From: jeff@wave.ics.uci.edu (Jeff Erickson)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Indoctrination [was My opinion...]
Message-ID: <2888E8A0.1144@ics.uci.edu>
Date: 21 Jul 91 01:51:28 GMT
References: <RBNSTEIN.91Jul19165411@bucsf.bu.edu> <17114@life.ai.mit.edu>
Organization: World Class University, Inc.
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whatis@wookumz.gnu.ai.mit.edu (....What Is?....) writes:

| I have never felt indoctrinated.

OF COURSE you've never felt indoctrinated!  That doesn't mean you
weren't.  You can't brainwash someone if they notice you're doing it.

I was a Catholic for most of my pre-adult life.  I never felt
indoctrinated by the Catholic Church until I left it and became a
Fundamentalist.  Likewise, in my two years of fundamentalism, I never
felt indoctrinated.  I only noticed that I had been "brainwashed"
after I left.

In the first case, the indoctrination was very subtle.  When I was a
kid, if someone I saw all the time told me that something was true, I
would believe them.  Especially when my parents didn't say anything to
contradict it.  The Church does that to all of the kids it can get its
hands on, in mass, sunday school, retreats, youth groups, you name it.

The second case was a little more complex, but it basically boiled
down to peer pressure.  "You can believe what you want, but if you
don't believe waht we do, we're really concerned about you.  Maybe we
should help you see where you've gone wrong?"  Sure enough, they
could.  Again, if I'm told something often enough by people I trust, I
tend to believe them.

Why should I believe that this pattern doesn't extend to all religious
organizations?

--
Jeff Erickson    \  You understand everything when there is no longer
jeff@ics.uci.edu  \  anything to understand.
jeff@128.195.1.1   \	     -- Umberto Eco, _Foucault's Pendulum_