COGNITIONS OF A LIBERATED SCIENTOLOGIST In the years since leaving Scientology, I've become aware of just how brainwashed I had been. I have probed for exactly HOW an intelligent, well-educated, free-thinking agnostic could be so taken in by a "religion," which I then did not believe it to be. In discovering this, I could only be awed by Hubbard's twisted brilliance. He knew exactly what he was doing. Had he lived in more primitive times, before the mass media (which he feared) and the information superhighway (which his successors fear), he certainly would have succeeded. Should his autocratic cult ever come to great power, he may yet become a God in most minds, as he intended. And I believe the human race would then suffer perhaps the most fascistic, mind-controlling domination in history. What gets one addicted to heroin? Long before any physical addiction, there is the rush, the high, the temporary RELEASE from all suffering - emotional or physical, conscious or not. For perhaps the first time, there is no anxiety, no fear, no pain. It's gone! Blissful peace at last! I'm FREE! And freedom tastes of reality! Nothing wrong with this, except its falsity due to the heroin, which enslaves. If some psychological "tech" and its source are corrupt, they bring the follower to this point, but then mislead and exploit. In such euphoria, and with suggestion, there may come a quasi-religious leap of faith: THIS IS IT! All my life I've searched and prayed for this! The Source of this is GOD! Anything this good MUST BE ALL GOOD! This is THE ANSWER, and worth any risk! And worth any price! It's THE WAY to TOTAL FREEDOM! Call it a drug, psychotherapy, deception - I don't care! THIS IS THE WAY!! So commanding is this belief, that it blinds to all evidence to the contrary. The rational, analytical mind, perhaps perceptibly enhanced, becomes imperceptibly stultified, blinded. The word of Source is now Gospel. Then comes the dark side of religion, intolerance and hatred: Disbelievers? Devils! Evil foes of my Source and his Church! Suppressives, enemies, fair game! This is THE WAY, and the ONLY way - I must [130 lines left ... full text available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=05_1997&mid=3444336&hilit=BRAINWASHED> ] -------------------------------- Article-ID: 05_1997&3399950 Score: 80 Subject: Arioch's Type 1 Auction (5/19) - ~/~ Moxes for well below $100? Mirror Universe $35? Signed Ancestral Recall? LG Mana Drain $25? The Dark set $100? Get those bids in! Great cards available! ~/~