I was told that the Xenu story made its first appearance on the Internet in 1998. The publication year may be incorrectly stated, but the point I’m making is that people who joined CoS after the bulk of Scientology data had been posted on the Internet should blame themselves for their misfortune. But before I blast them for being irresponsible, I should blast myself for the same foolishness. It is quite possible that I am the most irresponsible ex-Scientologist.

The long-time members of this board know my Scientology story, but the newcomers may not, so I think I should briefly introduce myself.

I was an exceptional Scientology fool because I joined CoS for the sole purpose of “continuing Hubbard’s research in Dianetics”. I was an atheist at that time who did not believe in thetans, spirits, souls, and similar entities. The whole idea of being hurt by the OT data seemed ridiculous to me. There was no Internet Xenu data at that time, but I knew damn well where to find the Xenu story.

It was my first day as a Scientology student when our course supervisor warned us about giving in to the temptation of obtaining the OT data that was published in Los Angeles Times. He told us that this data was published in early 1980s. “Did anyone die because of that?”, asked a female student. “Oh yes, several people died, the others who read it got violently ill, they are doing pretty bad now”, replied the jerk. I knew that son of a bitch was lying, but I did not know why. Next day I did just the opposite of what he warned us about by going to a library in search of the LA Times article.

I thought that the librarians would tell me the exact date of publication of the Xenu article, but they could not give me that information. Instead, they said that I should go through the piles of LA Times copies and find the article without any help from them. The piles were huge, and I was in no mood for a research. I left the library empty-handed.

That was an extreme laziness on my part that cost me a substantial loss of student money (I got to Level 0) and loss of wages due to my 6-months stint in Sea Org. I was not planning to clear the planet or to do similar crazy stuff. But the recruiters promised me that they will put me on a fast track so I could reach the Class V Auditor level in 4-5 months. Luckily for me, they lied -- while I was in Sea Org, I did not receive any auditing and did not take the Bridge courses; like a vast majority of the Sea Org staff members. I was taking management courses only. Those courses are completely useless, but harmless.

I do not blame Hubbard or DM for my encounter with Scientology, I was a lazy idiot who deserved the punishment.

Having said that, I want to say a few words to the individuals who joined CoS after the Xenu articles had appeared on the Internet (I exclude from this group the unlucky ones who were born into the cult).

You have a responsibility to yourself and your family members. Before getting involved with Scientology, you should study Scientology materials freely available on the Internet. You could start with official Scientology websites, but you should not accept their information at a face value. Instead, you should be paying close attention to all anti-Scientology data that you can find on the Internet.

Then and only then you should make an informed decision about joining the Church of Scientology.

Please, please learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of other ex-Scientologists that a blind faith in Hubbard’s brainchild will take you nowhere.

Read the articles by ex-Scientologists whose mental health was damaged by prolonged exposure to Scientology. Do you want this for yourself? Do you want your parents, spouse and children to watch helplessly your mental health decline?

True, some people escaped Scientology unharmed. But they constitute only a small minority of the ex-Scientologists; there is no guarantee that you will be among them. Most likely, you will be scared for life after you finally leave the cult. What is even worse, you may end up staying in the Church of Scientology for the rest of your life.

Please, please think twice before you make the stupidest thing in your life by joining the deadly cult.

The thread is incorrect and one man's personal, cynical opinion. It doesn't speak to the millions of people that consider religion to be an important aspect in their lives, nor does it reflect everyone that joins Scientology.

There are thousands of cults and cultic groups in the world. One only has to Google... 'why people join cults+psychology' to get an arsenal of articles from scholars, theologians, and mental health experts on why.

Whether it's religion or the prospect of winning a prize "too good to be true", thousands have become victim to scams for centuries. It's not going to change. Look how many people have been victimized by the Nigerian internet scams. It astounds me how many seemingly, intelligent people in the U.S. continually search & find their next guru in some charismatic, mystical person in India.

I chatted with a woman recently who believes the Catholic Church is the largest, wealthiest cult there is.. her mother has spent $40,000 of her life savings making repeated trips to Medjugorje where the Virgin Mary is reported to make monthly visits to 3 Croatian children (now adults) who speak to Mary. Religious leaders, the Catholic bishop in Croatia, and the Catholic Church doesn't validate the scheme, but the area has become a major tourist attraction bleeding the wallets of hundreds of thousands of Catholics convinced that the apparitions are real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TecGz5VK0A

So, is the Catholic Church a cult? It has far more members than Scientology, more assets than Scientology, and many of it's priests have been arrested & prosecuted for molestation of children and other abuses.

Smurf,
The focus of this article is a specific Scientology belief, which is the Xenu story. I do believe that people who have not been brainwashed by the cult are able to determine that the “Xenu incident” is a pure science fiction. Once they find out that they are supposed to take this crap at a face value, they will stay away from CoS (I think this happened to Katie, who is smart enough to reject the Hubbard Tech)

Regarding other religions, especially Christianity and Judaism -- one does not have to accept their basic principles on faith, it is possible to analyze the Bible and conclude that the events that it describes, including so-called miracles, indeed took place. In fact, I have conducted such analysis and wrote a book, The Logic of Creation, whose purpose is to show that the miracles described in the Old Testament and in the New Testament are real. Currently I am looking for a publishing company that would publish my book.

Not all religions are equal, some are the workings of overheated imagination. Hinduism, shmanism, New Age religions and dozens of others are nothing more than a crap.

The Catholic Church is not a cult because it promotes a true religion in a moderate form (moderation is a key to its success). I read a NY Times article about sex abuses in all Christian and Jewish denominations. The percentage of pedophile priests is the same for all religious groups, which is about 7%. The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination, so it has the largest number of pedophile priests, which made it a prime target of sex investigations.

People do not hear the "Xenu story" until they've taken OT-3. Many Scientologists, especially those in the Sea Org, will never have the funds to do OT-3, thus never hear about Xenu and it's importance to Scientology's space opera.

To blow everyone in Scientology off as 'irresponsible" is just plain ignorant, if not stupid.

Smurf,
You are not paying attention to my article. I was not talking about people who got deeply involved with Scientology before the advent of the Internet, and who obeyed the rules regarding the OT data. They had no choice but to postpone the encounter with the Xenu data until reaching the OT 3 level, as you said.

I was talking about the people who got interested in Scientology recently, and who have not been brainwashed yet. They should surf the Internet in search of Scientology data, which is so easy nowadays. It would be extremely foolish of them not to do the search and join the cult instead.

As my example shows, I was a fool who had an opportunity to obtain the Xenu data but failed to acquire it. I am the only party responsible to my monetary loss. But my example is a warning to the others who jump on Scientology bandwagon without burdening themselves with using the Internet to find out the truth about the cult.
====================
The first two pieces of information that one encounters while reading the Xenu story are the following:

1. It is possible to keep souls (thetans) in a confinement
2. It is possible to hypnotize the souls.

But Hubbard does not describe a single experiment proving that the above propositions are true. It would be extremely stupid for a person who was not brainwashed by the cult to accept these propositions on faith. In fact, I do not think that a single individual whose mind was not altered by the cult had ever accepted this garbage.

But the ones who did not conduct the search have a greater chance of joining CoS.

No, I took issue with the title of the thread which is cynical & judgmental. You take the stance that if everyone who take Scientology courses research the subject on the Internet first, it would prevent them from joining the cult. That's asinine.

How does one vet the truthfulness & accuracy of anything that is said about Scientology on the Internet? There's alot of factual data to be found, and alot of nonsense posted as well. The cult also uses the Internet to promote Scientology. How does one determine what article is true or not true? It all boils down to what the source of information the individual believes. The Internet is not the magic pill you allude to as preventing "responsible" people from joining a cult.

Most people arrive to their conclusions based on their own observations & experiences, not what they read on the Internet. Incredible as it may seem, there are thousands of people, particularly minorities in low-income communities, that do not have computers, and don't have access to the Internet, except costly Internet cafes which they cannot afford to utilize anyway.

Smurf,
The thought that the thread title is judgmental did not cross my mind; sorry if you see it this way. As you can see, I did not spare myself from my criticism; I thought that Scientology recruits can learn something from my mistake.

Some websites with Xenu data contain photocopies of Hubbard writings presenting the OT 3 data. I do not think that a person who just got interested in Scientology would doubt the validity of this data, unless he believes that the data was forged. But that would be a strange assumption, to say the least.

An individual must analyze the Xenu data to see if it makes sense to him; no one can do the analysis for him. But at least he should take a look at the Xenu data before making decision of joining the cult.

There's nothing wrong in being analytical, DLRH. but it is a part of the human condition in all of us to make decisions based on our own observations & experiences. That will never change.

Would thousands of people never been victims of the Nigerian 409 scams if they had researched the veracity of it first on the Internet first? Probably.

Would all the senior citizens who received Publisher Clearinghouse Sweepstakes mailing that they won big $$$ not taking trips to Tampa, FL to collect their assumed winnings, if they researched the marketing scam on the Internet first? Probably.

Unfortunately, society doesn't teach us to weigh all our decisions based on Internet research. If I was totally clueless about Scientology, and read the OT-3 data, I might blow it off as fictional text from his science fiction books, and not connect the dots to the cult.

The cult has often claimed the OT-3 data was part of Hubbard's science fiction writings and has no relevance to the "church".

That is correct, they do claim that.

But one must decide which sources of information are trustworthy and which are not. The Xenu story is published in Wikipedia, which is a source of valuable information for vast majority of the Internet users. In addition, the Xenu data could be found at this website, at Learnet.com and several other websites. For a person who is not brainwashed by the cult this should be enough.

Why would a person disregard the anti-Scientology Internet data and join CoS instead? Because he is so damn lazy that he does not want to burden himself with the Internet search. I have a similar experience -- I was a lazy bonehead who did not want to “waste time” on library research that could have saved me from losing money to the cult. Now I am trying to prevent the Scientology recruits from doing the same.

===============
The proof that Dianetics procedures do not work could be found at nyu.edu (NYU stands for University of New York). The NYU scientists have conducted an experiment showing that the engrams do not exist, their article is posted at the University’s website. I quoted their article at the thread Scientific Research Showing the Engrams do not Exist, which I posted at this website. I recommend everyone who wants to learn more about the Dianetics fraud to read the NYU article.

You're entitled to your opinion, DLRH. But, it is not shared by all.

CoS recruiters have lied and said the Xenu story is a lie, and (truthfully) said the Internet is full of ridiculous falsehoods. The student, if they believe the recruiter, may not find out the Xenu story is true until $300,000 and many years later.
CoS pays to get its sites at or near the top of Google searches. If people think those paid ads are reputable balanced sources, that means even young people can miss valuable critical info.
CoS recruiters set their hook carefully - if you're not religious, they downplay the spiritual side and play up the supposed "scientific proof." If you are a religious seeker they play up the supposed spiritual gains.
Love-bombing, fear of "dangers" from the psychological test, and greed for superior abilities can make people simply trust the recruiter as their new best friend who's going to solve all their problems.
Many CoS public members aren't lazy. Often they work frantically to make money so as to donate more to CoS. I'd call them unlucky.

Don Carlo,

The hook that CoS used on me was Dianetics, which they claim was based on scientific data. But that does not absolve me from responsibility of finding the truth. I should have gone to either a LA library or a NYC library in search of truth. I hope that my story will serve as a warning to those who are in the process of making a decision to join the cult.

The official CoS websites pop up at the top of a search page, you are right about that. But the same is true about the Wikipedia info -- in many cases the links to Wikipedia precede the links to Scientology websites. For unbalanced view one should gather information from both sources, then make an informed decision about joining the cult.

People join cults for variety of reasons, but I think that the prevalent reason is the excessive pride. That was certainly true in my case -- I wanted to become a world-renowned psychologist who outshined even Hubbard. Those who went OT wanted to obtain miraculous powers that would put them far above the average Joe.

I participated in several Scientology seminars conducted by a parody of a human being, David Howsen. In one of those seminars he told the listeners that the Tech will make “fucking gods out of them”. He was referring to Hubbard’s promise to guide Scientologists to a state of a thetan capable of creating its own universes. As an atheist, I found this promise utterly ridiculous. But the other seminar participants were so excited by it that they have given David the Idiot a round of applause.

This a cult which preys on people when they are at their weakest, lowest, most desperate points in life; I don't think it's fair villanize the majority of the members. Cult Exit Therapists exist entirely because it is nearly impossible for a person to destroy their own brain washing on their own. I would love to see tossing the business cards of exit therapists and more throw away mobile phones left for members during protests.

Unfortunately, it comes down to whom one can trust as a exit therapist. Most of mental health counselors know zip about cult mind control or believe in it. Many of the cult exit counselors over the years had no training in mental health counseling and were, simply, ex-cult members wanting to help others. Plus, there is the cost factor. Some tend to be very expensive.

I've been there. And, I know for a fact, having been dead-agented by Scientology of being a cult "deprogrammer" myself, that many exit counselings don't work, and the "therapists" have been sued in civil court for false imprisonment & other charges.

Throwing business cards at Scientologists wouldn't do anything, but provide OSA more dox.

My encounter with Scientology was brief, I did not need psychological counseling after I left the cult. I cannot judge the validity of deprogramming from my experience.

Some ex-cult members claim that psychological counseling helped them, I read their stories.
But I also read the stories of those ones whom the psychologists could not help, they still suffer from ill effects of the cult exposure.

I am not a psychologist, so I cannot confirm either statement; I just wish that ex-Scientologists who have undergone deprogramming tell us if it works.