Why I became a Scientologist

Dignus Lavooy was inspired by an earlier article I posted to write how he became a Scientologist. Here is his story.

I got into Scientology in 1975, but the story starts long before I knew of its existence. I was born and raised in a rural village in the Netherlands, where helping the community, being active in clubs, attending church, etc., were still very much part of the way of life. It was the time when early rock & roll music had just been replaced on the top 40's by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Newspapers were believed and TV was this new and fascinating medium with the silliest program dominating the schoolyard conversations the whole next day.

Growing up is a constant expansion of one's sphere of awareness and as mine grew I started to ask more and more questions. The fact that inspirational politicians (Kennedy's) and people whose message meant something to me (Martin Luther King and later John Lennon) were senselessly murdered did not fit with my view of how the world should run. Add Vietnam, which seemed so unnecessary, an arms race that was out of control and the messages about the planet's energy resources running out and I seriously doubted that I (or for that matter, anyone else) could be happy or live long. Things just did not make sense and I began to think there was something seriously wrong with me. It was only later that I understood that you can't make sense out of an insane act. If I got anything from experiencing that era, it was to be on the lookout for something that would shed some light into the darker corners of existence.

My school buddies, though they very much agreed that society was crazy, reluctantly fell prey to the demands of day-to-day life without parental support. It was the basic necessities that forced them to comply to society's demands: they put their watches back on, accepted that "dreaded job," got married to their life-long friend or their partner in an incautious adventure and bought the very house that, in our recent rantings and ravings, had been a "never-ever." I was not disappointed in them; they were my friends and I could understand why they gave up. But rather than going that route, I decided to make my own onslaught on "life after school."

So I veered off the standard path and took a plunge, emigrating to a far-off land (Canada). Things over there were certainly different, but underneath the nice social veneer they turned out to be very much the same as they were back home. Here were people I liked, who also saw the oddities I saw, but were just as frustrated as I was about the lack of solutions. Rather than getting lost in the hopelessness of it all, we talked about the more pleasant things in life: the hockey game, the rubber laid by a hot rod and the women at work.

In the meantime, I worked to somehow, somewhere find real answers. In spare moments in the pre-Internet age, I plied the libraries and borrowed stacks of books on yoga, religion, meditation, astrology, works by Carl Gustav Jung and many others that inspired, but never satisfied me. It seemed there was something more to life, but my eagerness to continue to search began to wane.

After a concert one day, a friendly person asked me if I was interested in doing a personality test. I almost declined, but I could still muster enough curiosity to go along with him and enter the place that would prove to be so pivotal in my life: The Church of Scientology of Toronto. Cautious as I was, I did not immediately jump at the offer to do a course when my test results were explained. I had some questions and I wanted answers. I decided to put them to the test, but they calmly answered any question I fired at them with answers that were honest and made sense. I got the notion that perhaps there was something to this subject. Knowing I couldn't lose doing a course costing 25 bucks, I decided to check it out for myself and I started on a communication course.

I was little prepared for what I got back for the few dollars I invested. I felt myself gravitating towards a subject that was, for once, giving me answers I could use. The idea that here was something substantial revived my hunger to find sensible answers. I found those answers in the books of L. Ron Hubbard, specifically Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Have You Lived Before This Life? and Scientology: the Fundamentals of Thought. Here was a man who knew what he was writing about: no theorizing meanderings, but practical, applicable guidelines that were so workable, they were like the laws of gravity. To my surprise, I was encouraged to think for myself and I realized why: you can't argue with something that simply works; you can't blame Newton when you drop a vase. Know the laws of gravity and you take care not to drop vases. Know the laws that govern life, as in Scientology, and you avoid getting trapped by losing relationships, stress or bad career decisions.

The more I studied the works of L. Ron Hubbard, the more answers I got, first to my obvious questions and then to others I had not even known to ask before: How can I improve my relationships? How can I overcome stress in life? How can I be happy? Who am I? How does my mind work and how do the minds of other people work? Do we live after we die? What is the meaning of life?

It is now almost 32 years later and while I could fill a book with success stories and accounts of what Scientology has meant to me over the years, suffice it to say my life has changed to a healthy and happy one. I have many, many real friends, a happy marriage and a vocation that gratifies me every day because I am doing something that I always craved: really helping people. Using Scientology procedures, I have seen significant changes happen in others, too numerous to easily recall. Their happiness has become mine, and yes, I am darned proud of that. No amount of gold or diamonds could ever pay for the satisfaction, pride and happiness I've gotten from that.

That is the simple version of why I became a Scientologist: I saw it, I liked it, I stayed. It is my hope and conviction that through the work I do, along with so many other dedicated people of all faiths, society will be a better place for future generations.

Dignus Lavooy