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This article was published 24/3/2018 (912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scientology remains a largely mysterious quasi-religious movement associated with some Hollywood stars, but most people don’t know much about it and might be afraid to investigate further in case they are somehow lured in.

In Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology, author, teacher, playwright and musician Sands Hall presents a first-person account of how she spent a decade of her life living and working as a Scientologist.

The California-born author of Tools of the Writer’s Craft and the acclaimed novel Catching Heaven, she uses her impressive writing skills to convey her experiences during what she had once shamefully viewed as a squandered decade in her life. In doing so, she also explores the need for people to feel a sense of being connected to others through sharing ideas even if they aren’t based in reality.

What makes her memoir most enjoyable and understandable is her decision to be honest about all the personal doubts she had during this time. Even while married to a high-level Scientologist, spending most of her days studying Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s many texts and working as a Scientology study coach, Hall maintained a slight skepticism about what she was learning and observing. Eventually, with the support of her family, she had the inner strength to say goodbye to her long-time Scientologist lover and her entire way of life.

Looking back, she is able to identify the factors that led her to walking through the doors of the Church of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. She had always been fascinated with religious ideas, even though her parents were firmly opposed to all religious practice. She was struggling to find her own creative identity after growing up in a household where her parents’ unconventional and creative lifestyle set her apart, and gave her extremely high personal expectations.

The most striking factor that set her on the Scientology path was her beloved brother Tad’s accidental (or purposeful) fall from a bridge that resulted in severe brain damage. Hall had idolized Tad’s creativity as a playwright who ran a rag-tag theatre company in upper New York State. She watched him gradually edge into mania before his accident, then chastised herself for his resulting condition.

She was told that she should leave him alone, as her presence wasn’t good for him. "That accusation stayed with me for decades. It dented any joy I took in being with him. It meant I lost him in two ways: to the brain injury, and because I simply didn’t talk, laugh, be with him."

Hall moved to California to pursue her acting career; her focus was blurred, however, as she became depressed over Tad. It was while she was in this emotional trough that she became aware of the attractive and intelligent people committed to Scientology, including her future husband, musician Jamie Faunt.

"I was absolutely fascinated, even as I feared this might be exactly the way one got dragged into the dread cult," Hall writes. "Who hadn’t heard of the lawsuits, power-mongering, bullying, financial excess? But on the other hand! The organization! It was so orderly! Everything could be broken down into its component parts and explained."

Hall’s book suffers somewhat from her extensive use of terminology and ideas that are difficult to understand for someone not familiar with Scientology. However, she intersperses her recollections of Scientology technology with personal information that helps us understand why she became, like many others, members of a religious cult based on Hubbard’s science-fiction ideas.

Andrea Geary is a reporter with Canstar Community News.