How to beat the Scientology Personality Test

The first characteristic of a cult is it has a leader who claims to have special knowledge. In this case it's L. Ron Hubbard. The second characteristic is their claim that this special knowledge will improve your life. In order to claim this Scientologists must first convince you that your life can be improved upon, and that is where their "Free Personality Test" comes into play. They boast "A test of this kind would normally cost you $500.00 and up" in an obvious attempt to endow their test with authority. The test is also sometimes called the "Oxford Capacity Test," again an attempt to endow their test with authority. Actually the test has nothing to do with the University of Oxford.

RED FLAG #1: It's called a "test"

Calling it a "test" is a dead giveaway that something is wrong. "Test" implies there are right and wrong answers, and that your "test" will be graded at the end, which is exactly what Scientologists do. Here is a graph of the best possible score you can get, and a link to a sample test with all the "correct" answers that will get you this highest possible score:

See the test itself with the "correct" answers:
Scientology Personality Test with "correct" answers

You can take this test for free at their official web site and try out different answers to see what the resulting graph looks like. Just enter fake information when they ask you for your name and address.

Myers-Briggs
A similar but legitimate questionaire is the Myers-Briggs questionaire. In this questionaire there are no right or wrong answers—different people have different personalities and will make different choices.

Myers-Briggs divides personality types into four major categories, with each category having four subcategories, for a total of 16 different personality types. The questionaire helps guide you to a profile that may describe you fairly well. From there you are free to browse other profiles to see if you find one you feel describes yourself even better. It doesn't matter which profile you identify with. What matters is finding a written description of yourself that you do identify with. Words help bring to the forefront of consciousness traits you already knew you possessed but didn't realize were unique to your personality type. It helps to understand in what ways you are different from other people and that it's natural for people to be different.

A classic book on the Myers-Briggs is David Keirsey "Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence" but I warn this is not easy reading because it describes 16 personality types, one of which you'll identify with, and 15 which will be foreign to you. Understanding that other people actually think in different ways from you is initially a hard concept to learn, but eventually you'll understand why most other people seem to be different from you—it's because they are. Again, there is no "right" personality type, there are just different personalities. If you search the internet for "Myers-Briggs" you will find ample information (and probably some misinformation). Also see www.keirsey.com

After grading your "test" producing a graph such as the best possible one above, a Scientologist will interpret it for you as proof that your life isn't optimum and you can improve it by purchasing the special knowledge they possess, which brings us to

RED FLAG #2: They Want Your Money

After taking this "test" the Scientologist will convince you that you can improve "your income, your future, your personal relationships, and your life," by purchasing their books and courses. If any organization starts asking you for money with the promise of improving your life you should immediately be suspicious that you are dealing with a cult.

A legitimate church, for example, does not pressure you into giving them money. If you are pleased with the church you can donate money when they pass the collection plate, but there is no obligation to donate. Donating is entirely voluntary.

A legitimate church also will not try and sell you books or courses. Church services and Bible study courses are free. If you are poor they may even give you a Bible for free. A legitimate church cares about you and not about your money. If you have no money they will still joyously accept you into their congregation anyway. This brings us to

RED FLAG #3: Cults Lie Up Front

Look at the official Scientology sign:
notice the Christian cross

Notice the "i" in "Scientology" is a Christian cross. Scientology has nothing to do with Christianity. They don't even use the Bible. But their web site prominently displays their Christian cross in one form or another on just about every page.

Cults have to lie up front because if they told you the truth you would never allow yourself to slowly be absorbed into the group. How would a recruiter explain and obtain consent if she had to say: "I will have you take this personality test that we always interpret as showing that your personality is a wreck. You'll be led to buy very expensive courses and pay thousands of dollars to explore your past lives, then to explore the past lives of countless little men you can't see who we claim cover your body. You'll end up being led to buy more and more expensive courses, to meditate and hyperventilate eight hours a day for thirty days in very expensive courses, and eventually to work for the organization to pay for the courses. You will leave your family and friends and put your time in almost exclusively with us." How many new members would she get to join?

I recommend the following book:

CULTS in our midst by Margaret Thaler Singer This is an excellent book written by a college professor who has extensively studied the phenomonon of cults and has personally interviewed several thousand ex-cult members. It is very well written and is the kind of book you don't want to put down once you start reading it.

Also see:

(Scientology has lots of money and lawyers and is constantly launching lawsuits against their critics to silence them. If Operation Clambake isn't there, try searching for http://www.xenu.net at the Internet Archive, http://www.archive.org/)
Latest News: Church of Scientology International forces Google to remove links to Operation Clambake

Back to RELIGION Index