I lived in downtown Minneapolis in the late 80's and was always walking past the Scientology building on the main drag and sometimes got approached for a personality test but never went in. I noted that all the books in the window looked inviting, but I was poor, and the thought of paying for a class made me not interested. It also seemed that I did not look to interesting to them either. I later moved in to a rooming house with another cult called Church Universal and Triumphant. I even went to their Church a few times. There classes seemed to run along the lines of the importance of proper dental hygiene and how to do laundry properly. I was left confused. Anyways, from what I see, it was a personality cult and when the leaders died, most people in my house left the cult. I am thinking about the Moonies, they were kind of doing the same thing but all I hear about them is how freaking rich they all are. About that recruiter I talked to recently, The feeling I got from the Scientology recruiter was that she was not real interested in me; reason I am thinking was that I was in a different state, and the different orgs might have to compete with each other rather than work together. Also her lack of interest in recruiting me, I sensed might be jealousy. Maybe the remaining members are rather protective of their positions.
Anyways I am a schizophrenic and thus considered a pariah to much of the planet. That being said, I believe that every corp, society, school, and government agency, is a cult with some providing more benefit to the individual than others.