What’s true for you is true

“What is true is what is true for you…if it is not true for you, it isn’t true.” — LRH

“True for you” is one of LRH’s most ingenious bits of tech, proof (to me, at least) that he really was an evil genius. A seemingly innocent and innocuous quote, the “true for you” concept is actually a keystone in Hubbard’s archway of deceit.

“True for you” is most often presented as a message to outsiders. In fact, “true for you” is aimed at insiders. It is the last line of defense for a Scientologist who is presented with incontestable evidence that LRH was a con man and Scientology is a fraud. When one is presented with facts that can’t be disputed by rational means, “true for you” provides an irrational way to dispute them – just decide they aren’t true for you, and poof, those facts become lies. It is the equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and blowing raspberries.

As sensible as it sounds, the “true for you” logic falls apart under even the most gentle scrutiny. Let’s say I tell you that I have twelve fingers. You count and come up with ten, but I insist that my count is true for me; therefore I have twelve fingers. How can you prove me wrong? Easy: Challenge me to wear twelve rings at once without doubling up on any digits. I won’t be able to do it. Ergo, even though having twelve fingers is true for me, it can be proven that it just isn’t true.

“True for you” also reinforces the Scientologist’s perception that he or she stays in Scientology because he or she wants to. In fact, the path to Scientology was carefully paved by LRH, a masterful series of steps designed to get people to trade their reality for Hubbard’s and accept that buying books, lectures, courses and certificates is the path to salvation. It is only when Scientologists start to see the cracks in the facade that they realize how deeply Scientology has woven itself into their lives. Leave Scientology behind, and so too do you leave your money, your time, your family and your friends. It’s way less painful to put the blinders back on and stay – and “true for you” is there to ease the blow.

What makes me both sad and angry about “true for you” is that Scientologists seem to see it as the ultimate expression of freedom. In fact, Hubbard coined that phrase as one of his most ruthless tools of enslavement.

And whether or not that’s true for you, it’s still true.

ML,
Caliwog