r/LetsNotMeet
•Posted byu/theaflair
2 months ago
My experience with the church of Scientology
Epic
This happened when I was around 17 years old and is still happening now. At 17 I felt lost in the world and stuck in a job I disliked with work colleagues that didn’t like me. This had to do with my accent as I was quite well spoken so they thought I was a rich kid.
It all started on a Friday after work. The factory I worked in had a half-day on Fridays, so I would just spend the rest of the day wondering around the city I lived in. It had been a tough day of relentless mocking and I was reaching my braking point. I went around the city looking for a new job. I visited the police recruitment centre, the army, navy and air force centres and even the International Red Cross. I just wanted to get away from it all.
After a few hours, I had a bag full of career pamphlets and still no idea what to do with my life. I turned a corner and immediately saw a sign sitting in front of me. I can remember it so vividly now. It said “Free Personality Test! Are YOU curious about yourself? Come in!”. I then looked up at the building and in a big fancy sign outside it said, “The church of Scientology”.
Now before I continue, YES, I already knew about scientology however, I had a morbid curiosity about it. I had heard all the horror stories and goings on inside the church. But Tom Cruise was my favourite actor and he seemed to have his life sorted out pretty good. My famous last words right there… So, I went inside.
I was immediately greeted by a very nice lady. She asked me how I was doing and what she could do for me today. I asked if I could speak to somebody about the church and the personality test. She smiled and said “I would be happy to! Please take a seat and I will get you someone to speak too.”. After a minute, I was introduced to an older man named Alan and he was the head of my cities Scientology centre.
Alan took me to a small room to talk privately. When we entered, I immediately noticed the large picture of L Ron Hubbard on the wall.
We sat down and genially had a nice talk. I told him about how I was unhappy about where my life was going. I told him about how I wanted to leave plus all the trouble I was having at work. He seemed genuinely concerned for me and I felt like he wanted to help.
After a while of talking, I agreed to do the personality test. He gave me the test and left the room saying to give the test to the receptionist after I had finished. TWO HOURS LATER I finished it. Not joking, that’s really how long it took. It was around 500 questions about anything and everything.
I handed it in to the receptionist, and she told me it would take some time to process. In the meantime, Alan had told her to take me to their private cinema and show me a film. I thought it was just going to be some old room in the back with a TV on the wall, but no. They did indeed have a private cinema! It could seat around 50 people and had a large screen in the front. It did feel a bit weird just being by myself in a cinema owned by scientology. But I bet that hasn’t happened to many people! Or maybe it has?
Anyway, I sat down, and they played me the film. It was about 30 minutes long and consisted of a narrator explaining those strange feelings you sometimes get, with some mediocre acting following along. I remember a section about how much you doubt yourself. Knowing you have locked a door but going back to check multiple times. At one point the film showed how a past event that happened to your mother while she was pregnant with you, could affect your life in a negative way. (Example: Your mother was sick on a flight, so you are scared of flying.) I also vaguely remember something about rotten eggs and how much an event involving them can hurt you. I know it sounds absurd but in some ways the film really made sense to me.
When the film was done, I was taken to Alans office and he told me my results. He told me I was extremely depressed, one of the most unmotivated people he had even met, lacking cognitive thinking and I was a waste of talent! Now this made me very upset, but Alan said he could help me. He gave me about four books and a DVD. He told me to read the books and watch the film before my course. I asked, “What course” and Alan told me he had signed me up to do a course at the centre. He convinced me that if I didn’t do this course that my life would soon spiral out of control. He made me had over quite a lot of money for the course and said I would receive an email about the course which was in a months’ time.
I left the centre, ran home, and immediately started reading the books I was given. This happened all over the weekend. I had basically locked myself in my room and did nothing but read and re-read those books and watch the DVD over and over again.
Over the next week I began taking notes about myself and my family, I emailed Alan with questions and concerns, I started resenting my mother for my life. I began to think that she was the problem, that everything bad that happened to me was the result of her. I started to treat her badly. Swearing at her and did the best I could to ignore her. When I emailed Alan about my mother, he told me that if she was the catalyst for my problems then maybe I should consider “Disconnecting from her”. And I took that BULLSHIT seriously! I made plans to totally leave her out of my life.
A week before my course I developed some kind of god complex towards everyone around me. What I read in those books told me what I could become. I saw everyone in my family as bellow me. I really became a truly spiteful person.
Just days before my course I was confronted by my mother and father. They said they were concerned about me and they searched my room. My dad took out all of my scientology books and the DVD. I was outraged. I screamed and cursed at my parents. I said horrible wicked things to them. I told them how I was going to leave them and how I never wanted to see them again. Hours of arguing back and forth, tears and crying. However, in the end they did convince me that the church was a bad place. They said, “If I was so miserable at work, I should have told them” and that is true. To this day I can’t believe I didn’t say anything to them. Instead I went to Scientology.
That night, after the arguing had stopped. They sat me down and comforted me. I really couldn’t believe it. After the way I had treated them for the past 3 weeks, they still cared for me.
The next day I emailed Alan and told him I would not be coming back to the Church. He quickly got back to me asking why. Asking if it was my family and if I was being forced to not go. However, I ignored him. The emails I revived in the next few weeks were mad! He told me stuff like “I should leave my family now and I could stay at the church”. He tried to convince me that it was all because of my mother. He even emailed me to say something along the lines of “He won’t be surprised if he read in the papers that I was found dead by suicide”. I’m very sure he crossed a line there, but I just kept ignoring him.
The strangest email I got was one in all binary code! 001101011 this and 10001010110 that! I used a binary code translator, but it all came back as mixed up letters and numbers. None of it made sense.
I eventually blocked him. However, It still hasn’t stopped. About 2 or 3 times a year I will get an email from the church. Its either asking how I am or asking about my family. When I get them, I immediately block the email address! But they just keep coming! It’s always someone new, saying they heard about my “case” and they were worried about me. The whole reason I’m writing this is because I just got one the other day and I thought it would make a good warning.
Please, I beg of you! DO NOT GO to a church of scientology centre. If they can make me into a spitefully degenerate in just a few hours, then WHAT can they do with a person in a few months or a year!?
If anyone has any idea how to block an entire “religion”/cult from my email, then please let me know!
And if your lost in life, sad or upset then please PLEASE talk to your family, friends or a doctor. When you are down don’t let others make you into a monster. Take it from me. After this event I got help and I’m a happy confident person now.
Thank you so much for reading and have a great day 😊
Oh and Alan, if you are reading this, you made me into a monster so for your sake, Lets not meet again.
***The similarity to me was the idea of an Oppressive Person or an OP as they are called in Scientology and at Narconon Fresh Start. They try to separate people from their families by getting them to focus on differences in goals, which are always easy to find between a parent and child. In affect, this focus becomes hypnotism that the person will act on for years. They will lash out at anyone who they believe is in their way and are trained to confront and control using screaming and worse. They call this intention without reservation. One weekend changed this person's life forever. My father told me since I was only involved in Scientology for two weeks, it could not have caused much change in my personality. Six years later I still think about what I 'learned' there every single day. I think about my family members as oppressive persons despite missing them every single day.
Do not let your curiosity allow you to take one of their personality test. Do no do Scientology.