Mike Rinder and Jon Atack explain why you find it so difficult to leave Scientology Tony Ortega Apr 29, 2023

[Karen#1]

While your proprietor is recovering from this first week of testimony at the Danny Masterson retrial, we hope you enjoy the latest discussion by these two titans of entheta as they discuss “peak experiences, placebo, and the sunk cost fallacy.”

 

[I M Dex]

I would explain it as, you become so deeply invested in it, promoting it, defending it, being it, that you come to identify as it, and to recognize it as largely false and manipulative is painful because it feels like you have to own being that, and then accepting that you've entrenched yourself in a false posture. There's shame and embarrassment, and these are extremely painful feelings to fight.

 

[vegan3]

i left after about seven years and take great pride that i technically did it legally lol. i mean where else do you get on a routing form that never ends??? maybe at the OT levels but i didn't get that far and i highly doubt that still. my sister's exit from the sea org only consisted of a sec check and out you went. i don't think she did anything at all after that. i got routed off lines at asho because they told me to get auditing "elsewhere" (pasadena). then i just happened to NOT route on there, so you can't call me blown haha.

 

[Reyne Mayer]

I would explain it as, you become so deeply invested in it, promoting it, defending it, being it, that you come to identify as it, and to recognize it as largely false and manipulative is painful because it feels like you have to own being that, and then accepting that you've entrenched yourself in a false posture. There's shame and embarrassment, and these are extremely painful feelings to fight.

i think that's another piece of it, that falls into commitment biases aka escalation of commitment or sunk costs.

 

[I M Dex]

i think that's another piece of it, that falls into commitment biases aka escalation of commitment or sunk costs.

I think there's an element there of trying to appear right by continuing, i.e., "see, I was right, because otherwise I would have discontinued this". Another example is professional sports, like baseball or football, where a vp of operations or general manager will continue to give performance opportunities to an underperforming prospect who was committed to with a big contract over a better-performing lower paid prospect to not lose face and possibly lose his job for poor decision making.

 

[I M Dex]

Another factor, especially for Sea Org people, who eat, sleep, and reside in the system, is paralyzing fear of striking out into the world outside of the womb that has been all they've known for a long time and all they're prepared for, without the material and emotional support, without the familiar micro-managed and defined structure they've come to depend on- "better the devil you know", a fear-based attitude.

 

[Enthetan]

I would explain it as, you become so deeply invested in it, promoting it, defending it, being it, that you come to identify as it, and to recognize it as largely false and manipulative is painful because it feels like you have to own being that, and then accepting that you've entrenched yourself in a false posture. There's shame and embarrassment, and these are extremely painful feelings to fight.

There's also the phenomenon where you become alienated from your non-scn friends and relatives, until after a year or two all your friends are Scientologists, your employer may be one, your landlord may be ... it can get to the point where you are so entangled that you can't face the consequences of just walking away.

 

[Enthetan]

Another factor, especially for Sea Org people, who eat, sleep, and reside in the system, is paralyzing fear of striking out into the world outside of the womb that has been all they've known for a long time and all they're prepared for, without the material and emotional support, without the familiar micro-managed and defined structure they've come to depend on- "better the devil you know", a fear-based attitude.

If you're SO, it's really hard to face leaving.

Other Scientologists won't hire you if you are in bad standing over being a "freeloader". And regular people will look askance at you when you tell them you spent the last X years working for a cult.

"What did you do there?"

"Mostly I was sent around the country to scream at people and tell them how much they sucked...."

I was really fortunate, I had a very understanding former employer.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Life force gets birthed through those inspired purposes. There are some die hard ones. For me, never having joined staff, leaving the group was easy. It's the mindset, the game that never fades. The fixation to unmake those traps that once got the best of me, lead to almost being gotten the best of.....again.

It's kinda how I viewed the Sea Org purpose, being in uniform and all that. Revenimus. We Come Back to get our asses kicked again and again. 'Keep your head low" I thought, "the planet's a good place to hide for now'. Broken pieces left behind are tasked with pulling off the rescue rather than getting rescued themselves and becoming whole. It's that inner caste system where shit rolls downhill.

"Don't you know. When you give up your dream you die". Flashdance

 

[I M Dex]

i left after about seven years and take great pride that i technically did it legally lol. i mean where else do you get on a routing form that never ends??? maybe at the OT levels but i didn't get that far and i highly doubt that still. my sister's exit from the sea org only consisted of a sec check and out you went. i don't think she did anything at all after that. i got routed off lines at asho because they told me to get auditing "elsewhere" (pasadena). then i just happened to NOT route on there, so you can't call me blown haha.

Good on you for honoring the terms as best you could, but I think people in the trap need to know that once they recognize and accept that they've been lied to, used and abused, they shouldn't feel any compunction to accommodate anything the system imposed, get the hell out, go where you feel safest and strongest, decompress, and sort things out at your own pace.

 

[vegan3]

Absolutely. It just happens I went into a very rare loophole. It also happened that at the time I was working for a very well known OT. He screwed me over so badly financially that I had no money for housing OR food. Add in that the job required round the clock marathon work most of the time, and staying on course was virtually impossible.

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

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WHY IT'S SO DIFFICULT TO LEAVE SCIENTOLOGY
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Once there was a young man who pursued his dream to join the circus, taking an entry-level job cleaning up the smelly bucketloads of prolific elephant dung. Many years later, a passerby who saw him hip-deep in the excrement, asked, “My good man, how can you put up with such demeaning conditions? Haven’t you ever thought about another line of work?” To which the circus worker replied, “What—and give up show business?!”


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("What—and give up Total Freedom?!")


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[vegan3]

Actually my case had nothing to do with honoring terms. I was paying public.

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

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Another factor that coercively keeps Scientologists inside the cult labyrinth is the tether they are attached to. It's quite long and allows them to wander around freely--within the confines of the jumbo theme park called HubbardLand. It's very much like Disneyland with the exception that there are guards (ethics officers) posted at all the exits. They just want to make sure that when you leave you do it "standardly". They're thinking of your best interests. LOL.

The ecosystem is also remarkably similar to indentured servitude. It's easy to get into the theme park but there is an unconfrontably massive "debt" that has a profoundly dissuasive influence on people considering leaving HubbardLand. For staff members and Sea Org members, the cost is prohibitively rapacious. Not only does the staff member have no savings or visible means of support when they leave, they are also slammed with a debilitating debt--called "the freeloader bill".

For public who are thinking of leaving Scientology there is another kind of bill to pay. Loss of children, spouse, relatives, friends, business associates, customers and oft-times employment.

Again, I must remind readers, HubbardLand is (like Disneyland) "THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH"* so why would anyone even want to leave? LOL.


* ...and not only that, Flag is "THE FRIENDLIEST PLACE ON EARTH". Sure--we believe you Ron!


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