thread started here so people can “unload” if they wish
What entices people to join Scientology is that the entry level “tech” works. In hindsight, many of us can see that the “tech” is basically commonsense. What possibly keeps high profile people there is the fact that you provide the church with a “life history” in which you name every single person you’ve every had sex with and every drug you’ve every taken, just for starters. Not to mention the fact that the church is extremely aggressive about suing the pants of anyone who ever criticises them.
In respect of celebrtities in particular? I belonged to AOSH ANZO - believe me, the celebs NEVER get to see how the average member of the church lives : what they get to see is a very pretty picture of the church which is quite accurately detailed on the Operation Clambake website.
and this is from watching the CoS-issued video, not reading the incomprehensible book, Dianetics is lower-level intensive psychotherapy in which the client is encouraged to recount traumatic events over & over till it stops being traumatic & just becomes boring.
because engram readings are wicked cool. Hubbert once said “There would be no war if we could only trust each other.” Brilliant! any church that puts little quotes like that in big letters all over their building has my vote, I mean soul, I mean Thetan tm .
What are y’all talking about? What exactly are engram readings, and why are they wicked cool? What is the entry level tech?
Lib, check out reprise’s link and all will be explained.
Sheesh.
Not to support Scientology, but I like “Battlefield Earth” - the book. I haven’t seen the movie and don’t have any plans to do so. I just don’t see how you could possibly crush a 1400 page novel into a two hour movie and have anything left.
Hmmm. Time to dig out my copy and re-read it. Johnnie is one tough dude.
That and it is really cool when Terl gets teleported into the exploded remains of the planet Psychlo.
Thanks, Mr2001!
Can someone explain what scientology, in very simple words, is?
A scam. Although, to some degree, you have to admire a man who says the real way to get rich quick is to start your own religion and then actually does it.
Has anyone filled in their questionnaires?
I have twice. The most recent was when I had something like seven hours to kill in Birmingham (England) (and there is only so much shopping you can do).
It asked the same questions, with different wording all through it. The first time I remember trying to fill it in honestly. The second time I tried to fill it in as some uncaring devil, giving all the unexpected, ‘wrong’ and contradictory answers.
Funny thing was, both times the analysis came back with exactly the same conclusions - I was down, lonely, with little friends, tired of life, and in dire need of embracing all their ideals in order to find any form of fulfilment in life. Comforting stuff, I’m sure.
It’s like, make the person feel as bad as possible about themselves and their life, then try to nail them down as a member. I’m sure a lot of insecure people fall for their spiel so easily.
Slightly off the OP but:
I have a friend whose father was a lawyer representing someone who was suing the CoS (exact reasons I can’t remember.) His family was assaulted with death threats, attempts at financial sabotage, and surveillance operations. They found bugs in his house and everything. Eventually he gave up on the case.
I don’t have a cite but one expert on Scientology once said that the CoS’s intelligence network was considered as extensive as many countries.
Yeah. A scam.
More detail?
Ok, I may not have all the details precise, but the general doctrine is:
There was this huge intergalactic war billuuuuns and billuuuns of years ago. In that war, the bad-guys (the Theatans) were rounded up (including the head bad-guy Xenu) by the good galactic patrol and their souls were stuffed into the center(?) of our planet. Eventually their evil souls snuck out of the molten core of our world and “infected” the early humans (hence the volcano on the cover of Dianetics). Bad things you do are because of these evil alien spirits.
These are Engrams. Using an e-meter (a polygraph, basically), along with hypnosis, browbeating, coersive “therapy” techniques (remember EST?), and so forth, one can cleanse oneself of the evil intergalactic alien souls and become a “clear”: a mutant superman who one day will RULE US ALL!
The reason that people fall for this load of horsesh*t is that none of this is revealed at first. You only get basic self-help type info at the beginning. As you shell out more and more dollars, new levels of “truth” are revealed. By which point, you’re in too deep. Even if your BS meter goes off at the talk of evil intergalactic body-snatchers, you’ve already spent $20,000-$50,000 AND you’ve had long, tape recorded lie-detector sessions (which may be combined with hypnosis or drugs) where you’ve revealed every detail of every illegal, embarrassing or immoral thing you’ve ever done. And they have it on tape…
The $cientologists claim that the reason you have to pay is that if you learn these secrets too early, you’ll go insane. :rolleyes:
Fenris
Secret clubs and passwords.
People love it as kids, and never outgrow it.
Hey reprise or anyone else who knows:
you say the celebs are kept quiet because they must reveal everyone they’ve ever slept with adn every drug they’ve ever done? Well, what’s to keep the person from lying about that?
I was under the impression that it was done quite early, so I would assume the person wouldn’t be so trusting. Or do they keep harping at you about it after you’ve been brainwashed?
**
A) they’re paying tons of $$$$ for “therapy”. It’s not in their interests to lie to their "therapists. “Remeber John, if you do lie to us, the “therapy” simply won’t succeed.”
B) Remember those polygraphs?
**
Yes. And I’ve heard as you get deeper in, there’s almost a push for you to make stuff up so you can “clear” yourself of it. “Think of a crime you’ve thought of committing.”, “Name an actor of the same gender you’d like to have sex with.”
Fenris
On another message board, some debates about Appliantology came up, and the conclusion was to not bash anyone for their beliefs. But Craptology goes so far out of its way to discredit (or destroy) psychology that I think it’s fair game.
I hope those clueless fools die a fiery and painful death.
Several months ago I ran across one of their tracts. Basically it said that psychology was nothing more than a bunch of drug pushers. The answer to all of life’s problems, of course, was the church of Idiotology.
I could go into detail about some of the crap that was said in that piece of smeg, but one point stands out:
“Psychologists believe that we use our brains to think. We know that this is not true.”
I believe this wholeheartedly. Those asswipes truly do not use their brains to think.
I like to harass church of scientology members 
Just take a pocket tapereccorder and engage in polite, but slightly antagonistic conversation (quoting stuff from Xenu.net) wait until they blow their cork and threaten you. Then pull out the tape reccorder laugh and walk away.
And no, they are not a religion. Religions are not run by lawyers, nor do they charge by the session to help people. They are a corperation like any other.
But what gets people to join scientology?
Well, look at how much of the world is disillusioned and willing to believe almost anything? Throw into the mix that scientology seems to HEAVILLY market itself after large disasters (anyone remember the shit they did after the 9/11 attacks?).
Quite frankly it disgusts me that through their lobbying the CoS has avoided being broken up by the FBI.