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Why I Changed My Mind

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Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.

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Why I Changed My Mind: Series 3

Why I Changed My Mind: Series 3: Martin Padfield

08/11/2017

Martin Padfield

Series 3

BBC Radio 4 - Why I Changed My Mind, Series 3, Martin Padfield

A former Scientologist for 28 years tells why he quit what some see as a dangerous cult.

After 28 years as a Scientologist, Martin Padfield explains what it was like to leave what many consider a dangerous cult and how tough it has been to rediscover his own identity.

Martin Padfield was a Scientologist for 28 years, after meeting a member of the group when he was just 19 years old. He joined the elite corps at the heart of Scientology, as his whole life became dominated by the teachings and strictures of the movement. But after he married, he started to question the way he and his new family were treated. He began to doubt the organisation's integrity, and embarked on a journey that forced him to confront the reality that his whole identity was defined by Scientology. 

Martin tells Dominic Lawson how hard it was to extricate himself from what many consider to be a powerful cult, and how tough the journey has been to rediscover an identity lost from the point in his youth when he threw himself into the unusual world of L Ron Hubbard and his disciples. 

In "Why I Changed My Mind", Dominic Lawson interviews people who have changed their mind on controversial matters.

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

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