scientology & celebrities

is there even anything comparable to scientology in the 20th century? i don't know of any cults or independent religious movements that have so successfully formalized and institutionalized themselves.

many of whom who've never been outside it at all... it's like a mini-north-korea operating in the united states
i can't wait to get to that part!!!

Aum Shinrikyo. xp

In 1995, the group claimed they had over 9,000 members in Japan, and as many as 40,000 worldwide.

Hope Wright's bk mentions L Ron's in-house floating 70s funk band:

http://x-rayvisions.blogspot.com/2007/08/apollo-stars-power-of-source.html

I finished Going Clear over the weekend, and it does spend some time comparing Scientology to some other groups that popped up, although most were Christian offshoots and late 1800s.

many posts to La Lechera: I read Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons a few years back and enjoyed it a lot - definitely worth reading.

It's an unbelievably weird story - I was kinda hoping when The Master was announced that it would be about the relationship between analogues of Hubbard and Parsons. Still hoping that someday someone makes a movie about those two.

for real -- thanks so much! going on my list

just thinking - any relation to z man from beyond the valley of the dolls?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Y800s8y9Zg

The superbowl ad was super creepy too.

omg that WAS super creepy
wow

even after reading that Inside Scientology and now this one, the scope of Operation Snow White just blows my goddamn mind

Of course they also send people forth, to infiltrate/provide attractive role models, re the celebrity aspect.

"Comments have been disabled for this video." I'll bet.

Should've ended with "I'm Tom Cruise, and I approve this message."

Think this bk might be an interesting companion read to the Wright - England has always been Scientology's other big stronghold, and for a while Neil Gaiman's father was basically running it in the UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Church-Fear-Inside-Weird-Scientology/dp/1909269034/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1359994241&sr=1-2

I've got a copy of that - can't wait to get stuck in. I think I'm addicted to the collision between high weirdness and blatant thuggery that Scientology represents.

John Sweeney is good. Here he is going nuts about Scientologist harrassment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIg3Dtu14vs

re: Parsons, I've read the "Sex and Rockets" bio, which was v interesting

Remember seeing that John Sweeney thing, he comes across as a bit of a dick imo. I may be influenced by the fact that I went to school in East Grinstead which is Scientology central for the UK. The ones I've met were okay and I only ever got approached to watch one of their 'come join us videos' one time (they seemed okay with my refusal)

lol i can only imagine the chorus of groans that rang out across this great land when the scientology.org type finally popped up on the screen

We have a thread here that talks about Parsons and other SoCal kooks.

Eden Ahbez, etc

!!!

hubbard is a world class all time bullshitter

I should have googleproofed that. jack booted sciti thugs are probably already en route.

tell the world my story

From LA curbed, a list of S properties in SoCal. They're done very well for themselves.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/02/mapping_15_of_scientologys_most_notable_socal_properties.php

I read Sex and Rockets and the other Parsons biog <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Angel-Otherworldly-Scientist-Whiteside/dp/0156031795/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y";>Strange Angel</a> years ago, and remember the latter being better sourced and a more complete picture of his world especially in relation to rocketry (which, as the book tells it, was only slightly more respectable than black magick moonchildren at the time). Both are worthwhile, but SA is the one still on my shelves.

So based on Going Clear it seems The Master was set during or just after the year Dianetics became huge, I think? Joaquin being a still-recent veteran, L. Ron still being with Sara (Amy Adams?) but being drawn more toward Mary Sue (Laura Dern?) Plus the sessions being geared towards creating trance states, no e-meters, travelling by ship but staying close to the US, no Sea Org yet. And according to Wright Hubbard's libido was more of a source of agony during this time than once they started cruising the Mediterranean. But I haven't seen the movie since it was first out.

I dislike that John Sweeney interview, everybody knows the scientologist will have this exact reaction and it leads to nothing. Plus him saying that he is a british subject with freedom of speech was just ridiculous in that context.

To think that people somewhere were likely swayed by that super bowl ad is frightening to me.

Is it common for them to be spending that much money on sneaky ads or is this a recent ramp up? I'm thkning also of that sponsored article linked to above that got pulled as soon as the site in question realised what'd happened.

i didn't watch the superbowl, so i didn't see the ad, but paying that kind of money for an ad in that venue would be a sign that the head scientology guy, whatsisname, is feeling a bit beleaguered atm and wanted to cheer himself up by buying himself a shiny present.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Y800s8y9Zg

The superbowl ad was super creepy too.

― Ulna (Nicole), Monday, February 4, 2013 11:06 AM (11 hours ago)

i just watched that. the creepiness factor is entirely due to the creepiness of scientology itself. the ad itself was nothing more than sophomorisms watered down to the point where they might as well have been delivered in the form of nursery rhymes. the visuals were very much the point of the ad, but struck me as no creepier than any slick ad for perfume or cars.

macavidge, or something like that, that's the what's his name I was thinking of. he just lost a lot of his prestige in the church and prob a chunk of revenue, too, so he's just looking to cast his net for further schools of small fish to eat.

David Miscavige

All it'll take for something to disgrace tom cruise $ciwise and... wait. if that hasnt happened now it prob never will ;_;

macavidge, or something like that, that's the what's his name I was thinking of. he just lost a lot of his prestige in the church and prob a chunk of revenue, too, so he's just looking to cast his net for further schools of small fish to eat.

― Aimless, Monday, February 4, 2013 10:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

uhh, he seems to have consolidated his power pretty absolutely and neatly

yeah no idea what Aimless meant

afaik no scientologists are actually going to read any books or watch any news items about their organization and most will probably listen even more intently to the leadership, what with the threat from the outside world being intensified

i think you'd be surprised. i have no involvement w/ scientology, but my experience w/ other closed 'culty' organizations is that this kind of stuff tends to slip through the cracks. people are naturally curious about what the world is saying about them.

well sure, and then a handful leave, and the rest pull in closer.

maybe I should have said "no /real/ scientologists" in an homage to the scotsman fallacy

http://thehairpin.com/2012/12/scientology-and-me-part-six-postscript

The whole series is fascinating, but this part gets into how persecuted those still in the Church feel.

That's the most sensitive, nuanced memoir of this stuff I've seen, thanks.

http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/media2/tone-scale6.jpghttp://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/media2/tone-scale-enthusiasm.jpg

http://www.lyricsmusica.it/img/artisti/big/the+40+year+old+virgin-the-40-year-old-virgin-40yrvirgin.jpg

the 4.0 virgin

Hahaha

woah theres a very interesting comment in the Hairpin article claimed by an ex Sci that is somethign I'd never heard of as a tactic before:

*As an example, roughly 15 years ago, when the Internet was first starting to become a Thing, the church passed out CD-ROMs that everyone was instructed to install on their personal computers. The CD-ROMs contained software that would block your computer's ability to view anything on the Internet pertaining to Scientology that wasn't an official Scientology website. THAT is how serious they are about making sure that their followers are kept in the dark.

yeah, and the point is it's an *ex*-Sci, it's her perspective that's so nuanced; for inst, I'd never thought of what she says about giving 'em the plebes the stink-eye just alienates them that much more from the outside world, confirms the asshole doctrines about the outside world, and that they've got nowhere to go now, outside THE CHURCH (just in case you're thinking of leaving). Also, they hit 'em with a bill if they do go.

The scientology center on Franklin, across from UCB, is incredible. Even without scientology it looks like a building the Ghostbusters would need to stake out.

yeah the structure of the roof cap is exactly like the kind of telemetry tracker that NASA uses to identify dead pulsars in deep space. cold riveted girders with cores of pure selenium. the architect was either a certified genius or an aesthetic wacko. the whole building is a huge super-conductive antenna that was designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence.

The building was the original Cedars hospital before it moved over to Beverly Hills. Here it is before ...

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5124/5229794672_238637b08e.jpg

"Someone saw a cockroach up on 12..."