Category Archives: philosophy

The Scientology ‘Why’ Trap

Posted on December 15, 2013 by | 65 comments

“We’re in a society that is so psychology-ridden that it’s almost hobbled with ‘why did I do that and this and that?’  Although psychology has a powerful cleansing function, like any method it can become a trap, and it’s trapped many of us in the West. But the more we act from the heart, from that deep intuitional space, the less the spinning of the mind will interfere.  The more awareness with which we do something, the more heart we act on, the more that self-acceptance will allow us to trust those acts.”

–          from A Gradual Awakening by Stephen Levine

That is a very apt and insightful statement that, while not attempting to, precisely describes what might most be wrong with Scientology.  I have in the past noted the ingrained proclivity in Scientologists to practice excessive judgmentalism on others.  For example, see Sitting In Judgment.                           .

Perhaps the ‘why’ trap of the Scientology pop psychology scheme will be more apparent by viewing it on flow 0 – that is, what one does to oneself.  Please take a moment to review this.   Have you been saddled with the habit of asking yourself, or possibly seeking the answer from your auditor or the organization or even Ron,  ‘why did I do that and this and that?’  A valid target of psychology or psychotherapy, but as noted by Levine, up to a point.

If so, I believe it would behoove you to learn a bit about the crippling nature of aristotelian two-valued logic thought.   A great place to start is the first several chapters of a book called The End of Suffering by Russell Targ and J.J. Hurtak.  You will learn the uncredited provenance of Scientology’s purported ‘infinity logic’; which has been with us for millennia prior to Scientology.  For a deeper appreciation of, and thus potentially greater freedom from, the two-valued logic trap, the first few chapters of The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra will give you the history of how we in the West came to take two-valued logic for granted as a way of life.  A review of both books just might help you break that vicious cycle, should you find it present.

Recently, I summed up in one sentence what I have evolved toward doing with former Scientologists, ‘connecting some dots so that they can see that the only thing that is wrong with them is the ingrained belief that there always has to be something wrong with them.’

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Posted in Casablanca, healing, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, policy, psychs, Scientology, tech, training

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Freedom From Slavery

Posted on November 19, 2013 by | 181 comments

A new friend of mine handed me a copy of a remarkable little book on Sunday.  It is called As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen.  The book contain this little, precious pearl on freedom from slavery:

It has been usual for men to think and to say, ‘Many men are slaves because one is an oppressor; let us hate the oppressor.’  Now, however, there is among an increasing few a tendency to reverse this judgment, and to say, ‘One man is an oppressor because many are slaves; let us despise the slaves.’  The truth is that oppressor and slave are cooperators in ignorance, and, while seeming to afflict each other, are in reality afflicting themselves.  A perfect Knowledge perceives the action of law in the weakness of the oppressed and the misapplied power of the oppressor; a perfect Love, seeing the suffering that both states entail, condemns neither; a perfect Compassion embraces both oppressor and oppressed.

He who has conquered weakness, and has put away all selfish thoughts, belongs neither to oppressor nor oppressed.  He is free.

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Posted in acknowledgments, Casablanca, healing, Integral Theory, philosophy, quotations, the future, the Reformation

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The Bridge Beyond The Bridge

Posted on October 24, 2013 by | 159 comments

By Don Jolly in The Revealer: A Review of Religion and Media:

Mark Rathbun’s Search For the Future of Scientology

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Posted in Casablanca, healing, independents, Integral Theory, Ken Wilber, l. ron hubbard, Lawrence Wright, Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior, ot 8, philosophy, policy, Scientology, tech, texas, the Reformation, Tom Cruise, Uncategorized

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Siddhartha

Posted on October 21, 2013 by | 131 comments

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Reference:   Pursuit of Understanding

 2. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

This book is one of my favorite novels of all time; it is right up there with the likes of East of Eden and To Kill a Mockingbird.  I first read Siddhartha when I was seventeen years old. It was an important part of my own spiritual journey then and has served the same purpose more recently.

Having read it again this year, I wondered how on earth I could have spent twenty-seven years effectively donning a yellow robe and devoting my life to a cult.   Alas, perhaps that path served the same purpose as Siddhartha’s several decade journey.

During his early spiritual seeking years, Siddhartha comes into contact with the Buddha, referred to as the Glorious One.  Siddhartha can find nothing wrong with the Glorious One or his fledgling philosophy and practice.   But something holds Siddhartha back from donning the yellow robe of devotees even when the Glorious One pitches his way directly to Siddhartha.  His fellow seeker and friend Govinda opts for the robes.

Hesse provides a concise, accurate summation of the Buddha’s teachings and the Vedic scripture that precedes and influences their origination.  He has Siddhartha offer no criticism of them because he finds no fault with them.  But as his own life plays out, in many ways paralleling the journey of the Buddha’s own life, he comes to his own realization of the goal of the Buddha’s path.  Not through practice, but instead through living.

In a sublime, lyrical sort of manner Hesse demonstrates how Govinda, who chose to don the robes when Siddhartha declined, and who spent his life as a dedicated follower of the Glorious One, could never attain that realization.  While Govinda attained a high level of awareness and exemplary conduct, it was precisely because Govinda chose to follow and devote himself to a teacher that made enlightenment unattainable.

One moral of the story is that one doesn’t attain to enlightenment by simply following an enlightened one’s path.  Perhaps even, the very act of becoming a devoted follower ultimately bars the path.

At some point, if one wants to transcend, one is going to have to blaze some trail on his own.

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Posted in Buddha, healing, independents, Integral Theory, philosophy, Scientology, Zen

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Scientology Standard Operating Procedure

Posted on October 19, 2013 by | 274 comments

The following unalterable, senior policy of Scientology has been in continuous effect since March 1955 to the present.  It might help explain a few things you have observed.

The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE.  The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that then you will lose every battle you are ever engaged in, whether it is in terms of personal conversation, public debate, or a court of law. NEVER BE INTERESTED IN CHARGES. DO, yourself much MORE CHARGING and you will WIN.  And the public, seeing that you won, will then have a communication line to the effect that Scientologists WIN.  Don’t ever let them have any other thought than that Scientology takes all of its objectives. 

The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.

L. Ron Hubbard, Manual on Dissemination of Material

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Posted in black dianetics, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, healing, justice, l. ron hubbard, legal threats, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, philosophy, policy, quotations, Scientology, squirreling, tech, the future, the Reformation

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Scientology: Hypnotism or Persuasion

Posted on October 17, 2013 by | 156 comments

Jefferson Hawkins began an insightful deconstruction of Scientology ethics in an interview with Tony Ortega at his Scientology Underground Bunker page.   I believe the techniques Jeff exposed had (have) broader application in the process that Scientology employs in implanting its constructs as hard-bound reality.  It is not limited to the indoctrination on ethics. I had noted this myself while spending several months of each day listening to a Hubbard lecture from the fifties and sixties.

In an early chapter of The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra gives an accurate and concise history of the evolution of logic and thought in the West and the East.  In doing so, he necessarily mentions virtually every significant philosopher who lived and wrote over the past couple millennia. I read that after the stint of listening to dozens of Hubbard lectures given over a two decade period.   Here is my contemporaneous margin note at the end of the chapter on evolution of thought in The Tao of Physics:

‘By this point (20th Century) in history, Hubbard has invalidated and laid to waste every great thinker who made possible and contributed to his way of thinking.’

One might recognize that Hubbard’s techniques of persuasion are used far and wide in today’s society.  In politics, in business, in advertising, in self-help, in religion, you name it.  Whether one wants to label it ‘hypnotism’ or ‘how to influence people’ or ‘persuasion’, it cannot be gainsaid that the  technique of indoctrination Jeff breaks down for us was employed throughout the history of Dianetics and Scientology.  And L. Ron Hubbard was a master of it application.

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Posted in acknowledgments, black dianetics, ethics, healing, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, policy, propaganda, tech, the Reformation, training, Uncategorized

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Tao Te Ching

Posted on October 14, 2013 by | 136 comments

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Reference:   Pursuit of Understanding

  1. Tao Te Ching, A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell.

Scientology begins with the Tao.  It works to the extent it parallels the Tao. It ends up going against the Tao.  Scientology departed from attaining toward harmony and equanimity and headed instead toward attempting to conquer the natural balance that is the universe in which we live.  That leads to the creation of ego, mental mass, conflict, individuation, and ultimate misery.  It effectuates that departure by mocking up constructs as reality, complete with imagined or created or adopted nemeses, enemies, fears, paranoias, and delusions of superiority.

In a later recommended reading selection, Ram Dass relates the following in its preface:

When my Guru wanted to complement me, he called me simple; when he wished to chide me, he called me clever.

Somewhere along the line Scientology strayed from assisting toward simplicity and attempted to instill cleverness.

There is no better orientation, or re-orientation, to the power and truth of simplicity than the Tao Te Ching.  Of the many translations I have read, Stephen Mitchell’s best captures that simplicity by not tacking on the cleverness that other interpreters have injected into it.

After faithfully applying all that Scientology has to offer, and after thirty-five years of interacting with and observing the best of those who did likewise, the following passage from the Tao Te Ching struck me like a bolt from the blue:

Do you have the patience to wait

till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving

till the right action arises by itself?

I asked myself, ‘have I mastered this ability?’  The answer was ‘no.’  I asked myself whether I had seen other Scientologists who had, including L. Ron Hubbard.  And the answer again was ‘no;  quite the contrary.’ With some work, including following the course of study I have outlined in the recommended reading, I began to learn why the answers to my questions were ‘no’.  Through practice I learned that this ability alone was far more powerful or ‘OT’ than anything Scientology had to offer.  In fact, following Scientology assiduously, and exclusively as it dictates it is to be practiced, barred the door to its attainment.

The first step toward its attainment was to learn a little something about the Tao.

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Posted in acknowledgments, healing, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, Tao Te Ching, texas, the Reformation, the world

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Comal County, Texas

Posted on October 12, 2013 by | 80 comments

From some recent visitors:

Thank you both so much for having and sharing your beautiful space with me.  The environment here is really perfect for working on spiritual advancement.

This visit has been exactly what I need to sort out ‘confusions’ that lingered – some I didn’t even know were there.

I am looking forward to living with my new awareness.  Thank you.

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Guadalupe River

—

Marty and Mosey,

Today is 5 of 7 and I woke up this morning asking myself ‘if this is what auditing was meant to be by Hubbard,  then what-da-f___  was I doing while in the church?  I do not recall having the kind of experience I’m having here at Casablanca.  I came here with the intention of wanting peace and quiet – and time to reflect on all that has happened in my life.  Since I left the cult I have been trying to sort out all the confusion in my head, and it is being sorted out in the sessions you have been doing on me, Marty.

There is something serene about having deer roam about your property and as I watch them from my bedroom window the song ‘long time sun’ by Snatam Kaur comes to mind.  You can find it on Youtube, it’s four minutes long.

Namaste,

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Sweet Pea

—

Came here with ‘stuff.’

Now – so quiet, so at peace.

This has been a most amazing experience.

I leave with clean water at all levels.  The mud has settled.

Mark, Monique and all the animal friends became part of my life.  I will forever feel this is a second home, a safe refuge, a place of memories and experiences.

The ‘life coaching’ – more than just auditing – was spot on and very validating of native beingness.

Thanks to all.

Loving kindness,

A visiting soul on the awareness journey we call life

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Pedernales River

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Posted in acknowledgments, Casablanca, healing, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, tech, texas, Uncategorized

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Pursuit of Understanding

Posted on October 9, 2013 by | 111 comments

I am introducing my recommended reading list to anyone who has attained the Scientology state of Clear.  By doing so, I am not promoting or trying to win over anybody to a particular line of thought.  Nor am I attempting to dissuade people from continuing to worship their firmly held religious constructs. I respect their First Amendment rights to continue to do so.  Instead, I am responding to the relative few who have expressed genuine curiosity about from whence I have come and to where I am going.  Folks can take it or leave it, or pick and choose to satisfy their own curiosities. And, as is their wont, Scientologists can of course nitpick and snipe so as to kill the agent who brings news they will likely find is anathema to their Scientology religious beliefs.

I recommend that these materials, minimally, be studied before embarking on Scientology OT Levels 2 through 8.   Actually, I think anyone would gain a tremendous amount of insight by reading these books. But, I believe this (or a comparable) recommended study is essential to understanding from a scientific and spiritual view what it most likely is that makes a meter read on a Clear.  It also gives a much deeper understanding of what it is that Ron Hubbard was grappling with on the upper levels.  To pursue a subject calling itself a ‘science of the mind’, while subjecting oneself to religious mythological belief constructs (as one inevitably does by running headlong into the OT Levels of Scientology) sets up a vicious form of cognitive dissonance: religious belief masquerading as scientific certainty.   The result is the inability to perceive as-is; defeating the entire stated purpose of Scientology.  More debilitating, Scientology at the upper levels continues a process of self-affirmation and self-fixation that firmly shackles an individual from rising to greater heights; locked into a solidified ego as he or she becomes. I think this recommended study can alleviate that dissonance, freeing an individual to continue to move on up a little higher.

I am not creating some new study by this recommendation.  I am sure there is an infinity of gradients and steps one could, and some certainly have, take to navigate the mire that is implanted at the Scientology upper levels.  I did not follow this recommendation.  I went through numerous other valleys and peaks along my own way. For example, as part of my own study, I studied and evaluated what Hubbard studied and drew from in developing Scientology; and I haven’t included that byway on this list.  I reviewed my path and noted those studies I feel were integral in understanding Scientology in the only way Hubbard himself recommended anything could be fully understood. That is, studied against data of comparable magnitude.  When one does, I believe one cannot help but recognize that Ron was definitely onto something in his upper level research, but that developments in science and consciousness far more rationally and accurately revealed what it was.  One may or may not also see in the light of this understanding, that continued, blind adherence to mythological constructs supplied in Scientology might be crippling of spiritual evolution.

If sufficient interest is communicated, I may follow up with a series of posts on each of these references, explaining why I consider them important, connecting dots demonstrating relevance to the Scientology experience, and making sense of the sequence, etc.  In either event, I hope some people find this of some assistance in their graduation and transcendence process.

1)      Tao Te Ching – Stephen Mitchell translation

2)      Siddhartha – Herman Hesse

3)      The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran

4)      The Four Agreements – Don Migel Ruiz

5)      The End of Suffering – Russell Targ and J.J. Hurtak

6)      Buddha’s Brain – Rick Hanson

7)      A Brief History of Everything – Ken Wilber

8)     Kosmic Consciousness – ten part interview with Ken Wilber, Sounds True Productions.

9)      A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

10)   The Biology of Belief – Bruce Lipton

11)   The  Unobservable Universe – Scott Tyson

12)   The Secret – Rhonda Byrne (book and video)

13)   The Intention Experiment – Lynne McTaggart

14)   The Field – Lynne McTaggart

15)   Entangled Minds – Dean Radin

16)   The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra

17)   Quantum Enigma – Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner

18)   Biocentrism – Robert Lanza

19)   A Gradual Awakening.- Stephen Levine

Some folks have already expressed dismay at such a recommendation in that it is a hefty amount of reading.  One person implied that I am asserting that one must become proficient in Quantum Mechanics in order to achieve enlightenment.  I am not suggesting that.

I am suggesting that if one devotes the better part of one’s life to following someone who implants in one’s mind a certainty that what he is following is proven scientifically to be the only road to spiritual freedom, one is demonstrating a large degree of gullibility in accepting and dramatizing that implant with no context explored against which to evaluate the truth of that implant.  Understanding is an universal solvent, in my opinion.

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Posted in acknowledgments, Buddha, healing, Integral Theory, Ken Wilber, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, propaganda, Scientology, Tao Te Ching, tech, the future, the world, Uncategorized

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Scientology In A Nutshell

Posted on October 7, 2013 by | 223 comments

L. Ron Hubbard devised methods using Aristotelian and Newtonian two-value logic constructs that can and do sometimes create peak experiences of a non-dual, infinity-logic consciousness nature.   However, Hubbard also constructed a philosophy that is simultaneously inculcated into adherents that anchors them into two-valued logic thinking and living.  The philosophy includes as a senior element, an utilitarian ethics system.   The ethics system is made senior and precedent to the peak experience therapy techniques that otherwise could give glimpses of intuitive non-duality.  The utilitarianism of the ethics system is only apparent.  Its representation that it is based upon infinity-logic is false in practice.  It is corrupted by creating a central ‘utilitarian’ equation that always has what is good for the group (the Scientologists) weighing senior to all other considerations and thus is always considered what is best for all.  That fact makes the system, in fact and in practice, a two-value logic system.  What redounds to the benefit of the group is good; what does not benefit the group is evil.

The net result of Hubbard’s system was that he could create adherents who were given a taste of infinity-logic, non-dual reality, but were prohibited by his group ‘philosophy’ and ‘ethics’ from exercising or sustaining such reality.  The former serves as the glue that holds adherents to the latter.  The adherents could appreciate the possibility of intuition.  However, in practice only Ron Hubbard could exercise it consistently.  Against those constrictions of the Scientologists’ adopted philosophy and ethics, an inescapable result manifested.  To adherents Ron Hubbard was considered a special being from a higher universe as only he could naturally and consistently demonstrate intuitive powers. Scientologist were reduced to aspiring to be like Ron.  Ultimately that was an unattainable goal, when adherents were anchored to an ethics and philosophical system of thought predicated upon two-valued logic.

In effect, Scientologists who rise to the highest levels or otherwise adopt Scientology’s dictate that it is the only path to salvation, not only for the adherent but for all others, are trapped in a rather debilitating cognitive dissonance (the persistent attempt to hold two conflicting ideas in harmony).  On the one hand, they are thoroughly convinced that they are following a scientifically proven, utilitarian path that leads to transcendent consciousness.  On the other hand, in practice, they are prohibited from exercising transcendent, intuitive consciousness by their philosophy and ethics which are firmly grounded in two-valued logic.

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Posted in ethics, healing, independents, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, philosophy, policy, Scientology, tech, What Is Wrong With Scientology?

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