Break the Circle

I am often amused about the "Status Quo" and the urge of many to keep it as such. I have never been one to do anything "because everybody else is doing it." I think my parents broke me of these urges whenever I wanted to do something (usually of a non-survival nature) because somebody else was doing it. When my mother would confront me on something I shouldn't have been doing and I said it was because (Johnnie) was doing it, she always countered with, "If (Johnnie) jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you?"

My parents always taught me to think for myself and I thank them profusely for that. I take a look around at today's society and see many people robotically going through life. It reminds me of the scene in the Turkish prison in the excellent movie "Midnight Express in which the prisoners were walking in a circle in a room and Billy Hayes tried to walk the other way and break the "trance" of the other prisoners. They just couldn't have him walking the other way - they did everything they could to make sure he didn't ruin the pattern. Eventually he broke from the circle and that was the beginning of him coming to his senses again.

Are you walking around in a circle? Do you study the information you get from the media before you accept it as gospel or do you assume it's true because it's coming from the media? When you hear commercials for some new wonder drug that "everybody's taking", do you ask your doctor for a prescription or do you investigate the drug and its side effects? Do you try to find out if there's any scientific evidence that the drug will do what the commercial claims? Do you accept that a disease has genetic origins just because the "experts" claim it exists or do you actually do some research on the subject?

In Scientology, I have learned to think for myself. If you've been "walking in the circle," you have probably heard some negative opinions of Scientology and Scientologists. Have you ever attempted to learn anything about the subject first-hand? Have you ever actually met a Scientologist? If not, you need to "break out of the circle" and get some first-hand information. You should meet some Scientologists. You will be amazed that your own perception of the religion and its adherents once you have had first-hand experience will be quite different than the perception fed to you by the media.

Break the circle