Meeting the Scientologists

I recently spent some time in downtown DC, doing the backyard tourism thing, and once again encountered Scientologists on the National Mall.  My previous encounter with them was last year during the 4th of July festivities, when they had a large pavilion tent constructed and were inviting people for information.

This was a much smaller group, at a single table only, and they appeared to only be offering free "stress tests" to people passing by, and naturally, to sell Scientology materials.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUphJw2WmYM

 

I decided to check them out and volunteered for a stress test.  The video of that encounter follows this paragraph.  I met Clyde, a very nice older man who lead me to a folding chair next to their table.  He had an "e meter" device on the table, which had two wires connected to metal tubes.  He placed those tubes in my hand and gave some basic instructions on the meter itself.  He claimed the needle would measure my stress level at various questions.  His left thumb stayed on a calibration dial of some sort throughout the process and it appeared he was actually manipulating the needle at times.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c29i-9zQhho

His questioning was about my family life, my work, money, my marriage, etc.  The point was to lead me to the actual sales pitch for Dianetics.  At no time did Clyde get into the specifics of the Scientology beliefs:  that an ancient extraterrestrial warlord imprisoned a group of extraterrestrials on Earth inside volcanoes, which then exploded, trapping the extraterrestrial spirits as "thetans" which then attached themselves to primitive humans, altering our evolution to the point we evolved into psychologically and spiritually damaged beings, which can be cleansed via the Scientology process of "auditing".

Here's more information on this cult.