Critical Thinking on Cults & AntiCults
For my fellow Exes
Elizabeth Gale and Cassie Marie discuss the problems of the Aftermath Foundation which have been simmering for a long time, and which we have recently seen explode. These two break it down.
Adopting the beliefs of the anti-cult movement dramatically changes the views and attitudes of those who experience a loss of faith. Those changes have a profound effect on how Exes make sense of their own past. So we must ask: How helpful is the ideology of the anti cult movement in making sense of your life?
After 16 years in a cult, 15 years in an Anticult, and 9 years out of both, I know what it means to recover from a cult.
Alanzo has been accused of an incredible array of sins, including being an OSA Agent. But anyone who knows Allen Alanzo Stanfield knows different. Right?
I’ve been practicing Basic Skepticism on marauding Anti-Scientologists on the Internet. It’s pretty much unstoppable. Here’s how it works.
With so many people stuck in the most negative views on ESMB, is this a place where an Ex-Scientologist can productively evolve & grow after their experiences in Scientology?
When I first got out of Scientology 21 years ago, I’d have made the same doco India did. That would have been a huge mistake.
What if being a Scientologist was never a really a disease in the first place that you needed to “recover from”? What if it was just one part of your own much longer spiritual journey that taught you many important lessons, and from which you emerged stronger and wiser than ever?
How would you know?
“Ex” is not “Anti”. Anti is a stance against. Ex is simply a former member, having many different stances about their former religious pursuit.
The metaphor of ‘brainwashing’ is best understood as a social weapon for religious persecution which provides a “libertarian” rationale for the suppression of unpopular social movements and belief systems.
When a person gets out of a minority religion and is thrust back into mainstream society, he can be bombarded with personal defamation and the destruction of everything he’s built in his life.
When I first heard Scientology stories of abuse, I became very angry. I let that anger permeate my thinking & even my self-identity. Many Exes experience this.
I’m a perpetual victim of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. Its success has devastated me. Trying to put the pieces back together, my recovery may take the rest of my life.
The mother told her son, ‘If you forget again, you will see your own mother commit suicide right in front of you.”
Human mainstream cultures protect themselves against minorities they feel threatened by.