"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.
Sunny Pereira, like a good Tribal member, instead of struggling to tell the truth about Scientology and all of her experiences in it, she’s working hard to give her anti-scientology tribe what it wants. The problem with this is that – in the end – no one gets the truth. Some anonymous person asked me […]
NOTE: no one asked me any questions about why I am doing these videos. I just wanted to make myself seem more popular. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
Alanzo details some of the worst Scientology fair game waged against him by Mike Rinder’s Office of Special Affairs, then explains how and why anti-Scientologists become so hysterical and irrational. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
Critical thinking is good, right? In the same way that asking critical thinking questions can get you out of Scientology, asking critical thinking questions can get you out of Anti-Scientology, too. It can restore a lot of an Ex-Scientologist’s self-worth after becoming emotionally manipulated by anti-Scientology and adopting their self-destructive beliefs on ‘brainwashing’. If the […]
Last night’s episode of Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath was a round table discussion of former Scientologists, and independent Scientologists, exposing the upper levels of Scientology so that people can make more informed decisions about their involvement. For that reason, it was a very valuable episode. And Tony Ortega has gotten people who have […]
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 […]
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 […]
Please Leah. I used to believe that you were one of the most level-headed and powerful critics of Scientology in their history. But ever since you knowingly mis-characterized a quote from Dianetics to make it seem like Scientologists believed in pedophilia, and now you have publicly blamed a mother for her own daughter’s suicide to […]
If there’s one reason that I’m doing these videos, it’s because these ideas from the anti cult movement are destructive to an Ex-Scientologist, or an Ex-member of any minority religion that they call “cult”. And they’re just beliefs – they’re not not facts. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
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 […]
A Manhattan judge said “Million Dollar Baby” screenwriter Paul Haggis must face a civil rape lawsuit by a publicist after hearing a graphic account of the alleged assaults. “What Mr. Haggis did is forcibly removed her clothing, forcibly kissed her, forcibly penetrated her vagina,” an attorney for Haleigh Breest said in Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday. […]
Tony Ortega loves it when a Scientologist commits suicide. He jumps all over every Scientology suicide he hears about. He even blames Scientology mothers for their daughter’s suicide. It’s where Tony Ortega’s cruelty against Scientologists who have nothing to do with the abuses in Scientology really shines. Ortega recently published an article on his blog […]
In all my 19 years of being out of Scientology and watching what other Scientology watchers are saying, and how they are faring – I have never seen so much boredom with the subject of Scientology. I do believe that A&E is going to have to survive ratings crashes for any time slot they insert […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Carmen K. Sisson | Photographer Here’s the recipe which has been followed by 1000s of people before you: Make the harm 100 times worse than it actually was. Keep repeating the harm you experienced over & over to yourself and others. Become a member of a group that identifies you by the harm you suffered. […]
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. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
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 […]
Scientology Girl Fight! Leah Remini vs Stacy Francis! Girlfriend Jeffrey Augustine breaks it down. For Chris Shelton, the “Critical Thinker At Large”, this sure seems like one hell of an Ad Hominem Logical Fallacy to me. But who needs logic when you can into a GIRL FIGHT??? Right Aaron and Marc?? Get on it, girlfriends!! […]
The Underground Bunker rushed to re-capture their self-awarded crowns as the world’s greatest humanitarians today with a post about Ex-Scientologist Justin Rybacki, complete with a GoFundMe page to help him get on his feet after Scientology. Their gushing praise and acceptance of Justin was an inspiring sight: You can see that the lovebombing Justin Rybacki […]
Aaron Smith Levin visited Tony Ortega’s blog this morning in an effort to enlighten us on what’s going on behind the scenes of Season Three of “Scientology and the Aftermath”. It looks like Ortega’s blog post this morning, “SHOCKING MOLESTATION CLAIMS LEAKING OUT BEFORE AFTERMATH EPISODE”” gives details of a young Ex-Scientologist’s life that – […]
Yesterday, up and coming celebrity anti-Scientologist Brendan Tighe was on Meghan Kelly’s chat show, where he claimed that Scarlett Johansson auditioned with the Church of Scientology to be Tom Cruise’s girlfriend. Johanssen released a statement to the magazine INSIDER regarding Brendan’s claim: This caused celebrity Anti-Scientologist Aaron Smith Levin to take to twitter this morning […]
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 […]
Fresh off the catastrophic legal loss of the Garcia case, Mike Rinder put up a post today trawling for any extant legal cases against Scientology. The results of both Headley and Garcia prove how disastrous it is to have Rinder on your side in a legal battle. If you have a civil or criminal case […]
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 […]
As the head of the Office of Special Affairs for 20 years, Mike Rinder met with attorneys and helped to develop all the contracts and procedures which were used to suppress the 2 victims of sexual abuse, and others like them, who were profiled in Season 2 Episode 1 of Scientology and the Aftermath. Why […]
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, […]
Is Tony Ortega is trying to undermine yet another Ex-Scientologist? Ex-Scientologists that Tony Ortega has undermined: Carmen Llewelyn Marty and Monique Rathbun Mike Berman And now Aaron Smith-Levin And those are just the ones I’ve written about. (If there are any others, please let me know in the comments section.) They are all brave […]
When I got out of Scientology and began exposing them on the Internet 19 years ago, it was because I had discovered how cruel that the leadership in the Church of Scientology had been to too many people. And I realized this had to be stopped. And so, along with many others, at great risk […]
If Leah Remini and Mike Rinder can help get one criminal conviction on the Church of Scientology through their “Scientology and The Aftermath” reality series, or help one lawsuit succeed against them for real injustices, no one will be happier than I. But when I see another Ex-Scientologist flip into nightmare mode on who they […]
Ask yourself: Is Tony Ortega biased on the subject of Scientology, on L. Ron Hubbard, on David Miscavige, or even on minority religions? Might he be biased in the area of religious and spiritual pursuits generally? Really. Ask yourself these questions. Then consider my argument below. Video Transcript: Hi. It’s Alanzo. Today I want to […]
“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 […]
Recently Mike Rinder called a poster to his blog a “dupe” and banned her for posting a link to a US Senate investigation on Backpage.com because it had information in it that exposed his fellow anti-Scientologist Tony Ortega as defending, endorsing, and condoning sex trafficking and pedophilia while he worked at the Village Voice. Both Mike […]
After calling it her religion for 34 years, Leah Remini now claims that Scientology is not a religion. Many anti-Scientologists promote the fact that the Church of Scientology went through a very intentional and detailed overhaul of all its missions and orgs to make Scientology look like more of what people expect a religion to […]
I’ve been practicing Basic Skepticism on marauding Anti-Scientologists on the Internet. It’s pretty much unstoppable. Here’s how it works. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
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. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
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 […]
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. […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
On Episode 2 of Scientology and the Aftermath, we are taken through the tragic story of Taylor Tweed’s suicide. We are shown the “handlings” that Taylor’s mom tried to perform to try to “get Taylor’s ethics in”, and which now can be seen to be clearly, tragically, catastrophically, the wrong thing to do for Taylor, […]
Mike Rinder should use Season 2 of Scientology and The Aftermath to provide a Truth and Reconciliation commission on the people he has fair-gamed as the head of OSA. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
And they deserve closure. No person who is loyal and sycophantic to those who refuse to provide the information necessary to help people who have been harmed by Scientology are likely to be a credible journalistic source for those scrambling to make a buck at Scientology reporting. That’s a long sentence, but if you read […]
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 “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. Share AlanzosBlog Far […]
In my opinion, Tony Ortega’s continued use of his blog to attack Cathy Tweed very much crosses the line of ethical journalism. And Rachel Bernstein’s use of her standing as a licensed psychologist to publicly shame a mother who has lost her daughter to suicide is, quite possibly, a breach of her license. Share AlanzosBlog […]
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. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
This documentary contains a very good discussion of the limits of power that people have over those who make religious and spiritual choices that others don’t like. Share AlanzosBlog Far and Wide
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 […]
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.
