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Don’t say too much. Those are the kind of people who come for you in the night. ;)
That shit is creepy as hell though, isn’t it?
Scientolo-what? Oh, it’s hoooey.
Have you heard them referred to as “TomKat” yet? Ugh.
Say, semi-serious question here – can anyone give me a primer on what Scientology actually is? As in, what it’s actual theology is, what its actual practices are? I’ve never gotten any good answers from either its practitioners (who seem to always seem to avoid giving me any answers unless I buy something), or it opponents (who have apparently run into the same problem regarding info as I). Thus far, my knowledge basically consists of that Simpsons episode with the Movementarians.
Ugh, “its”, not “it’s”. Shame, shame, shame on me.
Oh boy. That’s a deep deep pool. i waded in there myself a couple years back – because cults are an interest of mine, basically. Scientology is so mysterious and so powerful – the more you learn about it, the more jaw-droppingly weird it is.
Here’s the biggest archive of stuff on Scientology, compiled by Rick Ross – cult-awareness and cult-breaker extraordinaire.
Here is the cover story on Scientology that Time magazine did in 1991- so far, it is the most in-depth analysis of what this organization really is to date. It’s hard to get close to Scientologists, it’s hard to get any information at all. Scientologists are still angry about this piece in Time magazine.
Also, you might want to check out the Xenu Leaflet.
Uhm … can you tell I was drawn to this stuff? But scroll through that archive – there is a TON of stuff there.
http://www.equip.org/free/DS170.htm
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/scientol.htm
http://www.xenu.net/archive/scientology_illustrated/intro14.htm
May Xenu be with you.
Oh man, rereading some of this crap, I forgot Xenu was the bad guy. I forgot just how amazingly terrible that story is. It makes the prequals look like literature.
It is incredible to read, huh?
One quote I found summarizing the whole thing:
“Scientology has been described as a “Bait-and-Switch” fraud. This has a definite meaning in US law. It describes a fraud where a person is seemingly sold one thing only to find out that it is another and more expensive thing and so they pay more than they would have paid had they known what it was all about. Scientology is the definitive example of this. It starts out with Dianetics, a supposed science of the mind that will greatly improve a persons thinking and health at a seemingly reasonable cost. People are attracted in, they receive some Dianetic processing only to be told that it only works on a few people and so to benefit they must receive the very expensive Scientology auditing instead at $200 per hour. This they do and reach the dubious state called Clear only to be told that they are then “at risk” and must move at all speed to the more advanced level of OT III, parting with thousands of dollars all the while. When they reach OT III a great secret is told them. That is that they are full of the souls of space aliens murdered 75 million years ago and to achieve spiritual benefits they must pay to have them removed. The processing at this level costs $400 per hour. The whole of the Scientology religion is a continuous bait-and-switch fraud with the whole purpose of extracting the maximum amount of money from people.”
Thanks, Sheila (I think).
The Leader is good
The Leader is great
I surrender my will
As of this date.
George … It is so rare that I actually get to share my bizarre knowledge in this arena.
popskull: Point taken. I will say no more. You’re right. Don’t mess with those people.
Is it me, or was Katie Holme always that emaciated?
Anyone else here see Bowfinger, the Steve Martin flick featuring a very Scientology-like organization.
Hey y’all, I have this here y shaped stick, that I cut off a big willer tree down by the crick. I dipped it in the water and said some words over it (can’t tell ya what the words are, that is a secret). Anyway, this here stick, ya take in your hands and if think really hard on water it will lead ya right to it. That is how I figger out where to dig my well. Worked too.
Does anyone know if this science tologist stuff will help me figger where to dig wells?
You know what’s nreally, really sad? Tom’s Homosexuality is so closeted (by him anyway) that this “religon” he subscribes to has become more and more his whole life.
I was just talking about this with a Hollywood-er and the list of closeted Scientologists would make your hair fall out.
I actually feel really sorry for him. I mean, he’s an ass, don’t get me wrong, but to be stuck in that closet for that long, can you imagine? There is NO WAY OUT!!!!
She’s a blithering idiot, I have no sympathy for her at all.
The scientologists have all the dirt on these celebrities from the “auditing” sessions – so even if they DID want to get out, they can’t. It’s awful. I feel kind of sorry for Cruise, too. The organization is so powerful. They have their tentacles everywhere … you CANNOT leave without serious repercussions. Your credit report ruined, harassment … the more you read about it, the more horrifying it sounds.
You know what’s really scary too, Sheila? It’s so WEIRD you posted about this….I honestly was talking about this last night after class……it’s almost to the point where they’ve found a cure for Homosexuality. They call it the “deprogramming center”.
I can’t even begin to imagine what the heck that means.
And the other thing….NO ONE seems to care. NO ONE seems to care the he, Travolta, Kirstie Alley, all these morons are involved in something lethal and dangerous, yet they are REVEERED in thier Art. They’re loved by millions of fans, people still go see their movies, and no one seems to want to talk about it. Like it means nothing.
I’m sorry…..but it does mean something. People need to wake up and smell the capauccino.
I don’t know how to spell capaccino.
Also, Scientology works through all these shadow organizations … so you never know where they will pop up. They hide. You think you’re talking to a place where you can register to vote in your county – but it’s really Scientology.
The scariest example is that they bought the old-time long-standing invaluable “Cult Awareness Network” (CAN) – which was THE go-to place for parents worried about their children, a huge cult database – parents could call and ask for information about such and such a group. CAN classified scientology as a cult, and so Scientology went after them. Scientology crushed CAN financially with lawsuits, buried them in paper – and finally bought the entire organization.
BUT TOLD NO ONE. No announcements, nothing. Same phone numbers, same website. So now: worried parents calling what they think is the Cult Awareness Network – are actually calling Scientology.
Rick Ross (again – the cult-buster guy) has messages all over his site: “CAN is now scientology – DO NOT CALL THEM.”
Sheila.. does Scientology, the corporate organisation, have a favourable tax status in the US? As I recall it claims ‘religion’ status with a very favourable taxation rate in Europe – I’m not up to date with this but I seem to remember a challenge to that status by some states.. Germany and France, if I recall correctly.
peteb: Here is the long tale of that raging battle: Never ceases to amaze me that the IRS backed down:
From http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/scientol.htm#Note%20on%20Religion
In 1967, the Church of Scientology of California was stripped of its tax-exempt status by the IRS (deeming Scientology a for-profit business that enriched church officials), an action the church considered unlawful and thus ignored. (The church also replied with more than 2,000 lawsuits against the IRS.) The IRS, in turn, undertook a mammoth audit of the church for the years 1970 through 1974. A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hubbard’s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment. Hubbard responded by going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection for Scientology’s strange rites. Scientology ministers (formerly “counselors”) started to wear white collars, dark suits, and silver crosses. Sunday services were mandated, chapels were erected in Scientology buildings, franchises became “missions,” fees became “fixed donations,” and Hubbard’s comic-book cosmology became “sacred scriptures.” It was made a punishable offense for a staffer to omit from church literature the notation that Scientology is a “religious philosophy.” Many of the changes flowed from a flurry of “religious image” directives issued by high-level Scientology executives. One policy put it bluntly: “Visual evidences that Scientology is a religion are mandatory.”
IRS-conducted audits proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama, and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns, and harassed the agency’s employees. By late 1985, with high-level defectors accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as $200 million from the church, the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members “worked day and night” shredding documents the IRS sought, according to a defector who took part in the scheme. (Hubbard, who had been in hiding for five years, died before the criminal case could be prosecuted.) None of this, however, convinced the IRS, which assessed the church more than $1 million in back taxes for the years 1970 through 1972. Scientology appealed to the U.S. Tax Court, where, in 1984, it was handed one of the worst financial and public relations disasters in its history. The battle with the Internal Revenue Service was finally resolved on October 1, 1993. On that day, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the IRS issued letters recognizing the Church of Scientology and its related churches and organizations as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. In return, the Church of Scientology paid the IRS $12.5 million to settle any tax assessments prior to 1993, and dropped all its lawsuits against the IRS. The IRS also agreed to drop any outstanding audits of Scientology organizations and declared several related Scientology organizations as tax-exempt, including a trust that oversees the church’s 440-foot cruise ship, Freewinds. Also, church members were permitted to henceforth deduct from their personal income taxes the fees they pay for “auditing.”
Whoa. WTF???
Wow, Sheila. That scam is even worse than I thought.. the last I heard (some time ago admittedly) the corporation had been stripped of religion status in Germany, I think.. but I’ll try to find out what the latest on that is.. however the omens from the info you’ve provided would not be good.
And, if my reading of taxation is correct, the line –
“Also, church members were permitted to henceforth deduct from their personal income taxes the fees they pay for ‘auditing’.”
could work out favourably for certain high earners?
Pete – apparently Scientologists just won a court battle in Germany. Check it out..
But here’s the whole archive of Germany’s battle with this group. Yeah – they flat out do not want the organization in their country.
Sorry to be a pest, but in case anyone is interested in how Scientology took its revenge on the Cult Awareness Network and destroyed it, then took it over – here’s the whole story.
Thanks Sheila.
I just started reading that first link and this example of Godwin’s Law jumped out –
“In 1997, a full-page US newspaper advertisement signed by Cruise, Dustin Hoffmann and Oliver Stone compared Germany’s treatment of the Church of Scientology to the Holocaust.”
Dustin???
At least it’s only in a regional court.
Yeah, really … Dustin?
And I also note that in Germany in 2003 the corporation was granted religion status.. sheesh.
Yup. They are powerful, man. Very powerful.
Empiiiire!
Eight hundred, five, eight-eight, two three hundred. Empiiiiire! If you want to know what Im talking about go to their web site. Listen to the jingle. You will be hooked. You might even catch yourself singing it in the car…
Yeah.. and once that ‘religion’ status is granted it narrows the possibility of criticism.. hence the claim that monitoring of activities is a “breach of human rights”
Of course, one response would be to equalise the taxation levels…
Wow – Red really covered the bases on Scientology in the comments. I start to wonder if really high-profile members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta don’t start to become a liability for Scientology, a cult the reality of which cannot stand the light of day.
Also Katie Holmes looks seriously pregnant in that picture.
“Anyone else here see Bowfinger, the Steve Martin flick featuring a very Scientology-like organization.”
I love that movie. The organization was called “Mindhead,” BTW.
There was also a really good, in-depth article on Scientology in the Chicago Reader a few years back. I don’t know that it was better than the ones referenced above (haven’t looked at them yet … I’m kind of scared to) but it was quite good. I’m pretty sure it’s available in their archives, though I think you might have to pay for it. When I moved into my apartment on the NW side of Chicago a year ago, there was a Scientology branch, or “church”, or some little outpost nearby. Now it’s gone. A good sign, perhaps?
All I could think of when I saw this post was the Millennium episode “Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense.”
I Can Say No More.
I find it extremely amusing that in the same thread Katie Holmes is referred to by two different people as 1. “emaciated” and 2. “seriously pregnant”.
CW:
Could you elaborate on what you mean by celebs becoming a liability? Why? It seems to me (at least how it is now) that the celebs are their pseudo-respectable face that they present to the public. “Wow – if John Travolta is so into this … then I should be too!!”
But I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Is that the same Hubbard that wrote all those scifi books?
And I’ll hazard a guess at CW’s thoughts on celebs being liabilities. Google. I read something about someone I’m interested in, I google to find out more. Cults do best when undetected. Your research here shows that … they aren’t under the radar.
If no celebs, no googling, no radar concerns.
My best guess. Excellent post. & I vote for pregnant. Hope she skips the cult.
“Is that the same Hubbard that wrote all those scifi books?”
Yes. It may be apocryphal, but I understand he had a bet with Robert Heinlein that he could make up a religion with the most absurdly outrageous tenets and make enormous amounts of money from it. He obviously succeeded.
My wife was raised in Scientology and she was able to escape it, fortuantely none the worse for wear. Other than a serious hatred of all things S-. Listening to her stories about the group and her stepdad (who is profiled occasionally in the group’s literature) has caused me to question the mental faculties of anyone serious in S-. The more you know, the more you should be in disbelief.
i am so glad that you guys warned me that CAN is now owned by scientology! i was going to call them to report about these hindu cultists that run a yoga training at which i nearly died a few years ago. they wouldn’t let those of us who had gotten seriously ill due to the terrible sanitation there to be taken to the hospital because ‘it was all in our minds’.
now, i am actually someone who believes that our thoughts have quite a bit of control over our lives, but i am not an idiot! if i’m desperately sick, i am going to get myself some medical care… does anyone know if there are any other LEGIT organizations that i can call to report this cult?
i found this site because after working with tom cruise on a movie a few years ago and really liking him in person, i have been flabbergasted to see him in the media lately and see how really crazed he is. i don’t know why i didn’t see that before. probably because i wasn’t paying too much attention…
to answer someone else – i think that katie holmes has always been pretty lanky nor do i don’t think she looks pregnant. and personally, i don’t think she’s an airhead – though of course not knowing her, i wouldn’t really know. i just hope for her sake that she gets away before it’s too late. i know that she’s been infatuated with tom forever, but the bubble has to burst sometime…
anastasia:
Yes – do not, under any circumstances, call CAN.
You can, however, contact Rick Ross’ Institute – he is the top guy to go to for information about cults (his website is http://rickross.org/ … there is an enormous database of cults listed there, you can scroll through and see if your group might be listed. Here is that URL
And, if you want to contact them with any questions about a group: Here is how you do it. That’s the feedback page. You can go onto the message boards, and see if people are discussing your group. You can send a note to the Institute, too – asking them if they have any information.
They are THE cult-investigators in this country.
Stay away from CAN.
Best of luck to you!!
Thanks for the info.