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I Visited The Church Of Scientology. Here’s What Happened
The Federalist ^ | January 5, 2017 | Bre Payton

Posted on 01/06/2017 12:04:59 PM PST by EveningStar

Last week I wandered into the Church of Scientology in Pasadena, California, and what happened during my visit made me afraid for the church's members.

While shopping along Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena last week, my friend and I stopped into the Church of Scientology to take a free personality test that was advertised on an A-frame chalkboard sign just outside.

As a Christian, I wasn’t really searching for guidance or salvation, but I wanted to hear the Church of Scientology’s elevator pitch. I wanted to know what they said to make people fork over massive amounts of money, or even distance themselves from family members in an effort to work their way up the church’s ranks.

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; US: California
KEYWORDS: brepayton; california; churchofscientology; cult; cultism; cults; dsj02; leahremini; pasadena; scientology; thefederalist
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To: EveningStar

I Visited The Church Of Scientology. Here’s What Happened...

You get your house back
You get your dog back
You get your best friend Jack back
You get your truck back
You get your hair back
Ya get your first and second wives back
Your front porch swing
Your pretty little thing
Your bling bling bling and a diamond ring
Your get your farm and the barn and the boat and the Harley
First night in jail with Charlie
It sounds a little crazy, a little scattered and absurd


21 posted on 01/06/2017 12:25:24 PM PST by moovova
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To: clamper1797

This was a VERY long time ago. I’ve changed addresss, phone numbers, and names many times.


22 posted on 01/06/2017 12:28:58 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (SandyInPeoria just doesn't sound right... yet here I am.)
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To: EveningStar

from wikipedia

“In Scientology, a thetan is the term corresponding to one’s “spirit”. The thetan refers to YOU. The “I”. You are the thetan, the awareness of awareness, and you occupy a body and use a mind to accomplish things. A body thetan is a thetan (spirit) that is not yet in control of a body or mind but is attached to a thetan that is, can or will be. Body thetans are spirits not yet aware of their own spiritual nature. They came about approximately 75 million years ago through a technological catastrophe brought on by an ancient galactic dictator named Xenu, as described by L. Ron Hubbard in a confidential auditing (counseling level in Scientology) called OT III. All human bodies were said by Hubbard to be infested by and covered in clusters of these thetans.”

I use A mind?? Should I ask Xenu if it’s ok??


23 posted on 01/06/2017 12:31:09 PM PST by No_More_Harkin
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To: EveningStar

One does not need to jump into a dumpster to know it contains garbage. - Sad for those caught up in that cult.


24 posted on 01/06/2017 12:32:13 PM PST by VaeVictis (~Woe to the Conquered~)
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To: EveningStar
"I hear that it’s impossible to get off their mailing list."

That's nothing. Have you ever bought an, "American Girl" doll?!

25 posted on 01/06/2017 12:38:20 PM PST by outofsalt ( If history teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything)
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To: EveningStar


26 posted on 01/06/2017 12:39:07 PM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: SandyInSeattle

<;-)


27 posted on 01/06/2017 12:41:21 PM PST by BBB333 (The power of TRUMP compels you!)
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To: EveningStar

I knew a guy that did server support for an LA site some where. He had a really cute girl to escort him around the building till he said he no interest in the group. She was replaced


28 posted on 01/06/2017 12:50:37 PM PST by ThomasThomas (Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.)
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To: rktman; All

Actually, intelligent people are easier to flim-flam because they worked on the “that sounds logical” principle. I point to “Beneath The Planet Of The Apes” as proof.


29 posted on 01/06/2017 12:58:12 PM PST by j.argese (/s tags: If you have a mind unnecessary. If you're a cretin it really doesn't matter, does it?)
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To: SandyInSeattle
I took their "test" about 1970. It involved holding 2 what looked like tin cans and a needle moved.I was so messed up it was going to cost me thousands of dollars to become "Clear."

I wasn't so messed up that I signed up!

30 posted on 01/06/2017 1:00:47 PM PST by lonestar (Texan for Trump)
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To: discostu

I bought that book as a pre-teen. I determined the writer was a nut! Course my Dad was Deacon. Still!


31 posted on 01/06/2017 1:10:40 PM PST by poobear (Socialism in the minds of the elites is a con-game for the serfs, nothing more.)
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To: JoeProBono

ROFL!


32 posted on 01/06/2017 1:12:10 PM PST by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

On the question of who to worry about the most, muslims or scientologists, I think I can make that choice.

Period.


33 posted on 01/06/2017 1:25:17 PM PST by truth_seeker
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To: EveningStar

As a young sailor waling the streets of Boston on liberty I cute young girl approached me and struck up a conversation. She then invited me to her organization (Scientology)near by and since she was flirting with me and I thought...hmmmm this might be a good thing.

It turned into a big sale job. She hooked me with the flirting and I gave up my mailing address (parent’s house) and got out of there. That was 1974. I never contacted them again.

I was still getting mail from them at my parents address in the early ‘90s.


34 posted on 01/06/2017 1:30:29 PM PST by Az Joe (11-8-2016-----We're still here President Reagan!!)
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To: EveningStar


The leader is good, the leader is great.
We surrender our will, as of this date.
35 posted on 01/06/2017 2:08:24 PM PST by Trillian
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To: EveningStar
I hear that it’s impossible to get off their mailing list. Are you and/or your sister still on it?

I dabbled with Scientology in the very early 1970s. And left it behind forever. They tried their best to keep me in their ranks but failed, and the mailings stopped around 1975. Fast forward several decades, and somehow they started sending me mailings again around 2010. They immediately go into my recycle trash bin.

I don't dare contact them to complain, as I don't want them to know I'm still alive. Did I learn anything from the experience in the 70s? Yes. Some of it was helpful. I got out before losing any money to them. It is a religion (some say cult), and as with any religion it gets you to focus on your place in society and your interactions with others. In that regard, it helped me to become successful in life. I got out because it was too restrictive in their tenets and I didn't believe in some of it; I make up my own mind and don't want it made up for me.

36 posted on 01/06/2017 2:36:12 PM PST by roadcat
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To: j.argese

Lucky for me I have a PhD in skepticism. ;-)


37 posted on 01/06/2017 2:36:25 PM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: discostu

I read all the way through Dianetics back in college. There was a period in the early 80’s when it was heavily advertised on TV. I treated it as sci-fi and pretty boring. I then read magazine article from the 60’s about his tax evasion, FBI paranoia, castle in Scotland, etc. so I had no interest in Scientology after that.

I did read Battlefield Earth and the ten volume Mission Earth series. I enjoyed the first and bogged down in the second. Campy juvenile pulp sci-fi has a definite length limit for me.


38 posted on 01/06/2017 2:45:08 PM PST by Kellis91789 (We hope for a bloodless revolution, but revolution is still the goal.)
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To: EveningStar

well since we are all in an analytical mind frame here... logic vs scared into doing things... what is the real difference between this and the church?

both expect you to pay for the business to sustain itself. I read a couple of Hubbards books over the years. the guy is making money selling his ideas and people are buying.

Basically, its another “Nothing to see here move along” moment me thinks...


39 posted on 01/06/2017 2:51:56 PM PST by sit-rep
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To: EveningStar

“When I asked how much these sessions cost, Kenny told me that the cost varied person to person...”

I knew a woman whose adult son “dated” a Scientology recruiter. She convinced him that their future together depended on him “getting clear”. He spent his entire life savings, tens of thousands of dollars, on auditing. Once his money was gone she dumped him like yesterday’s garbage.


40 posted on 01/06/2017 2:59:10 PM PST by Hugin (Conservatism without Nationalism is a fraud.)
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