Above is another picture taken yesterday at the demo by Anonymous in Kansas City, aimed at educating the public about what the Scientology cult is all about. A good place to get accurate current information about the functioning of Scientology, and the work of those who are exposing it, is online at Xenu.net
Most everyone who has read or heard anything about Scientology knows that one of the weirdest, and most easily ridiculed, aspects of the cult is its belief system, including various beliefs about aliens who inhabit human bodies. Since I'm a psychologist, I am always fascinated by the process whereby people can come to believe (or be induced to believe) weird stuff. Here's an excerpt from one of the documents on the Xenu website (linked in paragraph above) that helps to explain how the cult indoctrinates new believers, breaking down the capacity for critical thinking (it's a process often called "brainwashing"):
Scientology indoctrination usually begins with the Communication Course Training Routines or "TRs". These are supposed to enhance the ability to communicate, but have been called by one expert "the most overt form of hypnosis used by any destructive cult".
In the first TR, two people sit silently facing each other, with their eyes closed. In the second, they stare at each other, sometimes for hours on end, inducing hallucinations and an uncritical euphoria.
In the next stage, TR-0 Bullbait, the student has to sit motionless, while the "coach" does everything possible to disturb him or her. The student progresses to reading aloud disconnected phrases from Alice in Wonderland, and then to acknowledging statements read out at random from the same text. Then comes TR-3, where the student repeatedly asks the coach either "Do fish swim?" or "Do birds fly?". In the last "Communication Course" Training Routine, the student again asks one of these questions repeatedly, learning not to be distracted by anything the coach says or does.
Repetition is another way of inducing an altered or trance state. Following these procedures definitely makes the individual more susceptible to direction from Scientology.
From the Communication Course, the new recruit will usually go onto the "Purification Rundown", after a meeting with a Scientology salesperson, who convinces the recruit that the Rundown is well worth the high price demanded for it. Those on the "Purification Rundown" take extremely high doses of vitamins and minerals, and combine running and sauna treatment for five hours each day. Such high doses of vitamins can create various physiological reactions, including drug-like experiences… The heat exhaustion brought on by the sauna can lead to euphoric experiences, yet again weakening critical thinking…
There are several hundred Scientology counselling procedures or "auditing processes". The "Objectives" were first introduced in the 1950s. Hubbard asserted that it is necessary to show the individual that reactive impulses can be controlled by being put under the control of another person (the Scientology "auditor"). This might be more simply termed "mind control". On the Objective Processes, the individual is given strict orders to repeat an overwhelmingly tedious cycle of behaviour.
Remember, too, that the individual is typically paying thousands of dollars (more and more, as they progress through the system), for the privilege of this special "training" and "cleansing." The very act of paying for these "courses" makes it all the more difficult for the person to doubt the value or validity of what is being taught. The process of commitment and buy-in solidifies the new member's belief system and undercuts any capacity for critical thinking. To doubt would be, literally, un-thinkable.
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