Something a bit more serious

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Xenu
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Something a bit more serious

Postby Xenu » Wed May 17, 2006 8:28 pm

I guess what goes around comes around, eh?

One of my friends from school recently told me he was thinking of working for his mom. His mom, it transpired, had recently quit her job, and was attempting to open a clinic in Chicago. After some of banter one would expect to hear greet such an announcement, the conversation suddenly shifted in a bizarre direction: he mentioned that some of the management books his mom was getting from this company were written by L. Ron Hubbard.

Sure enough, the consulting company his mom is using is a WISE (=World Institute of Scientology Enterprises) company, one called Measurable Solutions. It's based in Clearwater, both founders are Scientologists, and the whole thing sounds...well, bad.

I've heard this story numerous times. Scattered about the various "I was in for 20 years" testimonials are those by people who were suckered in through WISE and the Hubbard admin tech--it isn't all personality tests and Hollywood celebs, unfortunately. These stories are generally pretty similar sounding: the people go in for various business seminars, and they're eventually steered towards the CoS. Hilarity ensues.

The guy in question, while a friend, isn't someone I'm terribly close with. He also has no idea what to do. His mom seems seriously into this; she's already sunk upwards of $5000 into these seminars, and refuses to hear anything negative about them (she was also overheard calling Hubbard a "great man," and has been giving her son various Scientology books to ponder). They're going again to another meeting in Clearwater next month.

I've been "doing" the Scientology thing for years, but I never thought it would affect me in this close proximity. Honestly, I'm at a loss. I have no idea what to do. It's pretty serious, and pretty terrifying. I realize that it's up to Mark (the son) to take charge in this situation, but he's not very confrontational. I mean, what options do I have?
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