Beliefs vs. Facts
I’ve written about this before. But there is a whole lot to gain by continually reminding myself of what a fact is, vs what a belief is. Especially with regard to political and religious areas of my life.
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To Karen Pressley: Why OSA Wins When Critics of Scientology Don’t Allow Criticism of Themselves
Ex Sea Org Officer Karen Pressley Justifies Her Banning of a Scientology Critic with Very Sea Org Reasoning
Why Legal vs Illegal is Way More Important than Moral vs Immoral in Dealing with Scientology
Anti-Scientologists who want to “end the cult” are not thinking things through. Unless Scientology is doing something illegal, no one has the power to “end” them. You actually do not want to live in a society where the government, or even you, have the power to take away someone else’s religion. This is why the line between legal and illegal behavior is WAY more important than the line between moral and immoral behavior.
Gerry Armstrong Details the Scientology Fair Game Operations Against Him
Until the background of these acts have been exposed, detailed and thoroughly condemned by Mike Rider and Marty Rathbun, and amends made to Gerry Armstrong for what they have done to him, there can be little possibility that a person who wishes to claim they are “exposing the abuses of Scientology” fails to expose the some of the worst abuses that they themselves committed.
Adjusting to Mainstream Society After Scientology is Not “Recovery”
The cult recovery paradigm of Ex-Scientology sets up a whole bunch of things you think you need to “recover” from because you were in Scientology. This is a dysfunctional view. Paradigms are insidious things. They … Read more
Steven Hassan Makes Bizarre Claim for Why Moonie Brainwashing Didn’t Work Whenever Scientists Were in the Room
Social scientists like Eileen Barker traveled to Moonie recruitment seminars where brainwashing & mind control was claimed to be in use. They found that more than 90% of the people in those “brainwashing” seminars did not sign up to be a Moonie, and all were gone from the Moonies within 2 years.
Did Indy OSA Just Screw the Pooch? Marty Rathbun & Karen De La Carriere
Marty Rathbun wrote a post last September that is more relevant than ever, thanks to Indy OSA turning intelligence into Black PR.
Enthralling Interview: Leah Remini Tells Her Powerful Story of Leaving Scientology
Leah tells her powerful story about what happened to her in the Church which led to her leave Scientology – the only religion she knew for 34 years.
Arnie Lerma, Whose Seminal Website Lermanet.com, Got Many People Out of Scientology, Details the Fair Game Actions Waged Against Him
I am very grateful to Arnaldo for his courage in getting that website up in the early days of the Internet, keeping it up, and enduring the legal actions and fair game that the Church of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs.
Why Leah Remini Will Never Get Her Federal Investigation
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 … Read more
Alanzo’s Top 5 Criticisms of Tony Ortega & His Underground Bunker
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.
Two AntiCult Movement Evangelists Defend Their 40 Year Careers Trying to Scare People About ‘Cults’
Jon Atack and Steven Hassan have been the Jimmy Swaggart and Billy Graham of the Anti-Cult Movement for well neigh 40 years now, and I hear they’re just about ready to get some science to … Read more
Documentary “Deprogrammed” Now Streaming on Netflix
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.
A History of Scientology Criticism: Dennis Erlich & “Scientology vs. The Internet”
There are a lot of things about Scientology scriptures and OT levels that we would not have access to today on the Internet without the help of Dennis Erlich.
Trying to Warn Mike Rinder About Threats of Violence From Fans of Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath
Trying to get a sociopath like Mike Rinder to care about the violent consequences of his rhetoric is a futile exercise, as I learned, once again, the hard way.
Gerry Armstrong’s Open Letter to Alex Gibney Regarding Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun
Everyone should know the story of Gerry Armstrong. Because if it was not for Gerry Armstrong, LRH, Marty, Mike and Dave might have gotten away with the whole thing.
Mike Rinder Needs to Come Clean About What He Did to Gerry Armstrong & Others As Head of the Office of Special Affairs
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, … Read more
UPDATED with New Screenshots: Leah Remini & Mike Rinder’s Anti-Scientology Fans Fair Game Monique Rathbun’s Business
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, … Read more
Chris Shelton Read One Book By Social Scientists And Now He Knows All About It
This is the level of thought that is acceptable by those who believe in the AntiCult Movement’s ideology about minority religions. This is not critical thinking – it’s the sociological equivalent of an AntiVaxer rant.
Can Chris Shelton The Critical Thinker At Large Distinguish Between a ‘Cult Recovery Paradigm’ and Therapy?
Is Chris Shelton The Critical Thinker at Large the Stuart Smalley of Celebrity Anti-Scientology?
The Unquestioning Arrogance of Anti-Cult Movement Ideologues
An ideologue is so certain of the ideology he has adopted, and the rightness of how he sees the world, that he can sneer at people, knowing how superior he is. It is a lazy way to go through life, intellectually, but if you surround yourself with people who also never question their assumptions, either, it’s easier to live that way. One of the best examples is Tony Ortega.
The Top 5 Most Toxic & Corrosive Things About Being an Ex-Scientologist
As an Ex-Scientologist for 22yrs, I’ve identified the top 5 things that, over time, become the most toxic and corrosive things about being an Ex of any cult.
My Anti-Scientology Apostasy
The 19th century German philosopher Max Scheler said that an apostate was ‘engaged in a continuous chain of acts of revenge against his own spiritual past’. American sociologist Lewis Coser defined an apostate as not … Read more
Is Chris Shelton Waking Up From His Anti-Scientology Fever Dream?
There’s a point in your evolution as an Ex which is exactly like when you woke up from all the untrue things in Scientology: As an Ex, it’s that point when you wake up from all the untrue things in Anti-Scientology, as well.
The Social Construction of the Anti-Scientology/Anti-Cult Narrative
The more power that you assign to subversive techniques such as “mind control” the easier it is for Ex-members to explain their membership and participation in minority religious groups after they’ve re-entered the mainstream.
The Moral Equivalence of Scientology vs. Anti-Scientology Fair Game
Is Fair Game better when it’s applied to Scientology? Can there be an immoral equivalence when what Scientology does is then done back at them? Either you are against hypocrisy, cruelty and abuse, or you are not – no matter who does it.
Embrace Your Inner Scientologist
To dismiss that part of your life, to wall it off under labels of “delusional Scientologist” or “weak” or “crazy loon” is to remain in a dissociative state – to continue living a fractured life with some of the best parts of you buried underneath a wall of self-hatred and shame.
Post Ex-Scientology
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.
Scientology & Hindsight Bias: An Ex-Scientologist’s Deadliest Disease
The human mind has certain biases which routinely, and falsely, color the perceptions of people called cognitive biases. One of the most important for a former cult member to know about is called the “hindsight bias”, or the “I knew it all along” effect.
The Capture Stories, Escape Stories, and Atrocity Stories of Anti-Scientologists
Sociologists who study the issues surrounding minority religions have identified 3 types of stories that form a socially-constructed narrative of a leave-taker’s experience inside their former group. These types of stories are not unique to Ex-Scientology. They have been found to occur as common coins passed around by those who leave, assuming a role which sociologists call “the apostate role”.
Is Scientology a Religion? Leah Remini Now Says It’s Not
When you look at the cosmology of Scientology from the viewpoint of social science – its rituals such as auditing, training, dissemination, and its clearly religious teachings on the thetan, the mind, and even Xenu – it is inescapable that Scientology is a religion.