There is a link to those videos? Thanks

Thanks so much for taking the time to provide such an informative comment.

Interesting. I agree with what you wrote except for the last part. I don’t think Scn turned its members into narcissists per se. I think Scn turned its members into arrogant know-bests who felt they were better than others. But that doesn’t necessarily make them a narcissist. And I admit that when I was in Scn drinking the Kool Aid, I too felt I was above “mere wogs” by way of the training and processing I’d had in Scn. But since coming out of the cult, I’ve found there are many intelligent and capable people on the outside , some even genius. So I have been shedding the arrogance I once had, and it can’t happen fast enough for my liking.

I am going to quote an answer that I posted regarding cults at Quora:

To give some degree of reference, some evidence for this in plain terms, I am going to quote another expert on cults, he is known as the top expert and historian on Scientology, and a bona fide expert on influence in his own right – Jon Atack.

I am going to quote a brief excerpt from his superb book Opening Minds:

“In 1985, the Boston Church of Christ asked Flavil Yeakley, a personality test expert, to make a study of its members. Critics insisted that the group caused unhealthy transformations of personality in its members. The Boston Church of Christ was accused of being a cult that was brainwashing its members.

Over 900 members filled in extensive questionnaires. Yeakley also administered the Meyers-Briggs’ Type Indicator to 30 members each of six groups generally regarded as ‘manipulative sects’ – Yeakley’s expression – including Scientology, The Way, the Unification Church (or Moonies), the Hare Krishna Society, Maranatha and the Children of God, and to 30 members each in five mainstream churches: Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian. The same personality test was filled out three times by most of the subjects – as if it were five years earlier; from their present perspective; and how they anticipated they would answer five years into the future.

In Yeakley’s words, ‘Changes in psychological type do not indicate normal healthy growth. Such changes indicate some pressure in the environment that causes people to deny their true type and try to become like someone else.’ There were no significant deviations in personality type over time among members of the five mainstream churches, but all of the ‘manipulative sects’ showed significant movement, including the Boston Church of Christ, in direct opposition to its leader’s conviction that his group was not a cult.

Yeakley found that there was a convergence towards a particular personality type within each manipulative sect, but that the type varied from group to group. In other words, the ‘manipulative sects’ were changing the personalities of their members each towards its own specific type. The effect has come to be known as ‘cloning’ and is a substantial proof that thought reform occurs in some groups.

This work is supported by a study made by Paul Martin and Rod Dubrow-Marshall, who sampled 567 former members and demonstrated significant effects relating to depression, dissociation and anxiety induced by cult membership.″ end quote Jon Atack, Opening Minds

Flavil Yeakley described his research in the book The Discipling Dilemma.

Numerous cult experts now use the term cloning to describe the personality changes that cult members undergo. It’s a quite common concept among cult experts to regard a cult indoctrination as involving the process of having a pseudo personality or identity created in the mind of the cult member and this is a duplicate of the perceived personality of the cult founder or leader. The personality of the cult member is seen as buried, suppressed, or set aside and the cloned personality of the guru (cult leader) is seen as dominant in this hypothesis.

Professor Rod Dubrow-Marshall published his research in The Influence Continuum – the Good, the Dubious, and the Harmful – Evidence and Implications for Policy and Practice in the 21st Century, International Journal of Cultic Studies. vol.1, no.1, 2010

This is regarded as significant evidence of the changes that occur in a cult. To understand how they occur and the fine details of what happens, what the group does, what the cult leader does and what role each plays we have a wealth of resources to examine.

From

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-fundamental-universal-characteristics-that-define-a-cult/answer/Jeffrey-Jay-6

I started reading about various models regarding human predators and the relationships they have since about 2014 when I left Scientology.

I think that this is a subject that is so important that it should be taught in school so children can understand that human predators exist and they are a threat to the children themselves and other people and society overall in my opinion.

I have noted here in the past that authors such as Bill Eddy and Martha Stout have pointed out that this is a social problem.

There are numerous models of the guru (cult leader) that are helpful in my opinion.

I wrote about how Scientology founder Ronald Hubbard fit the malignant narcissist model in many ways and still see that as worth examining.

Scientology’s Parallel In Nature – Malignant Narci…
https://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/05/scientolgys-parallel-in-nature_3.html

I have since then seen many more models and consider many worth examining.

I see psychological models that are not empirical in design as essentially metaphors of the mind. They are useful for reframing the topic but should in my opinion be considered metaphor and not necessarily literal.

Stories of things like ravening wolves and wolves in sheep’s clothing are not literal claims but useful for reframing examining human predators in my opinion. Similarly the various models regarding human predators are useful but as they say the map isn’t the territory. It is a beginning point to make comparisons, not the end.

That being said I found the model that Daniel Shaw uses in his book Traumatic Narcissism to give unique insight into the topic as well as the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.

Robert Jay Lifton has described the cult leader in numerous books and in Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry he very concisely gave his take on cult leaders and how they see their own thoughts as more worthwhile than the exterior world as solipsism.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have written at length on these models and several others regarding human predators, both in general and as cult leaders.

It’s almost axiomatic at this point, but worth pointing out that it is a generally accepted fact that Scientology encourages narcissism in members and the accounts of hundreds, maybe thousands, of ex members at this point portray that quite consistently.

It is just a well known fact that in the Scientology cult members are shaped into mental pseudoclones of Ronald Hubbard and they take in the personality traits to varying degrees of Hubbard. Hubbard was exceptionally narcissistic and that unfortunately is encouraged in Scientology cult members.