AboutLaurie Hamilton Expertise I am able to answer questions regarding Scientology practices and procedures, belief system, donations, religious rites, management, administrative and staff matters.
Experience I am a second generation Scientologist whose parents began in Dianetics in 1950 and studied directly with L. Ron Hubbard. I have been personally active in the church for 40 years, have eleven years former staff experience in both technical and administrative areas, and extensive technical and administative training and counseling. I am "clear" and "OT." I come from an extended family of many religions, but my spouse and children are Scientologists, as are my siblings and their spouses, several cousins, nieces, nephews, an aunt, and an uncle. Between us we have had every good and bad experience one might go through in the church at every level.
Question Hi Laurie. It's been a little while...I hope you're well.
I wanted to ask you a question about spotting 1.1s in real life. I've read science of survival and plenty of other data/lectures on the subject so I understand what a 1.1 is and how they're fearful creatures with hidden terrors. What I want to know is how you, yourself, spot them.
Since a 1.1 is usually very covert and determined to paint themselves as your friend, what is a suitable way to spot them? I read on a website that 1.1s are usually cheerful hypocrites who love puns, use joking sarchasm to prevent from taking things literally and that you'll know they're 1.1 within five minutes of meeting them because they instantly start trying to introvert you.
Would you agree with that?
Answer Except for the "within five minutes" part, I would not disagree with most of the characterization you mentioned. While by no means a universal description of ALL 1.1s, the line does describe someone who IS 1.1.
1.1's do not have to appear humorous, though. They can seem quite serious, even solicitous of your well-being. They can also seem sad, or bored, or fearful. The point is, they are COVERTLY hostile, so the only thing you know about the face they show you is that it is a put-on that they feel will serve their purpose in that moment.
A really good set of ear-markers is the list of attributes laid out by Ron here:
The whole purpose of that list of attributes is specifically to outline a "suitable way to spot them."
In my case, it generally only takes a brief conversation with or a few remarks thrown out by such a character in order for me to be on alert. With really, really clever ones, however, it can take quite a while. The longest it ever took me to spot one involved a guy who had training in Scientology writings, who knew what signs someone like me would be looking for, and so took extra pains to hide them - especially from me. To make matters worse, he constantly sought my help and pretended take my advice, and even paid me to consult with him. While it was clear that there were problems in his life, it was not clear for a long time that not only was he NOT following my advice, (because he pretended to follow it and praised it to the skies) he was in fact undermining me to others and using my own comm lines while poisoning them against me.
What finally exposed him fully to me was not something HE did, but things done and said by friends of mine whom he was turning against me. That laid bare his behind-the-scenes activity that he had gone to such great pains to conceal.
Point being - people on the whole tend not to be smarter "than average," nor terribly sophisticated in devising ways to fool others. Statistically speaking, if you're of middle intelligence, half the population is going to be "dumber" than you - and of those who are "smarter" than you, the first 20% or so of these will be within fairly easy reach of your ability to figure them out. For this reason, a garden-variety 1.1 might be a plain as the nose on your face. But some people are not only smarter than the average bear, but also more crafty than you could possibly imagine in the ways they conceal their hostility. Those are the ones who do the most damage before you finally catch on to what they are doing. The harm a 1.1 does can NEVER be hidden forever. So no matter how smart or clever they are, "by their fruits shall ye know them."
