We earlier had Jon Atack join us for two episodes taking a deeper look into the life of L. Ron Hubbard. This week, our old friend Bruce Hines joins us for Part 1 (of 3) where we take a look at the scientology “Bridge to Total Freedom” in more detail. In this episode we address the lower levels of the Bridge.
Bruce was a highly trained scientology “Auditor” (counselor) and “Case Supervisor” (one who oversees auditors to ensure they are following the words of Hubbard exactly). Bruce appeared on an episode of The Aftermath and did a series of articles for Tony Ortega with Claire Headley on the various levels of scientology auditing.
We cover Testing, Introductory Services and how scientology hooks new people to get on the road to bankruptcy.
After leaving the Sea Org Bruce embarked on a fascinating career at the University of Colorado Denver doing what Hubbard claimed to be expert at, but actually flunked out of. Oh the irony.
What is an Auditor?
The person who administers the counseling in scientology which make up the levels of the Bridge one must ascend.
According to their official dictionary: An auditor is the person trained in the technology and whose job it is to ask the person to look, and get him to do so. The word auditor is used because it means one who listens
Scientology auditor on the left with the scientology E-Meter lie-detector device
What is a Case Supervisor?
The person who supervises scientology auditors.
The official definition: The C/S is the case supervisor. He has to be an accomplished and properly certified auditor and a person trained additionally to supervise cases. The C/S is the
auditor’s “handler.” He tells the auditor what to do, corrects his tech, keeps the lines straight and keeps the auditor calm and willing and winning.
What is The Bridge to Total Freedom?
Introductory Services on the Bridge
These are the “routes” one can follow after coming in the door.
Testing — what is the Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA)?
The most commonly used tool of scientology to try to get new victims hooked. It’s presented as an accredited, science based test. It’s nothing more than the first step of the long con.
How does scientology define Raw Meat?
This is from the official scientology dictionary: RAW MEAT PRECLEAR, 1. one who has never had Scn processing. 2 . the guy thinks he’s a brain. He doesn’t know he’s a thetan, he isn’t up there and he thinks he’s deteriorated into a bit of matter, he thinks he’s a body and so forth. Hence this jocular term “raw meat.”
“Control = income” in scientology.
And we don’t mean pleasant control….
The Purification Rundown
These are earlier blog posts on this subject:
The Purification Rundown Debunked
Does the Purification Rundown Work?
The influence of peer pressure
I mention the experiments about choosing which line is longer. These are known as the Asch Conformity Experiments
Scientology Price Lists
Here is an example of a scientology price list for Flag:
One of the biggest *FLAWS* of the bridge is that it cookie-cutter, one size fits all.
BUT CASES ARE DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE.
So putting them through a pre-fabricated structure does not work and has never worked.
Hence GRADE 2 completions commit HUGE crimes.
The biggest flaw is that it doesn’t WORK, at least not as advertised. There’s never been anything resembling a Book 1 Clear, and the OT levels are at best silly exercises. OT III is psychotic or worse.
My final conclusion was that Hubbard had very bad intentions while I had very good intentions. The steps of the Bridge were nonsense. The deception was that he was leading me to worse than fascism while I was looking at goodness. Hubbard was an idiot because he had a weak mind with a very limited range. Hubbard refused to follow Pythagoras with a wholesome view with only imagined entities. Crowley wanted free sex from the Victorian women. Hubbard was always malevolent as well.
Karen wrote:
“Grade 2 Completions committ HUGE crimes.”
Very interesting. In my own situation I felt like I could break all the rules after Grade 2.
Cannot think of the great crime.
Great Responses George White !
I can only *Imagine* how you felt on the original OT 8 when you read
the Hubbard declaration of being the anti-Christ….
Betrayed,, ripped-off, angry, fooled, tricked, disbelief, mental pain, fell off a cliff, hit by a bonb, cut with a knife, jilted, but now finally free.
Oh, Mike… when you uttered the words “Control equals income,” I threw up in my mouth a bit.
I was the PES (in charge of getting new people in and on the bridge) at Mountain View mission, then org, for YEARS before joining the SO and going up to Int. And I had to study that policy over and over and over again.
PLUS, every time I’d fail at getting a new person to sign up for a service after doing their personality test evaluation, I’d have to go and drill Upper Indoc TRs for hours so I could “get my 8C (control) in”.
As I was indoctrinated, when you’re talking to raw public (i.e., raw meat), you’re dealing with someone who’s being controlled by their reactive mind, so you have to get past that by any means necessary to get them on the service that’s going to rehabilitate them. There’s no room to be “nice” to them or listen to what they want because you’re not really talking to THEM. SHEESH.
I’m CONSTANTLY amazed that I ended up semi-sane after so many years of this shit!!!!
Lovely to hear from you here Anne. Sometimes its hard to believe how crazy thing were inside that bubble.
Right????
I’m working on a book about all this — for a year now because it takes a LOOOOONG time to go through all the craziness — and it’s amazing what comes up. Just when I think I’ve said everything I want to say, there’s something else to add to the pile.
But you know how that feels! 🙂
O/T. Church of Scientology National Affairs Office joins Resolution urging the US Department of State to designate India as a “Country of Particular “Concern” (CPC).
*******************
Kashmir Media Service: US asked to designate India as a country of particular concern
July 18, 2021
World religious leaders urge sanctions against Indian officials promoting religious discrimination
https://www.kmsnews.org/kms/2021/07/18/us-asked-to-designate-india-as-a-country-of-particular-concern.html
*******************
The Quint: Over 30 US Organisations Urge Biden Administration to Sanction India
A joint resolution was passed by over 30 inter-faith organisations to call out India’s anti-minority policies.
SHIVANI MAGO
THE INDIAN AMERICAN
Published: 20 Jul 2021, 6:06 PM IST
https://www.thequint.com/amp/story/us-nri-news/us-organisations-issue-resolution-to-urge-administration-to-sanction-india
*******************
As I have previously noted, it appears that the purpose of Church of Scientology National Affairs Office position papers, letters, petitions and resolutions is to help it gain support from and form alliances with churches, religions, and civil rights organizations. They are a form of virtue signaling.
Nonetheless, joining a resolution asking that a sovereign nation be designated as a “Country of Particular “Concern,” and requesting that its officials be sanctioned, is not without risk. The government of India, which is quite nationalistic and quite frankly Hindu-centric, may not be pleased.
I wonder what the Religious Foundation of Scientology of New Delhi, India thinks of this development?
/
UPDATE: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) specifically notes the support by the Church of Scientology National Affairs Office for the Resolution urging the US Department of State to designate India as a “Country of Particular “Concern” (CPC).
https://twitter.com/CAIRNational/status/1417501486079266827
CAIR has 53,600 followers on Twitter.
/
The story has been picked-up by Yahoo News in India:
Over 30 US Organisations Urge Biden Administration to Sanction India
Shivani Mago
Tue, 20 July, 2021, 5:36 am·2-min read
https://in.news.yahoo.com/over-30-us-organisations-urge-123627409.html
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
Thirty organisations have already signed the resolution and there are more to join, the speaker reading the resolution mentioned. The signatories include Action Alliance to Redress 1219, Ambedkar International Center, American Muslim Institution, Association of Indian Muslims of America, Cambodian Development Foundation, Center for Pluralism, Church of Scientology National Affairs Office, Coalition Against Fascism in India, Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans, Council on American Islamic Relations among others.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
I suspect that this will come to the attention of the government in India.
/
Excellent 👌 work by Mr Bruce .
Hope shall be more analytical work on Scientology by others as well.
Just imagine a mad man created a docterine of a cult ,then got it implanted in the name of training and/or processing.
It’s all happening in Uncle Sam country , where making fool is a legit business.
Every Cult draw inspiration from a established cultural or religious practice.
In case of Scientology it’s Science fiction with Psycho analysis.
But now with changing time we see visible difference between the Star Trek series of 60’s with Star Trek next generation of 90’s and the latest Star Trek discovery.
Like wise the Fictition part of training and processing , originally based on 50’s era science fiction are now getting now exposed.
No state of processing and stage of training can be validated objectively as it based on the principles of blind obedience, no question asked
That’s why they didn’t came up with single achievement in font of scholars and medical professionals in last 70 years..
A Zen Buddhist , Hindu Yogi, Muslim Sufi , Jewish Kabbalist , Christian Gnosist were frequently interviewed and researched at universities.
All those who attained the highest level in the end rely on Apple and Android technology.
“Mad Man” and other psychoanalytic descriptions of Hubbard are speculative imo. Along with being an expert hypnotist he also studied Belles-lettres and rhetoric and Gustav Le Bons’s “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind” which he used in creating his organization. I don’t have the reference but he expressed his study of these subjects in a letter to Robert Heinlein.
He used rhetoric as the art of persuasion to get his audience to like and respect him and accept his positions.
excerpt from wiki on belles-lettres:
The focus of the Belletristic Rhetoric Theory is on defining the characteristics of rhetorical style such as beauty, sublimity, propriety and wit all of which play a part in affecting the emotion and reasoning capabilities of the audience.[3] Also important to those studying rhetoric and belles-lettres is defining the taste of the audience; this is key to being a truly successful rhetorician or writer. As another belles-lettres rhetorician, Hugh Blair (1718–1800), states in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, “taste is foundational to rhetoric and necessary for successful spoken and written discourse.”[4]
Richard, I doubt Hubbard really studied anything; rather he picked things up in conversation, either from his more erudite and scholarly friends, or people who did his ghostwriting and “research.” His second “never had” wife said he was not one with the patience to sit down and work through others’ writing and ideas; she provided him with a lot of the material for parts of scientology, and apparently for one or more of his better known later short stories, too. Mrs. Berner, of study tech fame, who along with her husband was part of an inner circle at Saint Hill in the 1960s, also said nothing came from Hubbard, it was all others around him.
Once again he turns out to be a lazy but devious fraud, just with a certain gift for grift like deceiving people, making it sound as if he knew and did more than he had, and taking credit for others’ work – and getting followers to build up his hagiography.
However, you cite some good sources that certainly were influences one way or another, directly or indirectly, and which help to explain what he was up to (and that he knew that he was manipulating people). I also often find it hard to tell whether something came directly from someone like LeBon, or from a derivative author writing about LeBon; for example, about the only author Hubbard credits is Will Durant, who is know for writing about philosphers so that people would not have to try to tackle their original work, and Hubbard may have read some Durant in college (his work was used as textbooks back then), so when Hubbard talks about some philosopher it’s not because he’s read them, though he drops references in a way that makes it sound as if he is erudite and well-read.
I disagree that Hubbard was not “well-read. He had something to say about damn near everything and it didn’t come from original thinking. He must have read or studied many things and added his own think to it. Whether it was from original sources or secondary information who knows?
It’s unlikely that he became a master at hypnosis, rhetoric and crowd psychology (or the psychology of groups in his case) unless one assumes he was just a natural.
There are a few chapters of Le Bon’s book printed on the Amazon website.
Someone once posted an online full copy of Le Bon’s book and I browsed over it and it was interesting. Hubbard would have a high interest in the psychology of “crowds”.
People like George M. White have done extensive investigation into the Occult aspects of scn and much of that appears to be almost direct quotes from people like Madame Blovotsky and other theosophists and Occultists. Certainly he could have drawn from secondary sources or maybe he just read the Encyclopedia Britannica. Lol
Madame Blavatsky – not enough time to edit – lol
Richard, I´ve read some of the works Hubbard would have you believe he did, and can tell you he didn’t have that level of familiarity with them, even from reading a secondary source – he just knew what you’d pick up from talking to others, like the second wife who was his source for Korczybski’s non-Aristotelian logic, or the Berners who provided the ideas for ¨study tech¨ and other things.
As a science fiction writer, he was very adept at spinning tall tales about sciency-sounding stuff. He was quite practiced at sounding like he knew, or had studied, more than he had.
As for hypnosis, he might have mentioned one general book on the subject – which once again I’m not sure he even read, or did more than skim. Having a bit of experience with that, too, it’s clear from some of the old accounts that he had picked up stage hypnosis tricks, most likely by working under someone during the mysterious ‘swami’ period he references, but once again he gives no credit to whoever he actually learned from. He also seems to have gotten experience some therapeutic hypnosis techniques during at least two stays at psychiatric facilities, which he spins as if he was working and studying there, when he was actually a patient and being treated.
Your point well taken .
In my opinion, being a fiction writer he knew how carry reader with his plot. If a writer cannot take his reader to the end chapter them he is flop.
Second , he copied things very sources with out due acknowledgement ,which come under plagerisim. This is what exposed him with the dawn of www ( world wide web) era in 90’s.
Only a mad man create Cult with objective of having total control over followers life. A common denominator with all the Cult .
Does he have skill or knowledge ? Definately not.
His so called technology ,is as effective or workable as long as followers believe it. IT hasn’t got Validation from any University, professional scientific organization, professional business organization and last but not the least medical professional.
End result : if you succeed it’s the Tech ,if failed , it’s your fault.
Doesn’t it sounds familiar with Cults modus operandi . If successful it’s the leader blessing otherwise it’s followers fault.
All his Tech now getting exposed as Fake and Fraud.
May be it meant to retain public / followers with less effort, in era pre www.
May be he has other aim and gaining time from such quackery.
“If a writer cannot take his reader to the end chapter then he is a flop.” I like the analogy! I like keeping things simple when possible and that rather sums things up regarding scn. 😇
Many people have posted, “If only it worked the way it was supposed to.”
Excerpt from wiki:
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (French: Psychologie des Foules; literally: Psychology of Crowds) is a book authored by Gustave Le Bon that was first published in 1895.[1][2]
In the book, Le Bon claims that there are several characteristics of crowd psychology: “impulsiveness, irritability, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgement of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of sentiments, and others…”[1] Le Bon claimed that “an individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds himself – either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant – in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds himself in the hands of the hypnotizer.”[3]
………………………………………………….
This might be where Hubbard came up with his statement that “Group agreement is bank” (the reactive mind.)
WHY Hubbard created his subject is a discussion. HOW he advanced it and gained the interest and participation of perhaps a few hundred thousand people over the years is another discussion. Hypnosis, rhetoric and crowd psychology are components in that discussion.
While I’m at it I’ll include a statement once made by a long time and respected participant on the scn blogs, that being, “Most of us were intellectual adolescents when we entered Scientology having little or no background in science, religion or philosophy.”
Will this episode be released tomorrow? It looks like Apple posdcasts was updated today with last week’s episode, with Katherine and Julian Wain.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve now watched the entire Netflix Series on Scientology, and I’ve also read the first 200 pages of “Dianetics” and the first 100 pages of “Bare-Faced Messiah”.
Even though I completely agree with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder that Hubbard was a con artist and that Scientology is a sham, and even though I fully support the project to expose Scientology for its harmful and abusive policies and practices, there is more to this story that needs to be told.
Obviously the Scientology hagiographies and biographies of Hubbard are not just embellishments of his life, they are false and misleading. But we need to think more carefully about who Hubbard was, what motivated him, and why he created the empire that he created. We also need to think more carefully about why he was so successful, and why so many otherwise good people have been duped.
Consider this: If Hubbard was able to deceive so many thousands of Scientologists and a variety of other people, is it possible that Hubbard’s teachers and major intellectual and spiritual influences have been able to do the same? Who were Hubbard’s teachers and major intellectual and spiritual influences?
Much of what Hubbard wrote, and not just his science fiction, sounds like sheer lunacy. But the guy was not simply stupid or crazy. In fact, part of the problem is that he was very smart and he got a lot of things right. In my opinion, one of the reasons why he was such a successful con artist is because he mixed enough half truths into his work as to make it all seem plausible.
Here are a few other questions to consider: why did Hubbard write “Dianetics”? Why was he so eager to “clear” the planet? What in his life experiences led him to act and to write so many millions of words and to create his own “religion”? Why is one of the fundamental tenets of Scientology the destruction of psychiatry?
It is not my purpose to defend Hubbard or Scientology. In fact, I hope to show why Hubbard’s empire of Scientology, as awful as it is, is merely the tip of another more terrible iceberg that has yet to be fully revealed.
Thanks. Keep up the good work. Cheers,
John Hancock
I don’t think the success of Hubbard can be wrapped up in a neat package, and then attributed to some higher force of evil. Humans are capable of a wide range of behaviors. Who is to say that Hubbard was any worse than, say, an ordinary slave owner from any time in history, including today?
For me, careful attention to people like Jon Atack and some former Scientologists, reveals much of what drove Hubbard. Just the 2021 YouTube videos from Atack are enough to give one a pretty good initial understanding of what motivated Hubbard, who he borrowed ideas from, and how he probably intentionally used his ability as a hypnotist and the known features of successful high-control cults to his personal advantage.
John, Hubbard’s idea of a ‘clear’ was someone beholden to Hubbard, a slave who followed Hubbard’s orders without question. THAT is why he worked so hard to bring it about. The trouble is that he never perfected his ‘tech’niques sufficiently to convert folks en masse. The processes only worked on individuals, one-at-a-time.
If you look in the right places Hubbard admitted to his intentions.
From the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course lectures we have a couple extremely relevant quotes. The tapes are listed by their number:
SHSBC-402
Of course, we go on a tradition “if you learn anything about man that will help him,
you help him with it.” …
“If you learn anything about man that you can manipulate him
You’re going to manipulate men,
you’ve got to change their definitions
and change their goals
and enslave them and do this and do that.
SHSBC-447
Now, brainwashing simply is the trick of mixing up certainties.
All you have to do if you want to know and develop the entire field
of brainwashing as developed by Pavlov,
is simply to make somebody ….. into a confused or hypnotic state in which he can believe anything. Ron Hubbard
Complimenting this is a quote from Philadelphia Doctorate Course lecture tape numbered 39 from 1952 – known as the games maker tape or lecture
“Now here’s a process that has to do with the making of games, and all this process adds up to, is you just address to those factors which I just gave you, oh, run and change postulates and any creative process that you can think of and shift postulates around, you get a whole process.” End quote
THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.
Lecture: “Off the Time Track” (June 1952) as quoted in Journal of Scientology issue 18-G, reprinted in Technical Volumes of Dianetics & Scientology Vol. 1, p. 418. Ron Hubbard
Conclusion:
Hubbard plainly defined “postulates” broadly as decisions, conclusions and this can be called beliefs. Changing postulates in a person is changing their beliefs.
So, he called brainwashing the trick of mixing up certainties. Putting a person into a confused state in which he would believe anything was how he phrased it. He said if you can manipulate men you WILL, not leaving any exceptions for himself ! And he said you will change their definitions and their goals which were their certainties and you will enslave them !
He said he started with hypnosis which could “implant or remove any inhibition, compulsion, aberration or desire you could think of BUT it has the wild variable that it works on the some people but not others and it works sometimes but not others.” So, he was trying to see who it worked on and when and likely how to get it to work as often as possible on as many people as possible. He wanted people in Scientology to shift around the certainties, the postulates, the decisions and beliefs of people to change their definitions and goals, to definitions he wanted them to believe and goals that benefited Hubbard.This all aligns with the “game” he wanted.
Hubbard made statements in his affirmations (private self-hypnosis commands intended for himself and no one else) that I call the Rosetta Stone of Scientology because they help ex Scientologists decipher the information in Scientology.
I have them posted at Mockingbird’s Nest as
A Psychiatric View With Comments On The Admissions By Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (1947)
I will put a few excerpts here to highlight Hubbard’s intention regarding hypnosis and in general. To understand Scientology I absolutely recommend reading the post in full. These excerpts are just for this post on his intentions.
LRH is obviously L Ron Hubbard
LRH:Your psychology is good. You worked to darken your own children. This failure, with them, was only apparent. The evident lack of effectiveness was “ordered.” The same psychology works perfectly on everyone else. You use it with great confidence.
LRH: Material things are yours for the asking. Men are your slaves. Elemental spirits are your slaves. You are power among powers, light in the darkness, beauty in all.
LRH : Your psychology is advanced and true and wonderful. It hypnotizes people. It predicts their emotions, for you are their ruler.
LRH: No matter what lies you may tell others they have no physical effect on you of any kind.
LRH: Lord help women when you begin to fondle them. You are master of their bodies, master of their souls as you may consciously wish. You have no karma to pay for these acts.
LRH: You can tell all the romantic tales you wish. You will remember them, you do remember them. But you know which ones were lies. You are so logical you will tell nothing which cannot be believed.
LRH: You use the minds of men. They do not use your mind or affect it in any way.
So, Hubbard in his private affirmations clearly described his “psychology” as such that it “hypnotizes” people and that men are his slaves and regarding women that he was master of their bodies and souls. He described himself as being able to lie and be both believed and he was immune to physical effects from his lies. He described himself as the ruler of people who uses the minds of men but they do not use or affect his mind.
Imagine having these goals and using self-hypnosis commands repeatedly for years to bring these things into your mind.
Thank you Mockingbird. Those quotes are very significant and very telling. They are also, as I’m sure we would all agree, very troubling. The references to hypnosis, psychology, Pavlov, and so forth are the kinds of things that I’m driving at. And thank you for the reference to your blog. I read through all of it. Thank you. This is all very telling and important.
Your blog is especially helpful for getting to the bottom of the LRH dilemma. But how did Hubbard come up with these intentions? Why? Why hypnotism? Who were some of the pioneers of hypnotism? What were Hubbard’s thoughts on psychology, and psychiatry? Why did he hold those opinions and ideas?
What I am driving at is that, however crazy he seemed, it is overly simplistic to claim that LRH was merely a lunatic. It’s the easiest thing in the world to point out how utterly unhinged he seems, because he was certainly that. The more difficult task is to consider what things he might have understood correctly.
Again, I don’t wish to defend Hubbard or Scientology, especially to those who lives have been so drastically damaged by it all. I just want to suggest that if we look more closely into some of his influences and experiences, we might uncover something just as nefarious, if not even more so, than Scientology itself. In this way, while we’re helping people to escape from or avoid Scientology, we can help people escape from or avoid the influences that made something like Scientology possible in the first place.
Thanks again.
Thanks
I think that hypnosis has existed for a long time – at least centuries, possibly thousands of years. Who originally created it? That’s lost to us, it was probably used in the East long ago.
If you want to look at modern efforts at research a lot of people consider Milton Erickson as a person who tried to describe hypnosis for a modern audience.
I consider the subject of neuro linguistic programming (NLP) as a dangerous and fraudulent pseudoscience.
As for Hubbard’s intentions I tend to see this as something we can only speculate on. My personal opinion is that a certain percentage of human predators are people who fit the descriptions given to us of malignant narcissists that I described in the blog post Scientology’s Parallel In Nature – Malignant Narcissism.
I want to emphasize that the efforts to describe the human mind that are not using scientific evidence and research are a separate subject to some degree and rely on metaphors of the mind, ways to use language to describe the subject that are not a strictly literal and science based subject.
That being said, I think that the description from folks like Robert Jay Lifton regarding the guru (cult leader) and Daniel Shaw are both useful.
To put it simply the people who become cult leaders like Hubbard are theorized to be driven to protect themselves from getting hurt in relationships but to desire attention, so they have to hold all the power in relationships.
The hypothesis includes the idea that a person like Hubbard has been traumatized by perhaps neglect or idealization. Idealization for a child may include parents or caregivers who pretend the child is perfect or better than everyone else or only give the child attention for winning pageants or getting perfect grades or winning at a sport.
The vital thing is that the child is not accepted as a flawed human being that needs love and support. The child may be neglected or abused mentally, emotionally, physically, or sexually.
The child may merely be told that they are flawless and infallible.
In this theory that Shaw described in his book Traumatic Narcissism the child has unresolved trauma that profoundly affects their future relationships.
The result is a person who is determined to have power. A useful metaphor is describing the person as having a real self that is atrophied and not developed. The real self is belligerent and petulant and immature. The child survived by developing a false self that is perfect, godlike, infallible, strong, and competent.
The real self feels worthless, useless, both profoundly hurt and unworthy of love or any help or sympathy. A classic double bind, being in need of love and acceptance to heal but feeling overwhelming worthlessness and shame that makes you feel undeserving of what you need.
So, the false self is claiming the highest ethical standards while actually having no ethical standards and being a pathological liar and profoundly selfish and immoral.
The true self is hidden and tries to always put forward the lies of the false self. The person tries to make the lie of the false self believed not by actually being competent or ethical but by faking it and not acknowledging negative realities.
In these theories the person is in a state more extreme than denial (conscious avoidance of information) and a more extreme separation of the mind called dissociation, a result of trauma).
Robert Jay Lifton described this state as having a fractured or split mind, parts are not in agreement with each other.
He described this in two interviews with Bill Moyers, available free online. One was right after September 11th 2001 and the other was more recently, regarding a book Duty to Warn.
He also described it in his latest book, Losing Reality.
Hubbard obviously chose hypnosis because it fits his desire to be able to control people and influence them at a level below conscious awareness so he can be as dishonest and unethical as he desires but hide it and present himself as an honest and benevolent friend to mankind.
The Bridge to Total Fleeceing’em.
Fleecing-dom?
In 1952 Hubbard admitted that ALL processes are based on hypnosis. ALL.
From a tape on The Philadelphia Doctorate Course lectures
RON THE HYPNOTIST
Structure/Function: 11 December 1952 page 1
“All processes are based upon the original observation
that an individual could have implanted in him by hypnosis
and removed at will any obsession or aberration,
compulsion, desire, inhibition which you could think of – by hypnosis.“
“Hypnosis, then, was the wild variable;
sometimes it worked,
sometimes it didn’t work.
It worked on some people; it didn’t work on other people.
Any time you have a variable that is as wild as this, study it.
Well, I had a high certainty already –
I had survival. Got that in 1938 or before that. And uh…”
RON THE HYPNOTIST
Quote Originally Posted by FORREST J. ACKERMAN about the 29 April 1948
“Well, 45 years ago there was established a Los Angeles Science Fiction Society. I’m a charter member. I was at the very first meeting and I’ve been to 1500 meetings off and on in between.
It was a period when Ron came around our club. He was living in Los Angeles. And what I particularly remember about his appearances there was an evening of spectacular hypnostism when hypnotized just about every kid in the club.
I remember he gave one young man a… what would you call it… In any event, the boy was convinced that cupped in his hand, he held a little tiny Kangaroo that was hopping around and I remember he came over and showed the Kangaroo to me.
Quote Originally Posted by
Dec 1952 Philadelphia Doctorate Course
“There’s nothing every very weird about hypnotism.
It is the easiest thing in the world…”
“All right, now you stare at the candle, stare at the candle.
Now uh… you know that concentration of that sort can make you for… sort of sleepy and so on.You stare at the candle until you feel that.“
“And he’ll say, “All right.“ See he’s agreed that concentration on that can make him sleep.”
“All right, … let’s look at this candle a little… a little closer and
now let’s feel… let’s feel the… the… the body becoming more and more relaxed. And, he agrees to feel that the body is becoming more and more relaxed.
That’s all there is to that. He… he just agrees little by little,
the next thing you know the hypnotist says, „
Now your eyes will close.“ And his eyes go bonk. Of course, he agreed to that.”
“Now, the hypnotist says, „
Now your right hand will rise.“ And with some slight amazement, this fellow watches his right hand come up.
And he says, “Wooo, I’m hypnotized.“ So he just gives it up then,
and the hypnotist now says,
“Now you see that kangaroo on your right knee?“
“Yes.“ He sees the kangaroo on his right knee.
Now take it on your right knee.”
“Now let’s see it jump over to the left knee.
Now you got that? All right,
now let’s put… let’s put a… uh… a bonnet on this kangaroo. Got the bonnet on it?
Now have the kangaroo sing a song.“ And the hypnotized person is very happy to sit there and watch this.”
I have a different take on the bridge, auditing, and the indoctrination methods used in Scientology than what is officially presented.
I hope comparing it is useful for some people.
Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology
Hypnosis is classed as a psychological rather than a physiological method because it is essentially a form of highly focused mental concentration in which one person allows another to structure the object of the concentration and simultaneously suspends critical judgment and peripheral awareness. When this method is used in a cultic environment, it becomes a form of psychological manipulation and coercion because the cult leader implants suggestions aimed at his own agenda while the person is in a vulnerable state. (page 151 Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer)
This thread is to go back to an idea that is a fundamental to understand what Dianetics and Scientology are and how they function.This comes up in auditing and training and in many other forms and aspects of all Hubbard doctrine.
I want to go in a specific and different direction. First I want to bring up one of the most basic and to me truest ideas about hypnosis: HOW to cause it.
First I’ll use a basic:
hyp·no·sis
hipˈnōsis/
noun
noun: hypnosis
the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction. Its use in therapy, typically to recover suppressed memories or to allow modification of behavior by suggestion, has been revived but is still controversial.
the state of consciousness produced by hypnosis.
Okay, that’s from Google and seems simple enough. Induction just means causes, in the case of hypnosis. It’s this state and has very, very little to do with will, intention or anything like that. THOSE ideas are distractions and have so little bearing on this that you should just say they, if they exist at all, do so in other contexts of analyzing thought.
Now causing hypnotic states does not require willingness, cooperation or even any understanding of what hypnosis is. I cannot state that strongly enough. It also does not require enormous charisma or personal power or charm.
Those things can help in some situations but are not mandatory.
Altitude, or transference can help tremendously in some cases and applications but also are not always needed, at least not to be acknowledged by that name. Altitude can be called rapport or authority or prestige and is a fundamental for hypnosis to work. It has been said that hypnosis is suggestion plus imagination. But authority is the key. Lots of people suggest things to you which you imagine. But when they have authority then they can command and that makes it possible for hypnosis to occur.
Okay, now stage hypnotism, while containing some small element of the subject actually misinforms far more than it informs. As does absurd fictions about telepathy and mystics using “overpowering will”, “the force of the mind” and other fictitious nonsense. They make people think they know what it is and not know that they don’t know ! If they knew they were ignorant it would be easier to both teach them AND show that it is worth learning about !
Okay, now to start. The most basic methods to induce (cause) hypnosis are confusion, repetition, mimicry and fixation. Some theories see all these methods as affecting the flow of ATTENTION and it’s following and being put onto or off PATTERNS of information. I tend to agree, to a certain extent with those ideas.
BUT I cannot stress strongly enough that the shutting down or off of the critical factor (which I extensively discuss in it’s own thread) is paramount to understanding the EFFECT of ANY hypnosis.
Regarding trance logic here is a quote from Psychweb on trance logic: “Words, in trance logic, are interpreted much more literally, communication being conveyed by focusing on words themselves rather than ideas. There is also an associated decrease in critical judgement of language being processed, and an increased tolerance for incongruity.”
Trance logic is a state in hypnosis in which a person has their attention absorbed or focused so strongly that they don’t exercise critical and independent thinking, they lose judgment regarding the information they take in and do not CONSCIOUSLY notice contradictions. They experience age regression and like a young child submit to authority and are willing to engage in magical thinking.
This has tremendous importance in Scientology regarding cognitive dissonance as noticing contradiction is a way cognitive dissonance is created, but by making cognitive dissonance serve to create confusion which he uses to create hypnotic trances, Hubbard inspires dissonance then “solves” it by negating the contradiction inspired dissonance by knocking out the critical factor (the capacity for critical and independent thinking, including noticing contradiction) !!
Now for confusion, probably Hubbard’s true love in tech and his own mind:
I will start with a quote from Mark Tyrrell at the website Uncommon Knowledge:
Using confusion for hypnosis may sound like a strange idea – even a confusing one! But the notion of pur-posefully and knowingly using confu-sion as a tool to elicit hypnotic re-sponses from the unconscious mind has a good pedigree.
No less an authority then Dr Milton Erickson, perhaps the greatest hypnotist who ever lived, believed that few things could capture the attention so well as confusion. And he was right. Think about it for a moment.
If someone whose opinion you respect usually makes sense when they’re talking, then you’ll pay attention to them. When on occasion they seem to be saying something important to you, but the meaning isn’t immediately clear, you’ll assume you need to pay more attention in order to grasp what they are saying.
And if a point is not logically clear, you’ll focus more and more of your at-tention in the hope of understanding it eventually. And remember, focusing the attention is a key component of hypnosis. We are all dependent on our ability to decipher meaning from what happens to us and from what people say. When people are confused, their awareness turns inwards in a search for understanding – or escape.
It’s ironic in a way that so many people work on their communication in an attempt to make it more clear, yet the best hypnotists work on making (at least some of) their communication more confusing.If you look at people when they are confused, you’ll see they are highly focused. And strong focus is akin to hypnotic trance. When you can’t quite figure something out, but it seems really important that you do figure it out, you have an activated expectation.
Focus and expectation are at the heart of the confusional technique. But why should being confused make you more suggestible?Being confused is like drowning in a sea of communication. You will grab onto anything that will keep you afloat. Any words or phrases that you can make sense of in the maelstrom are likely to affect you more strongly than usual – so if these words can be inter-preted as suggestions, this is probably how you will respond to them.
This is a rule of human nature. If something is scarce we value it more highly and when we get it, we grab hold of it and we use it. When water is scarce it becomes more valuable to us and we don’t waste a drop when we get it. It’s the same with clear meaning if it sud-denly becomes scarce. Consider the confusion elicited when a stage show hypnotist tips back a subject unexpectedly.Confusion is followed by clarity when the unequivocal command to ‘sleep’ is uttered.We like puzzles and riddles because we expect clarity to eventually emerge from the confusion. People watch and read mystery thrillers for the same reason. This confusion as entertainment is an excellent tool for locking people’s attention.
Okay, That is from a regular old hypnotist; who does not have my experiences as a Scientologist OR my status as a critic.
Simple enough right ? Things that confuse CAN cause hypnosis, vague statements, unclear commands and many other things we’ll go into soon.
Next up is repetition, probably Hubbard’s OTHER great love in both tech and his own mind: I will once again quote a plain old hypnotist : this time Adam Easton from the online article entitled – Using repetition in Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy : If you look back through history, you will see that repetition has been associated with hypnosis. You are sure to have seen those swinging pendulums and rotating wheels that get used, not to mention the enjoyable repetitive quality of the ocean waves coming in to shore.I love to hear that sound, it is one of the reasons I love to live beside the sea.Some of the more classical hypnotists use expressions such as “you are going deeper, deeper and deeper into hypnosis” when taking people into hypnosis. This is repetitive, though can sometimes be a bit boring.
The good hypnotist can use words repetitively to induce a relaxed and focused hypnotic state, though ideally giving the same message in a variety of ways is the way to make this principle most effective.You see, when you use certain words in a repetitive fashion, they can have the same effects as that pendulum swinging in front of the eyes or the rotating wheel. The repetition tends to hypnotically focus the prospect on your communication. It holds their attention very effectively.
Okay, this is a very, very basic definition that I hope everyone can accept.
Hubbard used repetition SO much and SO often in Scientology some would say IT is the basis of the technology ! I will not go QUITE that far, but they are not all wrong either, he has you re-re-re-redo and study the same things OVER and over and over for decades thousands and thousands of times ! I consider a huge clue now to look at as – what he has you do over and over, what you are doing and the effects that it causes ! He does not WASTE his SLAVES’ time ! It is HIS and too valuable to spend doing ANYTHING that does not benefit him, EVER !
Okay, now to mimicry (I NEVER recommend covert hypnosis and consider it immoral and a violation of human rights: This info is ONLY for educational purposes): From Orik and the site Hypnosis Black Secrets:
Covert Hypnosis Mimicry
One of the building blocks of successful covert or conversational hypnosis is mimicry. However, this term can create a lot of confusion.Are you supposed to completely mirror your subject, copying their every move? Of course not. On the other hand, how do you determine which actions to mimic and which to ignore? While nothing about conversational hypnosis( note : conversational means covert as in without the subject’s knowledge or consent ) is an exact science, there are some general guidelines you can follow in order to properly use mimicry. Here, we’ll give you a review of what and how often to mimic, and when to back off. Mimicry is important to conversational hypnosis because it is a subconscious rapport-builder. While our conscious minds don’t pick up on these subtle movements, our subconscious minds do.
Since we are ‘wired’ to automatically trust and like people who are like ourselves, we begin to like people who mimic our actions without ever knowing why. Obviously, there is a very fine line between masterful mimicry and playing a creepy version of the mirror game we all enjoyed as kids.Nobody wants to be copied – the overall impression is strange, vaguely threatening and the precise opposite of what you’re trying to attain through conversational hypnosis. You can slip in a simple mimicry anytime during your conversational hypnosis attempts, whether your subject is across the room or sitting right next to you. For example, if you’re trying to catch the eye of an attractive girl on the other side of the dance floor, pay attention to how she’s standing.
Is her arm resting on a table? Are her legs crossed? This would be a great time to begin sending her subconscious some cues. Subtly arrange your limbs into a pose that mimics hers, and her subconscious mind will register the similarity next time she glances your way. If your ‘target’ is already close to you, you’re in a much more convenient position for mimicry. With a close eye on subtly, pay attention to how she holds her body and what she’s doing with her hands. Try to mimic one out of every five movements at the very most any more than this will appear obvious and strange.
The most successful mimicry occurs with motions that are universal. In other words, don’t try to copy your dream girl’s dance moves copy her unconscious, common motions instead. Sipping a drink is a wonderful and time-honored occasion for mimicry. When she takes a sip, take on of your own. You can also cross or uncross your legs at the same time, lean an elbow on the bar when she does so, or run your fingers back through your hair a few seconds after she makes this movement (use caution if your hair is rock-hard with gel!)
As you can see, the subtle art of mimicry is just that an art. Don’t be surprised if you’re not a natural at this. Most people require plenty of practice before they go out into the real world and have success. If you can, find a willing friend or family member and have them help you. Without telling them, try to follow the guidelines you just learned through a full conversation. At the end, ask them if they were aware of your mimicry, and adjust your art based on their observations. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to become proficient even the most accomplished masters had to start somewhere!
Well, aside from the impression that Orik is a sleazeball, I want you to get a basic idea of what mimicry is. So far so good; next up is fixation. Next I have a quote from an article by the late Jolly West.
Now, admittedly he IS seen as an opponent of Scientology, BUT his article states what is needed briefly and clearly: It is from the Encyclopedia Brittanica article Hallucination.
Prolonged monotony or fixation of attention may lead to diminished responsiveness to the environment with a general effect similar to that of absolute reduction of stimulation or of hypnotic trance. Under these conditions such dissociative phenomena as highway hypnosis among drivers of motor vehicles may occur. Similar phenomena that occur among aviators have been called fascination or fixation.
During prolonged, monotonous flight, pilots may experience visual, auditory, and bodily (kinesthetic) hallucinations; for example, a pilot may suddenly feel that the plane is in a spin or a dive or that it is upside down, even though it is flying level.
A kinesthetic hallucination such as this can be so vivid that the pilot will attempt “corrective” maneuvering of the aircraft, with potentially tragic results.
See, the basic idea is that somehow one’s attention is fixed monotonously on something, or intensely concentrated in some cases and methods. I hope that is all simple and easy to understand. If it is not you can get LOTS of examples by Googling the methods or look up tons of videos on Youtube.
Obviously the accuracy and quality of the videos will vary greatly.
Okay, when you have those ideas firmly in your grasp we can move onto VARIATIONS. ALL these methods have many different forms and you should learn a lot about ALL of them to understand Hubbard tech.
Sorry, it can seem like a huge pain in the ass but it is hundreds of times quicker and easier to “learn” than Scientology ! I can bet you that all day every day ! AND it is actually TRUE info about you and your mind !
First up confusion: this has as many variations as there are ways to confuse or become confused ! That is a lot, but we can break it up into BROAD categories that pertain to Scientology, and hopefully chop this monster down to size.
Now it is also known as paradox or contradiction for good reason: if something seems paradoxical or to contradict itself in a way you can not quite figure out or get right then that is CONFUSION. I once read an interview with a class XII auditor who remarked that Hubbard’s writings can appear “paradoxical and contrary” to people !
See, she studied IT ALL and bought into the idea that buried in that HYPNOTIC, ATTENTION HOLDING mess was some DEEP profound wisdom – just UNDER the surface needing an insightful mind to plumb the depths !
I will let you in on a little secret…confidentially…HE FOOLED HER !!
Yeah, I am sure, yeah sucks to be her and waste fifteen or so years studying and slaving for him, BUT that does not change the FACTS as I see them in the slightest. See, data or info comes in PATTERNS and when it comes from a trusted source we expect it to align or agree, far more often than not with old or similar patterns or ESPECIALLY data from the exact same source !
When it does not agree we can be confused, and try to grab onto data to REALIGN our confused mind. WE want uncertainty and doubt to go away, by our nature.
It is a weakness that Hubbard was only too happy to magnify and exploit MERCILESSLY. He gave patterns that very frequently contradicted one another BUT – BRILLIANTLY had many of the contradictions SPREAD OUT to not make it too obvious, Scientology is often spread out over decades, so you don’t easily see that terms and concepts get redefined to be quite different and in fact at times the exact OPPOSITE ! He claimed this was due to high level research and other BS, but it was INTENTIONAL from the start !
Alright, another variation on the confusion method that Hubbard had so deeply ingrained as to be first nature was the offensive defensive technique. I have covered it in other threads but cannot overstate that to understand Hubbard or his tech you must understand that he was COMPELLED by his nature as a megalomaniacal, narcissistic pathological liar to think, write and speak in this technique WHENEVER possible. PERIOD. case closed.
Of course he pioneered confusion in indoctrination as he has a student CONFUSE their own mind with contradictory info, as they can understand what they read – BUT convince THEMSELF they must have “MUs”, as he taught them the “phenomena ALWAYS show” ! When really they are the symptoms of hypnosis and the STRESS of forced covert cognitive restructuring !
Plainly it screws up your mind to have it broken down and rebuilt without your knowledge or consent ! So, when you sense or display signs from a subconscious level – he had to come up with excuses – and so the barriers to study were born !
The names are just anything YOU could believe sounded studious, the PHENOMENA and more importantly YOUR new beliefs and behavior when encountering them are the key to understanding Scientology “Study Technology” ! YOU become a self-hypnotizer ! Doing HIS work for him, like a good slave.
He divides your mind against itself by misinforming you about its nature AND how to “help”, er CONFUSE it.
He started this pattern with Dianetics where he divided your conscious and subconscious, which should be allies and work together into the fictitious analytical and horrifying reactive minds which are locked in a death match ! In Scientology the match is extended over eternity for the entire universe and EVERY one of countless beings everlasting salvation or damnation quite literally ! Nice guy, huh ?
Okay, now repetition in Scientology takes many forms and is almost constant once you walk in the door. From the loaded language that is bolstered by repetition in indoctrination, BUT far more importantly the very thoughts of a Scientologist. This is one of the most important points in cult recovery: Thinking in the cult jargon and the redefined earlier terms and concepts in cult terms is one of the VERY STRONGEST and longest lasting methods of holding the person’s mind captive. You MUST, MUST, MUST by any ethical, honest, lawful means possible get youself or any other cult member to STOP thinking in and using the doctrine or you will most likely be severely limited in the progress you make, if you can make any at all. There may appear to be a very rare exception BUT this pattern is one of the truest possible in my estimation.
It appears in many, many other ways as slogans and key policies are quoted and re-quoted as thought stopping cliches (as beautifully defined by the brilliant Robert J Lifton) and in KSW, which, like any “good Scientologist” I learned VERBATIM, many years ago as well as virtually the whole Intro to Scientology Ethics and probably nearly as well another few dozen key references that are force fed down Scientologists’ throats, over and over. Key ones are fed to different posts, reinforcing Hubbard’s mad dystopian caste system of slaves COVERTLY.
But, I could literally go on for hours with examples of repetition in Scientology: if you have spent more than a little time in YOU can think of and write a list of HUNDREDS of applications. You might do so just as a way to examine what was done to you; and what it resulted in. Don’t go too far as it could upset you if you focus on it too much. The point is to EDUCATE – NOT be a substitute for any needed help of another kind.
Okay, ALMOST DONE. Next is mimicry, mimicry is almost omnipresent, in Scientology BUT is very subtle as you must understand the new body language (or lack thereof) of many Scientologists is mimicked by each other putting on subtle SOCIAL pressure to conform and be like the people around you. This also makes it HARDER to fit in regular wog society as you don’t have normal physical cues to communicate important subtle hints and meanings and often don’t properly interpret them any more over time.
That is great news for Hubbard; it helps him isolate and control you more and more and you don’t even see it ! There is mimicry in the course room as students do what the others do, to fit in – at first unsure why they do and say these things but knowing they will be accepted and approved IF they do ! And soon their thoughts and feelings work to line up with the new behavior ! Further helping the cult indoctrination ! The auditor shows the “pc” mimicry in many processes and the students use it in TRs, if you think about it you can probably think of many other places and situations you just COOPERATED.
This helps train you to control bodies and be controlled – like a good obedient slave. Now for the last and some schools define as ONLY method of hypnosis with all others being methods of causing it. Attention fixation can include putting it on something or an idea or thought INTENSELY, like in auditing with dozens, if not HUNDREDS of ways of focusing attention on all kinds of incidents and objects and the room etc. etc.
Your attention is also fixed or DIVIDED many times in study, as you focus on so many barriers and phenomena to spot and coordinate AND you are trying to NEVER fail a spot check and retain enough to pass a drill or exam or internship.
Your attention is SO spread out you can take a simple shotcut to enhance FOCUS: just shut off the critical factor and hypnotically intake what you study.
What could be the harm; by this point a student “knows” Hubbard would not steer them wrong and figured it all out for them.
No need for that pesky doubt, wondering, examining and independent thought. No real Scientologist has room or time for that garbage anyway. OOPS ! See, he figured out that misdirection and information overload and many other treats he gave you as a student, pc, etc. etc. make you suggestible, gullible and control-able.
Really these appear in virtually ALL the cult environment, including away from the org when around other cult members virtually constantly once you’ve been thoroughly indoctrinated. Your attention, and thereby your mind is controlled – often constantly or nearly so – until death. This is the most extreme and worst case scenario, but I do not believe it is rare for long, long term Scientologists.
Statistically as you are in more deeply for more years and decades your chance of this grows exponentially – from quite small in the first weeks to higher in months and much higher as years stretch into a lifetime. I wish it was not this way for all those still trapped and yet to be trapped BUT I see no other way it even could be. I hope this is informative on hypnosis at a very low level, and that it sheds light on how it is used in Scientology.
I will close with another quote with several informative definitions of hypnosis from the online artic; Hypnotic Advancements by Dr Frank Valente:
In Krasner’s “The Wizard Within”, pg. 2, 1999, he states:
“I believe hypnosis to be a process which produces relaxation, distraction of the conscious mind, heightened suggestibility, and increased awareness, allowing access to the subconscious mind through the imagination. It also produces the ability to experience thoughts and images as real.”
In Ormond McGill’s, “The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism”, pg. 12, 1996, one finds:
“Basically, hypnosis can be regarded as a state of mind produced by the transference from one level of consciousness to another; a state with capacities for mental activities distinctly its own directly keyed to the automatic nervous system rather than the sympathetic (central nervous system) productive of the state of mind of somnambulism, i.e. subconscious behavior.”
And we couldn’t possibly leave out Dave Elman’s, “Hypnotherapy”, pg. 26, 1964:
“Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.” Continuing that, “the critical faculty of your mind is that part which passes judgment.”
Personally I must add that I far prefer Topher Morrison’s (Instructor for the Accelerated Hypnotherapy Certification Weekend Seminar put on by APU) interpretation of the critical faculty as “the part of you that cares to distinguish between reality and fantasy.”
In Stephen Gilligan’s “Therapeutic Trances” he states:
“Hypnosis is conceptualized as an experientially absorbing interactional sequence that produces an altered state of consciousness wherein self-expressions begin to happen automatically, without conscious mediation.” (Gilligan, Stephen, G., 1987)
And finally from our dearly beloved Dr. Milton H. Erickson
In “The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume I” page 113, Dr. Erickson is quoted as stating:
“The hypnotic state is an experience that belongs to the subject, derives from the subject’s own accumulated learning’s and memories, not necessarily consciously recognized, but possible of manifestations in a special state of non waking awareness”. And one of my favorite explanations can be found within The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume IV of the same series, page 224, “It is a state of consciousness – not unconsciousness or sleep – a state of consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either positively or negatively to those ideas. It derives from processes and functioning within the subject. And is not some mystical procedure, but rather a systematic utilization of experiential learning’s– that is, the extensive learning’s acquired through the process of living itself.”
I am looking forward to this. I just can’t seem to wrap my mind around just what all these steps and sessions etc. are and how all that leads to this bridge and why it’s necessary to do all that to get to the bridge. (Well, other than I assume it’s a way to get a pile of money so you can get a bigger pile of money.)
Is that Bridge chart up to date? I notice it has the Key to Life course in introductory services.
Yes, it also has the Briefing Course and Class VIII Course. And OT IX – XXV…
I’ve listened to the episode now, and you mentioned it.
Unlike Leah, I really liked the Key to Life, but I’m a nerdy type who digs into things. The Key to Life was the most valuable thing that I did in Scientology, but it’s grammar! Very useful, but nothing to do with spiritual matters. Anything that wasn’t small common words or grammar was worthless.
I was on the team, and the Key to Life boomed our org for perhaps almost a year. On the episode, there was talk of fads. Well, this was one for sure, and the reges had an extremely easy time of selling it, because it was hot, and demanded by management.
The dianetics book is the foundation of the bridge. The basic principle is that the common denominator is Survive!
No bullshit could be more majestic.
Life does not have to survive as it has no opponents.
The only thing Life has to do is experience. So rather than a fascistic Survive! I would just say experience.
This apparently is how Life acquires self-awareness.
Ron was a fascist and I have no regrets saying it.
I worked for a lady once that was into Scientology. She was doing the purif or starting it while i was there. What surprises me is that she had a background in nutrition and healthcare. So scientology apparently can sucker in people that should know better. She is also an elite donor i believe. Ive seen her name on a few lists.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
In my time in Scientology, especially in all my time at Flag as an outer org staff trainee and intern, there was never anybody who had authority over us students and interns, who was more approachable, more caring, more easy to talk to, less threatening and who treated us like actual people (instead of inferior peons), and as a result was the most effective in helping us – than Bruce Hines. It was a loss for us when he was transferred to Int Management, and it was disgusting how I later found out this good man was treated when he was there.
OH GOODIE!!!! I can’t wait to hear this interview! It’s was Bruce’s description of The Truth Rundown that was one more eye-opening tale of the abusive nature of scientology “counseling.”
Same here. It got me to look at the real Hubbard and his viciousness and his mind-fu*# vs the propagated and implanted PR-Hubbard.
It was like if a spell had been broken (or/and like I didn’t had to love Big Brother anymore).
I will be forever thankful to Bruce Hines for this.
As it turns out, Bruce talks very little in this episode which was disappointing but having said that:
One minor point (maybe not so minor) I’d like to make regarding Success Stories other than what was made in this episode is that Success Stories become very quickly something that brainwashes or starts and then continues the mind control of the individual. Other than the fear aspect of not wanting to have to go to get corrected or Ethics if its not “rave,” one will start to obsessively look for anything that might constitute a win or something good/nice happening in their life and attach it to the course or auditing they are getting and this becomes what makes scientology the “thing” that works and helps their life the most. This phenomenon becomes obsessive and habitual especially if one is on something like OT VII which is a constant in ones life the whole time one is on it (can be for more than 20 years in some cases.)
OMG….HOLY SH**…….I nearly fell out of my chair reading this “price scale”.
IF you actually want a bridge that GOES SOMEWHERE you can purchase one for a lot less money.
It is beyond sickening to know that many of you went into debt/hock/poverty/starvation to try your best to complete the “requirements” to move up the bridge to NOWHERE.
I for one am so proud of you for getting the HELL OUT any way you could. It takes great courage/bravery to give up all you’ve ever known (in most cases)….including family members who are still “in drinking the Kool Aide of belief”.
Heartbreakingly sad to walk away & suffer the consequences of COS (much denied) DISCONNECTION POLICY……………..however always remember that YOU CANNOT SAVE SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT WANT TO BE SAVED, YOU CAN ONLY SAVE YOURSELVES.
My thoughts are that somehow someday someway your family will be returned to your loving arms.