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Two Main Types of Ex-Scientologists
I've stayed clear of ever getting involved in the
got gains/didn't get gains
debates during many years of lurking around the message boards.
Probably because the debates end up going on forever without resolution
and I don't have enough of an attention span for a "forever" topic.
In real life I've told people who are exiting Scientology that the most important
thing they can do is not deny, discard, or invalidate any wins or gains they
DID get. Any benefit they achieved is theirs to keep. I mean why deny any
personal betterment or change from whatever the source, be it auditing,
a book, a college course, a YouTube video, or whatever.
Watching the debates, I've noticed that ex-scientologists can also take sides
about talk therapy in general. The issue being: Will any type of talk therapy,
now or in the future, ever produce significant changes in people or are we pretty
much doomed to live the way we are, good or bad?
A few positions people take:
-- Scientology does not work. Did not deliver on its promises. Complete waste of time.
End of story.
-- No talk therapy works. Accept how you are and live with it. There will never be a
solution to the flawed mind or a therapy to make you better. Never ever. Stop even
thinking about it. The mind is beyond human knowledge or solution.
-- Talk therapy? Psych opinion leaders want us to use drug treatments nowadays . . .
100% moved on from talk therapy.
-- Parts of Scientology seem to work. The workable bits will be recast into other therapies
someday.
A few interesting data points:
Post-Scientology, David Mayo believed that parts of Scientology could be recast as a therapy
without all the complexity and harmful stuff of the COS. He took the basic techniques of New
Era Dianetics and reworked them into something named Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR),
which is described in the book introducing Metapsychology (1995) by Frank Gerbode. They
gave a nod to Freud and his earlier work in the similar vein.
So Mayo believed a beneficial talk therapy could be developed. That said, Metapsychology
and TIR did not exactly set the world on fire. I have the book but have to admit I haven't read
it. Just browsed through it a few times.
Jordan B. Peterson, the clinical psychologist, current Internet sensation and best-selling author, gave a talk in 2002 entitled
"Slaying the Dragon Within Us." Here's a short excerpt from the talk about one of the world's top clinical psychologists and the "independently discovered" technique she uses and is getting results with:
Well, there's a woman named Edna Foa in New York, I think one of the world's top clinical psychologists and she's been dealing with women who have post traumatic stress disorder for decades [Prolonged Exposure Therapy]. And she's found a treatment that works. And the treatment is this.
She has the women relive the event, in as much detail as possible, over and over in their imagination, with the accompanying emotion. And she's found, because she's done physiological measurement on her clients, that those women who allow themselves to get the most fully upset as a consequence of the reliving, get better faster and stay better longer.
The clinical evidence is absolutely clear. When you take someone to therapy, you're basically doing two things to them, well, three. You allow them to confess what's wrong with them. Because it's really useful to actually say what it is that's bothering you. It makes it clear and distinct. You help the person get their story straight. Because you have to have your story straight, right? You have to know where you're coming from and you have to know where you're going, because otherwise there's no structure for your life.
And the third thing is, if your path from point a to point b, is being blocked by something that you're afraid of, you better learn to confront it. Because if you don't, it will grow and expand until it turns into the kind of dragon that occupies your whole house. This is another representation of a story.
After writing this post, I'm guessing I feel anything worthwhile in the Hubbard tech (yes, much borrowed or stolen) will be independently discovered and promulgated by others in time. But maybe it will take a long, long time. I think it will follow along the line of
reduction of incidents therapy (Freud, Hubbard, Foa, et al.).
The main claims or promises, if any are made, would be a lessoning of the condition you came in with and would like to resolve. No hyperbolic, fantastical states or superhuman powers. Just a "best efforts" approach. This would have been a better approach for Hubbard, but that was not to be.
I'm pretty much a 24/7 positive and joyful person and don't have a "wants handled" list or any need for therapy. My concern is about the person who has depression or lingering ruinous thoughts about themselves. Do they have any hope of eradicating those ideas or flaws? Are we merely cosmically endowed at birth and no hope of a ladder to a better, more happier self?
Seems like the current day trend of "talk therapy" and personal betterment is the province of social justice warriors, liberal academics, and fake news cable media. Simply pound people with the "correct ideas" until they think and behave correctly. Feel better about themselves and life (virtue signaling). No need for inner inspection or deep thought beyond that anymore. We'll train you, or brainwash you, with what you'll need for life.
As I said, I'm not concerned for me, but more for the kids and generations to come.
