Meet the The Woodcraft Family. Well, part of the Woodcraft family. Missing from this picture are mother, grandmother, and brother, who are sea org members who have been forbidden to speak to the members of the clan pictured here. The Lisa McPherson Trust has made a series of post-scientologist interviews available in streaming video. I’m conpletely addicted to these stories. The interviews are separated into parts (there are many parts per person). I began hearing Astra’s story. Astra was a fairly highly placed worked in Sea Org, which is a quasi administrative/religious order that requires members to sign a billion year contract. Astra worked with ethics branches, convincing people they couldn’t masturbate, couldn’t be pregnant, couldn’t leave the Sea Org, and knew all the arguments. Knowing how the Sea Org would handle her, Astra got herself pregnant and refused to have an abortion as a way of getting out. She’s bright and eloquent, and she charmed me.

Right now I’m listening to her sister Zoe’s story. Zoe is younger, and was atrociously mistreated by her mother and the few adults who were around to supervise young children. The hardest part of this is watching her father’s reaction to her stories. They did these interviews with Astra, Zoe, and her father all present together. I had no idea Scientology was this….organized, this….cultish.

When I’m finished hearing Zoe’s stories, I’m aiming to hear Lawrence Woodcraft’s story of Scientology…how does a parent let this happen to their children? How do they get pulled into this? I can’t see anything attractive about it at this point…