Cindy : “Thanks Peter. Maybe I should have talked to you when it was going down. It all happened so fast there was no time to strategize. The church had been working on them for months unbeknownst to me. They were turned before I could even try to give them “my side of the story.” ”

TC : You are most welcome , and I totally understand you , dear Cindy

Cindy : “I was just trying to tell Thisisme that by marrying this churchie, their joint family money will all go to Bridge and IAS. They’ll be drained dry eventually. And their kids will be taken by the church. Scientologists who thought they were doing a good deed for their kids by sending them to Scn schools, were just sending them to recruit campuses to be recruited into the SO, which then meant disconnection from their parents. Sorry if I sound jaded or bitter. But disconnection is a bitter pill to swallow.”

TC : A very bitter pill to swallow , indeed it is. I agree with you ; marrying and having kids with this man w/out having solved first his connection to the Cofs is not pro-survival neither. Thisisme would have to work on the deprogramming strategy first before taking the relationship to a higher level.

My advice to all UTRs here (Under the radars) who still have family in the Church is to prepare a well thought strategy first to help your love ones before going public with your criticism towards the CofS. It is ok to talk about our “honor” , “personal integrity” , “courage” , and noble things like that. But none of it is a guarantee that you will bring them out of the CofS. Intelligence actions (as in strategies) are an covert operation not an overt one. You can’t just go to your family member and say to him/her ,

“listen , COB is a criminal who imprison and beat others ; he is an SP alter-ising LRH’s works. Yo need to get out of there with me now , today”.

I assure you , that ISN’T going to work at all. You’ll only “succeed” in driving him further away from you. You need to think with the concept of strategies , and get help from a terminal trained at cultic phenomena , handling Black PR , and general Intelligence strategies. This is a group effort. Here is what have been successful for me in helping others :

1. Do not voice your disagreements with “Command Intention” in such a way as portraying yourself as an anti-CofS individual. State your disagreements in a mild way , sounding sort of worry , concerned , but don’t overdo it. Try sounding in “boredom” about it not at cover hostility or anger. Sounding a bit “disaffected” is okay ; sounding AGAINST “Command Intention” , is not wise at that stage.

2. The idea here is not to make your family understand that LRH was full of shit , and that Scn is a destructive cult. That would be a VERY flawed “strategy’. The idea is to create the DOUBT in your family member as to whether or not LRH’s works are being altered in any way by the Church. That’s your point of entrance. You voice your concerns that you think that LRH is being altered. You provide them with specific LRH refs that counteract what the current administration is doing. You make them observe by pointing out in the correct direction.

3. An excellent site for that is Friends of LRH. In it you’ll find a “COB v/s LRH” comparison. Data is understood as compared and evaluated against other data on the same subject. Get them to take a look at that website if they are already reaching for more information. If not , just discuss one point at a time , like having to re-do Bridge steps , courses , etc. Ask them what LRH ref support that. Ask them what LRH ref support having to redo Objectives to include “Undercut processes” as a “Blanket C/S” action. Ask Qs like that with the sole idea to create DOUBT. That’s the product you are after , doubt.

4. Any fear from your family member to discuss these things , handle it with LRH’s refs on “personal integrity” , “Code of Honor” , etc. Get the individual to read and understand the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights (UDHR) . You’ll be surprised how most individuals doesn’t even know that such a document exist. This step is vital. He/she must know his fundamental rights

5. Discuss with him/her your concern with being SP declared and having to disconnect from them. See what’s in their minds regarding that. Discuss the doctrine of disconnection as evaluated against the UDHR. Make them understand that it is a wrong practice.

6. If they are ready to look further as they are ALREADY at doubt , you can refer him/her to Debbie Cook’s e-mail , “A Letter from Garcia” ( http://www.scientology-cult.com/images/stories/files/a-letter-from-garcia.pdf ) , and other such documents where Scn and LRH are not being criticized. Remember , the first stage isn’t about LRH or about Scn as a philosophy ; it is only about the CofS as an institution and DM’s programs.

7. Do not go for a “total effect” compulsively attempting to get him/her to leave Scn. This IS , IS a strategy composed of gradients. Gradients , and knowing when to reach and withdraw is the key to success.

8. Only after he/she is already out , get him/her to go in the Net and find out by himself about what is what. Give him his space to arrive at his own conclusions. Freeing oneself from a cult is a long healing process. It is a road to discovery best traveled by oneself.

More tactics and methods can be found at Steven Hassan website and his videos and books. Get trained on cultic studies as much as you can , and read the stories of other ex-members of different cults.

Peter

Hi Roger Hornaday, Love this post and you and your Insight! XXOO,Ann.

Hi Ann, although Espiando’s tastes aren’t inclusive of at least one hilarious Tom Wolf novel, his inestimable brain power, should you have had the benediction of being his classmate, would have doubtlessly been applied to motives more akin to hospitality than intimidation. I would bet a thousand dollars on it. But, mind you, not of my own money. 🙂

Thanks, Thisisme.

I wish you the best in your journey. I won’t be unrealistict with you neither ; Scientology is the most insidiously destructive cult of the 20th century , with a never seen before ability to unduly influence the behavior, thoughts, information, and emotions (Steve Hassan’s BITE model for explaining Undue Influence) of the cult adherent. Parishioners are frequently under an unsuspecting hypnotic trance which totally blinds them to reality. And getting them to realize that is not an easy task at all, but can be done, nevertheless , if one fully understand the mechanism behind undue influence. That’s why I recommended those links and websites to you.

On his website, Freedom of Mind ( wwe.freedomofmind.com ) , Hassan has a “contact section” where you can reach him and ask him anything you wish. He is a very polite, helpful and resourceful individual who is fully aware of Scientology as a cult. You can watch his many videos , and learn a lot from him. The first step on understanding any condition, is to learn everything we can about it with experts in the field. Then we are equiped to do something about it.

I have experience in getting other Scientologists to realize about the cultic nature of Scientology. I recently got a dear friend out of it after a well thought strategy that lasted a few months , but ended up in the victory of Free Will, Self-determinism, and Freedom of Thought. Nothing pleases me more in life than to see and enslaved mind free itself of strict dogmas and authoritarian approaches to truth. So it can definitively be done provided that we are educated on how to do it, and provided that we possesses the patience and tolerance level required for this task.

This process is one that works on gradients. Do not expect him to wake up in one day or one week ; this is a rather long process (weeks or months) . As I was involved myself in the cult for 3 decades, I have a better perspective of what it takes to free onself from it than many cult experts who never have been in Scientology, but in other different cults.The easier approach that I have found is not to get the Scientologist to realize that LRH was a fraud, but to realize as a first step that the Church itself is violating and altering his writings and policies resulting in the suppression of the parishioners.

David Miscavige should be made, temporarily as LRH IS really the underlying cause of all of this, the reason for all the debacle. Then when the individual is already off-lines and away from the Church’s control, one can start working then , on step 2 of the strategy : realizing that Scientology as a philosophy as such is a destructive cult, and has always been. But once the person is out, he might wish to continue practicing Scnientology (training, auditing, etc) , and that’s all right ; nothing wrong with that. He probably won’t support the destructive policies and practices, but mostly want to participate in the therapy aspect itself , what we call, “auditing”.

Scientology would have turned at this stage, in a rather inoffensible religious practice that he uses to get wins and gains, not to suppress the rights of others with it. He’ll be free now to read many blogs and websites on the subject of Scn , and make his own INDEPENDENT judgement about it , which is really the end product of the handling, not whether or not he throw the baby out with the bath water. That is not the end purpose, as we should never impose in others in what to believe or not. He’ll probably realize, eventually, that LRH was just full of shit in so many ways, but hey, just let him be and enjoy your win.

Feel free to contact me if you wish to do so.

Best regards,
Peter

I call them ‘senior moments.’ I have them on an hourly basis……

Hi Espiando,Well I am very degreed in seeing things in a different way than most.(laughter)However if we had been in the same classes I would have been frightened of your brain power.Always,Ann.

Thanks Peter. I look forward to reading your ideas on how to get back with family.

Thank you Ann. And so are you!

Thanks Peter. Maybe I should have talked to you when it was going down. It all happened so fast there was no time to strategize. The church had been working on them for months unbeknownst to me. They were turned before I could even try to give them “my side of the story.” I was just trying to tell Thisisme that by marrying this churchie, their joint family money will all go to Bridge and IAS. They’ll be drained dry eventually. And their kids will be taken by the church. Scientologists who thought they were doing a good deed for their kids by sending them to Scn schools, were just sending them to recruit campuses to be recruited into the SO, which then meant disconnection from their parents. Sorry if I sound jaded or bitter. But disconnection is a bitter pill to swallow.

Thank you Regraded Being. I hope you are right! I”ll keep the faith.