These are my experiences from visiting the recent Scientology expo in Gothenburg 17th July and 22nd July. The expo ended the 22nd after a week in the exhibition hall in the city library.

My first visit was rather short. I went in to see what it was about, and it didn't leave me disappointed. Everything was according to book plus the Volonteer Mission from WTC last year. Lots of big pictures and some text about how incredibly much the Scientologists had helped people. They also showed various films about the Volonteer Missions and, of course, films with information about Scientology in general.

There was a television set up with two nice little rows of chairs in front of it, an e-meter close by with information about the bridge, various monters containing Dianetics in many translations, and three tables with various scriptures on it.

Everyone who entered was asked if they wanted a guided tour.

The first thing I noticed was that there wasn't many people there.

Both times (after general working hours in weekdays) there were more Scientologists than visitiors there. I felt a bit sleepy moving around in there as not much was going on. I left after looking around for a while.

The second time I brought a friend of mine. As we moved around I explained as well as I could what they were showing, and various things about Scientology in general. My friend was approached by a Scientologist asking if we wanted help, and as I explained my friend was not speaking swedish, she was immediately taken to the table with english scriptures on it. While my friend was being talked into the teachings of Scientology I moved around and ended up close to a woman from the cult talking to a man about psychology. She was ranting about how insane it was to hand amphetamine to children and went on to talking about how much greater Scientology was (of course!).

As the conversation went on she began talking about courses and that the man should try one to improve himself. Although he was a sceptic I interrupted after a while asking the woman why she did not tell him how much the auditing cost, as I thought it would be fair to let him know. She went on without giving me much attention, so eventually I asked her again why she did not tell him what the auditing cost. The only thing she would say was it would cost "some money" after which the other man began realising what it was all about. She proudly declared anyone could reach "clear" without even one hour of auditing from just reading Dianetics alone (wow!), and when I asked how many had done so she replied with a very delayed ... "oh... hundereds of thousands of people!". I asked her if she knew anyone personally who had done so, and the question must have taken her by surprise because she was studdering for a while before saying "well... yes....well...

several, indeed!" (Sure!).

Building on the conversation she had with the man I went on asking what was so "scientific" about Scientology (I have been studying Philosophy of Science for all too long). That was when things started to turn bad.

As the conversation went on I found out I was talking to the head of the cult here in Gothenburg, a woman who claimed she had been in Scientology for 18 years(!), and as I asked why they would not let anyone know about the critique the cult has been subject to, she finally lost her temper with me and asked where I found such silly and wrongful information about Scientology. First of all she wanted to know my name as she refused to say another word if I did not tell her, and she refused to talk to me in the vincinity of others. I stressed my name was not important, and she began ranting about how silly I was and how she always wanted to know who she was talking to. When I went on refusing to tell her my name she wanted to take a picture of me! I refused that as well asking her loudly why she needed to take my picture when I asked critical questions.

I gave her some sourzes of information i.e. xenu.net and she was clearly shaking when she wrote it down on a piece of paper, even asking how to spell "that name" xenu (she had no idea? yeah right..).

As I had to leave the exhibition in its final minutes before closing on that the last day she was shouting after me she did not have to find any information on the internet since "Scientology provided her with everything she needed!". I replied with saying she probably could not even visit the site at all since Scientologists are not allowed to do so.

When leaving the place with my friend who was clearly shocked by the way the woman acted I noticed there were people standing around listening to the whole thing. On top of facing another critic she had managed to act stupid in front of a lot of people. (Hurray! Way to go!)

They probably photographed me leaving the place. But I don't care..

I had seen enough.

/mucronate

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