You asked, and here is what I "think".
I didn't say that they didn't get anything out of the training and auditing. I know many did, and I also did. I enjoyed the auditing and some aspects of the training, VERY much so.
I meant, how and why would anyone choose to stay around with all the obvious lunacy and insanity surrounding one? I won't get into the many details of that insanity here as I have described this in many ways before. Simply, I found it too restrictive to have to mold myself to the cookie-cutter pattern Hubbard's Scientology demanded.
But, to provide a few examples, I noticed quite early while involved in Scientology that management constantly lied, exaggerated and misled the public and staff. That is partially why I avoided events (even while on staff). I couldn't stand the OBVIOUS PR and bullshit.
I also noticed how Scientology functioned to
install the fixed ideas that I learned about while doing study courses. I saw how many Scientologists became
unable to learn anything that contradicted Hubbard or the Church party-line.
I saw how Scientology functioned as "mind control", even if it wasn't totally intentional (now, I suspect that it was).
I saw how sometimes innocent people were jokingly presented with "justice" in "kangaroo courts" (Comm Evs), and how they were declared and disconnected from friends and family.
I saw how Scientology had a comfortable but nasty tendency to "waste people" (staff and public).
I saw the endless pressure, force and demand as NOT a good thing.
I NEVER really liked the "group" aspect of Scientology. It seemed an almost "added inapplicable datum", a tacked on something that ONLY acted to
reduce any of the value that the auditing and "tech" training might have had. The whole KSW, "free the universe" vibe was so ADDED-ON and largely unwanted and unnecessary to me. The ONLY thing that ever interested me was the "subject of personal growth and expansion", which was only a PART of the whole subject of Scientology. The part of it that dealt with "expanding Scientology" seemed to create so MANY "bad effects", and THAT was far too much of what involvement with Scientology entails - caring about and contributing to the stupid Scientology GROUP.
I didn't walk away because of ANY "bad results" with auditing. I walked away primarily because the
organization was insane, and it was quite insane right from the beginning when I first got involved in 1976. I didn't understand at first that it was insane BECAUSE of Hubbard, because
Hubbard wrote the policies and advices,
that when followed RESULT in the lunacy.
Oh, and also I was confronted with an endless stream of contradictions of Scn theory versus practice. It was later that I came to notice that there were many contradictions in the Scn theory itself.
I will add that I did the majority of my lower bridge (over 400 hours) up through the expanded grades at very cheap sliding scale discounts. I also got the additional 5 or 10% discount for "advanced payments". So, I think my auditing was getting debited at about $375 per intensive! I was NOT at all upset about what I was getting for my money THEN, and to this day I feel that I got WAY MORE than what I paid. But, I did NOT sign up for all of the endless bullshit that comes along with membership in THAT organization! No matter how cheap the auditing might have been.
And I did up through OT III for less than 10K. OT I was pretty useless, and a let-down for me. It was like a "locational".
I did LOVE the EP of OT II, because as I came to learn later, it happened JUST as described with layer upon layer of "charge" peeling-off, I line-charged for 10 minutes at the end, and really, it seemed that the LFBD and floating TA would just keeping getting BIGGER. It was
very dramatic, and I had NEVER before experienced the intensity or depth of continual charge blowing off as happened at the end of the OT II level. It was fairly boring until the end - then WHOOSH!!!!!!! I was so amazed that I ran out of the room and went to the examiner. I left ALL of my materials OPEN in plain view, and it was a bit of a downer to immediately be assigned TREASON for "violating security of confidential materials". It did act to kill the "win". Oh well, such is Scientology.
While I was "wow" about OT III at first when contacting the "data", I didn't find the auditing that needed or wanted. I could imagine though, IF SPIRITS ARE REAL, that thetans could conceive themselves st "stuck together". But, it just never really "indicated" for me as a needed auditing action.
I did do 50 hours of FPRD at Flag in the early 1990s, and THAT wasn't so cheap, and I suppose if I had THAT to do all over, I would pass. I did get "keyed out" quite a bit, BUT I noticed ZERO change in any areas of my life. :confused2:
It was as if I had reached a point of
diminishing returns with my auditing. The majority of the change and value was EARLY ON, and as time went on, there was LESS and LESS change. I mean, I had experienced near complete separation from my body and mind, and I had "been there with nothing else MANY times", so it was like, WHY BOTHER?
But, what I REALLY LEARNED was how crazy many people can become by adopting and thinking with a crazy belief system. I saw FIXED IDEAS work in close proximity to Scn staff and public. I saw how "considerations" (agreeing with various of Hubbard's statements) can act to limit and define perceptions by my own watching of various aspects of Scientology staff and public in action.
So, I doubt many people walk away
because of auditing or training. They walk away because of the OTHER bullshit that is foisted upon them in the process of "being a Scientologist". For me, it was almost too much right from the start. And, it WAS NOT hidden, and to me it WAS OBVIOUS.
There is/was too much lunacy in the vicinity of the Church of Scientology, too much of the time, to make staying for the auditing and training even slightly tolerable. 
