It's over! Well, it was over hours ago, but I needed a meal and a good sleep before posting.
Well, I predicted it would be a mix of PR spin, "cool story bro", and non-answers to questions, and I wasn't disappointed. Nick Broadhurst was the speaker, but he brought backup: a couple of random Scios from the local org, some young auditor called Mitchell Wright, and - get this - Tojo (DSA, Sydney org AKA Secret Asian Man) and Cyrus Brooks (Australian Vice President). So yeah, talk about OSA op overkill! Cyrus fielded some of the questions but it was long-winded bullshit, blah blah blah, which I tuned out.
There were around sixty or so people in the crowd. Nick Broadhurst started off by talking about how he got into Scientology (cool story bro), and then the PR spin started. He talked about people being spiritual beings and that there's body, mind and theta (although he didn't say people are thetans). He talked about the MEST universe and Theta overlapping, and claimed Theta influences MEST. He talked about how auditing helps you find and deal with issues, and if you're still getting a read after sorting out one issue, they go earlier and earlier, to your previous lives. He did an e-meter demo and asked for a few volunteers to come up and try it out. One of our friends tried it and Nick told him to think about something he disagreed with. My friend did, and the needle jumped to the right. Nick asked, "so what do you disagree with?" and my friend said, "you!" Lulz! Nick got Mitchell, the young auditor, up to explain more about how the e-meter works. Someone in the crowd asked, "isn't there a sticker on the back that says you can't use the e-meter to diagnose medical conditions" and someone else in the crowd answered, "yep, the FDA made Scientology put those stickers on the e-meters." All the Scios in the room ignored that one.
I also figured Nick would talk about the aid work he's done, and he didn't disappoint. He said he'd worked in Nepal and Aceh, raising kids' IQ levels "significantly." That prompted interruptions from the crowd who wanted to know what "significant" means, what the standard deviation was, and which IQ test was used. Nick said the IQs went up by eight points and got called on it, because the SD for IQ tests is fifteen points, and they use their own IQ test, presumably the OCA.
Someone else asked if Scientology methods had ever been peer-reviewed and Nick was like, "what's peer review?" Fucking LOL! Of course they were - Dianetics was laughed out the door in the fifties, for goodness' sake, but he wasn't going to be honest about that! So Nick said, "no, there's no peer review, because we know it's true for us and works for us!" Oh, Nick also didn't know what Occam's Razor is, because he was asked why we would need to posit Theta for anything, since science can more than adequately explain things. I can't remember exactly what he said, because it was bollocks.
Someone else asked what Scientology could offer a happy individual, and Nick kept trying to convince her to "get the book and see if it's true for you." Yeah, because they wouldn't give that stuff away for free, it's all about the bottom line.
I didn't get a chance to ask a question, but I wanted to ask when L. Ron was going to come back, since he's been dead for 25 years now, and as a Sea Org member, he should've reported back to the SO in 2006. Oh, speaking of the Sea Org, Nick said he was in it because he relishes it and that he does 60-80 hour weeks because he loves it so much. All said in a very earnest, very Tone 40 voice.
The atheists and the Scios both filmed the event, and OSA brought in waiver forms for people to sign, which basically said "I give the Church of Scientology permission to use my image/voice/questions freely." One thing that shat off a bunch of us is that the atheist club president said, "you guys should sign this because it protects your privacy." How - by signing it away? FGSFDS! Needless to say, we didn't sign it. Those tossers will freely use our images anyway, as they proved when they name- and face-fagged my husband on the RFW forum.
When Pyro and I left, we walked by Cyrus and said good night, just to see if he recognised us. He did. Tojo was walking around the lecture theatre atrium and was giving us angry glares.
So there you have it. Mildly amusing, but a bunch of predictable old bollocks.
---------- Post added at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:52 AM ----------
Is anyone videoing it? I wouldn't have minded going to that if I'd had a lift and not been in the middle of a severe university crisis ... sigh. Anyhow it would be most interesting! You've got to give them marks for guts, though.
The ANU League of Extraordinary Atheists have a recording which they're happy to lend to people.