Meeting scientologists in unexpected places

[catarina]

Me being a nutcase, I sometimes visit psychiatric hospitals (not a secret).

Last year, I had to stay a few days at one place. One of the assistant nurses was pretty chatty and soon told me he used to be a drug addict years ago. Something about his choices of words seemed familiar...

Then he tried to run a locational on me! I know that sounds harmless, but for various reasons I really don't like them. Like they make me panic. Well, at least it was now obvious that the guy was into Scn. I thought quickly, and decided I'd better talk to him about it, so I took him aside and explained that I used to be a scientologist and knew what he was doing. But I tried to keep calm and not sound accusatory. He said he used to be staff at a Narconon pretty long ago. Didn't like the money push for OT levels etc. and left after a few years. But he still liked the tech.

I decided against trying to talk him out of it (he had not asked for it and I wasn't in shape for it anyway, I was in the crazy house, remember). But I kept a close eye on him for the rest of the time, to make sure that he wasn't doing anything too weird to other patients, in which case I would have had to report him. We also talked a bit now and then.

When I left, he thanked me actually for having made him aware that it is possible that patients come in who have had a bad experience with Scn. Later, I checked my medical records and he had written some very nice things about me.

Thankfully, even when I'm nuts I'm not really paranoid or it could have been worse. Now it just seems like an odd human encounter.

 

[Karakorum]

Paranoia is not only normal after leaving scn, if you were declared then a certain degree of paranoia might be useful.

Glad to hear he just turned out to be a regular dude that had past brushes with scn.

 

[screamer2]

??

Is ESMB now some kind of circular idiotic tempest in a teapot?

Something very big and bad for the cult must be coming down very soon.

 

[freethinker]

They let you see your medical records?

 

[catarina]

They let you see your medical records?

Certainly. In most regions of Sweden you can even read them online. Or you can ask for a paper copy. Doctors can block you from seeing them if it is deemed to be potentially harmful to you or someone else. But that is generally for people who are violent or very psychotic, I have never had any problems. I find it useful sometimes to jog my memory, and a couple of times I got mistakes corrected.

This was just a silly little anecdote, it doesn't really mean anything.

 

[EZ Linus]

I've read my medical records and there are all kinds of mistakes on them. I have no idea how to get them corrected because they just carry over from one visit to the next.

Anyway, here's an interesting tidbit.

This past year when I was looking to have my book converted into an electronic format (I needed it to be a little specialized because it has illustrations and I wanted it to be interactive across platforms), I was referred to a few companies through my distributor. It's the largest distributor of independent books in the US. They have a lot of tutorials and suggest two-four different professionals for various services. Well, when I picked the first one, at first, of course the name made me think of Scientology, "VGI," but what were the chances? I found out it stood for Van-Guard Imagery. I figured, I was just being paranoid.

Then, I began to get pricing from them and even sent them my first chapter so they could get a sample of my layout, but when they sent me their estimate, I see on the invoice that their street address is pretty much next door to the Ft. Harrison! I quickly sent them a message asking if they were Scientologists. They got back to me right away and said they were indeed Scientologists and I told them my book is very critical of Scientology. They told me that they could not work with me (of course, and not that I would work with them). I reported this to the distribution company, but they did not care. They are still one of the services they recommend.

It just made me feel like they are everywhere, because this has happened before some years ago when I was looking for some other type of service. The person turned out to be a Scientologist and the working relationship ended dead in its tracks. You just never know what you're dealing with.

Oh, then there's this one guy on another forum I belong to. He is always promoting the hell out of the Landmark Forum and I am always complaining to the mods about him, but I'm the one who looks like I'm crazy. He even pushes an agenda for mentally ill people to stop taking their medication because it's all "mind over matter." It drives me bonkers. No matter what I say publicly, or to the mods, I just look nuts because I'm mentally ill and I have talked about that publicly. Everyone knows it there because I'm a big advocate of the mentally ill, and disability community not being ashamed of it and for others to seek professional help when they need it (if it comes up). I have tried to tell this guy how Landmark (or whatever they are calling themselves these days) is just a cult, but he won't listen.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Me being a nutcase, I sometimes visit psychiatric hospitals (not a secret).

Last year, I had to stay a few days at one place. One of the assistant nurses was pretty chatty and soon told me he used to be a drug addict years ago. Something about his choices of words seemed familiar...

Then he tried to run a locational on me! I know that sounds harmless, but for various reasons I really don't like them. Like they make me panic. Well, at least it was now obvious that the guy was into Scn. I thought quickly, and decided I'd better talk to him about it, so I took him aside and explained that I used to be a scientologist and knew what he was doing. But I tried to keep calm and not sound accusatory. He said he used to be staff at a Narconon pretty long ago. Didn't like the money push for OT levels etc. and left after a few years. But he still liked the tech.

I decided against trying to talk him out of it (he had not asked for it and I wasn't in shape for it anyway, I was in the crazy house, remember). But I kept a close eye on him for the rest of the time, to make sure that he wasn't doing anything too weird to other patients, in which case I would have had to report him. We also talked a bit now and then.

When I left, he thanked me actually for having made him aware that it is possible that patients come in who have had a bad experience with Scn. Later, I checked my medical records and he had written some very nice things about me.

Thankfully, even when I'm nuts I'm not really paranoid or it could have been worse. Now it just seems like an odd human encounter.

Nice hearing from you.


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