Scientology: The Eating Disorder of Religion?

So I’ve recently watched a couple documentaries on Scientology: Going Clear, and Leah Remini’s 8-part series, Scientology and the Aftermath.

Wow. If you want your minds blown, give them a watch…I included the links.

 

Let me begin by saying, I’m not here to bash anyone’s beliefs. I am all for respect and inclusivity. But I was just astounded at the level of oppression and corruption in that “religious” organization (as depicted in these exposés).

And it stuck with me all weekend. I couldn’t stop thinking about those poor people trapped in that culture of repression.

What made them stay in a dire situation? Why did they put up with the mind games and the systematic oppression?

And the more I thought about it, I realized that scientology is exactly like being trapped in an eating disorder.

Scientologists are fed dogma that they must protect scientology at any cost – including their policy of disconnection – where one cuts off any and all communication with a declared “Suppressive Person,” (SP)…including family members and loved ones.

They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in classes, materials, and “auditing” to work their way up “The Bridge” to the highest level of spiritual awareness.

Members are encouraged to tattle, or submit “Knowledge Reports” on their loved ones if they suspect that they are questioning their “faith” or have been looking up “anti-Scientology” material online. They are then met with penalties and punishments.

But the biggest take away was that this “religion” is really an insular system of belief that has build an iron-clad fortress, cut off from all other view points or voices of reason, where no new or opposing information comes in, and instead, circulates its own “truth,” (publications and other propaganda) thereby forcing its members to submit to their perpetuating culture of suppression.

That is, for all of you non-eating-disorder-survivors, exactly what it is like to live with an eating disorder. You isolate yourself from all “voices of reason” – cutting yourself off from family and loved ones, and instead cling to the lies in your head being fed to you by the eating disorder.

Lies like: “You’re not good enough.” “You have to be perfect to be loved.” “You’re a burden.” “You deserve this tortured existence.”

You’re living to protect the eating disorder. And all the while, it is slowly killing you, and robbing you of your time, money, dreams, relationships, future, hobbies…robbing you of life…all to obtain that ultimate “goal weight.”  ((Sound like “The Bridge” much??))

Why does one remain in that oppressive existence?

Because they are literally trapped. 

You stop thinking for yourself, and eventually start believing the lies to be truth.

Getting out of my anorexia, ten years ago…I thank God everyday for breaking through that iron fortress that I had created for myself.

It took Him, lifting me out of that bunker of hell where I was being buried alive. Because without His help, I would have just let it destroy me. And it almost did.

I think about how people get into such a clearly destructive cult-like religion in the first place. I mean, Tom Cruise, Leah Remini, John Travolta – these people aren’t stupid. How did they fall into the trap?

And just like an eating disorder, it starts off innocently enough. Standing for values like, bettering the earth, becoming more spiritually aware, working on self-improvement — those are values that anyone can get behind.

Just like my anorexia, it started out giving up sweets for Lent one year. Then it was healthy eating. Then it was an unyielding obsession with calories and exercise. And then the next thing you know you’re 78 pounds with brittle bones and a heart that’s clinging on for dear life.

When you’re trapped in the cycle of oppression, believing the lies, and embracing the abuse, freedom is simply unimaginable. I couldn’t fathom what a life without ED would be like. What my potential could be. The abuse I was self-inflicting in my head with the lies and the negative self-talk became my safety. It became all that I knew. My comfort. My “normal.”

And as sad as it is to think about, that’s what it is for those poor people in scientology.

And you know, I could sit here and make fun of their beliefs about aliens and reincarnation and jab that their founder was a science-fiction writer by trade. But that would negate the suffering that these people are enduring.

Because you know what, the lies I believed in my head are just as outrageous. (Hello, an emaciated girl thinking she’s fat??) So to belittle the lies as “stupid” or “far-fetched” is to disregard and discredit the agony I endured believing them — almost to the point of death.

I don’t know what the outcome of this post is supposed to be.

I just felt this strange kinship, watching these enthralling documentaries.

I guess hearing about this system of oppression sparked in me a common bond, as one former oppress-ee to another.

Give it a watch.

It will astound you that this outrageous belief system is still in existence today, in 2017.

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