CheMateo wrote:Are there any PWG fans that follow Scientology? If so, I would love to hear your point of view about all of this. Has anyone associated with any Scientologists or taken their free stress tests?
What do you want to know? Sadly I have some experience with this, as I dated one once. Really great girl, except for the Scientology that is. She kept wanting me to try it (and saying it could "never work" if I didn't). I really liked her, so I played along a little just to make her happy. I knew next to nothing about it back then, so what could it hurt? Oh how little I knew...
I don't want to go into too much detail but let's just say it didn't work out (somethings are just not worth it) but did I learn a bit about Scientology during that time. The main thing I learned was that even a complete moron could tell it was total bullshit. Gee, a hack SCI-FI writer just happens to be the ONE who knew about all of this stuff.
I mean look at that guy:
Would you believe anything written by THAT guy? You may as well worship Lord of the rings or Star Wars. It's cheaper, just as real and has 100% more Chewbacca.
Here are a few random things:
- She was big into something called "auditing" where they apparently sit you in a room and you have to talk to someone who doesn't answer you. This is somehow supposed to help you somehow. According to her it "saved" her life. How? I have no idea. I should also add that this costs a huge amount of money per session (as does everything they offer).
- I never went to the center to take the test or anything (I never wanted to, that place seriously creeps me out) but I did ATTEMPT to take their free "personality test" online just to see what it was like. What a bargain it is too: "A test of this kind would normally cost you $500.00 and up. It is offered to you here free of charge as a public service". Yes, a "test" costs $500 and up, so imagine what the higher up stuff costs.
Anyway, the test is like a million questions long, and is full of really pointless filler, such as "Have you ever felt unsure of anything?" "Do you ever worry?" I mean seriously what the fuck.... They don't even "grade" the test online either, you have to go to their center and get results. Plus there is no possible outcome that won't lead to you needing their services. It's all a trap. I got bored after about 15 questions and never finished it. Go to their site and finish the test without going crazy... I dare you:
http://www.scientology.org/oca.htm
- She goes to the center (the same one near the old PWG JCC in fact) for "Church" six days a week on average. Which was crazy to me, just what could you do there for that much time? I found out a lot of time they just gave her CLAY to play with and other busy work. This is something she has to been doing all of her life too and she was still relatively low on their scale. Basically you could become a doctor in far less time than it takes to reach these mythical levels of Scientology. Plus as mentioned above this this stuff is far from free, I know she has to be giving them thousands. Totally worth it...
- She gave me a few of the basic beginners books and such. I hardly ever read anything completely (I'm more a skimming type of guy) so I just glanced over it. It was all just basic common sense.... presented in an annoyingly wordy fashion. So I'm guessing it starts off moderately normal and then progressively gets crazier and crazier. Thankfully I never read anything past that. Although the whole h-bombs in volcanoes sending aliens ghosts around the galaxy stuff sounds awesome. L.Ron must have really been wasted when he came up with that.
- One of their big things I gathered was basically "If Scientology doesn't work for you, it was because YOU did something wrong, Scientology is never wrong". Great logic huh? Also apparently the "teachers" or whatever freak out when people yawn for some reason. OH NO! A YAWN! Alert Xemu (who doesn't exist according to her) She would get completely insane whenever anything negative was said about it (and would often start crying over it). It was just heartbreaking to see such a nice person completely brainwashed by these greedy bastards. Funny enough though even she hated that Battlefield Earth movie.
- While I have never liked South Park, I watched their episode on Scientology on YouTube and thought it was amazing. I can see why they got so upset over it... it was the truth.
I have more, but that's all I feel like typing right now. I don't know, in a way I have to respect it, because hey... it's a great scam. I mean it has to be for it to suck in that many people (and avoid having to pay taxes at the same time!). But in much stronger way I despise for what it does to regular people like my friend and I'm sure thousands of people like her. Especially to whatever kids they may have in the future that will have to be brought up into that lifestyle.
I can't believe I just typed that...