Scientology - New Year's email is stirring things up

[deelaem]

Are we back in school. LOL :naughty:

Well, if we are, I'm suspecting that GatorGutCasserole and shangrila sit at the exact same desk! ;)

[shangrila]

Link to the story the St Petersburg Times did on Scientology a few years ago: http://www.tampabay.com/news/article1012148.ece

Wow, the incredible google.

Great link. Charming guy. I hope he won't haunt me in my dreams. :shock:

[Alecto]

I was heavily involved in Anti-Scientology protests and know many of the upper level folks who escaped. While some are in those positions, it is not the majority. Though, to be fair, Scientology has ruined their businesses and personal lives fairly well. However, Scientology does have those policies, and they do ruin lives when they can.

[HijabiLady]

I found this site to be VERY revealing about the founder of the cult of Scientology.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/

I also went to the message board, http://www.forum.exscn.net/forum.php and spent literally weeks reading their different stories. I was stunned at the insidious amount of brain washing, torture, slavery and other human rights violations that went on, and still goes on, within that...organization.

[0KidsAndHappy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lisa_McPherson

Then there is Miscavige's wife...

I don't want to go on a rant, so I'll stop with that for now.

[/sP]

[mirele]

I was heavily involved in Anti-Scientology protests and know many of the upper level folks who escaped. While some are in those positions, it is not the majority. Though, to be fair, Scientology has ruined their businesses and personal lives fairly well. However, Scientology does have those policies, and they do ruin lives when they can.

About Debbie Cook's letter: it had to come as a huge shock to Little Napoleon (aka David Miscavige, aka Chairman of the Board or COB). There was NO indication this was coming. I know it was a huge shock to me and my friends and we have made it our business for the last 15+ years to be on top of the latest Scientology developments (if not actually hastening them along). I knew that Ms. Cook had routed out of the Sea Org and was living in Texas (although I also hear that she'd escaped all the way to Peru and was coerced to come back and "route out properly" from the Sea Org).

Cook's letter was very well-done--she makes it clear that she loves L. Ron, loves the Tech, loves the services you can get in Scientology but hates what's called "regging," or the absolutely constant shakedown for money that goes on in Scientology. If it's not for money for the IAS (International Assn. of Scns, the organization that Cook said was sitting on a billion dollars), it's to buy the next building to be made over into an Ideal (or Idle, for the lack of people coming in) Org, to buy Basics book sets for libraries and friends (they usually end up in dumpsters), to print and distribute Way to Happiness booklets (ditto) or even to buy your own auditing. It is absolutely CONSTANT. Cook's letter was brilliant in the way she quoted Hubbard about the need for fancy buildings, etc. Every point she wanted to make, she pulled the words straight out of Hubbard's writings.

And it was a bombshell--even publications that normally take no notice of Scientology are running stories. Here's one from the Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/21542397

Getting out of Scn can be difficult--if you're what they call a "public," you're always being regged or called to come down for this or that event--and bring your credit card or checkbook. If you join the Sea Org and sign the billion year contract, you need to officially route out (which is what Cook did). But there are plenty of stories and books that demonstrate that Scientology will not let go of the Sea Org people easily (see, for example, the books by Marc Headley, Jeff Hawkins and Nancy Many). And if you're a really prominent ex-Sea Org member and actually set up providing services, you might even get several months of harassment from the "Squirrel Busters" (as Marty Rathbun did last year in South Texas).

tl;dr: this is a huge bombshell and getting out of Scientology can be a bitch.

(Alecto, we probably have some friends in common at the very least.)

[bionicmlle]

I knew our Scn experts would help clarify this letter!! I need to do my own research but decoding her letter would be SO helpful -- what are all of those weird abbreviations? So confusing (probably intentionally, I guess, on the part of the founders of Scn).

[QAF_Rocks]

Has anyone read Janet Reitman's new book Inside Scientology?

http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Scientology-Americas-Secretive-Religion/dp/0618883029

[MaroonMandy]

They are HYPERAWARE (and dangerous) w/ their image...so I think this is the closest I'm aware of:

myscientology.blogspot.com/

and

scientologyparent.com/guest-post-silent-birth-a-pleasant-alternative/

I figured as much, but thanks for giving me a starting point!

[Kitchen Princess]

Anxious Girl: I break it to you, with all due respect. Experts can only be indoctrinated ones, to my best knowledge. And there is no way out. Escaped or 'former' scientologists are either in prison or 6 feet under. They are like the mob, only meaner.

And yes. Hubbard was a sci-fi writer.

I'm sorry to hear that, because I was just going to post that I bet she ends up dead. But I would have been kidding.

[emmiedahl]

What is up with the silent birth? My births were all pretty quiet, but not silent.

[lizzy]

Interesting anti-scientology website: xenu.net

[0KidsAndHappy]

Interesting anti-scientology website: xenu.net

And a good forum to visit is whyweprotest.net ... There is a lot more going on there besides a bunch of SPs, but there is a forum specifically related to all things Scientology.

I was so happy to drive by a local Scientology center and see an Anon protester a while back.

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

Uh, tough shit. You're talking out of your ass with nothing to back it up. I have yet to read anything to make me believe you.

then, you uncouth person, what have you read?

I would not be surprised if you are a scientologist or 'friend' of it.

to the poster who mentioned the book on scientology-read it last year, it was brilliant, very well researched and very well written.

[So Many Lies]

So time ago I did some very interesting reading/googling about the scientology boat.

Apparently the low ranking are all unpaid slaves and they stay afloat for like years and years. I wish I saved it but I'm sure anyone interested can find it easily enough.

[shangrila]

then, you uncouth person, what have you read?

I would not be surprised if you are a scientologist or 'friend' of it.

to the poster who mentioned the book on scientology-read it last year, it was brilliant, very well researched and very well written.

I added deelaem to my block list. I am very happy I did. I eat every words that I said about TwOP Howard. He is a lovable, smart, reasonable person comparing to this. I love you TWOP HOWARD!

[mirele]

Has anyone read Janet Reitman's new book Inside Scientology?

http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Scientology-Americas-Secretive-Religion/dp/0618883029

Yes. I highly recommend it!

ETA: I'm not a TV watching person, but apparently the Debbie Cook story hit "Good Morning America" today.

ETA: GMA story link: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/executi ... y-15303904

YouTube video:

The video is fabulous...it indicates there's no going back for Debbie Cook as an attorney (not the current spokesdroid Karen Pouw) says Cook is an apostate. The attorney also says that Cook didn't know about money because she wasn't part of the finance people at the Co$ International. That attorney can spread all the crap he/she wants, I know that Debbie Cook spent 17 years of her life regging people for FLAG services (auditing, etc.) and she knows more than me or the attorney about the finances of the Co$.

[QAF_Rocks]

Thanks, guys! I plan to read Inside Scientology sometime this year. :)

[Lainey]

I added deelaem to my block list. I am very happy I did. I eat every words that I said about TwOP Howard. He is a lovable, smart, reasonable person comparing to this. I love you TWOP HOWARD!

Seriously? She asked you to back up what you said, shangrila, and you "didn't like her tone." Have you forgotten where you are? Deelaem is one of my favourite posters, and, I think, one of the more well-respected members of FJ. Not to mention our very own rad fem. I seriously doubt she's a Scientologist or a "friend" of it. I think it's more like she's anti-bullshit.

[formergothardite]

Lainey, she also claimed on another thread that hate causes liver cancer. She got all huffy when asked for proof of that too.

[Hane]

One story goes that Hubbard said that the best way to create a moneymaking scam would be to call it a religion and get tax-exempt status. A corollary (one I heard from my UU pastor and read elsewhere) was that Scientology started as the result of a bar bet between Hubbard and a few other science fiction writers.

[galaxygirl]

One story goes that Hubbard said that the best way to create a moneymaking scam would be to call it a religion and get tax-exempt status. A corollary (one I heard from my UU pastor and read elsewhere) was that Scientology started as the result of a bar bet between Hubbard and a few other science fiction writers.

That's the story I heard too. I also heard that Sea Org members aren't allowed to get pregnant so the lower ranked ones are having the kids for them.

[Lainey]

Lainey, she also claimed on another thread that hate causes liver cancer. She got all huffy when asked for proof of that too.

Oh. Well then. :? Thank you for pointing out what I'm dealing with. I'm still a little surprised at elemenope, though.

I kinda think cancer can be caused by repressed emotions, but I don't claim it's anything other than my own wacky belief.

[deelaem]

Seriously? She asked you to back up what you said, shangrila, and you "didn't like her tone." Have you forgotten where you are? Deelaem is one of my favourite posters, and, I think, one of the more well-respected members of FJ. Not to mention our very own rad fem. I seriously doubt she's a Scientologist or a "friend" of it. I think it's more like she's anti-bullshit.

Aww..thank you, luv, and I think even more highly of you.

I really had to chuckle about being told I was probably a Scientologist - couldn't figure out what that person was basing that assumption on! And as for shangrila, it's only a matter of time before that one implodes! :lol: