Theos-Talk Archives (November 1997 Message tl00237)

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        What I found out, however, was that while there are
effectively very strong "techniques" in which you effectively
exteriorize, or other techniques that creates very strong
spiritual perceptions and states of being, or even effective
liberation from emotional distresses, eventually, at the end of
the day, it doesn't achieve what it promises. There is always
something missing, and, even though your consciousness has been
stretched somewhat, you basically remain the same ignorant self
you are. Even worse, the cultic mindset of the combined effect
of the leader's influence and the group's dynamic get onto you
and you run the risk of becoming fanaticized, and many did
become fanaticized, just like I was.

        It took me a while, and I guess some luck too, to free
myself from the conditioning and limitation I allowed myself to
drown into while in the group, but I also learned quite a few
things from it, both from the experience and from freeing myself
from the experience. I probably learned about as much as I did
in the previous years.

        How could I become involved when I was already
knowledgeable about K's teachings, you ask? As a matter of fact,
believe it or not, K's teaching actually helped me to get
involved. It helped me to resolve the theoretical and
theological conflict and contradictions between Theosophy and
Scientology. K seemed to have himself ridden of the limitations
of Theosophy, and, furthermore, I found some striking
similarities between some of his teachings and some of Scn's
one.

        The similarity was especially the notion that in Scn is
called "as-is". This is, I believe, the central notion of Scn,
around which its whole technology is built. It is based on the
notion, to put it crudely, that what you "view" exactly
disappears. This is the reason why the Scn "auditing" sessions
bring the patient to view exactly the traumatic incidents of his
past, including incident from his past lives. The claim to be
effectively able to view one's past lives was, BTW, another of
those things that initially attracted me.

        The notion of "as-is" is linked to the other Scn notion
that "what you resist, you become". In other words, that
resistance was really what was maintaining an undesirable
condition in place. This could be an emotional condition, in
which you unconsciously resist to a negative picture, for
example, but also spiritual, in which you unconsciously resist
to things that maintains your awareness level down.

        While K's teaching thus unwittingly helped me to initially
join the movement, it also helped me to get out of from it. Not
only K's teaching, but my previous studies of Theosophy or
similar teachings. These are the type of things I recount in the
story on my web page.

        After I quite Scn, I discovered the New Age movement, with
groups like Findhorn and others, and several other esoteric
teachings, like the Rosicrucian's or the Alice Bailey's one. All
the while, however, and even if I hold Alice Bailey's teaching
as the highest form of esoteric teaching around, I seemed to
draw my own light from within. K, in this respect, is still the
stronger "influence" (he would hate this word). He helped me to
find my strength and purpose from within, not relying on anyone
or anything else, all the while being fully opened to
everything, without fearing to put in question my deepest
convictions. That the Truth, if such a "thing" exist, should be
allowed to reveal itself.

        There was another aspect I got interested in as I came out
of Scn, though. This was the mechanisms by which someone could
be forcefully made to change his beliefs. IOW, the phenomenon of
deprogramming, in which someone is kidnapped and harangued day
and night until he recants and adopts his kidnappers'
explanation instead. Was it a form of brainwashing, or was it on
the contrary a form of liberation from brainwashing induced by
the "cults"? Is there something as "mind-control" to start with?
I spent most of the 80s to try and find out, all the while
"rebuilding" my life as well, picking up on jobs, settling down,
and so on.

        My conclusion on this issue is that neither the cults nor
deprogramming are really brainwashing, although deprogramming,
involving physical coercion, contrary to the cults, is
definitely closer to what could be called brainwashing. It isn't
possible, however, to somehow magically change someone else's
belief at will. 

        "Mind-control", as it is being defined by the anti-cult
faction, or as the cults alleges its opponents to practice,
simple doesn't exists. 

        There certainly exists a form of "mind-control", if you
want, in which fear, hope, guilt, is used in order to influence
someone into accepting a belief. Such is, for example, the
fundamentalist's approach in which fear of eternal hell is being
played upon you, while you are harangued into confessing your
sin and while you are being promised eternal heaven if you
conform, but there is a huge gap between this form of
"mind-control" and the type of "mind-control" promoted by
fanatical cult opponents in which they claim the freedom of
choice of the individual is effectively being overwhelmed and
which justify a coercive intervention. There simply is no such
thing. Even under actual hypnosis, it has been shown that the
basic individual responsibility and freedom cannot be
annihilated.

        These topics have been raging, sometimes extremely
violently, in alt.religion.scientology, in which I post since
almost two years. Some rather clear lines have emerged, though.
I will attempt to summarize them on my web page if I can free up
enough time.

        Lastly, the page is also aimed at warning about the danger
of the fanatical anti-cultism, headed by the fallacious doctrine
of mind-control. Strangely enough, anti-cultism has turned into
a cult in its own right, which once more tend to prove that what
you resist, you become. 

        Much of my own 80s decade was also spend trying to fight
the abuses and dangers of this anti-cult movement (acm). Believe
it or not, we passed 1984 very closely to the type of things
that what was predicted by Orwell. The acm, indeed, almost
succeeded to pass a law in which one could be incarcerated and
psychologically abused into conformity. All things that I will
document in due time, for those interested. Luckily, by the end
of the 80s, the acm has been overall defeated, but its a long
story and I believe not quite the topic of this list. Democracy
and human rights prevailed, and once again, I gained
considerable insight in these matters through this issue.

        While both cults and anti-cults do have a part of truth
just as well, they nevertheless constitute extremes and are
actually not that interesting beyond what they can teach us.
This is why I plan to add a third dimension to my web page. A
spiritual one, either as an integral part or a separate one. At
the end of the day, all of these are but some aspects of the
spiritual search, and the many pitfalls, idiocy, and illusions,
we can fall into. 

        The spiritual search and the freeing of the thousands of
illusions we can get into is still what is, IMO, the most
important issue of all. Is there such a thing as Truth and
infinite intelligence, infinite wisdom, infinite love? I believe
yes, but it doesn't always manifests itself under the form of
what we conceive spirituality to be. It isn't just enough to
delight oneself in abstract light and sensations, however
beautiful it is. Such intelligence, wisdom and love needs to
find its way in action, and through action, attention and
observation, constant learning and unearthing, to discover for
ourself what is so precious, so valuable, and so subtle, that it
constantly escapes the thousands forms in which we would like to
hold and capture it.

Bernie
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