Your contact should be able to come up with a brief description of the basic beliefs of Scientology. But after a few general statements, they may tell you that it's only understandable by experiencing it yourself. It seems odd, but talking about Scientology is consistently discouraged within the group. It's called "verbal tech", and most questions are referred to either a dictionary to see if you have "misunderstood" words, or to one of L. Ron Hubbard's many books and letters.

Scientology consists of mental and physical exercises designed to remove painful memories from your mind. These memories keep you from achieving all you would like to do or be in life. What your contact may not know is that that the upper levels of Scientology deal with the spirits of dead space aliens who infest your body and keep you from achieving all you would like to do or be in life. Removing these spirits is the ultimate goal of Scientology. Receiving courses in Scientology is very expensive. To reach the knowledge of the highest levels can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the prices are fixed, not based on ability to pay.

Scientology claims to be able to improve you in many ways with Hubbard's processes. They claim to be able to raise IQ, improve your personality, improve productivity and success in your career, cure drug addiction, and cure diseases.

Does your Scientology contact answer your questions about the basic beliefs? What do you think it means when the ultimate goal of the group is held secret from a majority of its members? Does it seem to be an acceptable answer that the beliefs cannot be explained beforehand, but only be experienced by joining?