Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: dennis.l.erlich@support.com
Subject: A Search for Answers
Message-ID: <9602051805.0PEX802@support.com>
Organization: L.A. Valley College Public BBS (818)985-7150
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Distribution: world
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 96 18:05:27 -0800
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                 THE CULT: A SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

     Most people, while passing from infancy to old age, will
seek the answers to some very basic questions about life:
"Why am I here?", "Why aren't things better on Earth?" and
"What, if anything can I do about it?".

     These questions may never be put into words but they
are examined nonetheless.

     For some people, the normal, everyday social
experiences may not be sufficient to provide satisfactory
answers to these questions.

     Some will seek answers in study and education, some in
travel, some in alternative lifestyles or drugs.  Many will turn to
religion for the answers to these questions.

     For some who turn for answers to religion, there will be
no answers in the organized religions, so they instead turn to
practices they are less familiar with in hopes that different
ideas might satisfy their needs. 

     Traditionally the family, through instruction and
example, has provided acceptable answers to questions about
the purpose and meaning of life.

     Now, with the breakdown of the family in most
segments of modern society, the duties and responsibilities of
such instruction are increasingly left to the media, the state, or
to chance.

     We have many people looking for answers to their
confusion and pain.  These are the very ones that cults try to
attract.

     Cults recruit members in a very interesting and effective
way.  Their newest members, eager to pass on their new-found
truths, are sent out to contact new prospects, interest them in
the cult and direct them into the organization.

     The cult member, to be faithful to the cult, must show
the "outsider" the error of his ideas about life.  This is not
particularly difficult when dealing with a young person who is
already confused and has a feeling of hopelessness.  The
promise of relief from suffering is usually enough to create
interest.

     If the cult member is unsuccessful in channeling the
outsider into the organization or getting him interested, he
simply looks for another to contact.

     Almost every cult has some sort of instruction and
training in its particular method of getting outsiders interested
enough to explore the cult.

     Once the person enters the environment that the cult
controls, the entire indoctrination is choreographed to ensure
the proper result.

     The outsider is treated with kindness, interest, care and
respect by his new-found friends to such a degree that, no
matter how lost and hopeless he felt before, he finally feels at
home.

     The group shows what seems to be genuine concern for
the things that trouble him, and they tell him that they, and
they alone, can truly help him.

     Thus the newcomer becomes convinced that he is
dealing with a group of people with a higher level of integrity
and purpose than he has been in contact with outside the cult. 
He is made to feel that he could fit into the group and some
day be like these wonderful, caring people. At the very least,
he is told, they can help him overcome his weakness.