Scientology and the Aftermath

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Joe Guy
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Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Joe Guy »

I’ve been binging on Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath on Netflix for the last couple of weeks.

There are 3 seasons. It started near the end of 2016 and ended in 2019. If you have any interest in what goes on in the world of Scientology, this series is for you. I don’t understand how David Misgavige - its leader - is allowed to operate this scam in the United States or anywhere else.

Burning Petard
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Burning Petard »

The founder lived on a yacht at sea for many years to avoid any national cops.

snailgate

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Joe Guy
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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Burning Petard wrote:
Thu Sep 23, 2021 9:24 pm
The founder lived on a yacht at sea for many years to avoid any national cops.
L. Ron Hubbard was an interesting and strange guy and established all the rules for the organization but things got even more weird when David Misgavige forced his way into leadership after Hubbard "left his body". If I recall correctly, there are 5 different houses built for Hubbard to occupy when he returns in a new human body.

liberty
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by liberty »

Joe Guy wrote:
Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:55 pm
Burning Petard wrote:
Thu Sep 23, 2021 9:24 pm
The founder lived on a yacht at sea for many years to avoid any national cops.
L. Ron Hubbard was an interesting and strange guy and established all the rules for the organization but things got even more weird when David Misgavige forced his way into leadership after Hubbard "left his body". If I recall correctly, there are 5 different houses built for Hubbard to occupy when he returns in a new human body.

As long as they do not break the law, I pledge my life to protect their right to believe and do whatever they wish. I cannot be free unless they are free. So you can close those concentration camps.

First, they came for the racist, but I wasn't racist, so I did nothing, and then they came for the alt-right, but I wasn't a rightist, so I did nothing, and then they came from me, and there's no one left but me.
I expected to be placed in an air force combat position such as security police, forward air control, pararescue or E.O.D. I would have liked dog handler. I had heard about the dog Nemo and was highly impressed. “SFB” is sad I didn’t end up in E.O.D.

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Joe Guy
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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liberty wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 4:16 am
.....As long as they do not break the law, I pledge my life to protect their right to believe and do whatever they wish. I cannot be free unless they are free. So you can close those concentration camps.......
Scientology is not a religion. It's a business. It has tax exempt status like churches do but if Leah Remini and others succeed at getting the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to do thorough investigations, Scientology could lose its tax exempt status and that might be the least of its problems.

You'd have to either watch the series or do a lot of research on your own to understand what makes Scientology so corrupt. Many of its most damaged victims are the families that are part of the organization.

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Scooter
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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The Village Idiot wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 4:16 am
First, they came for the racist, but I wasn't racist...
Care to take another swing at that one?
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

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Joe Guy
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Joe Guy »

The Village Idiot wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 4:16 am
First, they came for the racist, but I wasn't racist...
Scooter wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:00 am
Care to take another swing at that one?

Image :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

liberty wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 4:16 am
. . . so I did nothing, and then they came from me, and there's no one left but me.
Ah, they came from you, did they? No wonder you're the only one left :lol:
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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On Scientology, they took the Roman Catholic sacrament of confession and made it their 'scientific' foundation. Unhappily they also abandoned the Roman Catholic principle of the sanctity of the confessional.

By the way, has anyone ever calculated the total dollar cost of becoming 'clear' ?

snailgate.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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Scientology is a cult. Scientology is a religion. Religions are cults.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Ipsi dixit culus.
BoSoxGal wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 2:29 pm
Scientology is a cult. Scientology is a religion. Religions are cults.
Oversimplify much??
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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There is at least one human organization that meets every definition of Cult that I have read. It is 'the Little Sisters of the Poor'

Looking at the way word is used in most discussions, I hold that the most generally accepted definition of 'cult' is "a human organization I do not like."

As the word is used by social scientists of religion "Scientology" is not a cult, because it is too big.

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Joe Guy
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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In my opinion, only after watching the Scientology series, by most people's definition, Scientology is probably considered a cult by most people who know little about it - as in "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious". But after watching most of the Scientology series, it appears to be a business and its only purpose is to get people to join in order to give the "Church" lots of money so they can buy buildings - of which many which go unused - and indoctrinate as many people as they can, which of course involves them giving and owing a lot of money to the church.

There are so many strange beliefs Scientology. For example, they believe psychiatry is evil. Also, in examples brought up in the series, they believe that people who are victims of crime are at least partially at fault for being present in whichever situation that took place. In other words , it is believed that if you hadn't been with a rapist, he wouldn't have raped you.
Last edited by Joe Guy on Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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People think Scientology is a cult because they extort money from their adherents and sell them a type of salvation wrapped up in really weird origin stories.

If you applied that same lens objectively to any other organized religion, they all look like cults as well.


I agree wholeheartedly with Diderot:
I display the times; I appeal to the age

The public is never advantaged

Certainly, mankind has not sacrificed its rights;

If mankind dared but to listen to the voice of its heart, changing suddenly the language,

It would say to us, as it would to the animals of the woods:

Nature created neither servant nor master;

I seek neither to rule nor to serve.

And its hands would weave the entrails of the priest,

For the lack of a cord with which to strangle kings.
Sadly I think humankind will have destroyed nature before it overcomes the base desire to be ruled by despots and fantasy stories.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by MGMcAnick »

L Ron Hubbard was a hack science fiction writer living in Wichita about 1950 when he dreamed up his "religion".
A friend of Doc's, one of only two B-29 bombers still flying.

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Long Run
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Long Run »

All these people who criticize those who deny modern research, and yet are all anti-sciencetology!

8-)

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

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MGMcAnick wrote:
Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:36 am
L Ron Hubbard was a hack science fiction writer living in Wichita about 1950 when he dreamed up his "religion".
L Ron Hubbard was a highly intelligent malignant narcissistic/psychopath who looked at the world, saw it for what it was, and realized that making up a religion (i.e., cult of personality) was the path to riches and power and so he carefully conceived Scientology as his vehicle for brainwashing masses. I don’t believe he believed any of it for even a minute, he was a writer of science fiction with a vivid imagination who realized he could get much, much richer writing a really big fiction than he could writing dimestore sci-fi novels.

He reminds me a lot of another malignant narcissist/psychopath very recently who started a religion (i.e., cult of personality) when run of the mill entertainment avenues and mainstream business pursuits failed to bring in sufficient riches, public admiration and power.

Nobody has yet convinced me that the psychology behind religion isn’t exactly the same as the psychology behind cults - they are interchangeable. Faith is just a deeper level of delusional cult devotion. Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists were once widely considered to be cults. Christians undoubtedly were also once regarded as such.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by BoSoxGal »

This article is worth reading, and there is much wisdom in some of the dozen comments that follow it. In particular the commenter who notes that Jim Jones’s terrible act of spurring on a mass suicide doesn’t begin to touch the body count of Pope John Paul II and his successors with regard to prohibition on the use of condoms in the face of the AIDS epidemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... n#comments
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Joe Guy
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Re: Scientology and the Aftermath

Post by Joe Guy »

For anyone who is unaware of the store behind Scientology, the following is how it all began....
Xenu (/ˈziːnuː/), also called Xemu, was, according to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth (then known as "Teegeeack") in DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans (immortal spirits) of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
There's a bit more to it but that might be all you need to know.

source

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