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Would You Tell a Stranger That You Were a Scientologist?

The_Fixer

Class Clown
Sometimes. Depends on who it is at the time and how I feel about them right then.

I mentioned it to a supervisor I had once in the course of a conversation and he mentioned it to the owner of the next place I worked for - he was my supervisor there too and talked a lot with the new boss. He then asked me about it later and I said it was something I did when I was young and silly. I was a bit embarrassed having been found out, but it was all okay.
It was no problem to him, but I thought he had a new respect for me because I went down unconventional paths in life. He saw that type of thing as a positive, especially if you learn and walk from it as you need to.

Having said it, it was okay with him, but I don't talk about it much at all. People can be quite judgemental and I'm not really interested in some of the games they like to play once they know something about your past.

I got to agree it is a risky thing to get into at work. You never know what their reactions are going to be when the cats out of the bag and it's too late then.

I guess it is usually easier to tell a stranger, because your involvement with them is limited.
 

EZ Linus

Cleared Tomato
People can be quite judgemental and I'm not really interested in some of the games they like to play once they know something about your past.

This has got to be one of the most disheartening things I have found out about people in and out of the cult. I have had a hell of a time making friends because of it. You can't really confide in anyone. I mean, you can, but then you can't really count on them to be the kind of friend you need when you really need one. They never reciprocate once you tell them about your troubles or your horrendous past. They're never fully vulnerable in exchange. You're left the only one stripped raw, standing there, pissing in the wind.
 

Gizmo

Rabble Rouser
It is very depressing. It is like being a victim of abuse, and for me too, there is a time and place; once it starts to come out, I do not know how I will act. This is the truth. Sometimes, it's just non-stop uncontrollable crying that blows my "cool" completely. It's more embarrassing than I can even believe. A 50 year-old blubbering mess! Jeez. I can easily go very dark.

I could be telling the wrong person. Maybe they are just fascinated and want to know if I've ever seen Tom Cruise. (NO! By the way.)

Leah's show is the only thing that has helped (and Going Clear) in showing the public that we need some empathy and compassion instead of being laughed at.

When I was out for a short time a dear friend told me expect for it take 11 years to get over, really get over, scn without getting professional help ( real therapy ) . I thought - at the time - he was just full of it. Now, a quarter of a century later, I do wish I had gotten professional help back then. Every now & then something triggers in me & I still can have the proverbial "bad hair" day.

And some people wonder why I post so strongly against the cult of scn, well, because it is a destructive evil cult that ruins people.
 

The_Fixer

Class Clown
It's one of those things in life, learning who to trust and who not to.
Being in scn will also help to impair your sense of better judgment as well.
 

Demented Hubbatd

Patron with Honors
To me, comes under the heading of TMI. I've listened to a girl rattle off her entire sexual history to a group of strangers in a waiting room of a doctors office.

I don't want a persons entire life history or " biggest withholds " on our first meeting. And, on first meeting someone I don't go into too much info about myself or my history.

As for when I was in the cult, I didn't mention to people I was in scn. Now that I'm out, scn is past history - long gone & dead.

It's like should I tell a stranger about my first spouse ? Or, hey maybe I should be telling strangers when I lost my virginity !

One funny while I was "in" ; my spouse & I were at a chiro - poor bastard - he tried to pitch us on getting in scn to help us. He was a newbie & we'd done through 7.

We had fun & never let on we were years in the cult as public - gosh, did I commit an overt ? :p
I omit certain details when I tell non-Scientologists about my involvement with CoS. For example, I do not tell them that, while being in EPF, I was told to write a history of my withholds (I forgot how this procedure is called, it is not a sec check because it doesn't require the e-meter). I ended up writing a long history of my one-night stands with the girls whose names I didn't remember (well, I remember few names, but not all of them). I wasn't even sure if these encounters qualify as overts because they happened before I became a Scientologist, but I thought I had to write something to end this pitiful procedure.
 
I have a big problem with this. I was involved in Scientology from 1956 to 1962. Scientology then was a totally different ball game - no Xenu, no security rundowns, etc. The Org only got established in Johannesburg around 1960, before that there were just a number of guys practising and teaching SOP8C and Six Levels of Processing. I got my first processing from Keith Gerry, and later Jack Horner came out to run a HPA course (assisted by Margaret Scholtz) which I attended. I was declared an SP when I asked to see the evidence.
 

Demented Hubbatd

Patron with Honors
I have a big problem with this. I was involved in Scientology from 1956 to 1962. Scientology then was a totally different ball game - no Xenu, no security rundowns, etc. The Org only got established in Johannesburg around 1960, before that there were just a number of guys practising and teaching SOP8C and Six Levels of Processing. I got my first processing from Keith Gerry, and later Jack Horner came out to run a HPA course (assisted by Margaret Scholtz) which I attended. I was declared an SP when I asked to see the evidence.
The evidence of what? What is SOP8C? What is Six Levels of Processing? I'm curious to know because this terminology is new to me.
 
Demented, they are processing regimes that date back to 1953-1955. SOP8C is Standard Operating Procedure 8c. It is described in "The Creation of Human Ability", which you probably read and forgot years ago. I asked for evidence that any of Scientology's claims could be validated, eg. total recall, OT abilities, etc.
 

beeeaaach

image of time
i have told people here ... I live in oregon but not many people know much about it ... it's just a L.A thing yo
 
I have avoided it for years - even when I was on 7. I only FSMed one person, who had worked for a scientologist once and was curious about it. I never felt too cool about promoting it - I wanted to know it worked for me before I was going to go gonzo and wave the flag.

Now I have less interest, and the "wogs" that know of my involvement and ask if I have seen Leah's show etc. I try to bail on the subject just after answering their questions. That also applies to the occasional scientologists on my lines - I don't bring up my current status of being declared and instead I say something noncomittal like: "You have to run for course now? Yeah, I know how that goes." The ones I have mentioned that I was declared to, can't get out of the room fast enough. So why bother if it brings no change in them?

Mimsey
 

ToeOut83

Patron
I rarely bring the subject up myself, but if it comes up I'm not shy about mentioning that I'm an Ex-Scn, emphasis on the Ex. And I DARE anyone to call me gullible.

$cientology beliefs are no less believable than a lot of religions out there, it's just newer. Some of my friends practice a symbolic cannibalism ritual every Sunday. Nothing seems weird if you grow up with it.
Some believe Joseph Smith's story of copying Scripture off gold plates he dug up, even though there's overwhelming evidence that he was a fraud and the Book of Mormon was made up, even if he hadn't been a fraud before that. (Remind you of anybody?)

I see lots of people, including friends and family, sharing posts on FB without fact-checking. I still hear a lot of old guys saying things like "We could'a won in Vietnam." Lots of guys who served during that war (which is when I served and when I joined the church) didn't question our government's benevolent motives in entering that war or keeping it going, even though there was abundant information to the contrary available at the time. A fair percentage of the American population still believe the Earth (and universe) is 6,000 years old and there was a planet-wide flood in historical times. For years after the 2nd Iraq invasion, most Americans who watch Fox "News" believed that we found WMDs in Iraq. Some still believe it, if you bring the subject up.

I could go on and on, and step on a lot of toes about the things we believe in spite of the evidence available. I am deliberately NOT mentioning a few other popular dogmatic belief systems because I want this thread to remain on track about Scientology. If you feel moved to challenge me on

I am hard-pressed to find people who doesn't believe something that seems outrageous to someone who doesn't believe the same thing. Humans seem to be hard-wired to believe what they want to believe regardless of verifiable evidence to the contrary.

Scientologists are no more gullible than the general population, so far as I can tell. I suspect everybody has one or more "blind spots", beliefs we don't evaluate rationally; and re-evaluating Scientology and deleting that blind spot doesn't mean we don't have others. I probably have some myself, but I don't know what they are. If I did, they wouldn't BE blind spots. From time to time in my life, a friend has managed to point one out in a way that didn't trigger my defense-rationalizing and I've been compelled to re-evaluate my position on something. Some of those times weren't easy.


So yeah, I mention sometimes that I'm an Ex. Anybody who had never changed his position on anything is either perfect, or refuses to consider he might have made a mistake---Kind'a like LRH.
 
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Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
This has got to be one of the most disheartening things I have found out about people in and out of the cult. I have had a hell of a time making friends because of it. You can't really confide in anyone. I mean, you can, but then you can't really count on them to be the kind of friend you need when you really need one. They never reciprocate once you tell them about your troubles or your horrendous past. They're never fully vulnerable in exchange. You're left the only one stripped raw, standing there, pissing in the wind.
I have often bared my soul to people in recent times. You're right, some people don't reciprocate, but I have been fortunate to discover that some people DO reciprocate, and bare their souls to you in return. My solution for those that don't is that I don't give a fig what people think about me. Really. I used to. Now I don't. Now, I feel as if the 'good friends' you meet in life are just passing by. You're not going to know them forever. The meaningful times you share together will blow away in the wind. Perhaps I am in apathy about there being any lasting meaning to anything. But I don't think so - I think I have just realised that nothing in life is permanent. Things that can seem really important to you, like your personal issues, past indiscretions, etc., really aren't important in the scheme of things. So I just don't pay any attention to what people think of me. That allows me to say what I like, bare my soul when I wish, and then not give a fig what people think about it. If there is anything meaningful about life's interactions, it is in the way that you deal with them, how you approach them, not in the interactions themselves. I sometimes wish that I didn't have such a cold, detached view of life. But if that is actually the way life is, then what's the point in deluding yourself.

It's funny - I seem to have come full circle. When I was a kid, it was just me. Everybody else was just part of the hostile environment. It was ME who had to find a way to enlightenment. Everybody else was just like an annoying fly buzzing around me. Then I got sucked into the meaning of social interaction, how important people were. And in Scientology, the importance of saving the planet. Now, everybody else has just receded back into the environment. But I find that, if you don't really give a fig about the impermanence of your interactions with people, then it can be OK. It can still be meaningful, in a meaningless sort of a way. I'm sounding a bit like a Buddhist here, but I'm not. I think that once you reach a certain age, you've seen people you know pass away, seen friends drift away, broken up with significant others, etc., you stop clinging to permanence of relationships with people. And then stop giving a fig what people think about you.

W.
 

Wilbur

Patron Meritorious
My problem is that during the years I was in I had no qualms about telling all and sundry that I was a scientologist. What they must think when they get on the internet and read all about Xenu and Hubbard's adventures on Venus these days I can only imagine. It's embarrassing to say the least.
I remember when I was in, and trying to proselytise to a nephew. I opened one of the books, and proceeded to explain the dynamics, showing him the definitions of the eight dynamics. When he read the definition of the eighth dynamic, he laughed mockingly at me. It read something along the lines of (in part) "it's called the eighth dynamic because eight, on its side, is the symbol for infinity". I thought he was being deliberately obtuse at the time, but could nevertheless see his point. Anyway, I didn't like the way he mocked me, and never really bothered with him again after that.

This was long before the Leah Remini days, and even South Park and Tom Cruise's couch jumping. I suspect that the level of mockery would be much higher for ex members, nowadays, from those with a predilection for mockery.

W.
 

ToeOut83

Patron
Sorry to interrupt the thread, but I've got to run an experiment here.

I would like to follow this thread, but when I click on the "More Options" box, I get the "Reply to Thread" dialog box, with the "Follow Thread" box down below, and no way to select Follow Thread without simultaneously posting...? Apparently I should have checked the "More Options" box along with my last reply earlier today.

I did notice that in my post, I overlooked an unfinished sentence in the course of jumping around while I was editing:
I started to say, "If you feel moved to challenge me on any favorite dogma where I've stepped on your toes, please tell me privately and we can start a thread in the non-Scientology section.
Please do NOT try to engage me in this thread, I would like to see it stay on track.
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
When I was public or staff did I ever tell strangers that I was a Scientologist? Yes.
(For example, decades ago in Hollyweird, I told some Moonies that I was a Scientologist. Please, laugh!)

After I left Scientology did I ever tell "never-in" strangers that I had been a Scientologist? No.
 
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Demented Hubbatd

Patron with Honors
I remember when I was in, and trying to proselytise to a nephew. I opened one of the books, and proceeded to explain the dynamics, showing him the definitions of the eight dynamics. When he read the definition of the eighth dynamic, he laughed mockingly at me. It read something along the lines of (in part) "it's called the eighth dynamic because eight, on its side, is the symbol for infinity". I thought he was being deliberately obtuse at the time, but could nevertheless see his point. Anyway, I didn't like the way he mocked me, and never really bothered with him again after that.

This was long before the Leah Remini days, and even South Park and Tom Cruise's couch jumping. I suspect that the level of mockery would be much higher for ex members, nowadays, from those with a predilection for mockery.

W.
My WOG friend. who had read an LRH brochure, asked me what the eight dynamic is. I was honest, I told him that I have no idea what it is, and then added that it is irrelevant to the Dianetics auditing that I was giving him (he had a kidney ailment, and I was trying to cure him). The eights shit was puzzling to me, I thought it has something to do with God, but wasn't sure.
 

F.Bullbait

Oh, a wise guy,eh?
74b49420d2bd01350b65005056a9545d


So what do you tell a wog?

That you were on the dopamine drip, year after year.

"Ya, a little auditing will handle that."

Year after year... until your huge stack of pc folders falls over and kills you.
 
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