Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology From: dennis.l.erlich@support.com Subject: WHY EX'S STAY SILENT Message-ID: <9510291610.0MPVI01@support.com> References: <46uomo$l5a@cmcl2.NYU.EDU> Organization: L.A. Valley College Public BBS (818)985-7150 X-Mailer: TBBS/PIMP v3.35 Distribution: world Date: Sun, 29 Oct 95 16:10:19 -0800 Lines: 67 dst+@cs.cmu.edu (Dave Touretzky) Anonymous wrote: >I just want everyone to know that ex-members stay quiet sometimes >partially out of guilt for having been part of this thing. It may have >been true that Dennis was acting out the Sea Org game when he was >there. A lot of us were. A lot of us were screaming assholes at the >time, but we thought we were doing the right thing. > >It is just like that psychology experiment we all learned about in >high school. It went like this: Person A, the subject under study was >brought in and told to ask person B questions from a list. Person B >was in a booth hooked up to electrodes. Every time Person B answered >wrongly, Person A was told to press this button that would give Person >B an electrical shock. (Person B was in on the gag and didn't actually >get shocked, but acted like it). > >Person A was instructed to increment the voltage for each wrong answer >until he was applying 100, 150, 200 volts or more and Person B was >begging for mercy. The vast majority of Person A's kept applying the >shock because the person administering the test kept telling them to >"give him the shock". You see, it seemed official and legitimate >because someone in authority was telling them to do it. Dave: >This infamous experiment was conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram of Princeton >University. Some of the subjects in his experiment suffered long-lasting >emotional harm. Even after they were told that their "victim" was really an >actor and hadn't received any shocks, it didn't help. They knew that they >had willingly engaged in what they believed at the time to be the torture of >another human being. They had the power to defy the experimenter and stop, >but when put to the test, they proved too morally weak to do so. The guilt >from this knowledge was very destructive. I believe one man's marriage fell >apart because of it; I don't remember the other personal stories I've read, >but there was a lot of suffering. > >Today's strict regulations on the use of human subjects in research exist in >part because of the public's horrified reaction to Milgram's experiment and >the effect it had on his subjects. Human experimentation is what scienotek is all about. We were all rats in Tubby's Science Project(tm). >That is what happens in the Sea Org to turn people into monsters. It >is just an inherent flaw in human beings that they have respect for >authority even to go against their own insincts of decency and >compassion. > >I would hope that ex-members who aren't feeling too good about what >they did, might come forward anyway. It's the only way this >criminal-manufacturing cult is ever going to get any Qual (Quality >Control) put in. > >For those who still feel guilty today, getting some brief therapy might be a >good idea. If nothing else, talking to a therapist about one's experiences >in the Sea Org is a nice gesture of defiance against the Church. Posting to internet works well, too. >-- Dave Touretzky, KoX (SP4): copyright scofflaw lurking under The Bridge. +--------------------------------------+ Rev. Dennis L Erlich * * the inFormer * * dennis.l.erlich@support.com + inForm@primenet.com "tar baby"