# Going Clear, Alex Gibney's new documentary about Scientology **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259 "2015-03-29T03:10:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/121 "2015-03-31T19:39:55Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > At OT III level, he supposedly acquired M.E.S.T powers and can alter Matter, Energy, Space and Time and can kill with a glance. Why wouldn’t he make himself a foot or two taller? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/122 "2015-03-31T19:40:02Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > I fell asleep half way through the documentary last night. :smack: > > I went for dinner and and an evening of entertainment on board the ship once. It was all very hospitable, the food was good and they had their own band with some local entertainers invited too. Quite of a few of the crew were from Japan. There was a general air of nervousness about them all. I was glad to disembark. How did you manage that? Were you a member? ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/123 "2015-03-31T19:44:01Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Why wouldn’t he make himself a foot or two taller? Better yet–shrink everyone else. Much more impressive. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/124 "2015-03-31T19:49:44Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Cruise: I think it’s a privilege to call yourself a Scientologist and it is something that you have to earn, and… because a Scientologist does. He, or she _has the ability to create new and better realities_ and improve conditions. Uh, being a Scientologist, you look at somebody and you know absolutely that you can help them. (cut) > > > > So, for me, it really is KSW, and it’s just like, it’s something that, uh, I don’t mince words with that. You know, with anything (unintelligible), but that policy to me has really has gone , boy, there’s a time I went through and I said, “You know what…” When I read it, I just went (noise that sounds like poof), “This is it. That’s exactly it.” (cut) > > > > Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else. As you drive past, you know you have to do something about it, _because you know you’re the only one that can really help._ (cut) > > > > \ > > > > It’s like, man, you’re either in or you’re out. > > [my italics] > > [Transcript here](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tom_Cruise) > > I’d say he’s all in. Here’s the actual video: [http://youtu.be/UFBZ\_uAbxS0](http://youtu.be/UFBZ_uAbxS0) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/125 "2015-03-31T20:09:40Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Rumor is that Cruise modeled his character in _A Few Good Men_ on Miscavige. > > And that intense stare that he often does is the legendary “OT III Death Stare”. At OT III level, he supposedly acquired M.E.S.T powers and can alter Matter, Energy, Space and Time and can kill with a glance. He is definitely M.E.S.T.-up. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/126 "2015-03-31T20:34:23Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > I fell asleep half way through the documentary last night. :smack:. Ah. You’re the one whose picture the CoS has been using on their Twitter feed to show how everybody is bored with the film. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/127 "2015-03-31T22:14:20Z")
Haha! I was thinking of those ridiculous ads when I read that too. I can’t link at the moment but according to The Wrap regarding Sunday night’s premiere: > [@](#): > > The viewer total (more specifically 1.652 million) makes the film the pay-TV network’s most-watched doc premiere since Spike Lee‘s two-part 2006 Hurricane Katrina offering, “When the Levees Broke” (1.75 million viewers). Not bad. I think I expected more, but every little bit helps spread the word. Each showing on HBO will hurt. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/128 "2015-03-31T22:57:51Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Why wouldn’t he make himself a foot or two taller? That’s gold, Jerry! Gold! > [@gaffa](#): > > That was Oscar winning writer and director Paul Haggis. > > At the introductory level - aka “Dianetics” - it’s not much different than EST or other self-help systems, because they were [all borrowing from the same source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#Connections_to_other_disciplines) - Alfred Korzybski and General Semantics. Hmm… I can see why people become anti-semantics. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/129 "2015-03-31T23:11:08Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > I watched it on demand last night and was already a little familiar with what went on in the “church”. I have to wonder though, did LHR say to himself, “I am going to come up with the most preposterous story imaginable and see how many people I can get to buy in.”? I’ve heard it said that the more outrageous the lie, the the more likely it is to be believed. That one Scientology is based on sure takes the cake. It beats the “Old Man in the Sky” story by a country mile. Seriously. Xenu?! _Xenu?!?!_ :dubious:😕 If it wasn’t true (the fact that people believed this), I’d never believe it. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/130 "2015-03-31T23:16:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > red headed stepsister? That’s very close. It’s definitely something about a “stepsister”. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/131 "2015-03-31T23:27:33Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > It’s not a big deal to most people, but I could see how it would be a big deal to him. He’s been in a group most of his adult life that has said that homosexuality is wrong, and can be fixed if you follow their teaching close enough. He probably also has helpful Scientology advisers who tell him how he would be ruined and everyone would be against him if he came out as gay. I don’t know how that would affect your state of mind, but I imagine it would have a big impact. I would also love to see Travolta leave the church, but I know it would be hugely, hugely difficult for him. I actually would be surprised if L. Ron himself wasn’t gay. He pinged my gaydar (normally, I would dismiss this as junk science, but I have a gay friend who told me my gaydar is pretty accurate… so there’s that.) I have also read that many people who are rabid anti-homosexuals are in fact, homosexual themselves, and use their behavior as a way to cover their own sexuality. But it seems that it is a very bad thing to be homosexual in Scientology, so if someone were to confess this in one of their auditing sessions, that would be a pretty heavy hammer to use to keep someone in line. The world was a different place when Travolta was breaking into the entertainment industry. And he was a sex-symbol. To come out back then would have been a potential career-killer. And if this is information that Scientology had on Travolta, I can see how he could get sucked into the organization. I wouldn’t be shocked if Travolta is gay, and I really doubt it would hurt his acting career at all if he were to come out now. I don’t know much at all about Travolta’s personal life, other than being married… I don’t even know if he has any children. But if he is gay and lives his entire life in the closet, he may have his own reasons, and they may not be tied to Scientology at all. I think it is a shame that anyone has to live a life that hides who they really are, but it is ultimately his choice. Cruise, on the other hand, was portrayed to be rather pathetic. The whole “I need a girlfriend” episode, where the church actually gave a woman an assignment to be his girlfriend was just bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/132 "2015-04-01T00:03:02Z")
Yes, and did people note that Gibney said that she hasn’t spoken out because of an NDA, but he found out about it via FBI files?? Imagine having FBI files on your love life! Poor girl. If there’s anything that should have been left out, it should have been that. I really feel sorry for her. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/133 "2015-04-01T00:20:04Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > I don’t know much at all about Travolta’s personal life, other than being married… I don’t even know if he has any children. But if he is gay and lives his entire life in the closet, he may have his own reasons, and they may not be tied to Scientology at all. IIRC his son Jett died of a seizure due to his Autism, which Travolta stated publicly, which caused a problem for him within the church b/c Scientology believes that psychiatric diagnoses are fake Nazi doctor inventions, designed so that the Nazi doctors could administer drugs to keep people from using their Thetan mind powers. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/134 "2015-04-01T00:47:18Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > IIRC his son Jett died of a seizure due to his Autism, which Travolta stated publicly, which caused a problem for him within the church b/c Scientology believes that psychiatric diagnoses are fake Nazi doctor inventions, designed so that the Nazi doctors could administer drugs to keep people from using their Thetan mind powers. Wow. If this is true, it is just sad. And isn’t autism a neurological issue, not psychological? I feel for Travolta… If he has had to deal with the issues in his life (including an autistic child) with his “church” banging on him at every turn, it’s a wonder he hasn’t cracked under the strain. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/135 "2015-04-01T01:35:17Z")
My mind was drifting between the lines during the “Spanky goes to prison” portion. Do we have a timeline on that? I was thinking about Travolta’s career, about how he started out mega-successful, then practically couldn’t get arrested for a decade or two, then was reborn in 94 with Pulp Fiction. I guess i was thinking about this because the film mentioned the red-hot start of his career, but then seemed to pretend that his quite famous slump never happened. I got the impression that during Spanky’s ordeal, Travolta either started drifting away from or maybe even confronted the church, and I’m wondering if her punishment and leaving the church happened to coincide with the beginning of the dead spot in his career. And then after a bunch of years he returns to the fold, and then bang, he gets Pulp Fiction. Am I reading way too much into it? That’s just where my mind drifted while watching that part. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/136 "2015-04-01T01:52:17Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > My mind was drifting between the lines during the “Spanky goes to prison” portion. Do we have a timeline on that? I was thinking about Travolta’s career, about how he started out mega-successful, then practically couldn’t get arrested for a decade or two, then was reborn in 94 with Pulp Fiction. I guess i was thinking about this because the film mentioned the red-hot start of his career, but then seemed to pretend that his quite famous slump never happened. > > I got the impression that during Spanky’s ordeal, Travolta either started drifting away from or maybe even confronted the church, and I’m wondering if her punishment and leaving the church happened to coincide with the beginning of the dead spot in his career. And then after a bunch of years he returns to the fold, and then bang, he gets Pulp Fiction. > > Am I reading way too much into it? That’s just where my mind drifted while watching that part. Nah, I’m pretty sure his career rebirth is entirely due to Quentin Tarantino. And the near-death experience was due to terrible films like _[Two of a Kind](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086494/reference)_ with Olivia Newton John and _[Perfect](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089798/reference)_ with Jamie Lee Curtis. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/137 "2015-04-01T05:33:30Z")
[Fuck Bodhi Elfman](http://scientologymoneyproject.com/2015/03/31/scientologists-are-not-jews-in-the-holocaust/), equating rich, cushy, deluded Scientologists with Jews, and critics and ex-Scientologists with Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/138 "2015-04-01T08:12:16Z")
This is weird. [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/07/08/shock-alliance-farrakhan-praises-integration-of-scientology-into-nation-of-islam-theology-says-whites-should-use-it-to-become-civilized-to-avoid-being-devil-christians-satan-jews/](http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/07/08/shock-alliance-farrakhan-praises-integration-of-scientology-into-nation-of-islam-theology-says-whites-should-use-it-to-become-civilized-to-avoid-being-devil-christians-satan-jews/) > [@](#): > > [ul] > [li]The Minister Louis Farrakhan has integrated Scientology into National of Islam theology[/li][li] Farrakhan continues to praise L. Ron Hubbard, the allegedly racist, white founder of the Church of Scientology[/li][li] The radical faith leader is training hundreds of NOI adherents in controversial “auditing” and Dianetics techniques used in Scientology to help blacks overcome trauma in their past[/li][li] He believes adopting Scientology will help whites avoid being ”devil Christians” and “Satan Jews.”[/li][/ul] > **[The Mothership of All Alliances: Scientology and the Nation of Islam](https://newrepublic.com/article/108205/scientology-joins-forces-with-nation-of-islam)** > > How Louis Farrakhan introduced Dianetics to his followers. > [@](#): > > The message of the event couldn’t have been clearer: The Church of Scientology was directing the full force of its persuasive powers at the Washington establishment. But who the Church courts and who the Church converts is a very different matter. And when Mike Rinder, Scientology’s former chief spokesman, visited the Washington church last year, he noticed something strange. “Half the damn people there were Nation of Islam,” he told me. “[It’s] the weirdest, weirdest thing.” ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/139 "2015-04-01T11:14:44Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Wow. > > If this is true, it is just sad. > > And isn’t autism a neurological issue, not psychological? > > I feel for Travolta… If he has had to deal with the issues in his life (including an autistic child) with his “church” banging on him at every turn, it’s a wonder he hasn’t cracked under the strain. My first thought was “good drugs”. But Scientology is extremely anti-drug. I once went to one of their centers and was audited. But I never went back. During the auditing, they asked me to tell them every single kind of drug I had ever taken. They told me that if I joined the church, I could no longer take any drugs - even if they were prescribed by my doctor. That did it for me. I never went back and eventually had to tell them that if they didn’t stop phoning me and berating me to come back, I would call the police and have them arrested. But the real reason I never went back was when they told me I could never take any drugs any more - legal drugs or illegal drugs. I realized they were out of their freaking minds and I should be the one counselling them - not the other way around. Fuck Scientology. It’s a horrible criminal scam. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259/140 "2015-04-01T11:27:21Z")
No drugs of any kind? They’re website says that they can take drugs if they’re physically ill. > **[Official Church of Scientology: Views on Medicines, Illegal Drugs and...](https://www.scientology.org/faq/scientology-attitudes-and-practices/scientology-view-on-drugs-and-medicine.html)** > > Learn more how Scientologists visit medical doctors and use medication to treat physical illness and disease while not using illegal street drugs or psychiatric substances. Learn about the use of L. Ron Hubbard’s Purification Rundown to Detox the... > [@](#): > > Scientologists do use prescribed medical drugs when physically ill and also rely on the advice and treatment of medical doctors. Scientologists do not take street drugs or mind-altering psychotropic drugs. I don’t know why they’d ever by physically ill. Can’t Tom Cruise just cure them all with his magic powers? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/going-clear-alex-gibneys-new-documentary-about-scientology/716259.md?page=8)