My Scientology Experience
Date: October 04, 2005 11:10AM
I read some of the website information about Scientology. I am not surprised that a Church spokesperson asked why a reporter was asking about the cost of Scientology services, because they are very expensive, especially the auditing sessions.
I was in Scientology 13 years, and although I achieved some improvement, most notably, I think, the ability to overcome a drinking problem, which I have beaten, the cost was very expensive.
Some of the Scientology registrars (the staff members who registered public Scientologists for auditing and training), used high pressure sales tactics to get Scientologists to pay for very expensive auditing. Scientologists, like myself, were frequently told that they need to stay in Scientology, because of the continual improvement in their spiritual well-being which results from going up the "Bridge" (the path to spiritual freedom).
Although I am grateful for having been able to overcome a drinking problem which I think was mostly the result of my Dianetic and Scientology auditing, I think I eventually would have overcome the drinking problem through AA, psychological counseling, or some combination of the two.
I spent about $50,000, maybe more, when you add up the costs of some training, mostly auditing sessions, books, and travel to auditing sessions over that 13 year period.
The staff members believe Scientology is the greatest religious movement on planet Earth. I do not know if most public Scientologists (those, like I was, who did not work on staff, but paid public prices for the auditing and training) think the same, but the staff (those working for the Church) try hard to convince them that it is.
There are good things about Scientology, I think especially for wealthy celebrities who can easily pay the donation rates for the training and auditing, but the average public Scientologist cannot afford very much auditing. I think this, plus the fact that Scientology is so different, plus the pressure that is applied by staff members to keep Scientologists in the fold and going up the bridge, plus disapproval from family members and friends, is why the vast majority of public Scientologists, as I did, drop out of the movement after being in it maybe anywhere from one or two up to ten years or more.
I remember that it took me awhile to realize for sure that Scientology was not nearly as big a deal, and not nearly as important to the survival of the world, as the Church and its staff members wanted the public Scientolists to believe.
The whole time I was in Scientology, I had doubts about it, but I was told that my problems were mostly because of me, in that because I was afraid to tell my family how important Scientology was to me and that I intended for it to be an important part of my life, that I would never achieve near the gains from it as I would otherwise, and that I was PTS, a "potential trouble source".
Well, a lot of people were PTS, a "potential trouble source", and a lot of those people, like myself, dropped out of Scientology. I would guess that Scientology has had about the highest dropout rate of members of any religion in the history of the world.
But I do not doubt that it continues to grow. I think the Church, as has been widely reported, is very wealthy.
Sincerely,
i_was_one