I will say that the BEST description of the state of mind that I was in and that I think others were/are in will be found not in a psych book or a book about cults but in George Orwell's stunning novel, "1984."
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Keith Henson (below) wants to know about the mental state needed to
swallow this. That is a very complex question, Keith, and not easily
answered here. In fact, I don't even know if there is an answer to your
question.
But I will say that the BEST description of the state of mind that I was
in and that I think others were/are in will be found not in a psych book
or a book about cults but in George Orwell's stunning novel, "1984."
Several years after I was out of the cult, I began to read, trying to
comprehend my experience and out of all the books I consumed, the one that
stunned me the most was "1984." Orwell's decription of Party life, his
description of the mind-set and the treatment of people and their
willingness to believe is a chilling parallel to the life I led. Orwell's
description of "double-think" is EXACTLY the mind-set needed to live that
life.
I'll try to pull some passages out of it and post to ARS to show what I
mean.
Plus there is so much in the book that parallels the Sea Org/Dept 20 life:
how there is always a war and the enemies change but no one notices or
cares; how the rations are dropped and called a "victory" and the Party
memers believe it; how history is rewritten and the Party members don't
care; how the "criminals" are made to confess in public; the constant
surveillance and how the Party feared intimacy/privacy and demanded to
know all; how war was peace, ignorance was knowledge and freedom was
slavery; hate week or the 5 minute hates; how people simply disappeared
and became "nonpersons"; the paranoia and the distrust in the Party and
how everyone learned to say the right things and (through double-think)
come to believe them; double-speak; etc. I could go on and on. When I read
it, I found myself underlining most of the book. I kept finding myself
saying, omigawd, that was me! That was my life.
I don't know how well one can extrapolate from it back to what it was/is
like there but until there is a better version, "1984" will give you a
damned good feeling.
Robert Vaughn Young
writer@eskimo.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
> Title: Re: Scn's Dept 20: a memoir (by RVY) Pt 1
> Author: [9]hkhenson@netcom.com (Keith Henson)
> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 03:37:12 GMT
>
>Robert Vaughn Young (writer@eskimo.com) wrote:
>
>: Scientology's Dept. 20:: a memoir
>: Introduction and Part 1 - Snow White
>: by Robert Vaughn Young
>
>snip
>
>: The task of finding the "Tenyaka Memorial" and destroying the cabal was
>: given over to his wife, Mary Sue, who gave it to her Guardian's Office. I
>
>This is *utterly* insane! Scientology processing got these people to a
>state where they had nearly no connection to reality. As a kid I played
>games which had themes this nutty, but we *knew* they were fantisy. I
>wonder if RVY could comment on the mental state required to swollow this
>BS. Keith Henson
>
>(and a big thanks to RVY)
>
>