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Subject: Screaming in Scientology office on Colorado Blvd?
Answered by: honorarykid
Asked By: Anonymous

Anonymous asked this question on 5/4/2000:

I used to work in a sandwhich shop that was pretty close to an office of the Scientology cult that was located on Colorado Blvd. along where the Rose Parade is run every year, here in California.

One day I was with a co-woker as we walked past the place on our lunch break. I never would have gone in alone but since I was with my friend, we thought we would run in and see what it was about. We had worked close to the cult for years and never gave them much thought.

There was some little kid... couldn't have been more than 10 year old or so... that met us at the door. The kid was filthy and stank, desperately needing a bath. That was enough for me to want to leave but my friend whispered to me, "in for a penny, in for a pound." Whatever that means we stuck it out and started to get a lot of smooth talk about taking that stress test that they're always trying to sell people.

The kid's parents... at least I think it was his parents... came in and tried constantly to seperate me and my friend. We wouldn't let ourselves be seperated so we spent all the time in that little front hallway thing that the cult had. We were trying to politely leave when we hear some woman just screaming loudly.

We could see this woman sitting in a chair leaning over an ash tray screaming like an insane person at it to 'rise up!' She turned red and just kept screaming at the ash tray! One of the parents of this kid that was trying to seperate us walked quickly over to the woman, said something, and looked back at us extremely embarrassed.

My friend and I got the hell out of the place. I admit that we were very scared that these insane people would follow us out and we walked quickly away. After half a block or so, we both started shaking and laughing and we hoped that the people inside wouldn't recognize us at work since some times they would send people in for lunch or some times dinner.

What's that all about? Screaming like someone possess of Satan at an ash tray, for God's sake?!!!???

honorarykid gave this response on 5/4/2000:

The ashtray yelling is, believe it or not, a routine drill. Sooner or later, all Scientologists will end up doing it, if they don't get wise and leave first, as you and your friend did.

I think the purpose of this drill is to hypnotize the mark. I think part of the subtle message in having the "student" yell at an ashtray is to begin to condition them to obey orders, even orders which are non-sensical.

You mentioned that the recruiters (called registrars) were trying to separate you from your friend. That is a standard control technique. Had they succeeded in separating you, they would have next probed each of you for a weakness or the area you most which to improve about your life. If you have a major dissatisfier in your life (what they call your "ruin"), such as an unhappy marriage or a broken relationship with a family member, the registrar would seize on that aspect of your life, making promises that Scientology fixes things like that, lickety-split.

Now you didn't mention taking the personality test. Maybe you left before they succeeded to get you to do this. But if you had, they would have persused your answers for clues to your unhappiness, and you'd better believe they would have told you "Scientology can help you with that."

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

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