Just over a year ago I wrote a newsletter issue titled “Beware of Scientologists Bearing Gifts”, where I talked about an interesting ruse in Auckland. Someone from the Auckland Scientology office had been creating lots of fake MeetUp groups as a way to trick people into visiting their building - with event names such as “Success through Communication”, “How to get RID of STRESS!”, “English Study Group”, “Rubik's Cube Master Class” and “FREE movie night Auckland”.
On Friday evening last week, at our regular Skeptics in the Pub meeting, it was great to see one of our occasional attendees there. Paul is a GP who spends a lot of the time working on the East coast of the North island, but he's currently back in Wellington and came along to spend an evening with us. He started telling me this story about how he visited Auckland recently, and that while he was there he figured that joining a language group would be a good way to meet new people. As soon as he said this, given that the context of the conversation was that we were at a Skeptics in the Pub event, I had a strong suspicion I knew where this story was going.
Sure enough, when Paul arrived at the address for his language group, 136 Grafton Road, he looked up and saw the gorgeously restored Whitecliffe Art School, now the home of Scientology New Zealand - their Ideal Org. Now for most people in this situation, especially if they know anything about Scientology, they'd run a mile. But, as a skeptic, Paul figured he'd go with the flow. Sure enough, he was the only person who'd RSVPd to the event, and he ended up having a one-on-one conversation with his host Staff member. He surprised his host by talking about L. Ron Hubbard, and was shown the “library” - which in reality is a shop selling books and CDs of Hubbard's many, many writings and lectures. What was interesting, and surprising to me, was that this was not a hard sell - Paul wasn't being pushed into anything, and the host wasn't trying to spend the entire time talking about how amazing Scientology is.
Paul ended up walking away with a fun story to tell, but there's an addendum to this tale that's not so great. Soon after this meeting, he went along to another MeetUp, this one thankfully not a front for a predatory, abusive religion. At this group he talked to the other attendees about his weird experience being duped by Scientology - and another group member admitted they too had been tricked into visiting the Scientology building. However, this person had been told that Scientology could help them for a fee, and had handed over $400 for a course the following week. They were told, in no uncertain terms, to not google Scientology when they got home - so of course they ignored this advice, and checked out what the internet had to say. Needless to say, they wrote off their $400 “investment” and chose not to go back!
So, let this be a lesson to you to heed the warnings in this newsletter, lest you find yourself hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars poorer. In this issue I warn you about Counterspin's nonsense, try to steer you away from the bible-based ACE curriculum, and give you a heads up about Indian phone scams. Additionally, Bronwyn gives you more than enough information to scare you away from the Isagenix MLM for life, and Alexander tells you about his theory of Scientific Saints.