Still on Day 1 of my big trip, Rufus and Jane kindly offered me a chance to come and see where they worked. As Rufus put it, we probably wonder what on earth they do over on the other side of the world, and given I had finally come to see them, I should see what they did.
St Hill is the head office for the Church of Scientology in the UK, and based just out of East Grinstead in Sussex. Driving up a road so narrow that the hedges bore the imprints of car side-mirrors, we arrived in a massive parking lot. A quick walk down the drive, and I saw an impressive building. Built in the form of a Norman Castle, this is a training facility for Scientology students. http://sainthill.org.uk/
Further down the road was the St Hill Manor, a country house built in 1792 and bought by L Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) in 1959.
There were heaps of people there, all quietly studing - the place had the feel of a university about it. During the tour, I was introduced to 'our oldest resident'. Tell Greta where you are from, she was urged... 'Eketahuna' was the response. 'Cool', I replied. 'I'm from Maungatapere'. She didn't expect that!
A great hall dominated one side of the Castle, and the other side had small rooms for counselling, or auditing.
Scientology is based on a belief system that I don't understand, and didn't delve in to, but there are some ideas that are worth thinking about.
I mean, the Western world is based on Christianity, and all our legislative and judicial systems are premised on ideas such as the sanctity of life, heaven and hell, death as the final end. And really, Christianity is just another belief system.
When you think about crime and punishment, in New Zealand we tend not to execute even the worst criminals. This is roughly based on the idea that we have only one chance of life, and this life is paramount.
What if the Buddhists, L. Ron Hubbard or Michael Newton have it right? What if we are actually souls that do transcend the body, and survive in several incarnations? What does that mean for our justice systems? Does it mean that rather than keeping alive (in jail) the worst criminals, we should execute them? In this way we free their soul from a clearly substandard lifetime, and let them prepare for their new life? Isn't keeping their body locked up in a harsh environment just poisoning them and us?
How do we know that what we believe, hell, what our legislative and justice systems are based on, is actually right?
I don't have any answers, and when asked (in Poland later that week) what religion I was, my response was 'everything and nothing'. Since Mum died, I've thought a lot about death and life, and everything in between. I can't believe that Mum has disappeared entirely, but then again, I don't believe she went knocking on the Pearly Gates. I do believe that where-ever she is, she is driving them barmy!
Kent and Sussex was fun. Seeing the history just littered around the place, driving through villages with roads so narrow that you had to watch you didn't scrape the car on a house as you went through, that blew my mind. Going into the Church of Scientology at the end of the day? Another step outside my world, outside my comfort zone, and into a place that challenged all my preconceived notions that I didn't know I had.
All in all, a pretty good day.
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