scientology & celebrities

i really need to start punctuating and using proper grammar again.

mea culpa gbx, been resting up all day

this pretty excellent movie doesn't do a lot of telling but the cult in it has some pretty exemplary brainwashing stuff. like most small-scale stuff though the cult in the movie starts with "find people who are super-vulnerable/outcast/mentally ill" so the get-'em-susceptible angle takes less work

as i read it, part of mordy's objection seems to result from an insistence that people decide for themselves what they believe, so the ultimate responsibility for any given individual's beliefs must therefore be personal. he opposes this to a conception of brainwashing that replaces individual autonomy and personal responsibility with outside string-pulling, machine control.

i think this opposition is false. we can easily reconcile individual autonomy with external manipulation. though people are always ultimately responsible for their own decisions and beliefs, if we can effectively control the environment in which decisions are rendered and beliefs chosen, then we may be able to guide susceptible individuals toward a belief-state of our choosing. whether or not we can say for certain why this works, we can easily observe that it does - at least on certain people in certain circumstances some of the time.

i suspect that a big part of being an effective "brainwasher" lies in knowing how to choose your marks, and in sending the kinds of signals that will attract such people in the first place.

love your govt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_driving

Meanwhile:

http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/the-tipping-point-for-scientology-inc/

abbott thanks for the book recommendation, my sister was in straight for 3ish years

The situation was exacerbated for Miscavige when Int base staff began to realize that a sure fire means to get ejected from Int base hell was to become pregnant. Several couples intentionally conceived children, and when discovered they were routed off and paid handsome sums to remain complicit in continuing to cover up Miscavige’s abuses by remaining silent on the outside. It became such a widespread solution, that Miscavige, in his inimitably oppressive style, banned the institution of MARRIAGE on the Int base. The institution of marriage is now a BANNED practice at the Int Scientology Headquarters base.

Holy shit!

dudes, dudes, do you remember that story about the guy who called a fast food place on a pay phone and got the manager of the fast food place to do all this insane stuff for HOURS including making a female employee strip in the manager's office and all this other insane stuff?

They made a movie about this case that debuted at Sundance this year. By all accounts, it's pretty intense. Here's the trailer:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/magnolia/compliance/

Also -

Is this already in the thread? I suppose the delivery takes some getting used to, but it's pretty fascinating...
(El-Ron's grandson doing spoken word about his grandfather):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciupsqkLLkQ

that was kind of fantastic.

could do without the moody music at the beginning and end but whatevs.

The Realist on Scientology in 1973, prob worth sticking here

L Ron Hubbard Jr's interview with Penthouse magazine as well (don't believe this has been posted)

http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/scien240.html

Wow its suprising me that I never really knew about the Crowley/Satanist angle to Hubbard before now. How have they not been decried globally as a cult with stuff like that being in the media? I mean they have effing tax exempt status in my country!

they kinda have been decried globally as a cult tbf, they just tend to reply by decrying libelly as a plaintiff

tru dat

Penthouse: Didn't your father have any interest in helping people?

Hubbard: No.

Penthouse: Never?

Hubbard: My father started out as a broke science-fiction writer. He was always broke in the late 1940s. He told me and a lot of other people that the way to make a million was to start a religion. Then he wrote the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health while he was in Bayhead, New Jersey. When we later visited Bayhead, in about 1953, we were walking around and reminiscing --he told me that he had written the book in one month.

man what a great building:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/07/08/fashion/08SCIENTOLOGY_SPAN/08SCIENTOLOGY_SPAN-articleLarge.jpg

This fall is perfect timing for the Paul Thomas Anderson movie, too.

Seriously, new and interesting developments every day--like a potential quick collapse:
No Memorial for Scientology President's Son
Scientology center in Haifa goes indie

people can be made to do ANYTHING. anything. believe anything. do anything. you name it. someone has tricked/coerced/hypnotized/whatever you want to call it into doing anything you can think of. making people give all their money and their life to scientology is nothing. child's play. you should meet my friend pol pot.

If you have an hour and a half, this will pretty much crush you completely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQYoHiM-Uko

what's with the cross on that building? alien cross?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_cross

for someone who wasn't there, i feel like i've been crushed multiple times by jonestown.

The eight points of the cross represent the eight dynamics in Scientology:
The Self
Creativity, sex, and procreation (family)
Group, society, community
Species survival (humankind)
Life forms in general
Matter
Spirit
Infinity or Supreme being
The Church of Scientology says that "the horizontal bar represents the material universe, and the vertical bar represents the spirit. Thus, the spirit is seen to be rising triumphantly, ultimately transcending the turmoil of the physical universe to achieve salvation."

Waiter, check please...

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/55500/Alien-Jesus-on-Cross--55641.jpg

http://mattstone.blogs.com/photos/alien_christian_art/good-jesus-alien.jpg

isn't their cross based on crowleys? maybe someone said thAt already

https://twitter.com/Cabel/status/221997619805814785

"life forms in general"

Another mass e-mail goes out

Also:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/faith/this-is-what-happens-when-scientologists-come-after-you-7923556.html

When I talked to her last night, Karen could barely get through the conversation. If she had maintained a strong exterior in the first days after learning about her son's death, yesterday it seemed to catch up to her. "I'm jelly," she said through sobs, and then said she was having a hard time dealing with how she'd been treated by the church. "I can't deal with the fact that I gave my life and my soul to such a cruel thing," she said. "I blame myself for bringing into the world a second generation Scientologist. He's just ashes now. They've cremated him."

She didn't get to see him one last time.

Makes me cry for her. These are really the worst human beings in the world.

In 2010, Alexander's father Heber Jentzsch was 75 years old and had not been allowed to see our son for many years. Heber has been locked up in the Int Base RPF for many years and remains locked up with other International executives.

^ this whole thing about how they have this desert office prison full of their top executives is SO FUCKING INSANE

amazing (or not, to a lutheran) that a cadre of these dissidents are speaking as the real true followers of the great man, keepers of his wisdom, who'd never allow what is now happening, etc., rather than chucking the whole thing.

i wonder, are the conflicts between the reformation-scienos and ex-scienos?

always amazing comment traffic at that VV blog too, btw

amazing (or not, to a lutheran) that a cadre of these dissidents are speaking as the real true followers of the great man, keepers of his wisdom, who'd never allow what is now happening, etc., rather than chucking the whole thing.

i wonder, are the conflicts between the reformation-scienos and ex-scienos?

― du. duplass. duplass mich. (goole), Monday, July 9, 2012 4:49 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

reading these stories i always end up really getting angry about the church's misuse of its "tech" and then i remember it's all craziness

i guess my standard is, be crazy if you want to, but dont be hypocritically crazy.

1. miscavige is a tyrant cult leader.
2. the whole thing is made up crap.

i mean, you don't have to believe both i guess.

It's hard not to mention that both Masterson and Phillips are devout Scientologists. At one point, Phillips goes off on a long tangent about the dangers of psychiatrists medicating patients for depression or anxiety. "My grandparents didn't take any pills and they were fine. Just buck up and get over it. Stop being such a fucking pansy," she says, her bird-like voice taking on a deeper tone. I ask Masterson if Scientology helps him be successful in Hollywood. "The definition of Scientology is 'the study of knowledge,'" he explains carefully. "Obviously, the more knowledge you have in a given field, such as life, the more confident you are as a person. I don't feel any pressure from Hollywood at all. It's 80 percent a community of artists creating art -- there's no pressure making art, it's a necessity."

Later in the week, at Shin, the couple sits around a table with a pack of friends. In L.A., people often describe places as having "a New York vibe" and the scene at Shin has an urban edginess. "We're New Yorkers living in L.A.," Bijou says. "I think New Yorkers do things a little bit better. I bet if you looked at New Yorkers in relationships as compared to people from L.A. in relationships, New Yorkers have more long-term relationships." As they leave, they hold hands. Masterson always drives the car, tonight it's his 1970 Porsche 911S. "He's Irish and stubborn," Phillips says. It's a perfect starry L.A. night, and love is in the air.

off topic but - ugh you fucks go back to nyc then if its so amazing

NYC music scene couldn't handle DJ Mom Jeans

Speaking of Scientology v. Catholicism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus_dei

(Not a secret Scientologist; long-time lurker who just now finally got around to registering.)

... riiiiiiiiiight

nice to make yr acquaintance, David Miscavige Theodora Celery

i would welcome scientologists posting on this thread

Theadora Celery = TC = COM TRUISE

(Adds DJP and Phil D. to SP list)

The Opus Dei thing is an even better comparison to Scientology than the Spanish Inquisition. It has the ordinary membership level and the hardcore Sea Org version (Numeraries.) With the cult of personality surrounding Escrivá, all it's really lacking is some sort of secret text.

Still, didn't the Jesuits start out really dodgy too? "Rule 13 of Ignatius' Rules for Thinking with the Church said: "That we may be altogether of the same mind and in conformity[...], if [the Church] shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black."[3] Would be really funny if in 500 years, Scientologists become well known champions of education.

Theadora Celery = TC = COM TRUISE

― MacArthur Parkour (Phil D.), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 5:36 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Man, I wish I could remember how I came up with this name. It was a long time ago, and was supposed to be some sort of riff on Jonathan Swift. Jonathan = Grace of God, hence Theodora. Damned if I remember why I picked Celery.

That does not seem clear.

Still, didn't the Jesuits start out really dodgy too?

went to a jesuit high school, they are still crazy dodgy