What exactly is Scientology?

[Newbie 0]

Is it some kind of kooky cult? It seems like it to me, going on what i've just read on their website. I took their "free" personality test for a laugh but you need to go into a test centre where one of their "certified professional testers" will go through your personality with you. Some of the questions were odd, some were very weird, and some were hilarious.

Anyway i just had a look - L Ron Hubbard has the look of a cult leader about him, not sure why. Am i being too cynical? What's it all about and is anyone out there a scientologist who can explain the benefits it's brought to them.

Also is it true you have to donate x amount of your income to them? I heard that that's something that you have to do. Albeit i'm going in to this post with a certain amount of heresay but it reeks of a self help money making scheme for the disillisioned and those who lack true strength of character to run their lives for them etc.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[likearock 2]

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=25390

[eeneR 3]

Bwahahahahaha...

Ok um yea...

She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

[Duckwater 0]

It is "game on" South Park v. Scientology, and Chef, and Tom Cruse...I cant wait!

[masterrig 1]

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Is it some kind of kooky cult? It seems like it to me, going on what i've just read on their website. I took their "free" personality test for a laugh but you need to go into a test centre where one of their "certified professional testers" will go through your personality with you. Some of the questions were odd, some were very weird, and some were hilarious.

Anyway i just had a look - L Ron Hubbard has the look of a cult leader about him, not sure why. Am i being too cynical? What's it all about and is anyone out there a scientologist who can explain the benefits it's brought to them.

Also is it true you have to donate x amount of your income to them? I heard that that's something that you have to do. Albeit i'm going in to this post with a certain amount of heresay but it reeks of a self help money making scheme for the disillisioned and those who lack true strength of character to run their lives for them etc.

_______________________________________

I do know, L.Ron Hubbard, has been dead for several years. When I was a kid, I had an uncle at that time, who was in college. He was reading 'Dyanetics' by L.Ron Hubbard. I asked him what it was about and all he would tell me was that it was "Really scarey!" He said, to him, it was like a huge pyramid scam and a means of getting a lot of money off of folks and really mess-up their heads. That's about all I know about it. By the way, my uncle stayed a 'Christian'.


Chuck

[freethefly 6]

I read Dianetics back in the eighties and thought "WOW, the people who follow this must have been brain-scammed." Scientology is nothing but a cult IMO.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young

[labrys 0]

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http://www.comedycentral.com/...y.jhtml?itemId=25390

They aren't kidding, are they? This is actual doctine? Wow. I thought it was just a simple self-help cult too.

Owned by Remi #?

[sundevil777 102]

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http://www.comedycentral.com/...y.jhtml?itemId=25390

They aren't kidding, are they? This is actual doctine? Wow. I thought it was just a simple self-help cult too.

No, they really aren't kidding.

Here's one site with more info:

http://www.scientomogy.com/index.php

This article in Rolling Stone magazine is pretty good:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[labrys 0]

Thanks for the links. This is truly fascinating stuff to read.

Owned by Remi #?

[sundevil777 102]

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Thanks for the links. This is truly fascinating stuff to read.

Here's another:

http://www.zipperfish.net/rants/time-article.php

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[SpeedRacer 1]

Read Diuretics: The science of matter over mind. It'll change your life man.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[RhondaLea 4]

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/scientology/start.a.religion.html

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[skydiver30960 0]

That rolling stone article was a blast for me: I spent about eight months working for an office owned and run by a husband-wife team, both of which (along with a couple of the other office workers) were Scientologists. While on one hand they swore they were never going to push us towards Scientology as a religion, they freely used LRH's "business management" system, which just happened to use so many of the ideas and vocabulary of the religion. Throughout the article, the people the author spoke to kept using terms that made me jump in my seat they were so familiar: in- and out-ethics, up- and down-statistics, suppressive persons, withholds, all that good stuff. For the most part I was unimpressed with all of it.

Nobody ever mentioned it, but there were AWESOME amounts of money coming into that office, but there never seemed to be enough to pay the bills (or us on time, thus one of the reasons for my jumping ship). So while I never saw anything even remotely like checks written out to the Church of Scientology, it always made me wonder.

The breaking point for me was when we all had to go to a seminar (over a weekend no less, can't miss work time) that touted to help the office work better as a team. It was three days related to the business system that were surprisingly light in content, but had more covert references to Scientology than I care to count. That, and every night, not mandatory but just in case you were interested, a showing of a movie based on Dianetics and a question and answer session afterword. Needless to say, I skipped all the showings. I quit the week after, and I know at least one other employee did the same (she beat me to the punch by a couple days).

Elvisio "engram-busting thetan muthafucker" Rodriguez

[kelpdiver 2]

Relating to the south park thread earlier in the week, there may be more to the notion I mocked that the Scientology episode was never reaired.

It was, but the replay on Wednesday was pulled at the last minute.
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Tom Cruise reportedly forced U.S. network Comedy Central to cancel the repeat of a "South Park" episode about Scientology by threatening to boycott publicity events for "Mission: Impossible III," according to media reports.

The star is alleged to have pressured Hollywood executives at Paramount Pictures which are owned by Viacom -- as is Comedy Central.

South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet" thrilled fans when it aired in November, by poking fun at both Cruise and his controversial beliefs system. But, despite being scheduled to rerun on Wednesday night, it was mysteriously pulled at the last minute.

However, Cruise's spokesman denies the star threatened executives: "He never said any such thing about 'Mission Impossible III'."

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued a statement to Daily Variety saying, "So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!

"Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies.

"Curses and drat! You have obstructed us now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu."

The statement is signed "Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants to the dark lord Xenu."

[Newbie 0]

Thanks for the links - just finished the RS article - was very interesting and not only backs up what i thought about Scientology as expressed in my initial post, but now makes me realise i probably was underestimating how fucked up it is.
Who on earth would not only believe all the rubbish esposed by a guy who wrote pulp science fiction and decided to sell out to make some real money, but actually pay tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the "priviledge" is just lost on me.

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[Newbie 0]

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South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued a statement to Daily Variety saying, "So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!

"Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies.

"Curses and drat! You have obstructed us now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu."

The statement is signed "Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants to the dark lord Xenu."

LMFAO! I read these quotes the other day, knowing not a great deal about scientology, and thought to myself "Are Trey and Matt on drugs?". Then i read the Rolling Stone article above and reread these quotes are realised how hilarious they are!

"Skydiving is a door"
Happythoughts

[jlmiracle 7]

I think Scientologists are really Crab people trying take over the world.

J

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

[Andy9o8 2]

If you're drunk enough, South Park is a religion unto itself. ("Oh My God! They killed Jesus Kenny!")
You must attend services regularly, or your spirit will wither.
What fuckers, going after South Park. South Park is an equal opportunity basher; they parody everybody.
Tom Cruise and Isaac Hayes can bite me.

[RhondaLea 4]

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Who on earth would not only believe all the rubbish esposed by a guy who wrote pulp science fiction and decided to sell out to make some real money, but actually pay tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the "priviledge" is just lost on me.

When I think of Scientology, I think of "The Marching Morons."

So I googled for the connection between Kornbluth and Hubbard:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1276839

One thing that all these guys shared was a genuine contempt for human stupidity. Hubbard was a very bright man, although I never read anything that gave me reason to believe he had a strong sense of ethics--he seemed to me to be quite narcissistic.

But if you know something of the climate of the time, you'll realize it was as much a sell-out as a practical joke on what must have seemed to be to him a whole lot of credulous sheep. I suppose, in a way, that makes it worse, given the outcome.

rl

If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

[happythoughts 0]

An editor of a local paper wrote an article which was not flattering for the Scientology group in Clearwater (also local).

With a little research, it could be discovered that the very same editor had a wife who was the chairperson of the Easter Seals campaign for the county. A little more research revealed that 73% of all the money donated to ES was used for executive salaries, not helping "the little children".

The Scientologists did all that research and published it, which caused ES donations to nosedive in that county and the employment of the editors wife to be scrutinized.

Up until the point that the newspaper editor wrote the article about Scientology, no one had found a need to do any such research.

If you criticize the group, be prepared for a barrage of legal documents and investigative scrutiny that is unparalleled. The South Park guys may have peed on the wrong leg.

[kelpdiver 2]

those sort of charities are exposed all the time. Stone and Parker aren't running a charity, so they're safe. And there's nothing false written in the script, even if the closet remarks are transparent.

And it's not like those two haven't taken on bigger fish before. See Team America. Scientology has pretty much guaranteed this episode will be released on a special edition DVD, perhaps coupled with the Mormon one. (Or perhaps not, that one actually was pretty favorable to the faith)

[likearock 2]

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Scientology has pretty much guaranteed this episode will be released on a special edition DVD, perhaps coupled with the Mormon one. (Or perhaps not, that one actually was pretty favorable to the faith)

Plus they're all readily available on the Internet. Check out "Trapped in the Closet" and "R Kelly".

[ryoder 1,590]

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The South Park guys may have peed on the wrong leg.

Perhaps they were emboldened because they have previously peed on another leg:

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Always hoped that Saddam Hussein will see his movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" in which he and Matt Stone made fun of him. In 2004 Parker and Stone portrayed another active dictator, Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, in their new movie "Team America". Two days after the premiere they sent a copy to the North Korean Government.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005295/bio

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[vpozzoli 0]

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Thanks for the links - just finished the RS article - was very interesting and not only backs up what i thought about Scientology as expressed in my initial post, but now makes me realise i probably was underestimating how fucked up it is.
Who on earth would not only believe all the rubbish esposed by a guy who wrote pulp science fiction and decided to sell out to make some real money, but actually pay tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the "priviledge" is just lost on me.

Scientology is much more clever than that. The way they operate you are not exposed to the more radical bullshit (i.e. Thetans and Xenu!) until you have been sucked into their Church. At the beginning you are only exposed to some pseudo-scientific rubbish that apparently lots of people want to believe in, and are willing to make generous "donations" to have access to (donations my ass!). And their racketeering tactics work really well too.
Ciao.

Vale

[freethefly 6]

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The South Park guys may have peed on the wrong leg.

Do ya think that they give a damn? They hike their leg and piss on every leg that walks by. They do not seem to single out who they piss on. South Park rocks.

"...And once you're gone, you can't come back
When you're out of the blue and into the black."
Neil Young