[This message has been edited by randye (edited 01-26-2021).]

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 01-24-2021).]

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 01-24-2021).]

[This message has been edited by GT-X (edited 01-25-2021).]

quote Originally posted by GT-X: Randye, Genuine question for you, as you seem to be far more knowledgeable than most about these circus clowns. In your own best words, how do they manage to get so many people (some of them seemingly actually intelligent) sucked in and paying so much money? I mean, I understand cult mentality. And, I get "there's a sucker born every minute". etc. But honestly, a child could see this stuff is ludicrous and yet they manage to pry millions and millions of dollars out of people. It's staggering really. Disgusting even. Thanks for sharing by the way. ~Tyler

I have never met anyone, outside of perhaps less than 10 people, who are truly "evil cultists" from $cientology.

Almost all people joined $cientology out of noble reasons. They're good people. They were either genuinely interested in bettering themselves, bettering the world, or both.
The cult told them that they could help them, in fact $cientology has a saying: "We Can Help You With That".

There is also another more evil saying inside $cientology: "Find Their Ruin"
What that means is to find out what a potential recruit fears in life or thinks is holding them back or whatever they may be ashamed of.
Once the cult recruiters, which are referred to in $cientology as "Body Routers" who's job it is to, as L. Ron Hubbard said, "Route bodies into the shop" discover someone's "ruin" they have their toe in the door.

So how do otherwise intelligent people get fooled by $cientology?

I once thought that it was simply the gullibility of some people but it's actually "brainwashing on a slow gradient". and it can happen to almost anyone.

It starts like this;

The cult often sets up "Free Personality Test" tables and booths at fairs, festivals and other places where they can reach a lot of passersby.

Someone sits down with the $cientologist at the table and they are offered a chance to "hold the cans" which is the parts of the $cientology "E-Meter" that the dupe grabs onto.
The $cientology recruiter then asks the potential "mark" a series of benign questions and shows the "mark" how the needle on the meter moves.



They tell the person that the needle "rise and fall" on the meter indicates "repressed issues" in the person's mind that are causing them problems in life. (note how they are already "finding their ruin").

The $cientologist recruiter says "We Can Help You With That" and invites the dupe to come to a Free or low cost course at a $cientology center.
$cientologists are taught to never give anything away for free so the introductory course is usually about $25 or less.

The first course is called "The Comms Course" and people are told that it will help them better and more effectively communicate with other people in their lives and at work.
This course is fairly innocent and is a mish-mash of L. Ron Hubbard bullshit, "Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People" and a Toastmasters public speaking seminar.

...and here is where the very first part of the "brainwashing on a slow gradient" begins...

People that take the course are told that the "technology" for this course was discovered by L.RON HUBBARD

The best way to feed someone a lie is to wrap it in a truth.

The truth is that the course actually works in way for most people. After all, who couldn't benefit from being able to communicate better with others?

The lie is that it's all L. Ron Hubbard "technology"....(ever wonder why it's called Scientology?)

Once the class completes this short course, everyone is individually invited to stand in from of the class and tell how they benefitted from the course which $cientology calls "Attesting To Your Wins".

They are handed a certificate and the entire class applauds and cheers for them and the ceremony is repeated for each participant.

This "affirmation" is also a big part of the brainwashing because the majority of people see this happening and don't want to be the only one without "Wins"

The next course costs more money and takes a little more time and obviously the same pattern of "wins" and "affirmations" is repeated, this time however a little more brainwashing is introduced. The lie gets a little bit bigger, the truth gets a little bit smaller. Each new "course" in $cientology repeats this same pattern and the new $cientologist is well on his or her way to getting deeper and deeper into the cult.

After a while the new recruit finds that all of their friends are $cientologists and all of them are excited about their constant "Wins" and any doubts the new $cientologist might have they are told are their own fault for "Not Applying The Tech" (that's cult speak for not following L. Ron Hubbard's teachings).
That's another integral part of the brainwashing. The new cult member is convinced that any inconsistencies they see or any doubts they have are THEIR OWN FAULT and it is never the cult.

So on and on the "brainwashing on a slow gradient" goes until the new $cientologist is approx. $300k to $450k and many years into it
By that time the OT III space opera of Xenu and the BTs isn't so hard to sell to them.

Remember, all their friends that have also reached this "OT Level" are telling them and everyone else about their "Wins" and are afraid to speak out about how ludicrous it might seem because they don't want to be accused of "Not applying the tech" and possibly be "Out-Ethics", (cult speak for not following policy), or face any ridicule or shame from their friends, (the $cientology member community is a pretty small and tight group and the $cientologist by this time has few if any friends outside of the cult).
The "OT Levels" are also "super duper secret" and $cientologists are forbidden from talking about them with anyone below their level in the cult and especially anyone outside the cult.

There is a LOT more to this that includes "OSA" (Office of Special Affairs), which is the cults internal "spy network" and "Ethics" which is a department in the cult equivalent to their internal "police force" that enforces $cientology "policy" on it's members, up to and including the "jailing" of some members in what is called the "RPF" (Rehabilitation Projects Force) or the separation of families by "Disconnection" policy, which is a central theme that Leah Remini exposes in her TV show

Sorry for the length of this post but trust me it is only a very short and seriously abbreviated explanation of a unbelievably complex topic.

It took me many years to understand the bulk of it and there was a point that I was afraid sometimes that I might have begun to actually believe some of it

By the way, NEVER buy into the LIE that $cientology is in ANY way a "religion"

L.Ron Hubbard himself wrote that it is NOT a religion but is "an applied philosophy". He wrote volumes on Dianetics and $cientology not being a religion.
It was only after the cult started fighting the IRS that they dragged in the phony crosses and started using the "religion" guise but by that time Hubbard was holed up in a remote place near Hemet, California, wrecked out of his mind on alcohol and drugs all day and being cared for by a few loyal old cult members. He was long past running operations and eventually died there from an injected Vistaril overdose.

You said: "a child could see this stuff is ludicrous".
That's really entirely due to the internet and it wasn't always so.
"Sunshine is the best disinfectant" and the internet has helped spread the truth about $cientology far better and wider than we as critics and activists ever imagined a few decades ago. The group "Anonymous" also helped expose the cult beyond anything we could have imagined.

We used to say years ago: "$cientology may be the first cult in history that will be laughed out of existence if we can ever get enough people to know what it's about".

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 01-25-2021).]