Kim Baker: MY STORY CONTINUES: THE BEAST (Part 3 of 3)

[Kim Baker via Ron Newman]

[Continued from Part 2]:

That was then. This is now. The personal effects of this incident
on me have been manifold, but I have no wish to discuss those here.
I am more than fully aware of the effects that betrayal had on those
I hurt. I've apologised, but apologising doesn't undo the pain and
the damage I caused. I know that. There's nothing more that can be
said on it.

What I do wish to discuss, however, is the broader issues surrounding
these events.

FACTNet's IMPORTANCE:

The Declarations in themselves weren't exactly legal dynamite. The
judge in the FACTNet case threw them out, instantly, noting that it
was obvious that I'd been "brainwashed". Just like that.

They were, however, designed to deliver a severe psychological blow
to FACTNet, and FACTNet's public image. To cause dissent within the
ranks, confusion among the supporters. Which simply goes to show just
how important FACTNet is. If they were just an ineffective, useless
organisation, then why on earth should Scientology go to these
lengths to discredit them? The point was to get people's attention
*off* Scientology, and on to FACTNet. To make people lose sight of
the mission of FACTNet, and focus again, on the people, and their
flaws, and to become embroiled in that, rather than look at *what*
FACTNet reveals about *Scientology*, and other cults.

As long as people aren't examining *Scientology*, then Scientology
are happy. They do not care if people think of them as a nasty
organisation that raids people, because this tends to make people
want to back off, not tangle with Scientology. They don't want anyone
in their way, they want no CI (counter-intention) to their plans to
"clear the planet" (take over the world).

As long as people don't look at *Scientology*, the *doctrine*,
critically, they are happy, as long as there is no public record of
NON-success stories, where people have had bad experiences in
Scientology, they are happy.

FACTNet's MISSION:

FACTNet's mission is to educate people in the field of co-ercive
psychology. To look at and document instances of persuasive
techniques used to bring people to a set of beliefs that they may not
have reached of their own accord. As an electronic library, to record
and document personal accounts, research reports and articles on this
previously unchartered territory of the human mind. That is what
FACTNet is about, that is the common vision that all of us who have
ever been part of it, share. That was the vision that inspired me,
and that was why I joined FACTNet. I still firmly believe in that
mission, as a private individual, even though I am no longer a part
of FACTNet. What happened with me was a live example of co-ercive
psychology in action. Of persuasive techniques being used,
successfully.

TECHNIQUES:

Firstly, I was vulnerable to them, because I was already "Floating".
"Floating" has been recorded and documented as a phenomenon that
manifests in many ex-cult members, from as early as 1976, by Ted
Patrick. It was later recorded by Steve Hassan, in his book
"Combatting cult mind control", and Margaret Singer in her book
"Cults in our midst". So, contrary to what most ARS people believed,
calling it my "flip-flop" (that's quite a good term, actually!), it
was not a totally unique "Kim Baker" failing. Ex-cult members had
had this happen to them *long* before I came along, I just do not
think it had ever happened to anyone so publically, before. I also
wasn't aware of the phenomenon myself, until these books were brought
to my attention, after the shame of last year.

Basically, what was happening, is that that doctrine, that system of
thought called "Scientology", which I had incorporated into my
consciousness, was being triggered. You cannot totally believe in a
doctrine, and then instantly make *all* those beliefs and thought
processes vanish. You cannot amputate an entire ideology in an
instant of recognition that a part of it is false. It is a process,
which takes time. I didn't know that at the time. And as a result, I
let everyone down, very, very badly. I *am* sorry.

COERCION OR CULPIBILITY?

At the time, when I was posting to ars, I was insistent that I had
not been coerced. The definition of co-ercion here is very tricky.
There was no loaded magnum in the room. They did not make me do
anything I did not, myself, agree to. So, on the surface, indeed, I
had not been co-erced, and I must take the full responsibility for my
actions. However. I would not have done those things on my *own*
initiative. I am *totally* certain of that.

OSA had mission orders. They had a final product to be achieved. They
were equipped with a list of my buttons, they knew how to evoke the
most extreme guilt in me, and they had drilled all this before-hand.
I did not realise that. They controlled the environment around me.
They had assessed my "tone level", and knew that TR-K (TR - Kindness)
was the best way to achieve results with me. I do not respond well to
people yelling at me. And lurking, deep within myself, was that left-
over belief that attacking Scientology is evil. The subtle
differentiation between "attacking", or what I call "hate speech",
and rational, honest criticism, was hanging by a tenuous thread. It
didn't take very long for that distinction to become blurred into
one faulty computation of logic. Criticising something rationally is
*NOT* attacking it. But I lost that focus. And I did not want to be
evil. I had no support around me, no-one I could call on for help,
and so I walked right into the trap. And it worked on me, because I
had spent four years, doing their courses, and being a dedicated
Scientologist who *loved* the auditing "tech". With a passion.

When Joe Harrington's post brought me back into myself, I was *me*
again, but deep in a situation that had gone way out of my control. I
could only assume control again, after they had gone. And since that
time, I have experienced no more instances of "Floating". I avoid
environments that may trigger this, as a precaution. I know my own
limitations, now. I had to pay a terrible price to find out, the
worst kind, which was harming others. I hope no-one else has to find
out this way, where your fake sun-set turns into a post-nuclear
landscape strewn with charred corpses.

THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF BELIEF:

And that is why it is so important to record these experiences. Only
by compiling a litany of experience, understanding full well that
each of the individuals has their own failings and faults, and taking
that into account, is the only way we can come to understand what this
is all about. I'm sadly aware that quite a few people do NOT want to
understand. Those are the ones who use invective, and who pour scorn
onto cult members and ex-cult members equally. At one stage, it was
these few who really angered me, but then I realised that as with all
cruelty, it stems ultimately from ignorance.

Scientology would have you believe that *all* of us who
are loud "Suppressives" are criminals, liars, fraudsters, flawed
human beings. Many of the critics have bought into that. God, yes we
fail, and we have our faults, each in our own different way. But we
have the right to tell our stories, give our views, we have the right
to be HEARD. The US government protects Scientology because it calls
itself a religion. But where is our protection? Where is the
protection for *our* freedom of belief, where is the protection from
being publically defamed as individuals? We speak out against a
*doctrine*, we get in return, our *characters* carved up. This is
simply not logical.

We *know* when we speak out against Scientology what we are in for.
Well, perhaps not quite. We have an idea. We certainly know that
there will be reprisals, of one form or another, depending on how
effective we are. Despite that, we take the risk, often being attacked
not only by Scientology, but by the general public who have bought
into Scientology's dead agenting tactics. Let me tell you, Dead
Agenting works a *treat*. It plants seeds in people's minds that
grow, and if that person then dares make errors, it confirms it in
those people's minds. And they focus on the *person* and how flawed
they are, rather than hear what the person is saying. Carl Sagan, in
his book "The demon haunted world", lists as his FIRST point in his
Baloney Detection Kit - "disregard ad hominem attacks" - but do
people do this? No. I guess Carl Sagan's scientific work would be
rendered completely worthless if people found out that, for instance,
he was a bigamist who had several wives, and children that he didn't
support. (He doesn't, this is a hyperthetical example).

WE STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND:

Why did all the Germans in Nazi Germany support Hitler? Was an
*entire* nation evil? It's simply impossible. Europe was outraged by
Nazism. Because Hitler wanted to take over Europe, and exterminate a
race he found undesirable. But what did the colonists do to the
American Indian? The Aborigine? The African? Was this any different
from what Hitler was doing? Colonising, deciding what people are not
desirable, and exterminating them - we *keep* doing this, throughout
our history. Saying one thing is wrong, while we have in fact,
ourselves, done the very same thing, or are still doing it.
Because we don't understand it.

THE COLONISATION OF THE MIND:

FACTNet deals with the Colonisation of the Mind. FACTNet wants to
understand *why* entire nations blindly buy into an ideology that is
later agreed to be odious. Scientology is just *one* little doctrine.
But it is a microcosm of the mechanics at work. It is an opportunity
to study the phenonmenon, and only through understanding it, can we
overcome it.

FACTNet, however, cannot survive without the support of those people
who do actually care about all this. This is why it is so important
for people to support FACTNet. This is why I still support it.
FACTNet needs people, everywhere, who are concerned about these
issues, to donate to it. There is no fraud here. Scientology would
love everyone to believe that. None of the FACTNet people are getting
wealthy off it - they are just battling to survive expensive
litigation, so that the work of educating people can go on. That is
the actual truth of the matter. If FACTNet falls, then so does the
hope for us to record, collate, study, and analyse the Colonisation of
the Mind. Don't let it happen.

Over and out.

Kim Baker
Cape Town, South Africa
August 1996.

[Stuart P. Derby]

Kim,
In my time on the net, I've read a few things that made me laugh so
hard I fell out of my chair. I've read a few things made jump up with
outrage, unable to continue reading until I'd collected myself. However,
never before this have I been moved to tears.

I wish I could come up with some eloquent response, the best I can
do is quote from Kahlil Gibran's _The Prophet_, from the passage on
Joy and Sorrow.

And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy
you can contain.
Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was
burned in the potter's oven?
And is the not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very
wood that was carved with knives?

Please, please keep fighting to be yourself, in time the joy and peace
you deserve will be yours, I'm sure of it.

-Stu
--
Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes. Scientology poses as
a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming
for the mainstream. -Time Magazine cover story, May 6, 1991
(available at <http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html> )