Scientology's Peril Sensitive Sunglasses

He... put on the sunglasses, annoyed to discover that the metal object had scratched one of the lenses. Nevertheless, he felt much more comfortable with them on. They were a double pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, which had been specially designed to help people develop a relaxed attitude toward danger. At the first hint of trouble they turn totally black and thus prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you.

From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. 

I must admit that I am a fan of Douglas Adams.  I find his very quirky British humor refreshing and delightful.  The above is a sample of his type of humor: Sunglasses that "help" you when danger looms by becoming completely opaque.

Ridiculous! Absurd! Hilarious!

Such an object makes no sense and would never exist.

Unless you are a Scientologist.

Danger is certainly looming for all Scientologists.  Every year, every month, heck, every day it seems like, there is more bad news for the Church of Scientology.  Secret documents are leaked; crimes are exposed in detail with lots of confirmation; lies are debunked; abuses documented.  It just doesn't stop.

It used to be somewhat obscure websites only visited by the few.  Today it is major media -- newspapers, magazines, television, radio and books by major publishers.  Scientologists are leaving the church and telling their stories.

It just doesn't stop.  Danger looms from every side.

And this is where Scientology's Peril Sensitive Sunglasses kick in.  You can't see them but every Scientologist has a trusty pair firmly clamped on their faces.  These sunglasses have been installed over many months and years of Scientology indoctrination.

When danger looms and Scientology is in peril, Scientologists' minds go opaque.  They cannot and do not read.  They cannot and do not look.  They cannot and do not think.

Then they are safe.  Totally safe.  They look, childlike, at David Miscavige, who tells them "Everything is OK!  Scientology is expanding!  Scientology is winning!"

And the Scientologists, with their Scientology Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, set to totally black, can relax.

All is OK.
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Understanding the "Scientologist Attitude"

As an inevitable result of the collapse of the Church of Scientology, there are lots of Scientology true believers appearing outside of the church.  There will be more.

This means that non-Scientologists are going to have a lot more exposure to the Scientology true believer's attitude and statements.

And this will, inevitably, be quite annoying.

To be specific, I am talking about the Scientology dogma and beliefs such as:

• L. Ron Hubbard was a genius and was never wrong.
• Scientology is perfect and can and will solve all the world's problems.
• Scientology works 100% on 100% of the people.
• Scientologists are homo novis, existing at a new, higher state of existence.

Disputing these "facts" with a Scientologist is a waste of time as they are forbidden from moving one inch from this ideology.

But there is something about this dogma and about Scientologists that you should know.  It may help you tolerate Scientologists a bit more.

They actually know that those precepts are not true.  If you can talk to many of them in a trusted, off-the-record environment, they will easily admit exactly that.

But any Scientologist, even outside the church, who wants to have the image of being a true Scientologist must echo these absolutes with never a visible question or doubt.

Scientologists must say these things, and they must believe these things and they must think these things, even though they really do know they are untrue.

It may be a bit difficult to understand how one can make oneself "think" something that one knows is untrue, but that is a skill that can be learned -- and Scientology does teach it.

Anyone who has studied Hubbard, especially any of Hubbard's lectures knows, without a doubt, that he was a story teller.  The stories he told were quite fanciful and wondrous.  Too wondrous.  I've never met an ex-Scientologist who was ever surprised to discover the proof that Hubbard was, let us say, less than honest in his story telling.

As for the perfection of Scientology and the all-encompassing solutions it allegedly provides -- every Scientologist has experienced the failures of Scientology technology.  Yes, every single Scientologist.

Sure, Scientologists have experienced some workable stuff, which is what convinced them to become Scientologists, but every single one of them has been promised "higher states of being" which, when they have "reached that level", be it Release, Clear or OT, has turned out not to exist.

Every Scientologist has experienced some "bad results" and "no results" from Scientology.  So every Scientologist knows that Scientology is definitely not 100% workable on 100% of the people, they know that it does not have all the solutions.

And they do know that they did not become homo novis.

While true believers still believe that Scientology is mostly good, they do know those absolutes, as stated above, are definitely not true.

But they will continue to make those statements as if it were true because believing, thinking and saying those things are required by Scientology dogma.  You cannot call yourself a true Scientologist unless you adhere to those requirements.

Which, by the way, explains why Scientologists are so strident and defensive about these precepts -- they know they aren't true and therefore they know they cannot prove them true, but they are still required to claim they are true.

And so Scientologists are very, very annoying and confusing to non-Scientologists.

Just understand that, beneath all those words and insistence on their dogma, all Scientologists really do know that these absolutes they are claiming for Scientology are not true.
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