Hello, this is Alanzo from Alanzo’s blog.com. I was 16 years in Scientology 15 years in anti Scientology, and now I’ve been eight years out of both writing about each.
Today I’m going to verbally respond to a comment that Dianne Etex , Marrisa Sigmond wrote about me and I’m going to try to clear up hundreds of confusions that exist around me and the positions I hold on Scientology.
She points out some of these things and so I’m going to try to point these out to her and hopefully others can listen in and get why it is that I hold the positions I hold.
You can see that she makes a joke when she says as a 2nd gen we view things differently,
I was raised in Scientology, she was not so we’re naturally going to view things differently.
Sometimes I don’t know if he’s defending Scientology, or if he supports it, saying things like the CoS is a minority religion being picked on. That’s where he confuses me.
Alright, so let me explain here, and I’ve written about this extensively. Nobody freaking reads my blog. Of course not. I can’t really expect them to. Everybody’s here for different reasons. And the vast majority of people who are here in anti Scientology are here for entertainment purposes. They’re not an Ex who’s trying to figure out what happened to them. And get to the truth about all these things.
The Social Science Framework for Understanding “Cults”
So let me first say that the CoS is a minority religion being picked on: I studied anthropology and sociology in college. And so I take a social science framework on cults. I believe this is the proper framework to use because this branch of science is devoted to studying cultures, subcultures, etc. That’s their job, and I believe the framework they developed is the proper one to use in order to understand cults.
For instance, anti cult leaders such as Steven Hassan are psychologists, right? He does not have the proper framework because in social science, they have anthropology and anthropology studies cultures from all over the world.
The main thing in this framework, the social science framework of understanding cults, is the fundamental dynamic of mainstream cultures versus their minority subcultures. This is true throughout the human race and throughout history. And this dynamic of a mainstream society versus their minority subcultures has a phenomenon that is very, very important to understand, and that is, mainstream cultures pressurize minorities to try to be like them.
People that are part of mainstream society can’t explain why these minorities believe like I do. And so no matter where you go, North America in the area of religion, it’s mostly a Christian mainstream. But if you go to Egypt, for instance, it’s an Islamic mainstream, but there have been Christians that have lived there in Egypt since the first century. Like right off the bat, there were followers of Christ in Egypt, and they’re still there today.
When I lived in Cairo, there is a Coptic church near my house that was 1200 years old, and those Coptics are a minority. And the Islamic majority can’t figure out why those crazy Christians believe the way they do. And the way they explain it is witchcraft and black magic and other kinds of superstitious things that they tell themselves for why these crazy Christians believe the way they do.
So this dynamic of mainstream cultures coming down on minority subcultures is a fundamental dynamic to understand when it comes to cults and anti cults. So when I say that the CoS is a minority religion, and that when you chase people down the street and yell at them simply for being a Scientologist, that is religious persecution. Now if they were David Miscavige, and you’re yelling at him for covering up the murder of Kyle Brennan, then that’s a different thing.
But as you know, Marissa, and anyone who has ever been a Scientologist knows, except for those who worked at INT base, 99.9% of Scientologists are good people who never harmed anyone and never would.
So I had to come through this process and it’s why I described myself as 16 years in Scientology, 15 years in anti Scientology and eight years out of both.
This is fundamental, if you give a shit at all, it’s fundamental to understanding how it is I came upon these views.
Doug and I had this discussion, hours and hours of this discussion, because he couldn’t figure me out “sometimes you look like you support Scientology, and sometimes you don’t” and he could do this over and over.
Vistaril: How You Can Be Manipulated to Tell, and to Believe, Lies and Distortions As an Activist
So I told him a story about Vistaril. And I have an idea that he wanted to told you that story that I told you, but anyway, in the late 90s early 2000s, Hubbard’s toxicology report, his coroner’s report, was all the rage. And in his toxicology report, they found that Hubbard had the drug Vistaril his body and there were shot marks in his butt that his physician Eugene Denk had delivered to him. And so the anti Scientology weaponized over-simplicity at that time, which I swallowed whole because I was a good little anti Scientologist, was that Vistaril was a psych drug.
And so I took this as an anti Scientologists and I weaponized it in order to create a moral panic and to get everybody to show how hypocritical L Ron Hubbard was for dying with a psych drug in his body. And that was the whole anti Scientology messaging at the time and as a little anti Scientology ninnie, I never looked up what Vistaril was. I just went with it. And I went around and I told everyone that Hubbard “died insane, alone, and on psych drugs” because it was easy for people to understand, and it caused people to hate Scientology and that was forwarding the purpose of anti Scientology.
I was a stellar member of the anti Scientology group and for years and years, I said this and repeated it both to myself, and to others.
Then I looked at what Vistaril was. And I found that Vistaril is a first generation anti histamine and as a first generation drug, it’s sloppy in doing what it does. It passes through the blood brain/barrier and makes you drowsy. As a result of that, some psychiatrists have used that for patients who are overly agitated and can’t sleep, and so they give them big doses of Vistaril with a shot in order to help them to calm down and to go to sleep.
It is not a psych drug. It is an anti histamine but psychiatrists have used it. In L Ron Hubbard’s case, Eugene Denk, as his physician, who is taking care of him as Hubbard was dying of a series of strokes. He shot his butt full of Vistaril in order to 1. reduce the inflammation in Hubbard’s brain from the strokes 2. clear up his sinuses and everything else because L Ron Hubbard, even as the author of the allergy rundown suffered from allergies all of his life and 3 to help him sleep.
So once I learned the truth of that, I was ashamed of myself.
For all these years, I’d been going around telling people that, just because everybody else was doing it, telling people that “Hubbard died alone, insane and on psych drugs”.
I began to realize that this was corroding my soul. And through cognitive behavioral therapy, where I learned about cognitive distortions that you tell yourself in your own self talk, you can cause your own depression and anxiety.
So my change from being a person who didn’t care if something was a weaponized over simplicity, because it got everyone else fired up to join our moral panic, versus a guy who sought to live with the truth, who sought to tell the truth.
And so once I began to spot these cognitive distortions, and these weaponized over-simplicity’s, that I was telling myself and others, I began to realize that I was corroding my own soul. Not only was I telling myself these things, but when I was at war with Scientology, I was at war with myself who used to be a Scientologist. And I was lying about myself.
My “Recovery” From Scientology
And so that started this whole thing that I believe led to my recovery. And I hate that word “recovery”. It is the absolute wrong term because it has all this baggage of drug addiction and injuries and disease. When, actually, from a social science perspective, it’s a cultural readjustment.
What you need to do in order to, quote unquote, “recover” from Scientology, I discovered was a cultural readjustment – not something like a drug addict needs to do, or somebody’s been hit by a bus needs to do, or somebody who is suffering from cancer needs to do.
I discovered all of these things that were part of the package of being an anti Scientologist that were corroding my own soul and that’s why I am no longer an anti Scientologist.
So when I say that William Gude, for instance, that I support him when his goal is to end Scientology’s fraudulently obtained tax exemption, I do support him. I’ve even provided Gerry Armstrong and his information as the way to get rid of their fraudulently obtained tax exemption.
But when your goal is to “END Scientology”, that is a weaponized over-simplicity, that when you live in a totalitarian state, such as Nazi Germany, they felt they had the power and the right to end somebody else’s religion. Whereas in a free society, no one, not even the government, has the power or the right to end anyone’s religion. I understand when William Gude says my goal is to end Scientology, I remind him that he doesn’t have the power, or the right, to end anyone else’s religion.
But it’s also this thing where if I would do what William does, chasing Scientologist down the street and scream at them just because they’re Scientologists? Oh my god, you talk about frickin causing yourself your own depression anxiety! I know better now than to do that, and I will never do that.
And it’s also why, you know, when I look at Aaron Smith Levin, for instance, he knows that La PuBelle restaurant is not a rape factory. He knows that when you tell people “cover your drinks! cover your drinks!”, he knows that it’s just this bullshit that people are doing to this restaurant that has nothing to do with Scientology. You know, this all comes from the testimony of Jane Doe #3 who said that when they were in La Puobelle, she had a drink that Danny bought for her and she started to feel woozy after that. That’s it. That’s what all of this comes from.
You talk about cognitive distortions! You talk about weaponized over-simplicitys that are absolutely not the truth!
I am against that bullshit, and I will never be for it. I am no longer an anti Scientologist, trying to create a moral panic against Scientologists.
See in a social science framework, mainstream cultures always put pressure on minorities.
Compare The History of the Suppression of Minority Races With the Suppression of Minority Religions
A great way of seeing this is with racial minorities. Everyone knows that in the past in the United States, if you were a racist, you could get away with it. People would admire you for your racism against racial minorities to the point where you can hang people from trees or burn crosses in their front yard. We have come a long way now to having a social cost for people who think that way. They’re no longer admired. They have to hide! That’s great.
When it comes to religious minorities there’s no doubt Scientology is a religious minority. If it was in another country, such as Egypt, where it isn’t recognize it as a religion, it would still be a minority subculture, and the majority there would be dehumanizing them and they would be bringing down pressure on those minorities to try to get them to be mainstream.
There are so many people in anti Scientology who are simply here to make Scientologists loyal to mainstream society. You’ll see that as an Ex. You’ll see a lot of people say “you sound like a Scientologist still”. Okay, well, you know, misunderstood words, for instance. If you’re reading something, if you’re studying, and there’s a bunch of misunderstood words for you in what you’re studying. Getting a dictionary and looking up those words is a valid way of trying to understand that and that’s something that Scientology probably overemphasized, but personally, it helped me. It made me more literate.
So I’m sorry, I’m going to defend word clearing when it comes to Scientology. And I also know that word clearing can be abused.
Anyway, I’m not gonna get into all that. I know that most of the audience has already clicked off because they just don’t care. They’re here to vent their spleen on minorities and they’re here to get status and group validation for being a virtuous warrior against cults.
Someday people will recognize, I hope, that the vast majority of Scientologists, 99.9% of them, are good people who never harmed anyone and never would. It’s the specific criminals at the top that need to be prosecuted for their specific criminal acts. And that has nothing to do with somebody’s religion.
The 2 Goals I Work On: Taking Away Their Fraudulently Obtained Tax Exemption and Getting Justice for Their Murders
Taking away Scientology’s fraudulently obtained tax exemption is an absolutely valid goal and I am working on that goal. Finding where people’s senior officials of Scientology have covered up murders. I am for that goal too in order to get them criminally prosecuted.
But chasing low level Scientologists on the street and dehumanizing them, calling them brainwashed zombies or targeting a restaurant and saying it’s a Scientology restaurant? This shit is crap. And I am not going to do it. I’ve learned my lessons on it and I’m not going to have that shit corrode my soul anymore.
What I found is if you seek to live with the truth if, you do your best to not be loyal to any person or group but seek to live with the truth, my soul remains intact. It doesn’t become corrupt.
So that explains the reason that I have these seemingly contradictory things.
See, they’re only contradictory in terms of tribalism. “You’re either on our side or you’re against us”. There’s no middle ground.
Wrong! Wrong! We’re not fighting a war here. What we’re trying to do is get crimes prosecuted and fraudulently obtained tax exemption revoked. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re not here to fight low level Scientologists. They never harmed anyone and never would. They have an absolute right of assembly and freedom of religion. I will not engage in that kind of bullshit and I will always criticize it.
So I hope that makes sense.
Marissa, you’ve probably already clicked off as everybody else, but I’m going to give it one shot to try to explain why I was 16 years in Scientology, 15 years in anti Scientology, and now I’ve been eight years out of both.
Thank you very much. Over and out.