Why Were People Being Warned to Stay Away From Her?

My name is Kirsten. I live in Germany.

When I was little, I was introduced to Scientology through my parents. My father was a fencing coach and then it got into the press that he was a Scientologist—that our whole family was actually Scientologists, because I had just gotten to know it. And suddenly it was quite a shock because my father was attacked. We had no support from family or friends. And I realized that my parents were standing alone. In that sense, from then on, I always had a relatively divided family. The damage caused by something like that is simply that I suddenly didn’t have grandparents anymore. But they fell so deeply into this trap of black propaganda that it destroyed this area and this part of the family.

I did a lot of athletics training and I was successful at it. And then the situation came up that we were going to training camp and, of course, I wanted to share a room with my friend. And shortly before we left, my coach came up to me and told me that I couldn’t share a room with my friend because he had been told by her parents that I couldn’t share a room with their daughter because I’m a Scientologist. And from that point on, I didn’t feel comfortable in the group anymore. I did keep training for a while and still had my sport, but I also knew where I stood and that I no longer really belonged to that extent.

I left school and shortly afterwards my friends came to see me. And then they said they had been summoned to the principal’s office and that the principal—he instructed them on how dangerous Scientology is and how dangerous contact with me is. They asked me if I would give a presentation about Scientology. I said, “Of course. I know about it. I’ll give a presentation, no problem.” Then they checked with their religious studies teacher. She said no, I couldn’t give a presentation on it. I found that interesting. But it was not desired that someone with experience in the subject, and who has studied Scientology, and has been a Scientologist for years, that this person should speak and simply answer the questions directly. And there was such a scenario of fear being spread and of “You have to be careful not to get drawn into Scientology” that as soon as you say, “I am a Scientologist,” the shutters come down. You simply couldn’t talk to anyone without prejudice.