True and Sad Stories of real Scientologists

Movies that are helpful for understanding Scientology:
The Truman Show 1998
The Sleuth 1972

Understanding OSA and the Guardians Office:
Cape Fear 1962
The Spanish Prisoner

More for Scientologists

This is just something I had to write, for those lurking here with real doubts about Scientology and for those never in, to show the true stories of some real Scientologists.

There really is no other group like Scientology. I got in quite young, and was going to events and auditing other people at a very young age. I became familiar with the concept of children being “beings in little bodies” very young, and I was expected to fend for myself through most of my teen years.

I experienced what it was like to be told that whatever happens to one is something they pulled in. I have written about this before on this message board. I felt, up until I left the cult (thanks to some very good people here) that I had been responsible for sexual abuse inflicted on me by someone who was in good standing with the church. As long as this person kept paying for auditing, it was considered “just an aberration”. I still cannot believe that I fell for this, or that I let that thought consume my life so very much.

I’d like to tell you a few stories from inside. I can’t use real names, as I don’t want to be “outed” yet, but I think that anyone who reads this who has doubts about Scientology might find this helpful.

I knew a guy; we’ll call him Fred, back in my early days in Scientology. I was young and impressed by him being an OT. He had headaches for a while and he was convinced it was out-int (for those who are unfamiliar, this means the person went exterior from their body and went back in). He went to FLAG to handle these problems. We all thought he would be ok, because Scientology worked, right? So, he came home and died a week later from an aneurysm. He was 40.

A beloved old man had been on staff for a really long time. We’ll call him Hank. Hank worked for 30 years for the church. He got sick and was getting assists from other staff when they had time. Hank died in a staff apartment, alone, long since disconnected from his family. I went to his funeral service at the org and everyone was so happy he was off to get a better body to keep clearing the planet. To be honest, I found this appalling. But Scientology worked, right? And Hank had gone OT III back in the old days so he’d be ok.

Thelma had given lots and lots of money to Scientology over the years. She was a good lady, loved animals, and helped out a lot of kids around the org when their parents weren’t around, including me. She took us to McDonald’s and to the movies. She was so sweet. Thelma got breast cancer, but she wasn’t afraid. Scientology worked, right? So she went to a Scn. Doctor in LA who gave her vitamins and then she got the PTS rundown. Thelma died six months later. The doctors said she would have lived if she had undergone chemo. All the staff at the org said Thelma wanted to leave her body to get a new one, and it was her choice. I spoke with Thelma when she found out she had cancer and she wanted to live!

Some very good people are in Scientology. They believe that the tech will make them invincible. They believe that LRH told them the truth about Scientology’s powers. I’m not saying that auditing can’t deliver relief from stress. I experienced that myself. But it never fixes the underlying problems. It didn’t cure my eating disorder. It didn’t stop a man I knew who went bankrupt paying for repair auditing and shot himself in the head.

Scientology discourages people from seeking help from psychiatry and psychology. But what if you are dealing with a situation in which those are the only things that help? Take Karen, for instance. She had a son who was born autistic. Karen was a die hard Scientolgist and refused to treat her son with any form of therapy that was “psych based”. Karen’s son got older and older and he couldn’t talk, and was fixated on certain toys and making them spin. Karen got so depressed she contemplated suicide, for what had she done wrong to pull this in? She was a good Scientologist and she did all the assists on her child and nothing worked. The final straw came when the org told her she should concentrate not on her “downstat” child, but on clearing the planet. You see, to a Scientologist, anything not normal is considered downstat. Through an intervention with family and friends, Karen left the church and took her son to the child psychologist. A year later he can talk, he is hugging her, he is interacting with other children and he may someday be mainstreamed. Karen’s son had potential locked away in him and Scientology refused her the help she needed for him. I’m glad she left.

I know this was long winded, but I needed to say it. Scientology isn’t going to cure diseases, it isn’t going to treat the real reason people are sick. Get the help you need when you need it.

Love, Serenity Now

'You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." ' --Eleanor Roosevelt

My Exit page for Scientologists and ex-members