My Ups and Downs

[FoTi]

My intro to Scn starts back in the early 70's. I received a flyer in the mail which peaked my curiosity so I bit and went to an office building in West LA to check it out. When I got there, there was a small reception area and I was ushered into a small office where a guy sat behind the desk and told me that they could solve my problems if I would give him $2,000.00. I told him....I don't think so and got up to leave. When I came out into the reception area, there were about 4 people standing around and a table of books on one wall. They were all intending me to buy a book. Me alone with 4 other people plus the guy who interviewed me got me scared because they had me surrounded and weren't about to let me go until I bought something. I looked at the table and picked up a small book and paid for it and got out of there....whew! While I was there nobody mentioned the word Dianetics or Scientology. The name of the book I bought to get out of there was Problems of Work and I took it home and never read it. That was my first experience with Scientologists, but I had no idea that they were Scientologists until later.

Many months later I ran into an old boyfriend - someone that I was very uncomfortable around who also had a bad case of asthma. We had lunch together and he told me he was getting this auditing and it had helped him. He wanted me to have some of this wonderful stuff and said he would even pay for it. I was working full time and going to college full time and had no time for anything else, so I declined. But I did notice changes in him....he no longer gave me that uncomfortable feeling and he wasn't having trouble breathing. He said that it got rid of his asthma and it looked like that was true. I was impressed.

A few weeks later he invited me to an event at the Paladium on a Saturday. My boyfriend said that he was working on Saturday, so I said okay to going to the event with my old boyfriend, only to find out that my current boyfriend was going to be there also. Turns out my boyfriend didn't tell me he was a Scientologist because he had to disconnect from his former wife and two kids because she didn't like Scn and he was afraid that I wouldn't like it either.

This event started in the morning and lasted until about 2am the next morning. My old boyfriend told me that if anyone came up to me at the event I could just say no to them and they would accept a no from me. While I was at this event, at one of the breaks, someone did come up to me and said "Come with me". I remembered what he had said and I said "no". She repeated "Come with me" and I said "no". She repeated it a third time and I said no a third time and she just looked at me and said..."okay" and turned around and walked away. So it seemed like I wasn't going to be forced into anything and I felt comfortable with that.

I really enjoyed the event. Quintin was there and gave a demo of auditing, which I didn't understand and I was very impressed with Diana's stage presence and she looked like an angel with her long white dress and long red hair. I also was quite impressed with the way children were treated there. Most places where there were crowds of people usually meant kids crying and parents scolding, but at this event, the kids were happy and parents seemed to treat their children with more respect - more like they were responsible adults and the environment was more peaceful than other places I'd been where there were crowds of families. Normally I couldn't stand crowds of people for more than 15 or 20 minutes and I would get antsy and have to leave, but I was at this event from about 11am one morning until about 2am the following morning (it was a long event) and I was perfectly comfortable the whole time. The whole space felt different to me. I liked being around this bunch. I also found an Advance Mag on the seat next to mine during the event and read one of the OT Success Stories and suddenly felt like I'd found home. I was sold and I didn't know anything about auditing or training. I just wanted to regain my OT abilities.

After I went home, I asked my current boyfriend - how do I get started with this? The following Saturday he took me to Celebrity Center. I walked in the door and asked reception...."How do I get started with this?" I was escorted to the Reg. I asked the Reg..."How do I get started with this?". He started laughing.....said he couldn't believe it...because he didn't have to handle me on anything. I paid for the Comm Course and started that day and came back Sunday for more. Then Monday I went back to my usual routine of school and work and had no time to do more Comm Course.

I got a call from one of the Course Sups one night when I got home asking me why I wasn't on course. I told her I had work and school and couldn't come in during the week. She gave me a bad time and told me I had to come in on course. Nobody had ever made a schedule with me and I thought I would just go in when I had time and do this course. She put a lot of pressure on me and ordered me around and really made me mad. The next time I went in on course, I told them that I didn't ever want her around me ever again and if she was going to bother me, I wasn't coming in. They made sure that she didn't come near me again. They also set a schedule for me to follow to be on course, which I followed. Step one in getting me to conform to the group.

Shortly into the Comm Course, I saw a notice on the board that they were giving intro auditing sessions for $5.00. I went and paid for an intro session. I kept going on course, but I couldn't keep my attention on the course very well because I was more interested in this auditing session. It seemed like I had to wait forever...it was probably two weeks before I got in session. When I finally did get in session, it lasted about 4 hours and I went whole track. Wow! This was fascinating and I had a nice result from the session. I went from thinking about 6 thoughts at once to being able to just think one thought at a time...so much more comfortable....this was so wonderful that I went to the reg and told him that I wanted to do the HQS course and to train thru Class IV and to get 100 hrs of auditing as well. We made a postulate together and I think he had me make out a phoney check just to write it down in the physical universe (nothing he was going to cash)...kind of a wish check. After this one session I was so blown out, I wanted everyone to learn about Scientology and experience what I had just experienced.

I went home that night and when I laid down on my bed I noticed a pain in my body so I did what we had done in session and ran it back and spotted the incident and it blew. Wow, this was great stuff. I was so pleased with this ability to do this. The next time I went to the org, I mentioned that I did this and got in trouble for self auditing.

(I'll continue with more later. It's late and I'm too tired to continue now.)

[Operating DB]

In looking back to your early "wow" experiences with that auditing do you now view those wins differently or was it just a frame of mind you had then?

[Jakadak]

Thanks for teling your story. I am looking forward to the rest of it !

[Div6]

[HappyGirl]

Rested up yet?

[Pixie]

Waiting patiently...

[uniquemand]

This was similar to my experience. I was sold on book one, and fairly demanded to work on staff. I thought everyone would be an auditor, and thought I'd have to be a secretary or something for a while and then be an auditor myself.

Turned out, only a few of the staff were auditors, and most of them didn't have time or didn't have "the confront" to be auditors. I found that strange. I'm interested in hearing the rest of your story.

[Carnaubawax]

Very interesting - thanks.

[Wisened One]

Oh wow...you've reminded me of the 'high' I felt when I first discovered scientology.....(and the lows too, what with their controlling techniques).

Please, FoTi! Continue!

not salty enough...*adds more salt* Perfect, Ok!

[FoTi]

Originally Posted by Operating DB

In looking back to your early "wow" experiences with that auditing do you now view those wins differently or was it just a frame of mind you had then?

Are you trying to psychoanalyze my experiences?