A college friend dared me to take the infamous personality test once — but I knew what it was.

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https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3m7v5/how-i-escaped-the-church-of-scientology

When it comes to The Church of Scientology, you’ve most likely heard about both its celebrity followers and its wacky ideas about space battles (for example, Lord Xenu, the intergalactic warrior you can only get the full scoop on once you’ve climbed a paywall of courses worth many thousands of dollars).

You’ve likely heard a lot less, however, about the employees of the Church, who can be forced to work incredibly long hours for a tiny wage.

The man joined in his mid-twenties after reading a book about Dianetics, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s pseudoscientific theory about the relationship between the human mind and body. He then reached out to the Church and was encouraged to come in for a free personality test, a common recruitment method for the religion.

“I hadn’t ever heard anything about Scientology before that. I didn’t know what a cult was,” he told VICE. “They told me I was a complete mess, and that I needed to do some Scientology courses to sort myself out.”

At one point, the employee was sent to the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organisation in Clearwater, Florida, one of the main hubs for the religion. “They send you there to become trained. They consider that place to be the Mecca of Scientology,” he told VICE. Once he arrived, they took his passport off him so he was unable to leave.

Alongside a full training and course schedule, he also had to work to make up any shortfall for his living costs. “They were supposed to pay so much every week for your room and board. If they failed to pay then you would work to make up that amount. So you’d spend so much time every week, probably about 25 to 30 hours doing some physical job usually... I was quite lucky if I got six hours sleep. That was a good night.”

Eventually, he grew disillusioned with the religion. “I realised they weren’t helping anybody, they were just making money. I didn’t think it was right.”


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I've taken that test. There is nothing scary about it. It is just a form of data harvesting. If you do it you need to give them false contact details though. The main test is just a bunch of questions and at the end they tell everyone that you're faulty and that Scientology can fix you.

If that man hadn't heard of Scientology when he joined it must have been a helluva long time ago. Every man, woman and dog has heard of it now (at least in the developed world).

You're a sinner and only Jesus can fix that.
You can't win!

and others. I was glued to the TV. I couldn't believe what they went through in it and trying to get out. I'm glad my parents were mormons instead.

Agree. There are worse things than Mormonism.

dagny Wrote:
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> Agree. There are worse things than Mormonism.

They should put that in a commercial. :)

Mormonism is known among many as "Scientology-Lite".