Scientology plug at Counterpunch?

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Scientology plug at Counterpunch?

Postby Gouda » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:43 am

First, I want to emphasize that I read counterpunch often and find much of value there. Sure I wish the left there would wise up and address a few things, but I also learn a lot on the limitedly hung side of the fence from many of the writers. I have also been exposed for the first time to a good many new writers, activists, analysts at counterpunch. Yet, can't help but to be aware of the agendas circling around out there - not to be paranoid, but alert. <br><br>So what of this? What is the point of including this article amongst the others? What the author (publisher of <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Crosscurrents</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->) saying and what he is <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>not</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> saying? Well, it goes beyond mere academic observation, in my view - it is rife with a lack of information on what scientology really is, and pregnant with an interesting subtext; interesting in the context of a "radical" progressive website. Undercurrents at <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Crosscurrents</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->. <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A Typically American Religion - What is Scientology?</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>By CHARLES HENDERSON<br><br>***<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>A Typically American Religion</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>I would suggest that Scientology is a typically American spiritual movement in eschewing what it regards as outmoded tradition, emphasizing practical results, and making an unapologetic appeal to the rich and the famous. It is also typically American in its optimism, its affirmation of material success as one of the central fruits of spiritual practice, and in its willingness to adopt both science and technology as sources of wisdom. Ironically, many of these same traits are evident within that spiritual movement that is most critical of Scientology, namely contemporary American evangelical Christianity. <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Bottom Line</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>Is Scientology a legitimate religion? A cult? Is it pseudo-science? A public relations stunt? A money making scam? Or is it a spiritual movement in an advanced stage of adolescence? If it's the latter, and I think a good case can be made for that description, give it another hundred years or so, and you may find it taking its place in the pantheon of respected world religions. <br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Charles Henderson is a Presbyterian minister, publisher of CrossCurrents magazine, and Executive Director of the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life. He can be reached at: chashenderson@mindspring.com</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.com/henderson08262006.html">www.counterpunch.com/hend...62006.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Scientology

Postby yathrib » Sun Aug 27, 2006 9:58 am

What the writer says is sober fact. Can you think of any religious belief system wackier than Mormonism, or with a more dubious past for that matter? And yet...<br><br>But why is it in Counterpunch? No idea. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=yathrib>yathrib</A> at: 8/27/06 7:59 am<br></i>
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Re: Scientology

Postby Dreams End » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:16 am

Counterpunch...particularly Cockburn....have always been defenders of Scientology. Cockburn is also a defender of accused sexual abusing priests. Is he taking a brave stand to help innocent but unpopular minorities, or is he working for them? We report...YOU decide. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Scientology

Postby Seamus OBlimey » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:46 pm

And here's that other celebrity-endorsed cult Kaballah in today's <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,1856418,00.html">Guardian/Observer</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>In spite of the dusty tome and white-robed guru, the temple of this religion is in Beverly Hills and its followers include such celebrities as David Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Demi Moore, Roseanne Barr, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and, most vociferously, Madonna - an A-list that rivals even that of Scientology, whose offices are nearby.<br>Kabbalah followers wear bracelets of red string around their wrists, supposedly to ward off the evil eye. Although influenced in the past by Freemasonry and the magical 'dark arts', Kabbalah has emerged anew into the glare of Hollywood. But no one knows whether Kabbalah is a benign institution or - as anti-cult activists and orthodox Rabbis claim - a dangerous cult run by charlatans. And no one knows who is really in control of this phenomenal 'spiritual' enterprise, with its 51 Kabbalah Centres worldwide from Rio to Bogota, and 3.5m converts.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>I don't know much about either cult but when I'd just read the Observer article, then came here and found this thread, I thought it enough of a coincidence to be of interest.<br>I suppose before we jump to any conclusions though we should wait and see who on the left does a non-expose of the Moonies. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby darkbeforedawn » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:05 pm

Sorry to be nitpiccy, but DE can you site the works where Counterpunch defends sexual abuser priests? Thanks <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby Dreams End » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:25 pm

dbd...not only is that a fair question...it's also quite interesting as I do a search for "priest" on counterpunch's site. I was basing my remarks on a couple of articles I read defending one priest or another...so I went searching. Here is an old article where they publish an article squarely on the side of abuse victims in 1998 or so:<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/sexabuse.html">www.counterpunch.org/sexabuse.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>And while there is a swipe at the idea of the dubious "recovered memories", it is clearly on the side of the victims.<br><br>The next article I found was from 2002. A tad more...nuanced, shall we say.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>And certainly the Church has protected these priests, moved them around the country, away from an area where their activities had become known. The Church has some very dingy closets to clean out.<br><br>That being said, the witch-hunt atmosphere is very disagreeable and getting worse. Years of prison time seems out of line with what the Boston priest actually did. The same NPR program featuring Mahoney had the story of two priests in northern Maine, driven from their parishes by the diocese, against the desires of the congregation, who knew their pasts, felt comfortable with them. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburnsins.html">www.counterpunch.org/cockburnsins.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>The tone definitely begins to change. Here's a lead paragraph from David Lindorff in 2005:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The public and media obsession with victims of Catholic priest abuse, which includes the hounding down of alleged molesters decades after the alleged incidents of abuse occurred, stands in stark and shameful contrast to the almost complete disinterest shown for tracking down the far more vicious abuse of prisoners by their American military or intelligence unit captors.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04262005.html">www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04262005.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>I'm aware the context is more about Abu Ghraib and the shame of NOT investigating that, but still, the tone has clearly shifted.<br><br>By the way, Cockburn has always been a debunker of satanic abuse claims, including McMartin, though this, to be fair to dbd, was not what he asked me to prove..still, for those interested, a typical sample:<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/pollitt.html">www.counterpunch.org/pollitt.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Here's an article generally questioning laws against sex with minors. Note that I think some arguments are valid here...there's nothing magic about the age "18"...but see if you think it goes too far.. (many of these aren't by Cockburn, but anything in Counterpunch goes through him and I'm just pulling stuff as I find it...CP writes a LOT about this topic.)<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/kuehl04152006.html">www.counterpunch.org/kuehl04152006.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Notice this particularly strange idea:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>For a woman, even if she's the initiator, allowing a teenage male to enter her body is a "vulnerable act." Conversely, for a teenage male, entering the body of a women is not a "vulnerable act." For him, vaginal penetration is a supremely empowering act. Vulnerability is not a matter of age but of penetration, and possible impregnation.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>This remark misses the point by so far that it's amazing...<br><br>Now, everyone will need to decide if I should withdraw my remark about Cockburn...because <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/jw01292005.html">this article</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> seems like the one I remember. It's in CP but not by Cockburn. They say he is unjustly accused. Boston Globe summarizes this way:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>But those who turned to Shanley for comfort and guidance often found themselves in the clutches of a sexual predator. Thousands of pages of documents show that church officials knew of numerous sexual abuse allegations against Shanley and that the priest had publicly advocated sex between men and boys. Despite this, Shanley was shuttled from parish to parish in the Boston Archdiocese, and eventually transferred to a California church with a letter of recommendation from one of Cardinal Bernard Law's top deputies.<br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/shanley/">www.boston.com/globe/spotlight/abuse/shanley/</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>I know papers lie, but "thousands of pages"? Notice the CP article how the crux of the entire argument against Shanley's accusers is "repressed memories are bogus". Now, in this case, it looks like repressed memories and thousands of pages of documents, but maybe those came out later. The other sort of strange argument is that Shanely admits to having sex with gay teens he ministered to, so therefore, younger boys were not his M.O. personally, sex under cover of authority is the big issue here anyway....gay teen in need of "ministering" probably means confused and frightened and easy to exploit. if they were 15 - 17 that doesn't really make it that much better.<br><br>In other words, a victim spontanesously remembered abuse by this priest, who by coincidence was doing many of his teen charges, but there's nothing to the accusation by the original accuser.<br><br>Oh and here is Cockburn on Shanley and on Michael Jackson:<br><br>What If Jackson had been on Trial in Massachusetts?<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>By ALEXANDER COCKBURN<br><br>and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR<br><br>There's at least one man recently convicted of homosexual misconduct with a minor, now serving a twelve to fifteen-year sentence, who surely received news of Michael Jackson's acquittal with a sigh of envy at the quality of Jackson's defense team and the sturdy independence of a jury that refused to be swayed by the lynch mob atmosphere that has hung over the Jackson trial like a toxic fog. Well return forthwith to that convicted sex offender, Father Paul Shanley, but first, what lessons should we draw from Jackson's acquittal on all counts?<br><br>The not-guilty verdict for Jackson shows once again what can happen when the prosecution and defense are on at least an equal footing. Jackson had a top-flight lawyer with an unlimited budget. The prosecutors did what most prosecutors do in America: pile up the charges, on the calculation that the defendant will plead out.<br><br>In most criminal cases the over-charging is accompanied by the allegations of jail-house snitches and by lies on the witness stand from cops. The defendants have either no budget at all or only modest resources. They can't afford expert witnesses, or private investigators to pick the prosecution's case apart.<br><br>When a defendant can afford a good lawyer, top-flight investigators, expert witnesses and kindred firepower, very often the prosecution's case simply falls apart, starting with sloppy handling of evidence, compromised forensic work and contradictory testimony from the police.<br><br>In Jackson's case the piling up of the charges led the prosecution into the "conspiracy" disaster. They had to put the mother of the boy with cancer on the stand to elicit testimony about her supposed kidnapping on the Jackson estate. Every minute that mother stayed on the stand, the prosecution took a terrible beating.<br><br>The twelve did exactly what jurors should do and offered a magnificent example of the abiding importance of the jury as the fundamental bulwark of freedom in this Republic. In their press conference the jurors laid waste the disappointed lynch mob with dignified and articulate responses.<br><br>Their bottom line was simple: the prosecution had simply failed to make its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Such outrageous prosecutorial strategies, okayed by the judge, as allowing the jury to hear previous allegations (many of them not even first hand accounts) against Jackson ­ on which he'd not been convicted ­ had cut no ice with these jurors. "He may have molested one of those kids, but they never proved he molested this kid", one juror said.<br><br>Nor were the jurors ever jolted from common sense. Those stacks of lurid porn, which the prosecution spent more than a week projecting in front of the jury on a giant screen in an attempt to further sully Jackson's reputation? So what, said a juror. Jackson's an adult. So what if the magazines were called "Barely Legal"? The key word is "legal", offered another juror.<br><br>It was a great day for the jury and a gratifying blow against the lynch mob, including outfits such as CNN which averted their gaze from photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib, while stigmatizing Jackson as the supreme abuser.<br><br>The jury in Santa Maria also dealt a much deserved blow to the social police, the cabal of psychologists, "victim's rights" lawyers and therapists who, through a kind of modern-day mesmerism, yanked and manipulated tales of molestation from poor teens who had roamed the playgrounds of Neverland.<br><br>This gang of self-appointed termagants, lead by Gloria Allred and child psychologist Carol Lieberman, has been hounding Jackson since 1993, filing complaints with child welfare offices across southern California and ultimately bullying the DA's office into bringing this failed case. Allred even went so far as to try to have the state seize Jackson's own children.<br><br>But that jury in Santa Maria sent them all packing.<br><br>Contrast this process in Santa Barbara County to the disgraceful trial of Father Paul Shanley who was convicted in Massachusetts earlier this year, based on testimony far, far flimsier than what the jury rejected in the Jackson case.<br><br>Shanley was found guilty on the uncorroborated testimony of one man's "recovered memories" of abuse at the hands of Shanley many years before. Paul Busa claimed Shanley had pulled him out of religious classes and sexually abused him for years starting when he was six. Not a single witness from those who had worked at the school could corroborate these memories in any way.<br><br>These days "recovered memory" has been thoroughly discredited. The judge should have thrown the case out. The jury was caught up in the hysteria. A skilled defense attorney could have mounted as deadly an assault on the recovered memories as Jackson's lawyer did on the "kidnaped" mother. But Shanley's lawyer was not up to the challenge.<br><br>So the 74-year Shanley drew a 12 to 15 year prison sentence in a case where the lynch mob atmosphere generated by the Boston Globe and other media had a chilling effect on both judge and jury. The prosecutors must have known how lucky they were. Aware of the weakness of their case, last year they'd offered Shanley two years' house arrest. He refused the deal, insisting he was innocent.<br><br>It shows that culturally and intellectually Santa Barbara County is a hundred times more enlightened than that home of the witch trials, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But what county in America isn't?<br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06152005.html">www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06152005.html</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>have a look at this stuff. In my own mind, I remembered the above two articles on Shanley and also a history of CP printing articles on "recovered memories" and the like (there are lots more of those, dismissing all allegations in things like McMartin.)<br><br>I'd also add that CP is a haven for the "formers". Former NSA guy Wayne Madsen. "Former" CIA guys Ray McGovern, and the Christisons. "Former" Reagan official (okay, well, he really is a former Reagan official as Reagan is dead) Paul Craig Roberts. Roberts wrote extensively on the "Wenatchee Sex ring" a case about a ring of pedophiles in a small town. I'm not familiar with the case...conventional wisdom now says that the case was just another bogus "hysteria" case from the nineties. I couldn't find an article by Roberts on that case on CP...but he does refer to it on CP.<br><br>Okay...look this stuff over. Was I too harsh in this respect? Is Cockburn really concerned with injustice and homophobia (which does play into this for sure...). <br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby darkbeforedawn » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:54 pm

Thanks for this DE. It DOES appear that Cockburn wants to fog the issue of pedophilia and ritual abuse. The reasons for this are not clear. He may have been raised a catholic. Many catholics I know view this topic as strictly off limits. He also may be in denial for other reasons. The implications that those in power routinely engage in this behavior are deeply disturbing and most people simply don't let it get by their defenses so they can keep their own "sanity" in a mad world. Generally, I like his work and I think he goes very close to the limit of what he can get away with and still be taken seriously. He wants/needs to keep at least some mainstream audience. That is my take on it.... <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby Dreams End » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:06 pm

I really feel like he's compromised somehow...but when I agree with him, there's no better writer...... <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby Seamus OBlimey » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:55 pm

One of the first things that struck me about Counterpunch was the name St. Clair. The St. Clairs and Sinclairs along with the Stewarts and Stuarts have long laid claim to the British throne. <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.graal.co.uk/">Laurence Gardner</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> and <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1841584177/202-1007814-4501404?v=glance&n=266239">others</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> claim they are the true inheritors of the Templar tradition and for years have been trying to subvert the Hanover dynasy in London. Lady Diana Spencer was one of their recent sucesses until one night in Paris.<br><br>A search for "priest" on BBC brings up too much. Search for "priest abuse" and you'll see that this is not just a US phenomena.<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Counterpunch

Postby darkbeforedawn » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:57 pm

Yeah well, maybe you are right. He certainly has worked to take steam out of 9-11 truth. Afew weeks ago he posted an article validating the phone Osama "confession tape" made in Kandahar and released Dec. 13, 01. One look at facial structure comparison shows this was not the same Osama, plus he wore a wedding band and was much much heavier when he confessed than at any other time. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Cults as analyzed by Margaret Singer and Alfred Biderman

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:27 pm

Yes, Singer has 'spychiatrist' credentials in that she did work for the Pentagon in analyzing what the hell happened to the 70% of US prisoners of war who came back from the Korean War having been 'complicit' with the enemy.<br><br>But her body of work in analyzing coercive cults is there for us to learn from and she advised a SF Bay-area lawyer named Ford Greene who got the first huge settlement of $9 million from Scientology which was then used as the basis for a subsequent $38 million settlement against Hubbard's abusive group. Ford Greene continues to be targeted for harassment by Scientology and Singer is no longer alive having died at a ripe old age.<br><br>Scientology qualifies as a coercive cult. Unfortunately, Singer declared that the Marine Corp was not which isn't surprising since she advised the Pentagon for years. But the controls and sanctions of miltary life look like coercion to me once the victim is signed-up.<br><br>Another 'spychiatrist' who provided us with useful research was Army psychologist Alfred Biderman who codifed Biderman's Chart of Coercions with the eight prime techniques used to break the human will.<br><br>Women's shelters now use Biderman's Chart of Coercions to identify abuse because they are the same tactics used by (usually) men to dominate and control women and children.<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.actabuse.com/chartofcoercion.html">www.actabuse.com/chartofcoercion.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Singer's work is important and RI readers should read this to see how it matches American culture designed to control the population-<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.totse.com/en/conspiracy/mind_control/167072.html">www.totse.com/en/conspira...67072.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Conditions for Mind Control<br>by Dr. Margaret T. Singer<br><br>(Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D., Emeritus Prof. of Psychology, Univ. of CA, Berkeley)<br><br>THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE<br><br>In a thought reform program: the self concept is destabilized, the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self<br><br>SELF: 2 Elements in one's self-concept<br><br>Peripheral Sense: adequacy of public & judgmental aspects, social status, role performance, conformity to social norms<br><br>Central Sense of Self: adequacy of intimate life, confidence in perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic consciousness and emotional control<br><br>When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional arousal is created<br><br>6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND CONTROL:<br><br>1. CONTROL OVER TIME<br><br>Especially thinking time<br><br>Use techniques to get a person to think about:<br><br>. the group<br>. beliefs of the group<br><br>as much of their waking time as possible<br><br>2. CREATE A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS<br><br>Get people away from normal support systems for a period of time<br><br>Provide models of behavior (cult members)<br><br>Use in-group language<br><br>Use of songs, games, stories the person is unfamiliar with or they are modified so that they're unfamiliar<br><br>New people tend to want to be like others (acceptance, feeling part of a group)<br><br>3. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO SUPPRESS OLD SOCIAL BEHAVIOR<br><br>Manipulate: social rewards, intellectual rewards<br><br>REWARDS: support positive self-concept for conformity to new thought system<br><br>PUNISHMENTS: attack person's self-concept for non-conformity<br><br>Effects of behavioral modification (reward/punishment):<br><br>DEPLOYABLE AGENT:<br><br>1. accept a particular world view<br>2. procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group<br>3. psychological, social & material sanctions to influence the target's behavior<br><br>When there is control of external feedback, the group becomes the only source -- there are no reality checks<br><br>BEHAVIORS REWARDED: participation, conformity to ideas/behavior, zeal, personal changes<br><br>BEHAVIORS PUNISHED: criticalness, independent thinking, non-conformity to ideas/behavior<br><br>PUNISHMENTS: peer/group criticism, withdrawal of support/affection, isolation, negative feedback<br><br>THE PERSON IS DEPENDENT UPON THE GROUP FOR EXTERNAL VALIDATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY<br><br>RESULTS: confusion, disorientation, psychological disturbances<br><br>Manipulate experience:<br><br>altered states of consciousness (trance)<br>hypnosis<br><br>Hypnosis: (see Ericksonian hypnosis)<br><br>speaking patterns<br>guided imagery<br>pacing of voice to breathing patterns<br>parables, stories with imbedded messages<br>repetition<br>boredom<br>stop paying attention to distractions, focus inwardly to what's going on inside you<br>the use of one's voice to get people's attention focused<br><br>Chanting, Meditation<br><br>Teach thought-stopping techniques<br><br>Work them up emotionally to a negative state:<br><br>re-experience past painful events<br>recall negative actions/sin in past life<br><br>Then rescue them from negative emotion by giving them a new way to live<br><br>4. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO ELICIT NEW BEHAVIOR<br><br>Models will demonstrate new behavior<br><br>Conformity: dress, language, behavior<br><br>Using group language will eventually still the thinking mind<br><br>5. MUST BE A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF LOGIC<br><br>No complaints from the floor<br><br>Pyramid shaped operation with leader at the top<br><br>Top leaders must maintain absolute control/authority<br><br>Persons in charge must have verbal ways of never losing<br><br>Anyone who questions is made to think there is something inherently wrong with them to even question<br><br>Phobia induction:<br><br>something bad will happen if you leave the group if you leave this group, you're leaving God<br><br>Guilt manipulation<br><br>6. PERSONS BEING THOUGHT REFORMED MUST BE UNAWARE THAT THEY ARE BEING MOVED THROUGH A PROGRAM TO MAKE THEM DEPLOYABLE AGENTS, TO BUY MORE COURSES, SIGN UP FOR THE DURATION, ETC.<br><br>You can't be thought reformed with full capacity, informed consent<br><br>You don't know the agenda of the group at the beginning or the full content of the ideology<br><br>THOUGHT REFORM SYSTEM:<br><br>Coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior control<br><br>Use of pop psychology techniques found in sensitivity training and encounters groups<br><br>2nd Generation Thought Reform Systems (attacks on central elements of self): 1. enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal growth, salvation, etc.)<br><br>2. obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing relations contingent upon continuing membership<br><br>3. use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to believe the group can provide something<br><br>4. develop dependency by direct social pressure to influence a decision that the group has special power or knowledge or can solve a problem; the people in the group are made to seem interested in what is best for the target -- then they "up the commitment level"<br><br>5. shift the target's social and emotional attachments to individuals who have already accepted high commitment and are conforming to the behavior<br><br>WHILE<br><br>decreasing the target's outside relationships<br><br>6. increase the CHANGES in the target's:<br><br>income<br>employment<br>personal friends/social life<br>finances<br>sexuality<br><br>THIS INCREASES THE THREAT TO THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO LEAVE<br><br>THREATS: ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S<br><br>stability of identity<br>emotional well-being<br><br>7. the community standards become the ONLY standards available for self-evaluation<br><br>CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS<br><br>CULT - the political and power STRUCTURE of a group CULTIC RELATIONSHIP - those relationships in which a person intentionally induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him/her for almost all major life decisions and inculcates in these followers a belief that he has some special talent, gift or knowledge<br><br>PRIMARY IN OUR DISCUSSION OF CULTS IS THE PRACTICE AND CONDUCT OF THE GROUP, NOT ITS BELIEFS<br><br>Further references: Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Robert J. Lifton, M.D., University of N.C., Chapel Hill, 1989 Chapter 22<br><br>"Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques" Richard Ofshe and Margaret T. Singer, The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3 #1, Spring/Summer 1986; American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 1232, Gracie Station, New York, NY 10028 (212) 533-0538<br><br>"The Utilization of Hypnotic Techniques in Religious Conversion" Jesse S. Miller, The Cultic Studies Journal,Vol. 3 #2, Fall/Winter 1986<br><br>Recovery from Cults. ed. Michael Langone, Ph.D., W.W. Norton, 1994 <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Cults as analyzed by Margaret Singer and Alfred Biderman

Postby Dreams End » Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:48 pm

In addition, Scientology has committed other coercive methods which are illegal by anyone's standards. <br><br>Here's an online book about Hubbard:<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.factnet.org/Books/PieceOfBlueSky/contents.htm">Piece of Blue Sky</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>The only question I have is how tied in they are to the government. No evidence at all that they are...just an assumption that a cult that succesful must be. Also there was some weirdness when L. Ron died...the people who took it over...some within Scientology felt it was hijacked. I couldn't really sort it out but the current guy Miscavige was in L.Ron's personal youth entourage since he was a teenager. L. Ron had a group of adolescents around him and so Miscavige and others grew up practically without knowing anything else but Scientology.<br><br>(Miscavige is the guy returning Tom Cruise's salute in this pic that Jeff posted once<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/tom-cruise-david-miscavige.jpg" style="border:0;"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>They are fairly influential around Hollywood...especially if it turns out Spielberg is one...I think that's just a rumor. I think their M.O. is they get a celebrity to go through the "auditing" and get sexual goods on them....(well known that Travolta, for example, was rather openly gay) then they arrange marriages and then keep them in line with blackmail, though Cruise is thoroughly under their control now, I'd guess. <br><br>They don't have an overt political agenda EXCEPT for the anti-psychiatry stuff, but they do dabble in politics. They took over the town of Clearwater, Florida, for example. <br><br>They also are pretty much behind Earthlink.<br><br>They don't fit into any preconceived notions of what such a group should be up to...but that's an issue of my preconceived notions. Clearly they are up to no good. Is it more than perpetuating the money machine? Is it true that at the top, no one actually believes in the stuff anymore? <br><br>What is true is that L. Ron started out with Crowley in some more familiar dark occultism. His son said his dad openly practiced some real nastiness...child sacrifice sort of thing.<br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/scien240.html">Hubbard interview</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Ron Jr. claims that he himself was born prematurely because in fact his dad was performing some sort of abortion ritual that didn't work out right. I think there's been some dispute about this interview...but it is the guy's son so I tend to give it some credence. There's also a famous memo, allegedly from Hubbard, where he reveals he is the anti-Christ. Since it is true that he fancied himself a disciple of Crowley (who appeared not to think to highly of Hubbard, however) and since Crowley used 666 and "the beast" as monikers, this seems not too far fetched to me.<br><br>Here are a few excerpts that are relevant to this thread:<br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>The rest (of Hubbard's "case studies in Dianetics) stem from his own secret life, which was deeply involved in the occult and black-magic. That involvement goes back to when he was sixteen, living in Washington. D.C. He got hold of the book by Alistair Crowley called The Book of Law. He was very interested in several things that were the creation of what some people call the Moon Child. It was basically an attempt to create an immaculate conception --except by Satan rather than by God. Another important idea was the creation of what they call embryo implants --of getting a satanic or demonic spirit to inhabit the body of a fetus. This would come about as a result of black-magic rituals, which included the use of hypnosis, drugs, and other dangerous and destructive practices. One of the important things was to destroy the evidence if you failed at this immaculate conception. That's how my father became obsessed with abortions. I have a memory of this that goes back to when I was six years old. It is certainly a problem for my father and for Scientology that I rememoer this. It was around 1939, 1940, that I watched my father doing something to my mother. She was lying on the bed and he was sitting on her, facing her feet. He had a coat hanger in his hand. There was blood all over the place. I remember my father shouting at me. "Go back to bed!" A little while later a doctor came and took her off to the hospital. She didn't talk about it for quite a number of years. Neither did my father.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Hubbard: Quite simply, according to my father. Cancer is basically cells that are dividing out of control, and so, according to my father, the problem is a sexual thing. Therefore the cancer is rooted in a sexual problem. If you have cancer, you are really screwed up on sex. So what would happen in this auditing --I don't know what it's like now, but it's probably just the same as in the old days --is that they would address a guy's entire sex life. There was certainly an incredible preoccupation. In Dianetics and Scientology, about sex was a great means of control.<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong> You have complete control of someone if you have every detail of his sex life and fantasy life on record.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>There was no way. There were thousands of people, back in the fifties who would come in and receive various levels of training, such as a Hubbard Certified Auditor's Certificate or a Bachelor of Scientology or a Doctorate of Scientology, and if they didn't toe the mark as my father wanted them to, then we would cancel their certificates. And then he would notify the Scientologists in the area where the man lived not to have anything to do with him, to disconnect from him. And if information was available about him, we would spread that information around to his wife, his family, his children, where he worked, everywhere. It was straight blackmail. It was "Stay in the fold or else." Then, later on, they developed what they called an ethics review board. If you didn't toe the mark, you'd be put on trial in front of a kangaroo court and then be sentenced to maybe scrub floors. I heard that you had to walk around with a dirty rag tied around your arm like a badge. You could be made to do anything. You would be locked in a chain locker or handcuffed to a bed. This is in later years. We were simpler in the fifties, more direct. I just went out and beat them up.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Penthouse: Why were things like this never publicized?<br><br><br>Hubbard: Because the same reign of terror that occurred under Robespierre and Hitler occurred back then in the fifties, as it occurs now. You must realize that there is very little actual courage in this world. It's pretty easy to bend people around. It doesn't take much to shut people up, it really doesn't. In the fifties all I had to do was call a guy up on the telephone and say, "Well, I think your wife would like to know about your mistress." The response would be a shocked "Oh, my God!" I'd say, "Well, nobody really wants to divulge that kind of information. I think it would be absolutely terrible if your wife found out, so I'm going to make absolutely sure that she doesn't find out. Now, if you just drop in here for a little more auditing ... Now you know in your heart that the critical things you've been saying about Scientology are just vindictive. They're not really true in your heart. You know that, don't you?" And the guy says. "Yeah, sure, I sure do know that!" And then, if Scientologists couldn't blackmail you, they'd create some dirt on you through their "special operations." There were quite a few of those operations. This one, for example, happened recently. I wasn't involved in it, but Scientologists tried to get an assistant attorney general of the state of California embroiled in a fake operation where a Scientologist pretended to be a nun and pretended to get pregnant by him and filed papers against him. Then in another scheme they tried to set up the mayor of Clearwater, Florida, for a fake hit-and-run accident. I could give you operation after operation that they set up like this.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>You get the idea. The use of both sexual humiliation techniques and sexual blackmail are often used in cults...in fact, I assume that part of the reason for CIA involvement in pedophile networks is simply to get goods on people who might be helpful and then get them to do stuff for them. <br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Clear

Postby Gouda » Mon Aug 28, 2006 5:45 am

So, as DE & HMW illustrate above and as Henderson says: Scientology is clearly a "<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>spiritual movement</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> in an advanced stage of adolescence." <br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>"...you may find it taking its place in the pantheon of respected world religions."</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>I agree with him that Scientology is another uniquely American offering to the world. But is Henderson warning us, or is he softening us up for the "inevitability" that Scientology will go all big and respected? The tone of his briefing suggests the latter to me. <br><br>***<br><br>DE, why do you think they have something on Cockburn? <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Clear

Postby havanagilla » Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:26 am

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>dead-end</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>I met some scientologists here, we are sort of friends now, mainly to keep the kids together. they are ok and in fact compared to religious people they are at least engaged in some personal reflection and all that "subconscious" clearing (actually repressed memories and suggestions normal people accrue through life). The only thing that bugs me is the clear incitement against moslems/arabs that goes with the territory (I guess that's the "american" part in the "american religion") and the value of money/enterprise which means its a kind of capitalist salvation. There are creepy things around scientology, and around Judaism and Catholicism etc., and even Jeff's articles of faith (in "energies, portals and aliens") can bear scrutiny. --<br>those who would meet the standards of the inquiries on this board, do not exist, and after tasting some of the grilling, i'd be the last to advise a serious person/ writer to "tell the truth" as she or he knows them. they'd be treated as certifiable, rather than just maybe "thick" or "co opted". <br>The left <!--EZCODE UNDERLINE START--><span style="text-decoration:underline"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>needs to work on the platform</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE UNDERLINE END--> (there is a lack in that, cause after the fall of USSR, the word Communism is tainted, and now socialism is almost there as well). there are truly no suggestion, practical, how to replace social orders, economic arrangements, workers' rights, etc. <br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: Clear

Postby Gouda » Mon Aug 28, 2006 7:28 am

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The left needs to work on the platform (there is a lack in that, cause after the fall of USSR, the word Communism is tainted, and now socialism is almost there as well). there are truly no suggestion, practical, how to replace social orders, economic arrangements, workers' rights, etc.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> Oh no, I hope rothbardian is not reading this (just kidding, roth, always enjoy the practical suggestions from the anarcho-capitalist/libertarian perspective) <br><br>Well, the nice folks at Znet push "Parecon" as a possible platform and Catherine Austin Fitts has got this Solari thing. Don't forget Post-left anarchy, Green anarchism, Eco-anarchism, Social ecology, Anarcho-primitivism, Ecofeminism, and Green syndicalism! (Thanks Wikipedia.) So right, the US left, at least, does need to come together on something practical. <br><br>Lots more going on & getting practically implemented outside the USA: Chiapas/Zapatistas; India (socialist farmers’ leagues); Bolivia; Freetown Christiania (Copenhagen); the Argentinian teachers’ union; the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement; debatable about Venezuela - verdict still out; and international networks like "People’s Global Action", "Direct Action Network", and the "Black Blocs" have made a lot of progress. <br><br>...and of course the libertarian anarcho-dream example of Somalia. <br><br>Oops, hijacked my own thread. <p></p><i></i>
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