I mean, if a “Clear” (who has spent > $100,000 on auditing, can’t remember something simple, then what good is being a clear?
That’s the fundamental problem: the religion makes claims, which are not proven. So why get involved in it?
What?! A religion is making unproven claims, that fall apart under even casual scrutiny!? Alert the media!
IIRC, Hubbard’s wife was supposedly a clear. Then she divorced him and called him a wacko - which might mean there is something to it after all. 
I’ll see your Osmond vs Cruise and raise you one Card vs Hubbard.
Ok, then… hey VC03, don’t join the Church of Scientology because they’re a bunch of crackpot crazies and you’ll end up broke.
And please note I said “isolate their members”, not “cut you off from your family”. What I meant by that is that they use forceful indoctrination to keep members from twigging that what they’re involved in is extremely kooky at best, harmful and even deadly at its worst.
And I’m glad that your experience with Scienos hasn’t given you the impression that they are particularly aggressive in their tactics. It doesn’t square with the majority of unindocrinated people’s or ex-indoctrinated peoples’ experiences. But hey, it’s a big world out there.
Tell me, in your experience with all these nice Scientologists, did you ever find out how much they paid to be educated in their religions’ doctrine?
glub, glub…
I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to take your word for it, especially as seeing how your expertise in the area seems to be confined to having had one roommate for a while that was casually involved in Scientology. To trump your single data point I have read many accounts of people who claim that they were encouraged to lose contact with friends and family after being a committed Scientologist.
I’m also not prepared to accept your assertions that all religions are the same as Scientology, after noticing that you don’t seem that well versed in the study of other religions (e.g. your claim that Christianity encourages you to cut yourself off from all non-Christians - cite? or your claim that all religions encourage you to proselytize amongst your friends and neighbours - counterexamples to that have already been given.)
Let’s change that to: What?! A belief system is making unproven claims about their methods that fall apart under casual scrutiny?! And you want to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of becoming indoctrinated and undergoing the aforementioned methods? Are you nuts?!?
Rather sensible question, don’t you think?!?
I got a big huge book on Scientology for a high school class project – we were investigating cults and doing reports on them.
It was a pretty dense book (in that there was a heck of a lot of stuff in it) but the beginning basis seemed to be that most people most of the time act reflexively and on emotion. Living on “autopilot”, as it were. Scientology’s tenets involve being conscious every moment of every day until you’re actually in control of your emotions. At that point you can at will feel happy, sad, angry…
It struck me that this might be one reason they’re so popular with actors. 
I have a friend who worked at the Church in Austin for a few months. They started paying him less and less, required he go to their services, until finally he just left in disgust. I’m not sure if they still bother him. This was something like seven years ago. They did, apparently, have a roped-off office for L. Ron.
He had a key to the building and kept it when he left. The temptation to sneak in there late some evening and leave a few newly-written pages on his desk is… extreme. 
Scientology has nothing to do with science. A more apt name for this cult is Pseudoscientology. Stay as far away from it as you possibly can. And watch lots of South Park.
I was in for 19 years. Don’t read Operation Clam Bake either. Hubbard wasn’t a bad guy. What happened is that Miscaivage (Chairman of the Board) took over and the group has been messed up ever since (1986 - after Hubbard died). There are groups out there actually practicing what Hubbard taught. Not the altered crap that is now being pushed as the real thing.
Even just posting this OP, I fear for you.
Oh wow. That’s some big revelation. Until you have a look at Buddhism or REBT (Rational-Emotive Behaviour Theory). Which you can do for free.
Ah, I wondered how long it would take a guest to show up with a positive spin on things.
Why is reading Operation Clambake a bad idea?
Because it’s full of crap. When you have a person that is pissed off, they’ll say a bunch of crap. Have you ever been upset with someone and said stuff you don’t truly mean? That’s what I think is all over Clambake. I’ve been there. Yes, I have my upsets with the Church itself, but not with the original teachings of Hubbard.
Can you refute, with cites, anything specific on Operation Clambake that you find “full of crap?”
The original teachings of Hubbard are just stuff he made up. What’s the difference?
No, I only have my personal experience to go by. I’m not going to spend my time reading Operation Clambake, to find the lies and upsets. I read quite a bit of it last year and I know what I know.
If you read quite a bit of it last year, what lies and crap did you come across then?
I find this whole thread highly amusing. It makes me want to go find a local Scientology chapter just to see if they really are as wacky as they’re made out to be.
But if they are that wacky, seems like it would be a bad idea to toy with them.