studyingscientology
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Sea Org Members in My Family & Relationships with My Children
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#advanced#children#church#family#family life#flag#fso#kids#ot levels#scientology#sea org#sea org member#sea organization#time off
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Why Am I Still Involved in Scientology?
I got an interesting writing prompt from an online discussion today that I wanted to explore in detail. The question is not just “How did you become involved in Scientology“, which is one that I’ve already had a good 25+ of my friends answer extensively. The question is more “Why are you still involved in Scientology?”
They key point here is not just what got my family and I to initially decide…
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Q&A: Do you have any experience with the practice of disconnection?
I got this question from a Reddit user on the subject of Disconnection in Scientology.
I hope this is not too personal, but do you have any experience with the practice of disconnection, or anyone who does?
It’s not too personal, so sure – I’ll definitely write on this. And as a note, I’ve written a much more long-form piece on how Scientology’s policies on disconnection work here.
To answer…
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Spotting the Bad Ones: the Most Important Skill Your Kids Should Know
Spotting the Bad Ones: the Most Important Skill Your Kids Should Know
As a parent, there are so many things on the list of what you want to impart to your kids. Great vocabulary, how to food-shop frugally, how to stand and look them in the eye when you shake hands, there are so many things big & small.
However, there’s one thing that can torpedo DECADES of otherwise-excellent parenting, and that can boil down to just one person that can permanently ruin their…
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#antisocial#children#family#l. ron hubbard#negative#parenting#pts#pts/sp#scientology#sp#suppression#toxic
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The Mom Leading Hurricane Cleanup Volunteers in Ft. Myers is a Serial Disaster Response Badass
The Mom Leading Hurricane Cleanup Volunteers in Ft. Myers is a Serial Disaster Response Badass
Hurricane Ian plowed into the Ft. Myers, FL area at the end of September, the deadliest Hurricane to hit Florida since 1935. On making landfall, a significant fraction of the damage done by Ian was a 10-15 foot storm surge that submerged coastal houses, washed cars clean away, uprooted trees and washed out roadways.
Devastation left behind by Hurricane Ian in Ft. Myers
On returning to the area,…
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Scientology Made Me a Better Dad—But You Wouldn’t Know It If You Believed the Bigots
Scientology Made Me a Better Dad—But You Wouldn’t Know It If You Believed the Bigots
Just over 13 years ago, when I first found out that I was going to be a father, I knew for absolute sure that I was treading into unknown territory, and knew that I had no real idea how exactly I was supposed to be a good parent.
But I had two stable, guiding certainties that have acted as North Stars for me:
I’m going to do this fatherhood thing RIGHT, and not just phone it in. I want to give…
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The Survival Rundown
Completing the Survival Rundown at the Church of Scientology with my twin.
Not too long ago, I wrote a piece trying to sum up a succinct description of the Scientology religion. When doing so, one facet I wanted to stress was how much of Scientology is geared around helping people to live in the here in the present moment, as opposed to acting out of touch with one’s surroundings, and in response…
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#auditing#explanation#l. ron hubbard#objectives#parent#procedure#process#rundown definition#scientologist#scientology#survival rundown
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What is Scientology?
A writer recently wrote me, and asked me to summarize for her a few things about my beliefs and what they’ve done for me. I figured the questions may be ones other readers might have, so I’ll share them here. I’m always willing to field honest questions about my beliefs and on the subject of Scientology as a whole, so if the below raises more questions, please hit me up on my Facebook page.
Ca…
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Parenting & Patience
When you’re a working parent at your wit’s end on keeping the house together, kids in school, meals on the table, etc, it can sometimes be a near-impossibility to gather together sufficient patience to deal with the foibles and newfound efforts to help that little kids try to muster up.
This, from L. Ron Hubbard’s lecture entitled Child Scientologysums up so much of the approach my wife & I try…
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In front of ASHO, the Church of Scientology’s advanced training church in Los Angeles, CA.
My family recently returned from a trip to Los Angeles, a trip we took primarily for the purpose of doing Scientology services. I figured it’d be a good opportunity to illustrate one of the somewhat usual facts of life that goes along with growing up in a Scientology family: trips taken for the purposes of Scientology counseling or training.
Most Scientologists participate in church services primarily at their local Church of Scientology. Most local churches, like our church in Portland, Oregon, can help people through all introductory services in Scientology up through the State of Clear. And whilst the vast majority of one’s participation in Scientology is done via one’s local church, there are more advanced services which are only delivered at an Advanced Organization.
Chapel of the Church of Scientology Portland
In our case, my wife had been getting Scientology counseling (known as auditing) at our local church. In her progress, the next particular prescribed action she was to do was only delivered at a more advanced organization owing to the level of auditor training required. For us, in the USA, this meant traveling to either Flag in Clearwater, Florida, or the Pacifica Bridge in Los Angeles. As my wife would be there for a week, and is still breastfeeding our baby, we opted to go as a family. And, because flying 5 people is expensive, and because driving 20 hours with a baby is painful, we opted to book a trip on Amtrak, and took the train down & back.
I’ve written about our love affair with traveling by train before, so I won’t belabor it too much, but please – if you’re in the USA and haven’t done long-distance travel by train, absolutely give it a go. We took the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Portland down to LA, and even getting a sleeper car it was still less expensive than flying, and was utterly, completely stress-free.
Upon arriving to Los Angeles Union Station, a shuttle from the Church picked us up and took us to where we’d be staying for the week. We booked the week at the Church’s new Golden Crest hotel, and were extremely pleased with the new facility. The church opened the hotel, which is directly adjacent to Celebrity Center International in Hollywood, in October 2015, expressly for the purpose of servicing folks like us who come from elsewhere to stay for Scientology services. It’s about 1.5 miles from the Pacifica Bridge complex on Sunset Blvd, which translates to about a 30m walk, though my wife would generally just take the complementary shuttle back & forth.
Most of the rooms in the Golden Crest are set up for folks who are staying a week or more, and as such are appointed well as extended-stay suites. We got a 2-bedroom one which (honestly) would have functioned just fine as a long-term apartment. Kitchen, dining area, living area, all were spacious and usable for our family of 5. If you happen to be a Scientologist and are considering bringing more than just yourself along for a trip to LA, I’d highly recommend it. If it’s just you, or you & a spouse, the new Fountain Hotel would probably suit you better as it’s even more cost-effective (the Golden Crest rooms already undercut any area hotels by a healthy margin) and it’s directly across the street from the Pacifica Bridge.
Speaking of the Pacifica Bridge, this was my wife’s first chance at experiencing all of the newly-refurbished facilities since their opening last year.
For those new to the subject, the Pacifica Bridge is a unique facility comprised of multiple Scientology organizations paralleling the religion’s Bridge to Total Freedom. In that respect, and from this single location, one can ascend from introductory services to increasingly higher levels of spiritual awareness, and of auditor training. The arrangement and function of the various organizations at the Pac are best described here, but please let me know any portion of this needs better explanation.
My wife’s services were done at the American Saint Hill Organization (ASHO), the hub of higher-level auditor training for Scientology Churches in the USA. The “Saint Hill” in the organization’s name refers to Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s home in the UK where he ran a global hub of Scientology research and training, and which subsequently provided for counseling services and auditor training requiring a higher skill and precision of delivery than what’s deliverable at local churches. The American Saint Hill Organization carries forward that tradition, and as such delivers a few specialty services unique only to Saint Hills and to Flag.
I won’t comment too much on the services she got herself (they’re an intensely personal thing by definition) but I will say she was extremely pleased with how it turned out, and found the actions she did immensely stabilizing for herself as an individual. And, seeing as she’s the rock – the absolute center that our family revolves around, anything we can do which helps her be more happy and stable as an individual is energy well-invested.
Our Family Trip to Los Angeles for Scientology Services My family recently returned from a trip to Los Angeles, a trip we took primarily for the purpose of doing Scientology services.
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Our Baby's Naming Ceremony at the Church of Scientology Portland
Our Baby’s Naming Ceremony at the Church of Scientology Portland
Savannah’s Recognition & Naming Ceremony at the Church of Scientology Portland
It’s a tradition in many cultures to have a ceremony whereby new additions to the family, and to the community, get introduced to their group members and welcomed into the fold. Scientologists are no different in this regard, and as such we wanted to have a naming ceremony for our third baby at our local Church of…
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What World Religions Do Over the Holiday Season (Infographic)
What World Religions Do Over the Holiday Season (Infographic)
Understanding the religious beliefs of others forms a big part of achieving harmony with one’s fellows, and what better time to understand a bit more about those things which others find most important than during the holidays?
This infographic from World Religion News gives a quick overview of what various world religions (including my own) observe during the holiday season.
Via WorldReligionN…
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#athiest#bahai#buddhist#catholic#christian#hindu#holidays#islam#jewish#religion#religious beliefs#scientology#shinto#sikh#wiccan
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Scientologist Sparks Movement to Help Refugee Families and their Babies
Scientologist Sparks Movement to Help Refugee Families and their Babies
In October, Scientologist Crystal Logothetis saw the picture of a little Syrian boy lying dead on the shore of a Turkish beach. The mother of a two-year-old son of her own, she knew she had to do something about this.
Cristal started following the news of the refugees and in nearly every photo she saw men and woman carrying a young child in their arms. “Refugees can end up walking hundreds of…
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My Scientology Baby Naming Ceremony
My Scientology Baby Naming Ceremony
My baby naming ceremony in the Grand Chapel of the Church of Scientology Flag Building in Clearwater, FL.
I did a Naming Ceremony at the Church Of Scientology in Clearwater Florida, for my daughter Layna. The purpose of the ceremony is not only to welcome the baby into her family and into her community, but also to publicly delineate the roles of the parents and god-parents for all to…
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#baby#chapel#clearwater#flag building#florida#minister#naming ceremony#scientology#super power building
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Knowledge, Responsibility and Control
Knowledge, Responsibility and Control
Something I want very much for my children, is for them to be active, competent, participants in life. I want them to be good at what they like to do, and to love doing those things that they’re good at which will support them into the future.
A core tenet of Scientology applies heavily to how I approach this parenting goal, and it stems from the actual Scientology symbol itself.
The…
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Cultivating a Love of the Outdoors
Cultivating a Love of the Outdoors
https://vimeo.com/143772009
I don’t think it’s ever been more important to cultivate in our kids a love of the outdoors.
“Normal” life for the average kid these days is a virtual minefield of forces attempting to disassociate the individual from the reality of the world around them. Between the onslaught of network TV, video games, handheld devices of all shapes, and school pharmacologists…
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Every birth and every child is a different story. They’re all wonderful in their own ways, but sometimes things just don’t go according to plan, and that can tend to leave one with a sense that something’s unfinished – that there’s something more that should be done. Well, I wanted to tell you about the birth of my third, as in addition to the already-noteworthy fact of being such a big baby to be born at home naturally with no meds, the amazing experience I had along the way and with the birth itself finally brought closure to the birth plan I had 4 years earlier that didn’t go as planned.
Unfinished Business
Both my first and second children were born in a hospital, though I absolutely didn’t intend it to be that way. With my first, we had just completed a move from LA to the Washington DC area. As I’ve always had a general dislike of going to the hospital, I wanted to have my baby at home. However, the art of midwifery is virtually non-existent in the DC area, and up until May of 2015, having a baby at home was actually illegal in the State of Maryland. The one midwifery / birth center that was open at the time in Virginia had a waiting list a mile long when we moved to the area, so we ended up having our first baby in a hospital.
With our second baby, we were ahead of the game enough to score a early place on the BirthCare midwifery’s waiting list, and ended up with outstanding prenatal care from their staff midwives throughout my second pregnancy, which we gushed about here. My husband and I put together a detailed birth plan, and got our house stocked and ready for everything we’d need for a successful home birth.
However, that birth did not – unfortunately – go according to plan. You can read the full blow-by-blow of our second birth here, but basically after going into labor, the baby’s heart rate skyrocketed to around 240 bpm and hung there. We ended up having to transfer to a hospital and ended up with an extremely stressful birth experience, multiple nurses suggesting emergency cesareans, and the birth plan flying completely out the window. Luckily, our (non-hospital) doctor ended up arriving, who saw that I was ready to just have the baby, and she broke my water which had the effect of instantly sending the heart rate back to 140bpm (totally in range). I delivered my 9lb 14oz boy just minutes later, and all was well with the world.
Both of my kids have been healthy, active and perfect – but I was left with the sense of unfinished business. I was left with the feeling that I set out to do something that never got done.
Our Third Pregnancy
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I found out I was pregnant with our third child shortly after our cross-country move to Oregon. Now, in stark contrast to the scene in the DC Metro area, Portland is positively brimming with birthing centers and thriving midwiferies. As opposed to trying to elbow my way onto a waiting list like it was in Virginia, I ended up interviewing nearly a score of various midwives, all of whom assumed that I’d be shopping around to find one that fit. It was surreal, but understandable given the fact that Oregon has more out-of-hospital births than any other state except Alaska and Montana.
So, after a number of interviews, I settled on Adele, who has been positively wonderful every step of the way.
My third pregnancy was pretty much entirely different from the first two. Whilst I never got morning sickness on the first two, this last one I was nauseated throughout much of my first trimester. But – aside from that bit of discomfort, the first two trimesters were nothing to write home about. The biggest difference is that I got big, early. There was never much doubt that this was going to be a big baby.
Being my third, my husband and I were already pretty well grooved-in on things to do to make a pregnancy successful. Once again, I think my guiding mantra was, “with enough naps, anything is possible.” That and foot rubs.
The Breech Complication
The only thing really out of the ordinary happened at around 37 weeks. We had decided, just because we usually did, to get an ultrasound, just as a final check to make sure everything was all right. Our theory was that stress is unhealthy – especially in a pregnant mom – and getting an ultrasound to show you visually that everything is a-OK can go a long way to quelling all your random fears. However, what we found out on getting the ultrasound was that the baby was turned around, and in a frank breech position. Now – the baby being breech certainly doesn’t preclude being able to have the baby born at home, but it could complicate things.
However, luckily for me, basically all of the stars were in alignment for the doctors to be able to perform a procedure on me called an External Version, which is a fancy way to say that the doctor is going to literally grab onto the baby from outside your belly, and attempt to WWE-style wrestle the baby back into proper position. And, while incredibly uncomfortable, this procedure (luckily) worked, and the baby was locked into a head-down position from then on.
The Birth
My first baby was born 11 days late, and my second was born anywhere from 14 to 28 days late, depending on whose due-date you trust. So, though I hoped it wouldn’t drag out, I really had no expectations that this pregnancy would go anything but long.
However, only around 5 days after my due date, I decided to take the kids out for a walk with my mom down at the Saturday Farmer’s Market while my husband tried to get a little extra work done. After about 10 minutes into my walk, I started getting contractions. And when they started, they were happening fast. Timed them on my handy-dandy Android app and they were regularly spaced, only TWO minutes apart pretty much immediately and there wasn’t much doubt that it was showtime. I texted my husband and told him to start filling up the birthing tub, and texted my midwife who was immediately on her way over along with her assistants.
The Difference of Laboring at Home
Now this is where my story becomes wildly different than my first two births. With a hospital birth, you don’t go to the hospital until your contractions are sufficiently close together – else they won’t admit you. Usually you go once you have had regular contractions that are at least 1 minute long, at least every 5 minute, for at least an hour. But having my baby at home, once we established that I was factually in labor, we didn’t really care about timing contractions. All my midwife really cared about was getting me as comfortable as possible, and letting my body do what it was meant to do.
When my midwife arrived, she arrived with her assistant. They had a look at me, took vitals, and helped my husband fill up the birthing tub that my midwife had graciously provided. It was a massive tub (holding about 5-6 bathtub-fulls of water), and we set it up in our bedroom, where we had set up painters plastic drop-cloths between the tub and my bathroom/shower.
So, between my own bed, my shower, and the tub, I had the perfect spot to be able to go about the business of active labor. I cannot express to you how much more at ease I was being able to do this at home. Compared to the aggravation on my first-born of being forced to pace around in front of the nurse’s desk at the hospital whilst having mind-bending back labor while they deliberated whether or not I was actually ready to be admitted to the hospital, or the loud and insensitive nurses on my 2nd-born deliberating whether or not to give me a c-section regardless of whether I needed it, being at home was luxurious.
Now, I read & watched PLENTY of accounts of home births before having mine, and a number of them talked about how “painless” and “comfortable” it all was. Frankly I don’t know how anyone could say that pushing out something as large as babies could ever be “comfortable”. It HURT. But, that being said, this was far and away the most “comfortable” of my labors. The birthing tub was an absolute revelation, and allowed for a number of rather relaxing positions while I was laboring.
And speaking of being in a relaxing position, my midwife and her assistants mostly just left me alone. My husband, used to the constant probing and monitoring that goes on in the hospital, asked if they were meant to check me for station, dilation, etc. Their response was basically “If she wants, we can check her. Otherwise – her body knows what it’s doing, and she’s in good shape.” If I were high-risk, I’d appreciate the medical attention, but being low-risk, I was extremely grateful that they just let me alone to labor in peace.
The Baby
And then, without all too much drama, it was finally really showtime. After coming home from the Farmer’s Market at around 11am, my baby was born at 4:20pm. It was hard, and it was definitely not silent. All throughout the labor my midwives had been respectful of my desire to have as little talking as possible, sticking to essential communication only, and that in hushed voices. But when it came to getting that baby out, I sort of let it all out. :)
11 lbs 8 ounces was the birth weight, and she was perfectly pudgy and rather tall at 22.5″.
Now, our other two kids had wildly different reactions to their sister’s arrival. Both had been with me on most of my checkups, as well as for my sonograms, so both were equally “prepared”. As I was laying there after the baby was born, looking like an utter battleground, my 5-year-old daughter came in, and was intensely interested at everything that had happened. She wanted to be the one to cut the umbilical cord (which we allowed her to do), and after the placenta came out, she was side-by-side with the midwife, asking to help inspect it.
My 4-year-old son, on the other hand, came in – eyes wide – as I lay there having just given birth, and said, “Mom….is….is that…blood?” I told him it was, and – still with the same frozen, shocked expression – backed out of the room and ran for the play room to work on his train set or something with less carnage. So…that was a bit much for him. But he warmed up once everybody was all cleaned up.
Conclusion
Seeing as this was the sort of birth that we wanted for our first two, this whole experience really brought closure to the birth plans that didn’t go according to plan. We’ve got a sort of sense of completeness now, augmented by the fact that our new baby is just the most smiley and communicative baby we’ve had. And if you’ve seen any of our first two, that’s saying something.
My Birth Story – Having an 11.5lb Baby Naturally at Home Every birth and every child is a different story. They're all wonderful in their own ways, but sometimes things just don't go according to plan, and that can tend to leave one with a sense that something's unfinished - that there's something more that should be done.
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