Author Geir Isene

Scientology – does it work? (cont.)

Geir Isene 273 Comments

The blog post, “Scientology – does it work?“, fueled the biggest discussion I’ve seen on any topic, on any blog, ever. With more than 1500 comments, that thread has long since worn out WordPress as a platform for discussions. Its mammoth size makes it cumbersome to handle. And so I decided to put up this blog post to carry over the discussions – if there is anything left to discuss.

The question to discuss follows the scientific method of falsification: Is there any part of Scientology (philosophy or method) that is false or does not work?

Also, any personal experiences as to its workability (or not) would be helpful as anecdotal evidence.

Key success factors in business

Geir Isene 2 Comments

From an article I stumbled across over at Harvard Business Review:

The secret to being a great manager at Bell Labs is hiring the right people, giving them the tools they need, pointing them in the right direction, and staying out of their way.

It aligns perfectly with my article, “Processes, Automation and Human Potential“. It sums up succinctly how you do not rely on policy and micro-management to get things done. Whenever I see an organization relying on dictations, I know they fail on a) recruitment, b) training or supplying the right tools for the employees to freely use, or c) setting clear goals for delivery.


(Hugh at Gapingvoid.com)

Comment of The Year on Scientology – from Maria

Geir Isene 79 Comments

This makes it worth to have a blog. Maria is a gem, and she summed up my previous post (“Scientology or not”) beautifully:

2. Scientology has not provided a consistent way of handling people’s issues and evidently does not provide a reliable way to deliver my main goals in life.

I think it is because the focus was never on your main goals in life. YOUR goals that is. Your goals were invalidated in favor of Scientology goals. The only tech in Scientology that ever addressed YOUR goals was the admin scale series and perhaps the LOC, but even that was organized around Scientology ideas. Wanting to work on YOUR goals was OTHER FISH TO FRY and somehow out-ethics. Strip off the invalidation for starters. Strip off the false data. They will probably flush into your awareness as you proceed towards creating YOUR goals. Make sure they are YOUR goals. You will will likely love them and be passionate about them if they are YOURS. They ARE worthy. YOU are worthy. Its okay to fail along the way and tweak your output. The state of the universe that forms as reality is the feedback mechanism. As-is the stuff that you dont want to output again, focus attention on what you do want to output. Tweak, refine, create, feedback.

Its okay to change your mind about goals and purposes or acknowledge that you are done with them. They are not all a big GPM implant mechanism designed to hurt, trap and keep you solidly in the MEST universe. They are your world. And they cannot be wrong, because they are your world, your create, your joy, your love, your direction.

Also, the highest purpose is not to create an effect unless that is YOUR highest purpose. So start working on YOUR goals. You do know the answers and you do know how to as-is the barriers and you do know when you are winning. I think it is pretty obvious when you are — more spacious, energetic, that delicious sense of a floating TA (you do not need an e-meter to recognize this.)

BTW no need to go backtrack or out of PT to as-is. Just as-is or blow by inspection whatever gets in the way. As-is works best from the highest level of awareness you can muster.

This is my current take on it. At least for now. Might not be yours though, but it is possible that others might find this helpful and so I am posting it here.

Scientology or not

Geir Isene 230 Comments

Here’s a summary – again after lots of discussions lately:

  1. The current scene in the world of Scientology is a mess. Lives are getting ruined. I want the root causes found and handled.
  2. Scientology has not provided a consistent way of handling people’s issues and evidently does not provide a reliable way to deliver my main goals in life.
  3. I want #2 debugged – i.e. to “build a better Bridge”. If this means using whole chunks, only part or nothing of Scientology, then be it.

To those who find me hard to discuss with, stubborn or tough – it is only due to my insistence on the above. I tend to insist on getting the intended results, and let any method go down the drain if needed. I tend to run over holy cows.


(Hugh at Gapingvoid.com)

Scientology United vs. Critic Rovers

Geir Isene 81 Comments

On the Lighter Side, we have three soccer teams; Scientology United, Critic Rovers and the Indy Rangers,

How would you put together the three soccer teams? Who would be the best strikers, mid-fielders, defenders and goal keepers for the three teams?

The ball is yours!

PS: For the non-insiders: Scientology United would be a team comprising people from the Church of Scientology, the Indy Rangers would be independent Scientologists outside the church and the Critic Rovers would be prominent critics of Scientology.

You may pitch in with other roles as well, such as the coach, the team physician, massage therapist, etc.

Free or not free

Geir Isene 86 Comments

Adam looked at Peter, reflected on the past decade and said: “You’ve been a critic of Scientology for that many years…”

“Yeah”

“…and I’ve been a proponent, eagerly defending the subject since I left the church more than 10 years ago.”

“And?”

“And we’re not really free from this, are we?”

“Where are you heading with this?”

“Peter, the years go by and we’re stuck with this. It’s like some super-goo that I can’t fuckin’ get off my skin. I understand that I needed a couple of years to decompress from that church experience, but seriously, this is ridiculous.”

“Says you! What about me, then. I was never in the church and I’m equally stuck in this rut…”

“What we could have done with all that energy spent over the years…”

Then Adam decided to write another blog post about it.


(Hugh at Gapingvoid.com)

Checklist for creating a cult

Geir Isene 89 Comments
  1. Make it your first policy to “Maintain friendly relations with the environment and the public.”
  2. Create some free or very cheap introductory service that give the public real gains
  3. Disseminate the introductory service widely, attracting many prospects
  4. Ensure every person that takes the introductory service feel indebted
  5. Sign the person up for more expensive service
  6. Make sure the service give real gains, lest people will leave
  7. Preferably advertise gains to be had that you cannot deliver, keeping the person always wanting the next service level
  8. Keep the atmosphere light and fun while the person invest increasingly more money and time
  9. Make the person feel special, as part of an elite society
  10. Enforce a policy that no one can talk about or discuss anything negative about the service
  11. Make up a good reason for this
  12. Ensure the person gets pot committed
  13. Increase the pressure, gradually squeezing the person for more time and money
  14. Have some confidential service that only the most pot committed and elite members can have
  15. Make sure the service levels end with the person being fully committed, more committed than to his day job, other petty interests, friends and family
  16. Tell the person that the next, unreleased level will only be released when some insane target is met
  17. You will then have a slave on your hand
  18. Back all this up by a rigid, authoritarian organizational structure
  19. Make sure everything is laid down in iron clad policy, removing the slightest inclination toward creativity or individual initiative
  20. Micromanage, measure every detail, come down hard on non-compliance and non-conformity in the organization
  21. Trademark everything, create a monopoly on the services, stamp out any competition
  22. Never defend against any criticism, always attack the critic by Argumentum ad Hominem, discredit always
  23. Amass enough money to litigate the hell out of any external threats
  24. Internal threats are handled with a policy on disconnection that makes the pot committed disconnect even from his own family
  25. Puff it all up with an apparency of social benefit programs
  26. Engulf the whole in excellent PR and glamorous videoed events with CGI effects
  27. Make it unassailable by calling it a religion
  28. As the guru, rake in money, live a glorious life


(Hugh at Gapingvoid.com)

The critic’s problem

Geir Isene 66 Comments

What very few critics of Scientology (or any other betterment activity) realize is that they are undermining another’s purpose.

When a person enters Scientology or any of the thousands of self-betterment activities in the world, that person has an underlying purpose for some kind of improvement. It can be anything from handling a problem to improving a situation. This purpose can be so strong as to blind him from any negative effects of the path or method he now trusts.

And then a critic enters.

Whenever you criticizes another’s beliefs, you attack this underlying purpose of improvement. You corrode his trust in something good. The method may be mad according to you, but his underlying purpose of improvement is almost always good. You may not realize this, but this is usually why the believer reacts so violently to your criticism – often with stupid justifications or “logic”.

The solution should always be to present a better method for the person to realize his underlying purpose. But alas, this is so much harder and requires so much more responsibility on your part. It is far easier to slash away with harsh criticism than to help the other find a better way.

What belief can do

Geir Isene 32 Comments

Belief can make you stupid.

When you believe something strongly, when you firmly hold an opinion, you can end up spending your intelligence on justifying or explaining away facts that are contrary to your belief. Your intelligence and power of reasoning could be better spend on constructive efforts like fixing the flaws in your beliefs or creating something new.

We see this in politics every day – trying to justify one’s own position instead of keeping the eye on the ball, the result… a better society.

Marty Rathbun’s latest latest blog post is an excellent example of a guy justifying his beliefs. Mike Rinder’s comment inspired me to write this post here. Scientologists become experts in justifications as they are told to believe that the subject is The Only Way to salvation. When cracks become visible – they start justifying why the cracks are not there or why they are there for a greater reason. After years of studying the subject, they become extremely skillful in this. This may be the reason why Scientology is and should remain a religion. It is a belief system. It could move into the category of science, but not without inflicting severe pain in its justifiers.

Science is the practice of doing away with one’s beliefs and replacing them with knowledge.

Beliefs are healthy and important when they serve as motivation toward a goal. Beliefs are great for urging to action, but a substitute when used to explain what is.