Greetings

[Kookaburra]

Ben, your experience trying to leave sounds totally bizarre. Off the top of my head, I'd say it sounds like hypotism.

LRH was apparently an adept hypnotist. He practiced it openly back around the 1940s.

In Scientology, hypnotism was considered not OK and it was not taught as such on any level. However, there is a slow process of taking over a persons self-determinism and their life in Scn. Some people consider that a form of hypnotism.

Perhaps the person you encountered was just practicing garden variety hypnotism.

 

[Ben D]

Hi Kookaburra, concerning my apparent easy succumbing to what in retrospect was an obvious scam, I take your point that some form of 'home grown' attempt at hypnotism (though I don't rule out other psychic techniques involved in the art of manipulation) may have been employed, but in any event it would have hardly been necessary for I was so vulnerable from the life crisis I was facing and so desperate, that I initially believed that SCN were the good guys and my 'salvation'.

IOW, after reading 'Dianetics', and prior to coming into contact with the CoS institution, my impressions of its possible efficacy in helping me work through my crisis was very positive.