First time I was in New York, the hotel I stayed at was right next door to their headquarters. It just so happens that they offer free tours (of course), so as a joke we decided to check it out.
We were treated to a brief film promoting the finer (IE: less sci-fi/batshit-insane) points of Dianetics, which basically boiled down to a bunch of mind-over-matter mumbo-jumbo, complete with "real life examples" and carefully omitting all of the elements that would make Regular Joe laugh his ass off or run screaming (IE: Xenu).
This was followed by the overly friendly tour guide forcing a contact sheet down our throats, which asked for everything from address and phone number to social security number. Needless to say, I filled mine out with "No Thanks".
Interesting experience though...I can see how they suck people in. Very, very nice building, incredibly friendly staff, an entertaining little video that I'm sure sucks in the spiritually inclined and almost makes sense until you think about it for a minute...they know what they're doing.
If nothing else, they do a damn good job of hiding the "money-grubbing cult" aspect from the guests of their tour ;)
