I feel everyone has a defining moment somewhere in life. Whether it be achieving a 3.0 grade point average, or being the most valuable player on a basketball team. It seems that no matter how great or small this event may seem to the rest of the world, it means everything to the person experiencing it. Sometimes the moment is happy such as the first examples.
Here is my story and involvement in the church of scientology.
What is Scientology you may ask?
The word Scientology literally means "the study of truth." It comes from the Latin word "scio" meaning "knowing in the fullest sense of the word" and the Greek word "logos" meaning "study of."
About What the Church Does
Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The Scientology religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths. Prime among these:
Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized - and those capabilities can be realized. He is able to not only solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but also achieve new, higher states of awareness and ability.
In Scientology no one is asked to accept anything as belief or on faith. That which is true for you is what you have observed to be true. An individual discovers for himself that Scientology works by personally applying its principles and observing or experiencing results.
While walking one night alone down the streets of Toronto I was approached by a nice woman who offered me a "stress test" I happily went inside and was amazed at how accurate and true the things she was speaking of were.
I ended up purchasing some books, one was called Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit, mind and body that were developed by author L. Ron Hubbard. According to Hubbard's claims, mental and psychosomatic physical problems are caused by traumatic recordings called engrams that are stored in the reactive mind. The goal of Dianetics is to become rid (or "cleared") of this portion of one's mind. Once at this state of "Clear," according to Hubbard, an individual becomes able to function at his or her full potential.
I ended up leaving the office and by chance I forgot my Rolex Watch, the man quickly ran outside and after me to return it, this goes to show how much character these people have and how helpful and honest they were.
It really bothers me to hear constantly that untrue rumors that the "church is a cult" and "its nothing but mind control" Let me tell you all something, I have experianced only good from going to the church and it has changed my life for the better. I have noone, no family or friends who I am able to trust and the church acts like my family everytime I go there.
I know that life is short. I realize that people often feel helpless because of how many aspects of life are out of our control. Death is something scientists continually try to control, understand, and overcome, and yet still all we can do is prevent it on some occasions for a short while. I grant you that life is unpredictable, and events in our lives are not dealt evenly from one person to the next. However, I believe that there are certain characteristics that abide in all of us. What we do with these characteristics depends on us. People chose how environments affect them. Once again it is understandable that it may be easier for some to "look on the bright side of life" and "keep their chin up" than it is for others. However, we all have the choice to move on, to "keep on keeping on", and on the other hand we all have the choice to give up and let any number of bad experiences be the "last straw" and keep us down for good.
I have gone through so much in my life and after reading the books I realized that life gets better and not worse. Tom Cruise is onr of my idols, I have always admired him for his charity work and personal lifestyle. He helps everyone and anyone whenever he is able to. When I was a boy I wished every night that he would adopt me. Even my girlfriend when I was a teenage knew how much I respected him, I have followed his career from the beginning. It makes me hurt inside when people say negative things about this good man and the church, who have both helped so many. Sometimes life "kicks us when we're down", and sometimes it elevates us to the highest heights we could ever imagine. The key to living a balanced life is to remember our low points in our highest peaks of joy so we can truly enjoy our brief time in the spotlight. And vice versa we need to remember how great our highpoints have been in our lowest times to realize that life has not been completely unfair to us, and to realize our whole life has not been miserable. Obviously this is not the only thing you will need to keep a level head in life, but it is definitely a starting point.
Who Is L. Ron Hubbard L. Ron Hubbard is the founder of Scientology. He has described his philosophies in more than 5,000 writings, including dozens of books, and three thousand tape recorded lectures. Those who regularly employ his teachings to improve themselves and help their fellows come from all walks of life. The universal acclaim for the man - including thousands of awards and recognitions from individuals and groups and the unprecedented popularity of his works among all people - is but one indicator of the effectiveness of his technologies. More importantly, there are millions of people around the world who consider they have no greater friend.
Imagine you are at the highest point in your life. You have political power, no enemies that can threaten you. Imagine you lack nothing. Imagine you have all the money you will ever need, and you have all the food you could ask for. Imagine that no one can physically hurt you. Imagine you constantly give money to those who are less fortunate. Constantly you volunteer your time and money to feed the homeless. You have spent your whole life helping others, and your whole life those people you are trying to help mock you for your power. They despise your for your perfect life. They use your name only among strings of curse words and in insults. Think of the heartache you feel as you consistently find the people you have dedicated your life to helping, cursing your name. Feel the tears welling up as you see the hatred in the hearts of the people you have shown your love towards since as long as you can remember. Now imagine that you have are given a chance to help all of these people with one act. You can give them all a chance to better themselves and each other by doing just one thing. You have to give up all you possess, all that makes your life better than theirs, and live among them, only to die a horrible death at the hands of those you are helping.
Well having noone I am able to trust is hard, but still id risk my life to save or help the ones I love. Scientology changed how I think and ofcoarse in the past I have done wrong things, who has not? But I have learned from my mistakes and gained from my negative experiances. Everything happens for a reason I believe and I am now a stronger person from having gone through so much. Tom Crusie was my inspiration. I thank him for that. I did not want my past to dictate my future. My main goal in life is to help others and to make myself happy by becomming a model and actor and I have been doing a great job so far of schieving this.
Would you be willing to do this? Would you give up an essentially perfect life just to help your fellow man? Would you be willing to be tortured, beaten, spat upon, despised and cursed to your face, just to help your brothers? I doubt that any of you could say you would be willing to do this for everyone. Perhaps you could give up all you have and sacrifice yourself for a few people, because of your love for them. You might be willing to die for your family, your children, your parents, your friends, or your girlfriends or boyfriends. So now think about this. What about the bully who beat you up in middle school? What about the guy who cut you off on the freeway last week and flipped you off because he was in a hurry? What about Timothy McVey? What about Jeffery Domer? What about the child molesters, the rapists, the murderers, the thieves, the backstabbers, the gossipers and the liars? Would you give up your life for them? Would you walk into Jeffery Domers house, knowing that he would kill you in a horrible torturous manner, if it meant that he would have a chance to improve his life? I doubt you can say yes. If you still feel you can say yes, think of this, even if you go through with all of this, it does not necessarily mean that the people you are dying for will chose to better their lives. They may continue to curse your name; they may continue to live in the meaningless fashion they have always lived in instead of taking the chance you provide for them through your sacrifice. Can you still go through with it?
It seems to me that if you want to feel sorry for yourself, and all the problems you go through undeservingly, that you need to read your bible a bit more, you need to understand the persecution that Jesus went through to protect you from yourself. He did nothing to deserve punishment. However he took a more brutal punishment in life than most of us will ever know. He gave up everything we could ever dream of to save the murderer, the thief, and you. How can you sit around being indifferent to anyone who would do so much for you? If your friend gave you fifty bucks for your birthday you would be quick to thank him and be sure to remember him on his birthday. If your brother gave you the car for your big date of Friday night you would probably be eager to make a sacrifice for him next time you had the chance. And yet many people sitting here this very moment don't take time on a regular basis to remember Jesus who did an infinitely greater thing for each and every one of you. Each of us should be taking time daily to thank God for what was done for us, each of us should live each day remembering that no matter how difficult our lives get that Jesus went through equal or worse than we go through, and that no matter how great our lives get, that Jesus gave up more than that to help us. Remembering this should be more than enough to get us over the point where our highpoint fades back into everyday life, or into disaster. Please don't misunderstand me to be preaching that I am spending my life doing all these things I say you should be doing. I don't spend nearly enough time doing what I should. This lesson applies to me just as much as it applies to every one of you. I don't claim to be perfect, "all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." All I am hoping to achieve here is to help you all relate to a portion of what Jesus did for you, and to remind you why you put up with the pains of life to do his will. I want to remind you all why you are going through life giving up some of the physical pleasures you could be enjoying if it weren't "wrong". I hope that perhaps any one of you sitting here who has not been saved will realize what you need to do, and to be compelled to show your appreciation to the one who gave up everything for you.
I enjoy helping people, It makes me happy, If I can bring a smile to one persons face then I know I have done my job well. Through modelling and acting I can express myself and IT makes ME happy and fullfilled when I am able to live my dream.
I just have to set the record straight befroe I go, to all of you who claime to have been "cheated" by the church, that is your opinion and you have the right to make that claim, but to all of you who don't even know anything about the church, how can you make fun of it? is that not making you a hypocrite?
Bottom line is, don't knock it until you try it.
