It is interesting how the cult uses repetition to induce brainwashing, familiarity and learning. I've heard the stories about "I'll repeat the auditing question ..." That's what they say, right? When you don't answer the way they want during talk therapy/interrogations.

Another example is KSW: Keeping Scientology Working. A long preamble to every course you take which you are forced to read again and again.

But most curious to me is a remark an actor made in the Hollywood Reporter in 2011. He said that what most creeped him out was when, during a fundraiser at the celeb center, cultists would salute a photo of founder L. Ron Hubbard saying "To LRH" or some other such catchword. The thing is, they said it over and over. He claimed 20-30 times in a row. He found it fascist and Hitlery. Is this true?

I remember at fundraisers and other "events" giving a photo of LRH a "standing ovation" of sorts, and yelling "hip hip hooray" over and over and over....
Brings back bad memories.

Yes, they repeat, repeat, repeat.

Reminds me of the Devo lyric from Jocko Homo: "We must repeat."

There were times when I was in, and it still happens but less often, that people got annoyed with me for repeating myself. In the cult you get trained to acknowledge what people say, "ack" them. So if you're involved in $cientology and telling someone something and they don't ack what you tell them you tend to repeat it, looking for an ack.

The repetition when studying things is more than just having the same policy or directive again and again in different courses. With word clearing, after the misunderstood words are found the student is supposed to restudy the material. As well there is what they call a star rate checkout. This has a number of parts to it. First random words from whatever it is are picked and the student is told, "define ________." If the answer is not immediate/instantaneous, that's a flunk. The checkout is over. The student has to go look up the word and restudy whatever it is. After the words part they're asked questions about the stuff and then they have to do demonstrations of things with a demo kit.

Somewhere in the study materials Hubbard wrote, "Number of times over equals certainty." The only problem is that certainty in $cientology includes not questioning what Hubbard wrote or said. There's a security check question: "Is there anything L. Ron Hubbard wrote or said that you disagree with?" If the answer is, "yes" they find out what it is and whatever it is will be word cleared and checked out.

Then there's "Chinese School." "Conditions, existence, source." I think they've changed the order of those though. Without going into it, Chinese School involves a lot of repetition.

I don't know about the "to LRH" thing. It get's said at every meeting/muster/event, but I've never experienced it being repeated over and over. On the other hand if you were inside a $cientology org playing a drinking game where you had to take a sip every time someone said "LRH" you'd probably get very drunk. When they say, "To LRH" what follows is everyone stands, faces his picture and applauds, and then somebody will yell, "Hip hip" and they'll shout "Hooray!" This gets repeated three times in total. Do not shout "Huzzah!" They don't like that. I shouted, "Tiger!" one time after they had done three cheers. They all looked at me funny. I didn't do it again. In the drinking game that routine with the three cheers would merit a chugualug. ("Tiger!" is typically followed with "Rah!" only shouted with a growl. I think it's a football thing.)

Yes, "comm lag" = flunk! I think part of the brainwashing stragey is to "drill" you on something so much you can just spit the answer out instantly without thinking about it. It's more "robotic" that way, as opposed to critical thinking which takes time.

The one and only time I was @ a IAS event those massive photos of LRH flanked the left and right hand sides of the stage. Did not really mean anything to me until the flock got up at the dwarfs prompting and all then did the hip hip hooray thing. I was in the balcony @ the Ft Harrison and looked around me at my fellow wogs who were working the event. We all just kinda looked at each other with a big wtf was that all about gaze. Reminded me of the portraits of the fearless leader seen everywhere in North Korean.

It is not only repetition in Scientology training. It is also repetition in auditing actions. Some of the earliest auditing actions are called the "Objectives" which are physical actions done on the person being audited by the auditor. They are done over and over, sometimes for many hours. For example one called "book and bottle" where (correct me if I am remembering this incorrectly) there is a book on a chair, and at the opposite end of the room is a bottle on a chair. The auditor says "look at that book" ... "thank you" ... "walk over to it" ... "thank you" ... "pick it up" ... "thank you" ... "what is it's weight" ... "thank you" ... "what is it's color" ... "thank you" ... "put it down" ... and then the same for the bottle, back and forth, possibly for many hours -- until the preclear has a "COGNITION" and feels better. So much of auditing is like that. Dianetic audting is dealing with chains of painful incidents. Don't feel better? Then look for an earlier similar incident. Don't feel better, then there must be an earlier similar incident. On and on, until you have your cognition and your needle floats on the e-meter. On the OT levels? Deal with Body Thetans over and over, until you have that good old cognition. I have come to the conclusion that anything you do over and over, repetitively, will make you feel worse, and then eventually you feel better. It could be anything.... "Pick your nose, thank you, pick your nose, thank you, pick your nose.... ah you've had a cognition?" That's the way Scientology auditing works -- do it over and over. Total BS, but eventually there will be the cognition, and the needle will float. But the elation of the cognition is short-lived. Then you need more auditing of some new repetitive process to have another new cognition. And you will be one step closer to the total mind control that the Church of Scientology is seeking over you, where you become addicted and believe you must continue on up the bridge, or the pleasure of the the little ecstasies will stop. And you need these to believe you are moving up towards OT super-being levels.

That is also my theory. I did the TR's&Objectives, and it sometimes made me feel like "blowing" and kicking anyone's ass who tried to stop me on the way out. Maybe when you force youself to do those mentally painful things over and over, the brain realeases seratonin just in self defense. Auditing and processing are done to EP(end phenomena) which is usually a cognition or blowing off charge, or to F/N if an e-meter is being used. If an e-meter is not being used, then that's why you are sent to the Examiner afterwards to confirm that your needle is floating. Some say that what the floating needle actually indicates is a slight hypnotic trance. I believe it.

Yes, most likely something physical is occurring in the brain, perhaps endorphins ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorphin ) or some such thing. Whatever it is, it makes you feel good. However, unfortunately, you are not achieving what Scientology refers to as "Clear and OT" from it these little euphoric episodes. You are simply getting hooked on the euphoria, and the belief that you are achieving some advanced state of mind. That, plain and simple, is what draws people into Scientology and keeps them coming back for more. It certainly worked on me for a number of years as a public Scientologist and then for a few years as a staff member.

Yes, that euphoria, whatever causes it, is real and to a clam that is the proof that $cientology "works". And upon completion of a course or whatever, you may be immediately asked to write a "success story" (while still in a euphoric state). $cientologists also hold up these "success stories" as proof that $cientology "works". The CO$ charges rediculous fixed donations for auditing and training and all they really deliver in return is a temporary euphoria and a brainwashed belief that you are getting "gains"/"wins" from it.

For their enemies they have the less subtle attempt to slam dunk a thought into a head, a la sue to sparrow, "you're a suppressive person, you're a suppressive person, you're a suppressive..."

Yes, $cientology does work, but it works to a different end than what is advertized. In the meantime the $cientology organization works very hard to take everything away from the people involved with it.

'Oh, "everything?" That's suppressive. Can you be more specific?'

Money, family, friends, possessions converted into money, time, labor, etc. In short, everything.

As for the repetition there are things that repeat as cyclical. There is the immediate repetition, per the example with auditing, but there is repetition over a larger time span. There is roll call. This is done at the beginning of course sessions. It is done daily with lower org staff and as I understand it, more frequently for sea org staff members. There is a daily ritual with staff members at the beginning of their daily work schedule. It includes a pep talk from a senior staff member, an exercise ritual and Chinese school. There is the divisional or departmental staff muster. That happens every day. Among other things, targets for the day's production are set at those meetings. There is the ritual standing ovation and three cheers "to LRH." This happens at least once a day for staff members and at least once a day in each course room. It also happens at events. There are Thursdays. Thursdays are 'stat days.' I'm not going to go into detail but there is a ritual attached to Thursdays and it repeats weekly.

I think there is some discussion of ritual and repetition in William Sargant's Battle for the Mind. It would probably be worth going back over that book for me. I found it difficult to read as I was much more in a $cientology mind set going into it than I am now. I found it very helpful.

"It works!" is also suppressive. It's not specific about what it is intended to do nor about what it actually does. It is also suppressive in the sense that it does not lend itself to scrutiny. It doesn't matter what you say critical about $cientology because so what? it works! See how hyprocritical $cientology is? No, it's more like "it works, it works, it works, it works......"

It's an "old school" analogy, but it's like a needle on a broken record. It keeps repeating and repeating, and it's stuck right where it is. As you mentioned, $cientology works in the sense that it extracts everything from you. It also works in the sense that it does everything it can to keep you stuck in it.