Laura Prepon on Why She Loves Scientology: “Finally Something was Speaking my Language”

By Hayli Harding --
13 Jul 2015 --

By http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/cavan-sieczkowski [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Things have become easier for Laura Prepon since becoming a Scientologist.

Known for her starring role in That 70’s Show as Donna Pinciotti, Laura Prepon sat down with Celebrity, the Church’s magazine, to discuss the way Scientology has changed her life and acting abilities.

Her biggest claim is that it calmed her down a lot, to the extent that people are always asking her how she keeps her cool during stressful times on set. Her discussion covers auditing, her connection to Scientology, and how she feels it has aided her in accessing various emotions along the “tone scale,” a Scientologist term for the different emotional states.

https://twitter.com/laurapreonline/status/618765725134659584

Born to a Russian Jewish father and Irish Catholic mother in New Jersey, Laura Prepon had always struggled with her faith. She told Celebrity when she she first discovered Scientology, she went through the first courses to appeal to her: Personal Values, Integrity, and Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life. She said these courses “touched on the observations I was aware of when I was younger.” She could understand it because of the language it spoke in. When she had completed these courses, she began to move along the Bridge, which is the levels of auditing. Auditing is a sort of therapy within Scientology, and apparently the act has helped Prepon relax tremendously. “It takes the weight off you and things become very easy,” she added.

The Orange is the New Black actress says that nothing bothers her the way it once did, before her 1999 decision to join Scientology. In Scientology, the idea is that the thetan, which is the spirit, is trapped within the MEST, or matter, energy, space, and time, universe. In order to release the thetan, one must conduct auditing and follow church rituals. According to Prepon, “auditing has stripped away all of this charge, false ideas, decisions and mis-emotions that were affecting me.” In essence, she feels that once she realized she was a thetan with a mind and body, “and that the MEST universe doesn’t control [me]” it put things into perspective for her. In fact, she says that ever since she began the process, she has noticed improvement in her acting capabilities. Though she originally feared she would lose access to her emotions, she has found that she can access them more readily than before.