"Getting out of a 'cult' is not something that you recover from, it is something you are strengthened by." -- Alanzo
Aaron Smith Levin has another smart and non-tribal talk about being an Ex-Scientologist with Geir Isene, one of the smartest Ex-Scientologists around. It’s a great example of Post Ex Scientology. See Geir’s Blog at ISENE.ME Here’s what I think is great about what Geir has done. He has taken a look at the years he […]
The Anti Cult Movement Video Transcript of The Anti Cult Movement Hi. It’s Alanzo from AlanzosBlog.com I’ve got my IPhone. I got my white wall. I got my open window. Let’s do a video. So I was a member of the the anti cult movement without really knowing what it was and how it was […]
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 […]
If you’ve written enough screenplays, you learn that the main difference between the good guy and the bad guy in a movie is that for one, you know his motives for the actions he takes in the story, and for the other, you don’t. Good guys can kill people, blow up cars and bridges – […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
After being an Ex-Scientologist for 18 years, I’ve identified what I think are the top 5 things that, over time, become the most toxic and corrosive about being an Ex-Scientologist. I’m pretty sure most all Ex-Scientologists have experienced these, too. The trick is to not let them destroy you.
Truth changes. If there is anything that the experience of having gone through Scientology should teach an Ex-Scientologist, it’s that. If they quit being your friend/family just because the truth changed, then were they really your friend/family to begin with?
I’ve reached out to Tony Ortega via email for a comment about what kind of hatred of Christians was going through his mind, or if there was anything they did or said in the real world that set him off.
In my race to lose friends and influence fewer people, I have to write one more post about the breathless and distorted interpretations of Scientology experiences by Tony Ortega. Yesterday, Tony Ortega wrote a blog post entitled “Even the local Scientology mission is hiding a horror show of abuse: Kelly Jordan tells her tale”. The […]
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 […]
There are some very common ways that you can become a hypocrite as an anti-Scientologist. After being an anti-Scientologist myself for so long, I have identified a few of those ways of thinking so that you can avoid being a hypocrite as an Anti-Scientologist.
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 […]
Tony Ortega is one of the most valuable critics of Scientology ever. But is he so biased that, over time, you can start to live in a delusional world about Scientology? I think so.
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 […]
With all the episodes of family members fighting with each other on Scientology and the Aftermath, which have nothing to do with David Miscavige or any of the people who are actually responsible for abuse in Scientology, there is one story that doesn’t seem to be worthy of the “brave” TV series. But this story […]
To hear Anti-Scientologists tell it, Elizabeth Moss was just a clueless & brainwashed Scientologist during her Emmy-winning performance portraying Offred in “The Handmaid’s Tale”. But is thinking with stereotypes about people in minority religions ever going to explain how Elizabeth Moss is such a great actress? Having been a member of Scientology for 16 years, […]
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 […]
I’ve re-joined the fray on Twitter over the last couple of weeks. Tony Ortega is on Twitter answering questions to people about Scientology in his extremely biased way. I mean really, even Tony Ortega has to admit that he has a bias, and he writes with a bias on Scientology everyday on his blog. No […]
I don’t know what kind of palace intrigue occured behind the scenes at ESMB last week, but something sure did. Ethercat resigned her position as Board I/C and Emma took back over the day-to-day, which like a harassed mother with 7 children under the age of 10, she has always complained about having to do […]
Fiona O’Leary is an Irish never-in activist for Autistic children. What brought her to the fight against Scientology are the quack and dangerous remedies for autism that they promote. This is what set her in the path of Tony Ortega. I’ll let her take it from here:
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.
There is a point at which this metaphor becomes an exercise in thought-stopping: A person accepts it as an explanation for why Scientologists do what they do in the way that Larry and other anti-Scientologists describe, and that’s all you need to know. It seems to explain everything when, in fact, it explains very little.
Andreas Heldal-Lund, the founder of OCMB, used to be a free speech advocate, famously helping Tory Christman to post on his website when she was still a Scientologist – knowing she was going to post pro-Scientology ideas. When Tory asked him why he was helping her, he replied, “Because I believe in the freedom of […]
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 […]
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.
