Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath

[Spooky]

Wow. What an eye opening show.  Hearing all the personal stories of so many people who got away from Scientology is sobering.

[Eric]

Pearl watched this and I'm sure would agree.

[Pearl@32]

I've watched it from the beginning. I had read about Scientology over the years and never really understood the concept of bridging and going up the pyramid. All it sounded like was paying the church to say you were "this special" and then paying more to get higher up. I did watch Going Clear that was on HBO and watched My Scientology Movie on Netflix. I wanted to watch Remini's Aftermath to see her nail them to the wall. "If your church is so great, it should stand up to a couple questions." (There may have been a f word in there) They might be a church and do good works and charity, but their structure of demoralizing people into shaming each other, putting their kids to work and live in shitty conditions, and not thinking for themselves or questioning anything is not kind and loving. The church fractures families and friends. I can't imagine how members are able to turn off their feelings for their loved ones who cannot be a part of their lives anymore. It is disheartening the amount of pain and scars the experiences leave.

[Spooky]

I watched Going Clear and My Scientology Movie as well.

I don't think I have ever mentioned it, but I grew up in a cult. I tend to pretend that I never was in one.

Anyway, it's called The Way International. My mom joined when I was about 4 or 5. She became a WOW (Word Over the World) Ambassador and we moved from Seattle to Baton Rouge on a mission or sorts. That was when I was  6 or 7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_International

After that, she joined The Way Family Corps and we moved to Ohio (The headquarters of The Way) and it was like going to a communal bible college. I did go to regular school, but also had my religions training and worked as a farm hand. We raised sheep and chickens, as well as grew corn and tapped maple trees for their sap. We were only there for about 6 months because The Way had bought a campus in Indiana and we moved there to continue our training. It was pretty much the same. The campus used to be some old catholic health spa and was huge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_International#The_Way_Corps_and_College

After Indiana my mom got sent to California to be a Branch Leader. That's where she met my stepdad. They got married and we moved back to Washington. After graduating and going into the marines, I just pretended that part of my life wasn't real. my parents left The Way a couple of years later after realizing it was all about making the leaders money. There was also abuse issues and the like, but luckily I never had to deal with that.

My parents were Marked and Avoided for leaving.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_International#Mark_and_avoid

Joining the Marines and being exposed to so many people from different races, religions and creeds was an eye opening experience to me. I was so naive about how the real world works after being sheltered in a specific way of life for so long. Lucily The Way was not as tyrannical as some other cults, but they did have control issues and abuse issues. I often wonder how my life would be different if I had a normal upbringing.

Reading the wiki brought back lots of memories. I know all the names mentioned in the article.

The headquarters in Ohio has changed a lot since I was there.




The Indiana campus looks pretty much how I remember it.

[Spooky]

There is a clip in this video showing a Way graduation. I may have been there that day. Crazy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uH-fa15q8M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLSygDuPLfc

[Eric]

Thanks for sharing, Kelly.  It looks like they're still around; just not as big.

[Spooky]

 After watching Leah's show, I thought it would be good to share, even though I didn't personally have anything "bad" happen to me.

My mom keeps in contact with former members from time to time. I think she still struggles with talking about it in a bad light, but she was an adult who had bought into it fully and I was just a kid along for the ride, so I think i was able to disconnect from it much easier than she could.

[Pearl@32]

Yes, thanks for sharing.