By “personal experience,” I mean either being a member or former member of that faith, or having a relative or more-than-casual acquaintance who is a member or former member. I’m curious if there are any stories worth sharing.
Hmmm. My first “job” when I left home was as a PC technician for a company run by a bunch of renegade Scientologists (“squirrels,” in Scientology’s vernacular,) and I ended up living on the premises and getting exposed to much of the Scientology deal that way, as far as beliefs and practices is concerned. Very peculiar time. I was fifteen. It was a weird time, but I just rolled my eyes at most of it, and laughed about it with my friends.
A few years after that, I lived with my sister’s ex-boyfriend and his son. He had been in the CoS for years, and had gotten my sister into it. He had been “on course” for long enough to be well into the OT levels, and he had an enormous bookshelf that was almost entirely Scientology literature. I read a lot of that stuff, for entertainment. (I even read the entire Mission: Earth series. Hee hee!) That guy worked two jobs, played nights in a band that did alright, and still had no clothes or anything – everything was about moving along the Bridge. Course materials, trips to Clearwater, auditing, and on and on… Boggles the mind.
Stories? Oh, I got stories. Some of them are hilarious, some of them are alarming, and some of them are just sad.
I used to pick his son up from a private Scientology school. The kids there don’t get sent to the principal when they misbehave, they get sent to “Ethics,” get lectured in Scientology terms, and submit to “drills.” I saw a typical playground mishap (kid with the wind knocked out of him, or a skinned knee, or summat, I forget) met with a “Touch Assist.” This is a standard Scientology way of communicating with an embodied thetan: The minder touches the person in several places, each time asking, “Do you feel that?” until there’s an affirmative answer. Then the person is reminded where they are, because that’s important. Watching a gaggle of juveniles in school uniforms have arguments in Scientology jargon is creepier than Village of the Damned, let me tell you.
Uh, what else? For some perverse reason, my sister’s Scientologist ex-boyfriend was the only other person apart from my mother present when my brother died, and he went into the Scientology equivalent of the Last Rites, speaking to my brother while he was in coma, encouraging him to let go of his body, etc. I’m sure that from his point of view it was the right thing to do, but since he was the only Scientologist in the room and it caused my mother no small amount of additional distress, I’m still a bit choked about that.
I suppose there are better stories than that, but damned if I can remember anything right now, and I’d better be off to bed. I can say that my sister was insufferable during the period after she bought into Scientology but before the moment she realized that it was a bunch of hoo-hah – but that’s all I’ll say. I love my sister.
Probably too peripheral for the purpose of the OP, but in my first job out of college, my boss joined Scientology. I still remember her coming back one day and announcing that she had quit the psychiatric therapy she had been doing and started a “new therapy”.
Became unbearable. She had scientologists come to the office offering us classes. When an employee screwed up, she threatened to fire you. But you were off the hook if you took a class from one of the Scientology affiliates.
I made it about another month before I quit.
Two of my younger cousins joined, about about 30 years ago. One got out of it, but has struck me as a rather a slick, manipulative person, and one is still in it. In for life, by now, I suppose. I don’t know them any more, though, so no stories. Hmm, funny that, about not knowing them any more, I mean. 
I mainly remember that they tried quite hard to get my brothers into it (I had vanished off to university, so was kind of out of their reach)
I was once blown up in a volcano but I don’t think it’s connected.
I saw a DC-8 at an aviation museum once, but I don’t think that’s connected either.
When I was in high school, I was hanging out at a friend’s house when he made the “confession” to me that his dad had been very high up in Scientology but was now out and I was not to tell anyone. At the time I didn’t know much about Scientology so I didn’t understand why this was such a big deal. My recollection is that it wasn’t that he was IN Scientology that was such a big deal, it was that leaving when he’d reached (IIRC) level 8 or 9 was a dangerous thing to do and there were people out there who would be very very displeased.
It was kinda creepy. I had no opinion before that, but afterwards my impression of Scientology was that it was a shadowy, scary group.
My only experience was having to have one or more thrown out of the hospital every day when they would visit random patients and try to convince them to convert, leave the hospital and give up their savings.
The main Scientology campus was three blocks from the hospital. Many of the patients didn’t speak english, so a stranger in a black suit badgering them was rather frightening.
My first experience with the Church of Scientology was in 1986 during a college internship in Washington, D.C. I ran across a free coupon for a film called “What Happened To These Civilizations?” which was shown at the local Dianetics Center, and it seemed pretty interesting so I decided to check it out.
I never saw the film…for some reason, the people at the Center couldn’t find it. I did get to see a few general propoganda films about Dianetics, the life of L. Ron Hubbard, etc. Took a personality test, and they sold me a Dianetics book, with the promise that I could return it for a refund if I didn’t like it.
The book was a bunch of gobbledygook nonsense (basically, the theme seemed to be that everyone’s mother has tried to abort their baby with a coat hanger, and sticking the fetus while saying certain words implants “engrams” in the Reactive Mind, which is the reason the human race is so fucked up) so I decided to get my money back. The lady at CoS was taken aback – according to her, no one had actually returned a Dianetics book before. She did refund my money, but suggested that I accept a “free auditing session” before I walk out the door forever.
Now…I was raised as a Fundamentalist Christian, so I’d had it drilled into my head since an early age to be wary of “cults”, like the Unification Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons (don’t ask) – however, I’d never heard of Scientology before, not ever. And while I was very cognizant of things to watch out for when contacting a “cult” – love bombing, sleep depravation, giving away material possessions – the CoS didn’t match any of that. Indeed, before my auditing session, they told me to get a full night’s sleep & eat a protein-laden breakfast, to gain the best mental state possible. Plus, I was pretty skeptical about Christianity back then, and was still “finding myself” so to speak, and the word “Science” in the church’s name appealed to me, so I decided to give it a shot.
The auditing session was nothing special…you’re lead into a tiny room, where you sit across from the “auditor” while holding tin cans attached to an E-meter. The auditor counts to 10 until your close your eyes, sort of like hypnosis except you can remember everything. Then the auditor asks questions, and you answer or volunteer your own information – I don’t remember much about what we talked about, except it was stuff I’d never talked about with anyone before, general childhood trauma and stuff like that. Oh, and the session ends with the auditor saying “CANCELLED!” very loudly, to clear out any engrams that may have been accidentally triggered by the auditing session. (Whatever.) However, I do remember, once the session was over, feeling a great sensation of relief & elation, like some great weight had been lifted and I was re-connected with the universe, probably no different than what you’d get from talking to a professional therapist or a psychic advisor, or even some random person on the street. Talking about painful stuff does that to people. But I didn’t know it then…I just had a moment of clarity, thinking I’d discovered something secret and special. I paid for a few more auditing sessions and took a class (which I don’t remember the name of) – spent about $150 all told, and finally decided that this was what I was looking for, this was the organization I wanted to spend the rest of my life connected with.
(Ironically, this experience was co-incidental with, or perhaps even triggered, a major LSD flashback which lasted for several days. At the peak of this trip, I could see “aliens” embedded in people, especially at the Scientology Center. Not so much the people who worked there, but some of the auditors and especially the higher church members who were always walking in & out. I’d never heard of Xenu or the Thetans before, so…make of that what you will.)
(Of course, it doesn’t explain the squirrels in the park who were Russian spies…but I’m getting off topic here.)
Back to the real world…the internship ended, so I gave the CoS my home address, but told them I would contact the Los Angeles church independently. However, the first thing I did in L.A. was talk to a friend of my mother about this, and she sent me a Playboy interview with L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., a dropout from the church and a notorious Suppressive Person. That’s how I learned just how EVIL and DANGEROUS this cult was, so I never bothered with them again. I did get several bills in the mail for classes & sessions I never took, but that was it – no harassing phone calls, no threatening letters, nothing like that. Apparently, I never gave them any useful “blackmail” material in my auditing sessions…I lead a dreadfully boring life, up 'tilthen.
Years later, me & a couple friends were “kidnapped” by clams at the Scientology center in Hollywood…but I’ll leave that story for a different time. 
All i know is that on July 7th 2005 several Priests, Imams and other religious ministers came to the bombed stations and associated hospitals in London to offer their services to those shocked and distressed by their experiences.
And then a group of Scientologists came and because they muttered the word ‘church’ were given the same respect afforded to the other pastoral leaders. They got in and targeted vulnerable survivors, moved them away from others and proceeded to tell them that this bad thing that had happened was all their own fault. To repair their soul they could take Scientology classes. Naturally they would be billed later.
I think that pretty much sums up this cult.
In 1986 I was given an invitation to an interview by Scientologists. In the course of this session I said I was seeing a psychiatrist. They belittled psychiatry, and I bridled–and cut the session short. I have too much respect for psychiatry (and the doctor I had sessions with) to accept the persuasion of strangers who know nothing about my situation (“walk a mile in my moccassins”).
I knew it. When I watched that documentary on Mount St. Helens at the IMAX at the Seattle Aquarium, I thought to myself, “Somehow, Cervaise was involved.” But I thought everyone got that feeling.
My Father-in-law’s wife and her daughter and son-in-law are all Scientologists. It really conflits me, because the two ladies are way up there amongst my favorites in my wife’s family, both loving, kind, caring people who have supported me and the missus through hard & happy times.
And yet, FIL’s wife insists that she has memories of being a bear in North America in one of her previous lives - and I just don’t know how to respond to that… in love at least…
There has never been any pressure to join their cult, and they have been interested in and supportive of our faith.
Grim
I deny everything.
I lived in Hollywood for a few years. Had several freinds and cow-orkers in Scientology, even one working at the "Celebrity center’ or whatever they called it. She even went out on the yacht once. Her job was to “serve” L-Ron- but all she’d admit to is standing around with a silver tray with cigs and a lighter, and lighting his cigs for him. Cute girl, but a real space cadet.
Bad things- the more or less “normal” dudes were turned wierd, paranoid and kept trying to suck the rest of us in. The “church” :dubious: not only sucked all their money, they even had them max out their credit cards to get more “classes”. Two of them started smoking (drugs are bad, smoking is good).
Good thing- one dude was a druggie, and he got clean with Scientology. They sucked all the $$ out of him too, but the drugs would have done that anyway. I hate to give them any credit, but there it is.
I suppose, if you were a druggie, and couldn’t afford those rehab centers, *and * you just couldn’t do AA/NA , then I guess Dianetics is another way. :dubious:
That will do you no good; I have pictures. Admittedly they’re digitally manipulated to show you atop Mt. St. Helen’s holding aloft a baby goat you are about to hurl into the lava, but they will serve my purpose.
My only real experience was being told in my job at Australia Post that although the CoS was a regular and large mailer, unlike nearly all other mailers of that type who have an account, the CoS’ account was terminated, and everything was to be strictly CASH or we wouldn’t accept their mail. In addition, the CoS guy dropping off the mail was made to wait while somebody did a thorough check of it because in the past, they’d mix overseas stuff in with the local stuff and claim it was all local. Not that it mattered back then, because they usually didn’t pay us anyway.
Anyone have first-hand knowledge of the supposed OT-VIII “alien origin of the world’s religions” lecture?
One of the local new items that makes the rounds is whether or not a Scientology-based rehab center should be allowed to be built.
Personally, I’m all for whatever makes my brother-in-law [del]disappear from my life[/del] get clean.
Remember Synanon?