Leah Remini Scientology Special & New Show

[Shell B]

Yeah, from what I've read, you don't learn any of the way crazy shit about Scientology until you're in the "Operating Thetan" class of your study. Before that, you're told Scientology will help cure people's ailments using science-based pseudo-psychology. Of course, they don't say psychology, but that was ultimately what LRH was mimicking and trying to replace. Oddly, some of the procedures have some basis in psychology. Auditing sessions, apart from the weird machine they use, is somewhat Freudian. You talk about your problems again and again until they don't register as bothersome anymore. It's even a bit like exposure therapy we use today. The big differences are this stupid machine, the idea that your problems are actually alien souls that are attached to you and the practice of pushing people to reveal more to the point where they feel like they need to find some flaw in themselves, even if they're feeling great. Oh, and they record that shit to attack you with later.

It isn't until later that they tell you about Xenu and all that other crazy shit.