alt.religion.scientology

Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology

Michael_Crichton asked this question on 9/2/2000:

Several ex-scientologists have credited what they read on alt.religion.scientology with causing them to leave the CoS. Are there _any_ cases that went the other way, with a non-scientologist joining the CoS because of that NG? If not, then doesn't that contradict the CoS' "You're only giving us free publicity!" claim?

honorarykid gave this response on 9/4/2000:

I've followed the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (a.r.s) very closely for over 5 years.

I can't remember the specifics, but over the years I believe there have been one or two claims by Scientologists to the effect that reading a.r.s gave them the impetus to look into Scientology, and from that research they subsequently decided to join.

These tales were marketing lies. Every single one of these claims were disingenuous. The people making them would be challenged by the a.r.s readership, and sooner or later, they would reply with cultic "lingo" that a new member would not have yet assimilated into their linguistic patterns.

And the main reason no one joins Scientology after reading a.r.s, is because you'd pretty much have to be a pretty dim bulb to ignore all those tales of Scientolgy wrong doing, and still remain susceptible and gullible to be influenced by the marketing claims at a Scientology org or Dianetics center.

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