This blog is no longer being updated. About this blog.

Anatomy of a Seduction

Here’s an interesting interview with Jason Beghe about leaving Scientology. Sounds very familiar.

I’m having a moment.… of coming out of Scientology. There are moments where you just feel a loss. And it’s not a loss of “I miss Scientology” by any stretch. It’s a loss— It’s a regret of having invested so much in something that is empty.…

There’s a book that [L. Ron Hubbard] wrote that’s called [A] History of Man. And he talks about a lot of these traps that can catch a Thetan,… The best Theta traps are ones that the Thetans runs on autopilot. Like if I’m trying to enslave somebody, the last thing I want to do is to have to worry about… keeping the key [and] the lock. The best traps, you get a guy to just keep himself in jail. And that’s what Scientology does. You just keep yourself in jail.… It’s a perfect Theta trap because you believe it, and you’re investing your time and your money. So you can’t be a fool: that’s too much to confront.

The more I got in, the stupider I got. As I get out, that’s my perception. I mean—Christ!—you don’t even ask questions.… What I gather as I wake up—you know, it’s a funny thing—in Scientology, you feel as though you’re waking up to the truth or reality or what really is. But what you’re doing is waking up to the reality of Scientology.

[Scientologists] are good people. These are some of the best people you can meet. These are people [who] really want to help.

I’ve never been closer [to my family than] now that I’m out [of Scientology].

There was a moment where I could have woken up there [upon hearing about Xenu]. But you choose not to. And that’s part of the reason Scientology’s expensive.… If you’re paying a lot of money for it, it makes it more valuable.

You’re driving the car. It’s just that you don’t realize that the car, as a Scientologist,… it’s got a pre-rigged route.… And so you feel like this is this easy life. I’ve just got to sit here and the car basically drives itself. All I got to do is show up at the church, and I’ll be happy.

Jason Beghe the Scientologist is willing to lose David[, his best friend], is willing to sacrifice certainly the quality of my relationship with Mom and Dad, and brothers and sisters, and God knows who else that I could have made friends with that weren’t Scientologists,…

For somebody who’s in [Scientology], as far gone as I say you are as you go up [in the levels of Scientology], the difference between waking and being asleep up is the difference between being waking up and asleep. And it’s like sometimes when you’re asleep you can still hear the shit that’s going around because you’re only half asleep, you’re not that fucking brainwashed. So I’m here to tell you, this is what I say: wake up!

Tags: , ,

5 Comments

  1. phasis said,

    April 22, 2008 @ 4:00 pm

    A lot of people are put to sleep by seductive sound bites. In fact, you could make the case that it happens to many of us on a daily basis.

    Fortunately, most people have the good fortune to not have stumbled across the Cult of $cientology during a vulnerable moment.

    Excellent interview on Jason Beghe’s part. It is rare to hear someone, having gone into and come out of what he has, speak as openly and as insightfully as he has.

  2. Jonathan Blake said,

    April 22, 2008 @ 4:04 pm

    I was also impressed by how openly he discusses his own culpability in allowing himself to be deceived.

  3. Jonathan Blake said,

    April 22, 2008 @ 4:05 pm

    And he was very self-deprecating, but he said some very insightful things that put my exit from Mormonism into perspective. Well worth the viewing.

  4. Seth R. said,

    April 22, 2008 @ 9:55 pm

    Parts sound familiar. Others not at all.

  5. Jonathan Blake said,

    April 25, 2008 @ 1:19 pm

    I really meant to say that it was familiar to my own exit from Mormonism. It’s fascinating how much I share in common with not only other ex-Mormons, but also former Orthodox Jews, Scientologists, Evangelicals, etc.

RSS feed for comments on this post