I really underestimated the creepiness.

Last week I took my niece Chelsea and her friend Sarah to the Church of Scientology for a research project they are doing for their sophomore AP World History class. 

What I knew about Scientology before my visit to the cult headquarters church was
1.  Tom Cruise is a freak.
2.  L. Ron Hubbard wrote Dianetics and also a bunch of comic books.
3.  Scientologists believe an alien named Xenu came to earth on a spacecraft millions of years ago.  Or something like that.
4.  It reminds me of Amway.

So when we arrived at Xenu's Outpost in Mountain View, CA we were greeted by a super nicey nice man who was very helpful and offered to show us a short movie about Scientology. Being curious I said sure, we'll watch your movie.  The girls and I were led to a conference room arranged with theater-style seating and a projector, the nice man then started the movie and left us alone. After about 3 minutes, I thought, this is a JOKE right?  This cannot be the real movie they use to brainwash inform people about Scientology.  It was unbelievably fake and cheesy.  Not to mention outdated.  Sarah said "This movie looks like it was made in the early 90s!" (meaning, this movie was made before I was born, are they serious??).

I could go on and on about what they say in the movie but here is a sample of what I can remember given that I was laughing through the entire thing.

• L. Ron (as they call him) was fully professional in 29 fields.  Really?? What does that mean??
• Scientology is a bona fide religion is said many many times.  In case you were wondering why it is called the Church of Scientology, which may or may not include their cruise ship, I couldn't tell.
• Scientology will improve your personality and your IQ.  Ahh - that explains what happened to Tom.

As we were leaving, the really really nice nice man told the girls to looks around (like for example at all the shelves lined with the many books you can buy authored by L. Ron that are shrinkwrapped so you can't peak) while he put together some information for them to take home.  Sarah got out her camera to take a few photos and in a (so creepy) Jeckyl and Hyde moment, the no longer nice man screamed "NO PHOTOGRAPHS ALLOWED!!".

Comments

[Jenny Tinkletons]

Some more creepy stuff here. There was a clip of the founder L. Ron Hubbard talking about the alien Xenu leaked to a gossip site called Gawker. This is real and kooky. It goes on for 8 minutes, but if you wanted evidence about Xenu for your researchgive it a listen (and be amazed how much loonier Scientology really is...) *eek!*

http://gawker.com/5037013/the-history-of-xenu-as-explained-by-l-ron-hubbard-himself-in-8-minutes

I'm suprised they didn't stalk you after they saw the camera. With the recent protests against them they have gotten a lot more paranoid.

[Drew McManus]

WHOA. Trippy. I've always been intrigued by Scientology. How do they get so many people to give them so much money when the whole thing seems like a big joke?

So, what video did you watch? Looks like there are many at the "Scientology Video Channel" at http://www.scientology.org/

[Jenny Tinkletons]

The video she watched was probably this one, where the Scientologist spokesman tells the viewer they "are perfectly free to leave and never mention Scientology again, or they can jump off a bridge or blow their brains out" (Seriously!)

The realllly kooky stuff starts at 4:00 minutes in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfxPVWM2UVk

[Karen Talavera]

Thanks for validating my lifelong bad gut feeling about Scientology. Not that I ever doubted my gut anyway, or had reason to encounter or worry about encountering these wackos. Good question, how DO they get all those people to give them so much money? Is it simple brainwashing? Is it aliens (maybe the leaders are aliens? have access to aliens? convince others they are aliens?) Is it an elitist new world order power structure disguised as a comical cult to keep the average person away? Is Katie Holmes now living in Hotel California ("you can check in anytime you like, but you can never leave")? God only knows, but one thing I know is this has to be one of the biggest scams in modern times.

As ancient wisdom tells us "nothing is wasted". Yet it boggles the mind to contemplate what purpose a group like this serves. My best guess is that like so much modern world drama and craziness, it will bring about its own demise if only to then serve as a shining example that our common sense is there for a reason. To trust it.

I hope you'll share highlights from your niece's school project report - or research - when done.