I fell ill recently and stayed at home one whole week. To kill time, I thought I'd pick up a book and since I knew I had so much of time on my hand, I thought I'd read something that needs focus and concentration. I chose L. Ron Hubbard's 'Dianetics', the Scientology bible. Without planning that way, I also attended Landmark Forum during the next weekend and it's worth mentioning about both together. Read on.
It took me the entire week to complete Dianetics and I was exhausted reading it. The language is heavy and the author repeatedly tries to change the meanings of the words as we know them. I almost felt like I came out of the experience with a new jargon that I probably will use sub-consciously if not consciously.
I have always been very interested in learning about religions, and Scientology is very different from any religion I studied. The book is powerful in the sense that it can influence a person to start thinking and living differently. For example, there is a huge emphasis on negative thoughts from the past that repeatedly influence how we react to our present situations. The philosophy (or technology as Ron likes to refer to it) teaches how to quell these negative thoughts and make them stop adversely influencing the present. The book is quite interesting and a must read if you are open to read about different interpretations of life, soul, morals, right/wrong and Science. You will be able to enjoy the book if you are open to at least listening to the another perspective than the one that you have been taught (by your religion or Science).
Coincidentally, I attended the Landmark Forum during the next weekend, something I have been looking forward to attending for a while now. I enrolled for the 3 1/2 day course but chose to leave the course after the first day. I heard mixed reviews from people who attended the entire course, but my one day experience left me wondering why the Landmark teachings and Scientology principles seemed to be connected in some way. I connected both of them when the Forum leader mentioned about the 'technolgy' of dealing with breakdowns. I could not put a finger on it, but both seemed to be quite similar in many ways. I did further reading and now have a better understanding of why I felt that way.
About the course itself, it has a good positive message of being in control and taking charge but they also have a VERY hard, on your face sales pitch that is so strongly intertwined in their lectures that I found it difficult to sit through the entire day. The methodology is large group workshop, and the way they sell their courses is through strong networking and word of mouth. Both menthods are extremely powerful and I was impressed with how brilliantly they used both. As far as the selling itself is concerned, they are a for-profit company and they are selling like any other company would sell their product. Doesn't MacDonald's sell the slice of cheese to you when you ask for a burger?
I cannot comment on whether the course is good or not as I did not experience majority of it. It definitely did not work for me personally. It now falls under "I know that I don't know about what it could have done to me". I choose leaving it that way.