I think this has been covered before but I did a search for it and didn't find anything. I may have related this before, too. Some of the things being discussed are bringing it to mind again.

When I completed my first basic course in scientology I came out of there feeling extremely euphoric and feeling really good. Like the episode in Red Dwarf it was "better than life." Scientology auditing and the training routines (TRs) can make a person feel really really good. I suppose that's one reason why people claim to have had "wins."

So I felt really good and the org recruiter recruited me to join staff, which I did. I went home and did a PTS handling with my family and got all the money I could lay my hands on and came back still feeling really really good.

Then we had a staff meeting. The executive director (ED) made his speech to the staff gathered there. I don't remember what he said but when I came out of that meeting I didn't feel really really good any more. I felt like a piece of stinking garbage. I felt like I had been kicked hard in the solar plexus. I felt like a piece of home made shit.

"Welcome to scientology, you degraded piece of shit!"

I wondered why the hell I felt so bad. I should have taken that as a red flag and got myself out of there.

As to that particular individual, I have heard he's been declared a suppressive person but I really don't ever want to be his friend. There are a few people like that. They may have been scientology's victims and they may have become nice people after they left but it would really take some great effort on my part to every be friendly or even civil with them.

It's interesting, actually, that you bring it up. I just now discovered I've been witnessing a "red flag" situation from the outside without realizing it.
Here on the forum, I share the story of my scientologist friend whom I'm worried about, and according to what I told before, she has a scientologist mother and yet her choice of becoming one herself wasn't obvious.
I thought she left everything abruptly and flew abroad to join the church. But as it turns out, when she flew abroad she was already "Clear", and the last time I saw her she was on her way to get there. I didn't know that then, and yet she projected something that made me feel strangely alramed. There was a strangeness about her, no doubt a result of hours of auditing and training. Anyway, it drove me nuts that no one else noticed it, that was seriously "red flagged" time..on my part.
Since my friend joined (currently she's has some OT level..), I myself became way more sensitive and careful when it comes to organizations and self-help books and courses. I'm pretty sure that before all this has happened and got me to fully investigate scientology, I was naive, and it would took me quite a while to sense that something might be wrong.
Nowadays, it's like
"Please sign a petition against Ritalin"
-danger!-
"We can help you reprogram yourself, and clean the present from bad momories"
-danger!-
"Learn fascinating ways to get in touch with your spiritual self"
-danger!-

Here's to Red Flags!
We should use this slogan in front of Flag's building in Florida(;

When I was involved, and on staff, a serious red flag was the fact that some OTs that were hanging out at the org were just plain bat-shit loony! My concept of achieving OT was what was listed in the 70's on the grade chart for OT VIII: "Serenity of Beingness." That was what I wanted to achieve -- a sort of Buddha-like state where I was serene and all-knowing. These OTs I am referring to were anything but serene beings. They were just plain daft, stupid people with no class and absolutely no extraordinary abilities of any kind. That was always a great big, fat, juicy red flag for me.

Wieber, that must have been devastating, to say the least. To go from this euphoric high, to the deepest low has to be quite a blow to the psyche.

The comparison has often been made to abused wives, and that's what it sounds like. You think you've found this fantastic person and your life is going to be wonderful. Then *boom* you find out there is this dark side. Ugh. It's got to be crushing for the spirit.

Yes, I'mglib, that's what it felt like.

There were some feel good times in scientology later on but they were never like that first time. There were a lot of imposed feel bad times like that first one and they were always at least that bad if not worse.

I imagine it's much like and abusive marriage or relationship where the person being abused looks to find reasons for the abuse and thinks of many people and things, including self, as to why the abuse happens. Although the real reason often comes to mind it is always rejected because "it couldn't be that person. They were so wonderful" (or some other thought stopper.)

I went through all that when I was on staff in scientology. When I got out I pinpointed Hubbard as the source of the abuse. There were many individuals who seemed to be only to happy to carry forward Hubbard's command intention.

Wieber, when you mention how the second time around the good times weren't as good as they were the first time around, it reminds me of how addicts describe their experiences taking drugs.

You had mentioned in another post about how when you first left Scientology, all you had were the clothes on your back and you eventually returned to the Co$.

It makes total sense to me that you would, and I think Glibby has a good analogy going on with the abused wives (or husbands, as it were).

After all, there were some good times in Scientology. Most of us would rather have something rather than nothing. People who don't leave a bad situation aren't foolish, though neither are they correct to stay. But I think we tend to weigh things from a practical standpoint: okay, the food is terrible here, but if I leave I might starve to death.

Also, when it comes to red flags, I'm embarrassed to think about how many red flags I've missed in certain situations which I only realized in retrospect!

The following is an extremely random analogy, but I think it works...

I was abroad a few years ago, staying with a friend of mine who when I first met her had emotional problems but was on the mend. She was a very close friend and I knew she loved me.

But when I got there - and I was scheduled to stay with her 3 weeks in her tiny apartment - her behavior towards me was terrible. She was mean and insulting and somewhat controlling.

I kept trying to make plans to leave and go back to the U.S. early, but so many little objections kept arising. Of course, first of all there was the money thing: okay, I've spent all this money to get over here, and I'm going to just waste it? Plus, changing my flight at the last minute was going to invoke a large fee.

Perhaps the most daunting thing was that for some reason when I called in to try and change my flight, it was impossible for me to leave right away... it would take 48 hours between that moment and when I could go back to the U.S. I couldn't imagine staying with her 2 more days whilst she knew I was leaving because the atmosphere with her had become abusive. Plus, my luggage was down in the locked storage area in the basement of her complex... I needed her help to get it out (no one else in the complex could help me, because each apartment has a padlock for each storage unit).

There were several things people in the U.S. had asked me to buy for them while I was abroad, and I hadn't done that yet. I had only been in the country 3 days -- why not give it more of a chance?

Because of the time change, it was difficult to talk with my parents on the phone while she wasn't there. I remember talking with them on the phone with her in the room, smiling at her and saying, "Oh, it's better now!" And of course I couldn't convey to them how bad it had become.

I guess what my point is is that in these situations - I would think especially as regards Sea Org - people tend to ask incredulously, "Why wouldn't you just LEAVE?!" But there are emotional as well as logistic barriers. When I was abroad, I faced leaving my suitcases behind. I can't imagine the magnitude of pain that must arise when a person has to leave their spouse and their children behind. It would be sufficiently painful to just leave one's entire life behind.

kind of off topic, but thematically related and humorous quote I found while searching for "red flag" in sacred cult scriptures and leaked docs:

from a leaked document entitled "Basic Field Policies" from Durable Slate, a WISE company:

and an illustration of the topic of this thread:

as I've said, my shoop skills are lacking, but I try...

ElRon might have been crazy, he definitely wasn't stupid.

CX, keep on shooping! You'll get there.

Hey, AGP, that was a very long time ago. Some things from that time I recall accurately as to what was said. With that particular thing all I really remember was the really bad feeling I had.

I believe this particular executive director (ED) generally hated people.

When I was on the book seller team we had a meeting with him. This was a different encounter with him but I remember some of it. This may give you some idea of the person.

He started out by telling us that he had visited a local co-op residence/educational facility. He said that the place should be bombed and completely destroyed along with everyone in it. Then he went on to say that with anyone we contacted to sell a book that we are their very last chance and if we don't sell them a book they will never get another chance. From that he demanded one for one performance from us - meaning we sell a book to every person we contact, without exception.

In scientology there is no, "do the best you can." Instead it's always, "be perfect or else!"