From: houle@nmt.edu (Paul Houle)
Subject: Re: Scientology makes you stupid.
Organization: New Mexico Tech
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:27:14 GMT

In article <GISLE.92Dec17152357@gyda.ifi.uio.no> gisle@ifi.uio.no (Gisle Hannemyr) writes:
>In article <1992Dec17.023948.4656@memstvx1.memst.edu> isds11990012@memstvx1.memst.edu writes:
>> In article <GISLE.92Dec16161900@gyda.ifi.uio.no>, gisle@ifi.uio.no (Gisle Hannemyr) writes:
>
>First, I should state that my theory is not idle speculation.  It is
>founded upon a long term observation of seveal Scientologists in this
>Newsgroup (well -- one shouldn't generalize so let me say that my
>theory is based upon observation of David Bonnell, Bill Hardman, and
>John Holifield).  And the theory is as follows:
>
>   Active participation in Scientology makes you stupid.
>
>So, having observed that these Scientologists are stupid, the obvious
>question is of course: "_Why_ are these Scientologists so stupid?"
>The obvious solution (that stupid people are attracted to Scientology)
>had to be rejected.  The high cost of participating in Scientology
>would be prohibitive to most naturally stupid people.  So the logical
>conclusion is that the stupidity we can observe in Scientologists
>is an aquired trait.  How did they aquire it?  Well, I cannot see any
>other explanation than this: It is the _practices_ of Scientology that
>turn the minds of these people into mush.

	Depends,  the techniques of control don't have to be all that
sophisticated.  Once you upload enough shit into a person's metaprogrammer,
they will finish the job for themselves.  Also,  it is only the kind of
Republican rhetoric that turns people's minds into mush in which the
ability and/or "havingness" of money is entirely proportional to
intellegence,  wisdom,  horse sense,  or anything.  I own maybe $10,000 worth
of stuff,  and Don Trump owned $1+ billion at one point.  Do you really
believe that Don Trump is 10,000 times more "worthy" or intellegent than
I am?  I don't.

	One of the interesting byproducts of the extreme concentration of
wealth in America is that there are lots of people out there who have a hell
of a lot of money and very little sense.  This is why Scientology tends to
target people like Tom Cruise -- not only can he be hit up for millions of
dollars directly,  but he can also be used promotionally.  This is why a
group of investors in Albuquerque were about to give $2 million to a guy
(Joseph Newmann) from Missisippi for his almost-working perpetual motion
motor.

	Scientology certainly does target "losers".  And for some of these
people,  Scientology might be better than some of my alternatives.  My
friend who was a Scientologist ran away from home at a very young age
and ended up in the Sea Org.  Many other runaways end up as male prostitutes
or dead...  At least in the Sea Org he managed to get food and a roof over
his head,  and some kind of structure in his life.  The "losers" generally
run out of money,  but there are also quite a few people who are very good
at making money (or maybe inherited alot) who have real deep level problems.
(Which is why they talk about using people's "ruin" to manipulate them).

>And it is in that context you should read my theory on LRH's quirky
>writing style and his obsession strange words, non-standard usage,
>footnotes and dictionaries.  I'm beginning to think it works as a mind
>control technique, distrupting the ablity to think clearly and
>logically for those who take it seriously.

	Yes,  it's a kind of metaprogramming.  You feed someone a good deal
of "data" in the form of books,  lectures,  movies,  etc.,  and then use some
kind of technique to loosen their conciousness focus.  I was looking at the
processing techniques (SOP-8,  etc.) in Dianetics 55! a few days ago,  and I
got some idea of what effect they would have on people by themselves -- maybe
loosening people to following orders a little,  but not otherwise harmful.
Maybe I'm really sensitive,  but I did experiment a bit with these and found
that I would "go observer" very quickly,  but I "go observer" in any kind of
directed communication drill based on anyone's theories very quickly.  So,
these techniques are going to be a little like giving somebody 50 mcg of
LSD or having them repeat a mantra for a few hours;  the only difference is
that there is a one up/one down structuring that I really haven't explored
all that much.  (Maybe this is why people "run" drug trips under auditing,
a person who has never taken LSD won't be able to compare the experiences,
but a person who has taken it might say something like,  "Wow,  this is
just like acid man")

	Anyway,  once you "pull the pin" on a person's state of conciousness,
it tends to go as they have been metaprogrammed.  So they start integrating
off LRH's communication style -- and one thing I've observed is that the
process of communication does tend to draw people into similar states of
conciousness.  So,  to get into Hubbard's trip,  or onto his vibrational
level,  or whatever you want to call it,  you have to reprogram your brain
in a certain way,  and pretty soon you end up being a Scientology poster
child.




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