AIUI, men slept in the conference room and women slept in the surrounding offices; as for the bars, they apparently weren’t up for very long – I believe Miscavige realised that they would look bad to outsiders passing the compound.

A=A – you seem to think that I condone such nonsense as the Hole. You really should read what I write instead of doing A=A=A when you see my name.

Yes, it is harsh. And its true that many people find the military way of life acceptable. They like living in a highly structured environment with every detail of their lives covered by organization policy and orders. And yes, they do sign up with good intentions. No argument there.

But then, after signing up, and observing what they most assuredly can’t help but observe, seeing in full glowing color themselves the abuses the lies, the scams why do they stay?

My theory unproven and based solely on my personal observations over the years (which makes it anecdotal “evidence”) i is that there are people who have hidden, neurotic desires and needs to self abnegate, They devote themselves, utterly, to an organization or to another person, fanatically, to the detriment of their physical and mental health. They are constantly unhappy but they will not break the attachment because they’re constantly striving for the approval of the person or organization, like its an elusive prize that they MUST win. They have very low self esteem. They like, they want, they NEED to be controlled, heavily. They LIKE every detail of their lives being micromanaged. They equate being helicoptered over with being loved.

Do they have good intentions? Well, yeah!

Their good intentions are not the issue.

The issue is that they experience a great deal of abuse and neglect, and yet they stay.

EVERYBODY signed up to the cult with good intentions.
With the best of intentions, the purest, some of them.

Yet, many have left. You left. I left. Countless others have left,
Were WE who left, so special, so gifted, so aware, so much smarter, more perceptive, etc.?

Frankly – and with no disparagement to all of us who left the cult – frankly, I don’t think so.

I don’t think that the leaving of this cult is a hallmark of higher intelligence necessarily.

I think there’s one difference between those who are staying and those who’ve left, and that is, that the people who are staying are OK with being self-abnegating slaves, and the ones who’ve left, were not.

And I also think that if, and/or when the time comes when any Still In decides that he or she is no longer OK with being a slave, he/she will leave. He or she will find a way, and will get out of there, somehow.

I think it is this one ESSENTIAL factor which separates those who stay in Scientology from those who have left (or are UTR and planning to leave).

Not that there aren’t OTHER factors keeping them in, mind you. Very real ones.

That said, I do believe that agreeing to be a slave is at the very essence of staying in, and that without this fundamental agreement a cult member is on his or her way out, no matter the penalties for leaving. And I do believe that there is a CORE of those Still In who are into self-abnegation big time, and NEED their lives to be about The-Group-Is-All-And-I-Am Nothing, and if they weren’t in THIS abusive cult, out of their own neurotic need they’d attach themselves to some other draining cult or abusive person and have the unhealthy, totally self-abnegating unfulfilling relationship they crave with others.

So you see, I’m not painting ALL the Still Ins with the same broad brush. Many could be planning to leave as we speak.

“I think one of Miscavige’s nightmares is that an old timer who knows too much will start talking too freely in his old age. ”

Naw, that has already happened MANY times. Some even wrote books that you can buy PeaceMaker.

“Mama don’t let your kids grow up to be sea org.” Yep.

Cyndi, I think one of Miscavige’s nightmares is that an old timer who knows too much will start talking too freely in his old age. I believe that some medications can now result in some improvement in dementia, plus Miscavige has just got to be paranoid, so there is no way he dare loosen his grasp on anyone who knows too much.

They must be having to spend increasing resources to provide adult day care for high-value seniors. And something is bound to go wrong eventually, whether or not they manage to contain it.

Ironically, society and the law are less tolerant of Scientology doing what it has done to these people all along, when they get to be old and are seen as vulnerable and at risk of exploitation.

He’s just being frank with you. (Couldn’t help it.)

That’s pretty harsh. Many people find the military way of life acceptable and when they signed up with good intentions they never knew what was going to hit them.

Not to be an apologist but these are all sea org people. They were probably pretty well indoctrinated and had lofty goals before they signed up. Many of them might be born ins and signed up as soon as they were allowed to do so. Military life was not for me so I was never a candidate for the sea org.

Apparently 20% or more of all current scientologists are sea org and unfortunately as long as DM is running the show most of them are stuck until Scientology becomes a “no-thing”. Lower ranking sea org might escape the worst abuse but from most accounts the sea org has always been abusive and people joining never saw it coming.

No relation, sorry. Frank Drebin is not my real name… it’s the character played by Leslie Nielsen in “The Naked Gun” comedies.