Interesting quote to mull over

[Auditor's Toad]

And now I have to go wordclear enantiodramia.

Damn.

I don't. I do not know what that word means. I do not care. I'll just make some shit up.


Fuck MU's.

[Smilla]

'Certaintiness" is one of the most prized tokens, of the self-worshipping participents in the fantasy Role-Playing Game of Scientology, but my Pokemon card collection puts me way ahead of them all. Look upon Shadow Pikachu and tremble.

[Auditor's Toad]

'Certaintiness" is one of the most prized tokens, of the self-worshipping participents in the fantasy Role-Playing Game of Scientology, but my Pokemon card collection puts me way ahead of them all. Look upon Shadow Pikachu and tremble.

Add to the list of things you owe me besides a monitor and a cup of coffee a half a box of paper tissues !

[The Anabaptist Jacques]

I wonder if and how this concept might apply to Critics?

Yes, but it especially applies to critics of critics, and to critics of critics of critics.

And of course to critics of critics of crtics of critics.

So we're all in there somewhere.

The Anabaptist Jacques

[The Anabaptist Jacques]

And now I have to go wordclear enantiodramia.

Damn.

I don't. I do not know what that word means. I do not care. I'll just make some shit up.


Fuck MU's.

What Auditor's Toad is trying to say here is that the sun is actually closer to the earth in summer.

The Anabaptist Jacques

[Smilla]

I wonder if and how this concept might apply to Critics?

There's no way you could ever know.
..

[HelluvaHoax!]

Yes, but it especially applies to critics of critics, and to critics of critics of critics.

And of course to critics of critics of crtics of critics.

So we're all in there somewhere.

An infinity of mirrors, all traceable to the basic-basic on the chain, Hubbard--or shall we say the Prime Puller of the chain, unpulled.

[Smilla]

The Church of Spiritual Technology's high-tech solution for the preservation of LRH's legacy.

[The Anabaptist Jacques]

Francis Bacon wrote:

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties."

and Voltaire wrote:

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

And Will Durant wrote:

"Inquiry is fatal to certainty." and "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."

The Anabaptist Jacques

Compare these to Hubbard's "Knowledtge is certainty."

The Anabaptist Jacques

[HelluvaHoax!]

This could explain Enantiodromia - certainly must be related in some way because the pendulum swings when the doubt/fears get realized.

DISCLAIMER: tl;dr (too long;didn't requirethismuchinformation)

A brilliant case study of the physics of a delusional cult pendulum swinging can be found in the book WHEN PROPHECY FAILS. It chronicles the acceleration of certainty when cult members come face-to-face with the irreconcileable appearance of incontestable facts that prove their assertions and tone 40 beliefs to be dead wrong.

It explains, amongst many other poignant true-believer phenomena, the ardent dissemination and recruitment of new cult members by CoS and Indie Scientologists (e.g. "Reality is Agreement" -Hubbard).

From Wiki:

Cognitive dissonance:
The theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in the book, When Prophecy Fails (Festinger et al. 1956). Festinger and his associates read an interesting item in their local newspaper headlined "Prophecy from planet Clarion call to city: flee that flood." A housewife from Chicago (changed to "Michigan" in the book), given the name "Marian Keech" (real name: Dorothy Martin (1900–1992), later known as Sister Thedra), had mysteriously been given messages in her house in the form of "automatic writing" from alien beings on the planet Clarion. These messages revealed that the world would end in a great flood before dawn on December 21, 1954. Mrs. Keech had previously been involved with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement, and her cult incorporated ideas from what was to become Scientology. The group of believers, headed by Keech, had taken strong behavioral steps to indicate their degree of commitment to the belief. They had left jobs, college, and spouses, and had given away money and possessions to prepare for their departure on the flying saucer, which was to rescue the group of true believers.

Premise of study
Festinger and his colleagues saw this as a case that would lead to the arousal of dissonance when the prophecy failed. Altering the belief would be difficult, as Keech and her group were committed at considerable expense to maintain it. Another option would be to enlist social support for their belief. As Festinger wrote, "If more and more people can be persuaded that the system of belief is correct, then clearly it must after all be correct." In this case, if Keech could add consonant elements by converting others to the basic premise, then the magnitude of her dissonance following disconfirmation would be reduced. Festinger and his colleagues predicted that the inevitable disconfirmation would be followed by an enthusiastic effort at proselytizing to seek social support and lessen the pain of disconfirmation.

Sequence of events
Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated Keech's group and reported the following sequence of events:

Prior to December 20:
The group shuns publicity. Interviews are given only grudgingly. Access to Keech's house is only provided to those who can convince the group that they are true believers. The group evolves a belief system—provided by the automatic writing from the planet Clarion—to explain the details of the cataclysm, the reason for its occurrence, and the manner in which the group would be saved from the disaster.

December 20.
The group expects a visitor from outer space to call upon them at midnight and to escort them to a waiting spacecraft. As instructed, the group goes to great lengths to remove all metallic items from their persons. As midnight approaches, zippers, bra straps, and other objects are discarded. The group waits.

12:05 A.M., December 21. No visitor. Someone in the group notices that another clock in the room shows 11:55. The group agrees that it is not yet midnight.
12:10 A.M. The second clock strikes midnight. Still no visitor. The group sits in stunned silence. The cataclysm itself is no more than seven hours away.
4:00 A.M. The group has been sitting in stunned silence. A few attempts at finding explanations have failed. Keech begins to cry.
4:45 A.M. Another message by automatic writing is sent to Keech. It states, in effect, that the God of Earth has decided to spare the planet from destruction. The cataclysm has been called off: "The little group, sitting all night long, had spread so much light that God had saved the world from destruction."
Afternoon, December 21. Newspapers are called; interviews are sought. In a reversal of its previous distaste for publicity, the group begins an urgent campaign to spread its message to as broad an audience as possible.

Conditions:
Festinger stated that five conditions must be present, if someone is to become a more fervent believer after a failure or disconfirmation:

* A belief must be held with deep conviction and it must have some relevance to action, that is, to what the believer does or how he behaves.

* The person holding the belief must have committed himself to it; that is, for the sake of his belief, he must have taken some important action that is difficult to undo. In general, the more important such actions are, and the more difficult they are to undo, the greater is the individual's commitment to the belief.

* The belief must be sufficiently specific and sufficiently concerned with the real world so that events may unequivocally refute the belief.

Such undeniable disconfirmatory evidence must occur and must be recognized by the individual holding the belief.

The individual believer must have social support. It is unlikely that one isolated believer could withstand the kind of disconfirming evidence that has been specified. If, however, the believer is a member of a group of convinced persons who can support one another, the belief may be maintained and the believers may attempt to proselytize or persuade non-members that the belief is correct.