I want to know what people think I want a real discussion

It's a really great way to waste money and fill your brain with nonsense. Really effective.

 

Honestly, from what I’ve read and viewed, it appears to be a cult that capitalized on people’s vanity, fear and desire to feel special. And it seems all about the money.

 

Basic psychotherapy techniques married to an oppressive and controlling hierarchy with the aim of separating the vulnerable and gullible from their money.

 

It’s stereotyping bad religions that have questionable celebrity following it.

 

I think taht it's kind of strange that people are either totally against Scientology or totally for it.
You never hear of anyone from the outside saying that they think Scientology is okay. And you never hear an insider saying that some details are bad... well unless they left the organization...
I find that very weird.
Let's say that I'm a customer in a mall. I would guess that it would be okay for me to say that the store's veggies were not ALWAYS fresh even though I kept shopping there for other reasons? Why can't people say the same when they are in Scientology?

And that goes the other way around as well. I can choose not to shop in a store even though i like most of their concept. I don't HAVE to tell everybody how bad a shop is just because I don't shop in it.
I never hear those stories about Scientology where someone is saying: "Well I guess there courses are fine, I just can't afford them" or something like that. That makes me wonder a lot actually. And the papers in my country (Denmark) almost never write an article about Scientology. So for me it's not only Scientology that seems to hide stuff.

 

"Like" doesn't go far enough. You absolutely nailed it. Shakespeare or Winston Churchill couldn't have said it better.

 

I was once held captive for about half a day by a group of scientology recruiters.

It was sometime in the summer of 1982. I was in downtown Portland, Oregon, USA. It was about noon, I had just returned from making a job application and was debating whether I would go back to the unemployment office and look for another job opening, or find a nice air conditioned bar to go have a drink in. At this moment I was approached by a very attractive woman about my own age. She began to engage me in conversation. Right away I knew something was up. Sad as it is to have to say, really attractive women are not in the habit of walking up to me out of the blue and starting conversations. We were about a block away from the scientology headquarters building on southwest Broadway. So it was fairly easy to put 2 and 2 together and guess what her game was. When she got around to asking me what I thought it was she really wanted to talk with me about she seemed surprised that I had guessed it. Then she went into her pitch to get me to take the free personality test. I'll admit to being curious. I had heard of scientology but didn't really know anything about it. And I had all of the rest of the day free. And damn, this girl was hot! So I figured what the hell. I'll take their little test and find out what they are about. And maybe get somewhere with this girl? This was completely delusional of course. But to paraphrase that line from Dumb and Dumber,"So you're thinking there's a chance."
So I take the test. What an ordeal! Pages long, hundreds of questions. I begin to wonder if I really care enough about learning about scientology to spend this much time on it. Even though I felt pretty sure the whole thing was bullshit I wanted to be careful. On the off chance that this test might actually be able to give these people some insight into the inner workings of me, I began to answer some of the questions "wrong". That is to say, I would choose an answer that was different from the one I would choose if I answered honestly. Somewhat less than an eternity later I finish the test and am left alone for what again seems like an unreasonably long time. At last 2 scientology reps return and give me the results of my test. They more or less tell me that 1) I am really fucked up, 2) Because of this I need to take their Communications Course, 3) That's going to cost me $75.00. Remember, this is 1982 so that $75.00 is a way more substantial sum than it seems like now.
Okay, now I'm done. Or so I think. I explain to these gentlemen that the whole reason I was downtown in the first place is because I'm unemployed. I don't have 75 cents I would spend on their Communications Course. But no, now the real psychological manipulation begins. They keep going on about how fucked up I am, how I can never be happy or successful like this, and only this stupid course can fix me. This is so important! Do anything I can to raise the money. Get a loan, hit up family members ect., whatever. My life will be ruined forever if I don't take this course. No, can't put it off, have to do it now before it's too late! They go on and on and on and on...just will not take no for an answer. At last I say screw this, and tell them that the test results are meaningless because I gave false answers. So this is it , right? We're done? NOOOOO! This is even worse! This only proves that I am even more fucked up than my fake test answers made me look. And on it goes. They ask me a lot of questions about myself. And to the surprise of no one absolutely every response I give further proves how fucked up I am and how badly I need to take the Communications Course and how miserable my life will be if I don't. On and on it goes, an endless battery of coercive psychological manipulation. At some point they brought the hot girl back in. Good move on their part. If they were going to get me then getting me brain dead horny for her would do it. But by now even my delusional dumb ass had realized that all I was going to get from her was more sales pitch. All along I have made clear to them over and over again that I am not interested and want to leave. But wait, give us one more chance they say. Go talk to some real high up expert guy there and then if I'm still not convinced they'll stop. Now I am led, by the hot girl, along some internecine route deep into the headquarters building. I have no idea where I am now. I'm taken to a very small windowless room where I meet high up expert guy. He and as many as 3 at one time keep having a go at me. And I am told how his bullshit is so much more insightful and accurate because he is more high up and expert than the others. Sometimes I am left alone in the room for a while. And on it goes, they keep banging away with their message of my doomed life if I don't let them save me. And I keep pushing back, but every reason I give them for why I won't take the course is wrong for some reason. And further proof of how fucked up I am, of course. Eventually, they gave up and and led me back outside. All the while lamenting how miserable my life would be now because I wouldn't listen to them.

When I got back outside It was beginning to get dark. They had me in there for almost SEVEN HOURS! Now I have to accept some responsibility for this. While I didn't cave to the manipulation into taking the course, I did let them manipulate me into staying there way after I knew I was done. That's on me. I should have told them to fuck off and walked out right after I told them how I faked the test. I really can't understand why I didn't.

 

Wow, thats quite the event.

 

Well put