YOU KNEW, AND STILL JOINED

[Elronius of Marcabia]

The op is wrong because it overgeneralizes.

what does "op" mean Claire ?

 

[Claire Swazey]

what does "op" mean Claire ?

The post that started the thread.

 

[Elronius of Marcabia]

The post that started the thread.

ah "opening post" then

Thanks Claire

 

[uniquemand]

My father thought it was a Satanic ripoff. Therefore, I joined.

 

[eldritch cuckoo]

No joke? oO

 

[uniquemand]

I was interested in the auditing. Tried it at home. Tried to talk to my father about it, but he made the mistake of ridiculing me, and I had a monstrous chip on my shoulder. Face/nose-type thing.

 

[Magoo]

I did NOT know. ((Me in 1969: :confused2: ))

I had been a "hippie" in San Francisco, tried drugs, tried Eastern Religions...

But they were hard to "Apply". Then these kids I knew from High School gave me this book,

Dianetics. I asked, "What is it about?" They said: "It's an applied philosophy". ((Note: Had they said it was a religion,
I would have never gone)).

THAT WAS MY PROBLEM with the Eastern Religions!!

They said, "You can have it". I read 3 chapters (about being an auditor and helping others).

I quit college, and hitch hiked from Chicago to LA.

30 YEARS later..................I fully woke up and escaped OUT: Never to return ever again.

Thank GAWD we're OUT

Tory/Magoo

 

[Churchill]

I did NOT know. ((Me in 1969: :confused2: ))

I had been a "hippie" in San Francisco, tried drugs, tried Eastern Religions...

But they were hard to "Apply". Then these kids I knew from High School gave me this book,

Dianetics. I asked, "What is it about?" They said: "It's an applied philosophy". ((Note: Had they said it was a religion,
I would have never gone)).

THAT WAS MY PROBLEM with the Eastern Religions!!

They said, "You can have it". I read 3 chapters (about being an auditor and helping others).

I quit college, and hitch hiked from Chicago to LA.

30 YEARS later..................I fully woke up and escaped OUT: Never to return ever again.

Thank GAWD we're OUT

Tory/Magoo

Gawd bless you, Tory!

 

[Gib]

actually,

I never joined, I always had a skeptical viewpoint:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism

The apparency with the COS was that I joined, but I never did really. And they (Hubbard, thru his lectures) tried constantly to make me, but I always had some skepticism.

 

[anonomog]

Gawd bless you, Tory!

I was interested in the auditing. Tried it at home. Tried to talk to my father about it, but he made the mistake of ridiculing me, and I had a monstrous chip on my shoulder. Face/nose-type thing.

It has crossed my mind that this is what will keep the COS supplied with fresh meat. Good old fashioned teenage rebellion.




Hmm. Not sure how Gawd bless you, Tory! Got into this post, but the sentiment is worth repeating, so stay it does.

 

[Demented LRH]

This is a thread for those who were exposed to negative or critical or ridiculing information about Hubbard and Scientology, and became involved anyway.Whether it was during the pre-Internet era, or the Internet era, YOU KNEW, yet you STILL JOINED.I can fully understand if no one wants to post anything on this thread.I particularly don't want to think about it either.Embarrassing.

My case is a bit different – I didn’t know, but I should have known. When I was taking Level 0 course, our course supervisor told us not to read certain LA Times article because it contained OT data, the article was published in 1985. I was an atheist at that time and believed in Dianetics only, I didn’t think that OT data would harm me in any way. I went to a public library and asked for the article contacting the OT data. But the librarian told me that I should go through the pile of newspaper issues since I didn’t know the data of publication. I was too lazy to do that. But seeing the Hubbard-Xenu shit would have been enough to keep me away from the cult.

 

[Soul of Ginnungagab]

The op is wrong because it overgeneralizes.

what does "op" mean Claire ?

The post that started the thread.

ah "opening post" then

Thanks Claire

Actually it refers to the poster, I mean the person who posted, so it means "Original Poster".

 

[Elronius of Marcabia]

Actually it refers to the poster, I mean the person who posted, so it means "Original Poster".

 

[EZ Linus]

I'm reviving this very embarrassing thread. Although, scanning through it, it seems it is not all that embarrassing for most. Most people didn't know.

I admit. I knew quite a bit. I'll tell you a little bit and they may sound like excuses because I of course don't want to look stupid, but whatever, I was really young and who is all that smart when they are so young?

It was all pre-internet. I first got into it in a unique way. I was 12 and my brother was 15. It was my brother that was introduced to it by an adult outside of our family who had one foot in and one foot out of the church at the time. He was mentored in through books and taking some courses at Flag. I read the books he brought home and had no idea there was even a "org" near me for about a year, nor would I go in because I already felt there was a separation between the org and the tech. We were kind of anti-org.

I finally went in at 13 and thought they were all weird and very soon after saw a big 20/20 expose and told my "terminal" at the org/mission that I wasn't coming back in. But I still believed in the tech.

At 16, I went back - to AOLA to get free auditing (my Objectives). After a few weeks of that (and some extremely odd things that happened with my young auditor - whose family/household I was living with), I blew and was convinced that Scientology was a brainwashing cult!

Yes!

Why would I go back after that three years later?

There were reasons, but now that I get to this part, I feel I can't say them aloud. I've said too much already.

All I can say is that people largely get sucked into cults typically when they have been through a series of losses and/or life changing-events and they are extremely vulnerable.

 

[guanoloco]

I had two people I trusted recommend Dianetics and I had come across some slick advertising.

Then I bought and read several books and found out a close friend was doing the same. I involved a 3rd and 2 out of 3 of us ran down the yellow brick road.

By the time I came across negative press it was too late...plus the negative press was embelished and inaccurate. To be honest, even if it was the straight dope I doubt it would've been enough; however, I am confident I would've woke up sooner.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, blame, shame, regret....

 

[Wilbur]

I'm reviving this very embarrassing thread. Although, scanning through it, it seems it is not all that embarrassing for most. Most people didn't know.

I admit. I knew quite a bit. I'll tell you a little bit and they may sound like excuses because I of course don't want to look stupid, but whatever, I was really young and who is all that smart when they are so young?

It was all pre-internet. I first got into it in a unique way. I was 12 and my brother was 15. It was my brother that was introduced to it by an adult outside of our family who had one foot in and one foot out of the church at the time. He was mentored in through books and taking some courses at Flag. I read the books he brought home and had no idea there was even a "org" near me for about a year, nor would I go in because I already felt there was a separation between the org and the tech. We were kind of anti-org.

I finally went in at 13 and thought they were all weird and very soon after saw a big 20/20 expose and told my "terminal" at the org/mission that I wasn't coming back in. But I still believed in the tech.

At 16, I went back - to AOLA to get free auditing (my Objectives). After a few weeks of that (and some extremely odd things that happened with my young auditor - whose family/household I was living with), I blew and was convinced that Scientology was a brainwashing cult!

Yes!

Why would I go back after that three years later?

There were reasons, but now that I get to this part, I feel I can't say them aloud. I've said too much already.

All I can say is that people largely get sucked into cults typically when they have been through a series of losses and/or life changing-events and they are extremely vulnerable.

Your entrance to Scn sounds similar to mine in some ways, Linus. I went to my local org after buying a Dianetics book, from a leaflet I was given in the town centre. I read it, went into the org, experimented with it a bit by doing a couple of courses, observed the people in the org, and was increasingly concerned that it looked very cult-like. The culmination was probably when I didn't go in on course one day, and then found an org terminal on my doorstep. It shocked me.

I then stayed away from the org for almost a year, but the fact is there were things in my life that I wanted to handle - I felt dead spiritually at the time. That was what got me back in. I was hopeful that the org could help me to "come alive" again spiritually. Although I knew that the org was cult-like in its behaviour, the Scientology tech seemed to have solutions that might work for me. So there was an element of desperation, and nothing else I had looked at seemed to have solutions.

I remember that in the early days, I used to feel a significant amount of trepidation when I went into the org. My heart would pound and I would feel the adrenaline going as I approached the org. At the time, being a teenager, I was going through a bit of a crisis with my sexuality, and I had done one or two things of a sexual nature with others of the same sex. I had divulged this information to NO-ONE in my life. Homosexuality wasn't a thing you divulged to people when I was a kid. I thought that the trepidation I felt was related to the prospect of having my withholds pulled. And it took me almost a year to pluck up courage to give that information to an auditor.

I did get something out of having those withholds pulled. And that was probably the big benefit that I got out of Scientology - having someone to whom I could tell everything (though sometimes I found it tedious having to give the SAME everything to different auditors). At the time, I couldn't find anything else that gave one this kind of opportunity. But looking back, I don't think the FORMAT of withhold pulling was what benefitted me (all the earlier-similar stuff, etc). I suspect that that is pseudo-science. In some ways, the E/S thing got in the way. I think a more workable format for me would have just been "tell me whatever you like, about anything you have been withholding from others", or "is there anything in your life that you don't feel comfortable communicating to others" and then just let me say what I want until I was flat on it. So I'm not convinced that the benefit I got from it couldn't have been gotten from any talk therapy that focused on the issues you were afraid of discussing with others.

I grew out of the confusion over my sexuality, but that happened after I left Scientology. What did it was meeting a member of the opposite sex whom I liked. But while I was in Scientology, I witnessed two homosexuals having their sexuality used as leverage to get them in the org, or to manipulate them into paying for auditing. I also discovered that senior members of the org would know everything about you after a session, even though they had no legitimate reason to be told about your auditing contents (they weren't the C/S, Senior C/S, auditor, or anyone involved with your case). This APPALLED me. Though I wasn't all that bothered in the end whether people knew my personal stuff, it appalled me that they didn't take the auditor's code, or priest-penitent privilege (don't make me laugh) seriously.

W.

 

[ThetanExterior]

Unlike most people I actually had a hard time getting into Scientology.

I'd bought the Dianetics book by mail order and I wanted to go Clear so I wrote a letter (this was before we had email) to the organization nearest to me. After a few weeks I hadn't had a reply so I wrote another letter to AOSH UK asking if they knew any Dianetics auditors near me. They replied by telephoning me and telling me about the organization I'd already written to. After that conversation I just assumed this was a hopeless situation and I didn't know what to do to get some of this auditing.

A few weeks later I had a phone call from the first organization I'd written to. They'd found my letter in an old building they hardly ever used anymore. This was the address listed in the Dianetics book! They said: "Your auditor's waiting for you" which took me by surprise. I wasn't used to being rushed into anything but they wanted me to go straight there and I'd waited for so long that I agreed.

At this point the only knowledge I had of L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology was from the Dianetics book I'd bought.

I went on to have about 50 hours of Dianetics auditing to no result. Then I was put on a communications course that I didn't want and I was made to do the Purification Rundown which I didn't want and got no results from.

Yet I persisted because I still hadn't realised that it was legally possible for someone like Hubbard to publish a book that contained lies.