Scientology could be described as a transcendental deception, the longest long con, an evolutionary evil. But it is so much more than that.
It provides clues about how groups and societies can endure, and in what ways they can't change. Scientology shows there is such a thing as unpersuadability. Only death can defeat it.
Its founder's real motive wasn't money or even power, but influence. The evil is written in its scriptures, which are about strengthening the system instead of its members.
But Scientology isn't completely bad. They have attracted tens of thousands of adherents, and some are very serious about it. They must be doing something right.
A few of their ideas might even help portions of civilization. Limited brain alteration and the accumulation of useful delusions could form a valid therapy, even if society isn't ready for such things.
Their greatest benefit is obvious. Scientology provides a test of our social immune system. How well does society respond to new threats?
Other benefits apply only to a minority, but clearly some people need something like Scientology in their lives.
THE BENEFITS:
Scientology has exposed the inherent corruption of the judicial system.
The law is the problem. Anyone with enough money can sue for trivial reasons. As founder L. Ron Hubbard pointed out, the law can be used to harass and suppress. The First Amendment is also much weaker than realized, as we've seen again in the 2010s-2020s waves of online deplatforming.
They have exposed the impotence of the mass media.
No one dared write an in-depth expose about Scientology until TIME magazine in 1991. TIME then had to pay millions in legal fees.
The media is conservative and biased toward existing power. Actually, mainstream media is mostly shit. Even today, few dare write about the inherent corruption of the legal system, and the current social taboos like racial conflicts.
They have exposed the willingness of the populace to tolerate the abuse of others.
Not that more proof was needed. It's easy to get away with genocide, slavery (sex, labor), and defective products - by those who are well-connected.
It's much harder to get away with other types of evil, such as marketing psychedelic flora to relieve stress.
Even when the public is informed, they care little about abuses that don't affect people like themselves.
They're not quite as bad as claimed.
Scientologists don't actually kill people, or at most very rarely. They aren't even violent. Many are dedicated 'students' of expensive lifelong courses. They may confine workers in their compounds, but those doing it believe it's for their own good. While they're structural liars, they aren't phonies. Unless they're acting as undercover agents or following a sales script, you know exactly what you're dealing with. They always follow their own rules, except for the big boss of course.
Most members know about the abuses, but think they're justified for religious reasons.
Super adventure club.
Even if they can't actually save the universe, they can simulate the experience.
Members feel part of an elite organization with outposts worldwide, courses that may eventually yield superpowers, their own magazines and communication systems, Hubbard colleges, and secret complexes. They already have all the answers, even if it will take many reincarnations to understand them.
Auditing (Scientology's type of psychotherapy).
Apparently, if someone is made to repeat a traumatic experience in their mind under close supervision, it can lose its power.
The subject realizes certain problems may be solved by doing nothing. Rote behaviors lose their potency. They learn to view themselves from the outside and become detached.
It wasn't invented but 'discovered'
Even the Top Secret revelation that all humans have alien soul clusters attached to themselves was a "good faith" if desperate attempt by Scientology's creator to make sense of human neuroses.
Automated mental therapy.
People keep making the same mistakes. A standardized approach can be more useful than treating each patient as a unique individual. Most people are not unique.
Scientology is bad in consistent ways.
They have a fixed relation to the truth, and can be relied on to do the same wrong things all the time - like their efforts to appear highly respectable.
It might be possible to create a moral society by modifying all their rules in the same way - though their "scripture" doesn't allow modifications.
Nonsense can be useful.
An organization seems more accessible and less threatening if it resembles a game. This can mask the pain of hard work. It's also important for every member to feel smarter than the group in at least one way, so they have something to contribute.
Self-actualization.
When all else fails, start a religion. It's more fun to make your own rules.
Scientologists have to follow a rigid set of courses and procedures, but they are free to 'invent' past lives and universes to their heart's content. Auditors are not allowed to criticize or correct these perceptions.
Immediate results.
They have evolved methods to grab potential customers off the street and change some aspect of their lives in a few hours or even minutes.
If you can afford the high fees, Scientology will actually do something that seems effective right away, unlike conventional therapists.
It's only money.
Scientology has figured out something important: how to replace a patient's mental pains with different pains that they can control.
That would be the loss of vast sums of income. Knowing they spent a fortune on auditing, not to mention the time and emotional energy invested, the client becomes motivated to become a new person.
Learning on a gradient.
Students have to make sure they understand the meaning of every word in Scientology texts. Courses are laid out rigidly. They have procedures for every problem. The key is making sure the student keeps going. This could be a good thing when the subject is inherently unpleasant, and nothing can make it fun, like math.
Life could be simplified by inventing a series of relatively easy steps guaranteed to eventually achieve a result, even if the first step is nothing more than rearranging files into folders. In fact especially then.
No more secrets!
Auditing requires openness. Members are required to reveal their deepest secrets, no matter how embarrassing. This is a powerful tool. The secrets won't be used against them if they remain in good standing (except for personalized solicitations), or even if they leave Scientology, or probably even if they become critics.
Strangely, complete openness can bring a type of relief and a sense of freedom to members.
The right to refuse a communication.
One of their rules is: Never defend, always attack. The first part of this commandment is very useful. Don't care what others think.
According to Scientology, if someone is saying something you don't want to hear, and the communication is of no apparent use, you tune them out. You don't even have to validate the 'origination' as they call it.
Don't evaluate or invalidate.
One of the great communication breakthroughs, occasionally seen in Scientology and rarely outside it. Basically, auditors are trained to listen, record, and sometimes even understand without criticizing or judging in any way.
'Start Change Stop'.
Some Scientology processes may resemble meditation, and could help users observe their own brains. Students learn to recognize repetitive bad thoughts or actions in their early stages, before the pain can start (they may have become addicted to repetitive thoughts), so they quickly think of something else. Minds are chaotic, with many parts partially controllable.
The potential is real. Many people suffer from repetitive behaviors that they can't stop or change. There's no reason why consumers shouldn't be able to buy effective behavior modification therapies the way they buy anything else, at much lower cost. Too bad it takes an organization like Scientology to challenge the current mental health monopoly.
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