Just in case you didn’t know, Scientology is a religion started by science fiction writer Ron L. Hubbard and has experienced quite a bit of backlash in popular culture. Often, the subject of ridicule is the outrageous claim that extraterrestrial life detonated hydrogen bombs in volcanoes sealing millions of thetans on Earth. It manages to be even more outrageous than the religions that claim a zombie man ran across the Earth for a couple of days before rising into the sky, which is quite a feat. But I digress.

However, the real issue that most people have with Scientology is not their extraterrestrial claims, but the way the organization, however misguided, brainwashes and controls their members into paying outrageous sums for progressing membership while simultaneously claiming altruism.

In my brief inspection of the church, I suggest that there are two primary psychological effects (irony anyone?) that serve to condition the members for absolute subservience.

1. One tends to artificially value more when one pays a high price for something.

A unique thing happens when you pay a high price for something, you value it. In fact, you tend to value it a lot more than something someone simply gives you. It’s the exact psychology behind selling high priced designer jeans when jeans bought at the local Walmart are of comparable quality. While higher price items don’t always become a “status symbol” or similar, the price plus societies’ approval can categorize the said item as a status symbol.

Anyone with a working knowledge of Scientology is aware of the extremely high fees the church demands for the practice of auditing. Auditing is a type of interviewing along with an e-meter (a device that has been proven to measure nothing but random electrical impulses) that is required to advance to higher levels of the church. Many believe that Scientology is simply an “unscrupulous commercial enterprise” because these high prices simply prey on unwitting people who get caught up in the scam.

However, it is simply a device that serves several purposes. First, it raises capital that can be used by the church however it sees fits, whether fighting people who stand up and speak out against the church or purchasing impressive buildings to expand. Second, it conditions the members to value their membership because of the inherent sacrifices involved in pursuing higher membership. Finally, it helps lock members in a fanatical obsession. An interesting feature (or bug?) of the brain is how it tends to rationalize its decisions regardless of the circumstances. This loyalty, inflated by sacrifice, results in the famous fanaticism so hallmark of Scientology.

2. Adjusting behavior in order to instill radical beliefs or values.

By extension, it’s called brainwashing via behavior modification. This is a common component in almost all cases of brainwashing. Take, for example, turning a spy. When a foreign spy is found out, rather than removing him or her, they often convince the spy to do something trivial but in opposition to their alignment. Because they can often leverage the knowledge of his real nature, it can be rather successful. As soon as trivial act becomes normal, they escalate the act demanded of him or her. This repeats gradually until the spy is effectively turned. The unique part is the spy can become completely indoctrinated into the opposite agenda and subsequently does such work willingly. In effect, the adjusted behavior seeded the new belief or value.

This replacement in behaviors breaks down the person’s previous identity and ultimately removes it completely. At this point, the new behaviors shape the new identity. Ultimately, you believe what you do, and you do what you believe.

Replace the spy with an average Joe and the hostile country with Scientology and you have a basic understanding of how Scientology conditions otherwise rational people to their new and strange tenants. It is gradual and methodical. However, their use of brainwashing serves the unique purpose of fully indoctrinating its members into a culture so perverse that its barriers against logical opposition are already built in. Put simply: once you’re in, you rarely leave simply because you don’t want to.

A powerful combination.

By understanding the methods by which members’ fanaticism and beliefs are conditioned, one can begin to feel sympathy for the lower level members and repugnance for the leaders of the church. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the organization is designed solely to reap profits by controlling their members. Even more disturbing is the fact that Scientology fully intends on infiltrating and controlling governments.

Such cults of conditioning and control are a blight on society and need to be controlled as well.

The interesting concept of intuition was brought up the other day in one of my classes. In order to highlight the fallibility of trusting your intuition over cold hard logic, they proposed to us a slew of questions (although only three were really important). We were simply told to answer each question the best we could. Without further ado, here are the three questions of interest (try to answer each rather quickly):

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.
   How much does the ball cost?
2. If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how long would it take
   100 machines to make 100 widgets?
3. In a lake, there is a patch of  lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size.
   If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it
   take for the patch to cover half of  the lake?

A little background: These three questions were first proposed by Shane Frederick of MIT and are commonly referred to as the “Cognitive Reflection Test” or the CRT. The questions basically test your reliance on logic vs. intuition and are supposedly correlated with one’s IQ and their willingness to wait for good things (according the original study).

Each question presents an easy “intuitive” answer which is actually incorrect. However, it is assumed that those with a higher IQ will notice that the intuitive answer contains inconsistencies that deserve a further (and more time consuming) examination. You might take it with a grain of salt, but it is interesting.

Solutions below.

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The Solutions.

For question #1, one might intuitively say, “$1.00 plus $0.10 is $1.10, therefore a ball costs $0.10“. While this is quite intuitive, it is also incorrect. A person who is more thorough might respond that the ball actually costs $0.05 (.05+(1+.05)=1.1). The correct answer is the ball costs $0.05.

For question #2, an intuitive response would be that “5=5=5 so 100=100=100“. However, if it takes a single machine 5 minutes to make a single widget, even a million machines can make a million widgets in 5 minutes. The correct answer is therefore 5 minutes.

For question #3, the common intuitive response would be, “half the pond would be covered in half the time, so 48/2=24 days“. However, this ignores the exponential growth of the lily pads. Try working it backwards, if the pond is covered after 48 days, and they double in size every day, then day 47 would be half covered. The correct answer is 47 days.

How do you compare?

How many did you get right? Compare your score to the below averages for various colleges.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 2.18
• Princeton University: 1.63
• Harvard University: 1.43
• Web-based studies: 1.10
• Michigan State University: 0.79

Please note that even if you missed them all, don’t fret, it’s obviously not a full IQ test. I would imagine that getting each question is a bit like adding a few more points to an average IQ score. Besides, how much credence can you give some odd paper?

Regardless, I am pretty sure I cheated and saw these all before the test. But I feel like I can be pretty impatient at times. Isn’t knowing half the batttle?