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Jefferson Hawkins
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Closing Minds: How Scientology's "Ethics Technology" is Used to Control Their Members Kindle Edition

by Jefferson Hawkins (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 97 ratings
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How does Scientology control its members? How does it convince them to avoid any negative information about Scientology? How does it persuade them not to look at critical information on the internet, on TV or in the press? How does it convince them to avoid or entirely disconnect from people who are critical of Scientology - even their close friends, their family members, or their own parents or children? All while loftily talking about “improving communication” and “searching for truth”?
In Closing Minds, former Scientology insider Jefferson Hawkins explores a body of information that Scientology calls “ethics technology.” However it has little to do with the subject of ethics as most people understand it. Instead, it forms a very sophisticated system of mental control. For anyone who has been a Scientologist, this book will reveal the subtle manipulations that you were subjected to. And for those who have never been in Scientology, it provides an informative peek behind the curtain and some understanding of how they command the unquestioning allegiance of their membership.
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  1. Print length
    92 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    February 17, 2015
  4. File size
    1282 KB
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00TQEJ8EU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hawkeye Publishing Company (February 17, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 17, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1282 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 92 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 97 ratings

About the author

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Jefferson Hawkins

Jefferson Hawkins

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Jefferson Hawkins spent 36 years inside the Church of Scientology, becoming one of its top marketing executives. He helped craft Scientology's polished public façade, which he now reveals as hiding a merciless world of physical and mental abuse, harassment, sleep deprivation, labor camps, family disconnection, and human rights violations.

Now an outspoken critic and whistleblower, Hawkins exposed the shocking abuses that go on at Scientology’s highest levels in his 2010 memoir, Counterfeit Dreams: One Man’s Journey Into and Out of the World of Scientology.

He has written two additional nonfiction books exposing Scientology's system of mind control: Leaving Scientology: A Practical Guide to Escape and Recovery, and Closing Minds: How Scientology's "Ethics Technology" is Used to Control Their Members.

Hawkins has appeared on the Emmy-winning A&E series, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, and was featured in Louis Theroux's My Scientology Movie. He was interviewed by the St. Petersburg Times for their groundbreaking series unveiling Scientology’s abuses, and appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 for CNN’s three-part exposé, “Scientology: A History of Violence.”

Today, Hawkins works as a graphic designer in Portland, Oregon. He continues to assist individuals and families who have been victims of Scientology abuse.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
97 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dean Blair
5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book written for those who are or have been ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2015
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A very good book written for those who are or have been in Scientology by an author who spent some 35 years as a member of the cult. It makes the Scientology ethics book make sense. If you disagree with Scientology, Hubbard, or the current little man in charge you are a suppressive person period. If you leave the cult and announce that you are leaving and specifically why, you are considered a suppressive person.

We should all be thankful that the the United States is not run on an ethics system created by L Ron Hubbard because if it were, we would be facing a situation like the people of North Korea. No freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, no freedom to leave or travel about the country, and no freedom to thrive and become prosperous. Everything you do would have to be approved by the leader and if you do not toe the line you would be executed or sent to a prison camp never to see your family again.

I have read all of the books and bulletins written by L Ron Hubbard. I have listened to all of his tape recorded lectures and experienced what it is like to be an employee of the Church of Scientology on staff in the Sea Org and the lower level orgs. I have also read all of the books those who have left Scientology have written and Jefferson Hawkins has done a superb job of analyzing L Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, and the organization known as the Church of Scientology.
13 people found this helpful
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Carisa Marion
4.0 out of 5 stars Good job
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2015
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I really enjoyed reading this analysis of the Ethics tech of Scientology. I was in the church for 33 years and had done all the various Ethics training courses making me a certified "Ethics Specialist". I found it interesting that Jeff had a similar cognition to my own first realization after leaving the church, that Confusion and the stable datum is how they replace the tech in your mind as the answer, the solution.

I had only one problem with the book. He states that no real crimes like murder or rape are included in the lists of ethics offenses. That is incorrect. The first entry under High Crimes is "Any felony (such as murder, arson, etc.) against person or property."

I wish everyone inside the church could read this book.
11 people found this helpful
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Chris B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing, revealing, and oh so true
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2015
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Having spent 13 years in Scientology including 7 years at the infamous International Base I can attest to Jeff's assessment of Scientology "ethics." I was one of the most highly-trained and audited people in Scientology (OEC/FEBC, class V C/S, OT IV) and the former head of one of the highest organizations in the Scientology world at Int. Regrettably I used this system of "ethics" to punish others and try to keep myself out of trouble. It was all about the group, nothing about the individual. Fortunately I never lost my sanity and had serious doubts about Scientology's system of "ethics" throughout my career with the group. After 2 stints on the "rehabilitation project force" and witnessing Miscavige's cruelty and inhumanity to man first hand I had enough. I was only able to leave when my father died and I was allowed (after extensive security checks and ethics "handlings" to ensure I wouldn't blow) to attend his funeral. I left a wife of several years behind who was ordered to disconnect from me as a newly-minted "suppressive person." That was 25 years ago and I am still haunted by the experience, made wholly insidious by the fact that we all began with an honest desire to help our fellow man. Not a suppressive characteristic. Thank you, Jeff, for having the courage, insight and articulation to write and publish this book. Be happy! Celebrate every day!
31 people found this helpful
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J
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it!
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2022
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A good read for anyone who wants to know how manipulative the scientology ethics and justice system is to its parishioners, those who wish to leave, and the billion year contract staff members. Jefferson Hawkins succinctly educates the reader in a well-written and easy to understand explanation of how it works and why they put up with it. He also explains that this is not a one-off way of manipulation, thought, emotion, and societal control. The ways of cults are all the same where are they make you believe it's one way in the beginning and as you get hooked, and the Frog slowly boils, it becomes another entirely different belief system.
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R. Stevens
5.0 out of 5 stars Very enlightening
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015
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I've been out of Scientology for over ten years. I have kept up with Church media reports. I have looked at lots of websites and watched lots of videos. But Jefferson Hawkins has really broken new ground here! He has deconstructed all the different parts of Scientology's ethics system, pointed out what the underlying intentions are, and all the flaws in it that never occur to Scientologists. He pointed out things that never even occurred to me!

There are lots of books critical about Scientology. But this is a short, easy to read book, and I believe it's a perfect first book for any questioning Scientologist to read.
4 people found this helpful
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Anon
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best...
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2016
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This is the single best book on the subject I've read, despite some recent great books. The reason is the logic and the power of his analysis. I don't there's ever been a better book that demonstrates the danger of the group and the way it needs to fend off any and all criticism. Anyone reading this will never trust anything the Co$ or its leaders say ever again.

In addition, it throws the people seeking to rehabilitate LRH - the "Freezone" people - into grave difficulties. I don't see how they can get out of that either.
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Mary
4.0 out of 5 stars A good look at how one goes down a rabbit hole.
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2015
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This book is a great read for anyone who has left scientology and is trying to understand how they got wrapped up in something beyond their control. You don't have to agree with all of it but I'm pretty sure you'll see yourself in at least some of it.
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Top reviews from other countries

Jens Tingleff
5.0 out of 5 stars The techniques by which scientology exercises undue influence, explained superbly well by an ex-member
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2015
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This book explains the mental prison of scientology as experienced by an ex-member. The L Ron Hubbard book "introduction to scientology ethics" is the main manual on how to distort the moral reality of the members, and Hawkins shows how this can be best understood as an instrument of control. Drawing on established works about coercive groups and adding his own experiences as a long-time member, Hawkins shows how "ethics" in scientology is really a control mechanism by which thr group makes the members police their own thoughts.

Referring to an older source, the following excerpt sums up the message of the book to me

"As Orwell pointed out in his novel 1984, “mind control” is not someone else controlling your mind, like a robot. True mind control is the person controlling his or her own mind according to the dictates of the group. This is done using thought-stopping mechanisms. Orwell uses the term “crimestop” to describe this. Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought"
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Maria
4.0 out of 5 stars a thorough look at one aspect of control by Scientology
Reviewed in Australia on March 2, 2015
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I have read all of Mr Hawkins books & find them very informative and easy to digest. The subject matter of Scientology can be difficult to get your head round as LRH contrived his own definition of almost everything and Mr Hawkins makes it understandable even to those of us who have never been in. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in understanding Scientology beliefs & the controlling force of the Church
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Mark NPM
4.0 out of 5 stars A truly devastating demolition-job
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2015
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It's always a pleasure to read anything new by Jefferson Hawkins, one of the more literate authors among the community of ex- and anti-Scientologists. Following on from 'Counterfeit Dreams', his autobiographical account of years spent trapped in the cult, this is possibly the clearest exposition yet of why so many apparently sane and intelligent people were taken in over the decades, first by an ignorant con-man like L Ron Hubbard, and latterly by a violent psychopath like David Miscavige. Taking as his text Hubbard's Machiavellian book 'Scientology Ethics', Mr. Hawkins proceeds to demolish it chapter by chapter, as well as the supposed philosophical basis of Scientology itself, in a series of linked essays (originally published in much shorter form at Tony Ortega's excellent 'Underground Bunker' website). Not only does this provide one of the clearest explanations yet for the cult's otherwise mystifying success to outsiders - but I think it will prove particularly helpful, even therapeutic, to those who have only recently escaped its mental prison. In fact, it should be required reading for all those still deluded enough to be members of Scientology.
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Stephen R.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent description ofScientology's Mind-Control techniques
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2017
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Thorough analysis of Scientology's 'Ethics' system, which is used to gain control over its members. Explains how 'the end justifies the means' is at the core of this system. This example of Utilitarian ethics is a Hallmark characteristic of cults and totalitarian regimes.
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