The sunk cost fallacy. Who would wish to admit their actions and donations were all for naught and they had, in fact, been hoodwinked?

Brian,

WE studied Scientology and did not become deranged.

I disagree that studying Scientology per se makes someone deranged.

I believe we’re looking at people, who, for one reason or another, MUST be right about the Church of Scientology.

To be wrong about Co$ would be, in Hubbard’s words, “too gruesome”.

They might suspect they’ve been rooked.

Evidence ABOUTNDS that they’ve been rooked.

Yet they’ll deny the validity of this evidence.
They can’t confront having been rooked.

So, they go on “believing” because BELIEVING makes them right.
And of course, donate more money!
Doing so makes them feel like their they are 100% right.
And that’s a good feeling!
It assuages their doubts – for a while

Of course this donating makes them even BIGGER fools.

Which they can’t confront.
So they deny it and “believe” even harder than before, and donate again.
And so on, and so on.

This is their trap, I believe.
This is my theory, my opinion, for whatever its worth.

They HAVE TO be right about Co$.
Must Must Must Must must be right about Co$!
They simply CANNOT be wrong about this!

This is the worst mental trap there is.

Its not only Scientologists who do this.

People have fixed ideas about all kinds of subjects, i.e. , delusions about lovers, spouses, children, neighbors, religions, politics, other organizations, etc.
What it boils down to is that in a person’s life there is SOMETHING or someone about which, or about whom, the person has a fixed idea, and MUST “be right”.
about that fixed idea.

Evidence be damned!

To be wrong about it would be too painful, that’s all.

They’d rather go on being fools than confront that they are fools.

Mark Twain had a quote about this.

I have long had that picture too, of DM laughing at them, Wyn.

Edit: What I meant to say was “…an ever-widening circle of interest in the vast amount of information about Co$ that’s out there.”

You’re tearing yourself apart and getting your heart broken, Skyler. These people will NEVER watch Aftermath or read Mary Kahn’s story.

What Aftermath and people like Mary Kahn do by ftheir coming forth and telling their stories is to keep OTHERS away from Scientology – MILLIONS of others.

This is no small thing. It is, in fact HUGE because the effect is ongoing…wider and wider circles of effects.

The people who have themselves disconnected from their parents won’t be watching Aftermath nor will they be reading anything negative about Scientology on the internet.

They KNOW that doing so is THE FIRST STEP out the door of Scientology.

Not to mention how much trouble they’ll get into by doing so. They don’t DARE watch anything or read anything negative, because doing so will ALSO make them WRONG and these cult bots are so programmed, so brainwashed, so suffused with their own rightness and importance, that being WRONG about the cult is UNTHINKABLE. ESPECIALLY being wrong in front of the very parents from whom they oh-so-righteously disconnected – no-no, no-no, no-no!

So that’s the bad news.

But via Aftermath, millions of people have been informed about the lies and abuses being perpetrated by the Church of Scientology. This show won an EMMY! And having watched the show, a portion of these millions who watched will do FURTHER research on the internet, and in turn a portion of those will be interested enough to PURSUE reading and watching about the lies and fraud and abuses and disconnection as re Co$…an ever widening circle of information.

THAT is the good news, Skyler, and it is very good news indeed, and I’m inviting you to feel happy and glad about it 🙂

Joe,

No, I don’t think it makes you a bad person. You could be similarly entertained by the harmless-type schizophrenics in mental institutions who act out their delusions if and/or when not thoroughly drugged. Some of them have delusions concerning their identities which are quite amusing. (Of course I’m not referring to the violent schizophrenics who hear voices telling them to kill people.)

Now, as re the delusions of the Scn Still Ins, I TRY to laugh at them because laughing at them is not painful – to me!

You know, its PAINFUL to watch people being continually rooked with their full approval and cooperation!

So I think its better to help them and laugh at them rather than get all roiled up.

I would THINK that medical people in insane asylums try to laugh too (not AT the patients of course!) so that they can get thru their days and do their jobs.

Thanks, Dan. I’ve never been to SA. If I could get away I’d go on a trip and get some auditing. I’d go to Israel too.

One day all the idiot Still Ins – these self-appointed superior beings who bask in their delusory wins, these die-hard Still Ins having such a good time seeing what they do not see and not seeing what they do see – one day these people are going to have SUCH a rude awakening. A great shock is coming their way.

And I can’t wait to ROTF and LMAO at them.

Serves ’em right, the dumb f**ks.

OK, ok, I KNOW that’s not the right attitude and they need and deserve authentic compassion. Yes, I do know this.

Whine Alert:
But JEEEEEEEEEEEEZ they are just soooooo persistently, stubbornly, so exasperatingly, so INFURIATINGLY… dumb!