Norseman
March 29, 2004, 06:26 AM
Scientology
For those of you who wondered what it is, here's my story.
Sad to say from my dark and shameful history, my whole family was scientologist at a time :eek:
I went to a scientology school from preschool to the beggining of 2nd grade when I, like my sister before me, decided to go to public school instead. In 7th grade, my report card was quite dismal, so my mother (being much more forceful than my father) decided to send me back to private school, now in the Mohave Desert, at Mohave Academy boarding school.
The first location we were brought to was a serene man-made lake, surrounded by houses and palm trees. They had a trampoline, a kayak, a swing, everything to make a kid go crazy about the place. Well, I went inside and met the principal, who put me on a lie detector and asked me some questions (the weirdest one being if I had ever taken Riddlin, they seem to think you've been tainted after taking Riddlin or something). So, we went to the second building which was where they said I would stay.
At this second location was an even larger lake, and 10-15 horses. They had a library, and an extensive botanical garden, even a chicken coop. We set up my bed and I had lunch and explored, and later that day my parents left.
The day after, I was moved to a third location, called 'the farm'. It was a pretty beat up blend between a junkyard and a small trailer park, with the main buildings all being very worn down and appearing to be no younger than 40 years old. This place had a dried up lake, and a barbed wire fence going all the way around it. I was made to pack up and I was moved here, where I would sleep for the remainder of my time at Mohave Academy.
We were made to wash our dishes, cook our own food, wash our own clothes, and essentially be independent of the academy short of basic resources. We weren't taught anything scholarly, just how to live indepently of the school.
Entertainment was minimal at best as Mohave Academy had a strict rule on video games, TV's, radios, pretty much anything electronic besides lights, blenders, toasters, and washing machines was not allowed. They didn’t let us have candy or magazines either. Without gameboys, PS2s, and TV, the only thing remaining was night tag which we would play every night at dusk, generally spending most of the day building forts to aid us in the game.
Every morning, we'd get up at the crack of dawn before the sun was high, and drive by van to the second location to have a morning march through the desert. Sometimes the wind would pick up and the grains of sand would whip into our eyes, but usually we managed to march back within two hours, before any of us had succumbed to dehydration. We would remain briefly to do chores and then return to the farm.
53 days into my stay at Mohave Academy, and a kid named Joel came along. Joel immediately disliked place and had very little patience. He would take blame for everything, whether he did it or not. They simply wouldn’t let him go (I don’t blame them, they made like 800$ a week to have him there). So one day, he decided to just walk out the front gate and wander into the desert, as he was leaving, I joined him. Together we walked for nearly 3 hours, until finally we had wandered into one of their cars and got caught. As Joel had a kidney stone he was already aching and wasn’t up for running, and I wasn’t going to leave him, so we returned to the Academy. When we got back our parents were called and informed that we had gone missing and were retrieved, and within three days me and Joel both had our tickets home.
My mother was screaming at me, as if I had gone missing just yesterday, I couldn’t blame her for it, but it really was too much for me. For the next two weeks I secluded myself from my family, as every time my mother saw me she would find something to nag about, no matter how small a detail it might be, or send to do something, just anything, so long as she could work me like a mule.
Finally my parents cooled down about it, and returned to their mostly Presbyterian ways. As for me, I had always been atheist, since I knew what the word meant, I don’t know if scientology had any bearing on my atheism, but I know the conflict between Presbyterianism and Scientology was enough to force me to conclude that both religions were false.
Now, you wanted the core principles of Scientology? It only has a couple parts:
1. No god
2. Souls do exist
3. When you die your soul goes to mount Everest where an invisible rapidly blinking light flashes out your memory and implants your soul into a new body. (Probably explains the phobia with Televisions; “SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!�)
4. If you’re sad enough you can die, to the point where you can never be reincarnated, you can even get sadder while dead.
5. L. Ron Hubbard is the only one to have achieved ultimate bliss/enlightenment and thus has strange magical powers.
The auditing programs generally involve them trying to provide the 'professional help' that many pastors do, and they usually also tell you to take massive amounts of vitamins and sweat out contaminants in a sweat room.
And that’s basically all there is to it.
For those of you who wondered what it is, here's my story.
Sad to say from my dark and shameful history, my whole family was scientologist at a time :eek:
I went to a scientology school from preschool to the beggining of 2nd grade when I, like my sister before me, decided to go to public school instead. In 7th grade, my report card was quite dismal, so my mother (being much more forceful than my father) decided to send me back to private school, now in the Mohave Desert, at Mohave Academy boarding school.
The first location we were brought to was a serene man-made lake, surrounded by houses and palm trees. They had a trampoline, a kayak, a swing, everything to make a kid go crazy about the place. Well, I went inside and met the principal, who put me on a lie detector and asked me some questions (the weirdest one being if I had ever taken Riddlin, they seem to think you've been tainted after taking Riddlin or something). So, we went to the second building which was where they said I would stay.
At this second location was an even larger lake, and 10-15 horses. They had a library, and an extensive botanical garden, even a chicken coop. We set up my bed and I had lunch and explored, and later that day my parents left.
The day after, I was moved to a third location, called 'the farm'. It was a pretty beat up blend between a junkyard and a small trailer park, with the main buildings all being very worn down and appearing to be no younger than 40 years old. This place had a dried up lake, and a barbed wire fence going all the way around it. I was made to pack up and I was moved here, where I would sleep for the remainder of my time at Mohave Academy.
We were made to wash our dishes, cook our own food, wash our own clothes, and essentially be independent of the academy short of basic resources. We weren't taught anything scholarly, just how to live indepently of the school.
Entertainment was minimal at best as Mohave Academy had a strict rule on video games, TV's, radios, pretty much anything electronic besides lights, blenders, toasters, and washing machines was not allowed. They didn’t let us have candy or magazines either. Without gameboys, PS2s, and TV, the only thing remaining was night tag which we would play every night at dusk, generally spending most of the day building forts to aid us in the game.
Every morning, we'd get up at the crack of dawn before the sun was high, and drive by van to the second location to have a morning march through the desert. Sometimes the wind would pick up and the grains of sand would whip into our eyes, but usually we managed to march back within two hours, before any of us had succumbed to dehydration. We would remain briefly to do chores and then return to the farm.
53 days into my stay at Mohave Academy, and a kid named Joel came along. Joel immediately disliked place and had very little patience. He would take blame for everything, whether he did it or not. They simply wouldn’t let him go (I don’t blame them, they made like 800$ a week to have him there). So one day, he decided to just walk out the front gate and wander into the desert, as he was leaving, I joined him. Together we walked for nearly 3 hours, until finally we had wandered into one of their cars and got caught. As Joel had a kidney stone he was already aching and wasn’t up for running, and I wasn’t going to leave him, so we returned to the Academy. When we got back our parents were called and informed that we had gone missing and were retrieved, and within three days me and Joel both had our tickets home.
My mother was screaming at me, as if I had gone missing just yesterday, I couldn’t blame her for it, but it really was too much for me. For the next two weeks I secluded myself from my family, as every time my mother saw me she would find something to nag about, no matter how small a detail it might be, or send to do something, just anything, so long as she could work me like a mule.
Finally my parents cooled down about it, and returned to their mostly Presbyterian ways. As for me, I had always been atheist, since I knew what the word meant, I don’t know if scientology had any bearing on my atheism, but I know the conflict between Presbyterianism and Scientology was enough to force me to conclude that both religions were false.
Now, you wanted the core principles of Scientology? It only has a couple parts:
1. No god
2. Souls do exist
3. When you die your soul goes to mount Everest where an invisible rapidly blinking light flashes out your memory and implants your soul into a new body. (Probably explains the phobia with Televisions; “SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!�)
4. If you’re sad enough you can die, to the point where you can never be reincarnated, you can even get sadder while dead.
5. L. Ron Hubbard is the only one to have achieved ultimate bliss/enlightenment and thus has strange magical powers.
The auditing programs generally involve them trying to provide the 'professional help' that many pastors do, and they usually also tell you to take massive amounts of vitamins and sweat out contaminants in a sweat room.
And that’s basically all there is to it.