What is the attraction to Scientology?

Jackovarian

Just wondering, why do you think people get involved in Scientology so easily?

A slim oppurtunity to sniff Katie Holmes knickers

Elessar

Brainwashing, in a nutshell.

NedTermo

Elessar wrote: »

Brainwashing, in a nutshell.

Small brain to fit in there.

FearDark

Southpark made it look cool anyways.

Gingervitis

http://www.cracked.com/article/85_6-bull****-facts-about-psychology-that-everyone-believes/

Have a look at #4: "Cult Members are Stupid, Gullible Sheep!"

Salvelinus

mental ilness/insecurity
bang crazy chicks
quick money
all of the above

Jackovarian

Even after all the horror stories. The fact that you have to pay. The brainwashing. Why do people believe in this rubbish?

Like, it was made up by a science-fiction writer, who obviously seen that more money was to be made by turning one of his stories into a religion...

People probably just do it because its fashionable to do so, and they have absolutely no intelligence.

Biggins

Love bombing
Quick fixes(?) to seemingly complex problems.
The status of (dumb) celebs espousing the cult!

...that and the fact that all those of limited foresight are all under the one roof occasionally, so they find it easier to get on with one another with their limited intellect and poor comprehension skills - which is unable to see "the wood from the trees".

Rented Mule

The book Dianetics works for some people.

They conveniently leave out the story about the aliens living under the volcano stuff until they have your credit card information.

Pygmalion

If you've actually looked at the core beliefs of scientology from the beginning it's easy to see why people believe it.

When you first join scientology you're told very little (pretty much none) of the crazy beliefs, you're pretty much told that bad experiences in your life can cause problems in the future and that by talking about them and getting over them you'll end up happier and less stressed, and this works for many people.

You pretty much "work your way up" (for want of a better phrase) to the crazy ****, at the start it's perfectly reasonable, then they tell you a bit of crazy stuff but you're thinking "Hey, if Scientology has worked me for so far then maybe they're right" and you start to accept what they tell you, in a way I'd consider it brainwashing, or at least exploiting the trust that you've built up in order to keep them paying.

By the time you get to the stuff about aliens and volcanoes and stuff you might have been a member for years and have spent 10s of thousands of euro in total, even if you don't believe it (and by that stage many people are willing to believe anything that the Church tells them) a lot of people don't want to admit that they've been wrong the whole time, after losing all that money and time, and possibly some friends and family along the way.

dlofnep

Same as any religion, except for Scientology is much more cunning and actively tries to lure people in.

javaboy

Cults attract vulnerable, impressionable and if the monthly "cult in summer bay" Home and Away storylines are to be believed, very hot chicks.

Why wouldn't you join?

ScumLord

I thought Scientology was just a fad religion for the rich. I've never really heard of too many normal people joining it. Heard very little about it at all since the Cruise highlighted just how crazy the members are.

Nolanger

It tries to rid all the negative mind crap you built up in school from bullying or from your parents?

AnonoBoy

Scientology is not a cult.

I firmly believe they are the answer to humanity's problems.

Please desist from bad mouthing our fine fine religion just because you can't understand its amazingly helpful beliefs and practices.

Sincerely,

Tom Cruise. AnonoBoy.

sky88

i think people join it cause they think they will meet some celebritys

jumpguy

At least one scientology will come in and call us bigots haha. Anywho, basically, watch the scientology episode of south park, and the big with aliens, spirits and volcanoes and the caption "This is what scientologists actually believe" pretty much explains it.

Kazooie

If you ever go to New York I'd recommend going to the Church off Times Square. We went in and they showed us a 15 minute video about Dianetics. Never laughed as much in my life. Gave a fake name and legged it. They never mentioned the aliens and crap which disappointed me..

They do pray on the insecure and vulnerable for sure.

Kold

Out of interest, is there a HQ in Dublin?

Biggins

Kold wrote: »

Out of interest, is there a HQ in Dublin?

Yes.
Church of Scientology Mission of Dublin & Hubbard Dianetics Foundation
62-63 Middle Abbey Street

http://www.scientology-dublin.org/

Its not as glam as its website. Its a dirty old black door and the HQ is one floor rooms on a first floor.
The whole building is externally filthy. Have protested outside it myself.

Salvelinus

Kold wrote: »

Out of interest, is there a HQ in Dublin?

Used to be a few freaks around Abbey Street offering personality tests. I fell for it once as I was bored waiting for a friend. it's only when I sat down did I see the scientology references.

Dozen Wicked Words

nana, nana nana nana, Leader, nana nana nana nana Leader, nana nana nana nana Leader, Leader, Leader.

A place awaits you on the planet Blisstonia.

My name is URL

It's the greatest pyramid scheme ever dreamt up

Biggins

The Irish protest group: http://anoneire.ning.com/

Also see: http://www.unitedpeople.ie/exposed.html

CPT. SURF

Biggins wrote: »

Yes.
Church of Scientology Mission of Dublin & Hubbard Dianetics Foundation
62-63 Middle Abbey Street

http://www.scientology-dublin.org/

Its not as glam as its website. Its a dirty old black door and the HQ is one floor rooms on a first floor.
The whole building is externally filthy. Have protested outside it myself.

Out of interest, why?

Biggins

CPT. SURF wrote: »

Out of interest, why?

Had a friend who was sucked into it.
Was requested by the family to extract said person as I was the only one capable of doing it with available resources to hand.

CPT. SURF

Biggins wrote: »

Had a friend who was sucked into it.
Was requested by the family to extract said person as I was the only one capable of doing it with available resources to hand.

Did you get him/her out of it? I have heard that people who leave the church are just as bat sh1t crazy as those who remain involved. Like they still believe in the teachings but not the organization's methods/practices/etc.

deman

People join so that if they should ever happen upon a road accident, they can stop and help. Because nobody else will help the injured. According to the Word of our Lord Tom. :-)

Kold

deman wrote: »

People join so that if they should ever happen upon a road accident, they can stop and help. Because nobody else will help the injured. According to the Word of our Lord Tom. :-)

However if they want a blood transfusion, they can f*ck off.

Biggins

CPT. SURF wrote: »

Did you get him/her out of it? I have heard that people who leave the church are just as bat sh1t crazy as those who remain involved. Like they still believe in the teachings but not the organization's methods/practices/etc.

You will understand if I am sparing with details. Yes, got the person away from them.
Folk that come out of it are not "nuts" as such. They train of thought process however has been altered in a way that they are made to see things different.
For (one) example: they are taught that anything that disagrees with their way of life or thinking process is either just pure evil and/or wrong from beginning to end.

Depending on the deep level of comprehension skills that have been altered, each individual case of those effected can take different time periods in which to regain a somewhat normal everyday way of reasoning and thinking.

Salvelinus

Fair play to you for protesting. Did you get any backlash? I heard they can intimidate their protestors.

Biggins

Salvelinus wrote: »

Fair play to you for protesting. Did you get any backlash? I heard they can intimidate their protestors.

Not against me personally so far. I assume they have done their homework and checked me out anyway. They usually do.
It wouldn't be too hard. I have spoken out against them in the papers (Irish Times for example) with my name included.
I can only assume from what they might have found out about me, I was not one to have a go at.
That said, I know of others whom were "intimidated" for speaking out simply against them.

BrokenArrows

Scientology is not that popular. Besides the amount of media coverage it has gotten not to mention southpark (brilliant episode by the way) their amount of members is small.

There members are thought be to in the 50-60,000 reaching a max of about 100,000 at some point.
info gotten here http://www.lermanet.com/howmany.htm

So really 50-60k is not really that popular for a world wide "religion".

lostexpectation

did you see they were handing out anti-pysch-drugs dvd and stuff in bray after that killing

chalad07

It's so funny that people look at all scientology's beliefs as crazy, but a miracle performing zombie with a split personality is fine!

Kalashnikov_Kid

Jackovarian wrote: »

Just wondering, why do you think people get involved in Scientology so easily?

Scientology is great, you should join.

Lodge some money in my account and I'll tell you more...

ejmaztec

They'll end up slugging it out with the Raëlians, whose founder also had alien encounters.:eek:

Pygmalion

ejmaztec wrote: »

They'll end up slugging it out with the Raëlians, whose founder also had alien encounters.:eek:

L. Ron (founder of scientology) never encountered them himself as far as I know, he just someone knew the exact details of what happened 10s of millions of years ago, to the extent that he even knew what the spaceships looked like.

Some would question where he got his knowledge of this since all but one of the people involved are dead AFAIK, and the other has been trapped in a volcano since then and there's no written records.

ElaElaElano

I've spent the last three months compiling loads of information, personal accounts etc. of Scientology as part of an article, my concern though is that they'll start harassing me as they have done with others in the past. There was a case in the 90s of a Sunday Times journalist who wrote a lengthy exposé on them, consequently they sued him (they have strong beliefs about journalists and refuse to engage in open debate with 'outsiders' about their beliefs) and when that was rejected by the courts, they started making accusations that he killed some bloke in a pub in London, followed up with rape allegations. This apparently went on for ages.

What drove me to learning about them was actually a close to home incident. My mam was seeing this hypnotherapist, who someone recommended to her. She's bi-polar and the idea was that this guy could rid her of it (silly, I know). So as these sessions progressed, his true colours started to come out and he advised her to stop taking antidepressants, claiming that they do more harm than good. Soon as she did this, straight into hospital after attempting to kill herself. When she told me about his methods and advice, I thought it sounded very familiar to Scientology and I wasn't wrong. His beliefs match theirs down to a tee, and yet remarkably he's still open for business.

When you get deep into peoples' personal accounts, some of the stuff is horrific. I mean the whole concept is laughable from the outside, but have a google of Scientology related deaths etc. Incredible.

Apparently once you reach a certain stage in the cult, they introduce you to their true beliefs, which you can't disclose to the outside world. They say that the alien Xenu from 75 million years ago sent particles of evil into each and every human being, through a spacecraft that looks like a standard airplane (haha!) and only through Scientology can you release these demons and become pure. Of course it all starts off very innocently with 'personality tests' on Grafton Street, which scientists have researched and discovered that no matter what combination of answers you give, the conclusion is the same- you're f*cked and only we can save you (at a cost).

I really feel more needs to be done to stop this cult. It's a massive money spinner in the US and at the expense of human life in a lot of cases. They may not have really broken through over here yet but even a few hundred new recruits a year is too many.

jill_valentine

The thing about South Park and Tom and all is that it makes the organisation look kind of harmlessly eccentric. It's not - they do real damage to real, normal people who turned to them looking for the help they promised. Canvassing in Bray is one example of how they go about it.

I've protested outside their HQ. Guy made a point of trying to photograph the faces of anybody who wasn't masked.

Ruu_Old

They prey on the vulnerable. The celebrity center thing is a great idea though, look how many people are fascinated with lives of celebrities and dream of following in their footsteps. They could be banned from France, maybe it will be a wake up call for other countries.

GLaDOS

http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

Scary video about supposed Scientology crimes

cuppa

Biggins wrote: »

Had a friend who was sucked into it.
Was requested by the family to extract said person as I was the only one capable of doing it with available resources to hand.

Cool,so how did you contact The A Team.
S

galwayrush

I find them amusing in their stupidity:pac:

galwayrush

Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggins :
Had a friend who was sucked into it.
Was requested by the family to extract said person as I was the only one capable of doing it with available resources to hand.

cuppa wrote: »

Cool,so how did you contact The A Team.
S

Threw him a snickers bar.;)

Biggins

The biggest mistake a person can make is to underestimate these money grabbing scum.

They are the only cult that has an official army, Sea Army (Sea-Org) and a full-time towering international investigation Branch (HQ at Whitewater, Florida). They have thousand of solicitors/lawyers on constant full-time legal work issuing liability claims and is staffed full-time by their own "Doctors" (but in cases exposed, shown not to be) and supposed trained "nurses".

Their power lies in the money that is being given to them.
In America their tax status is a national joke. They should not have got it plain and simple.
However due to their successful infiltration into areas such as the financial government departments and even the FBI (all on record) they managed to bring about their American "religious" status and so claim to be tax free there.

Their crime are widespread Across America and Europe, for example:
* http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/04/world/main3230599.shtml?source=search_story
* http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1023717.ece
* http://www.scientology-kills.org/cultattacks.htm
* http://youfoundthecard.com/scientology-kills.php

Currently members are on trial in France, Italy, Germany and America for similar crimes such as kidnapping, murder, rape and harassing ordinary citizens.

If anyone thinks they are just going to go away easily and we should just ignore them, the cult would want that!
Then they could carry on doing the money grabbing, family splitting, brainwashing antics they do...

More information on the cult can be found at the following sites:

www.xenu.net

www.factnet.org

www.scientologywatch.org

www.suppressiveperson.org/

www.spaink.net

www.narconon-exposed.org

www.studytech.org

www.modemac.com

www.truthaboutscientology.com

www.scientology-lies.com

www.lermanet.com

www.freedomofmind.com

www.altreligionscientology.org

www.xenutv.com

http://www.unitedpeople.ie/exposed.html

General Zod

They were handing out the CCHR DVD's in Bray after the recent killings?

oppertunist scum.

Sam Vimes

Pygmalion wrote: »

If you've actually looked at the core beliefs of scientology from the beginning it's easy to see why people believe it.

When you first join scientology you're told very little (pretty much none) of the crazy beliefs, you're pretty much told that bad experiences in your life can cause problems in the future and that by talking about them and getting over them you'll end up happier and less stressed, and this works for many people.

You pretty much "work your way up" (for want of a better phrase) to the crazy ****, at the start it's perfectly reasonable, then they tell you a bit of crazy stuff

I wouldn't say that exactly. I went into their place in Times Square for the laugh and they had myself and my girlfriend watch a video about how they can sure arthritis and asthma through the power of positive thought. One of the stories in the video was that a bloke was in a car crash and while semi-conscious one the ambulance drivers was complaining about his girlfriend and saying he was going to break up with her. The video said this conversation went into his "unconscious mind" or something like that. Then a few weeks later he was driving with his girlfriend and they had a near miss and this conversation came to the front of his mind and he broke up with his girlfriend because the other guy was talking about breaking up with his.

And eh.... they can fix that

After the video I said to the brainwasher that it was dangerous for them to claim they can cure asthma, mentioned the South Park episode with Xenu and the aliens and the guy walked off and left me

Biggins wrote: »

For (one) example: they are taught that anything that disagrees with their way of life or thinking process is either just pure evil and/or wrong from beginning to end.

Oh you mean like Christianity?

Kiith

Space aliens, Volcano's, DC-8 intergalactic airships....sounds like fun.

Biggins

Sam Vimes wrote: »

...Oh you mean like Christianity?

No, in like that you should completely walk away from such "evil" people right now even if they are your parents, wife or husband, children, etc right now!
Go, just leave...
Never get in contact with them, they are infected...
They are completely corrupt and you should come live with us, give us your body to do with what we please, we can take your money from as soon as you get it into your hands (if your lucky to even touch it at all), etc.

(http://www.xenutv.com/blog/?p=3333)

I'm an atheist, I have my own feelings about religion - BUT people should not attempt (in order to perhaps score points!) to compare Christianity or any other heartfelt genuine religion to the cult of Scientology.

There is a major, major difference in many ways but for one simple quick example: with the beginning of all foundations of all religions.
What is it?
Just ask a Scientologist whom is their equivalent of "Jesus" - Mohammed - Buddha, etc?
The average reply will be silence! There is none.

Their religion is a fraud convoluted by a man (shown also to be a liar, fraud and abuser) that once said on record "the best way to become rich, is to make your own religion".
Guess what? He did!

Don't even attempt to compare Christianity's teachings to the workings and ideological basis of Scientology.
Anyone with half a brain will see there is a gulf of difference.