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Tom Cruise is SO Toast: L.A. Times Frontpage Article
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Dec 18, 2005, 10:10 AM
 
I don't know what their motivation is or was, but the L.A. Times has run a piece today on Tom Cruise - an article that Tom Cruise refused to cooperate with.

There is a picture album, also, and once you look at the pictures you realize that there are eerie similarities between Scientology's base of operations and the base of operations of the dream factory in the movie Vanilla Sky.

After reading the article (below) and viewing all of the pictures (30 - I only hosted four: Tom Cruise in his Scientology "salute" with Miscavige, the head of the church right now and undoubtedly very wealthy from it; the receptionist at their center with the "stairway to enlightenment" pictured behind her; their CD manufacturing lab used to disseminate their philosophy all over the world; and one of their workers making an "e-meter" which Scientologists buy for $5000 to measure how "enlightened" they are), I am thoroughly convinced that Scientology - the church with no God - is a huge scam, hoax, fraud, or as the current thought goes, CULT.

I hardly see how Tom Cruise will recover from this negative exposure. I know from rumors that Tom set up a Scientology tent on the set of the movie War of the Worlds while working with Spielberg and that Spielberg was not happy.

A friend of mine is a man by the name of Mark Ebner, who co-wrote a book called Hollywood Interrupted with his friend Andrew Breitbart, tried to infiltrate and understand Scientology.

Here is his experience with that venture. It's a very interesting read.

At any rate, go to the L.A. Times site to read the article. Sometimes it makes you register to read it, so I'm quoting the article below followed by pictures.

Interesting day for Tommy boy! No wonder he is conspicuously "celebrating" fiancee Katie Holmes' birthday out on the east coast in NYC this weekend.



At Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun

Tom Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming a passionate messenger for the church.

By Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen, Times Staff Writers

GILMAN HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Nearly 30 years ago, the Church of Scientology bought a dilapidated and bankrupt resort here and turned the erstwhile haven for Hollywood moguls and starlets into a retreat for L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the religion.

Today, the out-of-the-way 500-acre compound near Hemet has quietly grown into one of Scientology's major bases of operation, with thriving video and recording studios, elaborate offices and a multimillion-dollar mansion that former members say was built for the eventual return of "LRH," who died in 1986.

Like the previous owners, the church also has used the property as a sanctuary for its own stable of stars. It is here, ex-members say, that Hollywood's most bankable actor, Tom Cruise, was assiduously courted for the cause by Scientology's most powerful leader, David Miscavige.

Scientology has long recruited Hollywood luminaries. But the close friendship of these two men for nearly 20 years and their mutual devotion to Hubbard help explain Cruise's transformation from just another celebrity adherent into the public face of the church.

The bond between the star and his spiritual leader was evident last year when the two traded effusive words and crisp salutes at a Scientology gala in England. Calling Cruise "the most dedicated Scientologist I know," Miscavige presented him with the church's first Freedom Medal of Valor.

"Thank you for your trust, thank you for your confidence in me," Cruise replied, according to Scientology's Impact magazine. "I have never met a more competent, a more intelligent, a more tolerant, a more compassionate being outside of what I have experienced from LRH. And I've met the leaders of leaders. I've met them all."

Founded in 1954, Scientology is a religion without a deity. It teaches that "spiritual release and freedom" from life's problems can be achieved through one-on-one counseling called auditing, during which members' responses are monitored on an "e-meter," similar to a polygraph. This process, along with a series of training courses, can cost Scientologists many tens of thousands of dollars.

As Scientology's highest-ranking figure, Miscavige, 45, has found in Cruise, 43, not just a fervent and famous believer but an effective messenger whose passion the church has harnessed to help fuel its worldwide growth.

"Across 90 nations, 5,000 people hear his word of Scientology — every hour," International Scientology News proclaimed last year. "Every minute of every hour someone reaches for LRH technology … simply because they know Tom Cruise is a Scientologist."

Cruise and Miscavige declined requests for interviews.

A Scientology spokesman, Mike Rinder, called them the "best of friends," men who've achieved great success through "their force of personality and their drive to excel."

At the same time that Cruise's increasingly vocal advocacy of Scientology has drawn attention to his faith, it has collided with his career. While promoting "War of the Worlds" this year, the film's director, Steven Spielberg, grew concerned that Cruise was talking too little about the movie and too much about Scientology and his wide-eyed-in-love fiancee, Katie Holmes, who turns 27 today.

Their romance generated even more buzz when Holmes was seen in the nearly constant company of Jessica Rodriguez, who is from a prominent family of Scientologists. Holmes, who said after becoming engaged to Cruise that she was embracing Scientology, described Rodriguez as a close friend, though she was widely seen as a church-appointed companion.

Unlike Holmes' embrace of the church, Cruise's is not new. Long before he sprang onto Oprah's couch, jabbed an accusing finger at "Today" show co-anchor Matt Lauer and blasted Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants, Cruise undertook intensive Scientology study and counseling at the church's compound, according to current and former Scientologists.

The vast majority of Scientologists train at the church's better-known facilities, including those in Hollywood and Clearwater, Fla. Cruise also has trained at those locations, but for much of his studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he headed to Gilman Hot Springs.

He stayed for weeks at a time, arriving by car or helicopter, according to ex-Scientologists who saw him there on repeated occasions. The former resort, 90 miles east of Los Angeles, was an ideal place for Cruise to get out of the spotlight while focusing on his Scientology training, ex-members say.

Described by ex-members as the church's international nerve center, the property is largely concealed from outsiders by tall hedges and high walls. The complex's barbed-wired perimeter and driveways are monitored by video cameras, and motion sensors are placed around the property to detect intruders, ex-members say. Some also remember a perch high in the hills, dubbed "Eagle," where staffers with telescopes jotted down license plate numbers of any vehicle that lingered too long near the compound.

Behind the compound's guarded gates, Cruise had a personal supervisor to oversee his studies in a private course room, ex-members say. He was unique among celebrities in the amount of time he spent at the base. Others visited, they said, but only Cruise took up temporary residence.

"I was there for eight years and nobody stayed long at all, except for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman during that period," said Bruce Hines, who clashed with Miscavige and left Scientology in 2001 after three decades in the group.

He said he once provided spiritual counseling to the actress before she and Cruise divorced. Kidman, who had taken Scientology courses, has largely remained silent about the group in recent years. While at the complex, Cruise stayed in a renovated bungalow near a golf course on the property.

"It was sort of like an upscale country place," said Karen Schless Pressley, a former Scientology "image officer," whose duties included interior design and creating military-style uniforms for Scientology staffers.

While hardly palatial, the guest digs where Cruise stayed were luxurious compared with the drab apartments in Hemet, where Schless Pressley and hundreds of other base staffers lived, with few amenities and almost no privacy.

She said she and her ex-husband shared a two-bedroom unit with another couple and were not allowed to make personal phone calls. Schless Pressley said she left the church because of what she alleged were invasions of members' privacy and other deprivations — a claim church officials say is unfounded.

At the same time, she and other former members say, Miscavige was seeing to Cruise's every need, assigning a special staff to prepare his meals, do his laundry and handle a variety of other tasks, some of which required around-the-clock work.

Maureen Bolstad, who was at the base for 17 years and left after a falling-out with the church, recalled a rainy night 15 years ago when a couple of dozen Scientologists scrambled to deal with "an all-hands situation" that kept them working through dawn. The emergency, she said: planting a meadow of wildflowers for Cruise to romp through with his new love, Kidman.


"We were told that we needed to plant a field and that it was to help Tom impress Nicole," said Bolstad, who said she spent the night pulling up sod so the ground could be seeded in the morning.

The flowers eventually bloomed, Bolstad said, "but for some mysterious reason it wasn't considered acceptable by Mr. Miscavige. So the project was rejected and they redid it."

Other ex-members say it wasn't the only time that Miscavige put them to work to please Cruise.

Miscavige, a firearms enthusiast, introduced Cruise to skeet shooting at the compound, according to an ex-member who said the actor was so grateful that he sent an automated clay-pigeon launcher to replace an older, hand-pulled model. With Cruise due to return in a few days, Miscavige again ordered all hands on deck, this time to renovate the base's skeet range, the ex-member said.

Dozens worked around the clock for three days "just so Tom Cruise would be impressed," the ex-member said.

Rinder, head of Scientology International's Office of Special Affairs, said such accounts were fabricated by "apostates," members who had abandoned the religion.

He said he knew nothing about the skeet range incident. The wildflower planting never occurred and might be a confused version of repairs done after a 1990 mudslide, he said, adding that he couldn't account for ex-members' detailed recollections, including those of Bolstad, whom he specifically described as not credible.

"I don't know exactly how to explain every one of these bizarro stories that you hear," he said.

Rinder also disputed the contention by numerous ex-members that Cruise's stays at the facility were exceptional, saying that many celebrity Scientologists had stayed there.

Cruise has made no extended visits to the complex since the early 1990s and has done 95% of his religious training elsewhere, Rinder said. Miscavige, he said, spends only a fraction of his time there and divides the rest of his time among offices in Los Angeles, Clearwater and Britain. He also stays aboard the Freewinds, Scientology's 440-foot ship based in Curacao in the Caribbean, Rinder said.

However, voter registration records list the Gilman Hot Springs complex as Miscavige's residence since the early 1990s and as recently as the 2004 general election. Rinder said the church leader simply had not updated his registration. Miscavige's wife, father, stepmother and siblings also have resided at the complex, according to voting records and interviews.

The base has changed significantly in the years since Cruise spent long days in intensive training, from which he would occasionally take time out to ride dirt bikes or go sky diving with Miscavige, ex-members said.

For years, the property has been home to Golden Era Productions, where Scientologists work around the clock producing videos, audio recordings and e-meters, to be sold to church members. Rinder said nearly all of the members at Golden Era have signed billion-year contracts to serve the church.

Since 1998, the church has poured at least $45 million into expanding the facility and has bought dozens of nearby homes and vacant lots, public records show. The additions include an $18.5-million, 45,000-square-foot management building with a wing of offices for Miscavige.

The most striking building is a mansion that sits on a hill — uninhabited. Dubbed "Bonnie View," ex-members say, it was built for the church founder, who died in secrecy on a ranch near San Luis Obispo amid a federal tax investigation that was dropped after his death. The mansion has a lap pool and a movie theater and was completed in 2000 at a cost of nearly $9.4 million, property records show.

"It's high-end beautiful but not ostentatious," decorated with Craftsman furniture, and draperies and other items that were designed to be changed with the seasons, Schless Pressley said.

Former members say they were told the mansion was built for Hubbard's return.

"The whole theory of that house was that before Hubbard died in 1986, David Miscavige told us, Hubbard told him he was going to come back and make himself visible within 13 years," Schless Pressley said.

The mansion, Rinder said, is merely a museum that contains most of Hubbard's belongings.

"It's preserved because the life of L. Ron Hubbard is extremely important to Scientologists," he said.

Miscavige, who spent his teenage years as one of Hubbard's cadre of young aides, rose to the head of Scientology after the founder's death. Little known outside the organization, Miscavige in the early 1990s succeeded in gaining tax-exempt status for the church after he and another Scientology official personally approached the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to negotiate a settlement.

As chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center, which holds the lucrative rights to the Scientology and Dianetics trademarks, he is the church's ultimate authority — and is treated as such.

Miscavige's living quarters and offices in renovated bungalows were modest compared with Bonnie View but reflected his taste for the best of the best, including state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, said ex-members who viewed the accommodations.

"He's about five-seven, and everything was built in proportion to his body size," Schless Pressley said. "And everything was the best. You know how everybody has a pen cup on his desk? His pen cup had about 20 Montblanc pens in it."

Shelly Britt, who joined Scientology at 17, said she was at the base for nearly 20 years before leaving the church in 2002. She said she worked directly with Miscavige much of that time. She recalled a Beverly Hills tailor visiting to measure Miscavige for his suits, and said moldings of his feet were taken and sent to London for custom-made shoes.

"His lifestyle so far exceeds anyone else's. He had his own personal staff to handle his food and his room and his clothes and his ironing and his dogs," she said. "His uniforms were specially tailored, and he had, like, Egyptian cotton shirts, special pants, special shoes, special everything. And it was all of the highest quality."


Although Hines, Britt and other ex-members describe Miscavige as extremely demanding of those under his command, they say he treated Cruise "like a king." Among other things, Britt said, Miscavige and his wife attended the star's 1990 wedding to Kidman in Colorado and then followed up with frequent gifts.

"They don't do that for every celebrity," she said. "I remember one time I had to go pick up one of those big fancy picnic baskets and china and silver and take it out to Burbank to Tom's pilot. I even took pictures of it so Dave and his wife could see I took it out to the plane."

Rinder said that Cruise was treated no differently from other members and that his highly public support of Scientology came straight from his heart.

"It's a reflection of his own decisions and personal conviction," Rinder said.

The church's belief in the power of celebrity to promote Scientology dates to its earliest days when, in 1955, the church issued "Project Celebrity," a call to arms for Scientologists to recruit show business "quarry" such as Walt Disney, Liberace and Greta Garbo to help expand the religion's reach.

Although the church failed to enlist those famous figures, it has been successful in attracting many others in addition to Cruise, including John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Juliette Lewis, Isaac Hayes, Anne Archer, Jenna Elfman, Beck and Chick Corea.

More than any other celebrity, Cruise has helped fuel the growth of the church, which claims a worldwide membership of 10 million and in the last two years has opened major centers in South Africa, Russia, Britain and Venezuela. Cruise joined Miscavige last year for the opening of a church in Madrid.

In his own spiritual life, Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine, reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels of training, "OT VII" — for Operating Thetan VII.

At these higher levels — and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars — Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant named Xenu.

According to court documents made public by The Times in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls, or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects.


At Cruise's high level of training, ex-members say, devotees also are charged with actively spreading the organization's less secretive beliefs and advancing its crusades, including Hubbard's deep disdain for psychiatry, a profession that once dismissed his teachings as quackery.

"When you hear Tom Cruise talking about psychiatrists and drugs," said one prominent former Scientologist who knows Cruise, "you are hearing from the grave the voice of L. Ron Hubbard speaking."








(P.S., Had to edit to say that I hope I don't get sued for having this up at MacNN.)



(Last edited by Cody Dawg; Dec 18, 2005 at 10:18 AM. )
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 10:27 AM
 
this is interesting? no
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 10:36 AM
 
jesus harold christ i don't know how you spend so much time being concerned with hollywood. nonetheless, great job keeping us updated on such gossip!

Mystical, magical, amazing! | Part 2 | The spread of Christianity is our goal. -Railroader
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 10:41 AM
 
I find it interesting to watch this person destroy his career because of religious beliefs. Obviously the L.A. Times also finds it interesting, hence the article. And, yes, I'm a gossip whore - I admit it.

By the way? My first cousin, Sharon Case, is a Scientologist. (She's a soap opera actress.) None of us understand her commitment to the religion either.

Now, who can post bits about the Southpark episode on Cruise and Scientology? THAT was hilarious.

     
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Dec 18, 2005, 10:54 AM
 
Wrong forum.

Originally Posted by forkies
jesus harold christ i don't know how you spend so much time being concerned with hollywood.
Werd.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:05 AM
 
Old, but appropriate: Tom Cruise Explains It All

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Dec 18, 2005, 11:08 AM
 

:deadhorse:
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
Is that an ID Universe prototype that God is working on there?

Or is that Santa?
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:23 AM
 


It looks like a human head, doesn't it?

Maybe their making bionic clone replicas of L. Ron Hubbard.

     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:25 AM
 
By the way, the word "occult" means in part, in Latin, secretive or hidden.

That definitely describes Scientology. It is a cult.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:33 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
By the way, the word "occult" means in part, in Latin, secretive or hidden.

That definitely describes Scientology. It is a cult.
No, it is a corporate Church.

"Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.”

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Dec 18, 2005, 11:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
By the way? My first cousin, Sharon Case, is a Scientologist. (She's a soap opera actress.) None of us understand her commitment to the religion either.
your cousin is freaking hot (googled her), but shes apparently REALLY stupid.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:38 AM
 
Originally Posted by meelk
your cousin is freaking hot (googled her), but shes apparently REALLY stupid.
I think she wants the best that the world can provide, and Scientology has answers to what she is looking for...

That you don't know why people would subscribe to a belief does not mean she is stupid.
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by Pendergast
I think she wants the best that the world can provide, and Scientology has answers to what she is looking for...

That you don't know why people would subscribe to a belief does not mean she is stupid.
being a Scientologist makes you stupid, its pretty damn simple. Scientology is not a "religion" that can be exercised without giving money to the "church". It is not a belief system in anything other than generating revenue. There is nothing "good" about scientology in and of itself. the only "Almighty" in Scientology is the "Almighty Dollar".
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by meelk
being a Scientologist makes you stupid, its pretty damn simple. Scientology is not a "religion" that can be exercised without giving money to the "church". It is not a belief system in anything other than generating revenue. There is nothing "good" about scientology in and of itself. the only "Almighty" in Scientology is the "Almighty Dollar".
That is what you see. She may see something else.

I am not saying she is right. But I feel I could tell her she is wrong either, considering that I do not know why she is part of that organization. I do agree it is all about the money. But the rationale offered is pleasing to some people nevertheless, and you cannot deny that, otherwise, no one would subscribed to it.

Calling "stupid" what you don't understand is totally disconnected from the reality of others.

I am not judging you as stupid for your point of view; I am just saying there are other points of view that you are not considering.
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:57 AM
 
It took reading this article to convince you that Scientology is a scam? Wow.
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Dec 18, 2005, 11:58 AM
 
here lets sum this up:

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach was a science fiction writer and publisher between 1929 and 1957. His autobiography, "Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era" ( Oswald Train: Publisher, Phila. 1983, limited edition) says on pages 125 and 126 (about the events of 1948 and 1949):

I think of the time while in New York I took John W. Campbell
Marty Greenberg, and L. Ron Hubbard to lunch. Someone suggested
a Swedish smorgasbord, and I had my first--and last--taste of
kidney. Yuck! Afterward we wound up in my hotel room for
related conversation.

The incident is stamped indelibly in my mind because of one
statement that Ron Hubbard made. What led him to say what he
did I can't recall--but in so many words Hubbard said:

"I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is!"
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by Pendergast
That is what you see. She may see something else.

I am not saying she is right. But I feel I could tell her she is wrong either, considering that I do not know why she is part of that organization. I do agree it is all about the money. But the rationale offered is pleasing to some people nevertheless, and you cannot deny that, otherwise, no one would subscribed to it.

Calling "stupid" what you don't understand is totally disconnected from the reality of others.

I am not judging you as stupid for your point of view; I am just saying there are other points of view that you are not considering.

Being taken advantage of does not make you enlightened. It makes you stupid. Being nice about that fact on an internet message board so you dont hurt someones feelings like a good little liberal drone wont change reality.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by Peter
this is interesting? no
Originally Posted by forkies
jesus harold christ i don't know how you spend so much time being concerned with hollywood. nonetheless, great job keeping us updated on such gossip!
Scat, no one wants you in here.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:09 PM
 
You're projecting, silly.

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Dec 18, 2005, 12:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by meelk
Being taken advantage of does not make you enlightened. It makes you stupid. Being nice about that fact on an internet message board so you dont hurt someones feelings like a good little liberal drone wont change reality.
Obviously, you are quite a light yourself.

Shine on, you crazy diamond!
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:13 PM
 
Naw he pretty much hit it dead on.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:19 PM
 
Originally Posted by Kevin
Naw he pretty much hit it dead on.
Of course. It's all very clear.

left-right
wrong-right
fuzzy-right
complex-right

it's all the same except it's completely opposite, but as long as "right" has the upper hand (whatever the reasons or ratiocinations) it has to be "right".

You won't mind calling you stupid for what you believe in then?

But then, that would not be the same, because it's different, since we would be talking about "right". Right?

But then, you will deny, and say I am silly, and projecting. Then the name calling will go on (remark that meelk started with the name calling when he said I am from the left) and the whole thread is another one of these great binary result.
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:27 PM
 
Cody's cousin wants me.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:39 PM
 


You're so funny.

She's actually a very nice person. I think Scientology helped her a lot in certain ways, but it's the same kind of help that commitment to any belief system that is based upon personal betterment would provide.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 12:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg


You're so funny.

She's actually a very nice person. I think Scientology helped her a lot in certain ways, but it's the same kind of help that commitment to any belief system that is based upon personal betterment would provide.
Right.

People find help where they can. Sometimes the result can be terrible, but the process can be very enlitening.

Many who have though sects and cults learned a lot about themselves. It's not necessarily recommended, but some people can not see any other way. Once they get out, they have a very different perspective over human life and what they want from it. Some pay a huge price for that knowledge (whether it is money, dignity or a piece of their body), but people do things for benefits they onbly can see and understand (if not then, later on).

I personally wish your cousin would have chosen another way, but that's her choice so I wish her all the best with that.
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Dec 18, 2005, 01:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by Kevin
Scat, no one wants you in here.
Must have missed it when you were elected supreme ruler of MacNN
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 01:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
By the way? My first cousin, Sharon Case, is a Scientologist. (She's a soap opera actress.) None of us understand her commitment to the religion either.
I guess she didn't tell you...



Say hi to Tom for me when you see him at your family's Christmas party this year.

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Dec 18, 2005, 01:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by Cody Dawg
By the way? My first cousin, Sharon Case, is a Scientologist. (She's a soap opera actress.) None of us understand her commitment to the religion either.


damn..
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 01:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by Pendergast
No, it is a corporate Church.

No. It is a corporation.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 02:16 PM
 
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 02:19 PM
 
Originally Posted by Peter
Must have missed it when you were elected supreme ruler of MacNN
Wow someone is Mr pissy pants this afternoon.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 02:44 PM
 
As I understand it, one of the purposes of Scientology is to cleanse the body of a virus left behind by space aliens thousands of years ago.

I think some of you guys should maybe try it out.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 02:55 PM
 
@Cody: don't worry, just watch the South Park epsiode 9x12 (Trapped In The Closet). It's about scientology and at the end, Stan says: Sue me, just sue me! Sue me in England. I'm not scared of you, sue me!
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 03:12 PM
 


Can we get that on a download or CD or something? I really would LOVE to see it - I missed it.

     
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Dec 18, 2005, 04:04 PM
 
Hi Cody,

I miss you.

Actors are just too much into themselves.

"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 04:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by analogika
No. It is a corporation.
Something like that. OK.

"Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.”

Emile M. Cioran
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 05:22 PM
 
that is way too much to read if it is about tom cruise

i used to watch Y&R growing up because my mom watched it - that sharon chick is hot

"I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniel's."
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 05:26 PM
 

"I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniel's."
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 06:45 PM
 
They seem silly, but harmless. There are several brands of religion out there which pose much more serious threats.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 06:45 PM
 
Duplicate--why can't we delete them?
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 06:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by Ron Goodman
They seem silly, but harmless. There are several brands of religion out there which pose much more serious threats.
Eh. Scientology has some pretty scary past and present goings on.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 06:47 PM
 
Where do I apply?
"Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.”

Emile M. Cioran
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 07:53 PM
 
Why are people of religion generally the sharpest critics of other religions? Can't stand the competition?
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 08:09 PM
 

damn I'm in lust
     
Posting Junkie
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Dec 18, 2005, 08:29 PM
 
Originally Posted by Face Ache
Why are people of religion generally the sharpest critics of other religions? Can't stand the competition?

[ fb ] [ flickr ] [] [scl] [ last ] [ plaxo ]
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 08:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by Face Ache
Why are people of religion generally the sharpest critics of other religions? Can't stand the competition?
The only one I mention is Scientology. It's a cooperation. Not a religion.
     
Posting Junkie
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Dec 18, 2005, 08:45 PM
 
Come on now Kevin, Scientology is only taking organized religion to it's logical conclusion

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Dec 18, 2005, 08:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -
Come on now Kevin, Scientology is only taking organized religion to it's logical conclusion
Hey I am not a fan of organized religion. You'll have no arguments from me.
     
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Dec 18, 2005, 09:08 PM
 
*drool*
     
 
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