Post by kostgard on Nov 1, 2015 19:49:31 GMT -4
re: why people are sucked in - I can get people looking for answers. I don't think religions would exist at all if that weren't a powerful drive in a lot of people.
But the thing that gets me about Scientology is how much it promises and when. Most religions promise your reward for what you do now in the afterlife or in your next life. That works well because there is really no way to prove or disprove that you'll actually get what you are promised. And even those that promise the ability to achieve nirvana during this lifetime just speak to an internal state, and one that can be a bit ephemeral.
Scientology promises you superpowers. Here and now, once you reach the right level, and they don't act like the right level is rarely reached and only comes from a lifetime of study - you take the right classes and cough up the money, you can be "clear". People who are "clear" are supposed to operate at a higher level than most humans, and as you move up the OT levels, you honest to god are supposed to have superpowers. Like manipulating time and space.
And that's actually what helped snap Jason Beghe out of it. He was clear. Then he got in a car accident. He said he was confused because Clears don't get in car accidents. They should be able to anticipate the actions of the other person and take steps to avoid it. That's when things really started to unravel for him and he started to suspect it was all BS. But I still wonder how someone hears "Take these classes and pay this money and you'll get superpowers" and they take it seriously.
Lawrence Wright (who wrote "Going Clear") said that he believes Scientology is (or at least started out) Hubbard trying to treat his own mental illness, and that makes so much sense to me. A lot of the basic stuff in it is basic self-help/talk therapy stuff. But then it careens down a track of magical thinking (just like the mind of someone struggling with mental illness might), and that's when things get wonky for me. I know it is easy to be on the outside looking in and see all this, but these people were also once on the outside (unless they were kids raised within it). I get feeling lost and directionless, but going for the promise of superpowers feels strange to me.
But the thing that gets me about Scientology is how much it promises and when. Most religions promise your reward for what you do now in the afterlife or in your next life. That works well because there is really no way to prove or disprove that you'll actually get what you are promised. And even those that promise the ability to achieve nirvana during this lifetime just speak to an internal state, and one that can be a bit ephemeral.
Scientology promises you superpowers. Here and now, once you reach the right level, and they don't act like the right level is rarely reached and only comes from a lifetime of study - you take the right classes and cough up the money, you can be "clear". People who are "clear" are supposed to operate at a higher level than most humans, and as you move up the OT levels, you honest to god are supposed to have superpowers. Like manipulating time and space.
And that's actually what helped snap Jason Beghe out of it. He was clear. Then he got in a car accident. He said he was confused because Clears don't get in car accidents. They should be able to anticipate the actions of the other person and take steps to avoid it. That's when things really started to unravel for him and he started to suspect it was all BS. But I still wonder how someone hears "Take these classes and pay this money and you'll get superpowers" and they take it seriously.
Lawrence Wright (who wrote "Going Clear") said that he believes Scientology is (or at least started out) Hubbard trying to treat his own mental illness, and that makes so much sense to me. A lot of the basic stuff in it is basic self-help/talk therapy stuff. But then it careens down a track of magical thinking (just like the mind of someone struggling with mental illness might), and that's when things get wonky for me. I know it is easy to be on the outside looking in and see all this, but these people were also once on the outside (unless they were kids raised within it). I get feeling lost and directionless, but going for the promise of superpowers feels strange to me.