Tom Cruise again

[delphi_ote]

A very successfull, desirable, actor, with links to successful, desirable actresses, is linked to Scientology...I think the cul...er, 'church', is going to see their membership skyrocket.

The cult already looks for the lonely and fantasy prone. It's the cult formula. If the most credulous gather together, they'll feed each other's unhealthy fantasies. Let one paranoia feed another and the cult maintains itself. Weed out the ones who start to disagree and think for themselves too much, promote the most accepting to higher OT levels, and eventually you have a self sustaining heirarchical organization.

Why not do an end run around the weeding out process and seek out the most vulnerable minds in the beginning? Offer simple answers to the depressed, anxiety stricken, lonely, and confused. Those already in the cult will believe they're helping with armchair psychology written by a science fiction author. Look at how self-righteous and concerned Cruise was as he took on the whole science of psychology. The mainstream may reject and ridicule the nonsense, but that's not who they're after.

If Scientologists are using Cruise used as a mouthpiece to spread lies that prey on the mentally ill, if this is an actual strategy they've concocted to inflate their numbers, we have a large potential problem on our hands here.

 

[Beady]

Kinda makes you laugh a little harder when Cruise starts babbling "That's pseudoscience!" doesn't it?

No, it doesn't.

The quote you gave states Hubbard's philosphy, and describes the "Establishment's" reaction in terms that make it sound almost knee-jerk and supressive. If anything, it makes Hubbard sound like a modern Galileo.

Methinks you have mistaken your toe for a bullseye.

 

[varwoche]

Originally posted by delphi_ote If Scientologists are using Cruise used as a mouthpiece to spread lies that prey on the mentally ill, if this is an actual strategy they've concocted to inflate their numbers, we have a large potential problem on our hands here.

Attracting/using celebrities is a long standing scientology strategy. Hubbard is said to have paid commissions for celebrity recruitment.

 

[delphi_ote]

Attracting/using celebrities is a long standing scientology strategy. Hubbard is said to have paid commissions for celebrity recruitment.

Right, but since when did the celebrities try so brazenly to advocate Scientology's ideas, and on national TV, and with a message close enough to mainstream beliefs (i.e. "Too many kids these days are on psychoactive drugs.") that people wouldn't dismiss it outright?

This stinks.

 

[supercorgi]

Right, but since when did the celebrities try so brazenly to advocate Scientology's ideas, and on national TV, and with a message close enough to mainstream beliefs (i.e. "Too many kids these days are on psychoactive drugs.") that people wouldn't dismiss it outright?

This stinks.

I agree delphi_ote, too many people may fall for this blather and assume (without doing any digging) that Scientology is valid. Especially when Scientology front organizations put out "scholarly" articles attacking psychaitry. article about Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) a Scientology front group

 

[The Blind Painter]

No, it doesn't.

The quote you gave states Hubbard's philosphy, and describes the "Establishment's" reaction in terms that make it sound almost knee-jerk and supressive. If anything, it makes Hubbard sound like a modern Galileo.

Methinks you have mistaken your toe for a bullseye.

Hmm. I can see how you might think that. I saw it as a neutrally-worded account of how a nutjob got smacked down by the APA. Oh well, guess I should go back to quoting school. Hubbard's still a buttwipe.

 

[Disco]

Here's a letter to Spielberg posted at The Church of Critical Thinking:

http://www.churchofcriticalthinking.com/index.shtml

While I agree with the sentiment, I doubt it will have much effect on the director. For some reason, most celebs don't have the backbone that Shields showed, when Cruise ridiculed her.

I wonder if any of Steven's kids are on meds?

MHB

 

[Beady]

Here's a letter to Spielberg posted at The Church of Critical Thinking:

Umm... You do realize, don't you, that Spielberg can be as woo as the worst of them? Close Encounters, ET... These weren't just movies, for him.

At least, not if some of the "Making of" material is halfway accurate.

 

[varwoche]

Someone, presumably Spielberg, permitted a scientology recruitment tent on the set of War of the Worlds.

 

[Vim Razz]

If Scientologists are using Cruise used as a mouthpiece to spread lies that prey on the mentally ill, if this is an actual strategy they've concocted to inflate their numbers, we have a large potential problem on our hands here.

They've been using this kind of strategy for decades -- that's why they pour so much energy into kissing celebrity patootie. Celebrities are great for attracting people who are willing to turn over their money and control of their lives for no logical reason whatsoever.

Kalifornia Kabbalah has been agresively pursuing the same tactic for the last 10-15 years or so and they hit paydirt when they managed to get Madona involved -- the cult has absolutely exploded since then.

The only upside I can see to the recent TomKat development is that many gossip-hounds are making a point of discussing the nature and the dangers of Scientology and linking resource sites (at least online). This way, many people who are getting their first exposure to Scientology are seeing it discussed as a dangerous cult and not just a pop New Age thing. This point has been underlined by the creepiness surounding Katie Holmes' ongoing conversion -- we're actualy watching her get disociated from her former life as cult takes more and more active, controling command of her personal life, her buisness relationships and her public presentation -- which as been almost as active a topic as Tom's recent mania.

 

[nwmadden]

Story on the BBC...

Psychiatrists hit back at Cruise

 

[HarryKeogh]

Scientology is one of those things I never got. They used to pester me after my brother went to one of those "psychic fairs" where they give you a "personality test" and gave them my name and address instead of his.

I used to get about 4 mails a week from them to buy their book. They stopped after I used their prepaid envelopes to send them bricks.

source

Business Reply envelopes: Some companies provide a convenient, postage pre-paid envelope for sending back your order. If you use this envelope to send them non-order requests, angry letters, bricks, etc. it will probably be ignored. Usually these envelopes are opened by people who get paid by the hour to sort actual orders into their appropriate categories, not deal with complaints; send a Business Reply envelope containing anything other than a "Yes!" or a cheque or a "Bill me later" often winds up in what is politely referred to as the "circular file" -- along with gum wrappers and empty Coke cans. It WILL cost them postage, though! So if you get junk with a business reply, feel free to seal it (empty, or with junk papers in it) and send it back, just don't expect anyone to read its contents on the other end. (Incidentally, some people recommend overflowing the envelopes with heavy objects, bricks, spent batteries, etc. to inflate the postage--it doesn't, the post office just throws the over-postage envelopes away!)

 

[delphi_ote]

They've been using this kind of strategy for decades...

It's not that they're using celebrities that particularly upsets me. I know that's nothing new.

It's that the celebrities might be taking to the airwaves now. That all of this is so public now and the media is showing a curiousity is probably not lost on the Scientologists. The celebrities might not just be pretty and popular people identifying with the cult anymore. They might start acting like self-righteous televangelist.

I've had a few unpleasant run ins with Scientologists. They have a suprisingly large following in Cincinnati, particularly around the UC main campus (my alma mater.) From what I've seen, their pitch is the usual cult, "What if the answers were right around the corner? What if your life had purpose? The answers are... etc." mixed with "Look at all the good works we do for our fellow man." The Dianetics anti-psychology stuff didn't seem to be the word they wanted out on the street. Wait till you get a sucker in on your own turf before you start hitting him with things that might cause doubt.

Now they've got the mainstream talking seriously about the most dangerous aspects of the cult. They're taking advantage of a popular backlash against medicine and psychology. Combine that with the PC climate, "tell both sides" media, and celebrity obsessed culture and I think Scientology just found a match in a room full of dynamite.

 

[Psi Baba]

No, it doesn't.

The quote you gave states Hubbard's philosphy, and describes the "Establishment's" reaction in terms that make it sound almost knee-jerk and supressive. If anything, it makes Hubbard sound like a modern Galileo.

Methinks you have mistaken your toe for a bullseye.

This is truer than most people imagine. I'm sure Cruise's use of the term pseudoscience was calculated. Scientology's policy is always to be on the attack and when attacked, strike back tenfold. According to Robert Vaughn Young, who handled public relations and the media for Scientology for more than 20 years until leaving the church and becoming an articulate and effective critic of it,

“I also trained other Scientology PRs on how to handle the media, using material from Hubbard. This included how to respond to a question without answering, how to divert the issue, how to tell ‘an acceptable truth,’ how to stall for time, how to assume various emotional states to control another, how to ‘attack the attacker,’ how to take control of a conversation, how to introvert a person and how to ‘get the message across’ (especially in an age of sound bites), how to help Scientology attorneys write inflammatory legal papers so the PR could then safely use the abusive phrases, and how to appear to be a religion.

“This, in brief, is what a journalist faces when encountering a trained and dedicated Scientology PR. The journalist wants a story. The PR wants to kill the story, or at least control it. While this is not particularly unusual, Scientology goes further than most. Scientology stands ready and able to unleash an assault on the journalist that can include private detectives and lawsuits, making it little wonder that publications have grown reluctant to write about the Hubbard empire.

A few gems from Hubbard himself:
“Show me any person who is critical of us and I’ll show you crimes and intended crimes that would stand a magistrate’s hair on end.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 4 April 1965
“If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs
“People attack Scientology, I never forget it, always even the score. People attack auditors, or staff, or organisations, or me. I never forget until the slate is clear.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
“This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don’t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 25 February 1966
“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, “Off the Time Track,” lecture of June 1952, excerpted in JOURNAL OF SCIENTOLOGY issue 18-G, reprinted in TECHNICAL VOLUMES OF DIANETICS & SCIENTOLOGY, vol. 1, p. 418

Where Tom Cruise learned about Psychiatry:
“’Psychiatry’ and ‘psychiatrist’ are easily redefined to mean ‘an anti-social enemy of the people‘. This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions...The redefinition of words is done by associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended...Scientologists are redefining ‘doctor‘, ‘Psychiatry’ and ‘psychology’ to mean ‘undesirable antisocial elements‘...The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 5 October 1971, PR Series 12, “Propaganda by Redefinition of Words”

“MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MORE MONEY.”
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384

Hubbard in his own words

 

[TheBoyPaj]

And now he's appearing in the news with his latest crackpot belief... that aliens probably exist.

I mean.. what a crackpo... oh hang on. I agree with him on that one.

 

[Vim Razz]

It's that the celebrities might be taking to the airwaves now. That all of this is so public now and the media is showing a curiousity is probably not lost on the Scientologists. The celebrities might not just be pretty and popular people identifying with the cult anymore. They might start acting like self-righteous televangelist.

Updating an old thread, re: your idea that this is all part of a new exposure strategy -- if so, it seems to bw working: Sigh.......

 

[Batman Jr.]

Umm... You do realize, don't you, that Spielberg can be as woo as the worst of them? Close Encounters, ET... These weren't just movies, for him.

At least, not if some of the "Making of" material is halfway accurate.

In a recent interview, I recall Spielberg saying that he was initially interested in the ET phenomenon because of the numerous eyewitness reports of flying saucers and the like and scientific investigations of these reports in studies like Blue Book and specifically the observations made about them by the astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who actually appears at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since then, he says he has come to doubt alien visitation on the grounds that the greater proliferation of video equipment hasn't led to an expected proportional jump in anomalous airborne bodies captured on film and has relinquished many of his previous beliefs now aware of them being ignorant of the unreliability of human perception and anecdotal evidence.

 

[Beady]

In a recent interview, I recall Spielberg saying that he was initially interested in the ET phenomenon because of the numerous eyewitness reports of flying saucers and the like and scientific investigations of these reports in studies like Blue Book and specifically the observations made about them by the astronomer J. Allen Hynek, who actually appears at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since then, he says he has come to doubt alien visitation on the grounds that the greater proliferation of video equipment hasn't led to an expected proportional jump in anomalous airborne bodies captured on film and has relinquished many of his previous beliefs now aware of them being ignorant of the unreliability of human perception and anecdotal evidence.

I dare you to read that out loud, without pausing for breath between the periods.

 

[Powa]

I dare you to read that out loud, without pausing for breath between the periods.

No™.

 

[delphi_ote]

Updating an old thread, re: your idea that this is all part of a new exposure strategy -- if so, it seems to bw working: Sigh.......

That is exactly what I was worried about. Regardless of the first instance being intentional or not, they have to see the impact this has had. Knowing the Scientologist mentality, how can they not adopt this as a new exposure strategy?