What did you all think?
Having read the book, I guess it was a bit underwhelming. Mainly because the book is just so exhaustively detailed.
I thought the doc explained the e-meter more clearly, and some of the personalities came across nicely. Also, lol at that awful song.
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:09 (nine years ago) link
I loved it. I never read the book but I knew a lot of the details. I didnt know about the machinations behind getting tax exempt status though, thats mindblowing.
― tayto fan (Michael B), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:21 (nine years ago) link
Insane. If only the IRS could have held their nerve.
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:25 (nine years ago) link
I dug it. I havent read the book & most of my knowledge is Hubbard/Parsons occult & early dianetics, so I found this v interesting + fking nuts
Hubbard footage (the color interview footage) STUFF OF NIGHTMAREShis mouth/teeth/lips so creepyeverything about him tbh
looooling at the meeting footage. william gibson retweeted someone saying that some of it looked like a bioshock level lol
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:25 (nine years ago) link
cavidge is a weird one reminds me of the pastor from True Blood
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:27 (nine years ago) link
i actually went back and looked at the handshakes between cruise and miscavige a couple of times. creepy out.
― tayto fan (Michael B), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:29 (nine years ago) link
The musical chairs story is some truly evil shit, again I think the book got across the horror of that even more than the doc, though I liked the way the doc did it. It might just be a case of the shock value being diminished entirely by knowing the big revelations.
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:32 (nine years ago) link
L Ron's mouth and teeth :(
― polyphonic, Monday, 30 March 2015 22:37 (nine years ago) link
Guess my favourite part of the book didn't get in:
http://i62.tinypic.com/312e0kx.jpg
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:44 (nine years ago) link
oh man, guess I have no reason to watch this now. :\
― ƋППṍӮɨ∏ğڵșěᶉᶇдM℮ (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 30 March 2015 22:47 (nine years ago) link
http://www.bustle.com/articles/72106-where-is-shelly-miscavige-wife-of-scientology-leader-david-miscavige-she-hasnt-been-seen-in-7
― tayto fan (Michael B), Monday, 30 March 2015 23:06 (nine years ago) link
hubbard + parsons occult shenanigans deserves it's own 2hr doc imo
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 30 March 2015 23:14 (nine years ago) link
Damn Parsons, slow down.
― A-Hanisi Coates (Leee), Monday, 30 March 2015 23:22 (nine years ago) link
yeah this stuff is practically a bottomless well.
why no mention in the doc about miscavige's missing wife?
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 15:11 (nine years ago) link
oh sorry missed that link above!
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 15:12 (nine years ago) link
i wish that the doc had included more about the auditing process. there's something fascinating about it--and it seems to be the kernel of a "real" experience which gets people hooked and which allows for all the other flim-flam to be attached to it.
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 15:18 (nine years ago) link
i wanna watch this so badly
― swae lee is the sremmurd for rae dad (crüt), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 15:34 (nine years ago) link
Started it last night, and this
Hubbard footage (the color interview footage) STUFF OF NIGHTMAREShis mouth/teeth/lips so creepy
is OTMFM.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 15:46 (nine years ago) link
closeup of teeth def the biggest thing not mentioned in the book
― gr8080, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 16:01 (nine years ago) link
Pretty uncanny how much he looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman in some of those interviews. Or vice versa I guess
― badg, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
also maybe that one woman who was in sea org-- seemed like her departure from the church happened after the book got published?
― gr8080, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 16:02 (nine years ago) link
lol @ at least 3 gary larson books on the NYT bestseller list along with dianetics
― swae lee is the sremmurd for rae dad (crüt), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 16:06 (nine years ago) link
i wanna watch this really badly too but what's the deal with the teeth?
― groundless round (La Lechera), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 17:49 (nine years ago) link
He and the Lieutenant of the Morannon have the same dentist, apparently.
― polyphonic, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 17:58 (nine years ago) link
nothing really wrong with his teeth he just looks like darrell hammond
― swae lee is the sremmurd for rae dad (crüt), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 18:15 (nine years ago) link
http://photos.vanityfair.com/2015/03/30/55196c270acde13473db3807_going-clear-LRH.gif
― polyphonic, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 18:16 (nine years ago) link
ah i seehe has stained old man pointiesthese days rich old ppl all have veneers so you don't get teeth like that anymore
― groundless round (La Lechera), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 18:22 (nine years ago) link
i'm assuming as soon as Hubbard died and leveled up to space god or whatever, he commanded the cosmos to amputate the lower half of his face
― who is dankey kang (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 18:24 (nine years ago) link
thanks, LL, now "stained old man pointies" is a phrase that will haunt me for the rest of my life
― gr8080, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 18:51 (nine years ago) link
indifferent navy dentistry, pall malls and bourbon, all night writing manias, months at sea. just imagine.
― goole, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:04 (nine years ago) link
in the movie there's a moment when Cruise, giving a speech up on that weird gold stage, says that "outside of LRH" (or something to that effect) that Miscavige is the greatest human he's ever met or whatever...does that mean that Cruise actually met LRH at some point. is that possible?
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:22 (nine years ago) link
It doesn't seem like he could have. He became a Scientologist after Hubbard was dead.
― polyphonic, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
they still talk to LRH, I would bet
― mh, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:27 (nine years ago) link
keep in mind LRH isn't dead, he merely shed his mortal form
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
oh geez can you imagine if they have his creepy head in a jar and Miscavige and Cruise take it out and talk to it
― mh, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
Let's hope that's all they do to it.
― Gimme Gimme Pop Secret (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:33 (nine years ago) link
one of the reasons I ask is because hubbard's status within the church seems ambiguous. is he holy? a God? merely "enlightened" a la Buddha? or just a founder of a school of thought which evolves and lives on without him? his texts are certainly treated as authoritative.
honestly I can forgive a lot but this shoddy theology really bugs me.
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:42 (nine years ago) link
prob the biggest thing that the film captured better than the book was how over-the-top the celebration was after they won their fight against the IRS
― gr8080, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:47 (nine years ago) link
THE. WAR. IS. OVER!!!
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 19:51 (nine years ago) link
Dunno if it was over the top, they basically dicked over the entire US state and got free rein to earn billions of dollars, tax-free, and if they lost it would have destroyed them.
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:04 (nine years ago) link
are sci-ti's able to claim their auditing expenses as a charitable donation to the church on their taxes?
― panettone for the painfully alone (mayor jingleberries), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:12 (nine years ago) link
I was wondering if the "church" part of "the church of Scientology" was a post-Hubbard invention that reflects that IRS fight. feel like even if you take their ideology at face value it doesn't really seem like a religion to me. even Xenu is not exactly a supernatural being or Creator. there's a creation myth for humanity but not for the world as a whole, etc. there's really no "mystery" which strikes me as common to the major religions outside Buddhism.
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:18 (nine years ago) link
ryan you should really read the book
― 龜, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
like there's nothing, in principle, beyond the grasp of human beings--as if it's truly a humanism gone bonkers.
xp: I know!
― ryan, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:20 (nine years ago) link
I was wondering if the "church" part of "the church of Scientology" was a post-Hubbard invention that reflects that IRS fight. feel like even if you take their ideology at face value it doesn't really seem like a religion to me
The doc basically said Hubbard veered more towards religion when science and psychiatry rejected Dianetics.
― Junior Dictionary (LocalGarda), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:24 (nine years ago) link
xp - you're welcome :)now you see the world through my eyes
― groundless round (La Lechera), Tuesday, 31 March 2015 23:14 (nine years ago) link
it's the weird red rotting bottom teeth that scared me the most, but pretty much his whole mouth area is just *NO*
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 1 April 2015 02:28 (nine years ago) link
wish there was a way to be audited without actually doing all the scientology stuff, that part seemed kinda interesting lol -- i think I just like personality/psychology tests
scientology checks off an awful lot of 'is it a cult criteria'. but the fact that L Ron never explicitly positioned himself as the God of his religion is I think a lot of the reason why scientology has endured for so long. that and the tax-shelter focus. tbh I think the $$ is the bigger reason, since that brought in followers seemingly of 'good standing'; like they're still preying on a need, but once you move past trolling hippies and runaways and you start bringing in people in spheres of influence out in the world, you can get of shit done.
that's not to say L Ron and scientology isn't scary in and of its own right. but i think the innocuity that they pretend at is what is scariest, because it's so effective.
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 1 April 2015 02:47 (nine years ago) link
I took a Scientology test thing in Portland, OR once because I took a wrong turn trying to get to some park and ended up in a boring part of the city with nothing but a chain Mexican restaurant and a Scientology store front. They said I was in pretty good shape, personality-wise, except that I could probably use some Scientology.
― from batman to balloon dog (carl agatha), Wednesday, 1 April 2015 02:50 (nine years ago) link
lol
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 1 April 2015 02:53 (nine years ago) link