Recently actress Leah Remini announced she was leaving Scientology. After reading a couple of articles it seemed to me that I was reading about a lot of the exit stories from Mormonism. I know nothing about Scientology, except that it is classified as a cult by many.

As a general rule, it is MUCH more difficult to leave Scientology than it is Mormonism (although there are numerous exceptions to this general rule).

The problem with Scientology is that, from the git-go, they begin collecting and archiving very sensitive, very confidential information from those who are curious or are contemplating joining the group.

A continuing major focus of recruitment for Scientology is people who are celebrities, people who are wealthy (however this may be defined), and people who have influence (no matter how much money they have; this includes writers, editorial assistants, assistants to people who have influence, etc.; these people, individually, may have very little or "no" money, but they may have access to people who have ENORMOUS power and influence in national and global life).

With their e-meters (or whatever they're called), they begin immediately to collect information ("dirt," or potential "dirt" anyway) which can be used down the line to manipulate not only the questing member or potential member, but the "people of importance" that person knows and has some inside influence over.

As a new potential member then becomes a new actual member, and begins the process of advancing "up the ranks," more and more information is demanded, given, and archived.

By the time someone has reached the point where they want to quit, they have revealed not only ALL of their own most private, sensitive, shaming information, but often a great deal of information about their relatives, co-workers, superiors, and associates of superiors. All of this information is then available, in readily accessed and organizable form, to--effectively--blackmail the member into staying...and then further getting even deeper into the same pit.

Not everyone who gets interested in Scientology is a "celebrity," or "person of power," or someone who is closely ASSOCIATED with celebrities or people of power. Scientology needs worker drones just as much as any other cult does. If someone without money or influence or power wants to join them and devote their lives to Scientology, they are perfectly willing to accept them AS "worker drones." The potential blackmail available to many "worker drones" is often small (someone shoplifted when they were ten years old, or peeked into a neighbor woman's window when they were fifteen), and therefore of limited utility. "Worker drones" do leave, and they may not have much fall-out because there is really nothing to "forcibly" keep them in the group other than the usual cult conditioning and culture.

But if you are a celebrity or a person of power or influence who has a "secret" you really NEED to NEVER EVER have revealed, you're pretty much sunk. You can lose your reputation, your credibility, and everything you've worked for throughout your life in a very short period of time if you attempt to leave Scientology.

When it comes to strong-arming [particular] members to stay in the cult whether they want to or not, Mormonism is a babbling infant compared to Scientology.

Leaving and recovering from scientology is 1,000 times more traumatizing and dangerous than exiting Mormonism. There are many scientologists who have "vanished" when they embarrass the church or try to leave -- including Jenna Miscavige, the wife of the present "dictator" of Scientology.

The people who disappear are usually considered to be "suppressive" - those who dare to speak out, those who think about leaving, or the members who refuse to cut ties to their non-believing or anti-scientology family members, etc.

The one's who suffer most are the high profile members [especially movie stars] who can potentially embarrass the church. [Not to mention all the celebrity money/tithing lost].

After movie stars like Katy Holmes and Nicole Kidman leave the likes of Tom Cruise [and Scientology] they remain mum about the subject. They fear for their lives and for the welfare of their children. Only a brief press release is issued by their publicists.

I recommend this book:

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

This is a memoir written by Jenna Miscavige Hill, the niece of the present Scientology Leader, David Miscavige.

My own father was a Scientologist for a couple of years in the mid-late 1980s. He was "recruited" shortly after my mother died, when he was most vulnerable.

He was escorted [strongarmed] by two Scientologists who forced him to go to his bank and withdraw all his money. This is only a small part of the story. The most chilling part of it is how they can turn a truly loving, warm and generous dad into a cold unfeeling automaton.

Here is the "gospel" according to L. Ron Hubbard:

"Keeping Scientology Working -- When somebody enrolls, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe -- never permit an 'open-minded' approach. If they're going to quit let them quit fast. If they're enrolled, they're aboard, and if they're aboard, they're here on the same terms as the rest of us -- win or die in the attempt ...We'd rather have you dead than incapable ... The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depends on what you do here and now with and in Scientology."

What isn't mentioned is the stalking of members who have had the courage to leave Scientology behind. Via telephone, U.S. mail, internet, visits to your home by pairs of menacing bullies.

Children as young as 7 or 8 years old, are forced to sign "billion year contracts," pledging their lives to Scientology. They become little work slaves, working on various ranches, hotels, office buildings -- all owned by Scientology. They rise at dawn and don't drop until midnight or so. Little worker bees for the Church. Child trafficking.
It's obscene.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 03:54PM by Senoritalamanita.

Even if you are only 12 or 13, you are required to fill out a Life History form. You must provide your SS#, birthdate, credit card numbers, expiration dates, bank accounts numbers, other ID numbers and passwords, etc.

You must fill in all of the names of those relatives who are critical of Scientology.

You must fill the name of the thousands of Scientology Courses you've taken and "auditing" you've gone through.

They will ask you if you have ever been jailed or convicted of a crime.

Do you belong to any government or intelligence agency?

You must write in perfect detail, every second of your sexual experiences, including your masturbation habits.

You must declare your sexual orientation. In L. Ron Hubbard's 1950 publication of Dianetics, he wrote that homosexuals are "far from normal and extremely dangerous to society..."

The Life History form also asks if you have ever been hospitalized. What medicines do you/or have you taken? Including over-the-counter, prescription or illegal drugs. You must provide all the dates you used these drugs.

It's called blackmail ...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 04:20PM by Senoritalamanita.

Makurosu,

There are "public scientologists" like my father, who go to work 9 to 5 and live at home. They must pay for their Scientology Courses and Auditing. It sometimes adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, including paying for the volumes of books you buy.

For this privilege, you are allowed to "integrate" more freely in society. You can live in the comfort of your own home, keep your children with you, etc.. It is through their courses and auditing sessions where they literally brainwash you.

Non-scientologists are viewed with distrust and are referred to as "WOGS". This is akin to FLDS members distrusting "Apostates" from the outside world.

There are other scientologists sign up for militaristic-like organizations within Scientology. Their children often live apart from them in separate youth camps. Husband and wives are often separated by rank or job location.

Here is a quote:

"for the most devoted resident members, who live in Scientology-owned hotels or in vast compounds in California and Florida, and are induced willingly to accept disciplines like being locked in a closet or “Hole” for weeks, even months at a time.

In L. Ron Hubbard’s day, young children were isolated in ships’ chain lockers, or made to work long hours at painful manual tasks.

In 1977, Wright recounts, the FBI raided one of the punishment quarters, and saw people miserably stuffed into cubicles wearing overalls, with filthy rags on their arms, in total darkness.

The agency was induced to ignore this when none of the people asked to be rescued. “Despite federal laws against human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment, the FBI never opened the door on the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] again.”

This is how brainwashed the members are. It is more akin to FLDS than it is to mainstream Mormonism.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 04:58PM by Senoritalamanita.

I became curious about Scientology a couple of years ago during Tom Cruise's lovestruck, couch-jumping phase.

After many weeks of extensive reading on clambake.org, I concluded that scientology is the very definition of really scary shit.

Having followed various news stories and continued with further reading into on clambake and other sources...it's almost as if Miscavige is a 21st century version of Brigham Young.

It's not quite an apples to apples comparison. The Scientologists I know are more integrated into society than Mormons, but Scientology is a more extreme cult. When you leave Mormonism, you lose your whole social network. When you leave Scientology, there is more mental damage but at least your friends are still there for you.

EDIT: You know what? I think I'm wrong about that. The more I think about it, they aren't more integrated into society. They are putting on a show just like Mormons do. Maybe it is an apples to apples comparison after all and Scientology is just way worse.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 04:20PM by Makurosu.

Scientology is only 60 years old. Think about how hard it was to leave Mormonism a hundred years ago or more. Same thing.

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Now as for the support system thing, when Jason Beghe left Scientology, he was an OT VII (or OT V, by some sources), & a high level auditor of other celebrities. How in the hell he had any friends outside of Scientology, like David Duchovny for instance, IDK. But he did, & friends like David stuck by him.

I think you're right. Mormonism was as bad as Scientology in those days if not worse. They killed people. The Mormon church has come a long way since then. Maybe Scientology will too.

Scientology makes their members take "Sec Checks" which is short for "Security Checks". They even make children do it.

If they find anything that is a problem in their eyes you must undergo their regiment of audits and even end up in a facility basically working like slave labor

It's a rotten apple to rotted apple comparison.

As a Level X Operating Cretin, I'm on first -name basis with Xenu, and he's got my back.
n.

Wow. Reading Ramana's story, it's hard not to notice certain parallels: expectations of teens, marriage, loyalty oaths (a billion years), invasive questioning especially about sex:

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/12/ramana_dienes_browning_scientology_freewinds.php

I read Ramana's story with rapt attention. Life on board these ships was intolerable.

In addition:

Children as young as 8 or 9 years old were forced to walk the plank of the Scientology ships on the open sea.

L. Ron Hubbard delighted in "beaching" people off of his ship. Dumping them off the ship in any remote location, if they displeased him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2013 06:12PM by Senoritalamanita.

Scientology is WAY worse than Mormonism. It's like Mormonism on crack. Mormonism has all the signs of a cult, but Scientology takes them to the next level.

I'd rather Scientology die before Mormonism.

I'd take Mormon lovebombing any day over what Scientology does to people who leave.

I told the story before of my and my friend's encounter with them when I was 12. I didn't join, just caved in to pressure from Sea Org recruiters to give my name and address (supposedly for them to send more pamphlets and other info) and signed a long paper, which turned out to be the billion year contract, although they didn't tell us it was a contract until later.

What followed, when my friend and I failed to "report" for duty afterward was full-scale threats, demands and harrassment for months. It was like getting letters (all hand written) from lunatics, all of them dramatic, desperate and obsessed. We were afraid to leave the house to go to school, for fear they'd just pull up next to us one day and take us with them. That was just from filling out a form one day. I can't even imagine what it would be like to try to leave as an adult who had actually been a member of the cult. It's no wonder some of those who leave change their identitites.

Another good book by an ex-member is My Billion Year Contract, by Nancy Many.

To put such pressure on you as a mere child of 12 is wrong in so many ways. I'm sorry, inmoland that you had to go through such terror.

Scientologists believe that our bodies are just body "Thetans" -- "pieces of meat" that we drop when we die. They believe that our Thetan spirit finds another meat body and repeats this cycle in perpetuity.


Children are viewed as adults in small bodies. There is nothing special about babies or children in their point of view.

They also don't honor families - a thetan can't really be a parent to another thetan. So, they don't get teary eyed or emotional about each other.

Focus is never put on a husband/wife relationship, or keeping a family together -- in fact, focusing on your spouse or your children is considered selfish.

The focus is on keeping Scientology together for the "the greater good" of the planet -- not to individuals or their families.

Marriage and family is just a hindrance that slows down Scientology's insidious goals.

If you are young and join Sea Org - forget about having babies. You have to sign a contract saying you will not get pregnant. And if you do get pregnant, guess what happens next?

It's all about money, money, money. To this effect, destroying lives is just part of the plan.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2013 12:10AM by Senoritalamanita.

That's interesting about their view of children being adults in small bodies. I didn't know that. It certainly makes sense of my experience, in a way. I thought at the time that it was strange how they treated us like we were autonomous adults, demanding that we show up and ship out, so to speak, with no acknowledgement that we were kids who couldn't lawfully just take off of our own accord. I've always wondered how many missing kids might actually be trapped somewhere within the bowels of that organization.

Imagine yourself getting fed up in Sacrament meeting and walking out only to look in your rearview mirror and finding the bishop and two counselors coming after you in a Hummer to bring you and the family back...


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