Joined the Church of Scientology today
Date: December 15, 2003 10:26PM
I joined the 'Church' in 2001 because a friend wanted to study Dianetics and he didn't want to do it alone.
You have to sign this amazing 4 or 5 page 'agreement' or contract (I still have it somewhere) that basically says the 'Church' is in total control of your spiritual and psychological well-being in this AND FUTURE lifetimes :-)
Under no circumstances can you criticise the Church, and if you have any medical mental health problems the Church (and the Church alone) can treat you - no mental hrealth professional is allowed near you. They are paranoid about criticism and we were regularly subjected to fake 'lie detector' tests on their E-meter to see if we were spies or critics.
I'm sure it has no legal basis, it is a contract not worth the paper it is written on, and probably breaks several human rights conventions and laws in most countries.
The Celebrity Centre here in London was a seriously spooky place, the staff even more scarily zomboid, and the whole place was a shrine to the great ElRon, with his office roped off as a sort of altar.
The first course was purely plagiarised cathartic age regression, about 70 years out of date in therapeutic terms, 19th. century Freud + early 20th. century Pavlovian conditioned reflex/response.
The second course got into 'drilling' which was so mind-numbingly, thought-stoppingly brainwashingly bad that I walked out half way through, never to return.
The 'Church' says once you join you can never resign or leave, so they still write to me regularly.
In my experience it is one of the worst examples of a dangerous, mind-altering cult, worse than Landmark and TM, worse than the Yoga cults, worse than Re-evaluation Counselling.
So, goatbox, you have been warned, caveat emptor, and Good Luck ! Don't let them steal your mind.
Chris