I had some acquaintances over to my house who live in Hollywood. Their take on the Scientology was that the group had uses their “therapy” to get in-the-closet gay celebs to get involved using a similar message to the Chrisitan groups that “cure the gay.” Then they would basically blackmail them that they would reveal the truth if they didn’t keep forking over the dough. Also, like a lot of these spiritual things that go in vogue with the Hollywood set, the celebs are treated all special and have their own spaces where they are separated from the riff raff - are a recruiting tool for them to con the smaller fish into trying it.
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Scientology had its own schools at one time - I forget the name of them offhand. I met a teacher from one of those schools and he showed me around. Actually reminded me most of Montessori schools in the elementary grades - indie study, student contracts. Nothing particularly freaky. I mean, holy crud! A dictionary in a classroom?! Demonstrating what you learned for a teacher?! Radical! Those public schools, man…going to hell in a woven container with a handle on it!
FWIW, ‘lowest test scores in the Tampa Bay area’ is pretty meaningless. They have a complete range of some really bad and really good schools near Tampa. It’s a metro area with surrounding 'burbs of all the usual descriptions, and the school districts to match. And some kind of local county competitive thing - Pasco vs. Pinellas, with supposedly a majority of idiots inhabiting Pasco (according to people in Pinellas). But that’s also ordinary in metro areas. Loads of private schools in the areas with gated communities and oddball McMansion ‘estates’, not so much in the city, etc.
But, you want to talk about a place with some strange cults? That’s the place to go! Out around the edges are agricultural areas with large lots, and on some of those lots are places you would see in documentaries about people who’ve disappeared and such. Trying to remember the name of one…"World-something-something’…the full name escapes at the moment. Extreme Xtian cult, also operates in Canada? They are there. Pinellas Cty, iirc.
To be fair, if I had to live in my own parents house at 20, I would’ve considered that a punishment in itself…and I’d probably have done some serious drinking over it, too.
The point wasn’t to extoll the virtues of more traditional religions it was to further deride scientologists by telling them their beliefs aren’t considered a religion by many 
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There are used e-Meters around. Scientology just came out with a “new” one (which has been sitting in a warehouse for almost a decade) that has a USB connector. You plug it into a computer to “activate” it for a year, and can only activate it if you’re paid up and compliant.
The software for the computer is available for download by anyone, and an examination of the files turned up a “brick” function, which presumably lets the software render the connected e-Meter non-functional.
I’m not sure anyone -has- to live with their parents after 20. See my point a little clearer now?
As I mentioned just now to milliefink the “proper religions” bit was just a mean jab
IRT the Amish a big difference is that (and obviously this doesn’t happen in all Amish communities) Amish children are encouraged in their late teens to go out and experience the world for a period of time after which they are free to choose whether they remain part of the Amish community or to go and join secular society. If they choose to leave they are not excluded from visiting the community and their families are not told or encouraged to refuse contact with them (as is the case with scientology). What they miss out on is living in the community and being able to participate in the peculiar (but fascinating) sharing economy of their community, but really… if you’ve decided that you don’t want to live a traditional Amish life then you’d probably not want to live in the community anyway.
Anyway religion is whack. That’s all I know, but it seems to me (as an entirely non religious person) that some beliefs result in worse outcomes for their believers than others.
If you’re interested in checking out a doco on the Amish thing I mentioned it’s worth watching Meet The Amish - a doco in which Amish teens explain their lives and are then sent to meet other kids of varied backgrounds to their own.
Got your point just fine, but still - wouldn’t be my idea of a good time.
Actually at tonyortega.org, he’s got up a post about OT III right now. If you haven’t been following this trainwreck, now’s the time. It seems to be entering the endgame, falling apart quickly.
That’s pretty much what I meant to say. 12 step programs and cults can have similar features because they’re both systems designed to modify behavior and thought from an ostensibly voluntary beginning, although some cases are more voluntary than others.
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I’m a millennial, and while my parents and I have our differences, we get along quite well. At the time I was still going to technical school, and couldn’t get a job interview to save my life. I basically had nowhere to go, which is why I felt so coerced and was so angry. It was a choice of living by their rules or on the street, and I wasn’t willing to live on the street because I knew how much it sucked from friends who had to do it.
So, in other words, you have no clue what goes on in Scientology schools. Culties don’t give outsiders the actual rundown without the Purification Rundown.
I’ve got to agree that “insane” is unsupported here. OK, Scientology has its own jargon – we all knew that. But so do almost all specialized fields, and many that aren’t so specialized – it’s just more efficient to be able to refer to a concept using a single word rather than spelling it out in detail every time. It’s not hard to come up with examples which look just as weird to someone who hasn’t seen that usage before.
I’m not especially fond of Scientology, but the reaction says more about the reader than the writer.
You must’ve missed the part with the b-i-l in the Sea Org, then. After he and the ex’s bff both left, we had many wide-open conversations on the topic. If there was any such stuff, they sure didn’t know about it.
And, you’re confusing the Purification Rundown with getting clear. The Purification rundown is their detox program. B12, saunas, exercise…no major secrets there.
Yeah, it was a poor attempt at a pun.
Regardless, http://tonyortega.org/2013/11/18/exclusive-first-interview-with-the-principal-of-will-jada-smiths-shuttered-scientology-school/ you again don’t understand what’s going on with Scientology schools.
And you must’ve missed the part where it was their own private school, run by them according to their own dictates. And that has nothing to do with the schools I mentioned, beyond the use of the same study methodology - which even Ortega (Underground Bunker? Seriously?) refers to as ‘common sense’. If you’re not into Scientology, I’m absolutely fine with that. I’m not, either. But there’s no L. Ron Hubbard boogeyman space alien under the bed, even if you’d like it better that way, lol.
We got a 'Really Insane" note somebody dug out of somebody else’s trash and fed to the press (goooo, Hollywood!), that doesn’t appear to to have been insane at all, ironically thought to be so because of MU’s (which is the best part of the whole thing, really), and a monster pile-up of gossip spread by Hollywood rags and internet conspiracy theory wtf crap? Hard not to criticize other people’s life decisions whilst arguing from a strong position like that…
Jesus H. Martinez, and all his good drinkin’ buddies! Just, call me when it’s time to ‘prove’ that Masonic Illuminati are secretly running the world again…it’s probably printed in code on a Tic Tac label discarded suspiciously close to Krushev’s grave, or something.
I’m very surprised that a family member of a Clam isn’t interested in researching the specifics and trusts what the Church states uncritically.
I’m sure you’re very active on Wikipedia as well.
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Hardly. But I do have to thank you for the laughs. The very best humor is always the unintended kind.
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