It's finally occurred to me what other human experience is comparable to that experienced by those who finally escape the Church.

When I was a kid, my mom and I had a chance on two occasions to take in victims of spousal abuse. One was a middle aged lady whose husband was the coroner in a county far south of us. She showed up with a shiner, delivered to her by her abusive husband. She stayed with us for a few days while she regained her emotional footing and worked out how to proceed with her life. She was in rough shape.

On another occasion, we received a black girl whose husband or boyfriend had abused her. Like the other woman, she was an emotional wreck with nowhere to go and an uncertain future. Like the other woman, she stayed for a few days and then moved on, hopefully to a place where she could be safe.

You may never have experienced something like this. Hopefully not. But these woman (and any others who go through this type of incident) go through the same type of experience which many Scientologists within the Church have prior to their exit. And because of this experience, they remain in the Church far longer than they should, and must spend a fair amount of time afterward regaining their anchor points and figuring out what to do with their futures.

As we've mostly observed, victims of the Church must abandon all their friends, possibly even their families. In some cases, they must abandon most of their worldly positions. They often have no marketable skills, at least as far as they reckon. They typically have no or very little money. They have few or no allies on the outside, at least none they know of. Before they leave, they know the above is their lot. It's a frightening and deeply unpleasant prospect.

In any case, the experience of spousal abuse victims is similar in many ways to that of exiting Scientologists. I forward this viewpoint so that we can understand and empathize with the exiting Scientologists who lament their situations.