I agree and did a post called the Secret of Scientolgy Part 1 at ESMB that has the Christ implants and many others quoted for your enjoyment .

Please read it and let me know your opinion – I even quoted your comments after reading them here .

I think we have to question the validity of all such states, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot be helpful.

They can be helpful, but not helpful enough to be worth pursuing. I favour the ancient Greek idea that a fulfilling life was found in “the exercise of vital powers” (both intellectual and physical).

Practices like meditation, to my mind, encourage the idea that truth can be found by revelation, without personal effort. It actually takes endless hard work to even approach of… just about anything.

This is why I wrote:

Life changing insights may be found in strange places. However, I tend to think that Humans are social animals, who find themselves in their interactions with others not by navel-gazing. If you try to ‘find yourself’ in isolation (as in the practice in Scientology TRs and Auditing) you may, one day, look within and find that there is nobody there.

The ability to develop a ‘theory of mind’ is wired into the brains of most humans. This enables us to have empathy and compassion – which are our most valuable ‘vital powers’. We really do need to exercise them more.

In reading recent posts, another contradiction struck me.

On the one hand, Hubbard claimed there was no Christ.

But I seem to recall in another taped lecture he talked about how there was a Christ — a “keyed-out OT” — who showed up from time to time in different parts of the universe.

I think my memory on this is correct — crap, I listened to and read those materials so many times they got burnt into my brain to some extent. Part of the indoctrination I believe. When I was “in” the saying “number of times over the materials” equated to mastery of the materials. Now it strikes me that “number of times over the materials” also equates to a sort of drill that indoctrinated you.

Anyway, I don’t recall the source of there was some Christ guy who showed up at different times on different planets.

Maybe someone recalls.

The condition of the OT3’s which you describe reminds me of the opening chapters of Nancy Many’s book “My Billion Year Contract” where she describes her state of mind during the psychotic break that caused her to leave the CofS.

It sounds to me as if the extreme, unremitting, stress of her situation created a fugue state – a self-protective flight from reality, complete with delusions drawn from Hubbard’s ‘space opera’. Ironically, it seems to have a good thing for her (in the long run) because to took her out of the organisation.

I know a psychiatric nurse in an acute unit in the UK – a place where people in crisis are diagnosed and stabilised. Modern medication is often very beneficial for seriously disturbed people in this situation – it prevents them hurting themselves, and speeds their recovery.

It must be a serious problem for psychiatrists when they prescribe beneficial medication to disturbed Scientologists. If they do not understand how their patients have been indoctrinated their reaction is likely to lead to a wrong diagnosis of paranoia – they will be diagnosing Hubbard, not the person before them.

I expect you have read, “Bounded Choice” by Janja Lalich – if not, I would strongly recommend it. Although it does not discuss Scientology, everything she says about “charismatic cults” is directly relevant.

I agree (and have argued elsewhere) that cognitive behaviour therapy is likely a good approach for people who have left Scientology, and are having difficulty overcoming ingrained patterns of thought (raking over the past” would definitely be counter-productive). Also non-judgemental, unconditional support is probably the best way to dispel the Scientology mindset – this is why the CofS goes to so much trouble to isolate their members from the wider world.

I suppose the problem is that, while there are commonalities in the psychiatric problems suffered by Scientologists, every person is different, and their unique personality and pre-existing conditions make a one-size-fits-all treatment impossible and undesirable..

The best solution is probably a support centre with specialised psychiatric help at hand. The problem with this, of course, would be the hostility of the CofS and the problem of raising money for such a facility.

Finally, I was wondering about the fate of people who may have spent years in a CofS compound obsessively perusing a pointless task (e.g. filing case folders) with minimal human contact. How will they cope with the collapse of the organisation, and being ‘cast out’ into a wider world of which they have no knowledge or experience?

Roger that. Thanks for your replies, Jon. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

A STRANGE GAME.
THE ONLY WINNING MOVE IS
NOT TO PLAY.

HOW ABOUT A NICE GAME OF CHESS?

How many times do I have to tell you, it’s ‘borogove’ not ‘borogrove’. I’d hate to have to write you up for squirrelling! But you are absolutely right. Notice his double acknowledgements, too. McMaster told me that Hub was livid that he could always get a result with a PC, whereas Hub often struggled (and frequently grew bored, so started telling the PC what the incident was – but then if you never evaluate for the PC what the hell is OT III?)

http://tonyortega.org/2014/08/21/jon-atack-the-games-l-ron-hubbard-played/ He made the games but didn’t follow the rules. DM knows the rules. The rest of us are just pieces and not allowed to know the rules.

It depends what he thought we’d win. I think it was probably something deeply unpleasant. Though, if you do escape it is a learning that cannot be had elsewhere. Once you realize that perhaps humility might be a good idea, you’re on the road out.