Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to
questions if they contained copyrighted materials. After a very short
while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and
started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I
removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's
also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg
Churilov" cultist was ejected from
askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.
1uglyhombre asked this question on 5/8/2000:
Thank you all for the answers so far. Yes I am working on a thesis for
"Abnormal Psychology" and it has been far more work than I thought it
would be. I have been working on Scientology for over a year, and nearly
every day I've applied at least one hour. The more I learn, the more I
discover how much more I need to learn.
My thesis concerns how mental illness can be "passed on" from a leader
to a group of followers affectively, and to what extend genetics plays in
"preparing" a person to "accept" that illness as their own. My hypothesis is
that some people are born with less tolerance to affective mental illness
and thus take on a leader's mental illnesses, while most people who are
not genetically prone will not do so.
If I make myself too much of a pest here, please let me know. I've done
most of my research elsewhere, but I see this forum as an excellent
opportunity to "fill in the holes."
And now a question (smiling). Is there a web site that contains a rough
number on how many Scientologists out of a population of Scientologists
will go what they call "PTS3?" That is, given 100 Scientologists, how many
will be driven insane or otherwise show signs of mental illness. I actually
have a lot of data on this, but it comes from a source I am not too
confident in.
Thank you for your time.
honorarykid gave this response on 5/9/2000:
I don't know that anyone would have any statistics on this point, and
the raw data would seem to only be available from the CoS. I suspect
they would not be willing to share that data with you.
In my five years of opposing the political misdeeds of Scientology, I
have heard of several Scientologists going (pardon the medical
terminology, here) "nuts" with a variety of symptoms.
Jarius Godeka was a sad, pathetic wretch who walked into the Portland
org a few years back and started shooting. He wounded four, but one
of those four was permanently paralyzed.
Lisa McPherson of course went psychotic within weeks of attesting to
being "Cleared." The rest of her story is well-known.
There was a Scientologist au-pair in one of the low countries in Europe
(Denmark?) who suddenly killed the two children she was watching.
A Scientologist guy in Southern California was arrested after being
pulled over and a load of bomb-making materials were found in his
van. It sounded like he was not altogether in his right mind.
There have been some suicides and the like, one of which led to
some Scientologists being convicted in France for fraudulent practices.
If we used Scientology type selectiveness in examining these cases,
we might be tempted to conclude that Scientology drove these people
crazy.
But as satisfying as such a conclusion might be to some of us, I would
urge everyone to avoid immediately assuming that Scientology
indoctrination was the only factor or the causal factor.
It's possible, of course, but it's also possible that it is not a factor or
only a minor factor. Scientology might simply attract people that have
a higher tendency to do these kinds of things, or maybe Scientologists
do these things in the same proportions as the rest of the population.
The sociological impacts of Scientology indoctrination appears to be
harmful, according to trained psychologists and psychiatrists such as
Margaret Singer and James Lifton, but there is a lot to debate, and lot
that we do not yet understand. We do not have a true scientific
understanding of the risks of Scientology hypnosis.
Of course, any organization claiming to be the most ethical group on
the planet, would probably share their PTS Type III data with
researchers, and endeavor to understand if their processes were
causing undue stress on their own members. That Scientology and the
CoS would likely be hostile to anyone researching this issue, says a lot
about their true ethics (or lack thereof).
I think there is plenty to oppose in Scientology, without needing to
believe that Scientology drives it's own members crazy. I think there is
much to rightly oppose, just from observing its "healthy" members,
and their operant inculcation into a totalitarian, Orwellian mindset.
Further facts
about this criminal empire may be found at
Operation Clambake and FACTNet.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
Subject: working thesis
Answered by: honorarykid
Asked By: 1uglyhombre
This web page (and The Skeptic Tank) is in no way connected with
nor part of the Scientology crime syndicate. To review the crime syndicate's
absurdly idiotic web pages, check out www.scientology.org or any one of the
many secret front groups the cult attempts to hide behind.
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.