Blog: Evolution - 2013-01-15
Evolution January 15, 2013,
Below is a republication of a section of What Is Wrong With Scientology? that addresses my second piece of advice for future vitality of the subject of Scientology (the first was covered in the post, Integrate). Please share your thoughts about these thoughts.
Evolve or Dissolve
During my three-year hiatus from communication with any Scientologists, I worked with a man named John Kelley as a writer and editor for his alternative newspaper in Corpus Christi. John is a retired cognitive-behavioral therapist. One day I asked him to describe cognitive-behavioral psychology to me. He said that the therapist guides the patient to review his past, in order to assist him to come to realization (cognition) about his own behavior. The central idea is that a person's behavior can only be changed for the better when the individual self-determinatively recognizes the need for it, and decides to do so himself. The therapist does not invalidate (chastise), or evaluate (tell the patient how to think about himself). Instead he simply guides the person to look, so that the patient may come to cognition. In short, John described the heart and soul of the Scientology auditing process, probably better than I had heard any corporate Scientologist attempt to do so in the past. Comparing my discussions with John to the fevered anti-psych rallies of Scientology Inc. got me to thinking about evolution.