From: cep@Apple.COM (Christopher Pettus)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: take the test
Message-ID: <55145@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 91 20:48:07 GMT
References: <1991Jul18.232322.16893@verity.com> <5043@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Distribution: alt.religion.scientology
Organization: Uh, can I get back to you on that one?
Lines: 44

In article <5043@borg.cs.unc.edu> averett@hatteras.cs.unc.edu (Shava Averett) writes:
>I did this at the old office in Central Sq. Cambridge.  I came out as a
>virtual flatliner (so to speak) and they immediately encouraged me to 
>come learn the jargon and become a counselor (or whatever they call it).

They must have misscored the test, or used a nonstandard one.  There are NO
correct answers to the standard one (having seen both the test and the
answer key).  An OT-8 (Scientology equivalent of near-Ghodlike-perfection)
would flunk the test just as badly as Charles Manson.

>What I have experienced of people in Scientology indicates that they have
>no more and no less of a dependecy problem than most people I've met in 
>long term psychotherapy.  I can't see what the big deal is about them 
>giving over huge sums of money and huge amounts of time to the Church.
>I think the same people might be better off looking for less authoritarian
>answers (IMO, people seem to come out of scientology thinking "Ron tells
>me I should think for myself, so I will!"), but I also wonder what these
>people's alternatives are for a healthy, transformative, support group.
>
>So all of y'all who seem to just think this is a big scam, what do you 
>propose as an alternative for these people?

Something that's interesting about Scientology and the money angle:
What people give Scientology is not a donation in the sense that they
are doing it just be to be wonderful (OK, the purchases of LRH's SF
books are a bit suspicious, as are the donations to the non-Church
things like the Religious Freedom Crusade).  They are paying for
services in the form of courses and auditing.

Further, Scientology advertises that you can ask for, and get, a refund
if you feel that it didn't do for you what you wanted.  And this is, in
fact, true; I know people who have gotten back every penny they paid.
The problem is that this is equivalent to excommunication,
blackballing, and The Silence all rolled into one.  You are effectively
branded a Suppressive and PTS (Potential Trouble Source, i.e., a Not
Nice Person), and good Scientologists are supposed to steer clear of
such people.  The so-called "fair game" policy was repealed years ago,
but this can still be a problem for people whose social community is
primarily Scientologists.
-- 
-- Christophe

"Oh, so you're going to kill me!  What a finely-tuned response to the
situation!"