I was never part of Scientology, or JW but was born and raised in the Mormon religion. I found myself weeping during some of these stories, because it all sounds too familiar. I hope that your work will continue to shed light on other organizations so that those that have been abused and hurt have the courage and strength to come forth.

This is the real-life battle of David & Goliath, and we cannot let them win.

Sending love to you and your families. ❤️

Hello Kim. There are a great many ways ordinary people can help. I’m guessing that Mike did not recommend any of those ways to you because … well … forgive me for thinking I can put myself into Mike’s mindset. But I think the reason he would not do that may be because he might have felt that by doing that, it might have hurt your feelings if he suggested some way for you to help that you were just not able to do.

But I am not as kind or considerate as is Mike. He is truly a real gentleman and I’m certain that he would have put himself into your shoes and he would have decided that he just could not say anything specific to you because it could have risked hurting your feelings.

But the one thing that anyone can do is to write to The Aftermath Foundation and tell them you would be interested in helping if you could and then, they could tell you some of the ways they need help.

Have you ever heard of The Aftermath Foundation?

It is a group of wonderful people who are dedicated to helping people who have left the cult and need help. Very often when someone leaves the cult, it is an extremely traumatic experience. Since you’ve watched the TV show, you must have seen how people who leave often leave with nothing more than the clothes on their back.

If they were raised in the cult, they have precious little education except for the crazy education provided by the cult and that is no help when it comes to getting a job or finding a place to live or finding a way to make some money so they can feed themselves. There are a great many things they have no idea how to accomplish. For example, they have no idea how to get a bank account, how to get a library card, how to get basic identification – like a birth certificate or a driver’s license. The list goes on an on.

Let me just paint a picture for you. Often someone has to flee and they wind up sitting on a park bench with nothing and no idea what to do or were to go.

You can visit The Aftermath Foundation at the following web site:

theaftermathfoundation.org

If I made a spelling mistake, just search for “the aftermath foundation”.

When you go to their web site, at the top of the page, you will see a link for “Contact Us”. When you click on that, you will see various email addresses you can write if you wish to volunteer or if you wish to make a general inquiry.

Allow me to recommend you send them an email to their general inquiry address and tell them you are thinking of helping and tell them a little about yourself and then ask them how they think you could help.

I’m sure they will tell you some ways that you would feel comfortable helping. Mike Rinder is on the board of directors for this foundation and so I’m guessing he will see the email you send.

Best of luck to you and best wishes to you.

Skyler

P.S. I have nothing to do with this foundation. I am just an ordinary slug who can’t stand the way this miserable cult destroys so many families and destroys so many lives too!

Thank you. Yes, still reading!

Sincerely, Kim Griggs
kim_griggs@ yahoo.com
Greenville, SC ❤

Yes Bonnie I really think they use it to deter public officials and police etc from acting on the various reports/testimonies they get because they tend to ‘protect churches’ and the people who see it up there don’t realize it’s not a church or even a religion but a lot of slavery and mind control. That symbol doesn’t mean what the outside world might assume it means, and that’s why they co-opted it as their own. I can imagine you would feel like that about it. Were you able to even say you were Jewish for those 40 years while some of the best ideas were being stolen from Judaism or was that taboo as well? I hope you are finding this series helpful to your process of healing. Take care xx

They use the cross to represent the 8 dynamics, but I think it’s also used to align themselves more with religion. I was in for 40 years and as a Jew I resented it. It’s just more of their BS really.

Hi Indie!
There you are!
Its been a while.
I was wondering where you were.
Welcome back 🙂

jere, you’re right to point this out, and we can absolutely disagree strongly about any number of things.

Now, in my view, that doesn’t mean that such areas of disagreement cannot EVER be DISCUSSED. (Not necessarily here and as regards politics though, per the rules.)

I like to UNDERSTAND a point of view that differs widely from my own.

Therefore, if I respect the person whose viewpoint disagrees very much with mine, I want to UNDERSTAND WHY he or she holds this viewpoint.

Once I understand something I can just have it be there. I may not agree AT ALL but the differing viewpoint doesn’t “stick” me because I understand it. Again, I like to understand, when I think something is important. So I ‘ll ask questions, I’ll probe.

But jere, some people can’t HANDLE this. They either cannot or will not explain their reasoning and worse, it is upsetting to them that such a disagreement even EXISTS, never mind WHY! “We’ll never agree…there’s no point in discussing it, we’ll never see eye to eye…” Etc, etc. They fluff you off.

But I’m not trying to make that person agree with me – no! I’m just trying to LOOK from THEIR viewpoint. I’m just trying to understand.

There can be any number of viewpoints out there that I don’t necessarily agree with at all but if I can “look” from these viewpoints and kind of “be” these people who are holding these viewpoints then disagreement isn’t a problem. I’m still me. I have my viewpoint. They have theirs.. Which d
Anyway in my experience a person gets freaked out if there’s a disagreement and withdraws.

Consequently, that subject becomes “off limits” – it can NEVER be discussed. Now, that’s fine, but then, I, in my turn, know that this is someone with whom I can never be close because I will never understand that person, that’s all. And by the way, I’m not talking about me “probing” or asking for explanations about PERSONAL matters – no. I would never probe a friend or loved one about painful personal matters that person had no wish to share with me! . I’m talking about politics, politicians, religion, religious leaders, current events, economic issues, climate change, films, books – nothing personal or private! To me, all of these subjects are or can be grist for a conversational mill. Why not? And how boring if we ALWAYS 100% agreed. If we ALWAYS agreed then we would all be the same being. And its just me, but if something is important, I NEED to understand. MOST things are NOT important. A few, a very few things ARE. So, I try to understand, that’s all.
Help me to look at what YOU are looking at. If its important, help me to see what YOU see. Once I do, then, it ceases to be any kind of issue, because I know what you are looking at. Its not what I’m looking at but so what? I can SEE what you’re looking at. I understand

Here’s an example of what I mean: years ago I lived in an impoverished country. Very poor, totally uneducated black peasants elected a brutal dictator with the best of intentions. He used their trust and loyalty only to enrich himself. His policies made them poorer and in every way worse off then they’d been before they elected him their president “for life”. Did they hate this man? No they adored him. Worshipped him, almost. Why? Because he knew how to talk to them, that’s why. In Scientology, one would say he had “a good comm line into them.” He ACKNOWLEDGED them. No other leader of that country had EVER acknowledged this wretchedly poor very dark skinned underclass in this country, but HE did. Never mind that it was all a lie and a sham. Never mind that he was only using them for his own selfish financial ends; never mind that he cared nothing at all about them and proved it by his actions over and over…they loved him, they believed in him, they swore by him, and nothing, but nothing, was going to change their minds. I lived there and saw this up close. Was I angry or upset with these people in general for embracing a psychopath whose heel on their necks was worse than any of their leaders’ before? No. I understood, totally. He spoke their language. He communicated to them in their patois. He KNEW them. What he said was all lies and he never followed thru but so what? He acknowledged them, recognized them as PEOPLE who MATTERED. No leader had EVER done that before, He had these people in the palm of his hand and they were the majority of the population. Were they stupid? No. They were uneducated, exploited and manipulated, downtrodden and ignorant. Their lives were totally fixated on surviving from day to day. They were in a highly manipulatable frame of mind! Point being, I understood; it was EASY to understand – for me. However, many of their fellow citizens in the country COULD NOT understand. They had money, they had businesses, they were secure financially and they DESPISED these peasants (not as individuals but as a class) for keeping a brutal dictator who was killing ALL of them (literally and figuratively) in power. But I and most Americans there, and most Europeans there, understood. We could see why the peasants were so “stupid” about this leader. But their own countrymen, for the most part, could not and the country was very divided because of this leader. It had been quite divided before that anyway for other reasons but during this leader’s regime, things got ugly and dangerous in that country.

Long-winded Point being, some things ARE important to understand!

Thank you for reading this if you’ve managed to do so!