Posted on 07/12/2005 7:58:13 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
I completely agree.
There's probably more than just those two. From the reports we're hearing on Katie Holmes, it would appear that brainwashing techniques are used. And I really don't think Cruise is all that bright either.
I feel really sorry for Katie Holmes. She will probably end up divorcing him, too. He seems to be going off the deep end.
I do recall learning about his book 'Dianetics' and others in junior high in the mid 70's in a Lit class about Science Fiction, and held up in comparison to good sci fi. Dianetics was also marketed in bookstores for some time as sci fi. Curious. He marketed the books as sci-fi yet used it as the basis (with various editions) for his 'religion'.
I believe you are correct - Diana Highland. He was quite devoted to her. It was touching. I think I heard, not long after that, that he 'found' Scientology, in a period of personal grief, no doubt. Ironic, considering Scientology's beliefs about illness and treatments. He must have been 'polluted' (I think that's the word they use) by her, in their eyes. I was stunned, too. I remember my mother phoning me at college just to tell me that. She, too, was shocked - a good Italian American Catholic buying into an apparent cult. (I think she was also concerned about cults targeting vulnerable college students...)
Now that is downright funny...a sect symbol...LOL
True enough. I do have a very vivid memory of going to a book store with my mom as a child and seeing a cardboard display of 'Dianetics' as self help, a 'new' guide to 'enlighten', blah, blah, blah... I remember fondly and with humor how my mother walked the few steps to the counter and asked how a book that was just recently sold as science fiction could now be (erroneously) called 'self-help'? The stunned clerk just mumbled some standard line but it did catch the attention of others (and embarassed me, at the time!).
You mention you are a former member. Did you have any difficulty leaving? Did you attain one of the higher levels?
I'm curious in part bc of a highschool classmate. She hasn't been seen in 10 years, she was a member moving up and carefully 'molded' by her older alleged bf turned husband. Already thin, she kept getting thinner and thinner, and later sold many of her possessions including her portion of a local business venture (they hounded her relatives for more). It was creepy and scary, the contact we had with her dwindled and later men appeared at our mutual friends house (she had hired an investigator at her family's request) warning us to cease all contact or else.
ping
Leaving was fairly easy. At that time a large group of disaffected were bailing out. What made it difficult was that I had been in long enough to have drifted away from my non-scientology friends. It was a bit like stepping off into space.
I did go back to properly "route out" and recover the money I had on account. That was annoyingly difficult, but anyone who has a normal amount of stick-to-itiveness could do it. I didn't ask for a refund of what I had paid for and received in services and training, I understand that is significantly more difficult.
Did you attain one of the higher levels?
I achieved OT-II in the church. The really weird confidential stuff starts at OT-III. I did that outside the church. My first response was something like "That's it??? That's what's soooo secret??? You've got to be kidding!!!!"
Prayers for your friend. She needs them.
Ever hear of Bethlem Royal Hospital?
Some drank heavily and others took drugs. Did you think drugs were a new thing?
In some cases they preformed operations. One of the more popular ones was a full hysterectomy for women who were suffering from "hysteria". And then there were the ones who just killed themselves.
Yes, I remember he was quite grief-stricken. I wonder if the treatments that she had to undergo turned him off medicine? However, would he allow a family member go without cancer treatment? Did he think she brought her illness on herself as the cult says?
He seems like a good guy. Too bad he got mixed up in that mess.
I'm glad they helped you but it sounds like your family has a history of behavior problems. Sadly It becomes a cycle in some families. I'm glad antidepressants helped you. I still believe the best approach is to deal with the core problems in peoples lives. Antidepressants when used as a stop gap can be helpful but they should not be the solution. The goal should always be to get people to the point where they are strong enough to cope with their feelings and those things they for whatever reason can not change.
Not behavior problems... mental illness. As for me, after 15 years of therapy, I would still not go without meds. I tried. You are obviously unaware of the complexities of mental illness.
One death at one Church of Scientology is hardly worthy of indictment, what is worthy are thousands of kids prescribed drugs for a mythical condition called ADHD. I think it should be called BPD (Bad Parenting Disease). Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't support the Church of Scientology but I can't help agreeing with their stance on psychiatry, I wish that mainstream churches would step up to the plate on the issue. It can be helpful in extreme cases but so much of psychiatry has become no better than snakeoil salesmen with degrees and white coats. The dangerous part is how quickly people submit to being diagnosed by questionair where all possible answers led to some degree of disease. We are talking about the same group of people who created the nonexisted condition called Homophobia yet we trust them with our minds and the minds of our children? I have seen the treatment of some of the people in mental wards where even mild cases of disorder are treated with medication and every complaint or resistance to medication becomes further indication of continued disease. Someday we will see the fruit of our blind faith in the witch doctors of the mind.
No, I am aware and I'm sorry to hear about your condition but why would you assume that I do not understand because I disagree with the concept of choosing medication over therapy? I fully understand some people never escape the scars of childhood and the limits of a sometimes cruel physical world in which they feel so out of place. That aside I think that people should be much more cautious than they are about letting themselves be medicated. Depression is a survivial mechanism, it indicates when something is wrong in your life, your behavior, or thinking. I went through a period of depression when I was a teenager, I felt out of place and alone after a few sessions a doctor wanted to put me on medication. He said I responded to their questionnaires like some tramatized Vietnam Vets he had treated. I took it for a bit but I did not like the way it made me feel. I felt detatched and that was the last thing that I wanted. The essence of what was wrong was I was a teenager, I felt isolated even in my own home, and I spent way too much time by myself. My "symptoms" largely dissappeared the more close friendships I developed, the more I got out and found a purpose in life. I still get depressed sometimes but I have yet to get depressed for no good reason and the one thing I know that no matter how down I get that it will indeed pass.
Dianetics has never been sold as "Science Fiction".lol Hubbard did write alot of Science Fiction and the simple explaination to your observation is that since most of what he wrote had been Science Fiction it was probably simply miss- classified. I have read Dianetics and it was a rather good book. Hubbard went off the deep end with turning what were some good concepts into a religion but he is not the first to make such a mistake. Overall Dianetics struck me as somewhat Jungian...
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