If you count the study of oneself and the training that it requires to control the minds of others then Charles Manson might have been considered a founder of a different branch of Scientology. Otherwise however, he was little more than a manipulator that thought he was miles above what he really was. The glorification and glamorization of Charles Manson in his own time and even now seems a rather morbid thing to discuss and is infuriating in some regards because there were those that believed in what he was ‘preaching’ and defended him all the way to the end. Madness has a way of gripping the mind and not letting go, and Scientology, while meant to be pure and less than harmful in its own way, is still a useful tool to gather hearts and minds of those that are ready to follow.
Maybe being something of a crazed cynic has ruined me to the ways of following, but it could also be the idea that walking one’s own path is far more appealing than traipsing freely after someone that knows how to get into the heads of those willing to follow him. This was what Charles Manson did. He found those that were wanting to believe in something, or someone, troubled souls that needed a calling to follow, and he worked what some people thought was magic. His words of suggestion in their troubled thoughts pulled at insecurities and eventually turned them to his will so that they would do anything he asked if just kept talking to them, assuring them that they were in the right.
Manson took Scientology and warped it to his own needs and ends. Scientology is more about seeking fulfillment through self-discovery. Manson used this and other methods to bend the minds of others to his own will, proving that he wasn’t just a huckster out looking for a thrill, he was a very dangerous and charismatic person that was seeking to build something that few if any people would really understand and even less would agree to be a part of. He managed to wreck the lives of so many with mere words and beliefs that he could be counted as one of the most notorious criminal minds throughout American culture. Many say that he was crazy and completely unbalanced, but in many ways Charles Manson was far smarter than people gave him credit for.
As far as being the father of Scientology, that title belongs to L. Ron Hubbard who founded Scientology as a religion in 1954. Manson has no more right to the title than he did to the lives he helped to take so many years ago. Does that sound harsh? Perhaps, but to be quite honest when the year in review comes out and the tally is taken of how many celebrities and noted individuals passed away in 2017, and there have been a few, I get the feeling that Charles Manson is one that will not be overly lamented by that many people, if any.
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