I have always been curious as to exactly what it is about. It seems like a religion that isn’t a religion; a cult that isn’t a cult. What is it?
I know that Cecil has talked about it.
You can also search the message boards using “Scientology” as your keyword. That’ll get you a lot of hits.
I read the article, and have been much enlightened…but does anyone know, then, what excuse folks like Tom Cruise and John Travolta have for hanging out with this crowd?
Not that I think Tom and John are sooooo smart just because they’re movie stars, but they at least seem to be relatively educated folks…
Many of my reletives have gotten into the whole Scientology mess. I don’t know much about it, but I do know that My Aunt’s Ex-Husband, who deciced not to go with the whole Scientology thing is no longer allowed to see his sons/daughters, or relatives. In fact, I think the divorce was because of Scientology. Argh…
Who knows. Maybe the “Church” of Scientology paid them to pretend to be Scientologists. 
In any case, They have lots of money, so they can blow it on stuff like Scientology. Then again, maybe they know something that I don’t.
Enough to avoid it like the plague!
A useful technique for getting rid of scientologists trying to recruit you on the street is to say, “Thanks, but I’m already clear”. Crashes them every time.
No matter how much you read about Scientology there’s one question that never goes away: How is it possible for someone to be a Scientologist and, at the same time, appear sane and completely ordinary? What I have read in the past about Scientology led me to this somewhat bizarre conclusion: Scientologists are nutters on the outside and sane on the inside. In a conversation with Tom Cruise, for instance, you could well find yourself over-conscious of the fact you were talking to someone who believed he once had alien beings trapped in his head. But when you think about it, in conversation with Creflo Dollar you’re talking with someone who believes in a weird set of things too, if you’d care to admit it. Afterall, how weird is transubstantiation? Scientologists seem to have developed an alternative system that satisfies a need for spiritual evolution or development. It may seem quirky and of a comicbook nature but its objectives don’t seem all that different to established religion. If there is anyone who regards this point of view as stupid and dangerous - sure, I’d like to know. And I don’t want to be one. It’s just not me.
It’s not so much what they believe, it’s their techniques.
Look at articles under subheadings ‘the tech’ and ‘the org.’
Don’t try and say that other religions use the same brainwashing, browbeating and intimidation techniques. They don’t.
Then again, Maybe because Cruise and Travolta are famous, they get a discount.
“you can be “clear” for free as long as you tell everyone how good Scientology is”
hey, it could happen.
Mikahw, I think you are right. Ever since the 50s, Hubbard and crew have courted the famous and influential (and rich) in order to gain respectability, recognition, and Big Bucks for their “Church”. They reportedly make it MCH easier for these primo converts than for others – they get luxury treatment at the Beverly Hills “Org”, and I’m sure they have an easier time passing the tests for the various levels. There are reportedkly other perks as well. So Tom Cruise and John Travolta don’t have as rough a time as you or I would in the CoS. See http://www.xenu.com and links therein for more details.
Dammit, I stayed up til 7AM reading those links. Lots of good stuff in there for working up a state of righteous indignation.
I can’t believe that I’m agreeing (at least in part) with anything G. Nome says.
As far as I know-- I don’t know any Scientologists, although I have read lots of web sites about them-- many practicing Scientologists willingly differentiate betwen “the tech”-- that is, the techniques of auditing and self-reflection-- from the myhtology. That is to say that they believe that “auditing” has helped them cope with (mostly mental) problems that they have had, even though they don’t necessarily buy all the junk about Xemu and the Galactic Empire.
When you get right down to it, auditing is just a simple form of psychotherapy: you talk your problems and concerns and worries out with the auditor, and presumably, come to an understanding about how those problems affect you. Plenty of non-Scientologists do the same thing, albeit without the galvanometer. From this perspective, Tom Cruise believing that Scientology helped him overcome problems is no different than, say, Woody Allen believing that twice weekly sessions with a therapist helped him.
You don’t necessarily have to buy all the space-opera nonsense to use Scientology’s techniques, any more than you have to believe in Noah’s Ark or transubstantiation or even the divinity of Jesus to get value out of a religion like Christianity. You can still avail yourself of the therapy of the confessional or the wisdom of your minister, even if you don’t believe in the far-fetched mythology that religons package, and I’m sure that many famous people who thank “God” onstage or in interviews for their success don’t always believe 100% of the Judeo-Christian party line.