Had I not had constant reminders throughout all these years about Dianetics, and had they not harassed my friends with a constant barrage of unwanted mail despite many repeated requests to cease and desist, and had I not found all this recent additional evidence on the net, I wouldn't be saying anything at all here now.
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Richard Platek <lion@databahn.net> wrote:
>> >>They are unteachable. Many of them have been at that
>> >>game for years, and it is my belief that they are being funded by special
>> >>interest groups, probably the psychs' union or something like that, though
>> >>they'll flatly deny this (as expected).
I just proved (below) at least a part of your beliefs to be incorrect.
>> I am not funded by a special interest group. I represent myself. As
>> a teenager I was harmed--mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and
>> financially by the Church of Scientology. I speak for myself. I am
>> not unteachable. I went to the Church seeking knowledge. I found it.
> I would say you got your monies worth.
Richard, I did not get my money's worth. I was ripped off and the
organization still owes me a refund they promised both orally and in
writing to repay, but which has not been repaid today, even
almost 20 years later.
> Stop blaming others for YOUR choices.
I am not BLAMING anyone else for my actions in taking a look a
scientology. I am the one who went there and got involved seeking
spiritual and religious growth. After I got there I wanted to use the
chapel. What I found was not a chapel, but an artifice--it was merely
an ordinary room designated as such and rarely used. A staff member
even joked about it as not really being a chapel. The room was
basically empty and only a had a couple of philosophical diatribes
hung on the wall about an unnamed deity. Beyond that, there was no
religion. No God. It was only training in communications and heavy
selling and pressure to take more courses and pay money or join the
Sea Org. Nothing at all to do with spiritual or religious matters
whatsoever. Soon thereafter, I came under intense pressure by staff
members of the church to break off all communications and future
involvement FOREVER with my parents.
I fell prey to mental and emotional abuse as a result of the carefully
crafted operations of the organization. All of this transpired within
a couple of weeks! I think the reason they recruited me so heavily
was because I went out and recruited others to come down and take the
communications course, which they did. But each of us separately and
individually came to the conclusion that Scientology was a total cult,
a ripoff, a scam, and a serious threat to the community.
Unfortunately, since then, 20 years of subsequent accumulation of
evidence, the private and public behavior of the organization in the
global community, and a streaming parade of victims has proven the
original observation to be exceedingly true.
>Acknowledge the error...
Was it an error for a teenager to trust the organization? Was it okay
for me, a teenager just above high school age to trust in what L. Ron
Hubbard had to say? Did I? For a short while, yes. But then NO
after they tried and failed to twist my mind toward their own
intentions and control. I immediately corrected that error, you can
be assured of that. What I am concerned about it is that this
particular error is exploited to its fullest value. It is a carefully
contrived, proven, and deliberate system of policies designed to
entrap people, and it meets with moderate success. Bad public
relations weakens the trap, so there is a strong focus on managing PR
issues. And it is more than a strong focus, it is a whole technology
of how to manage perceptions and cause people to make perceptual
errors. Have to give L. Ron some credit, his design yielded him and
his heirs quite a lot of money, control, and power.
>and get on with your original intention...
How would I do that now? My original intention was to go all the way
up the bridge if I could. I had no idea what was lurking in the
darkness. Now that I know, there is no way I will ever return to that
intention again. I thank the brave souls who have had the courage to
speak out--facing severe harassment from the church--and how their
observations and documentation tell what awaits in the darkness.
>Buy the way, I'll bet you learned a great deal...
Yes, I learned that: you can't trust slick PR, artwork, and
advertising by a so-called church, even today; that it wasn't really a
church at all, just a posing as one, and still is; that some
scientologists and their agents were dupes, fools, thieves,
tricksters, liars, and even outright criminals seeking to evade
justice, and still are. I learned that I could get a far much better
training in communications at a university. I could also get a fairer
background investigation from the Air Force, the Pentagon, the DoD,
and the FBI. In retrospect, the Hubbard Communications Course was
shear stupidity! I have never used his clay models for
communications. They would be totally in the way! I simply set pen
to paper and write. I don't need to add mass to thoughts as Hubbard
suggested. I never use affinity, reality, or communications (ARC)
concepts. They have no practical value. ARC didn't show the way to
good communications or good relationship principles at all. Instead,
focusing strongly on those issues is a sure way to break them. The
course only took what I already knew, then plowed in a few gimmicks,
and it all detracted from the main issue lurking down the hall--MIND
CONTROL AND SEPARATION.
> while you were involved.
I am still involved. I have a clear memory of the impact it
had on my life, how I almost quit a high-paying job to go off and join
the Sea Org, the devastation it caused in my family relationships, the
years of having to listen to countless ads on TV and in bookstores for
Dianetics when I knew an ugly truth, and so on. I have never lost
interest in seeing them pay the refund they owe me.
>Lastly, I am sorry you were hurt. Being a lion, I hate to see needless
>pain.
Thanks, I appreciate that. But the tiny hurt I experienced is nothing
compared to some! What I have seen and read the past few weeks on the
Net--looking at all sides of the issue, both pro and con, with all the
separate viewpoints and agendas--has shocked me as an ordinary citizen
of these United States. I won't wait quietly and let it pass. I will
rise every morning and figure out a new way to punch a hole in the
conceptual armor of the church. I will call on every resource I know
to help crush this horrible plague of global humanity. I will not
live in fear that they will pursue and harass me, for they will have
absolutely no legal basis for doing so. They are going to find out a
real hard to swallow lesson about what happens when you mess around
for too long with too many people's cognitive, emotional, familial,
financial, and spiritual futures--to violate them; to attempt to break
them into subjugation for use as grist in a science fiction technology
opera; then to use aggressive legal loopholes on a global basis to
silence the untidy waste spun off from the process.
My deepest sympathies and prayers lie with the victims. I don't feel
hurt and pain as you suggest, it is instead deep concern for the
victims who have been crushed or abused in one way or another. I am
sharing my own experience, plus combining it with a lot of research on
many sides of the issue. If I express a negative view of scientology,
it is because my observations and research show that the overwhelming
weight of the evidence severely tips in the favor of the victims.
That's unfortunate. Had I merely been given a refund and the freedom
to keep my relationship intact with my parents in the first place,
that probably would have been it. Had scientology really been a true
church instead of a side winding cult, I might have pursued religious
freedoms there. Had I not had constant reminders throughout all these
years about Dianetics, and had they not harassed my friends with a
constant barrage of unwanted mail despite many repeated requests to
cease and desist, and had I not found all this recent additional
evidence on the net, I wouldn't be saying anything at all here now.
A. Student