Post-Ex is the next step up from and out of Ex-Scientology. Post-Exes have always existed in Scientology watching, they just haven’t stuck around long enough to write up their hat.
A Post-Ex would like to see a less deceptive and abusive form of Scientology, but he realizes that people should remain free to practice any religion they want – even abusive ones. As long as Scientology deception and abuse is legal, a Post-Ex realizes that Scientologists have a right to it.
Warning the public is important, but a Post-Ex realizes that exaggerating the abuse in Scn, or taking it out of context to make Scn seem more dangerous, creates an hysteria around Scientology which has never ended Scn abuse, or even slowed it down. He realizes that he only harms himself and his own mental stability by engaging in these kinds of hysterically negative distortions, and he has stopped doing that to himself.
A Post-Ex seeks to accept and to integrate his experiences: who he was as a Scientologist, with who he was an Ex/Anti, and with who he is now. He has mined all the value out of his experiences in both Scientology and Anti-Scientology, the lessons he has learned from each, and he has moved on down the road with all his valuables in tow.
A Post-Ex realizes that any extreme view (whether all good or all bad) on Scientology is too false to be sustainable. A Post Ex is comfortable with the good he got out of Scientology and realizes the person he was when he was a Scientologist is not the person he is today. He had different problems back then for which Scientology was the solution, and he’s good with that. He is no longer bitter or vindictive about any betrayals or abuses he once thought Scientology committed on him, whether real or imagined.
A Post-Ex has seen through the hysteria of the concepts of “mind control” and “Brainwashing”. He realizes that his own decisions in Scientology might have been made under some form of deception and even under some social coercion, but in the end, he considers that his own decisions were ultimately his own. Any decisions he made as a Scientologist, he made for his own reasons, and he kept making them every day because they were working for him in some way, until they weren’t. And then when his decisions quit working for him, and only then, did he finally decide to leave.
A Post-Ex has found the ways that his decisions to become a Scientologist, and to stay one, were helpful to him. He has also found the ways that becoming an Ex, and even an Anti, were helpful to him, too. And he has won his own self-acceptance as a prize for that.
A Post-Ex has integrated the arguments, and “truths”, he made as a Scientologist with the arguments, and “truths”, he made as an Ex/Anti-Scientologist. He has seen the disconnects and the contradictions there, and repaired them. He no longer walks around with an opposite self inside him, with which he is at war.
A Post-Ex has graduated from Scientology and from Ex/Anti Scientology and has continued on his own spiritual path, whether that path is religious, spiritual, or neither.
A Post-Ex is an integrated whole.
Without being arrogant I can honestly say I’ve been through the stages Alanzo describes. I attribute it to the irresistible Collective Wisdom which comes through by reading hundreds of blog topics and thousands of following comments over the last two years. False notions and beliefs carried forward in my life from scn came up and disappeared and valuable truths were examined and retained.
There’s always more to learn and flaws may still come up, but in my opinion Post-Ex Scientologist is an attainable “State of Awareness.” Where’s the Examiner? I want to attest!
This topic brings so many things to mind that I could easily write a two page essay. For now I’ll just say thanks to Alanzo for an elegant and descriptive topic describing the stages of going through the ex scn experience. Stopping here to make sure I filled out “Leave a Reply” correctly and the comment appears.
Alanzo, glad you are back! You have a voice that matters.
Glad to be back Marildi.
Good to see you here.
Al, I liked what you did over on Mike Rinder’s today. I’m sure it impinged on some people, even though Thetaclear was the only one to admit it. Good job.
Well thanks Marildi
I think there’s more than one viewpoint to be expressed on Scientology, and I appreciated Mike Rinder for asking for peoples’ viewpoints on the show and then actually posting those viewpoints when they might not be exactly what he wanted.
I thought thetaclear’s post was genius and I’m thinking of posting it here, too.
Yes. The very definition of “moving on”.
I like to think of myself as having moved on, yet I retain a fascination with the subject vis a vis a select few of the criticism blogs.
Sometimes I question whether I have actually moved on, if the subject still holds my interest so. Most of the time, however, I regard Scientology Watching in the same way I might watch a favorite weekly drama in TV. What is going to happen next?
I agree wholeheartedly with others who have written that organizational Scientology, and perhaps the bulk of the written philosophy itself is doomed. Its demise is woven into its very fabric by Hubbard himself, with the admonition that nothing can be changed by anyone less than Hubbard himself. And, that very admonition is pounded into the remaining parishioners relentlessly with the exalted policy Keeping Scientology Working.
Guess what? Hubbard ain’t been around for 31+ years to edit his narcissistic opus.
David Miscavige has actually done a stellar job trying to hold the subject together following the demise of Hubbard, but ultimately, trying to keep Scientology relevant when nothing can change in it is a stunningly impossible job.
So yes, this here post ex-scientoligist is a Spectator. He is also Reasonable, with a bit of a Joker and Degrader streak. As well, he’s Disaffected, Critical, and has been declared a Suppressive Person.
Sigh…
Scientology, your labels mean so very little to me these days, other than a bit of nostalgia for my younger years when, as I was busy living life, I also happened to be firmly in your fold.
I wish all of you, wherever you are on the scale Alonzo describes above, the discovery of your own selves, the happiness and equanimity you so doggedly or desperately desire. You’ll get there, as long as you keep walking your path. That you may have carefully walked “the closely taped path of Scientology” for a few years or decades is actually irrelevant as long as you realize and accept, or, if still involved ensure it is actually part ofyour path as well.
I particularly wish healing and resolution to those who may have been damaged by the misguided actions of Scientologists who felt they were empowered and karmically indemnified by The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of Dynamics.
I have found everything I desired that got me into Scientology in the first place, and Scientology was part of that journey, but I stayed way too long. I accept that. But now I live in a flow that was just unobtainable inside the ever more rigorous confines of being a member in good standing of the church of Scientology.
I am very happy now and making more money than I have in my entire life, and have nobody around me anymore trying to “enlighten” me out of my good fortunes before this coming Thursday at 2:00 pm. [yes that was a dig at the poor staff members assigned to monitor and tabulate the comments on these blogs. I’m sorry, but really dude, what’s it gonna take for you?]
I didn’t mean for this comment to go on for so long. It’s just that this post struck a chord with me, Alanzo.
I met a cult, got embroiled in it, got myself out of it, with a lot of help from many, and have come to terms with it.
And that makes me very very happy with my life going forward.
Wow. Great post, John Doe!
I especially LOLed at this:
HA!
I think we’re on the same page 🙂
John Doe, I can relate to many of the things your wrote. The subject still holds my interest too, but my interest in posting commas has gradually decreased. One thing I realized recently after watching Marty’s videos is that there has probably been a “mystery sandwich” that has kept me stuck. Marty has revealed some of the lies and cleared up most of the mystery.
Good post!
Thanks Marildi. I’ve enjoyed your comments and support over the years.
I’ve tried to watch the Marty videos, but they just don’t keep my interest. I watched the first two.
I am, however, very interested in any of these videos that you might recommend that you felt solved some mysteries for you.
My gut tells me that there is something else going on with Marty’s reversal, but since he has been an important voice for me over the last several years, I would be willing to give him a listen if you could recommend to me some you found beneficial.
But as for the whole series…I just…can’t.
Okay, John Doe, one area Marty shed light on had to do with the church’s tax exemption and the facts on how it came about. There were a number of videos on this subject, including “Going Clear, Part 20,” which is the one where I summed up my overall understanding in a comment I posted. You can see it at this link if you like: https://markrathbun.blog/2017/06/19/going-clear-part-20/#comment-351964
The book “Going Clear” (and the movie based on it) had so many outpoints that Marty took up and sorted out – including its basic premise which was based on a Straw Man. This point was also taken up in the above video, “Going Clear, Part 20” (just 4-minutes long).
Comments were open from Going Clear. Part 18 forward. That series was followed by the “Leah and Her Troublemakers” series and the “Going Clear Movie” series. You might want to look through the comment threads. From those, you would get a pretty good idea of what each video was about, and you can watch any that interest you.
Thanks for the nice ack. I’ve enjoyed many of your comments too. 🙂
Not to get into a discuss Marty conversation but his blog was also important to me. It’s all speculation but he may think he has some greater understanding than others or he may be getting paid by wealthy scn-ists to defend their religion. At any rate his blog is no longer a general discussion board. Earlier topics on his blog have extensive and, I might add, civilized discussions of the pros and cons of the subject of scn which were valuable and important to me.
I think that where Marty is right, he’s right.
And where he is wrong, he’s wrong.
I see “Post-Ex” viewpoints in what Marty writes, but also the same kind of Colonel Nathan Jessup views that made him the Scientology Enforcer for so many years.
I hope “where Marty is” isn’t in Corpus Christi or anywhere else in the Texas Gulf coast. Didn’t he move back to that area?
That’s where Hurricane Harvey will soon hit, and there has been a lot of rain there already. Maybe Marty and family are already out of town because of the deposition tomorrow (in San Antonio, I believe.)
Also, Alanzo, I always click on “Notify of new replies…” but do not get notifications.
John – Since I’ve never been been married or raised a family, I regard my 8 or 9 year experience of “being a scn-ist” as perhaps that most “interesting” part of my life. There were so many new viewpoints and concepts I explored. Now that it’s in perspective I totally relate to your eloquent expression above. 🙂
Thanks Richard. I know what you mean when you say your time in scn was a very interesting time for you.
Me too. Very formative years, even the intense, upsetting Sea org years for me.
It’s productive to take all the good with you as you journey forward.