This is a question that I have often asked myself, and I’ve seen many others ask it, too.
Some people who have been involved in Scientology criticize ESMB for keeping people stuck in the past, continuing to dredge up, time and time again, the bad things that happened to them in order to expose what Scientology does to people.
It used to be a very effective way of exposing the harm that Scientology does – the only way that used to be available to Exes.
I believe that ESMB and OCMB and all the other efforts on the Internet by critics and Exes helped to point the Anonymous movement towards the Church of Scientology as a target for lulz and justice. Then that changed a lot of other things, and everything has continued to change at an even faster rate since then.
Some people recently have tried to find more positive and constructive ways of healing from what happened to them in Scientology and moving on. Geir Isene is one. And I think Marty, over the last few months, has also tried to produce this kind of a positive constructive environment for moving on.
I have experienced some of these environments during my banishment from ESMB, and I can attest that communicating in environments that seek to be positive and constructive is indeed helpful for an Ex after the cult.
Also, I can attest that getting away from anything that has anything to do with Scientology at all is VERY HELPFUL.
I don’t know the answer to this the question I posed as the title for this thread.
Maybe ESMB is incredibly helpful up to a certain point of a person’s departure from Scientology, but then becomes an anchor on their ability to move on from Scientology after that point.
And of course, this has ALSO been a criticism of critics themselves, and an attempt to shut them up, who speak out to warn others – that they CAN’T MOVE ON.
All I know is that the end product of my cult recovery has been:
“It’s not happening to me any more”
“I am the same person I always was”
“I was faced with moral decisions, and although I made a few mistakes, I finally made the right choice and I have done the right thing.”
“I have figured out what was done to me by others, and how they did it, as well as the mistakes I made personally. I have separated the two and can see these clearly”
“I am not the unimportant piece of shit they tried to make me out to be”
“I have a new life now and the spiritual reasons for which I got into Scientology are being fulfilled in better ways”
“I am free and strong and I can still help others in any way I want.”
“I can move on down the road”
Does ESMB help to produce these realizations?
Or does it hinder them?
Does ESMB tend to “overrun” these realizations after they have been attained?
Is the “negativity” (that is inherent and essential to a group like this where so many of the members have been hurt) good for a person for years and years?
I don’t know the answer to these questions.
I’m wondering if anybody here can help me find them.
Alanzo