okay, false alarm. (real life is SO inconvenient!) okay, i am misremembering. the second experience was with mormons. i have ONE experience with scientologists. i was about 18, and walking down the street in new york city. (i was in college in northern new jerseyf.) i had for some years been interested in what my iq was, for reasons i won't go into right now, and lo and behold, i was accosted by someone offering me an iq test! i couldn't resist. i went into a building and found myself in a large room with many people at desks talking tests, and i was soon doing so as well. after i took the test i was called into a small office and told, soberly, that the test had revealed that i was a genius but emotionally unstable (since when does an iq test tell you about emotional stability?) and that i needed to join the church of scientology right away.

i declined. young as i was, i was immediately aware that they HAD to tell me i was a genius (it happens to be true but i am sure they tell everyone that) so i would be flattered and interested, and they HAD to tell me i was emotionally unstable (also, as it happens, untrue at that time, but they REALLY had no way of knowing that) or i wouldn't NEED them.

that should tell you a WHOLE lot about scientology, whatever else it is and whatever else they do.

g