Do you think Scientology sells anyone on its belief?

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah, if they were up front about this, they wouldn’t have gained any headway outside of the terminally strange. Thing is, they put it behind a paywall of a bit over $150,000 in accumulated course fees. And only about 10% of Scientologists reach that point, or are even invited to (and, yes, unless you’re willing to seek out the info on your own on Wikileaks, it’s technically invite-only.)

For insight into how they actually get members, here’s a post I wrote three years ago.

Well, for just one insight into why people would be dumb enough to join the Co$, consider the case of Ron Miscaviage. He was just a normal Pennsylvania man in the late Sixties who had to deal with headaches and struggled to help his real estate job. Then he overheard someone talking about Scientology at a conference and he learned about some odd techiques, including "the next time you get a headache, look into the mirror and give it to that guy." Crazily enough, it worked. He then ended up going to meetings and learned some techniques to help him with his job, like acknowledging people when they talk to you, making sure they know you understand them. That also helped him. Then he sent his son David in to see if they could help with his Asthma.

Twenty years later, Davey-Boy became the grand Pooh-Bah of the whole goddam enterprise and, by this point, he had become entrenched in the church, and even though he was in the Sea Org working with little pay (for all Miscaviage's faults, nepotism is not one of them), he remained loyal to the church. Eventually, he left and, despite all of the shit he had to endure under his Tyrannical son, he still practices Scientology (outside the CoS, naturally).

How did it retain such a hold on him? Simple: they started with the thin end of the wedge. Start with a little exercise to help with some personal problem, and then, if it works, then the path is cleared for them to get into the stranger things.

I know what you're thinking "everyone knows about the crazy shit Scientology does to people. Why bother? Well, in addition to that, the Church emphatically denies anything that could potentially be embarassing, and given how bizarre both the official doctrine (OT 3) and the abuses David Miscaviage inflicts on his underlings (North Korea-like POW camps in double wides in California?) can be, it can be easy to assume that it's all exaggerated if you don't look too closely into it. It's not too hard to see that, if one's curious, but willing to trust the Church, it's certainly not hard to see how one can believe it.

It’s also worth noting that when the Miscaviages were getting into it, LRH was working on the Xenu story.