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Church of Scientology of Texas
Neighborhood: University of Texas
2200 Guadalupe St
Ste 2
Austin, TX 78705
(512) 474-6631
2200 Guadalupe St
Ste 2
Austin, TX 78705
(512) 474-6631
4 reviews for Church of Scientology of Texas
My experience with this location of the Church of Scientology is to be taken not as an evaluation of the religion but of my experience there:
I was in Austin for the second time ever for what amounted to UT trying to schmooze National Merit Scholars and other smartypants and wannabe smartypants kids into coming to their school and joining the honors programs. We were kept under a pretty tight reign, but I got this kid to sneak away from campus with me, and we ended up on the drag.
Seventeen and nerdy but rebellious, we were totally tempted by the "stress test" set up on the corner in front of the Scientology building. A church employee asked us if we wanted to see the sources of stress in our lives. "Duh, we're adolescent dorks" is what I should have told the woman, but I sat down instead, and a pair of aluminum cans with a conductivity meter attached told me that the source of my stress was my grades. His was his pet (oops, he didn't have one).
Anyway, after giggling under my breath a little, I persuaded the guy to go inside with me for a "personality test." They asked us if we were 18. "Yeah, we're here for summer school. We're juniors, " I replied. We took the tests, and by this time I was a little worried that the guy I was with was taking this quite seriously, as he took about 10 minutes longer than me for the exam. They ran our multiple choice tests through a machine and sat us down separately and showed us the big "problem areas" in our lives. I made up this huge story about being an English major and having such-and-such issues with blah-blah-blah, and rather than suspect that I was lying through my teeth, the employee showed me how my "life story" matched up with my issues and told me his church could help. Just as he was getting around to the many "classes" I could take to fix my imaginary "issues," I overheard the female employee asking the guy if he'd like to come back for a "free movie" -- he was very interested and asked if the books in the corner were for sale. He'd forgotten to lie, and he was very close to being taken into the fold. I jumped up and said, "We're going to be late for our study group! We've got to go!"
Turns out this kid, I think his surname was Clinkenbeard (seriously), hadn't ever heard of Scientology before in his tiny small West Texas hometown. I never saw him again after that weekend, and I blame the Scientologists for discouraging him from the "weirdness" that is Austin. I, on the other hand, was totally excited about all the interesting things I'd encounter here.
So two stars for a little bit of nerdy fun, minus the rest of the available stars for trying to get a couple of wacky underage passersby to buy into whatever it is they're selling ... and for turning a cute young man off from Austin forever.
Also: My ex went in here years ago because they always have an ad up for workers, and after he took their IQ test they offered to send him off to the mothership or main instructional center or whatever in California and care for him forever if he'd just give up everything and devote his life to Scientology. He then watched their movie and took a personality test, but if they can't convince a man who believes pretty much every conspiracy theory that comes his way, I can't really respect their conversion tactics.
Dear Church of Scientology,
I had a lot of fun protesting you yesterday. You had three white vans outside and called the cops on a peaceful protest not once, not twice, but three times.
A++ would lol again.
Love,
Anon.
Religiously speaking, my piety is a bit lax, but I did have the privilege of paying a visit to the Church of Scientology of Texas on one hot summer day.
First off, if you've ever been to UT Austin and spent...oh...30 seconds on the Drag, you've probably seen the looming half-block sized building at 2200 Guadalupe. This is home to the Austin-based HQ of the Texas branch of Scientology. I was giving some old college friends a Drag tour one afternoon when a recruiter (see Shane's review) invited us in. Well sure, why not. Haven't been to church in a while.
The woman was incredibly nice, very friendly and answered any and all questions we had. After we spent 30 minutes taking an IQ test and conversing about our potential interest in the church, I asked her the whys, hows and whos of her relationship with Scientology. She was very accommodating.
I know very little about Scientology and even less about Dianetics, but my one-time experience with this particular branch left me a bit uneasy. As our recruiter spoke, I flipped through a couple of books on a large coffee table in their main lobby. My impression is that Scientology stands on a dual-supported cornerstone of intelligence and a LOT of money. What was my first, second and third clue? The most prominent figure in modern day Scientology is one Mr. Tom Cruise. There's your money. Second, they aggressively recruited my above-and-beyond-genius-level brother-in-law. There's your smarts. Thirdly, the chapter of the book I was able to read while visiting that day mentioned something about tiers of membership based on financial status. Hmm. I don't know about you, but I like my religion all-inclusive with my tithe on the side.
Anyway, the point of the review is to describe Austin's version...not the belief as a whole. I'm sure if Leah Remini was here, I'd get the full story. Church of Scientology Texas is housed in an inspiring, but somewhat tacky piece of real estate. Any business or organization that can handle that much rent in one of the most inflated districts of Austin is certainly doing something right. As for the service it offers, I'm not so sure. Oh, and the parking's a bitch.
Maybe worth a visit.
Ha!
I don't like to mock the religions of others (THAT's a big fat lie) but the Church of Scientology on Guadalupe just begs for it. I like the table they've always got set up outside with the little anti-drug pamphlets available for free. The pamphlets can be utilized a variety of ways - I'm sure you could come up with your own creative uses for them!
Also, try and walk by on a day when they've actually got recruiters standing around outside, and you might score free tickets to see their anti-drug movie in their creepy little theater all by yourself! I'm actually really proud of those recruiter people. They wear conservative clothing - dress shirts buttoned all the way up, khakis - in the dead middle of August. Keep it up, y'all are troopers!
