scientology & celebrities

Started it last night, and this

Hubbard footage (the color interview footage) STUFF OF NIGHTMARES
his mouth/teeth/lips so creepy

is OTMFM.

closeup of teeth def the biggest thing not mentioned in the book

Pretty uncanny how much he looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman in some of those interviews. Or vice versa I guess

also maybe that one woman who was in sea org-- seemed like her departure from the church happened after the book got published?

lol @ at least 3 gary larson books on the NYT bestseller list along with dianetics

i wanna watch this really badly too but what's the deal with the teeth?

He and the Lieutenant of the Morannon have the same dentist, apparently.

nothing really wrong with his teeth he just looks like darrell hammond

http://photos.vanityfair.com/2015/03/30/55196c270acde13473db3807_going-clear-LRH.gif

ah i see
he has stained old man pointies
these days rich old ppl all have veneers so you don't get teeth like that anymore

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

thanks, LL, now "stained old man pointies" is a phrase that will haunt me for the rest of my life

indifferent navy dentistry, pall malls and bourbon, all night writing manias, months at sea. just imagine.

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?

It doesn't seem like he could have. He became a Scientologist after Hubbard was dead.

they still talk to LRH, I would bet

keep in mind LRH isn't dead, he merely shed his mortal form

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

Let's hope that's all they do to it.

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.

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

THE. WAR. IS. OVER!!!

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.

are sci-ti's able to claim their auditing expenses as a charitable donation to the church on their taxes?

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 you should really read the book

like there's nothing, in principle, beyond the grasp of human beings--as if it's truly a humanism gone bonkers.

xp: I know!

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.

xp - you're welcome :)
now you see the world through my eyes

it's the weird red rotting bottom teeth that scared me the most, but pretty much his whole mouth area is just *NO*

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.

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.

lol

L Ron never explicitly positioned himself as the God of his religion

I guess he probably didn't, but I think Scientology generally does treat him that way. He is the most "clear", nobody will ever be as clear as him etc etc.

L Ron is a prophet with superpowers who has defeated death and will return at some point. Sounds like a god to me.

THE. WAR. IS. OVER!!!

really need an animated gif of this part

So happy to see kenneth anger footage on HBO

Scientology - A grand bunch of lads

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s4dZy7eLsOw

ooh shit jason lee's ex wife speaks out

http://gawker.com/why-i-left-scientology-1703997050

http://blogs.indiewire.com/bent/8-totally-insane-quotes-from-laura-prepons-interview-with-scientology-magazine-celebrity-20150708

Just now saw a headline over supermarket checkout, re: Tom C. leaving Scientology for Suri's sake (something about about a phone call and tearful promise)(also "Scientology agents" looking for him)

There is no way in hell i'd ever believe that would happen.

http://www.thefrisky.com/2015-07-07/sorry-but-tom-cruise-is-not-leaving-scientology-and-he-probably-never-will/

Do Scientology enrollees get sponsors? Can Scientology give me a free personal trainer that's willing to go the extra mile?

Maybe but it'll probably mostly be you holding an e-meter and saying the word "abs" over and over until the needle doesn't move.

re that blog, how are those quotes "totally insane"? They were actually a decent advert for the church!

because they use a bunch of insider jargon that is, as you say, a good recruitment tool if you're thinking "wow, she gets results, I better find out what this word salad means" but if you have any inclination to believe that jargon isn't just the scrawlings of an opportunistic science fiction writer of the 50s then you're already on the boat, so to speak

Surriously. Confident and successful people talking passionately about how they became confident and successful can induce an understandably positive response in people, but that general scenario almost always triggers a skeptical response in me. I always assume that those people are, in one way or another, feeding off of a void felt by their audience.

it is too bad that most frameworks for helping people come to a sense of self-actualization and confidence are profit centers for people marketing motivational and focus-based techniques but capitalism

there are more altruistic frameworks but their marketing budget is bad

Do Scientology enrollees get sponsors? Can Scientology give me a free personal trainer that's willing to go the extra mile?

Might be worth it -- never seen a fat Scientologist.