I don't get the sadistic musical chairs game. They are supposed to beat each other up to prove their loyalty and dedication? Seriously, at this point who the hell would even consider joining this freak show?
@heywhat: It's just like the Hell's Angels, another religion which lost its tax-free status somehow.
Quick question: Who has the most education, this Miscavige creep or Lens Lohan? He dropped out in 10th grade; does she have even higher education than that? Just triangulating. How far in school did Tom Cruise go? How about Travolta?
One of the means of keeping them down on the farm is that the minions of Miscavige had no job skills to go elsewhere, what with the mob being in a recession and all.
@Tremonius: Well, La Lohan was home schooled, I think, through 9th or 10th grade. Cruise swears his dyslexia was cured through Scientology but I think he did graduate from high school. Same with Travolta.
I don't know much about cults because the second an organization asks me for money, this includes the baptist church I grew up in, I start to asking questions and immediately become skeptical. Plus, I'm a tightwad. But I believe the ritualistic violence stuff and the keeping people uneducated and isolated. With Scientology, it seems like they try to attract the people who are beyond ambitious and driven but lost and insecure.
@heywhat: Every cult has to dredge the street. There was a New Yorker cartoon once where J Upper Eastside was standing at a table set up by a crazed moonie and saying to his wife, "You go along home, Margaret; I'm going to join this young man's cult."
It affects the message even. Jesus spent a lot of time reassuring the poors because all he could attract for a team was a bunch of dumb fishers. So it was all, the last shall be first blah blah and the riches and the camel-eyed needle. You think he'd be running that riff if the Pharisees had jumped onboard from get-go? Then in place of Render Unto Caesar it would be straight tax cut city.
@FiddleFaddle: None of your list ever met the Big C, and their bios are extremely dubious speculation. All Paul would say was that he was "the chief of sinners." The mythical Jesus recruited only fishers, and none of those you cite, and perhaps none of them actually existed and there is no resume found for any of them. But, then, for that, there is no data within a hundred years of the life of Jesus, and writers who left scores of reports of the era somehow unaccountably failed to mention this worker of miracles "followed by multitudes."
We might as well be discussing what exactly was Dorothy's job on that Kansas farm.
@FiddleFaddle: Yeah, like Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts and even that slimy little Dohbya. But when the mythical Jesus was organizing his garage band, he, as most gurus, went for the disaffected outcast. You have happy billionaire telehuckster moneylenders today who mine the mantle, but that's not where the original pitch was. Every parable and speech spoke to the least among you, the poor, the alienated, the likely subject for radical recruiting forevermore, amen.
Thanks to St Pete Times. It's a good piece of work, with two more articles to come. But it is a remix of stories known for years, and these talkers were players, may still be players, and were complicit in many evil acts. Forced marriages, abortions, divorces. Separating children from their parents, shipping them off to service at 11, 12, 13. What about the secret gulag of prisons; how the elderly are treated (what is the average life-span for scientologists), these are issues that matter now and that are observed by the astute critics in Hollywood, Hemet and Clearwater.
Let's find out about medical treatment for children with disabilities. Dig into the Apple Schools and the network of shady businesses. And let's examine how they infiltrate public schools with their anti-drug front organizations. And how they poison members with the hilarious purification process, which should be closely examined by the FDA, not to mention provision of counseling and medical services without proper licensing and evaluation. What could it be like to have MS as a scientologist? How do they care for the sick and elderly? This is not simply a kooky California church/cult, this is a dangerous dangerous organization.
Dig deeper, please. It goes so much deeper, wider, whackier. We want to know more about CURRENT government infiltration, what's up with the Riverside County (California, where the *Gold Base* headquarters of scientology has been carved out of the desert) Board of Supervisors, the cult's superstar enablers, and the winks and nods among high-ranking friends in the LAPD. Watch Riverside County goings-on, the most entertaining for now, with great big thanks to Angry Gay Pope (google this, and get some laughs, too!)
Oh, and by the way, where is Shelley Miscavige? Anybody know? Is she in Mary Sue Hubbard's former home up in Los Feliz? Does she have a child, against cult procedures? Has she been retired as Davey plays around with his secretary?
These articles are good for laying the foundation for the public's right and need to know, but there's nothing new here. Still the SPT creates a foundation of knowledge that is on the record.
Thanks to St Petersburg Times for engaging in this discussion and documenting some of the so-called church's crimes.
Do not think that these guys are not dangerous. Scientology is very very dangerous and is not healthy for children. What is it like to be a gay scientologist? The so-called church was a donor for Prop 8 in Calif.
Scientology should be completely dismantled and made to be financially responsible for reparations, including education and job training, for its members. It is all about money.
Free Katie. Save Suri. RIP Jett Travolta, Lisa McPherson.
It's true that this is old news, but every little bit helps. This information is new to casual readers who don't follow the stories of Scientology abuses.
The fact that Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder have finally spoken up is HUGE. Hopefully more will follow.
I love the SPT. They've got a load of articles from the early 1980s, or whenever it was that Scientology first landed in Florida, chronicling how that shit went down. Absolutely fascinating reading, and totally sinister.
Good on their reporters, who definitely know what they're getting into and did it anyhow.
Ok - I seriously don't understand this. If Miscavige even looked cross-eyed at me, I'd break all his fingers. Come on people - how can anyone qualified to walk the streets of New York allow a Miscavige to do ANYTHING to them? Is Miscavige immune to pepper spray?
@Hey_mikey: I think the position of power is intimidating. You know, hurt Miscavige there's probably quite a few dummies ready to defend his "honor." He looks like a passive-aggressive kind of guy too, that often perplexes folks. He's nothing a good old-fashioned back hand couldn't cure.
@jasonelias: Yeah, you see what a sissy shrimp was that Michael Corleone? Looked like anybody could push him over.
I can never detect the charm of some hustlers. Maybe that's why they have to go where the dumbs live, in Hollywood, and then the geese follow along. I'm going to read the articles just to find out who in the world is impressed by this nonsense.
Remember est? The sleazebag who raped his daughters and then fled the country before arrest was considered a guru in his day, and I never understood the draw. He always looked to me like some slime who would rape his daughters.
@Tremonius: When it comes to diminutive men and people being scared of them, I've got to think about Sonny Bono. Cher had a time with him. Don't know why, Cher and her mom could have easily taken him, he was 5'2 and a half.
I remember that guy and that EST stuff. Checked him up online to refresh my memory, he's totally creepy. I don't know why a lot of these folks/celebrities love Scientology. I've got theories why people like Tom Cruise got hooked into it, I'll never know how they got Issac Hayes.
Are Scientologists bullet-proof? I mean, how are they able to boss people around? Don't the police have powers over Scientologists? I've just never understood how they are able to falsely imprison folks etc...
I believe that the authorities went out to Gold Base to check on folks who were being falsely imprisoned. The people in question insisted that they were fine, so there was nothing the police could do.
The people trapped there are well aware that if they speak up, there will be dire consequences of some kind, and they are too afraid to disrupt the status quo.
I believe that a German gentleman just passed away there recently from multiple sclerosis at about age 46. He was denied medical care and must have suffered horribly. His family in Germany can't even get any information about him. Very sad situation.
No doubt "Bohemian Rhapsody" has some teenage, 70s symbolism for Miscaviage. He probably inflicts pain via this song because he was in pain. It was either playing musical chairs to this or "Chevy Van."
"If a body-blocking, cutthroat game of musical chairs scored to Queen isn't enough to help you form an opinion about the place..."
It does. I never had much use for this cult, but now I want in. I love Queen, I love party games and organized violence can be fun. I could be a tremendous asset to these people. I have absolutely no fear of Xenu. I'm also completely impervious to the infulence of Thetans crawling on me.
Too bad they didn't report on the outcome of the "game." What apparently happened was, the situation deteriorated so badly that chairs were broken. The eventual "losers" were told that they were being shipped to Scientology outposts in third-world countries the following morning, and to say their goodbyes to their families, pack their few belongings, and to sleep on the floor, awaiting their transportation.
Turned out, NOTHING HAPPENED. Nobody got shipped anywhere, it was just a big mind-fuck.
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
Quick question: Who has the most education, this Miscavige creep or Lens Lohan? He dropped out in 10th grade; does she have even higher education than that? Just triangulating. How far in school did Tom Cruise go? How about Travolta?
One of the means of keeping them down on the farm is that the minions of Miscavige had no job skills to go elsewhere, what with the mob being in a recession and all.
06/21/09
I don't know much about cults because the second an organization asks me for money, this includes the baptist church I grew up in, I start to asking questions and immediately become skeptical. Plus, I'm a tightwad. But I believe the ritualistic violence stuff and the keeping people uneducated and isolated. With Scientology, it seems like they try to attract the people who are beyond ambitious and driven but lost and insecure.
06/21/09
It affects the message even. Jesus spent a lot of time reassuring the poors because all he could attract for a team was a bunch of dumb fishers. So it was all, the last shall be first blah blah and the riches and the camel-eyed needle. You think he'd be running that riff if the Pharisees had jumped onboard from get-go? Then in place of Render Unto Caesar it would be straight tax cut city.
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/22/09
06/22/09
06/22/09
We might as well be discussing what exactly was Dorothy's job on that Kansas farm.
06/22/09
06/21/09
Let's find out about medical treatment for children with disabilities. Dig into the Apple Schools and the network of shady businesses. And let's examine how they infiltrate public schools with their anti-drug front organizations. And how they poison members with the hilarious purification process, which should be closely examined by the FDA, not to mention provision of counseling and medical services without proper licensing and evaluation. What could it be like to have MS as a scientologist? How do they care for the sick and elderly? This is not simply a kooky California church/cult, this is a dangerous dangerous organization.
Dig deeper, please. It goes so much deeper, wider, whackier. We want to know more about CURRENT government infiltration, what's up with the Riverside County (California, where the *Gold Base* headquarters of scientology has been carved out of the desert) Board of Supervisors, the cult's superstar enablers, and the winks and nods among high-ranking friends in the LAPD. Watch Riverside County goings-on, the most entertaining for now, with great big thanks to Angry Gay Pope (google this, and get some laughs, too!)
Oh, and by the way, where is Shelley Miscavige? Anybody know? Is she in Mary Sue Hubbard's former home up in Los Feliz? Does she have a child, against cult procedures? Has she been retired as Davey plays around with his secretary?
These articles are good for laying the foundation for the public's right and need to know, but there's nothing new here. Still the SPT creates a foundation of knowledge that is on the record.
Thanks to St Petersburg Times for engaging in this discussion and documenting some of the so-called church's crimes.
Do not think that these guys are not dangerous. Scientology is very very dangerous and is not healthy for children. What is it like to be a gay scientologist? The so-called church was a donor for Prop 8 in Calif.
Scientology should be completely dismantled and made to be financially responsible for reparations, including education and job training, for its members. It is all about money.
Free Katie. Save Suri. RIP Jett Travolta, Lisa McPherson.
06/22/09
It's true that this is old news, but every little bit helps. This information is new to casual readers who don't follow the stories of Scientology abuses.
The fact that Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder have finally spoken up is HUGE. Hopefully more will follow.
06/21/09
Good on their reporters, who definitely know what they're getting into and did it anyhow.
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
I can never detect the charm of some hustlers. Maybe that's why they have to go where the dumbs live, in Hollywood, and then the geese follow along. I'm going to read the articles just to find out who in the world is impressed by this nonsense.
Remember est? The sleazebag who raped his daughters and then fled the country before arrest was considered a guru in his day, and I never understood the draw. He always looked to me like some slime who would rape his daughters.
06/21/09
06/21/09
I remember that guy and that EST stuff. Checked him up online to refresh my memory, he's totally creepy. I don't know why a lot of these folks/celebrities love Scientology. I've got theories why people like Tom Cruise got hooked into it, I'll never know how they got Issac Hayes.
06/21/09
06/23/09
06/21/09
06/22/09
I believe that the authorities went out to Gold Base to check on folks who were being falsely imprisoned. The people in question insisted that they were fine, so there was nothing the police could do.
The people trapped there are well aware that if they speak up, there will be dire consequences of some kind, and they are too afraid to disrupt the status quo.
I believe that a German gentleman just passed away there recently from multiple sclerosis at about age 46. He was denied medical care and must have suffered horribly. His family in Germany can't even get any information about him. Very sad situation.
This cult can't fold up soon enough to suit me.
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
It does. I never had much use for this cult, but now I want in. I love Queen, I love party games and organized violence can be fun. I could be a tremendous asset to these people. I have absolutely no fear of Xenu. I'm also completely impervious to the infulence of Thetans crawling on me.
06/22/09
Seriously, musical chairs with hitting. What's not to love?
06/22/09
To Chillbear:
Too bad they didn't report on the outcome of the "game." What apparently happened was, the situation deteriorated so badly that chairs were broken. The eventual "losers" were told that they were being shipped to Scientology outposts in third-world countries the following morning, and to say their goodbyes to their families, pack their few belongings, and to sleep on the floor, awaiting their transportation.
Turned out, NOTHING HAPPENED. Nobody got shipped anywhere, it was just a big mind-fuck.
06/21/09
06/22/09
06/21/09
06/21/09
06/21/09