It was a great show, I thought. One of the greatest things to happen to me after I first left was having attended private group meetings for former members of various cults. This is what made the light bulb go off for me. For so long, even though I'd left, I still had residual doubt in my mind: Maybe Hubbard was right. Maybe I've made a mistake by leaving. Maybe I've turned my back on the "Truth" and have ruined my eternity. Perhaps Scientology is different than anything else out there...
Turns out, comparing notes with ex-JWs, ex-fundamentalist Mormons, ex-Church of God members, ex-Branch Davidians, and even ex-activists of Lyndon LaRouche -- all of those groups had the same exact components in play as Scientology, with the same type of sociopathic personality at its helm. If anything, this confirmed that what I'd left behind was a CULT like any other: dangerous, brainwashing, controlling, etc. Hubbard was not "special. He had no special knowledge. His "doctrine" could have been biblical, political, or made up out of thin air. It did not matter. It had the same agenda. It had the same purpose, affect (on me and the members), and intention: power/money/control/et al.
I think any member of any cult, or anyone newly leaving or thinking of leaving Scientology who happened to catch that episode is thinking the same thing. How could they have entrusted the doctrine, the people that "knew what was better for them" so easily without questions or skepticism? They are still learning they were conditioned not to have, or they had been stripped of their critical thinking skills through a process of trust and reciprocation, and coercion. I think the show is resonating with a lot of people whether they focus on Scientology or not, but I still think they aren't through holding the cult liable for its crimes.
