The girl who escaped Scientology

Astra Woodcraft’s childhood was ruined by Scientology, said Abigail Pesta in TheDailyBeast.com. When she was 7 years old, her family moved from England to Florida to join the Sea Organization, the church’s elite managerial arm. Woodcraft was separated from her parents and lived in a dorm room with other Sea Org cadets. They received a minimal education. “Our teacher spent hours reading to us from [Scientology founder] L. Ron Hubbard’s science-fiction book Battlefield Earth.” By age 15, she had been pushed into marriage and charged with enforcing “church rules and ethics” at Sea Org. “Early on in my new job, I had to sit down with a man in his 40s who had admitted to masturbating, and tell him to cut it out.” She worked 14 hours a day, and began suffering from depression. But at age 19, Woodcraft concocted an escape plan. She got pregnant, knowing that the strict rules of Sea Org would require her to have an abortion or leave the church. She quit Scientology, which also meant cutting off contact with her family. It saddens Woodcraft that her mother and ex-husband have no relationship with her now 13-year-old daughter. “At the same time, I’m proud to be where I am today. I appreciate my freedom in a way that some people might not be able to imagine.”

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