Hello everyone
Just joined this message board because I have been a bit nervous to reveal my story as of yet. Have been somewhat harassed and am looking for advice. Got introduced to Scientology in February/March of 2010. My dad introduced me, said it would change my life. I had read things about Scientology and how it was a cult and everything, but I was still naive enough to have interest. My mom and dad had just gone through a divorce. I know now that my dad had found something to make it seem like everything was better, a way to justify his actions in the divorce (including cheating on my mom), and because, in general, he is selfish. Anyway, my uncle (his brother) has been in with Scientology sense the early 80s. I took a trip down to Clearwater, FL to visit my uncle (originally just as a vacation) and was suggested to by my uncle, to take a personality test. I sensed right away that there was something different about the people who worked at the BellAire "mission," but I couldn't quite pin-point it. Eventually they put me on a Hubbard course called "Ups and Downs" which was easy enough for me to understand and I "passed" it no problem. My trip ended and regardless of my wallet being quite lighter, I decided to continue studying the books and check it out. Seemed cool enough to me. As the months progressed and I decided to move to NY City with my dad, I started getting less and less sane. I took 3 more courses at the NY Org building, went to countless events, and slowly fell mercy to the clutches of the Scientologists. Becoming more broke and lonely, because I thought everyone who wasn't a Scientologist was crazy, when really I was the crazy one, I decided at one particular recruiting event to join STAFF. As my fingers slipped and I signed the contract, I thought, my life was going to change forever. I didn't know, however, it was going to be for the worst. By this time, I had been off my regular prescribed pharmaceutical medications for about a month. These are necessary meds that I took to stabilize my behavior from about age 16 on. The people at the org told me that Psychiatrists lie and that the meds were hindering my path to become "clear." I still to this day, don't know what the heck "clear" means. I eventually had an emotional episode that I will not go into detail on, but let's just say, I freaked out. Took the next train back to my current location. Gave up Scientology, read some things online that I am very glad I read. And thanks to the love and support of my mom, have been back on my meds, started school up again and am trying to resort back to a normal life.
Phew, that was a long story. However, I am worried that because I signed a contract, they will harass me until I join back up. But I am NOT going to let them. I need to fight these crazy people. I have received several emails trying to get me to come back, but luckily nothing threatening. Changed my phone number that they had and email address.
So, what can you give me for advice? What's the best way to counteract the nastiness that is Scientology?
Thanks everyone for listening.

I'm happy to see you on this message board, terrapin.caesar, and I'm glad you're out.

Read the four books on this reading list.
http://www.worldcat.org./profiles/Wieber/lists/1293066

Scientology cannot legally enforce any of the contracts or agreements they had you sign.

If they contact you and ask you to pay a freeloader debt tell them to take you to court. They won't.

Do not agree to anything they ask you. Do not sign anything they ask you to sign.

Thank your stars they only got a year of your life. Take your life back and make it your life the way you want it.

Hi, terrapin.caesar,

There is a lot of great advice here to be had from a lot of knowledgeable people here --
I'm new here myself, so I cannot really offer much advice, but instead, encouragement.

I'm really glad you're out of Scientology. It was brave of you to leave!
You mention in your post stuff about how you were the "crazy" one, and it makes it sound like you kind of blame yourself for everything that happened.
It's true enough that bad choices were made, but it was truly the Church of Scientology which used YOU.
The topic of psychiatrists and Scientology is of special interest to me, as I take some anti-depressants/mood stabilizers. I'm completely baffled as to why the cult is so against psychiatry. (One theory is that psychiatrists called out Hubbard on his b.s. when "Dianetics" first came out, so he had a bone to pick.)
I was with a man that loved me who turned out to be a Scientologist and who fervently urged me to get off my meds. He said that they were harming me and I had been duped by psychiatrists.
But what he refused to try and understand was that, along with talk therapy, cognitive therapy, and the help of supportive friends and family, the medicine I take has helped keep me stable for almost ten years.

It sounds like you're on a really good path now. Congratulations, truly!

Thanks very much for your support and comments. That's great advice. Scientology is evil and I am very interested in fighting the cult as best as I can. You are very correct, wieber, they did only take 1 year and I am lucky to have my real life back.
And that's very interesting about the freeloader debt, and I will refuse to sign anything if they do indeed try to come back after me.
Thanks skeptic, I am definitely on a better path now!

Hi, terrapin.caesar, and welcome to the board.

Glad you got out of their clutches fairly quickly. They probably will end up calling you. My advice is to NOT ENGAGE. They will have an answer for every objection, so the best bet is to just get off the phone (or not answer).

Also, FORGET ABOUT YOUR FREELOADER DEBT. There's no such thing. It's something they just made up to get more money out of people. Don't give them one cent.

It's great that you're going back to school, especially now in this economy. It can't hurt to have a good education, no matter what you end up doing.

Have you read the main part of this board (xenu.net)? There is a wealth of great information there. Also, watch the videos in my signature. It's pretty alarming what happens to people in the Sea Org, and especially at Int Base (in Hemet, California).

Hi, and welcome!

Regardless of whether you signed a contract, they'll try to contact you. Some people who the only contact they had was buying a book at a Stress Test, get calls years and years later. Many people have had success getting the calls to stop by reading a certain story to the callers that begins "75 million years ago..." and ends with Xenu.

Freeloader Debt : When you were on staff, you probably worked 12 to 15 hour days, and probably made 50 USD per week, if you were lucky. Certainly not the hundreds you should have earned for so many hours. So now that you've left, YOU owe THEM? For WHAT!? Yelling at ashtray lessons?

A few bullet points:

* Do not meet with them. If you visit your dad and uncle and there are handlers there, LEAVE.
* Do not talk to them on the phone. There's nothing they can offer besides misery. HANG UP.
* Do not pay the Freeloader Debt.
* Do not agree to go back to "route out." It's a TRAP.

Got another email today from a staff member. About the 70th email I have received this month. What a joke.

"I hope that you had a very happy new year and will continue the year in the same fashion. How are you? I was thinking about you and you were having great wins when you were here. What happened? I'm really interested to find out what happened. Let me know please write back to me."

how do I respond (or not respond). ADVICE PLEASE!

Simple. Don't respond.

If your email provider doesn't have advanced anti-spam/ignore functions which allow you to reject specific senders (bouncing back, making it look to them like the email address no longer exists) then just change your email address and then shut down your old one after the people you trust have got your new email addy.

If your provider has an autorespond feature (like what you'd use if going on holiday fro example), you could keep the email account active and everytime the cult sends something to you it could be set to autorespond with "Sorry we're all out for the next billion years but here's a message from Xenu...." followed by Hubbard's space opera (paraphrased of course, to avoid copyright issues).

Vote #2 for "Do not respond."

It's just like dealing with an ex-lover. As long as there is communication, the other person thinks "I've still got got a chance".

You can hear it in 'Pictures Of You' by The Cure:

If only I'd thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I'd thought of the right words
I wouldn't be breaking apart
all my pictures of you...

It's also used as a joke in 'Dumb And Dumber':

Lloyd: I came a long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I'd say more like one out of a million.
[pause]
Lloyd: So you're telling me there's a chance... *YEAH!*

To repeat: DO NOT RESPOND.

Thanks for the advice.
I did not respond and I have put a "vacation notice" on my email that says, "Email account deactivated for the next 1 Billion years due to excessive religious contact." And I changed my email.

LOL Well done.

Dear Terrapin.Caeser:
Great idea that you changed your e-mail.
The Cult will tried hard to contact you, do not answer, do not go there, nor even for a conversation.
I was in the Cult for more than 25 years as a public, and I lost a lot of money, and in the end had my family torn apart by them.
The Cult is interested only in money, trust me on that.
The creator, L.R. Hubbard, was crazy, and copied from other sources all material for "his Courses".
If someone contacts you, tell them that you are a Buddhist now and is not interested.
Check the web for information about Scientology. It is a major scam detrimental to any one's mental and financial health.
Good luck to you! You did the right thing leaving it!!!
Sunshine

Great idea, Terrapin. That's hysterical.

I just wanna stress again there is no reason for anyone to accept their calls or talk to them in any way, at all, ever, once you leave.

All they want from you to is to recover you. Bring you back so the money and free labour train is back on schedule. Depending on how far you got, they have "blow drills" where they practise hunting people down and getting them to come back. Sure, they'll promise you everything you could ever want. If your problem is a clogged drain, they are the world's master plumbers! They will say and offer just about anything, tell you it'll be better, tell you they have the answers, but they DO NOT. All they have is oppression and misery.

If you wanna read more about the desperate lengths they'll go to, visit Marty Rathbun's blog. Yeah, he's still a Scientologist, but he's independent, away from the church. Some posts back he talks about a guy called JB. JB escaped Gold Base and hightailed it for Marty's home in Texas. The next morning he woke up in his rural Texas hotel room, mind you he was checked in under a different name, and TWENTY people are now in town to bring him back. The good news: He stayed free!

http://markrathbun.wordpress.com - Marty's blog

So sorry you've had to go thru this, Terrapin. If your Dad and Uncle are still in, just count on Scientologists to try and manipulate you via the family disconnection policies. Just remember that you can't help anyone else until you help yourself.

Whether your Dad and Uncle were jerks before Scientology or after, it doesn't matter in light of who you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. Hold on to that.

Hey, I have lots of family members that were decent people long ago and now are terrible excuses for human beings, (not involved w/Scientology), and I am not involved with them.
It was a tuff, heart-pulling moment when I had to realize this. But it's just part of the human experience that billions of people go through all the time.

Realize that if it wasn't Scientology, your Dad and Uncle would have been involved in something else that was just as prone to abuser/victim mode. Also, there's some kind of phrase about "you can't save them, you can only save yourself" kind of platitude. I forget.
The point is both abusers and victims slyly exude attempts of soliciting others of "saving" them. But the intent is never to actually be saved. Quite the opposite.

Oh, and no, any Scientology "contract" or "bill" is fraudulent and unenforceable. Good for you in spotting the fraud, and hope you do well in your endeavors.