money motivated intricacies spread all deeply through the makeup of the whole Scientology operation.
All for nothing, and can’t make a silk purse out of sow’s ear fable, is what this Scientology all is.
If people got some good companionship and commiseration results, out of their Scientology quackery, then good for them!
Good point, and if you see it the Grades have an EP expressed as “Ability regained,more able to communicate,etc”, but was Ability regained.
Reaching OT Levels, the EPs were a generality, not really connected with the Solo Auditing one may have done, such as “Cause Over Life”, or so, but they sure continued to involve the secrecy and mystery that made people feel they have to pretend such an EP was achieved, whereas the only thing that happened was the creation of delusional realities.
I just wanted to say to you and Leah that I am astounded at the courage the 2 of you have. I wish I could be so brave in my personal life. I just love how you 2 refuse to allow Scientology to rule or ruin your lives. They seem to have ruined so many over the years and it would be something if the justice system would do something about it. With every show you guys do on A&E I am just brokenhearted at the stories of heartache from disconnection to financial ruin to suicides. Keep up the wonderful work and I am 1 of many whom I am sure are praying for you guys.
“For those who didn’t get what was promised, don’t worry, he’s working on a solution and will be back soon.” I loved that one, but I am afraid the Old man is stuck in target 2 somewhere around the Van Allen belt and won’t ever come back. If he ever did he would would try R45 on Dave to have him exteriorise and put his head on a pike.
Maybe every time Hubbard tried to get a new body they tell him to “fuck off!”
His complaint to Space Cooties Consolidated was rejected on technical grounds as no Space Opera lawyers want to take his case.
I love the head on a pike thing! It’s so artsy!
Lol
I love u OSD
U funny!!
Arbitraries are just too arbitrary to bother with. As is the rest of the $cieno catechism… There isn’t enough Duct tape or bailing wire to fix Dianetics or $cientology. Super Glue is not super enough to fix them either. If you’re looking for a new religion, try another vending machine.
Human history abounds with earlier similar “arbitraries” which dwarf little L. Ron Hubbard’s “arbitraries.”
Hubbard really is a cheap mid 20th century shoddy little American con fake religion that has nasty institutionalized tenacity due to Hubbard’s prolific cult staffer totalistic writings which all add up to the ongoing fake religion Sea Org and Ideal Org bureaucracies that keep the delusion self-manned up and auto pilot self continuing deluded sludging along with new generation dupes.
The whole unseen backlot policy world of Hubbard’s prolific writings keeping the staff in the background, doing their jobs, goes unnoticed but keeps this mess going.
And don’t forget Hubbard endorsed cigarette smoking and blamed the psyches for inventing pain & sex. Now that’s an interesting religious belief system isn’t it?
My greatest win was leaving Scientology.
Got a chuckle when I first read your comment, Moxie. But then I realized you were also being completely sincere. Love your usual levity here.
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Mine too :))
Moxie, hallelujah sister and amen.
But it is funny, after I left Scientology for a long time I was still in the mind-set, and it was a shocking surprise to have a win years after my last auditing session. Just from watching a sunset or coming to some realization about something. I even thought it was a latent win from my auditing – how ridiculous.
Then when I woke up finally it became obvious – having realizations or epiphanies or that a-ha moment is just a normal part of everyday life. No meter required, just pay attention and don’t take everything for granted.
Take heart, still-ins and under-the-radar flyers, you can leave Scientology and still find parking spaces – and have wins.
Bruce Ploetz – IKR?!?! I’ve experienced the same thing. 🙂 (I had parking karma before Scn and still have it today. 😉 )
That’s everyone greatest win. When I was on staff at the Honolulu mission, and walked away, I grabbed my surfboard and headed for Waikiki. I was deliriously happy! I surfed for two hours and my smile never left my face! Now that’s freedom! True freedom!
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On the day when the light of truth has lit up and exposed every single LIE of Hubbard, his life, and his false promise quack science Scientology, when its true totalitarian mind control nature has been fully deconstructed for the world’s stage, ..upon that day…..
there will be the hope of peace for the UTRs and Ex’s. and protection against mental enslavement..
and until then,
I’m not sifting through shit and nonsense to find an aspect that would help me be “a little bit right” for having done scientology.
I have stacks and stacks and stacks of ‘wins’ in all of my decades in. Of course! for I have a fertile imagination that gallops wildly down the beach, mane streaming freely at the slightest whim. The bigger the imagination, the better PC one is.
….
The scope of the lies and harm are too big and wide for me to support any clutching of wins.
………
Note: the structure of my comment is a send-up of hubbard’s ego and his reach for a Gandhi moment.
“On the day when we can fully trust each other, there will be peace on Earth.”
A New Slant on Life (1998).
………
Thanks for the post, Terra. Always look forward to your Saturday posts.
……..
fingers crossed for the award show!
“On the day when we can fully trust each other, there will be peace on Earth.”
A New Slant on Life (1998). I challenge people currently on OT7 to consider how trusted they feel when they are forced to fork over $40K a year for security checks on the level. As always what Scientology does and what Scientology says are often two different things.
Truer words were never spoken, Doug.
those sec checks are done to clean you up, keep you clean and winning, so that you can get the full result of the level and can finish in a timely fashion. It’s done solely for your benefit and it actually saves you time and money. It’s key to your survival for the next endless trillions of years.
Despite all of the work I am doing, on a bedrock level not only does this spring to mind immediately, but it also still FEELS true. For the most part I’m still brainwashed.
You know how you have an innate sense of what is right and wrong? This crap is embedded so deeply that it still FEELS right. It’s an exhausting war in my head.
…….
secretfornow, I completely understand and have experienced the same things. It does lessen as you get out there and LIVE your life and see it’s BS. I still have the conditions formulas so ingrained that I end up saying to myself, that’s BS, just do whatever in the hell you want to do – and DO it!
Well, you gotta admit, it is a new slant on life!
Oooooooo…you’re good!
OT7 was the worst experience of my life, and I’ve been in some shitty situations too. I think the worst aspect initially was my own enthusiasm to get on with it… the major let down was not far away, “there are no wins or anything of value to be had from doing this… a rip off it is”. I’d love to get my money back, not to mention an acceptable apology for being treated like a low life idiot. Scn upper management doing some time in prison would be a good start.
No shit.
“wins” are absolutely meaningless when it comes to the claims made by Hubbard and his “bridge”. One can either demonstrate the “abilities gained” claimed by Hubbard for each of his levels or one was scammed.
Nuff said…!
Good Luck Mike & Leah!
TC, good one.
“Wins”, or more technically speaking an induced light hypnotic trance state associated with dissociation and euphoria, are at the heart of the Scientology deception.
It is natural and commonplace to think you have discovered something transcendent about yourself in such a state. Sort of like a reverse association – when you really do discover something, like finding your lost car keys, you feel euphoric. So when you achieve the natural high on Scientology you assume that you have discovered something. Maybe talking about yourself for hours on end really does occasionally result in some insight.
But for the most part it is just like people who take amphetamines and suddenly have to tell you all about how the universe really works. They talk up a very excited mess of words but little of it actually makes sense.
This is the trap Hubbard fell into, and perhaps he even really believed it. At least at first. But very soon in his second career as a cult leader he realized that these electrifying events, the “wins”, had value far beyond any real psychologically therapeutic effect. When someone is having “wins” they will go back and do it again, because the “wins” feel good. Just like bungee jumping or heroine, they can be addictive.
Since there is no lasting improvement from these techniques, and doing the same one over and over gets ever lessening effects, he constantly invented new ones. But it is not possible to show any long-term improvement from them, and there is some evidence that it can be harmful. Especially in those most likely to become addicted, the ones that are already emotionally unstable.
There you go, TC, said the same thing you did with longer words!
But maybe this helps those who wonder how in the world anybody could believe Hubbard, even for a second. It’s because of the “wins”. Even today, some who reject Hubbard and the horse he rode away on (Dave) still cling to their “wins”. There is something fantastically intriguing about these forays into introspection. Even if Hubbard had a lot of things wrong, they reason, at least he knew how to get “wins”.
If you think of it as an addiction and look at us ex-Scientologists as recovering addicts with varying degrees and stages of recovery, it makes better sense.
There are all kinds of beliefs involved, from the spiritual nature of man to the interaction of the spirit with the body to all kinds of wild ideas, but these are really window dressing. You can argue about and believe whatever you want, but the real abusive nature of Scientology is in the abusive practice. It is the fake “therapy”, the addictive “wins”, and the desperate extreme acts of those who cannot shake their addiction.
“But for the most part it is just like people who take amphetamines and suddenly have to tell you all about how the universe really works. They talk up a very excited mess of words but little of it actually makes sense.”
Damn, you’re telling my story here! How embarrassing!
Ah… the need for speed!
“If you think of it as an addiction and look at us ex-Scientologists as recovering addicts with varying degrees and stages of recovery, it makes better sense.” That sums it up! Thank you!
Very good summation.
“If you think of it as an addiction and look at us ex-Scientologists as recovering addicts with varying degrees and stages of recovery, it makes better sense.”
It’s a very good model for understanding how $cn works in non-scientological terms. Similarly, the whole vast and whacky $cn belief system can be much more simply framed, based on basic behavior modification theory, which fits like a glove with the understanding that $cn is a drug which provides brief, but occasionally euphoric highs that don’t build upon themselves to some sort of stable advanced state of spiritual attainment for anyone.
It’s also very much like an addictive drug in that when you first start main-lining the Kool-aid it’s all fun and games, but pretty soon you’re just a trapped addict, struggling to survive.
Yes Bruce, that’s what I think also. Less is best 🙂
That is spot on, Bruce Ploetz. Having studied brain and central nervous system functions recently, it makes perfect sense too. Do something enough and it becomes “hardwired”, literally.
There’s no reason a person should be embarrassed about getting a win or having a grand cognition with Scientology because it’s not really Scientology that’s causing that.
Talking with another, chewing the fat, crying on a shoulder, getting stuff off your chest… has existed long before Scientology.
The ONLY thing that occurs in counseling is an exchange of thoughts in your head.
Realizing something has NOTHING to do with Scientology.
Don’t give Hubbard so much credit. He just labeled a bunch of stuff that’s existed since Man could communicate and lied about discovering it.
Rob, yeah what you said!!
I commented before I read your post.I said what you said.Great minds think alike.lol.