At 16y, a family “friend” tricked my 13y bro & me into going to the Scientology Celebrity Center in LA. We were trapped there terrified for many hours, coerced into taking their scantron personality test, & subjected to their psychobabble. https://twitter.com/chuckrossdc/status/1289305803275399168

This was an old friend from our Catholic Church. My bro and his kids were friends. They had moved away but always came to see us when they visited LA. When the dad invited me along, I initially said “no thanks” to the “close up magic show.” (Our phone legit looked like this)

But the moment I hung up, I felt an overwhelming sense of dread. I called him back and said I would go along.

He said it was in Hollywood and I assumed we were going to the Magic Castle. It was an exclusive club, but maybe he knew someone?

He’s discussed it with my mom, so I assumed she knew where we were going. We had known them for a decade. We’d gone to school with their kids.

Instead, we roll up to this sign.

My heart started racing. I knew enough about Scientology to know we needed to get out of there.

But this was pre-cell phones, I hadn’t brought coins for a call, I hadn’t driven - we were in the dad’s car. Where would I even find a phone?

The Celebrity Center is in the Chateau Elysse - an old Hollywood landmark. It’s fancy, it’s imposing, it’s huge.

It’s easy to get lost.

We a close up magic show that lasted 10 minutes before an indelicate transition to a Dianetics lesson, which lead to some real dime store sales tricks asking ppl planted in the audience how much they’d for good self-esteem.

“$100? What if I told you it was just $19.95?”

It would have been funny if I hadn’t felt so trapped and betrayed.

It would have been funny if it wasn’t so obvious they preyed on sad people who thought very little of themselves.

After the magic-show-turned-cult-recruitment event, members left and my bro and I were left behind with the dude who had been planted in the audience. The three of us were handed hundreds of questions to answer on a giant ScanTron form.

Anyone paying attention would notice the whole test was just thinly veiled questions about anxiety, depression, fear, failed relationships. Even at 16, I recognized a poorly written survey.

I decided to answer every questions as though my life was perfect.

Except the question on nail biting - which I definitely did and wouldn’t be able to hide.

My bro and I huddled close and whispered to each other. We needed to get away. There were cameras in the room, I assume surveilling is. When we finished, a & came to get us and our tests, and I thought we would be together, but then they separated us.

My bro was 13. Wtf?

We were taken to separate rooms where our results were “analyzed.” I was paired with a young, charming who was *just* enough older that she could be someone to look up to.

I realize now she had been trained in receptive listening and motivational interviewing.

Part of her getting-to-know-each-other schtick was to identify with everything I said. So I just kept telling her progressively more unusual things.

Did I ever mention I was a registered Boy Scout as a teen? Spent a summer chopping down trees in a remote forest?

Nothing I said was too strange for her. She “identified” with everything, no matter what.

I felt like she was a Stepford wife-in-training.

Then we got to my “results.” It was all the highest marks they could put in their made up scale of success, except for one small blip under anxiety. Thanks nail biting!

She focused all her attention on my “anxiety problem” & how Scientology could help me to find my best self.

It took so much control (and a deepening fear that I would not see my brother again) to contain my eye rolls and scoffs.

Eventually, I said “listen all I want is to be with my brother.” She pause much longer than I liked. I was sweating. Shit.... how can I get away from her and how will I find my bro in this French decorated labyrinth???

And then she took me to a more public area and I was reunited with my bro. We were both relieved to be together. We agreed to not allow ourselves to be separated again.

I was so hungry, but we didn’t dare eat the food there. What if they would drug us? Would we ever get home?

Everyone who worked there the whole rest of the night (we didn’t get driven home for hours) knew our names and random shit about us. It was so bizarre and disconcerting.

I scouted the exits and tried to remember how far of a walk it was to a road where we could find a pay phone.

Eventually our “friend” took us home. I didn’t feel safe until we were out of his car. I became a lot less trusting that night of people we knew.

It wasn’t some stranger with candy who abducted us, it was someone we trusted. We were just kids.

The more I told my story, the more stories I heard. People brainwashed for what little money they had, chasing promises of a happier life. Many others have had far more terrifying experiences with Scientology. They scare the hell out of me. /fin