Operating Wog
2nd December 2008, 03:09 PM
Murakami has been one of my favorite authors for a long while. About a year after I left staff I read Underground:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(stories)
At that point, I did not consider myself an ex-Scientologist, just an ex-staff member, not on lines, procrastinating about getting back on lines. I still went to an occasional event or into the org to help out on something here or there. Actually, I had probably not even done that for several months, and was getting a bit more distant from the place with each passing day.
But Underground definitely changed something in my head. It's the story of the attacks on the Tokyo Subway system by the Aum cult. It is told as a series of interviews with victims - people who were in the subway that day, and cult members. Some ex-members, some who are still in, as I recall. The book is incredibly un-biased. It just presents the stories in the words of those telling them. It's not an attempt to say how evil Aum was, just the facts.
I can't say what it was about the book that clicked for me. It wasn't like "Oh my God, Scientology is a dangerous cult that could do something crazy like this. I need to get out." It was just that the interviews with the members and ex-members were so familiar. These weren't evil people. They were just regular folks who really, really, REALLY believed in this guy and his religion. They had their own bridge to total freedom and their source of their standard tech and nothing you could say to them could change that viewpoint, and they were willing to do anything to protect it because in their eyes, it was the most important thing in the world. In short, I felt I knew a lot of these people.
Again, it wasn't some fear that Scientology was going to go around and start releasing nerve gas or call for a mass suicide or something. It was much simpler than that. it was the mere fact that these people felt EXACTLY the same way I did (or had), but about a completely different religion. I think the realization was along the lines of, "so that feeling I get really has nothing to do with scn being true, correct, the way out, the answer, etc. It's just a part of being in a group that thinks they are that." Born again Christians feel the same way, Muslims feel the same way, Jonestown followers, Heaven's Gate followers, Aum followers, Scientologists, and a million other non-dangerous, inconsequential religions groups also feel the same way.
Something broke in me in regards to Scientology. It wasn't that Scn was "bad" for me at that point. It just wasn't "special" any more. It was just another group that really believed it had all the answers, just like any other group that believed it had all the answers.
Of course I had argued with Christians and debated with Hare Krishnas on the front lines and so on. I knew that other groups had strong beliefs. But somehow hearing it directly from members and ex-members of Aum just brought it home to me. At that point, I still wouldn't have crossed the line and read any ex-Scientology SP evil black propaganda. :) But this book kind of snuck in there. The stories the ex-Aum members tell could be straight out of the pages of this site.
I'm not saying it's going to have that the book would have that effect on everyone, but if you know someone who's in but maybe looking at getting out, it might be a safe alternative to directly anti-Scientology books, and spark some critical thinking in their heads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(stories)
At that point, I did not consider myself an ex-Scientologist, just an ex-staff member, not on lines, procrastinating about getting back on lines. I still went to an occasional event or into the org to help out on something here or there. Actually, I had probably not even done that for several months, and was getting a bit more distant from the place with each passing day.
But Underground definitely changed something in my head. It's the story of the attacks on the Tokyo Subway system by the Aum cult. It is told as a series of interviews with victims - people who were in the subway that day, and cult members. Some ex-members, some who are still in, as I recall. The book is incredibly un-biased. It just presents the stories in the words of those telling them. It's not an attempt to say how evil Aum was, just the facts.
I can't say what it was about the book that clicked for me. It wasn't like "Oh my God, Scientology is a dangerous cult that could do something crazy like this. I need to get out." It was just that the interviews with the members and ex-members were so familiar. These weren't evil people. They were just regular folks who really, really, REALLY believed in this guy and his religion. They had their own bridge to total freedom and their source of their standard tech and nothing you could say to them could change that viewpoint, and they were willing to do anything to protect it because in their eyes, it was the most important thing in the world. In short, I felt I knew a lot of these people.
Again, it wasn't some fear that Scientology was going to go around and start releasing nerve gas or call for a mass suicide or something. It was much simpler than that. it was the mere fact that these people felt EXACTLY the same way I did (or had), but about a completely different religion. I think the realization was along the lines of, "so that feeling I get really has nothing to do with scn being true, correct, the way out, the answer, etc. It's just a part of being in a group that thinks they are that." Born again Christians feel the same way, Muslims feel the same way, Jonestown followers, Heaven's Gate followers, Aum followers, Scientologists, and a million other non-dangerous, inconsequential religions groups also feel the same way.
Something broke in me in regards to Scientology. It wasn't that Scn was "bad" for me at that point. It just wasn't "special" any more. It was just another group that really believed it had all the answers, just like any other group that believed it had all the answers.
Of course I had argued with Christians and debated with Hare Krishnas on the front lines and so on. I knew that other groups had strong beliefs. But somehow hearing it directly from members and ex-members of Aum just brought it home to me. At that point, I still wouldn't have crossed the line and read any ex-Scientology SP evil black propaganda. :) But this book kind of snuck in there. The stories the ex-Aum members tell could be straight out of the pages of this site.
I'm not saying it's going to have that the book would have that effect on everyone, but if you know someone who's in but maybe looking at getting out, it might be a safe alternative to directly anti-Scientology books, and spark some critical thinking in their heads.