Even Ex Cultists Have Fun,...

Naked (Wondering What's Under Those Pajamas,...)

Now this is weird: 

 Pajamas Media has an article called "Cults: The Mind Enslaved." 

It's not like PJMedia to wander into my neck of the woods, and as with so many others, it's an article on being a full-blown cultist as opposed to the much more prevalent phenomena of being surrounded by cultish thinking - so it hardly applies to most people - but, still, it's welcome:

Nobody joins a cult; people are attracted to cultic groups by an apparent good. This could be legitimate elements borrowed from a non-cultic faith, the “high” experienced at a self-help conference, or the camaraderie and affection offered by a new group of caring people. These attractions fill a need experienced by a vulnerable recruit. The benefits prime the new member to identify the cult as the source. 

Cult members invariably begin to experience a discrepancy between cult teaching and what he or she observes. Mr. Goldman spoke of knowing LaRouche published antisemitic literature while the leader claimed to have a special love for Jewish people. Confronted with inconsistencies, the subject must choose between personal thinking and the cult-knowledge with all its perceived benefits. Once a person consciously repudiates his or her own mind, defending against intruding reality becomes imperative. As the cult-thought becomes more and more invasive, the member no longer lives life based on the normal ebb and flow of information, analysis, and personally selected behavior. Instead, the subject defaults to free-standing dictums that have no root in reality. 

The mind continues to receive sensory input from the world and this causes “dissonance,” a struggle between suppressed reason attempting to reassert itself and the post-analytical intellect. … 

The Cult Mind frequently violates conscience, that internalized voice of universal right and wrong. For Jason Beghe, it was continuing to recruit for Scientology when he saw that expensive training was not helping him. For David Goldman, he knew assisting an antisemite spread the “Jewish Banking Myth” was wrong, but he was not willing to substitute reality for the emotional comfort of LaRouche’s inner circle. 

The need to limit contact with people who live according to reason explains alienation from family, friends, and non-members. Living extensions of the Gnostic group-mind are only comfortable with people who affirm the illusion in which they live. Within a cult, subjects serve to continuously monitor one another’s level of blind adherence to cult ideology and to suspension of critical thought. Deviations such as questioning or criticism are met with social sanctions that vary in intensity depending on the cult. Anyone who threatens the unity of thought is deemed an enemy. Such a person threatens the essential psychologically dependent state that constitutes the essence of the cult. 

The Gnostic Mind is often compartmentalized and people who eschew reason in one area of life are able to function at high levels of professionalism in others. The more dangerous cults are precisely those whose members seem relatively normal on the surface because they offer fewer external warnings to the vulnerable.

Yep, all that sounds about right, but I still can't help wondering why is PJMedia covering it? And why now? Tom Cruise's troubles? Moon's death? A warning on Mormonism?

Or maybe it's just a fluke. A one-off. Or,…maybe cultism is being seen as the very problem I've been saying can't be ignored.

No, I doubt that - the framing of this issue as someone else's problem - something you don't concern yourself with until it's too late (which, by then, is too late) is still too prevalent.

 I'm just going to be glad it's there and let it go, as so much has gone before,...

 

"I Was Interested In Finding Out About Myself"

It's embarrassing the BBC is doing this story, in this depth, while most American outlets - broadcast and cable - allow Scientology's open intimidation to continue without a mention - as they also promote it's celebrities. The media now has the words of ex-members - people who ran the cult - and, still, the American media say nothing of substance.

There's barely a clamor in the blogosphere, either, even though a suggestion to investigate Scientology's tax-exempt status was one of the most suggested ideas Barack Obama received, when he asked for them online. He didn't take the idea seriously, acting as though the subject was beneath him. As a matter of fact, to say cultism's a subject worthy of dissection at all, seems to be an indicator of kookiness to some, if not most, when received online.

It's definitely not as popular as homeopathic "medicines".



Any real dissection of cultism must necessarily go into areas most wouldn't consider, or find comfortable. What influence is having so many cultists in entertainment, and business, having on our culture? What are the messages within the roles cult actors choose or the songs cult artists sing - and why? Are there messages at all? How much of the brainwashing they've received has America received by extension? How much, of what certain segments of 21st century America value, can be found in cult doctrines? And not just from Scientology but also from est, The Landmark Forum, and every other "human potential" group and/or wannabe religion or cult leader, all acting on our citizens simultaneously?

How "free" have we actually been?



Why does the richest and most famous woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey, support Scientologists, when she has to know what type of organization they represent? Why can she do it for them - and many other cult-related entities - without serious criticism from the society at large? How and where are cults and cult organizations helping each other and why?

If their ideas are wrong, and following their advice is futile - like Oprah promoting The Secret - how much are they costing the country? What high-priced assumptions have we, as a country, internalized? The divorces, separating of families, lawsuits, everything - how much?



But, still, journalists appear to think, except in bit pieces thrown to and fro, there's no story here. Our guess is that's because, like Christine O'Donnell, they've all got a bit of the crazy belief business in their pasts, but - unlike O'Donnell - they've been conned to think it would be a mark against themselves (as hypocrites or "being judgmental") to investigate it now.

Well, that's cult thinking right there, because what a journalist is supposed to do is what needs to be done, to tell the story that needs to be told, to get the truth out because - whether you're the victim or it's someone else - there's nothing worse than living a lie (Screw Star Wars - that's The Matrix - Who's Watching The Watchmen?):

Was John Sweeny being followed? Of course he was.

Did this "church" - that's mysteriously exempt from paying taxes to America - set out to drive BBC reporter, John Sweeny, crazy? Yes it did.

Was the church willing to lie about it? Yes they were.

Then, damn it, what exactly do we have here?

We think we've got a cult - and there's many of them - and many major news stories to go with them, regarding who's in and who's out, and what they're up to. We think it almost goes without saying, that liberalism wouldn't be liberalism without them.

"Good Job" to John Sweeny, and the BBC, from TMR.

Jason Beghe: Scientology Is "Retarded"

This is a 2 hour talk with the actor and former-cultist, explaining how he got involved with Scientology and how it built a prison in his mind. I liked it, because Beghe is into straight talk - he gives us TMR - and it was fascinating to discover one of the major NewAge tropes of our time ("I'm trying to save the planet") is a big part of Scientology's rap. There's also a nice bit about "Big Pharma," and all the other nonsensical talking points people are parroting, in mass, these days.

Yea, it's a big ol' world of cultism. A big bad case of mass hysteria. That's our society today. And yea, it's retarded.

Check Beghe out: he doesn't seem to be moving on.