[VIDEO] A Peek Behind the Curtain of Scientology – Part 2

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard created the Scientology religion and ran it as a sort of dictator for many years until he died in 1986. Like all destructive cult leaders, Hubbard created a culture that centered around his ideas being the most important things in the universe and that personal salvation was only possible if people followed what he said to the letter.

Scientologists believe so passionately in Hubbard’s works that they are willing to give almost over all of their money, forsake family and friends and some even give up their whole lives and work full time for Scientology, all in order to pursue their path to personal spiritual immortality as promised by Hubbard.

so how does Hubbard convince people to do this? What do they find so convincing in Scientology? Well, back in 1965, he wrote what became the most important and core policy for the group, entitled Keeping Scientology Working. In my last video, I started a critical analysis of this issue and what Hubbard was actually doing and saying when he wrote it. This is Part 2, where we will carry on to the end and I’ll offer more of my views on what this is all about. If you need to see the first part, here is the link.

We covered the first three sections of Keeping Scientology Working, wherein Hubbard laid out ten steps of fanatical belief and set himself up as the only person who was able to discover or establish what is true and what isn’t. Hubbard even went so far as to say that no one else in all of history had been able to do what he had, putting himself pretty squarely in to a position of superhuman ability and intellect to his followers.

Section 4 – The Group is All, the Individual is Nothing

Hubbard starts the next section talking about keeping Scientology technology straight and ensuring that no one be allowed to alter it. He says “I have not failed on Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten in areas I could supervise closely. But it’s not good enough for just myself and a few others to work at this.”

That sounds sensible enough for any service organization. But then check out this contradictory statement in the very next paragraph:

“Whenever this control as per Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten has been relaxed the whole organizational area has failed. Witness Elizabeth, N.J., Wichita, the early organizations and groups. They crashed only because I no longer did Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. Then, when they were all messed up, you saw the obvious ‘reasons’ for failure. But ahead of that they ceased to deliver and that involved them in other reasons.”

So which is it? Has he never failed on Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten or did those areas collapse because he did fail on them?

Well, never mind any of that because Hubbard then goes on to implant a new idea which will reinforce the “us vs them” mentality in his followers by instilling in them the idea that by doing exactly and only what Hubbard says, they are in fact being free and independent thinkers who are not submitting to mob mentality or what he calls “collective thought agreement”. This bit is actually quite some brilliant writing.

He talks here about the reactive bank, a term he invented for a part of the mind that Hubbard describes as containing all of the pain and trauma and suffering of life experiences which reactivate on a person later to make them do things that are against their own best interests. He also uses the word “thetan” which in Scientology refers to the individual as a spirtual being and not just as his body. A thetan is basically the real or true individual, sort of like a soul.

He says:

“The common denominator of a group is the reactive bank. Thetans without banks have different responses. They only have their banks in common. They agree then only on bank principles.”

Now that last sentence is a kicker. We agree only on bank principles? So is it a bank principle that 2+2=4? Is it somehow a destructive principle to think that senseless killing should be stopped? Is following the law or raising your children in a safe environment now a bad thing simply because most people agree on that? I don’t get that sentence at all. Well, here’s more on that:

“Person to person the bank is identical. So constructive ideas are individual and seldom get broad agreement in a human group. An individual must rise above an avid craving for agreement from a humanoid group to get anything decent done.”

Constructive ideas are individual and seldom get broad agreement. Like what? Freedom of thought? Freedom of speech? Civil rights? Those are all principles that get pretty broad agreement. Are those the kinds of ideas we should be looking at with contempt simply because people agree on them?

He’s just talking nonsense here. Now notice the subtleties though. He says “in a human group” and in the next sentence, he morphs that into a “humanoid group”. It’s quite something what he’s doing here, leading a person down a line of logic using these subtle words to get a person into a frame of mind that groups of people only agree on things because they are operating on a primitive, even sub-human level.

He reinforces this by then saying “The bank-agreement has been what has made Earth a Hell – and if you were looking for Hell and found Earth, it would certainly serve. War, famine, agony and disease has been the lot of Man. Right now the great governments of Earth have developed the means of frying every Man, Woman and Child on the planet. That is Bank. That is the result of Collective Thought Agreement. The decent, pleasant things on this planet come from individual actions and ideas that have somehow gotten by the Group Idea.”

By emphasizing only the negative aspects of our lives as a species, he is laying the blame on an invented “Group Idea” and contrasting this with individuality being the only solution. But then, he brings Scientology into the picture and check out how he does this:

“For that matter, look how we ourselves are attacked by ‘public opinion’ media. Yet there is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves. Thus each one of us can rise above the domination of the bank and then, as a group of freed beings, achieve freedom and reason. It is only the aberrated group, the mob, that is destructive.”

Hubbard uses the word “aberrated” to mean insane or not thinking in a straight line. So groups are bad. Group agreement is bad. But we, the Scientologists, are a gruop of “freed beings” and therefore we are good and everything I just said about groups doesn’t apply to us. It’s only the aberrated group that is destructive. Scientology is not that, so therefore Scientolgy is good.

He has just laid so many logical land mines into his followers, it’s really quite something to break it all down. Especially when he then summarizes everything he’s said so far from the beginning by saying this:

“When you don’t do Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten actively, you are working for the Bank dominated mob. For it will surely, surely (a) introduce incorrect technology and swear by it, (b) apply technology as incorrectly as possible, (c) open the door to any destructive idea, and (d) encourage incorrect application. It’s the Bank that says the group is all and the individual nothing. It’s the Bank that says we must fail. So just don’t play that game. Do Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten and you will knock out of your road all the future thorns.”

Hubbard spends the next couple of pages giving general, anonymous examples from Scientology history of how not being ruthless in following his instructions and directions resulted in people being worse off, basically instilling phobias in his followers to not think for themselves but only to do what he says. One of the examples he gives even ends up with a woman dying because they didn’t follow Hubbard’s direction.

This again is right out of the cult leader’s playbook and has to be part of any standard cult indoctrination in order for it to work. Followers have to believe that there will be dire consequences if they stray from the path or don’t follow their cult leader’s instructions to the letter. Which leads us to the last section.

Section 5 – The Entire Universe is Counting on You

Now the last section of this issue is where Hubbard really pours on the idea that Scientology is the only hope in all of the broad universe for the salvation of Mankind and this is also a very crucial part of the cult mentality. He’s taken pages to paint a picture of Mankind doing itself in at a mad rate, being totally unable to turn itself around or save itself on its own.

In Scientology, people all have these reactive minds. These are the insidious monsters in our heads that are making us do ourselves in. According to Hubbard, It is only Scientology that can eradicate this reactive mind and therefore it is only Scientology that can save Mankind.

In order to get people in a frame of mind where they are willing to forsake everything else in their life for a cause, you have to get them into a fanatical state of being. Getting them believing that they are ultimately responsible for the safety and security of the entire world gives people a sense of purpose and direction that can be a very powerful motivating force. Here’s what Hubbard says:

“When somebody enrolls, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe – never permit an ‘open-minded’ approach. If they’re going to quit let them quit fast. If they enrolled, they’re aboard, and if they’re aboard, they’re here on the same terms as the rest of us – win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half-minded about being Scientologists. The finest organizations in history have been tough, dedicated organizations. Not one namby pamby bunch of panty-waist dilettantes have ever made anything. It’s a tough universe. The social veneer makes it seem mild. But only the tigers survive – and even they have a hard time. We’ll survive because we are tough and are dedicated. When we do instruct somebody properly he becomes more and more tiger. When we instruct half-mindedly and are afraid to offend, scared to enforce, we don’t make students into good Scientologists and that lets everybody down. When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare and she’ll win and we’ll all win. Humour her and we all die a little. The proper instruction attitude is, ‘You’re here so you’re a Scientologist. Now we’re going to make you into an expert auditor no matter what happens. We’d rather have you dead than incapable.

“Fit that into the economics of the situation and lack of adequate time and you see the cross we have to bear.”

So these are powerful words. They give Hubbard’s followers the idea that they are the underdogs who are fighting the good fight, the toughest elite of planet Earth who are seeing to it that everyone else makes it out alive. It’s a cross they have to bear, a duty they have to perform in order to succeed. It sets them apart from everyone else and makes them feel superior and advanced and reinforces the us vs them mentality at the same time.

And again, if you think I’m exaggerating, he ends it with this:

“We’re not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn’t cute or something to do for lack of something better.

“The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.

“This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance.

“Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past. Don’t muff it now because it seems unpleasant or unsocial to do Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten.

“Do them and we’ll win.”

It wouldn’t be so sad if they weren’t so delusional, because of course Scientology does not deliver what it promises in any sense of the word. There may well be a personal spritual existence and immortality for us after we die. But achieving that does not depend on how closely someone adheres to Hubbard’s delusions.

The states of being Hubbard describes in Scientology have not been proven to exist. Not even a little bit. In fact, there is real and tangible evidence that anyone can see that the promises of Clear and Operating Thetan are just pipe dreams with as much reality as wishes upon a star or pennies in a well. No Scientologist, including Hubbard himself, was ever able to demonstrate telepathic or mystical powers or even the ability to avoid diseases or death. It’s all style and no substance.

Now more than ever, those who have followed L. Ron Hubbard’s powerful words are seeing through the delusory picture he paints and are getting themselves extricated from Scientology’s destructive undue influence.

But there is still work to do before they will all be free of it. I hope that what I’m doing and what other Scientology critics out there are doing is helping to shed light on this destructive cult, and on all the destructive cults out there. Scientology is but one of many.

There are lessons in this for all of us. It’s never been my goal to point a finger of ridicule at Scientology and show the world how odd or strange or peculiar they are. What I really want to accomplish is for us to see how we can all be fooled by charlatans and hucksters. They may dress differently than their 19th century counterparts and the snake oil they sell may be shinier or cleaner or sound more convincing, but in the end it’s the same old song and dance.

So let’s all be a little more aware, a little more skeptical and a little more critical.

Thank you for watching.