curious...

No, but I have been to the scientology center. It was for a sociology paper when I was in HS. I did the emeter test and got the recommendations for the classes I needed to take, etc. They continued to send magazines and stuff to my parents house for the next 15 years till they sold the house. The new owners probably still get the material. They don't send people by though, fortunately. I don't know why I gave my real address, I was just a dumb teen.

Only for a few months in Scientology. I saw thru that rather quickly as they wanted my money to flow to them. I did give them some money but thought better and pitched a fit till I got my money back. I was proud :)

Much longer, sadly as a Mormon. Took the internet for that one to bite the dust. Not so proud :/

mindlight, thanks for sharing.

sci first, then mo, or other way around?

would be interested to interview about similarities...

From my limited experience, scientology is group learning and one-to-one training, you book the courses and modules ahead of time, in contrast to tithing along the way in LDS. Additionally, there is little-to-no group worship (or their version of such). Are you familiar with Landmark education? It has more in common with large group awareness organizations, rather than an actual religion. You have your handlers, for wont of better term, and their prescribed path for you. However, it is not a shared group experience, like what you would get in a congregation (so in that sense, landmark training would be MORE similar to LDS).

It's very odd and, as far as I could tell, there's no similarity to LDS in terms of culture. The pressure, guilt and personal invasion and lack of boundaries, and the we-own-your-life mentality. It is very much not a religion in the classical sense.

I took some first course from them (like wittyname said) in the early 70s. It was in San Jose and I was drawn to the education aspect ... and a cute guy, no wait the guy was from the Hare Krishna group.
That's yet another adventure from 70's. Those were informative years. However, I don't seem to remember many details from that time period
:P


Mormon from mid 80s on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2012 08:59PM by mindlight.

LOL we have a lot in common. I did my college anthropology ethnography project on the Hare Krishnas!

I did the cute guy

my my
memories

A couple in my old ward were both Mormons and Scientologists when we meet them. Pretty crazy family with tons of issues! At one point the bishopric member husband was running around on his wife and got caught/confessed. They managed to stay together in the end. Seriously crazy family!

Elohim meets Xenu?

that could be an epic galactic battle LOL

Add JW to the mix....

This is one instance where Mormonism is probably the lesser of two evils. For true insidious, cultish, money-obsessed barbarism Scientology sets a very high bar that few, if any, other groups can meet.

I didn't join Scientology, but they probably count me as a member because back in the '80's I took a few 'auditing' sessions. An auditing session consists of holding onto a couple of tin cans connected to an 'E-meter' (basically an electrical resistance measuring device) while an 'auditor' asks a series of probing questions.

The irony: my wife and I have always had marital issues, and Scientology put on the hard sell to have us take a weekend 'Marriage Class' for 'only' $5,000! This class would guarantee us marital bliss for at least the next billion years. We declined, but I see Tom Cruise, the ultimate Scientologist, who has spent the requisite hundreds of thousands of dollars to attain Scientology 'clear' status, has just gone through his third divorce! - - - -
And Kirstie Allie is as obese as ever, and John Travolta bounces from one homosexuality scandal to another.

For clinginess Scientologists are worse than Mormons. I repeatedly asked them to drop my name from their mailing lists. My requests were ignored. Finally I started printing off anti-scientology material and sending it back to them in their own prepaid envelopes with a note thanking them for helping me expose their own mail room staff to 'subversive' materials. Their mailings stopped!

An interesting blog asks the question: 'Is Scientology Imploding?'
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/is_scientology_imploding.php

I seem to have an attraction to cults - it must be a weakness of mine. I was a Scientologist for about a week and a half a year before joining the Mormons. About ten years later, I got myself involved with Amway. (How embarrassing)

As a Co-Dependent individual, I think we have a particular vulnerability to manipulative groups and people. I believe it is a result of looking for external validation and support for sagging self esteem. Cults and manipulative groups/people are more than happy to provide the validation we seek but for a price - and most often, a very high price.

That's precisely the worst thing about cults. They target the most vulnerable, the very people who will give them the most, and then be most damaged by them.

I was approached in the early seventies by someone doing a 'survey' and wanting to ask me a few questions. It was clearly some religion and I actually bore my testimony of Jesus to them.

You have to love a religious dual ending in a testimony. Xenu versus Jesus, a throw-dowon right there on the streets of SLC. It seems so surreal and funny now to think perhaps Mormonism saved me from Scientology.

A short while later a friend dragged me off the street to go to an induction meeting because the 'surveyer' was so cute. We left after a little because it was so boring and we were already feeling fulfilled in our lives.

I live in a duplex--neighbors are JW.

Less than a few blocks from my house is a very small Scientology center. I have thought about going in to see all the fraudluent stuff first hand, but I don't want to get on any lists, etc. No thanks!

Didn't W. Mitt Romney just admit that his favorite book was "Battlefield Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard?

Doesn't anyone else find that deliciously ironic?

(Cite: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/romney-favors-hubbard-novel/)

No, but I am actively hunting a local chapter of that other UFO cult that believes in group sex. I have a strong feeling I am their long lost prophet.

Aren't they the ones why claim they have human cloning capabilities?

20+ years ago we had a LDS friend live with us over the summer who took some "classes" from the scientologists while he lived with us. He thought they were helpful but they were expensive and he stopped going. The scientologists called my place for months afterwards even after I told them he didn't live with us any more. I finally told them I would not give them his information and to stop calling and they finally quit calling.

I'm pretty sure that he only hired me because it came out in my interview that my family was LDS. I think he liked that.

I agree that its a cult and they are brainwashed. They drain money from the members. The main teachingg is to always look for the good and to not dump and run -- in other words, don't just tell me what the problem is, tell me what the solution is.

However, I worked with this man every day for 4 years and he was one of the hardest working people that I ever met and had a lot of integrity. He was also honest, which is rare for a CEO.

I met MANY of the top top officials. I also met Tom Cruise.

I'm happy to tell more but I'm rushed at work right now.

Please, not hater replies, I am NOT defending them, just giving my first hand experience in working with them. I never took any of their silly courses.

All I want to ask is this: Does Tom Cruise come off as bat shit crazy as he seems, or is that just media spin and he's a basically normal, if not egomaniacal, guy?

He comes across very hyper and even a little over excited but, I must say that he was also very personable and made you feel like you were the only person in the room. He’s also not as short as people say he is. I met Katie Holmes too.

No doubt there are plenty of nice people caught up in Scientology, but that's not the same as the cult being benevolent or harmless. If you never had a bad experience with them, it's because you were lucky enough not to be on their sh*t list.

I posted a story here before of them persuing me and a friend of mine after we had been naive enough to be duped into signing a "contract" at a county fair when we were in middle school. They harrassed and threatened us for months afterward, and we were lucky compared to what others have gone through. At least with Mormon love bombing you don't fear for your life.

I know they do all of that stuff. My boss was one of the top guys there so like Mormonism, the higher ups have different sets of rules than the masses.

This month's issue of Vanity Fair has a fascinating (and disturbing) article about how Scientology head honchos searched for a new wife for Cruise prior to his getting together with Katie Holmes. What Scientology as well as Cruise himself did to the young woman they selected for him is pretty awful. She is not a celebrity, so she was easily discarded when she was no longer useful. I really recommend reading it.