Hi fellow ARS'ers, Since 1996 I've talked to so many current and former members of CoS that I lost count long time ago. Some were still hardcore, others were really struggling to figure out were they stood and others again were on a good path to handle the experience and move on in life. Some I had good and fruitful communication with while others weren't that good.

I've been learning too in this process so when communication didn't work out it was also my fault.

What strikes me is that no matter how hardcore or how far into the Scientology mental trap people are, there's still a lot of humanity and personality left. If you get close enough you will see it, and just being there without judging can help them a lot.

I've met many Scientologists that came to ARS looking for help, but got worse because they were treated very bad. Yes, most of them deserved it technically because they acted strange or hostile in the beginning. Some didn't quite understand how things worked and did the basic mistakes, was misunderstood and that started a bad spiral of hostile communication. I see it very often here on ARS and I need to force myself from sending e-mails to fellow critics to at least beg them to take a different approach. It's just thoughtlessness, I don't believe they have bad intentions. And I've done the same errors here myself. I hope there are others in ARS who try to follow up on Scientologists that leave ARS in this way.

When you give someone a chance, and you see them crying for help at the first decent opportunity, then it is difficult not to wonder how many we might be scaring way.

And it is also hard not to cry with them.

I might just be this soft guy getting all emotional, but I've had so many emotional e-mail exchanges and phone calls from people around the world that just makes me cry thinking about it. I am talking to some of them now and I just wish I could do more. They are having a very hard time, breaking with something they consider to be their whole life and not to mention sorting out all the confused thoughts in their mind. Some of these people comes to ARS and are forced into the trenches. We have all seen it, silly posts going both ways. In our eyes it is a great way to show what CoS can do to people, and we might even feed it sometimes.

I admit it can sometimes be entertaining, but does it solve anything? Does it get any of us closer to our individual goals? I doubt it.

There is, by some critics with otherwise good intentions, lack of understanding about what these Scientologists are going through and how they can be helped. I know many have written similar things before, and some critics will not understand what I'm getting at. I just need to at least try to explain.

I believe there aren't any single or simple solution to the problems some Scientologists and ex-Scientologists are struggling with, and I don't believe I got all the brains.

I'm an amateur who just gets easily engaged. But a guidance in my life is to make the small things count. Talking to me or reading Operation Clambake alone will not save anybody, it's the combination of small positive events that will. After me they might meet someone else that does not live up to the stereotype they have been given on SP's, after me they might stumble on more information that confirms something they read on Operation Clambake. It might take weeks and it might take years. I'm very patient so that's no problem. When I'm angry or frustrated I try to remember what I'm against so that I don't become something that almost sounds or look like them. Be better, be an example. Many Scientologists are looking for a way out, if we once in a while would swallow some pride and act a little nicer then maybe that little effort would have more effect than anything you ever could gain with your anger. It's about being a living example that survives any comparison with CoS and the more hardcore Scientologists.

So again, I beg all of you: Think twice before letting your irritation or anger loose on a newsgroup like this.

Identify what your true goals are for being here in the first place. Then once in a while stop and look back on your tracks, are you satisfied with what you see? And when you see someone loosing their temper or are in a bad mood (this happens to all of us), don't feed them or encourage them. Let them ride it off and try to get things back on the constructive track.

I'm back to maintaining Operation Clambake and continue some of the e-mails I have waiting for me. Please take care and be patient too. :) Best wishes, Andreas Heldal-Lund, Nunsteinvegen 9, N-4056 Tananger, Norway Pho: +47 90 94 32 99 Fax: 90 32 35 46 E-mail: ahl@xenu.net home.sol.no/~spirous www.xenu.net www.hedning.no/hedning --------------------------------------------------------------- "Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

- Haile Selassie ---------------------------------------------------------------

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