edgarblythe wrote:I didn't get that involved, to know of such details. I do know that nobody I associated with asked me for money, except to help with donations (in Long Beach) to help keep the coffee pot supplied. A dollar or so every few months was ample.
Ah, I see.
Well, I'd also like to say that some of the initial "Auditing" Scientology offers
does really work for people. In Auditing (where you are holding the E-Meter thingies), you are made to go back to a traumatic experience in your past, and go over it again and again. The theory is that you still suffer from the subconscious effects of such a past trauma.
This is pretty much the same thing that's done in Regression Therapy. It doesn't necessarily work for each and every person, but I would say that it can be a valid approach.
What the CoS
doesn't tell "pre-clears" though is that in Scientology, this is not seen as Regression Therapy. In Scientology, the reason for past traumata is that they are caused by
thetans, the spirits of the aliens which were dropped on Earth 75,000,000 years ago and annihilated by hydrogen bombs. These thetans aren't aware of themselves. So a Scientologist has to find them (using the E-Meter), address them and "clear" his body of them.
So what sounds like a scientifically sound method in the beginning leads pretty fast to some weird kind of science fiction based brainwashing indoctrination. (Scientology is also known to keep the files of these Auditing sessions, where people confessed the most traumatic events of their lives, to blackmail higher-level Scientologists and prevent them from leaving the organisation and spilling the "secrets".)
