My harrowing experiances with Scientology

[Odibex Grallspice]

I have a lot of problems with it, but to be brutally honest, I'd probably have problems with him deciding to become a born-again evangelical Christian, too.

True enough. I really wasn't expecting a success story, though! But that's great if it works for him.

[LMNO]

What's weird is that, if you reframe it, a lot of the early stuff is really just a combination of game rules and behavior therapy.  Take the ARC triangle, for example.  The concept is that we as a society should strive for three components: Liking/Respecting each other, a shared understanding of the world, and an exchange of ideas.  They call it Affinity, Reality, and Communication.  The idea is that if you strengthen any one corner, the other two are also strengthened. 

And you really can't argue against that.  If you and I are to gain knowledge, it's best served when we aren't antagonistic, we can agree on terms, and we can exchange ideas.  Take away any one of those things, and you can find real world examples of disasterous clusterfucks.  And note that this model has no mystical or science fiction woo anywhere.  It's framed as a practical tool on how to behave and function.Where I think it goes wrong is that this, much like any model, is incomplete, but Scientologists treat this as the only true thing. 

So a lot of the early work is based on this, and on behavioral modification, which is presented as, "if you do this the result will be this."  And there is often correlation.  But what happens next begins to blur the lines.  They say, "do you want to know why this happens? Because of Engrams in the Reactive Mind."  And they proceed to weave a model that now really doesn't have any direct proof or method or tested theory.  But it sounds good, and it makes intuitive sense, and if you start to question it, they point to the earlier stuff and say, "Remember, all that worked for you.  You saw it.  You felt it.  This is just more of the same."

So, they take a more-or-less pragmatic and solid foundation, and build a tower of bullshit upon it.  But for some people, it works for them.

[Odibex Grallspice]

Yeah, no argument here. I've always had a soft spot for the whole thang. Been awhile since I really delved into it though.

[carnival]

I read a story where L. Ron. locked himself in his bathroom, naked, on like 20 hits of acid while screaming "I AM GOD!" Over and over.

[Odibex Grallspice]

I thought that was Mr. Rodgers 

[Bu🤠ns]

There's always Free Zone Scientology.  If the methods are useful to someone, I too wouldn't argue with what works for him.  To me,  it would be safer to adopt Scientology methods without the horrible cult antics that normally go with it. 

[Odibex Grallspice]

Yeah, that seems pretty cool, ya know, if I was into that kind of thing.

[LMNO]

I know about FreeZone. Tried to get him interested, to no avail.

[Cain]

The CoS takes a very, very dim view of the Freezoners.  They are essentially heretics, after all, which makes them Suppressive Persons and so possibly subject to Fair Game.  And their practices do differ from the Church in some ways.

[Bu🤠ns]

Oh yeah....Fair Game....

After all the exposure they got I'd suspect they'd ease up a bit with that crap...but why stir the hornets' nest