Meagan Porpora at Scientology's Mace-Kingsley Ranch

He convinced her to send me there. Ever since my father passed away in 1990 my mother has changed. I have twin younger sisters who also noticed the change. It was her new found belief in scientology. She started hanging up sayings from l. Ron Hubbard all over the house. I didn't know anything about the place or the religion. I had to learn about it while I was there. If I only knew the hell I was in for, I would have never agreed to it. I arrived at the airport in New Mexico to find a man named Matt waiting for me. I was told to say goodbye to my mother and that we had a long drive ahead of us. I couldn't believe my mom was allowing me to go with a complete stranger, and she never even saw the ranch herself.

Anyway, we finally arrived at the ranch at around 12 am. Everyone was asleep so first they checked my bags and then sent me to my room, which I shared with three other girls. I was woken up at 7:30 am to a man in army attire screaming "reverly" over and over.

I later found out his name was Wren, and he was in charge of us. We had to be up with our beds made by 8 am. Then we went down to the "lower ranch", where the boys slept. We stayed at the upper ranch. We all had to pile into this beat up pick up truck and they even made us sing songs about the ranch.

We were at the lower ranch all day. That is where we did everything. A typical day at the ranch went like this: 8 am- breakfast, 8:30am-muster (a daily meeting where we went over the activities of the day), 9-12pm was "school".

Now this is where it gets interesting.

School was not normal subjects like math or English. It was only Scientology. They gave us books to read about Scientology and called them courses. After you finished a course they would quiz you on it. I was told I would get normal schooling since i was a senior in high school, but that was normal to them. Then we had lunch and KP (kitchen patrol). We would have to clean and mop etc., then we had labor time. We had many different things we did, like digging a huge ditch or carrying heavy logs for firewood, and dinner and KP. The girls would go up to upper ranch at around 9pm. Bedtime was 9:30. On weekends we would clean the house. This was called white glove cleaning.. We would clean for hours and then Wren would come and put a white glove on, and if he found any dust or dirt, we would have to clean all over again.

We weren't allowed phone calls except on Saturday, and only family. Luckily, I had a cousin who came to visit me. When he asked if he could take me to lunch, they made someone from the ranch staff come along, as a chaperone.

I also want to mention some names. There was Jesus who was in charge of the whole place. Then there was Mollie and Shiela(real bitch). Wren, Hugo, Matt and Megan were some of the other staffers. Some of the kids' names were Charis, Maren, Dina, Brooke, Rigel, and James. We weren't allowed to have any pc (personal contact) with the opposite sex.

The way the ranch handled discipline was very troubling. They had a fenced-in area about the size of a football field for the horses to run around, and if you did something wrong they would put you on the fence. What this meant was that you had to sit all day in front of the fence, and scrub the rust off with a toothbrush!! This could last for days and the only food you would get would be a bowl of white rice dry.

If you were thirsty you had to drink from the hose in the ground.

One time I was on the fence and I passed out from the sun. They brought me inside and used smelling salts on me. I came to, and they gave me a drink and sent me right back out there. My uncle, who is a lawyer, wanted to sue them over this, but unfortunately he got very sick.

I also remember another incident when a boy named Chris (I think that's his name) had a prosthetic leg. He tried to run away and got caught. So they took his leg away!!!! It was the craziest thing ever.

I also remember being forced to watch pig wrestling. This is where the boys had to catch a pig in the mud. It was so cruel.

The only reason I got to leave was that I had a bump on my gum. The doctor said he thought it was a tumor, so I got to leave because they thought I needed surgery. But because of the length of my stay (2 1/2 months), I didn't graduate with my class.

The reason that I waited so long to write about this is because I would search on the internet and I never found anything negative about Scientology, just church propaganda.

I have been scarred from the MK ranch.

I hope my story will save many kids from going thru this ordeal. I live with my mother still, but not a day goes by that I don't hate her a little for what she did to me.

Comments by Jennifer Porpora

At first I just laughed thinking it was a joke. Why would my mother send my sister, who is from New York, to some stupid ranch in New Mexico? Unfortunately she was not joking at all and even though we pleaded and begged her not to do this, she was determined. I will never forget this time in my life because it was one of the most painful experiences my family has endured, especially Meagan.

My mother and her boyfriend had starting going to Scientology meetings and had found their new belief. It was like she was a changed person. I honestly don't know if she really believed in the Scientology crap, or if she was just following her boyfriend. Both of them seemed brainwashed, and believed this was the only way to helpMeagan.

I know that he supported the idea of Meagan going away and if he supported it, my mother supported it as well. So it was set: Meg was to leave in the next few days. To keep everyone calm, my mother told us she was just going away for a couple of weeks. I think we all knew that wasn't true.

I have a twin sister who was also against this, and actually, all my family members were against this. They all thought my mother was going crazy. No one believed it was a good idea to take a high school senior out of her school to go to some Scientology ranch that no one had ever even seen. The ranch promised to offer regular high school classes that would allow Meg to graduate even though she was leaving her high school. That made things a little better, knowing that she would not be left behind but as it turned out that was all lies, just like the rest of the stuff that they claimed to do for the kids.

All the courses were about Scientology; there was no English, Math, or History. It was all Scientology. When she returned to her high school two and a half months later, she was told that those classes she took at the Ranch do not count for anything, and as a result she could not graduate with her class. Meg was only allowed to call us once a week and there was a limited time for the call. As soon as I would pick up the phone she would be hysterical. She would cry and beg me to get mom to bring her home. She would tell me the sick stories of what these people made her do. This place was not supposed to be a jail -- it was supposed to be a rehabilitating place for kids with depression problems, or kids that just were not doing too well in their situations at home. These kids did not commit crimes; they did not get convicted and sent there by a court of law. They went there for help, under the belief that this place would provide care and counseling for them. From the website it is stated: "The unique thing about the Mace-Kingsley Ranch School is that part of the program is based on the counseling techniques of Scientology developed by L. Ron Hubbard."

PART OF THE PROGRAM!!

This place is a cult. The whole ranch was based on Scientology. If you went against the Scientologists, you were severely punished. Fortunately Meg got sick, and I would never say that in a good way except for this one time. I truly believe my father who passed away ten years ago had something to do with her return.

Two and a half months of torture and slave work, my sister was brought home. At first she was so mad at my mother for sending her there that all they did was fight. That died down after awhile. My mother is no longer into Scientology. I think now she will admit that she was wrong in sending Meagan there. I don't think she realized at the time that Meagan was just a regular teenager that was going through one of the phases that all teenagers go through. It was a horrific experience for my sister and I am so sorry she had to go through that.

If anyone that reads this is interested in sending his or her child to this place please think twice about it. There are other alternatives to helping your child and the Mace-Kingsley Ranch is not one of them.

Thank you.

Jennifer Porpora

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