This was the first draft of my paper for my Psych class with Prof. Zimbardo. Went to a Scientology church to get indoctrinated . . . hilarity ensued.
Taraz Lee
Psych 187
“Target of Social Influnce”
Cults
1/25/05
L. Ron Hubbard and How Apartheid Was Brought to its Knees
“We got one! We got one!” I don’t think I was supposed to hear them whispering in excitement when I walked in, hands in my pouch pocket and eyes cast to the floor.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Umm . . . uh, yeah,” I stammered, “I was just wondering, you know, what you guys are all about.”
“Have you heard anything about us?”
“Not really,” her eyes lit up as soon as the words left my lips. I could see that this would be fun; little did she know that I was thinking, “I got one! I got one!”
I had been intrigued by our discussion of cults and after hearing Debby Layton’s story, I decided that I would to try my hand at cult life. Although my parents are pretty religious and I have dismissed some of their events as cult-like, I wouldn’t say that I have had much contact with cults. Google pointed me to the nearest center of mind control at the Scientology Church in San Francisco just a few miles away. My plan was to make myself as attractive as possible to their cause, so as I entered the door I tried to be very passive. I told them that I “wasn’t going to school anymore” and that I wasn’t making much money, but that I “worked at my friend’s bar from time to time.” They seemed sympathetic and caring. The fact that my old friend from high school had suggested Dianetics and that I hadn’t heard anything about L. Ron Hubbard also seemed to help me enamor myself with my recruiters. And so they began to give me a tour of the displays in the lobby of the church.
Establishing credibility was their first order of business as I was given a brief overview of the life of L. Ron Hubbard. I had expected that they would try to show me how great their leader was from some of our readings. He was cast as a worldly man with great integrity. Through his travels with the armed forces and his humanitarian work, I was told, Hubbard was able to learn the similarities and differences across the societies he encountered and began to construct a theory of the mind. I was surprised to learn that he was able to grow giant vegetables using his techniques. I hadn’t been aware that plants were susceptible to coercive persuasion. Next, the woman that was showing me around, named Lindsay, pointed me toward a photograph of a large room filled with plaques, medals, trophies, and various other awards. L. Ron Hubbard had been internationally acclaimed for his work and was still receiving honors after his death.
This all seemed harmless enough, I figured it was bogus, but they weren’t making outrageous claims. That was until Lindsay excitedly pointed me toward the next display. I’m not sure if she was so eager to show me these next pictures because I’m black or because she figured I would be impressed, but they were all of L. Ron Hubbard in South Africa. One photo showed Hubbard shaking hands with a few black servants and had a caption that read something like, “The first white man to extend his hand . . .” I didn’t want to blow my cover, but I wasn’t sure if I could take it. “He hated apartheid and was instrumental in the fall of the oppressive system,” Lindsay chimed in. Now I wasn’t entirely sure, but I thought I remembered her saying Hubbard died in the early eighties and had visited South Africa in the sixties, and I knew apartheid was in place until the 90s. I decided to let it go, however.
My new best friend Lindsay was also eager to tell me all the buzz words. “Dianetics means through the mind,” she informed me. And all those bad thoughts and doubts that I was having were “engrams”. I had to strive to use Dianetics to somehow get rid of all those engrams that were bringing me down. “Check,” I thought. They were giving me a new vocabulary to use. According to our readings, creating language and new jargon is a technique for creating an alternate social reality. They had already provided me with two pieces of evidence that the Church of Scientology uses tactics employed by cults.
Upon finishing my tour, I was escorted into a small theater room. I have to admit, it was pretty awesome: touch screen activation, a full projection screen, etc. Lindsay explained that I was being left alone to watch a film about the first book of Dianetics. I smiled as she left, not because I was excited to learn how to improve my life but because I could finally laugh out loud at what I was experiencing. The film was more of the same; it was basically propaganda building up the Church of Scientology. There were scenes showing the evil mad scientist doctors and psychiatrists rejecting Dianetics and readers rejoicing at their chance to get a copy of Hubbard’s work. The narrator claimed that Hubbard’s techniques had helped every patient he tried them on without fail. I thought that was a bold claim, but the highlight of the film was yet to come. One of L. Ron Hubbard’s friends went to pitch the book to the head of the American Psychiatric Association. A patient, fully clothed, was lying on the operating table and was having what looked like an ice pick hammered into her eye as a new form of “neurosurgery”. I had to laugh out loud while the evil scientist exclaimed, “this book will never make it as long as I’m on the board of trustees!” I then shuddered at the thought that watching this might make some think twice when considering going to get medical attention. I realized that this could be an attempt to get followers to doubt sound medical advice and to search for answers deeper within the cult (I decided at that moment that I could call it that).
As soon as I exited the theater I was given a personality test free of charge. I couldn’t help but remember how bogus this thing was from what Dr. Z showed us in class. I began taking the test in character, filling in all the weakest and most introverted answers to their questions, but partway through I changed my mind. I kind of wanted to see what their personality test said about the real me. Unfortunately my results became a little muddled but I was just told that this was because I just had a lot of turmoil in my life. “Sometimes you’re depressed, and then whoop! You’re happy again.” “Brilliant analysis . . .” I couldn’t help but think to myself. Lo and behold all of my scores were below optimal levels. “Are you having problems in your life?” Lindsay asked. I tried to look uneasy. “Well, you don’t have to tell me, but everything isn’t exactly how you want it, right?” I couldn’t deny that so I answered that this was the case. “We can help you with that! It helped me!” Her intellect was truly dizzying, but she was just getting warmed up. I took offense to the fact that I was bad at sympathizing with other people. I was pretty sure that I answered those questions as the real me and told her that I thought it was inaccurate. She then hit me with the same brand of logic. “Well, when you disagree with people can you see their point of view?” Of course I could, I feel that’s one of my stronger points. “But you don’t agree with them do you?” Well I guess not, that’s why we have differing points of view. “See!?” she proclaimed with a triumphant grin on her face. I guess she got me on that point.
The only thing left for me to discover was how they were able to attract new members. One of Dr. Zimbardo’s points of emphasis in his Cult Primer was that friends and family do a lot of the recruiting for these organizations. Not everybody just walked into the doors of this so-called church waiting to be indoctrinated. The answer came when my visit was wrapping up. Lindsay suggested one of the ways that I could improve on some aspects of my life was to use one of the workbooks that they had for sale. For the low, low price of 36 dollars I could own my own coloring book. Or what looked like a coloring book at least. I asked how it worked and she cheerfully responded, “So you do these exercises on somebody else.” I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, so I asked her if administering the activities in this workbook on another person helped me learn about my own nature somehow. “No, no, you do them on someone and they do them back on you. I’m sure you could find someone you know or someone who lives nearby who is interested in improving their life.” Bingo. Apparently helping to recruit new members is the best way to advance yourself in your quest to master Dianetics.
I soon bid my new friends farewell and promised to attend the special service they had planned for Sunday. I had learned that places like the ones we heard about in class do exist, but I wasn’t sure how people could fall for Scientology. As I was walking out the door I saw a disheveled looking guy talking with a counselor, pouring his heart out. I was shocked. It actually works. Part of me wanted to grab him and drag him out of the building, but then I decided that that they would all just say that I was one of the outsiders trying to bring the organization down. I wasn’t sure exactly what I should do, so I ended up leaving. I’m still not exactly sure if I made the right decision. In any case, it helped me see that if I actually were unemployed and lost in life, or if I was just very unhappy with what was going on around me, I might try Dianetics out. It could even help people out for a while. Everybody I encountered seemed pretty happy and cults do provide a community and a good deal of comfort to their members. The reality of the situation struck me as I let the door close behind me.
In hindsight I wish I would have challenged the Scientologists a little bit more. (Perhaps I could’ve asked them how that movie Battlefield Earth is involved!) Although it would have made me less attractive to them, perhaps I would have gained a greater insight into what they actually believe. I was pleased with my experience however. I got to see a glimpse of a cult first hand and came to the realization that these groups are very real. These places do exist. That knowledge and awareness is one of the reasons I’m looking forward to the rest of our course on human nature.
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