mysterious
New Member
Greetings all,
So I joined this board a week or so ago after which I got busy and completly forgot about it until CNN started doing it's "Join Scientology - Get Free Ass Kickings and a Future Ex-Wife" series. So while I'm killing time before I've got to go pick someone up at the airport I figured I'd write this up.
First I'll state that I'm not now, nor ever been a Scientologist personally. My first introduction to the group was the commercial that used to air during afternoon cartoons when I was a kid. You know, volcano, book comes flying out, voiceover: "Dianetics - Science for your mind!" Or something like that. It's funny as it would be 20 years later before I would even "get" what the whole volcano thing was about. Something was always funny to me about that commercial and it's always stuck in my head. In my early teens I read a reprint of that Time magazine article from 1990 (if I remember correctly) and have had a morbid fascination with it since. It only became heightened as my life progressed.
Besides trying to get sucked into a free stress / personality test here and there over the years, I never really crossed paths with scientology. At least that was so, until about 10 years ago. I was living up north in Michigan and dating this girl. I don't remember how exactly she discovered it, I think it was someone she worked with, but she started taking "courses" at a local center the CoS ran. For the sake of full disclosure, I'll just say that I take a pretty abysmal view on anything that falls in the self-help to religion category. It always seems pointless, or hokey or dangerous or dangerously hokey (which I admit, is my view of Scientology). I'll admit that in my initial reaction the words: "are you f***ing serious?" emitted forth from my mouth when she told me where she was that day, but she was adamant that this was serious stuff and was helpful, so I backed off.
Over the next year and a half things just got bad between us. At first she seemed to be fine with my lack of interest in what she was doing. Truth be told, I loved her and I didn't want to mock her or what she was doing so I simply tried to avoid the issue entirely. Problems arose when it seemed to take over everything in her life. Prior to scientology we shared various hobbies and interests, yet they all seemed to disappear because she was busy with scientology. She stopped socializing with our mutual friends as she had new scientology friends to interact with. It was just weird, for example one of her _new_ friends found her a job that was somehow better, even though it was the same thing she was doing before for less pay. I asked, so what's better about it (better hours?, better environment? etc) she never cold give me an answer, "it was just better."
As time went on we had zero to talk about as we shared nothing in our lives together. Eventually that let to constant fighting over stupid things with bizarre accusations thrown at me that seemed to come from nowhere. One day she left a binder next to the computer. I was writing an email to somewhere where I was quoting from a book, so I turned the binder sideways and used to prop the book up while I typed. When she came home she tossed the book aside and picked up the binder and accused me of snooping through her personal stuff and then went and locked herself in the bedroom to talk on the phone for an hour. Things just got weirder from there, I would come home and she would be sitting on the couch with her new friends and the would all get quiet when I walked into the house, then say bye and leave. Honestly, I am the least paranoid person you'll ever meet, but all of a sudden I'm like "are they talking about me?" and I start to feel uneasy and suspicious all the time.
By the time I finally left the relationship I was working the graveyard shift just to avoid her, we could barely be called roommates at that point.
I guess I've just always wondered what it is about scientology that seemed to suck her into it so easily? She seemed so normal when I met her! So I've spent the last several years reading a hell of a lot about scientology, even reading most of the documents straight from the horses mouth that have popped up online over the years and I still just don't get what the attraction is. So I'm here to learn more, especially from past members that share their own experiences and even from the occasional current member that shares why they're members.
Anyways, that's where I'm coming from....
So I joined this board a week or so ago after which I got busy and completly forgot about it until CNN started doing it's "Join Scientology - Get Free Ass Kickings and a Future Ex-Wife" series. So while I'm killing time before I've got to go pick someone up at the airport I figured I'd write this up.
First I'll state that I'm not now, nor ever been a Scientologist personally. My first introduction to the group was the commercial that used to air during afternoon cartoons when I was a kid. You know, volcano, book comes flying out, voiceover: "Dianetics - Science for your mind!" Or something like that. It's funny as it would be 20 years later before I would even "get" what the whole volcano thing was about. Something was always funny to me about that commercial and it's always stuck in my head. In my early teens I read a reprint of that Time magazine article from 1990 (if I remember correctly) and have had a morbid fascination with it since. It only became heightened as my life progressed.
Besides trying to get sucked into a free stress / personality test here and there over the years, I never really crossed paths with scientology. At least that was so, until about 10 years ago. I was living up north in Michigan and dating this girl. I don't remember how exactly she discovered it, I think it was someone she worked with, but she started taking "courses" at a local center the CoS ran. For the sake of full disclosure, I'll just say that I take a pretty abysmal view on anything that falls in the self-help to religion category. It always seems pointless, or hokey or dangerous or dangerously hokey (which I admit, is my view of Scientology). I'll admit that in my initial reaction the words: "are you f***ing serious?" emitted forth from my mouth when she told me where she was that day, but she was adamant that this was serious stuff and was helpful, so I backed off.
Over the next year and a half things just got bad between us. At first she seemed to be fine with my lack of interest in what she was doing. Truth be told, I loved her and I didn't want to mock her or what she was doing so I simply tried to avoid the issue entirely. Problems arose when it seemed to take over everything in her life. Prior to scientology we shared various hobbies and interests, yet they all seemed to disappear because she was busy with scientology. She stopped socializing with our mutual friends as she had new scientology friends to interact with. It was just weird, for example one of her _new_ friends found her a job that was somehow better, even though it was the same thing she was doing before for less pay. I asked, so what's better about it (better hours?, better environment? etc) she never cold give me an answer, "it was just better."
As time went on we had zero to talk about as we shared nothing in our lives together. Eventually that let to constant fighting over stupid things with bizarre accusations thrown at me that seemed to come from nowhere. One day she left a binder next to the computer. I was writing an email to somewhere where I was quoting from a book, so I turned the binder sideways and used to prop the book up while I typed. When she came home she tossed the book aside and picked up the binder and accused me of snooping through her personal stuff and then went and locked herself in the bedroom to talk on the phone for an hour. Things just got weirder from there, I would come home and she would be sitting on the couch with her new friends and the would all get quiet when I walked into the house, then say bye and leave. Honestly, I am the least paranoid person you'll ever meet, but all of a sudden I'm like "are they talking about me?" and I start to feel uneasy and suspicious all the time.
By the time I finally left the relationship I was working the graveyard shift just to avoid her, we could barely be called roommates at that point.
I guess I've just always wondered what it is about scientology that seemed to suck her into it so easily? She seemed so normal when I met her! So I've spent the last several years reading a hell of a lot about scientology, even reading most of the documents straight from the horses mouth that have popped up online over the years and I still just don't get what the attraction is. So I'm here to learn more, especially from past members that share their own experiences and even from the occasional current member that shares why they're members.
Anyways, that's where I'm coming from....
Last edited: