Ex Scientology Kids

I was never in the Sea Org, but I sure spent a long time talking with Sea Org recruiters when I was down at ASHO getting services.

All I can say, those Sea Org recruiters are ABUSIVE. It's just horrible how they'll take you into their office and talk to you for HOURS trying to convince you to join the Sea Org. And all those guilt trips they lay down on you, "What are you going to do to take responsibility for mankind? There are babies that are being given Prozac in their bottles! This planet is going to be destroyed in thirty years if we don't hurry up!"

I remember I went into session afterwards, we ran my ruds, my auditor asked if there was a PTP, and I broke down crying when I began talking about the Sea Org recruiters. Finally, I guess it was my C/S that gave a written order that I was off-limits to Sea Org recruiters.

I think I must have been forced to watch that Sea Org slide show at least 20 times!

I remember there was a girl I had a crush on at Delphi. After our last year there, I learned that she was flying down to CC Int to be a bridesmaid in her friend's wedding. Since my aunt and I were going down there anyway for some services, I had it arranged that we arrive the same time my crush arrived so I could see her.

Anyway, the day we arrived, she was a bridesmaid in her friend's wedding. Later that day, my aunt and I were escorted down to the "basement" underneath the CC to watch a David Miscavige video with a group of other people. My crush, still in her bridesmaid gown, was outside the video room in a cubicle talking with some Sea Org recruiters. We said hi to each other briefly, and then my aunt and I and the other people were shut inside the room and made to watch the boring David Miscavige video.

Anyway, my aunt and I had already made plans to meet with some friends, so we had to leave the room before the video was finished. We had been in there for forty-five minutes.

When we walked outside, my crush was still in the cubicle talking with the Sea Org recruiters, and she was CRYING. This pissed me off. I interrupted the recruiting cycle to tell my crush that I had prom pictures that I wanted to give to her. I was tempted to invite her to come with my aunt and me to have dinner and see a movie with our friends, even just to save her from this Sea Org recruitment, but I didn't have the nerve.

My aunt and I went upstairs to our room and I got the prom pictures. Then we went down to the lobby to wait for our friends. Our friends showed up and as we were talking with them in the lobby, my crush and the Sea Org recruiters passed us. I stopped my crush to give her the prom pictures. We all could tell that she had been crying earlier.

Anyway, my aunt, our friends and I left the CC to drive to dinner and a movie. We had only been on the road five minutes when our friends suggested, "You should have invited her to come with us. You want to go back and invite her to have dinner with us?" So, we drove back to the CC.

I went to the reception desk and dialed my crush's room. I asked her if she wanted to come to dinner with us. She answered, "Oh, that's so sweet of you to ask me, but I'm in the middle of signing my Sea Org contract right now!"

I was too late.

I was really crestfallen. I was eighteen years old, I had had this innocent juvenile crush on this girl for the last few years at Delphi, and now she was joining the Sea Org. And I was shocked, too! She had been crying earlier, it seemed to me like she didn't want to join! Because from experience, I knew how upsetting and frustrating the recruiting process could be, I understood why she had been crying. But I was baffled over how they had managed to talk her into joining.

To this day, she is married and still working at the Celebrity Centre.

And every once in awhile, I am haunted by the knowledge that if I had worked up the nerve to ask her to come to dinner when I had had the chance earlier when I passed her when the recruiters were talking with her and making her cry, the course of her life may have been drastically altered, and she may never have ended up joining the Sea Org.

My Mom's boss at the time was a Scientologist and helped talk my mom into it. I really didn't quite know what I was signing up for. I was mislead in a lot of ways.

My parents have always been supportive of what I wanted in life and I was "coached" on how to handle my parents. I thought I could really change the world and make a difference. I really believed in this cause and my parents, bless their hearts, let me go.

They let me go with the conditions that I finnish school, that I stay in touch and visit and that I remain happy where I was. All the conditions my parents had made were broken.

My sibling later joinned and then blew staff a few years later. Then told my parents what really went on in the SO and my parents were furious!

It was a hard and painful process, but I finally got through it. My parents are really lovely people and just wanted me to achieve my goals. I was very convincing and they were just really supportive. They thought it was like the Peace Corp. They regret their choice, but life goes on and we have all learned from our mistakes.

Were your parents able to rescue you?

Fascinating story, jbiggs. I have to say I wouldn't blame your parents at all. As I've said before, kids are thoroughly coached on how to "handle" their parents.

It's extraordinarily hard for a loving, supportive parent to listen to their kid sit there and tell them "But mom/dad, I want to HELP people! This is my goal in life! Don't you want me to help people?" and say 'no'.