Blog: Five Years - 2010-04-18
Five Years April 18, 2010,
Well, a significant milestone came and went. There was no fanfare, no celebration. And that's as it should be.
Five years ago, on April 16th, 2005, I left the Int Base, the Sea Org, and the Church of Scientology forever. With my possessions piled into my car, and a $500 check in my pocket (my "severance pay" after dedicating 35 years of my life), I headed up the California coast to find a new life.
Like any exodus from Scientology, no matter how seemingly abrupt, it was in reality a long process. It began while I was still at the Int Base. I became increasingly aware of the "cognitive dissonance" in my life. Cognitive dissonance means attempting to hold two opposing ideas in your mind at the same time, in my case, my idea of what I thought a "Scientology environment" should be like, and the nightmare world I observed around me at the Int Base. It culminated in my decision to refuse to go back on post or the go to the RPF, but to insist on offload.