There is a lot of talk about “decompression” after Scientology.
Decompression is the period where a person finds himself outside the socially coercive cult environment of the Church where Ethics threats of “declare” and “disconnection” and having one’s “eternity taken away” were held over him if he did not conform – as well as all the other threats of sec checking, face-ripping and outright brainwashing built into Scientology.
Outside that toxic and coercive cult environment, a Scientologist can relax. He allows himself to be exposed to many new ideas that were being withheld from him. With those threats and socially coercive techniques no longer held over him, a Scientologist can begin to allow himself to open up to these new ideas and to incorporate them into his thinking and decision making regarding Scientology.
He can examine and evaluate factual evidence which contradicts what the Church has fed him. He learns facts in the areas of LRH’s true biography, the Church’s true statistics, the legal battles the Church has been engaged in, the inhumane treatment, the beatings, and the outright torture of staff. And he learns about the criminality, and the human rights abuses of Fair Game against those who have tried to expose it.
These newly out Scientologists begin to allow themselves to fill in the gaps, and to answer long-standing questions about things in the Church and about Scientology which never seemed to add up.
For some, it can be just too much to take in all at once. When you’ve sacrificed, and even worked against, your own self-interests for as long as some Scientologists have in the cult – up to 30 years or more – to see what Scientology is actually all about can be just too much of a shock.
So a person travels down this road at his or her own pace.
The Stages of Decompression From Scientology
This period of decompression, this road out of Scientology, has many stages that have been identified by many observers over the years.
The first person that we are aware of to have documented these steps was Arnie Lerma on his long running and very successful website Lermanet.com.
www.lermanet.com/cos/8steps.html
why is (______) going on?
(insert whatever atrocity you have recently witnessed)
(or something similar)
all over the world… and it was only about money
While some of the middle stages can switch order in the above sequence, we haven’t really seen anything that contradicts these observations for the majority of Scientologists graduating from Scientology.
Many Scientologists have followed these steps very publicly in recent years, and they have maintained blogs while doing so. In date sequence, you can read and see their thinking evolve along these steps as they move on down the road from Scientology. I’m pretty sure that some of these people were NOT in contact with Arnie Lerma as they exhibited these steps. So not only are Arnie’s steps well documented, but these steps of decompression also seem to have been independently verified!
The only thing that I can add to this is the essence of each of these steps, and what drives this process out of Scientology. The essence is that of SPOTTING SOURCE: The progress of decompression, and its speed, is determined by how much a person spots L Ron Hubbard as the Source of fanaticism, criminality, and abuse in Scientology.
The Kool-Aide Stands Offering Refreshments For Travelers Along The Road
Each of the websites, message boards, and blogs on the post-Scientology Internet follow this decompression like a row of Kool-Aide Stands.
As you travel along this road, you can see these Kool-Aide Stands lining the road, each offering refreshment and nurture for the travelers along the way.
Right now, the Post-Scientology Internet seems to be ordered something like this:
First Kool-Aide Stand Outside the Cult: Milestonetwo.wordpress.com. The characteristic thinking here is that LRH was completely right in everything, and was intentionally sabotaged by the violent SP psychopath, David Miscavige because Scientology was The Only Route Out for Man. No other thought is allowed to be entertained there.
MileStone2 seems to have taken the coercive cult conformity of the Church of Scientology and created a blog with it, but without the threats to your eternity and disconnection and fair game that LRH developed to hold over you. Not only are the denizens of MileStone2 completely blind to LRH as the source of anything bad in Scientology, they specifically deny it. They believe in less expensive auditing and training, too – all totally and unquestioningly KSW.
All the traps, blinkers, and service facs that LRH placed into Scientology are fully operational here and everyone outside of this cult-like blog are considered HATERS by the inhabitants.
Next Kool-Aide Stand: Scientologists Back in Comm Blog – Here is a “landing spot” for Scientologists who do not want to hear of L Ron Hubbard as the Source of anything bad in Scientology. This blog has recently vowed to delete any comment – no matter how respectable or reasonable – that suggests that L Ron Hubbard might have had some influence on Scientology and the Church, and how it has turned out. They blame David Miscavige for everything wrong with the Church today. While proclaiming that they allow the freedom of speech on their blog, their ideological stance is that “L Ron Hubbard was not Perfect, and he is Dead” so “let’s focus on David Miscavige with all the hate we can muster, while labeling those further down the road as “HATERS””.
This kool-aide stand has all the characteristic challenges to logical and ideological consistency which appear at this stage of decompression, but it is a good and nurturing place for those who are at this stage in their progress.
UPDATE: BackinComm.wordpress.com seems to be a dead blog at this point. It’s still up, but no activity has occurred there for almost two months. Perhaps the blog owners have moved on down the road to the next Kool-Aide stand and abandoned their own.
The Next Kool-Aide Stand is MikeRindersblog.com – Here no one is really allowed to make an argument for or against LRH as Source of abuse in Scientology without being told by Mike Rinder that their argument is useless and he will shut it off if it goes on too long. He rarely follows through on this threat, and often keeps it going himself.
This all happens while Mike expertly exposes all the lies that the Church of Scientology and David Miscavige tells the world, and which he himself used to tell while the head of OSA. It almost seems as if Mike Rinder is completely out of Scientology, having made it all the way down to last the Kool-Aide Stand and drunk deeply from it. But, for PR purposes, he locates himself in the middle of the road to appeal to as many people along the road as he can.
There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this and many Scientologists have gotten factual information there that have helped them to graduate fully from Scientology. Mike Rinder has revealed himself to be a very smart and tolerant guy, and there can be no better Kool-Aide stand proprietor for the middle of the road leading out of Scientology than the former head of the Office of Special Affairs for the Church of Scientology! At this time, I would say that Mike OWNS the middle of the road out of Scientology.
As we continue down the road leading out of Scientology, we start to hit a series of Kool-Aide stands where Scientologists mix with critics and others from farther down the road. Geir’s Blog is a great example of this part of the road. Good and intelligent and lively discussions take place there regularly with no censorship or disapproval or cut-off whatsoever from Geir. Logic and debate is encouraged and people are allowed to post evidence that points to L Ron Hubbard as the Source of Scientology and all its effects and consequences. Scientologists are allowed to argue for the good in Scientology there, as well. Geir’s Blog is a very good and constructive place for any traveler on this road.
This area of the road is very important to the decompression process for all concerned. It is where the rubber meets the road in terms of gaining the information necessary to make informed decisions about one’s own involvement in Scientology.
Getting close to the End of the Road leading out of Scientology we reach a stage of bitterness and negativity. The sugar is almost all missing from the next Kool-aide stand at ESMB. The refreshments offered here are almost similar to the Kool-Aide Stands at the beginning of the road, but here all talk of anything good in Scientology is anathema. And up to a few months ago, cruelty, cyber-bullying and getting threatened with the PERMA-BAN HAMMER of expulsion and ad-hom humiliation was the dominant culture for anyone who did not conform.
This has gotten much better on ESMB in recent months which is a very welcome development for travelers on the road.
TonyOrtega.org is a place where Scientology is bitterly exposed every day as a complete sham, and God help you if you should say anything positive in the comments section about Scientology or your experience there. Alanzo himself has been accused repeatedly of being a “Freezoner” or “Indie” there when he has defended a Scientologist, or said something positive about Scientology. It is as shocking to see this behavior as it is to see MileStone2 talk about everyone else as HATERS!!!.
What’s good about this part of the road (BOTH ESMB and TonyOrtega.org) is characterized by an emphasis on L Ron Hubbard as Source of the ideology of Scientology, which all Scientologists are required to follow 100% standardly. This is the section of the road where people have spotted the full source and cause of the fanaticism, criminality, and abuse that results from letting L Ron Hubbard’s Scientology do your thinking for you.
But have we reached the end?
Does the end of the road leading out of Scientology simply result in a state of bitterness and negativity?
No.
ESMB and Tony’s blog, thankfully, are not the end of the road out of Scientology.
The Last Step on the Road Leading Out of Scientology
There is one more step that is necessary to graduate fully from having been a Scientologist.
The very last step on the road out of Scientology is the recognition and acceptance that the truth about Scientology is BOTH the good and the bad.
So AlanzosBlog.com set up shop at this position on the road, and welcome all who can make their way here.
In the pursuit to fully occupy this position along the road, we have been trying to recruit Indies to make guest posts here about the good in Scientology, but we have had no takers yet. Perhaps our position on the road itself is the primary blockade to recruiting those who still remember the good in Scientology. We don’t know.
We’re very introverted about it, and our crack team of marketing professionals are working hard on this problem.
Presently, we are surveying Alanzo’s breath itself as the possible culprit.
As the last Kool-Aide Stand on the Road Leading Out of Scientology, AlanzosBlog.com seeks to be a place where a person is allowed to say both good things and bad things about Scientology, and to carry on as long as they want without being squelched in making their point. We like logic here, and lively debate, and ANYTHING that challenges ANYONE’S un-inspected assumptions about Scientology – at either end of the road.
Not only can Scientologists learn from people who have traveled all the way down the road to its bitter near-end, but we believe those travelers who are in the last stages of decompression can benefit from interacting with Scientologists fresh out of the Church, who can remind them that Scientology was not ALL bad, and that the truth about Scientology is BOTH the good and the bad.
We salute all those who walk the road out of the cult of Scientology, and who contribute their experiences, their wisdom, and their support for each traveler along the way.
Welcome to our Kool-Aide Stand at AlanzosBlog.com.
Very Well Done on continuing to seek to live with the truth.
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