Another in the continuing series of provocative essays from Terra Cognita

Scientology, Where You’re Always Worse Off than Everybody Else

Is it just me, or did other people feel slightly unworthy inside the bubble? On one hand, all Scientologists are taught they’re more able than anyone else. On the other, there were always members who were:

Richer

More successful

More creative

Friendlier—without being “theety-weedy”

Who kept stats and applied the Conditions

Who used a personal Admin Scale

Who went exterior at will

Who always gave the best wins at events

Who didn’t drink wine (last time: 1974)

Who owned their own business and employed all the local staff

Who were members of WISE, The Way to Happiness Foundation, and the PTA

Who’d taken out second mortgages to help make the ideal org a reality

Who routinely worked a Sea Org schedule

Who hadn’t taken a vacation in sixteen years

Who always stood up and applauded enthusiastically at all the events

And afterwards, led the “Hip, hip, hurray’s!”

Whose friends were all Scientologists

Whose family were all part of the church (except for some SP brother who nobody had seen for thirty years)

Who was on staff for five years back in the eighty’s

Who served with LRH on the Apollo

Who was on course on the weekends

Who cleared all their words—even when reading fiction

Who had done The Basics—twice

Who had done all the courses—twice (except Student Hat and the PTS/SP Course, which they had done three times)

Who religiously turned in their student points and marked their graphs

Who’d joined the church ten years after you but were farther up the Bridge

Who always contributed at local fundraising events—often beyond their means

Who’d reached the level of Patron Maximus Meritorious Erectus

Who’d paid for the new Org carpeting

Who visited the local Scientology chiropractor every week

And who actually liked going to Ethics

And then there was me. If “clean hands make a happy life,” mine must have as filthy as an auto mechanic’s at quitting time.

At some point, I’m pretty sure all Scientologists consider they didn’t achieve a particular gain because of their overts and withholds. Others were doing better because they were simply cleaner and not committing continual overts.

All homo saps have O/W’s and none are more acutely aware of their effects than Scientologists. Especially those actively on the Bridge. Deep down, they know they didn’t go Clear, not because the tech didn’t work, but because they were sitting on overts and withholds. They weren’t “clean.” They weren’t worthy. They hadn’t contributed enough.

I suspect Sea Org staff assigned to the RPF believe they deserved the condition due to their own strings of O/W’s. Their stats weren’t high enough, they produced overt products, and worst of all, they had impure thoughts. Not all, but some. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Dirt, Dirt, and More Dirt

Scientology Axiom 52: Everyone Belongs in Ethics.

Corollary: You have more overts and withholds than anyone else.

Corollary: Everyone in the church is surviving better than you.

Corollary: You don’t measure up as a Scientologist.

You continually slide through stop signs without coming to a full stop. You told Sally that Sue had lost her job. You spent money on cigarettes instead of vitamins. You didn’t contribute enough at the last event. You haven’t been using your demo kit on course. You haven’t FSM’ed in twelve years. You thought Tom’s latest movie kinda sucked. You didn’t walk the dog on Tuesday when you got home at eleven-thirty. At night. Even though you attested to Level 0, you feel nervous talking with Ted. The reason you suck and everybody’s doing better than you is because you are continually committing harmful acts. For Scientologists, this is a technical fact.

You’re responsible for your own condition. And since your condition lies across all eight dynamics, you’re not only responsible for your own case, you’re responsible for the wellbeing of your family, your community, your lawn, Rex, your local Org, all of Scientology, Earth, Mars, and the Milky Way. Skip out on taking full responsibility for any of this and…well, you know the rest.

Freedom

It’s liberating to have left the church and with it, that feeling of being at effect, of feeling I wasn’t doing enough, that everyone else was more dedicated and doing better than me. Now? I don’t feel guilty seeing movies on the weekends; taking walks in the evenings; going on vacations; sipping old vine Zins with friends (one of whom has a degree in psychology); spending money on recreational devices at the expense of the next level; and believing David Miscavige is truly an SP.

I’m not a “dog PC” and overts and withholds aren’t holding me back. The tech didn’t “go in” because I had a misunderstood word, but because the underlying theory was built on false premises.

Life is good.

High in the Andes

The Quechua natives of the Andes Mountains would always weave one mismatched thread into their fabrics because they believed only the gods were perfect. To Scientologists, overts and withholds are the threads that remind them of their imperfections. LRH is their god.

Everyone has overts. Everyone has withholds. Everyone is laced with their own mismatched threads. Mother Theresa herself wouldn’t have passed a six month check at Flag without a trip to Ethics and a hundred hours of sec checking by a Class 12 with a thick Romanian accent.

The Quechuans didn’t feel inferior to their peers because of these imperfect strands of wool. They were only added to demonstrate they weren’t flawless. They were human.

Still not Declared,

Terra Cognita