Welcome to indoctrination, a weekly conversation series about protecting yourself from systems of control.

I'm your host, Rachel Bernstein.

Vanessa LaRose was born into Scientology as a second generation member in San Diego, California.

And she grew up in the church in the Los Angeles area as a public member, a non-C organization member, and attended Scientology

based schools in her formative years. A few years back, Vanessa faced the choice of disconnecting from her best friend

and other people she knew were not SPs, suppressive people, a Scientology term,

and to stay in a belief system that was causing her more and more cognitive dissonance,

or to face disconnection from her parents and loved ones,

a very hard choice. But she chose her freedom. Vanessa is an active volunteer in the Los Angeles

Animal Rescue community and an avid seeker of knowledge, currently pursuing higher education

and enjoying discovering her unfolding love

of psychology, philosophy, and human services, and is currently on the dean's honor list

and was recently awarded a scholarship from the Department of Psychology at her college.

Vanessa has been dealing with the aftermath of the disconnection from her parents and also other loved ones for a couple of years

and was interested in coming on indoctrination to be able to share with others some of the experiences she's had and things she's learned along the way

and she hopes her experience can be helpful to anyone listening, especially those under the radar and those

struggling with depression, and to also give herself the gift of her voice, ultimately giving

herself the right to freedom of speech. Here's Vanessa now.

So, of speech. Here's Vanessa now. So I am so happy to be able to have Vanessa with me today.

And for those of you who are going to be listening,

you're going to be able to hear a lot about her experiences

and also for people who are going to be

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