Going Clear, Alex Gibney's new documentary about Scientology

Cafe Society
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Going Clear participant Tom DeVocht (in from age 12 to 41) Tweeted and wrote on Facebook about the latest “dead agenting” tactic by the cult Friday.

[QUOTE=Tom DeVocht]
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY HARASSMENT UPDATE:

3:30pm two gentlemen come to my door. One of them had a radio and something else on this belt, the other looks like a regular dude. I see them coming outside the window.

I go to the door and open it - Adam Baumgarten (Officer, Vice/Narcotics Unit) hands flashes his badge and hands me a card. I invite them in.

Adam has a 8X10 envelope in his hand. He says, “This picture showed up on my desk. It is of you with pot in your car.” I ask if he is REALLY from the police department and call the number on his card. They confirm.

I ask to see the picture - its blown up out of focus zoomed in on me sitting in the car with the door open and I have a sandwich bag in my hands. Looks to me like it has popcorn or something in it and its a FULL bag. The picture had my name, address and phone number on it written in chicken scratch.

The office Adam says that they are told I might be selling drugs in Burbank and that he is asking me that if it is the case to please stop. “It’s not a big deal - we’re not hear to arrest you.” It’s a warning.

I tell them about GoingClean and that its probably Scientology that put the pictures in their office. He nicely declined to comment and said again its no big deal - they just wanted to say stop of I were doing it.

I asked Adam if there was any way I could get a copy of the pictures or take pictures of them and he declined.

OMG the lengths Scientology and Miscavige will go to!!

Just an update of the latest harassment. They just won’t stop! I guess the truth is driving them crazy.
[/QUOTE]
Bolding mine. The quality of dead agenting has certainly dropped since the days of Paulette Cooper. It sounds like the detectives from the Burbank PD knew exactly who was behind this and were not taking it seriously at all. Then in the comments I read that Marc Headley gave the Burbank PD a case of his book Blown For Good. They know. I guess they had to investigate the “complaint” but they know.

Btw, the Kindle edition of Jenna Miscavige Hill’s book Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape is on sale for $1.99 at amazon. I just bought it and Blown For Good. I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

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I just googled Tom DeVocht. The first result is a paid link to freedommag.org (a Scientology website) labeled “Truth about Tom Devocht”. The page it goes to is full of diatribes against Going Clear.

I don’t know the cost of ads like that but I imagine they’re not cheap, so they’re apparently spending big bucks trying to smear this documentary and everyone associated with it.

Their behavior makes no sense to me. I can’t imagine that they’re fooling anyone with this stuff. All they’re doing is continuing to draw attention to it along with negative attention to themselves.

I suppose it’s an article of faith that they have do things like this when they’re attacked.

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They’re at least fooling (many of) their own members.

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But they don’t need to be convinced. They are either true believers or already cowed.

Although thinking about it, these attacks could be examples aimed at those doubters who are considering leaving or those who have already left and are considering speaking out. “This is what we’ll do to you if you cross us.”

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I love this image from Devocht’s Facebook page.

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/11102877_10205357169661603_4291434146757064534_n.jpg?oh=cc7b6d14eab199139e53fb290748ef20&oe=55BD58D9

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It’s policy. Fair Game, officially recinded in 1968 because of bad publicity, but obviously still going on. Here’s more about it at xenu.net and more from lermanet.com.

[QUOTE=some crazy old loon guy]
"Never defend. Always attack.
[/QUOTE]

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A more specic part of Fair Game is called “Dead Agenting” which is still in full force, and is what’s happening to Tom and the other documentary participants. Mike Rinder* has written a lot about it. Here’s one recent blog post about the movie participants.

  • life-long Scientologist, former head of the OSA (Office of Soecial Affairs), former spokesperson (from 1982 to 2005), former Dead Agenting expert, former resident of "The Hole " and Miscavige’s punching bag, current “apostate” and victim of dead Agenting himself. I was shocked when I heard that he had left and thrilled that he’s speaking out. Here are his thoughts about the immediate fallout of Going Clear.
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I just looked at Mike Rinder’s blog today and it’s also about dead agenting, a blast from the fairly recent past. It includes an article from scn’s scummy magazine “Freedom” (sorry, can’t type that with a straight face) where the writer stupidly outright states that dead agenting material was culled from people’s PC folders, something scientology always denies is done. The mag was quickly pulled and is now a collectors item, but, too late! The SP’s scanners and computers uploading were busy that day. Wright and Gibney did not have to rely on “apostates” (that word’s hilarious) for that information, they got it directly from the cult’s own mouthpiece. I’m still chuckling that Gibney got video of it happening.

Correction, the PC folders line was in a follow up damage control e-mail.

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The “Hole” must be getting very crowded. I wonder when there will be an incident when the people in there have a “moment of clarity” and break out, over-power the guards and escape?

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Tony Ortega is on the case. The bag Tom had, was popcorn.

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A good friend of mine got deeply involved in that stuff. He was off work because he burned out an expensive machine that took them a month to get replaced, so he went home in the meanwhile. They proselytized him outside a mission, he ended up selling all he had and eventually went to work at Flag (Clearwater – probably met LRH in person). Then, a couple years later, he up and took off. Just straight vanished. No one heard from him for 22 years. Then a family member tracked him down. He was living in the hintermountains of Eastern Kentucky, made some new friends and was doing fine. Not even living “underground”, as I understand it. So I guess it is possible to break clean and not suffer terribly, as long as one can execute a pretty thorough pastectomy and make a new life (though, I believe he was using the same SSN as before).

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I don’t know their policies on race, but I think it has been pretty clear that they’ve made efforts to recruit black celebrities. Just from reading typical pop culture/gossip stuff (People mag, similar tabloids and internet gossip sites) over the years, it’s very apparent Tom Cruise tried to recruit Jamie Foxx, Kanye West, and Will Smith.

Prior to that I seem to recall that his romances or attempted romances with Penelope Cruz and Sofia Vergara were somewhat related to expanding the Hispanic membership appeal… Though I suppose they could have been strictly for GF/wife recruitment purposes, too.

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Saturday Night Live did a pretty funny parody of the “We Stand Tall” video from Going Clear last night and Tony Ortega breaks it down into screen shots. The parody is so well-done and must have taken a lot of planning and some considerable budget to do. They might have started planning it after the Sundance premiere. I love how while you’re laughing you’re also seeing some serious points being made. The Bunkerites are having a grand old time (one of the commenters was actually there at the filming of the original) as I think most exes and critics would.

Sea Orgers aren’t likely to see it, but casual Scientologists, who are warned away from watching/reading anything critical of the cult, will see or hear about this even more so than Going Clear. For never-ins, this will bring more attention to Going Clear itself as at least some people seek out the source video on YouTube. As a bonus it will drive Miscavige crazy since he desperately wants Scientology to be taken seriously and while Going Clear is easy to ignore (most people DON’T have HBO after all), this is short and sweet and funny and deadly and can go viral. In any case, he has no sense of humor and Scientologists hate to be mocked. Thank you SNL!

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Here’s the video on YouTube: Neurotology Music Video - SNL - YouTube

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Here’s the full original of “We Stand Tall,” of which only a tiny part is used in Going Clear. It must be watched at least once to get the full impact of the parody, especially those black & white videos of Hubbard. Get your barf bags, wet wipes & mouthwash and have fun!

I’m waiting for someone to do a freeze-frame with some updates, like in the SNL video. There are at least 3 high-ranking hard-core members who are now hard-core critics prominently featured in the video: Mike Rinder, Mark “Marty” Rathbun and Amy Scobee.

Edit to add that the Bunkerite who was there at the filming said that Miscavige was standing on an apple box to look taller.

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Rinder, Rathbun, and Scobee must cringe when they see themselves in that video.

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I wonder if any of the members of SNL are Scienos.

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Yep, it’s horrid, but thank goodness they got out and are all brave enough to speak out. Amy Scobee (niece of astronaut Dick Scobee) didn’t make it into the final cut, but she has a book I haven’t yet read called Abuse At The Top. She was there when Miscavige was beating people.

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If there are, too bad for them. The cult would probably force them to quit, the way they forced Issac Hayes to quit South Park. He didn’t want to quit. He LOVED South Park. The loss of the paycheck really hurt him too.

https://www.nolanchart.com/article4477-did-scientology-kill-isaac-hayes-html

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I said:

It’s not just Miscavige. Hubbard actually wrote a POLICY about “Joking and Degrading” and since his word is law, any Scientologist who finds the SNL parody, or the South Park, or any other Scientology-related jokes funny risk quite a bit, including being thrown out and disconnected from their family and friends.

Church of Scientology Policy Outlawing “Joking & Degrading”