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New HBO Movie on Scientology - Going Clear


downzy

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I watched some of this last night.

I notice there was no mention of God or Jesus, so I guess they don't believe in them?

L Ron Hubbard was a nut case and the new leader is even more crazy.

I feel bad for Tom Cruise because he seems like a smart guy with a lot of confidence, so I don't know why he would join this cult? I think once he's no longer a box office hit and gets older, he might just quit them to stay a big Hollywood star.

As for John Travolta, he lost his mom to cancer and his girlfriend to cancer too. He probably was very depressed when Scientology came along. I know he comes from a Catholic Italian family and I know his mother wouldn't have approved of him joining this cult.

Everyone that was in their cult and got out still seemed scared of them as some of their followers still threatened them. I guess some very rich people don't know what the hell to do with their money so they give it to crazies like this. I know it cost you thousands of dollars to even join them. Right away that should tell you show screwed this so called religion is.

It just made me very uncomfortable watching them sucker people and making you believe in some race from another galaxy is your leader.

I was raised Catholic and I know some of it was unbelievable, but this Scientology is just totally out there and I just don't get why anyone would join and believe all their crazy talk.

I'm ashamed that the US government allows such shit to go on.

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I quite the idea that if you do stuff a space ship will come and take you. It's kind of motivational in better way than you will burn in hell if you don't believe. It's clean your room and you get an iPad. Okay then! But yeah it's probably full of tossers because most people are tossers. It's like a 99% tosser percentage for the human race really.

If I was in Hollywood is probably become a scientologist just further my career. I'm a ho like that.

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Really insane always new L. Ron was messed up but wow his pleads for the mental health hospital to help him is crazy

I know. I just started watching this morning and I'm only half an hour in but my thought was "how do they keep this going another hour and a half?!" I think they do a really good job at not purposefully trying to slander the guy, but just telling it as it is doesn't make them look any better. And by half an hour in, it seems so insane anyone would continue with this that I'm interested to see where it goes in the next 3/4.

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So still not sure what the hell these people believe in? Never mentioned God or Jesus or anything religious, so how can this be called a religion?

it still creeps me out that this Scientology is allowed to exist. What the hell is wrong with people?

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What an interesting view this documentary is. The shit Scientology pulled on the IRS is fucking brilliant and madness at the same time. I mean, who takes on the IRS and wins? These crazy fuckers did. And, the fact they that their membership is only 55k strong , but they have assets in excess of 3 billion$$$ is mind boggling.

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What an interesting view this documentary is. The shit Scientology pulled on the IRS is fucking brilliant and madness at the same time. I mean, who takes on the IRS and wins? These crazy fuckers did. And, the fact they that their membership is only 55k strong , but they have assets in excess of 3 billion$$$ is mind boggling.

I forgot who said it - Hubbard's son I think - but they said Miscavige has a 9th grade education, but once he worked his way into Hubbard's inner circle he knew what he wanted. He may have played a part in Hubbard's demise for all we know. It's not about the money as much as the power he has to control people, hurt people, erase them from the face of the earth.

Bottom line - information is power.

You'd have to know the system in order to break into it the way they did, but there's a lot of planning and strategy. If you have a variety of people coming into the organization with a diverse background that can be an asset to them, I guarantee they got moved up the chain pretty fast and probably got a break on paying for the program if they got their hands a little dirty.

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Finally got around to catching it. To be honest, not a ton of new information. Most of this has already been out there for some time.

If you want a very thorough analysis of Scientology, I recommend reading the book by the same name and by Lawrence Wright. If you don't want to commit yourself to the entire book, check out this New Yorker article by Lawrence Wright: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-apostate-lawrence-wright

It's a long read but well worth it.

I don't have much to say about many of the judeo-Christian religions, but at least their followers can tell you what they believe in within a minute. As one of the interviewees of the documentary points out, ask a Scientologist what they believe and they'll have to get back to you seven to eight years and hundreds of thousands of dollars later.

The thing I loved the most about the documentary are the speeches by David Miscavige. He uses so many words but never says a damn thing. It's theatre of the absurd and it's hilarious and frightening to watch.

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What I found surprising was how the cult has dwindled in numbers drastically over the past few years. While the Church obviously exaggerated membership figures, you still got the impression there were at least a million or two in the '90s. Now there's apparently just 50,000. Still, if 50,000 people pay on average $2000 more (a conservative guess seeing as they fleece everyone for what they have and they have mega-rich celebrities pooling their money as well), that's $100 million a year.

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I haven't watched this yet but plan to, but what always gets me is the bashing. Not saying is doesn't deserve it but when people bash Scientology, it's OK. But if people bash Christianity or something of the like, people lose their minds. Regardless of what you believe in, why is it OK to bash one religion but not other? Very double sided and that's why any organized religion is bad.

Scientology is still crazy fun, though. And I still love Tom Cruise.

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I haven't watched this yet but plan to, but what always gets me is the bashing. Not saying is doesn't deserve it but when people bash Scientology, it's OK. But if people bash Christianity or something of the like, people lose their minds. Regardless of what you believe in, why is it OK to bash one religion but not other? Very double sided and that's why any organized religion is bad.

Scientology is still crazy fun, though. And I still love Tom Cruise.

Watch the film then decide whether there's a reason why people bash Scientology so easily.

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Can't see difference between Scientology and the church. I mean they story is like Jesus walks on water and turns water to wine, there's a god that never shows up, everyone's donating money for nothing. I'm paraphrasing but give a few hundred years L. Ron will be wearing his halo tight, one hand his phaser and other in the devils.

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What I found surprising was how the cult has dwindled in numbers drastically over the past few years. While the Church obviously exaggerated membership figures, you still got the impression there were at least a million or two in the '90s. Now there's apparently just 50,000. Still, if 50,000 people pay on average $2000 more (a conservative guess seeing as they fleece everyone for what they have and they have mega-rich celebrities pooling their money as well), that's $100 million a year.

I don't find it at all surprising. Prior to being entirely exposed over the last ten to fifteen years no one outside of the higher echelons really knew what they "believed" and recruits certainly didn't know what were actually signing up too. They were masters of gradual indoctrination. They used to hold off on revealing the Xenu the Galactic Overlord fuckery until a member was fully psychologically, financially and socially entrenched. Now it's common knowledge. The more you know about Scientology...let's just say mystery made things a lot easier for them.

Edited by Angelica
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  • 1 month later...

What a real eye opener. I now feel bad for a lot of the followers, even Travolta and Cruise. They were duped into the scam and now they have all this scandalous information against them. I think what upsets me the most is the woman not being able to see her granddaughter because her own daughter disconnected from her. And the Tom Cruise girlfriend think was beyond fucked up. Too bad they didn't get the actress Nazanin Boniadi to speak, but I guess they didn't want to upset Miscavige who no doubt has a file on her. She is Muslim now.


I really hope the IRS goes after them again.


What I found surprising was how the cult has dwindled in numbers drastically over the past few years. While the Church obviously exaggerated membership figures, you still got the impression there were at least a million or two in the '90s. Now there's apparently just 50,000. Still, if 50,000 people pay on average $2000 more (a conservative guess seeing as they fleece everyone for what they have and they have mega-rich celebrities pooling their money as well), that's $100 million a year.

A lot of the top "lieutenants" seem to be dropping out of the Church though some remain scientologists just not apart of the Church. It baffles me they believe some of Hubbard's bullshit. The guy made it all up just to get rich. And what a scumbag he was.

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What a real eye opener. I now feel bad for a lot of the followers, even Travolta and Cruise. They were duped into the scam and now they have all this scandalous information against them. I think what upsets me the most is the woman not being able to see her granddaughter because her own daughter disconnected from her. And the Tom Cruise girlfriend think was beyond fucked up. Too bad they didn't get the actress Nazanin Boniadi to speak, but I guess they didn't want to upset Miscavige who no doubt has a file on her. She is Muslim now.

I'm glad they didn't manage to blackball her in Hollywood, she was super lovely in Homeland.

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