Scientology. What is it exactly?

[Shell Beau]

I really don't understand it. What are the core beliefs?

[Love Bug]

1. Go to here:

www.religioustolerance.org and do a search on scientology.

[salvorhardin]

5. Handy link

This should directly answer to OP's question.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol1.htm

[Swede]

2. It'll cost you for those answers.

Their core belief is money.

[sundog]

3. high dollar beards bought & sold

:P

[salvorhardin]

4. Xenu.net (Operation Clambake)

is the definitive source on the Scientology cult.
http://www.xenu.net

[Shell Beau]

6. All I can say is Wow!

Very strange, but whatever floats your boat!:o :crazy: :shrug:

[salvorhardin]

8. I'm not sure how to interpret your response

I don't know what you meant by adding "whatever floats your boat!" Was that directed to me or to the Scientology beliefs or to the anti-Scientology information at xenu,net?

[Shell Beau]

9. No, not at you. At the info I got from the site.

I am not sure what you believe, so I would never direct something like that at you. Sorry for the confusion! I was really referring to Tom Cruise donating in other people's names. That would hack me off if I were the other people and that wasn't my belief, but it said many people donated to anti- cult studies in his name. So I guess they are even. I don't understand scientology at all, it is weird to me, but I respect people's choices to believe how they wish!

[salvorhardin]

Heh -- no problem

I'm in a very literal frame of mind today and it's virtually impossible for me to detect nuance when I get this way. :-)

Yeah, Scientology is tres bizarre. The persistent rumour is that L. Ron Hubbard started it to win a bar bet with fellow science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Actually, Operation Clambake ...

... is a collection of definitive anti-Scientology information.

On the other hand, since it contains much more factual information than the pro-Scientology sites, it isn't quite as biased as it might seem. Which does not speak well for Scientology.

--p!

[sam sarrha]

10. they do some really WEIRD shit.. serious mind control with the "Cans"

they charge you up the F'n Wazoo for the opportunity to brainwash you.. i kid you not... and it is all training so you can go out and bring in more.. they scared the Crap out of my friend and i in Portland.

he just talked to them and took the first seminar.. the training resulted in his astral projecting and the trainer was out of his body waiting for him.. he nodded and they both floated back down into their bodies.. while Randy was still hyperventilating they tried to get him to sign a contract for $10,000 to continue the training.

I have done that many times and we had talked about it. he never went back.. he also gave them a fake name and address.. 2 days later he got a letter from them at his fathers house whom he was visiting and he had not seen in 25 years.. 1000 miles from where we lived.. :hide:

[MrBenchley]

11. The core belief of scientology

is that very stupid people can be parted from their dough if they're confused enough...

The cult was started by science fiction writer and con artist L. Ron Hubbard, using a few scraps he dredged up from a California Aliester Crowley cult he was hanging out with...for an interesting book on the era in which scientology was born, see "Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons" by George Pendle.

Basicalky, the sales pitch is that you've been printed with "engrams" from before you were born, and only by being "audited" (i.e., fleeced and browbeaten) can you become "clear." When scientology first started, people who became "clear" were supposed to be able to walk through walls and levitate; today they can get jobs in middle management.

Much horsecrap along those lines can be found in "Dianetics," a book that is often referred to by scientologists as a best seller because of the cult's bulk book-buying penchant.

[ET Awful]

15. You forgot to mention that as part of their bulk book-buying, they often

re-ship the same books as new back to the retailers via their wholesale channels. There have been cases of employees at Waldenbooks and the like opening up a shipment and finding Barnes & Noble stickers already on the books.

[MrBenchley]

20. Good point...

They also have to destroy older editions from time to time....as the claims for what "clears" can do grow ever more modest...

[El Fuego]

19. L. Ron Hubbard said...

"If you want to get rich, start your own religion."

[MrBenchley]

21. And so he did....

Worth noting that Hubbard had to spend his last years out at sea, unable to sail into any territorial waters lest he be nabbed by cops for credit card fraud....

[Heidi]

12. This is only my opinion . . .

but my opinion is shaped in part by the fact that Scientology does not have tax-exempt status as a religion in Germany. My opinion is that Scientology is a business that competes with mainstream mental health services, but has no authority to dispense the psychiatric care and therapeutic pharmaceuticals which have saved the lives of some of my loved ones.

Also, I am extremely disappointed that Tom Cruise, who has no professional mental health experience but is a very vocal Scientologist, has publicly declared war on psychiatry.

Folks, I don't no more want Tom Cruise influencing health care policy than I want Jerry Falwell influencing it. End of mini-rant.

[Shell Beau]

14. Agree with you on your rant!!!!

[Dr.Phool]

16. Their World Headquarters is in Clearwater

About 10 miles from me. They own half of downtown, and every now and then I drive by, and watch the zombies. All dressed the same, and they all have the same shit-eating glazed-over gin on their face.

And Tom Cruise is building a new house (mansion) about 2 miles from me.

There goes the neighborhood.

[mr blur]

18. But it's NOT a religion, it's a cult

unless one is willing to actually willing to "worship" a money-grabbing, lying hack writer who realised that he caould make a lot of money by "starting a religion".

Check out "Bare Faced Messiah" by Russell Miller for the inside, almost unbelievable, story behind this scam. Almost unbelievable that so many people would get taken in by this garbage

[Heidi]

24. Well, I feel the same way about some Christian religions . . .

but I don't flip out about any religion or "cult" if they're not influencing public policy and getting tax breaks under the guise of religion. Frankly, I don't care _what_ cult any adult belongs to, as long as they don't use their "clout" to influence public policy.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

13. Just a way for Hubbard to get laid.

[Hubert Flottz]

17. Apliantology is more my speed!

At the first Church Of Apliantology, home of the Rev L ron Hoover!

Google Joes Garage Lyrics!

[progressoid]

22. one of my all fime faves!

[deutsey]

25. "Doan you be tarot-fied

It's just a token of my extreme." Joe's Garage, Acts II and III.

Ah, Zappa.

[progressoid]

23. Watch the movie "Repo Man"

There is a great subplot involving 'Diuretics'!

[Zuni]

26. bullshit

[gauguin57]

27. Here's the Time Magazine package that convinced me Scientology

IS the CULT OF GREED! They truly are EVIL. And every celebrity who shills for them should be ashamed of themselves. They're responsible for deaths, and for harrassment (and worse) toward those who try to investigate them.

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html

(read to the end, about what the Scientologists did to this Time reporter (criminally harrassing him and his family). this cult is DISGUSTING!)

[ET Awful]

28. If you think that's bad, do some research into what they did to

Lisa McPherson.

Then look at what they did to Keith Henson.