Vinaire's Story

[Vinaire]

I first wrote this story on Beliefnet from November 2002 till August 2003 with long breaks in between. This time those breaks won't be there until I get to the point where I ended it last time. I may continue after that depending on the inspiration I get.

Here is the beliefnet post that started my story:

11/21/02 11:26 PM

Well, you guys sure seem to be getting upset with me. I really do not know what has made you guys so bitter. I could count many reasons to be bitter too, but knowledge has always grabbed my attention leaving little attention for bitterness.

I would not hesitate to say that I have probably suffered more hardships than many of you combined. Probably the Hindu ascetic streak within me helped me pull through some very tough times. The inner assurance throughout has been some vague perceptions of truth since my early Hindu upbringing, which suddenly blossomed into my awareness when I ran into Scientology in the United States.

It was February 1969 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was a poor student just arrived from India with only $10 in my pocket. Fortunately, I had a full scholarship provided by M.I.T. for its Master’s program in Nuclear Engineering. It was enough to meet my needs.

I still remember those days quite vividly. I was from a very conservative background suddenly thrown into the middle of a full-blown Hippie movement. I was wide-eyed and innocent. I remember being perplexed when somebody exclaimed “far out,” and I looked around and far into the distance to see what he was referring to.

Those were not really very happy days for me because all my hopes for a cure were dashed. I had expected to find a cure in America for the extreme pain I used to suffer from. Soon after I arrived I went to the Mass General Hospital to get examined completely. Only I was told after a few days that I was suffering from Ankylosing Spondilitis and the sedimentation rate was quite high. All I could do was to take ten aspirins a day to keep the pain down. I could look forward to two more years before I was completely bed ridden. This condition usually led to the doubling of the spine with a collapse of the rib cage and the lungs. Chances of survival were minimal.

I continued for a few days with aspirins to suppress the attack of pain, but depression overtook me. Life didn’t seem to be much fun at all. I contemplated the worst when I had the best of the opportunities in this material world. I felt very alone. My family was in India. I couldn’t communicate any of this to them. They could do nothing about it anyway. Why give them worry! I sought help from the student counselor. The counselor directed me to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist gave me some pills.

I took the aspirins and those pills for a few days. I felt spaced out. It was simply horrible. Then something strange happened.

I was walking down with a friend of mine toward the Central Square. I was trying to amuse myself looking at all the hippies with long hair and colorful, ragged clothes. Suddenly, a frizzy haired girl appeared in front of me and thrust something into my hands. It was about 1” by 4” sized ticket of a yellow color. It said DIANETICS on the top with a fatherly looking smiling face in the center. It said something about PSYCHOSOMATIC ILLNESSES and how Dianetics could handle such illneses easily and swiftly. It invited one to a lecture. The address given on that ticket was close by.

My friend had gotten a ticket too. We looked at those tickets with amusement. It seemed like somebody was out to con people by selling something like snake oil. We decided to amuse ourselves by going to the lecture. We simply expected to see some long haired, drug-happy hippies there.

[To be continued…]

P.S. I hope you guys don’t mind me telling this story and if it takes some time to unfold fully. You may continue with your other discussions in the meantime. I will refer to the number of this post in the next installment to keep some continuity. Here I just wanted to paint the picture of my condition which prompted me to look into Dianetics and Scientology. If I were not so desperate I wouldn’t have given another thought to Dianetics.

[Alanzo]

You had a very different viewpoint back then, as I remember, with regard to the Church.

You would have never said something like, "the events are boring and mechanical", for instance.

I hope you update your story with your new viewpoints, and with your re-newed allegiance to the path of knowledge, and the renewed courage it takes to truly travel it.

Far out, Vinaire!

[Alan]

Originally Posted by Vinaire

It was February 1969 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was a poor student just arrived from India with only $10 in my pocket. Fortunately, I had a full scholarship provided by M.I.T. for its Master’s program in Nuclear Engineering. It was enough to meet my needs.

1969 - That was back in the days when I owned the Boston and Cambridge Centers, which later became the Boston Org.

Alan

[OHTEEATE]

I had a lot of contact with Bess and Don Currier, and Bill Foster, who had track at Boston Org. Were they there in your time, Alan? Don passed away from cancer or a brain tumor some years back, around 2000 or so.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by OHTEEATE

I had a lot of contact with Bess and Don Currier, and Bill Foster, who had track at Boston Org. Were they there in your time, Alan? Don passed away from cancer or a brain tumor some years back, around 2000 or so.

I knew Don Currier, and Bill Foster quite well - though more from later years. We had some fun times.

[Zinjifar]

Originally Posted by Vinaire

Those were not really very happy days for me because all my hopes for a cure were dashed. I had expected to find a cure in America for the extreme pain I used to suffer from. Soon after I arrived I went to the Mass General Hospital to get examined completely. Only I was told after a few days that I was suffering from Ankylosing Spondilitis and the sedimentation rate was quite high. All I could do was to take ten aspirins a day to keep the pain down. I could look forward to two more years before I was completely bed ridden. This condition usually led to the doubling of the spine with a collapse of the rib cage and the lungs. Chances of survival were minimal.

Interesting. In '69 I'd dropped out of college (for the first time) and, by '72 I was stalled out in Germany, on my way to India, because I was playing music and suddenly had a girlfriend.

Then I didn't have the girlfriend, but did have a job as a printer (as a 'guest-worker) and was refinancing the trip when I was, over the course of a couple of weeks, laid low with something that caused intense pain and caused random joints in my fingers and feet to swell up to amazing size, which made walking or touching anything almost impossible.

It's a good thing I was in Germany, because the medical coverage was great, but, they couldn't diagnose it and I ended up in various hospitals for the next year, where they experimented on me with everything from injected gold to oil and anything else they could think of. Since it was a university hospital I was in finally, they enjoyed showing me off to various students and running tests, for what they thought was some kind of poli-arthritis, but didn't show up in blood tests. Finally, one of their scattered shots hit home (indometacin) and I started recovering (somewhat). (I had been self-treating with aspirin since the beginning, which had most of the doctors amused. 'These Americans! haha'

Anyway, the indometacin was like a miracle and, while I had recurrent attacks every few weeks, it allowed me to keep it under control.

Anyway, what made this interesting is that, finally, around '80, somebody thought to run the HLA-B27 test and do some more spine x-rays and I finally had a diagnosis of ankylosing spondilitis (which they charmingly called 'morbus bechterev' locally)

Anyway, the indometacin worked wonders for keeping it in its place and, for the most part it's gone into remission, with fewer attacks, which I manage to keep under control with massive Motrin, as long as I catch them in time.

Zinj

[Romuva]

Originally Posted by Alan

1969 - That was back in the days when I owned the Boston and Cambridge Centers, which later became the Boston Org.

Alan

Probably before the Boston Org became a lunatic asylum like Mcleans Hosptial or Met State
That's funny Alan,I never knew that.It's great History for me.

All my fathers family grew up in Cambridge.Near Youville Hospital and
Inmans Square.Central Square used to be pretty seedy.My great-uncle
used to manage the Lithuanian club up near Main Street so he used to
get all the drunks from Central Square.

Man,you must of had fun running that mission! lol Wasn't it on Green
Street?

[Vinaire]

Originally Posted by Alanzo

You had a very different viewpoint back then, as I remember, with regard to the Church.

You would have never said something like, "the events are boring and mechanical", for instance.

I hope you update your story with your new viewpoints, and with your re-newed allegiance to the path of knowledge, and the renewed courage it takes to truly travel it.

Far out, Vinaire!

My basic viewpoint has always been to tell it like it is without bias, and that has not changed. I just don't go all out focusing on outpoints only, or on pluspoints only.

So, what I am looking at may have changed, but my viewpoint remains the same.

And please don't think that you can influence my viewpoint. :cool:

.

[Vinaire]

Originally Posted by Alan

1969 - That was back in the days when I owned the Boston and Cambridge Centers, which later became the Boston Org.

Alan

Then I owe you many thanks!

Vinaire

.

[Vinaire]

Originally Posted by Alan

I knew Don Currier, and Bill Foster quite well - though more from later years. We had some fun times.

I knew them both too. My first auditor was a girl named Kristen Pucket, who later married Don Currier and then they divorced.

I wish I could contact Kristen again and thank her. I think she was just as amazed with the sessions between us as I was.

Vinaire

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