Scientology's suppression of emotion

Started by Amber, Aug 21, 2003, 12:46 PM

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Amber

I'm trying to do some research on Scientology.  It's a little more difficult than I thought, well not too difficult.  I wonder if this kind of information isn't too widespread, because the left embraces any and all 'religion's that aren't too popular or too insistent on morality, hence cover up negative information about them.

A friend told me once that scientologists put a person in a chair, with a device that monitors emotions.  Then they start spraying all sorts of emotional things at the person, and the person doesn't 'pass' until they successfully sit through the barrage of emotionally provocative things, and remain completely calm.

This is all I could find so far, although I can't do a lot of research right now due to time restraints.  I can't really make sense of what the author is talking about.  They assume that the person reading it already is familiar with scientology practices.  

Question of the day:  Is this practice, if true, good or bad?

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/wakefield/us-a1.html

Scientology Auditing and Its Offshoots
by Robert Kaufman

L. Ron Hubbard raised Scientology from Dianetics' ashes with the aid of a device that tracks electrical resistance on skin surfaces of the "auditee's" hands during sessions. Hubbard claimed that E-meter "reads" confirmed his notions about events, images and words making up a destructive mind he called the "bank." In the auditing procedure, the readings are supposed to signify the presence and dispersal of "charge" present in the events and other "bank" material. The meter not only keeps the processing on course but also verifies the results.

Hubbard framed his theories and method in terms that thwart comparison with the rest of the world. However, we find ready comparison between the E-meter -- a biofeedback device, the tangible element in a wash of intangibility -- and the assortment of biofeedback devices used outside Scientology to monitor physiologic functions such as brainwave frequency, pulse rate and finger temperature. The readings of the non-Scientology instruments are interpreted only to the extent that their signals (dial needle, flashing light or humming tone) are deemed to indicate moment-to-moment change in a favorable or unfavorable direction.

No doubt the auditee gets "passing" and "non-passing" readings. These reflect the rise and fall of tension, and the underlying composite of mental, physical and emotional forces. A person hypothetically "wearing" biofeedback equipment through the day would get a similar variety of readings, including the equivalents of "baseline," "rising needles," "blowdowns," and "free," "floating" and "clean needles." The readings would reflect, in part, his reaction to being on the device, i.e., to situation.

Incentive, a sense of positive purpose, tends to generate the positive type of emotion that produces favorable physiologic change and improved readings. This is precisely the working principle of biofeedback training, where the trainee's object might be to slow brainwave frequency to alpha, or raise finger temperature, for health or meditation purposes. His incentive directs him to the desired result.

Incentive, of course, is also the major part of learning to pass a lie-detector test. The lie-detector is an array of biofeedback devices that supply simultaneous readings. Clearly, the very principle that makes biofeedback training possible, and useful, makes lie-detector test results inadmissible as evidence in court proceedings: One may beat the machine.

No special magic makes Scientology biofeedback different from "wog" (non-Scientology) biofeedback. Human emotion doesn't take a holiday during an auditing session. The auditee brings his hopes and dreams to the session. His prime incentive, to succeed at auditing, is channeled through the inculcation of "stable data," "R-factor," and his own auditing experience. The regimen instills how auditing is supposed to go, what should happen, and what is expected of him. He is deluged with suggestion, and may even glean the nature of his forthcoming insights from descriptions in Hubbard's writings and the "Bridge" chart, or simply from the name of the process.

The auditee begins to associate his success with the indoctrination; following the program becomes his prime incentive. When he does as Hubbard tells him he feels positive. Compliance is then reward in itself.

The auditee's motivation to get favorable readings is tremendous. With each floating needle he is closer to his shining goal. He is probably unaware that he can control the meter. In any case he wouldn't want to, for that would defeat the assumed purpose of auditing. Here emerges one of Scientology's strange contradictions: The auditee, following his natural instincts once he's on the machine, controls it anyway -- and neither he nor the auditor knows he's doing it.

To begin with, the auditee has access to the running supply of machine-generated information that constitutes biofeedback -- directly, if he is self-auditing, otherwise in the form of cues given him by his auditor. His intellect may not register this information, but his body does. He soon learns to identify a certain special feeling with end of "cycle" or process. His inner sense learns what produces a floating needle. Also what doesn't -- as when the auditor merely acknowledges and repeats the question or instruction. At some point he experiences a subtle sense of prediction about floating needles. Again, this is not his wish to influence or control the needle, but out of a feeling of accomplishment (Certainty On The Data) wedded to compliance, as well as what body-mind physiology has learned about biofeedback.


... more.
he men's movement is a hate movement.  

What feminism is to men; the men's rights movement is to women.

Men's rights activists blame misandry for all their problems in the same way that feminists blame the patriarchy.

The only thing men's rights activists are good at is abusing women.  

And you can quote me on that.  :D

dr e

Sounds like Hubbards E-Meter is probably a galvanic skin response machine.  They are great and have been around for years.  You can find portable models for under $100 on the net.  One is the GSR2.  I have bought probably 5 of them and they are great.  They give you a rough measurement of your sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system.  If you have a sympathetic dominance that usually means that you are tense and/or worried while if you get a parasympathetic response you lean more towards the relaxed side.  The GSR machines give you a tone for feedback.  The more the tone goes up in pitch the more TENSE you are, the more the tone goes down in pitch, the more relaxed.  By using these on your own you can begin to learn how to relax deeply.

The exercise of trying to keep the tone in a neutral position while you are confronted with emotional material sounds like a good one to me.  There is always room for abuse in things like this but in general we could all use a greater capacity to detach while being confronted with emotionally laden data.
Contact dr e  Lifeboats for the ladies and children, icy waters for the men.  Women have rights and men have responsibilties.

Amber

I picked up a book on scientology, and this is what I found.

Dianetics stated purpose is to "alleviate unwanted sensations and emotions, irrational fears and mental illness."

Hubbard (Dianetics) says man is divided into two brains:  the reactive brain and the active mind.  The reactive mind houses emotions, fears, instincts etc.  The active mind is reponsible for analyzing, logic, consciousness etc.  

Dianetics was put forth by Hubbard in 1950.  After identifying the principles of dianetics, which serves to 'correct' man's 'reactive mind,' he then went on to design scientology.  Scientology and Dianetics are not the same, although scientology embraces dianetics, both originated by Hubbard.

From what I can tell, from pictures in the book, the goal of Dianetics is to completely erase the reactive mind.  It has a picture of a man who is 100% reactive mind, and he is unhappy.  The next picture of 50/50 is the man semi happy.  And the final picture of 100% active mind, the man is shown glowing and happy.

This may not be the complete goal, though.  It may be to rid man of only *unwanted* emotions, although the book, from what I've read, does not say so yet.  They put heavy emphasis on getting man to that full active mind state.  

A preClear is a person who is  not a "Clear" yet.  A clear is a person who, either completely erased his reactive mind (if this is the goal) or at least removed all unwanted emotions from his reactive mind.  Clears are at that 100% active mind state.  

To go from preClear to Clear, a person goes through an auditing session, with a trained auditor.  

The auditor probes the preClear through a set of questions.  The preClear holds on to an "E-meter" which is defined as a machine which "measures the mental state of a person."  The E-meter was referred to as a "religious artifact" in this book I read  (The book obviously endorses Scientology).  

Whenever the E-meter detects a change or a negative attitude in the person's reactive mind, the auditor and the person work on it, to remove that "unwanted or irrational fear, emotion, sensation" what have you.  The eventual goal is man the Clear.

That's the facts, here is some challenges.

My professor (the socialist I always bitched about) would have a field day with this.  My professor's whole shtick was crying that man also has a reactive brain, which he called a "reptilian brain" and he also cried that when men tried to put too much faith in their active mind, which he called man's "cerebral cortex," they paid the consquences.  Reason was always portrayed as boring, lifeless ... the people who embraced reason always as fuddy duddy, stodgy, old and conservative.  Reason was also portrayed as un-genuine, with people who embraced reason being "fakers" and "liars" etc., while those with emotion were honest, genuine, not manipulative.  

Is this boring lifeless emotionless man what scientology offers as an ideal?  (The only thing scientology has going for it is it at least acknowledges the importance of man's conscious mind.  Whether or not they have rational ideas on emotions is yet to be seen).

I wonder what role in life scientologist's believe emotions should play, if any at all.  The only thing I've stumbled upon is their insistence that "unwanted emotions" be eradicated out of man's brain.  They never discuss joy or happiness, etc. .. other than mentioning a man in control of his life will necessarily be a "happy high IQ human being."

I agree with this, but am not sure if suppressing all human emotion is necessary to gain control over one's life.  

I believe there is a reason-emotion dichotomy working here.  On one hand, you have my professor, who believes unbridled, un-analyzed, uncontrolled emotions are the end all and be all of man, with man's cerebral cortex being evil.  

On the other hand, you have the scientologist's, who believe that man's emotions only hold him back, and man should turn into a completely emotion-less being, only focused on his 'survival' (Scientologists are big on "survival," and everything revolves around man's functioning ability, nothing else).


Questions to ponder:

*Is turning a human into a robot (without emotions or feelings) the completion of an ideal human being?

*Is the existence of man's reactive brain (reptilian brain, instinctual brain) only a leftover, unnecessary part of evolution, which will be weeded out, or does it play a role in the formation of man?

*If men completely deny their emotions, to be totally resilient to reacting emotionally to their environment ... along with pain, fear, and illness being eradicated, won't joy, love, and passion be eradicated with them?

*If man suppresses his emotions, i.e. his pain-pleasure mechanism too much ... will he be unable to identify what is *for* him and *against* him?  Such as a pit bull, who has no feeling to pain, therefore is willing to get mauled to death in a dog fight?

*Is the dichotomy man the untamed emotional beast versus man the robot?  Should man suppress his emotions, or learn to manage and control them?

Finally ...

*Is Scientology a cult?
he men's movement is a hate movement.  

What feminism is to men; the men's rights movement is to women.

Men's rights activists blame misandry for all their problems in the same way that feminists blame the patriarchy.

The only thing men's rights activists are good at is abusing women.  

And you can quote me on that.  :D

radicalangel

I've heard about Scientology before, and it seemed rather unpleasant to me.
url=http://gayrebel83.blogspot.com]My Blog[/url]

Galt

<<Is Scientology a cult?>>

It's pretty close to being one.

They also believe, for instance, that a lot of pathologies stem from hearing things while unconscious etc. and taking them literally.  They even believe that things you heard in the womb, or things a surgeon said during surgery, for example, can have strong effects on you later, because your subconscious mind takes it literally.

Amber

Well, regardless what the scientologists think, many conservatives are of the belief that man should be without emotions, and only think of what is 'practical.

Good, for functionality and staying the course.  Bad for other things.  For instance, people who believe this tend not to believe in romantic love, among other things.

Also, since conservatives believe in this kind of 'endurance,' ... let's say someone comes after a conservative.  Someone gives them shit.  Or, let's say NAZIs start to round up Jews.  If a person is without emotions, they, like the pit bull ... are more likely to just put up with it.  They'll just suffer.  They won't rebel, supporting their self interest.  Many conservatives are like this .. emotionally repressed ... which is part of the reason why conservatives are losing the ideological battle.
he men's movement is a hate movement.  

What feminism is to men; the men's rights movement is to women.

Men's rights activists blame misandry for all their problems in the same way that feminists blame the patriarchy.

The only thing men's rights activists are good at is abusing women.  

And you can quote me on that.  :D

Peter

A little look at

 http://xenu.net/

may be enligthtening.
BM-NByw7VE2PwjfTtsVdeE5ipuqx1AqkEv1

Adrienne

Look up something called "Operation Clambake" on the net.

There's also an entire book somewhere out there on the 'net (or there was in '98, when I read it) by a woman who had been heavily involved with the cult and finally came out of it when she ran out of money. It's a very money-driven religion. For each level you ascend, you have to pay to get more "enlightenment". If you can't pay, you have to become basically an indentured servant for a long while in order to continue your "training".

Yeah, auditing is real, it's a cornerstone of the religion (to rid of you of your "engrams). Being audited is basically being hooked up to a poor quality lie-detector.

Scientology is frightening. After I read that book, I can't look at Tom Cruise or John Travolta without wondering why and how someone who seems to have a brain could get involved with that.

Amber

An interesting account about scientology

Quote
What happens in an auditing session is that the auditor asks the preclear, or
pc, to locate a moment of trauma in his or her life. The pc is indoctrinated
to believe that similar traumatic or painful experiences (such as all the
times when you hurt your knee, or all the times when you missed your mother)
are linked in the mind. If the pc tells the auditor about a certain moment of
trauma and there is nothing earlier holding it in place, then once the pc has
revisited that moment, the upset connected with that moment will vanish. But
if there are earlier similar moments of trauma, it will be necessary for the
pc to revisit those earlier moments before the trauma connected with that
particular "chain" will vanish. The auditor decides whether or not there are
earlier similar experiences by the behavior of the needle on the E-meter. If
it is free-floating, the chain is finished. If not, there is something
earlier.  

Now let's see how this plays out in an auditing session.

Your auditor asks you to recall a time when you lost a friend. You tell him in
as much detail as possible about a time when your best friend moved to another
state. The auditor thanks you, and then asks you for an earlier similar time
when you lost a friend. From this you know that the auditor did not see a
free-floating needle and therefore knows you still have earlier traumas
connected with this question. Believing that this is the way the mind works,
you dutifully search your memory for an earlier time when you lost a friend.
You remember a time when you were six and you and your neighbor had to start
school at different schools. You remember crying and begging your mother to
let you go to the same school as Sally. You hadn't remembered that in a long
time. You hadn't realized you still had so much trauma connected with Sally.

You think you're finished with that chain of traumas. But your auditor asks
you again for an earlier similar incident. You can't remember anything earlier
than that and you tell your auditor so. Your auditor is very understanding and
tells you to let him know whatever comes into your mind. You want to do what
your auditor says because you trust him, so you try to remember another
similar experience. You close your eyes and let your mind float a little bit.

You see a picture in your mind of someone lying on the ground. Your auditor
says, "What's that?" Then you know that there is some validity to the picture
you just saw, because the auditor saw a response on the E-meter. Now you look
more closely at this picture. You start to add details to the picture you saw.
The auditor asks you when this experience happened. The year 1864 comes into
your mind. You say this to your auditor.  He acknowledges you and helps you
fill in more details of what is happening.  

Soon you can describe a full-blown scenario to your auditor. You are on a
battlefield with lots of other soldiers. You are looking down at a young man
in a blue uniform with blood all over his chest. You kneel down and cradle his
head while he dies. "I'll miss you," he says, and you start to cry as he dies
in your arms.

Oh! You tell your auditor tearfully, now you understand why losing friends has
always been such a terrible thing for you. Your auditor smiles at you
approvingly and tells you that your needle is floating.

In Scientology they call this "going whole track." The Whole Track is a
reference to the entire history of the universe that goes back millions and
millions of years.

In auditing, the preclear is utterly dependent upon the auditor to confirm
that these incidents are real. It all depends on what the E-meter is doing. If
the meter says the incident is real, then it is. Gradually it becomes easier
and easier for the preclear to believe that these past life incidents really
happened. The preclear's boundaries gradually fall away completely, until
there is no limit at all on what might have happened. It doesn't matter, after
all. No matter what the preclear says, the auditor always smiles and says his
needle is floating.

Now you have had hundreds of hours of Dianetics and Grade auditing. Your idea
of what is real has completely changed. You know you are different from other
people, because now you know that you have lived for millions of years. You
know it is true because you've relived so many experiences in your auditing.
You feel set apart from other people who have not yet discovered the truth.
You want your family to experience the truth too, but you can't tell them.
They wouldn't believe you. They have to experience it for themselves. You're
spending your time with other Scientologists now, because it's uncomfortable
to be around non-Scientologists. They don't understand. Scientologists are the
only ones who know what reality really is.

he men's movement is a hate movement.  

What feminism is to men; the men's rights movement is to women.

Men's rights activists blame misandry for all their problems in the same way that feminists blame the patriarchy.

The only thing men's rights activists are good at is abusing women.  

And you can quote me on that.  :D

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