The Scientology Expose we have all been waiting for

[TotallyOz]

New Yorker staff writer and Looming Tower author Lawrence Wright is writing what his agent calls "the most profound reckoning to date" with Scientology, told through the eyes of director and apostate Paul Haggis. This should be good.

Haggis spent 35 years as a Scientologist before angrily and publicly ditching the cult in 2009 after he became convinced that leader David Miscavige is a violent nut. He hasn't spoken publicly about Scientology since, but a "blown" celebrity (to use the Scientological term for leaving the fold) like Haggis is Scientology's worst possible nightmare—it can smear and threaten rank-and-file detractors all it wants, but when one of its former leading lights is making the charges, it's harder to strike back.

http://gawker.com/5725832/the-scientology-expose-weve-been-waiting-for

[MsGuy]

Over the years several of his fellow science fiction writers have disclosed that ole L. Ron used to brag to them about how much more money he made out of his Dianetics con than any of them ever made writing. Arthur C. Clarke (one of our own ) for one, and maybe L. Sprague de Camp. Seems like Asimov mentions it somewhere also.

I doubt that anyone caught up in the CoS scam is going to pay much attention to yet another expose.

[AdamSmith]

Over the years several of his fellow science fiction writers have disclosed that ole L. Ron used to brag to them about how much more money he made out of his Dianetics con than any of them ever made writing. Arthur C. Clarke (one of our own ) for one, and maybe L. Sprague de Camp. Seems like Asimov mentions it somewhere also.

All three were publicly critical of Dianetics at one point or another. But although the story about L. Ron bragging that way has long been rumored and repeated, alas there doesn't seem to be any documentation of it. Just word-of-mouth that some fan may have overheard L. Ron say that to Clarke at an sf convention.

At least we have de Camp's classic withering bio-sketch, "El-Ron of the City of Brass": http://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/elron.html

...and Clarke did make this succinct crack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43YakGYQYGc&feature=player_embedded

[Lucky]

Was Arthur Clarke "one of our own" or was he a pedophile?

[AdamSmith]

Was Arthur Clarke "one of our own" or was he a pedophile?

We may never know. But Wikipedia summarizes the case:

On 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor "for services to literature" at a ceremony in Colombo.[12][43] The award of a knighthood had been announced in the 1998 New Year Honours,[11][44] but investiture with the award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, because of an accusation, by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror, of paedophilia.[45][46] The charge was subsequently found to be baseless by the Sri Lankan police.[47][48] According to The Daily Telegraph (London), the Mirror subsequently published an apology, and Clarke chose not to sue for defamation.[49][50] Clarke was then duly knighted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C_Clarke

Clarke claimed that the words about pedophilia attributed to him were entirely fabricated by The Mirror. Seems likely to me; the comments are just so radically out of character from anything else he ever said in public remotely related to sexuality. (And he didn't drink or take drugs, nor was there any dementia. So he did not just slip up and lose track of himself in an interview.)

There has been speculation that The Mirror pulled the stunt partly to try and embarrass Prince Charles, as the "interview" appeared shortly after it was announced that Clarke would be knighted. Besides the retraction, Murdoch even apologized to Clarke for what his paper had done.

This reminds me I can't wait for his diaries to be unsealed, which I think he directed to happen 30 years after his death. Hope I am still around then!

[JKane]

I have reservations about somebody who only realizes Scientology is bullshit because of an internal power struggle with Miscavige. It's batshit from day one, not something that's been perverted recently and turned bad by one man!

There's another blown 'celebrity' (I didn't really remember him from much) who has already spoken in great detail about all the bullshit Scientology is built on:

Operation Clambake is the leading authority and source of truth on Scientology I have found, and anytime anybody mentions Scientology I make sure to tell them of it.

I ask all webmasters/bloggers to put up a link to it on their front page somewhere to keep it high in google search rankings, like this:

Church of Scientology.

[JKane]

There is also a BBC documentary, from the power-struggle perspective:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANSkJO01FE

[caeron]

Scientology is no more crazy than believing the creator of the universe knocked up a jewish woman so he could come into the world, kill himself, and therefore forgive man.

Or that the creator was whispering in the ear of some guy running around the Arabian desert.

Or that the creator cares deeply about whether you eat shrimp or pork.

Or....

It's religion. Pretty much by definition, it's ridiculous.

[Guest twinklover]

"Scientology is no more crazy than believing the creator of the universe knocked up a jewish woman so he could come into the world, kill himself, and therefore forgive man."

True, they're both irrational, as many other religions are, in their big metaphysical claims. But at least Christianity has some basis in fact in the historical Jesus. What basis in fact is there for Xenu? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu Scientology is a total joke. To think of all the money made off of this fraud. It makes me sick. If a "church" can be sued over other forms of misconduct, I'm surprised they are not sued more often for fraud with punitive damages.

[caeron]

So what? If I made up a religion that Dorothy Parker was God's Chosen Voice on Earth, the fact that she existed doesn't make it any less stupid.

It annoys me a bit that people laugh at the new made up religions while giving the old ones a pass. 2000 year old stupid isn't less stupid than 50 year old stupid.

I'm all for the laughing. Just laugh at them all.

[JKane]

In general I wholeheartedly agree with you, but I think that COS probably does more harm to it's adherents than is generally done to those of most other religions.

COS goes beyond all the usual abuses into being an outright scam and pyramid scheme. The only way one can advance within it is to pay 100k+ or become an indentured servant. Family and friends are to be recruited and those that try to talk sense must be shunned. And they're always out there, trying to gather more people to take advantage of.

Especially in my city, home to L. Ron Hubbard Way, a museum of the horrors of psychiatry, and massive "church" megacomplexes.

[caeron]

Well, there are plenty of christian cults as well, but to the extent you're pointing out that cults are worse, I accept that argument.

[ihpguy]

Well, there are plenty of christian cults as well, but to the extent you're pointing out that cults are worse, I accept that argument.

BSC = Bat Shit Crazy

I loved the post about God coming down to knock up a Jewish woman.

Great fun if we could have Dorothy Parker as the "Chosen Voice" I'd drink to that.

[AdamSmith]

at least Christianity has some basis in fact in the historical Jesus.

Well ... there is some scholarly thought that 'Jesus' (Yeshua bar Joseph), as such and as placed in history by the Gospel writers, did not actually exist, but was rather a narratological invention modeled on a 'Yeshua' who lived some 60 years before the time of the Gospel stories, then outfitted with circumstance to 'fulfill' conditions laid down in the Pentateuch. One of many itinerant sage/miracle-workers who abounded in that part of the world in those times. Several of whom seem to have become the focus of one or another of the abundant mystery cults of the day. But that it was the Gospel writers, plus the scribe who set down the Thomas gospel -- plus a hypothesized 'Q' gospel and in the view of at least one scholar a 'Cross' gospel, both now lost, but possibly both having served as source texts for the 4 canonical Gospels (the latter 3 of which fairly clearly just rewrite, as well as compete for authority with, the Markan gospel) -- and above all the near-superhuman efforts of Paul, that together transformed the Jesus movement from one of many minor mystery cults into what it ultimately became.

The only independent (i.e., outside canonical Scripture or the Apocrypha) near-contemporary reference to the Jesus movement is a brief, dodgy mention by the Roman Jewish 'historian' Josephus Flavius, whose motives are in any event suspect.

Let me stop before MsGuy has to chastise me again.

[lookin]

If I made up a religion that Dorothy Parker was God's Chosen Voice on Earth . . .

Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

[RA1]

DP has always been one of my favorites. Shall we meet at the Algonquin Hotel?

Best regards,

RA1

[MsGuy]

Let me stop before MsGuy has to chastise me again.

He that spares the rod hates his son; but he who loves him chastens him in good time. Proverbs 13:24.

[MsGuy]

If you have any cash left over after paying your latest assessment to the Scientology gurus, you might want to check out Quantum Jumping.. L. Ron as channelled by Burt Goldman. You gotta love the internet.

[AdamSmith]

Scientology makes another Great Leap Forward...

Inside Scientology's super power building: welcome to the smell wall

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/nov/19/inside-scientology-new-cathedral-church-religion