Everyday Scientology

Stella Forstner grew up in the Church of Scientology, and wants you to understand what Scientologists actually believe. [The Hairpin]

Growing up surrounded by the language and ideas of Scientology, I developed the capacity for linguistic register-switching: the ability to rapidly, even unconsciously, shift my language when I moved among different social domains. To this day it's like a door opens in my brain when I'm with my parents, allowing the use of those specialized terms, and closes again when I'm with friends, preventing me from throwing out an embarrassing engram reference by accident.