"Getting out of a 'cult' is not something that you recover from, it is something you are strengthened by." -- Alanzo
Scientologists, and Ex/Anti-Scientologists, have been on the Internet since the Internet was born. Thus there is a substantial post-Scientology internet culture. These posts are about what I’ve learned after Anti-Scientology.
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 […]
Dax Shepard should understand: Tony Ortega thinks Scientology poisoned his cat. And Scientology has erected websites devoted to exposing the least admirable parts of Ortega’s career as a journalist, just as he posts the least admirable parts of Scientology philosophy, and their history, every single day. So maybe you can understand why Tony Ortega seems […]
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 […]
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.
Video Transcript: Hi. It’s Alanzo. Today I want to talk about Tony Ortega. I’ve been saying for a number of years now that Tony Ortega is biased as a journalist in his reporting on Scientology. I’m not saying that because I’m just this vicious troll – which is what he told a journalist at the […]
Gerry Armstrong & Mike Rinder have a long history. Gerry thinks it’s time for Mike Rinder to come clean about all the OSA Fair Game Operations he ran against him and all the other critics of Scientology when Mike Rinder ran the dirty tricks arm of the Church of Scientology.
I’ve been practicing Basic Skepticism on marauding Anti-Scientologists on the Internet. It’s pretty much unstoppable. Here’s how it works.
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 […]
A couple of weeks ago it was revealed that fanatical supporters of Mike Rinder and Leah Remini fair-gamed Monique Rathbun’s new bakery business. Marty Rathbun, myself and others showed how these anti-Scientology fair game activities were planned and carried out in Karen De La Carriere’s secret Facebook group “The Outer Banks”. Once again, we’ll show […]
Social scientists who study minority religions have observed that the main activity of the anti-cult movement is to create a moral panic around a targeted minority religion strong enough to make governments react. Members of the anti-cult movement accomplished this in Waco in the 1990’s, and the resulting catastrophe woke up people in government to their responsibility […]
If you’ll read the posts below, you’ll see that many leading Ex-Scientologists and critics of the Church of Scientology, myself included, do not approve of fair game in any form. But for Mike Rinder’s minions, who know that their leader RAN fair game for the Church of Scientology against its critics for 22 years, fair […]
Tony Ortega writes a blog post with a clear bias against Scientology every day, sometimes more than one. And so it really is tiresome for me to be talking about Tony Ortega’s bias against Scientology every day, but the latest accusations of rape against Paul Haggis, a recent poster boy for anti-Scientology, show Tony Ortega’s […]
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.
NOTE: no one asked me any questions about why I am doing these videos. I just wanted to make myself seem more popular.
This is Taylor Tweed’s mother and brother speaking out about how they feel about Taylor’s suicide being featured on A&E’s Scientology and the Aftermath. I think A&E should interview Cathy Tweed – and give her time on their network after what has been done to her. Cathy Tweed speaks. And she deserves to be heard. […]
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 […]
People need simplistic explanations for Scientology because it’s too much work to understand it. They just want Scientology to be a cult & Hubbard to be a con man because it’s easier to think with that way. Even an Ex-Scientologist can go through a period where this is what they want. In the long run, […]
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 […]
There’s nothing like finally getting what you’ve wished for. The last few years have been an Anti-Scientology spooge dream: A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist writes a best-selling expose’ on Scientology, which turns into an Emmy-winning, Oscar nominated movie, followed by a Louis Theroux smarmy send-up, followed by 2 Seasons of an Emmy-winning TV reality show […]
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 […]
Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely some whacked out stuff in Scientology. I’ve spent most of the last 18 years writing about it. But here we have one of Tony Ortega’s specialties: cherry-picking the craziest and most abusive parts of Scientology, and assigning those characteristics to all of Scientology and to all Scientologists – […]
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 […]
The Great Scientology Dissipation will continue. From the Church of Scientology to Indie Scientology to Anti-Scientology to Post Ex-Scientology, the continuing diaspora will disperse and evaporate at ever-diminishing intensities. Still no criminal activity will be reported on the Church of Scientology, as has been the case for over 30 years. David Miscavige will continue to […]
Mike Rinder Anti-Scientology vs. Mike Rinder Scientology: a great real life example of what happens when your friends and your group are more important than the truth. If you would like to see the same kind of information control that the Church of Scientology uses to squash criticism, just go over to Mike Rinder’s Anti-Scientology […]
It happens to all of us. There is a point where you wake up from the hysteria of being an anti-Scientologist and say to yourself “Hey Wait a Minute!” The conspiracy theories of Scientology’s political tentacles that can “torpedo” FBI investigations, the superstitious belief in the POWER of the MIND CONTROL, the super-dooper RELEVANCE of […]
This Ex-Scientologist is courageously putting herself out there and warning the public about the abuses she has personally witnessed in Scientology, and while she is in the middle of doing that, Tony Ortega tries to discredit her on his blog.
Leah Remini began her emotional manipulation in Season 2 of “Scientology and the Aftermath” before the first episode aired with a promotional article in the Hollywood Reporter claiming that she wanted a federal investigation of Scientology, and then falsely accusing Scientologists of believing in pedophilia. Since then, every emotionally manipulative episode has contained specious suggestions […]
A Scientologist argues: Because there’s so much good in Scientology, there’s no need to talk about the bad. An Anti-Scientologist argues: Because there’s so much bad in Scientology, there’s no need to talk about the good. Both are illegitimate arguments, and show the problem with tribal thinking when it comes to the truth. The truth […]
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 […]
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.
