Tong Daddy
Patron
My story is brief, luckily, but I want to at least put it out there. Around 1985 I was about 15 yrs old and I picked up a copy of Dianetics at a local drugstore (irony?) I have and remain a voracious reader, and read it cover to cover..... at the time there obviously no internet or major 'flap' about Scn, as a matter of fact I was under the impression that this was all new information (I failed to realize the book was almost 30 yrs old at the time). I passed it on to a few friends of mine, and we all became interested, I even got a copy of Self Analysis as well. I was young, lived in a very small town in South Central PA, so all of this was very exciting to me. (This was also about the time of the big Dianetics book push...thank you Jeff Hawkins :wink2
About a year later a buddy got his drivers license and we decided it would be fun to take a road trip to Philadelphia..... I found out that there was a church of Scn in Philly and suggested it as a stop on our trip, my buddy who also read Dianetics also thought it would be interesting.... So off we went in his ole Ford Fairmont.
After some South St. sightseeing and checking out the last bits of the punk rock scene, we headed to Chinatown and found the 'church' We we greeted warmly and the place was somewhat busy, probably due, again, to the big push at the time. We did the whole thing, personality test, e-meter pinch test, etc. etc. Even then I was aware of the 'stare' I was always a shy kid, and having these people look so directly at me was unnerving, at best.
I dont exactly recall the whole of the 'sell' BUT I do remember 'Miles' Miles had his TR's in, penetrating gaze, yet also somewhat gregarious. He told us all about being clear....perfect memory, immune to most illness, etc, etc..... He told us they were having an event later that evening and we should come back. We agreed and then proceeded to try to find someone to buy us booze haha.....
We returned to the church later in the evening and they had a buffet which was laughable, seemed like day old pizza and a I believe french fries. Some people told success stories, attested, etc.....all not too odd......then as a group we were instructed to 'locate' a person, a spot on the wall, etc. followed by a 5-10 mins. applause of a picture of LRH, and the hip hip hooray..... we scuttled out, agreed it was all too wacky and went home.
FAST FORWARD: about 2 years later a friend of mine had moved to Philly and opened a small record store on South Street, So me and my buddy once again jumped into his car (fairmont had died, I think this was a chevette) and headed to visit out friend.
Now Im not entirely proud of this, but in that 2 year span between Philly visits I experimented with drugs....lots of drugs....pot, lsd, more pot, more lsd, inhalants, and a pretty good amount of booze. I would have been referred to as a 'burn out'. After visiting our friend and some local head shops, I said for a laff we should see if the church was still there.....sure enough it was....
We walked in, and there was still a decent about of foot traffic, and sure as shit...there was Miles! I walked right up to him and said 'Hey Miles!' I could tell right away, he had NO CLUE whatsoever who I was...it was then and there I realized the whole 'clear' thing was a scam...I spend 2 years killing brain cells as if it were a war of attrition and this 'clear' with perfect memory has no idea who I was.
I know it isnt a real 'juicy' story. But it was enough to put me off Scn forever. I now live in philly, and have many fleeting thoughts of swinging into the ole church to see if Miles is there...I hope not, because I think he was genuinely a nice guy, like most lower level staff...... IF anyone knows the time period of which I speak, or knows anything about Miles, Id love to hear about it.
Ok thats it, Im back to being a watcher. Thanks for listening.
-TD
About a year later a buddy got his drivers license and we decided it would be fun to take a road trip to Philadelphia..... I found out that there was a church of Scn in Philly and suggested it as a stop on our trip, my buddy who also read Dianetics also thought it would be interesting.... So off we went in his ole Ford Fairmont.
After some South St. sightseeing and checking out the last bits of the punk rock scene, we headed to Chinatown and found the 'church' We we greeted warmly and the place was somewhat busy, probably due, again, to the big push at the time. We did the whole thing, personality test, e-meter pinch test, etc. etc. Even then I was aware of the 'stare' I was always a shy kid, and having these people look so directly at me was unnerving, at best.
I dont exactly recall the whole of the 'sell' BUT I do remember 'Miles' Miles had his TR's in, penetrating gaze, yet also somewhat gregarious. He told us all about being clear....perfect memory, immune to most illness, etc, etc..... He told us they were having an event later that evening and we should come back. We agreed and then proceeded to try to find someone to buy us booze haha.....
We returned to the church later in the evening and they had a buffet which was laughable, seemed like day old pizza and a I believe french fries. Some people told success stories, attested, etc.....all not too odd......then as a group we were instructed to 'locate' a person, a spot on the wall, etc. followed by a 5-10 mins. applause of a picture of LRH, and the hip hip hooray..... we scuttled out, agreed it was all too wacky and went home.
FAST FORWARD: about 2 years later a friend of mine had moved to Philly and opened a small record store on South Street, So me and my buddy once again jumped into his car (fairmont had died, I think this was a chevette) and headed to visit out friend.
Now Im not entirely proud of this, but in that 2 year span between Philly visits I experimented with drugs....lots of drugs....pot, lsd, more pot, more lsd, inhalants, and a pretty good amount of booze. I would have been referred to as a 'burn out'. After visiting our friend and some local head shops, I said for a laff we should see if the church was still there.....sure enough it was....
We walked in, and there was still a decent about of foot traffic, and sure as shit...there was Miles! I walked right up to him and said 'Hey Miles!' I could tell right away, he had NO CLUE whatsoever who I was...it was then and there I realized the whole 'clear' thing was a scam...I spend 2 years killing brain cells as if it were a war of attrition and this 'clear' with perfect memory has no idea who I was.
I know it isnt a real 'juicy' story. But it was enough to put me off Scn forever. I now live in philly, and have many fleeting thoughts of swinging into the ole church to see if Miles is there...I hope not, because I think he was genuinely a nice guy, like most lower level staff...... IF anyone knows the time period of which I speak, or knows anything about Miles, Id love to hear about it.
Ok thats it, Im back to being a watcher. Thanks for listening.
-TD