"Getting out of a 'cult' is not something that you recover from, it is something you are strengthened by." -- Alanzo
In the process of graduating from Scientology, it’s important to take the subject apart and to re-arrange its pieces back into their proper places. Analyzing Scientology in its proper context often reveals things that were hidden by Hubbard in an attempt to trap you.
In a recent article about ideological influences on wikipedia, Hassan writes: “The Unification Church page then disparages critics, such as myself, as incorrectly stating that the group brainwashes members. Yet, I was a member and experienced this firsthand. Sociologist Eileen Barker is a cult apologist and made her career stating the Moonies do not do […]
The anti cult movement teaches that minority religions harm the mental health of their members. Hundreds of psychological practices have been built on the idea that Ex members of these minority religions are suffering from some form of mental illness, and that they need to ‘recover’ from it. Leaving your previous religious or spiritual pursuit, […]
There’s a new subReddit now. It’s called Reddit ExScientologists . Here’s the description: This sub will be moderated within the boundaries of the following ideals: The Free Exchange of Ideas The Questioning of Rooted Assumptions The Promotion of Rigorous Debate The Cultivation of Mutual Respect Seeking to Live With the Truth Other discussion groups on […]
After 2 seasons of watching the former head of the Office of Special Affairs, and one of his assets, waffle around and emotionally manipulate people just like they did when they were in Scientology, you wake up and realize that no charges have been filed against any Scientologist for any criminal activity, and David Miscavige […]
Phil wrote this in a comment on Tony Ortega’s blog: Phil Jones wrote “At one point Scientology offered to let us have contact with our kids if we stopped doing billboards and no longer criticized them. One of the most difficult things I ever did was to tell them “no, not unless all families are […]
The Free Exchange of Ideas The Questioning of Rooted Assumptions Allowing Rigorous Debate Cultivating Mutual Respect Seeking to Live With the Truth Whenever these ideals have been violated, I have always felt a sense of unfairness, and felt the need to criticize the venue or group which knowingly and continually violates them. My criticism of […]
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.
I’ve been practicing Basic Skepticism on marauding Anti-Scientologists on the Internet. It’s pretty much unstoppable. Here’s how it works.
Mike Rinder’s blog has a post today about “2 Types of Exes” which is eerily reminiscent of “Two Types of People” by L Ron himself. Hubbard was wrong about this two poled thinking and so is Mike Rinder. Here’s why.
This is the first in a series of videos by Gerry Armstrong, the most fair-gamed person in Scientology history, to Mike Rinder. This one is dated February 18th, 2018. Here’s the 2nd, dated Feb 18th, 2018 Video Number 3, dated February 23rd, 2018 Video Number 4, dated February 25, 2018 Video Number 5, dated February […]
Yesterday, Mike Rinder wrote a post that he hoped would whip all his commenters up into a lather against Scientologists in the entertainment industry. Here are his final paragraphs of that post: “But of course they ignore the huge failures that are stinking up the lobby at CC: Jenna Elfman has not been able to […]
I’ll hand this to Tony, whenever it is to his own advantage, he does make stabs at being intellectually honest. In this case, he published a response to his criticism of professor Hugh Urban and his stereotyping of all social scientists who study religion as “religious studies types”. Professor Hugh Urban is the Director of […]
In 2011, Mike Rinder traveled to Trinity College in Ireland to debate why Scientology is a religion. I mean if he traveled all the way there to say this – he must have meant it – right? His co-star Leah Remini, after being a Scientologist for 34 years, now says Scientology is not a religion. […]
I wrote this after dealing with a swarm of Scientologists on the Internet: I’ve seen it now. It is unmistakable. It works like this: You present an idea that has NOTHING to do with Scientology, and the Scientologist must relate it to something in Scientology to “understand” what you are talking about. Example: I wrote […]
Axiom 142, from the ex scientologist message board, comes across a sea org member on the street in east grinstead, and he decides to discuss some things with him. This recording is the result. axiom 142 george bailie video by the evil of scientology George Bailie, the sea org member who Axe meets on the […]
This is an excerpt from sociology professor Eileen Barker at the London School of Economics. A link to the full pdf is provided below. I post it because it is a different view of ‘cults’ than we are given in the standard anti-cult movement’s narrative. I think this different, more objective view is healthier for […]
The key characteristic of a pseudo-skeptic of Scientology is the furious and dedicated certainty of their position, and their squinting suspicion that anyone who would question them must be an OSA agent.
The human mind wants to think about things – especially important things – as either ALL GOOD, or ALL BAD. Not both. A mixture of good and bad in the mind gives you a feeling of dissonance – disharmony, conflict, chaos. Thinking about things as ALL GOOD, or ALL BAD, gives you a feeling of […]
This discussion about Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs occurred on Mike Rinder’s blog yesterday: Alanzo says October 31, 2015 at 12:01 pm Well done on 20/20 last night, Mike! Talking to you is like SLEEPING WITH SATAN! LOL!! It’s great that all you Int Base Escapees have created a safety net for people like Leah […]
For Nathan Rich Scientology was simply not something he wanted to get involved in – ever. No matter how much they forced him, Scientology was not ever something that was going to work for him. And he makes a very good case about how it actually harmed him from a very early age. This video […]
How gullible can some Ex-Scientologists get? Jon Atack wrote a post on Tony Ortega’s blog, accusing everyone who was ever involved in Scientology of being gullible. I commented about Jon’s broad-brushed generality of anyone who ever called themselves a Scientologist. It gave me the chance to use the word “hootenanny” (twice), and I have been […]
After WWII, a series of trials were held by the victors to prosecute war crimes by German soldiers. During these trials, over and over again, “I was only following orders” came up as a defense for these soldiers’ actions. This defense was roundly rejected by the prosecutors and the judges because: “The fact that a […]
I came across this post in an on-line venue controlled by Ex & Anti-Scientologists. It pretty much stopped everyone in their tracks. I think it is well-written, extremely insightful, and deliciously heretical. Blasphemous, even. It gives a very important perspective on one aspect of what we are doing here on the Post-Scientology Internet. ********************************************** When […]
“Asked to explain these “abusive practices,” Remini takes a deep breath, then lays out some foundational principles. “Scientology policy dictates that children are grown men and women in little bodies. They believe a 7-year-old girl should not shudder at being passionately kissed. That’s in Dianetics,” she says, referencing L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 book that establishes […]
The video above – a tweet that is presently pinned to the top of Freedom Media and Ethics Twitter profile – features an edited snippet, taken out of context, where Marty Rathbun is discussing what went on behind the scenes with Paul Haggis, Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney and others in producing Going Clear, the book […]
Marty brings up the promise of legal action by Mike and Leah at the end of Season 1 of Scientology & the Aftermath. Marty claims that he and Mike went to a top-tier legal firm just like Leah and Mike did in the last episode of the show. Marty says that the legal firm told […]
If I were to pinpoint exactly when my disillusionment began with Scientology watching, I’d have to say the seed was planted with the Going Clear premiere.
Eileen Vartan Barker OBE, (born 21 April 1938, Edinburgh, UK) is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairperson and founder of the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (INFORM) and has […]
A few days ago, Mike Rinder, as is his wont, asked for comments on Scientology and the Aftermath S2E2 featuring two tragic suicides by Scientologists. So I posted my thoughts on it: “Alanzo says August 23, 2017 at 12:29 pm I personally can not believe that you and Leah have gone down the road of […]
No way, right? Ex-Scientologists Aaron Smith-Levin and Chris Shelton present information Chris gathered on his recent trip to Australia about supposed new ways that SO orgs are being run – the greatest sources of abuse in Scientology by far. Chris doesn’t say where his information comes from but it’s interesting information to think about, nonetheless. […]
For the second time in many months, I personally, and politely, asked Marty Rathbun how that email ended up in the hands of Scientology attorneys, and in court against Dani Lemberger. I told him that if I only knew the answer to this, that I could assist him in getting his answer out to others, […]
Self-invalidation and self-disgust for having been a Scientologist is a common result of trying to graduate from Scientology. In some places on the post-scientology Internet, it becomes an unspoken penance to be endured before we can truly be considered by others to be “out” and no longer a stupid and deluded cult moron.
This begins a new weekly feature here on AlanzosBlog. Heresy, means “to choose”. Labeling certain ideas as heresy has been going on for a couple of thousand years now. What’s so great about heresy is that it forces scrutiny of assumptions that too often remain hidden and unexamined. The consideration of heresy and heretical questions was what […]
The “Father of Deprogramming” Ted Patrick was a devoted Christian who believed he was doing God’s work by kidnapping people & holding them in a room & browbeating them until they denounced their faith. In 1980, he served 1 year in prison and paid a $5000 fine for kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Place any Escape stories, Capture stories, or Atrocity stories you have heard or told yourself and others about Scientology in the comments below.
For anyone leaving a cult, it is extremely important to always seek to live with the truth. After 15 years of experience, I have concluded that you can not seek to live with the truth in a group of Anti-Cultists.
Emphasis on the irresistibility of subversive techniques is vital to apostates and their allies as a means of placing responsibility for participation on the organization rather than on the former member himself.
March 6th, 1981. My story begins in an L-shaped room on the University of Illinois campus on Green Street in Champaign, IL. It was an L-shaped room because it was the corner of a hallway in an old house on campus that had been cut up into student apartments. It was literally a corner with […]
Apostasy: It’s not just for the Bitter Ones Sitting on the Porch of Infinity on the Fringes of the Internet any more. Don’t look now, but it could be you!
Back when I used to be a Scientologist, I would look away from a lot of things in order to remain one. Even in that little bubble, there were things that I was aware of which were “truths” that I didn’t want to look at. For instance: I didn’t want to look at the idea […]
Mike Rinder tried to trick Gerry Armstrong by posing as a “loyalist” to LRH who only wanted to rid the Church of David Miscavige in order to restore “true Scientology” once again.
There are a lot of things about Scientology scriptures and OT levels that we would not have access to today on the Internet without the help of Dennis Ehrlich.
Reza Aslan’s episode of “Believer” on CNN regarding Independent Scientology changed my life for the better. It reminded me of an approach to belief and spiritual pursuits that is positive, constructive, and life-giving.
The end of Scientology abuse will come though many different routes, but it is clear now that it must mostly come from Independent Scientologists themselves.
Confirmation Bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities. Now read the title of this post again very carefully and ask yourself if it – itself – is not a form of confirmation bias. […]
Until the background of these acts have been exposed, detailed and thoroughly condemned by Mike Rider and Marty Rathbun, and amends made to Gerry Armstrong for what they have done to him, there can be little possibility that a person who wishes to claim they are “exposing the abuses of Scientology” fails to expose the […]
I am eternally grateful to Mark Rathbun and Mike Rinder for what they’ve done. On a personal level, they have paid their “debt” to me for any wrongdoing. Just realize what their life must have been like. I would not trade places. Would you?
…”those who speculated that Rathbun had secretly settled will be feeling justifiably smug today”. – Tony Ortega Underground Bunker posters “8675309” and “Peacemaker” asked some important questions in the Underground Bunker a couple of days ago which I believe shed some well-deserved skepticism on Ortega’s smugness campaign against Mark and Monique Rathbun since April of […]
“Knowledge of the enemy’s dispositions can only be obtained from other men. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This […]
A couple of months ago I was talking to a friend of mine, who is a forensic psychologist, and I was telling him about my path into and out of Scientology, and then into and out of Ex-Scientology. I told him that I got into Scientology and did everything I could to be a good […]
This will knock your socks off.
I’ve written about this before. But there is a whole lot to gain by continually reminding myself of what a fact is, vs what a belief is. Especially with regard to political and religious areas of my life.
When the President of the United States gets most of his news and information from Brietbart and Fox, and not from the information gathering services that the US has to inform the president and other leaders in our government, then you have skewed and pitched ideas filling the heads of people who need the best […]
Alanzo was a Scientologist for 16 years.
He reached the state of "Clear" and was on staff as an Executive Director and Course Supervisor in Scientology missions in the Midwest and Los Angeles.
When Alanzo had experienced enough in Scientology to see the extent to which he had been deceived, he left and immediately began speaking out on the Internet to expose its lies and abuse. Alanzo first began speaking out against Scientology on the Internet as "Poopsy Charmichael" in the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup in the late 1990's.
As the main Internet battleground between the Church and its critics, ARS soon became too negative and so Alanzo moved to Beliefnet.com and elsewhere on the Internet to engage with actual Scientologists, providing them with the information they needed to make informed decisions about their own involvement in Scientology. He spent many years in the early to mid 2000s presenting Scientologists with LRH's real biography & other information that the Church had been hiding from them. Alanzo saw many Scientologists "wake up" around the Internet, after finally getting the information they needed.
In January/February of 2007, Alanzo then moved to the brand new Ex-Scientologists Message Board (ESMB), where Exes were gathering to tell their stories in Scientology. From there, Alanzo witnessed the rise of Anonymous, and was in attendance when Marty Rathbun, in the summer of 2009, kicked the hornet's nest with his announcement that he had started up his new website, and thus the great 2nd Exodus of Independents had begun.
Alanzo found more Scientologists to engage on Marty's website in the Independent movement. Also, Alanzo spent a few years at Geir Isene's blog, where he engaged many very intelligent and free thinking Scientologists and Exes who had retained constructive and positive views of their time in Scientology. This influenced Alanzo greatly by reminding him of things that he had conveniently forgotten about himself and his time in Scientology while becoming an "Anti-Scientology critic".
Then, an unknown critic emerged onto the scene from the Village Voice, Tony Ortega. Alanzo posted often to the Underground Bunker and was one of its most frequently upvoted Anti-Scientology critics there.
That's where Alanzo was exposed to more "never-in" critics of Scientology he'd seen yet on the Internet. And with its mix of the cruelty of Anonymous and the disrespect and disgust for Scientologists, Alanzo began to see tribal behavior that was very reminiscent of the worst of the Sea Org. When Tony Ortega repeatedly went after a woman, a Scientologist whose daughter had committed suicide, he saw the cruelty that all those anti-Scientologsts whipped up in each other. This caused Alanzo to have yet another turning point.
He realized that the deeper he became involved in the Anti-Cult/Anti-Scientology Movement, the more he began to notice very similar tribal behavior to the most fanatical of Scientologists. Alanzo saw a rise of some of the same tribalism from Anti-Scientologists that he was trying to escape by getting himself out of Scientology.
It was like being stuck in a nightmare, and after finally wrenching yourself awake, you're relieved to have escaped that nightmare - only to realize that the nightmare is still going on! ☺
That's when Alanzo began applying the same critical thinking skills to the underlying beliefs of Anti-Scientology that he had earlier applied to Scientology. And that's when his anti-Scientology mindset collapsed on Alanzo, just like his Scientology mindset had collapsed on him so long ago.
And this is where Alanzo is today - applying basic skepticism to both Scientology and anti-Scientology beliefs. He has come to realize that this position of skepticism toward both Scientology & Anti-Scientology is the only sustainable view.
Alanzo's experience of the previous 18 years has led him to conclude that, as long as you continue to think critically and you remain loyal to the truth instead of any person or group, getting out of a 'cult' is not something that you recover from, it is something that you are strengthened by.Alanzo's purpose is to provide the information necessary for people to make informed decisions about Scientology & Anti-Scientology.
