This story is about how to avoid mind control, and what food is best for someone who is in urgent need of nutrition. There's even a touch of divine intervention.

What you will learn

•what kinds of people can be drawn into religious sects

•the subtle language that can hide mind control and other sinister aims behind what a course promises to teach you

•the biggest principle behind food that helps shape your body At the end of this episode I'll share with you a food that you can use not only to gain weight, but to lose weight too. How bizarre is that? But for now...

On with the story

Living in Paris, France

In the previous episode I shared with you what happened after a bomb literally went off (see Episode 8). I also mentioned that because of the Scientologists, I almost didn't get my resident card, which I was desperate to have so that I could continue to live and work in Paris.

Which brings me to today's story, which will close the chapter of my life with Scientologists. I moved on to other exciting things after that, such as a famous French hard rock guitarist and his vampire mom, but that's another story.

So let me explain how the Scientologists messed with me getting my resident card. The main reason is that they had brainwashed Dave and he started acting crazy. But I think I need to explain how that can happen, so I'll do that briefly.

Living in Montmartre

Before Dave and I got married, so before the crazy Italian (which I talk about in Episode 3), we were living together for a while in a gorgeous apartment in the center of Paris, near Montmartre. In addition to going to restaurants and all that other romantic stuff you can do in Paris, Dave and I had been reading about the principles of Scientology, because we found some of them can be quite useful. One of them is how you can help people get over a past trauma, which I've already talked about in Episode 7. Even if in my case it led to a bunch of pumpkin heads.

But - and this is a big but - the problem with Scientology is that you don't see the scary stuff until you're already pretty deeply embedded in their world. I'll get to an example of what I mean by scary stuff in a minute, but how do people get caught? And why do they stay? Here's what happened to me and Dave, anyway.

We'll take care of everything!

The Scientologists told us from the beginning that they could help us with just about anything. And over time, if you're a bit vulnerable like Dave was, you get sucked into their world. They tell you that you're part of their community, that you don't have to face the world alone, that you'll be able to handle anything that life throws at you...as long as you're with them.

You start to become totally drawn in by the feeling of being protected, being looked after and cared for, in a safe world that won't chan...