Scientology's Disconnection

 

 
 

On April 4th 2016 a true milestone has been achieved. The disconnection billboard has been successfully placed in Los Angeles California. It's a huge achievement considering the efforts the Scientology cult has gone through to block the free speech that the sign expresses.

For anyone who doesn't know it is from two parents with children in the Scientology cult who are forbidden from ever seeing or contacting their own children again.

In Scientology as one enters the cult in introductory courses they are taught that in Scientology one shuns suppressive persons. They are taught suppressive persons are absolutely evil and the example they are usually given is Hitler.

They are taught that people can be divided between a tiny percent of two and a half that are antisocial and have a dozen extreme negative personality characteristics. Then Hubbard's doctrine states the remaining ninety seven and a half percent are not antisocial. He places seventeen and a half percent as under the influence of antisocial persons and behaving to a degree like them. He places the remaining eighty percent in the category of social personalities and gives them twelve characteristics that are positive and the exact opposite of the antisocial personality.


He goes on to fine tune them and shift the definition to the suppressive person who attacks Scientology and helps groups that attack Scientology. Very important difference.

So a Scientologist learns that rarely a truly evil person is cast out of Scientology for being truly evil. You know, a real Hitler, like a mass murderer or evil criminal.

It seems absurd to disagree with the idea that a true psychopath like Hitler would be welcome anywhere. So you find it reasonable at first in the abstract.

But it's all a pack of lies. For most Scientologists it follows a routine. If you come in as an adult with no family in the cult and your family never joins the cult you are encouraged more and more over time to devote all your time and energy to the cult.

Progressively it is stepped up until you are told to either recruit your family members into the cult or disconnect from them entirely. I personally was encouraged to leave my own wife and children thousands and thousands of times, sometimes subtly, sometimes strongly.

The pseudoscience in Scientology seems to justify the practice. But after I left the cult in about January 2014 I learned quite a few things. Like for example that the entire PTS/SP technology that is meant to justify disconnection is pure bullshit. It has no basis in science whatsoever.

It's just a long collection of lies to fool people. It serves to demonize all Hubbard's enemies at once in a broad category and isolate Scientologists so they are more vulnerable to exploitation by Scientology.

I also learned the lies have no basis in reality. My family members weren't and aren't people that should be disconnected from. Additionally Scientology has no gains to offer in any case.

I also learned something quite interesting: after talking to many ex Scientologists. Almost every single one has a similar story. If your family does join the cult then any extended family who don't join are eventually disconnected from or withdrawn from so much it's effectively virtually the same.

But probably over ninety nine percent of Scientologists do disconnect from some family members. That's a far cry from the two and a half percent Hubbard claimed required disconnection. Perhaps he was less than totally honest.

The reality is Hubbard just wanted to isolate and enslave people. Connections to family lessened his control and provided an escape from the cult for Scientologists.

The real families broken up are not packed with insane psychopaths like Hitler. It's utterly ridiculous. It's not at all true.

The billboard provides a new opportunity to tell the truth. Families broken by disconnection can gather beneath the sign and disavow the terrible practice. They can tell their stories and tell their loved ones that they want to be reconnected and reunited. They can hopefully make YouTube videos and share the details of their lives. Certainly if many families do this it will point out two glaring facts that directly contradict Scientology doctrine.

First it's quite clear that rather than being a one in fifty or one in a hundred rare occurrence disconnection in fact is virtually omnipresent. Everyone goes through it, or very nearly so.

Second by having the family members describe themselves it will be quite clear that these people are not insane and evil criminals. They are entirely normal people. They love and miss their families. That's obvious once you look at them and listen to their stories about their lives.

I hope many individuals take the opportunity to make videos with the billboard and to stand beneath it for photos and to invite media to film them under the billboard. It can be a powerful symbol of the oppression and lies that Scientology epitomizes.

I urge any ex Scientologist who can to invite media to see them at the billboard. It's telling that I didn't even limit this request to only Scientologists who have experienced or witnesses disconnection as I now know it's absurd to think of Scientologists who haven't experienced or witnessed disconnection.

It's the story of Scientology. And just telling it honestly is enough to get most people to oppose Scientology and never join. And that's worthwhile. A cult that can't recruit is limited in who they can exploit. And will not survive forever.

It would be great to see CNN do another series on Scientology and present interview after interview detailing disconnection and to start and end with the billboard. Or Media Matters or many other media representatives.

Right now many people think Scientology is a goofy religion or cult for celebrities. But if they identify it with actual true Scientology practices like disconnection this can dramatically change. They can realize it is a human rights abuse machine that must be dismantled and eradicated. Now we're speaking my language. It's a language I'd like to see a lot more people learn.

For anyone looking for evidence/information on disconnection here's the entire PTS/SP course. It's still in Scientology and has many references that clearly define and require disconnection. 
http://www.suppressiveperson.o...