Ex-Scientologist Leah Remini Gets The Heart Of Belief

"In the church, you're taught that everybody is lost. They say they're loving, caring, nonjudgmental people, but secretly, they were judging the world for not believing what they believed. To me, that is not a spiritual person. That's a judgmental person, and that is the person that I was. I was a hypocrite, and the worst thing you can be in this world is a hypocrite."

Cult Deprogrammer, Rick Ross, Was On A Reality Show!

Get More: Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, Full Episodes

Smart, compassionate blacks and whites, working together for a damned good cause:

Fewer American douchebags.

Now, how we do this to our whole country - or even just my political party - I'm still trying to figure out,…

 

Fabio's Saving Slaves (On The Underground Railroad)

“[Top male model Hoyt Richards] was stuck deep inside a doomsday cult called Eternal Values that controlled his life and took all his money. He became so caught up in a web of lies and a spiral of damaged self-esteem that it would take a superman to save his life: Fabio.

He,…handed over most of his earnings to the religious group — a staggering $4.5 million by his own accounting. Richards’ brother,...staged an intervention at one point, but Richards told them to 'f - - k off.'

In the early aughts, Fabio allowed the broke Richards to live rent-free and provided him a non-judgmental atmosphere in which Richards could begin to process what he’d been through with the cult.”

Don't Burn The Ouija Board (But Don't Mention It, Either)

"Mr Shin is a fascinating subject, not only because of the morbid details he imparts, but because his story forces viewers to ask whether concepts such as family and liberty are innate or socially constructed. Does a man who has never known freedom long for it? And can he bear it when it arrives?"

If I Was "Smart" (I'd Been Fixed Up A Long Time Ago)

I watched this with a friend, yesterday, who was trying "help". There was something about the words "$8 billion" that seemed to have an effect on him. He got quiet, and then started shaking his head, before gradually snapping and becoming normal. 

There is such a thing, y'know,...

Cults, Gurus, NewAge - The Stuff Accepted As Normal

I’m convinced my friend has joined a cult.

 What can I do?

Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus

Witchcraft Mentality and Freethought 

in Northern Ghana

Parents say church 

is brainwashing daughter

Children’s book by Mormon apostle’s wife 

draws fire

WATCH THIS SEGMENT IF YOU GET ABOUT 15 MINUTES:

  ABC News - Nightline Lookout: 

Dream Seller (Full Episode)

Scientologists At War (Our Networks Aren't Doing This)

Audit

 The problem of cultism is just those evil leaders, right? You'd think that, looking at most coverage, but leaders ain't shit without followers:

In Snapping, Conway and Siegelman talked about ‘information disease’ and say that Scientologists take far longer to recover than other cult members. They reckoned twelve and a half years. While their investigation was far too small to confirm this, I can say, after talking to more than 500 former Scientologists, that it often takes much longer. 

Back in the nineties, I was approached by a man who had been housebound for twenty years. His wife had persuaded him that they must return to Saint Hill, in England, to see if that would help. They stayed with a friend of mine, who gave the chap a copy of A Piece of Blue Sky. He read the book, came to see me for an afternoon and went home. A few weeks later, I received a post card, saying that he had found a job. If I’d seen him twenty years before, he would have returned to the world then. The thought scared me. 

More recently, a second generation member, who left over a decade ago, told me, after one of our conversations, that she’d used scented fabric conditioner in her laundry for the first time. She had realized that scent may not be a psychiatric plot for world domination after all. 

These ideas stick around, if uninspected. And some of the ideas are far more devastating than Hubbard’s infantile fear of perfume. Many former members spend the rest of their lives believing that people ‘pull it in’ and that we are surrounded by psychopaths. They think that illness is caused by connection to such psychopaths, though some strange psychic effect on the immune system. One former member even told me that I shouldn’t waste time helping Scientologists, because they have ‘pulled it in.’ I asked her if I should allow a child to go under a bus, based on the same reasoning, and suggested that it is only our compassion for others that makes us human. But compassion is not a major element of Scientology. 

We all suffer from confirmation bias — pushing aside evidence which falsifies our beliefs, and grabbing at whatever seems to confirm it — and this can be deadly in former members. There are so many taboos to overcome. For instance, I felt quite guilty when I first read about the brain, but it reminded me of a Christadelphian meeting I went to as a teenager, where the congregation laughed uproariously whenever Darwin was mentioned. I realized that I’d been conditioned to feel disgust, which is a standard manipulation, used by all demagogues. 

Scientologists steer clear of many taboo words. Very few will say ‘victim’ or talk about ‘sympathy,’ for instance, and there is often confusion about the real meaning of words such as ‘reasonable’ and ‘affinity.’ Hubbard alerted followers to ‘propaganda by redefinition of words,’ and then filled two 500-page dictionaries with his own complex and often contradictory examples (e.g., ‘it’s a tough universe, and only the tigers survive’, but a ‘tiger’ is a bad staff member. Maybe he had a point). 

I encourage discussion of the principles of Scientology. It claims to be a science, so it should be susceptible to analysis and evidence-based investigation. Of course, Scientologists are discouraged from talking about the techniques (‘verbal tech’ is a ‘high crime’) or their ‘cases.’ They are also forbidden any complaint about fellow believers, unless it is in the form of a ‘knowledge report.’ So, talking about the principles can be difficult, but I believe that it is the only way to escape Hubbard’s implanting.

Wow - today, very few want anyone to mention being a "victim" either  (especially online). Hmmm. And they're definitely lacking in sympathy and compassion. And they're confused. And contradictory. Double Hmmmm. 

 If you ask me, forget fluoride, this is what's in the water,...

 

Every Time I Wave My Flag (Nobody Waves Back At Me)

As I've discovered, like so much outside of ghettos and the good life, society's proven it fully understood what yogic cult training's pitfalls were - before embracing them:

Bikram Choudury, the famously abrasive founder of Bikram hot yoga, has been accused of rape and of encouraging his followers to recruit women he could victimize, according to lawsuits filed by two different women. 

Two separate Jane Does filed suit against Choudury, 67, and Bikram Yoga alleging sexual battery, false imprisonment, discrimination, harassment and seven others counts, according to Courthouse News. Both women, whose identities were not released, filed very similar suits on the same day in the same California courtroom. 

Another former student, 29-year-old Sarah Baughn, filed suit against Choudury in March claiming he sexually assaulted her constantly during her time training to become a yoga instructor in 2005 and has since prevented her from teaching “because of her past and continuing refusal to have sex with the guru.” 

In her complaint filed Monday the second Jane Doe claimed she had been raped in November 2010 after her boyfriend paid for her to be trained as a teacher a Bikram’s San Diego studio. The court documents claimed the attack seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary, reading “other persons in defendant Bikram Choudhury’s inner circle, were aware of defendant Bikram Choudhury’s pattern and practice of causing, inducing or persuading young women to enroll in teacher training classes to become yoga instructors only so he can sexually assault and/or rape them.” 

It also accuses Bikram’s underlings of knowing an attack was inevitable, but says they still “did nothing to prevent this from happening to plaintiff or to protect her.” 

Jane Doe said she “lived in constant fear” of the “cult-like atmosphere” fostered in the organization. Potential instructors are required to pay $13,000 for a nine-week training program, where they’re deprived of communication with the outside world, forced to listen to Bikram’s vulgar rants on sexuality and endure “demoralizing” activity, including urinating on themselves. 

“Plaintiff Jane Doe No. 2’s life unraveled after she returned home,” the suit claims. “Her long term relationship fell apart, she went into a severe depression, attempted suicide, started drinking, doing drugs, engaged in uncharacteristically impulsive behavior, quit her job and cut off communication from almost everyone in her life.”

 

I think the current standard is, if you don't have photos, it didn't happen. [Rimshot] No, wait, wait - if you ask me, with The Vagina Monologues playing everywhere, getting that stretching-is-mystical thing out of everyone's mind will take a little time. [Kidding, kidding - this is all tragic.] But seriously, I think I watch a lot of Nazi movies because I'm still coping with SS Guards-doing-yoga-for-Hitler-hating Americans, in America, allowing frauds to openly manipulate swallowing others whole (and even groups of others) while everybody just stands around:

“With the power and hubris Bikram wielded (and the stories that have been floating around for years) it was almost expected, like we were all just waiting for it to happen.”

 

 "We were all just waiting for it to happen.” Spoken like a real monster. Great incentives, too. Straight from the gutter - with a hearty "Namaste" and (a "spiritual") Good For You! - here's some cud for you to chew on, pimp:

   

See, it's only after someone's identified themselves as a cultist - that is, someone capable of being convinced touching their toes should be considered a smug-inducing accomplishment - that I can understand how anyone in this country "thinks" like that.

   

 And, for some odd reason, it's never a pleasant experience.

Now that I think about it, it rarely follows one either,...

 

2001 Was Supposed To Be The Beginning Of Something

 

 Now, you see, there has to be a way to do this to the whole world:

The Rev. Lloyd Ray Davis of Christian Fellowship Church Ministries International warned 22-year-old Randy Paulson that his family might try to kidnap him while he was home in Eagle Bend for Christmas. 

“I feared that they would kidnap me, drug me and that I would possibly recant my faith without knowing it and be lost forever,” Randy says. 

Davis was right. At 3 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1988, Randy’s family handcuffed him, tied his ankles together with rope, put him in the car and drove five hours north in the bitter cold to a safe house. 

In the seven days that followed, Randy was deprogrammed, or counseled to “snap back” to the way he thought before he joined CFCMI. 

Randy’s mother, Geneva, describes him as bitter and angry during the process.

The world's bitter and angry as it is - get to work!

 

Any Opening (Bigger Than The One In A Cultist's Head)

You can put this in my "just trying to help" category:

An Eagle Bend woman has authored a book about her family’s struggle to retrieve her son from a cult. 

In Rescuing Randy, Geneva Paulson exposes the disturbing effects and distress reportedly caused by cult life. She details her son’s entrapment and manipulation by a religious cult. 

Paulson’s son, Randy, joined the Christian Fellowship Church International and, after being baptized into their ministry team, the family saw Randy’s drastic personality change. She writes about how he became a stranger to the family as the cult drew him in deeper and deeper into a web of deceit. 

Paulson provides insight into the family’s struggles through Randy’s abduction, deprogramming, snapping, exit counseling and ultimate freedom. 

Learn more about the book and where to order a copy at www.rescuingrandy.com.

First came the movies, then television shows and theatrical productions:

Serious books about cults could be the next frontier,...

SUPACULTAFUCKINGNEWAGESUPACOOLADOCIOUS

Had you guys heard of Enlightened, HBO's NewAge dramedy with Laura Dern? I didn't, and it looks pretty good. All the appropriate contradictions appear to be in place, including - and especially - the raging hostility at the world, hidden under the all-purpose Peace-and-Love platitudes. They got me.

Self-delusion. Delusion as to the nature of others. Delusion as to the nature of reality. All the bases are covered by the lead character, Amy Jellicoe. Other than revealing more about the "holistic treatment facility" she was in - and snapping her - I really don't know what HBO can be doing better.

But let's not snap her too soon,...

 

One More Time: There Is A Method (To TMR's Madness!)

Yesterday, Ann Althouse posted this quote:

“Can you imagine being in the shoes of the one who feels his power slipping away? Who can find nothing stable to believe in? Who feels himself becoming unnecessary? That powerlessness and fear ties a dark knot in his stomach. As this knot thickens, a centripetal hatred moves inward toward the self as a centrifugal hatred is cast outward at others: his parents, his girlfriend, his boss, his classmates, society, life....”

Meanwhile, "snapping" on the negative effects of NewAge two days before that, I posted this title:

“There Is No Real Difference Between NOTs And Knots,...”

Ann - conventional thinker that she is - claims this is "More post-Newtown cogitation at The Stone, the NYT 'forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.' This one is from Princeton French prof Christy Wampole."

 But - always working as a REAL artist - I say let's hear it for Eno's oblique strategies!

And - looking again at Ann's quote on the negative effect of society using NewAge "teachings" over coming to terms with reality - doesn't the premise end in a  result that can only be wrong?

Out-Fucking-Standing (Bad Lip Reading And The Swirl)

You might have noticed there's this cult-inspired "snapping" process I'm into, which I planned on writing about - I call it "The Swirl" - that consists of nonsensically mixing up fact and fiction to reveal "spiritual" insights, and initiate behaviors, of another order. Like, hopefully, getting the reader to A) shake their head so violently as to put the correct facts in order and B) question the sanity of the speaker, so they're prepared to recognize and confront insanity when they see it presented elsewhere. This Bad Lip-Reading clip is a great visualization of the technique. It's all here:

These very-popular political losers - think about how that could be for a second - babbling incoherently before us, lost in a sea of NewAge hooey ("Ommmm") that passes, in many circles, for profound wisdom. Politics, even.

I couldn't have done it better myself. Actually, I'm rarely this good at it, because - not being "metaphysical" - there's a level of artful transcendence here, that raises the bar considerably, taking us on a head-spinning WTF? plain that's only been matched (as far as I can remember) whenever Ann Althouse attempted to explain her original vote for Obama.

Anyway, it's brilliant stuff - and brilliantly silly. Try it with a shot of whiskey or something. 

Here's your Quote Of The Day:

“Conventional wisdom in Republican circles was that Romney was the best candidate. In hindsight, he may have been the worst choice.”

Yeah - and the fact so few could see it, beforehand, speaks volumes,...

 

Saving Kids In The Church From Their Pagan Abductors

Dude you are all over the place!

 

How can I link to you if you jump around and sell your site like a $2 whore?

-- Good Ol' Trooper York, futilely taking the time to comment on TMR's tactics

Troop, though a silly mortal you may be, God, I love you man! Look, I understand - when I write certain posts, some of you think I'm Chuck Berry nuts (look at those eyes). But what even regular readers miss or underestimate - especially those from my Althouse past - is that, unless it's an art post (and, sometimes, even then) I'm always writing ABOUT THE NUTS.

And I leave hints to you, constantly, that there's a method to my madness - in the (sometimes seemingly-contradictory) photos and the (sometimes seemingly-contradictory) text. Why would I work this way? What am I trying to say? And a better question - how does it relate to what others are trying to do to us?

Scroll down the blog a few posts and see if you don't find this answer:

To keep making as much fucking sense as everybody else,...

If you don't learn how to spot the crazy - on your own - you're part of it, Mister.

Remember that post a few days ago, with the Cleopatra clip? Or the one yesterday, talking about witchcraft, and attacking feminism as the heart of our insanity and current demise? How does it all fit together? I didn't explain it. I expect YOU to figure it out! (There's got to be a point to being here, right-right?) I used to dissect the shit, but I'm not going to do all the work anymore:

Trick-or-treaters who knock on Heather Jacob’s door this Halloween might be surprised to learn they are getting candy from a pagan who prays to ancient deities like Isis and worships the cycles of nature. 

A self-described “eclectic pagan’’ who teaches at two area colleges, the Ashland resident believes in “reverence toward nature and being in touch with its rhythms as a real force.’’  

Raised as an Episcopalian, Jacob began studying pre-Christian religions in her late teens and became a practicing pagan in college. “That story wasn’t doing it for me. It didn’t fit what my life was coming to,’’ said Jacob. “I’ve always liked studying other cultures and what truths they held. I want to know what wisdom the ancients had and how to apply that knowledge.’’ 

Across the region, pagans and Wiccans, a 20th century popularization of pagan beliefs that often includes witchcraft, will gather this week in homes, bookstores and covens to celebrate the full moon and Samhain, a Gaelic festival usually held on Oct. 31, to mark the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.

So the Pagans and witches are all getting together "this week in homes, bookstores and covens" - not where you'll be looking for them - but you expect "crazy" Crack will be so easily spotted or nailed down?

Is there a phone listing provided to your local coven?

Cutting to the chase, TMR's subject is/was/and always will be the many strands of cultism - how, when, where, and why the spiders spin their webs. You already know the drill, so don't pretend:

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.

That's all you need to say and - until you meet me offline - all you need to know.

Cults and cultists are in every aspect of your life - your social scene, our political world, the major media, left and right-wing blogs, and, yes, they inform (almost) every post of TMR.

All I can say openly is "stay with it" and - despite appearances - spread the word:

"Snapping" is a process - it can't be done by walking a direct route - and, even if it could, it's not one easily achieved online by a fucking artist, no matter what brilliant preparation art is for the task.

But I'm determined to get every one who comes here engaged in it.

Whether they know how I'm going about it or not,…