John Travolta stars in Scientology Night Fever

Religion News Blog ^ | November 1st, 2005

[null and void]

As a former member of that, ummmm, organization, I have a standing offer to any FReeper to answer any questions, either in open forum, or by FReepmail.

[ZULU]

What exactly do Scientologists believe??

Do they have a theology? Searches of the Internet reveal little or nothing about what they have to say for themselves - only what others say about them.

[fortunecookie]

LOL! She'll just need an 'assist', perhaps Tom can touch the area of pain over and over again, to assist her and relieve the pain? Right, that'll work. *eyeroll* If not, it just means she's attracted a lot of negative energy and he'll have to flee the area lest he become 'infested' with the negative as well. What a bunch of idiots.

We know one thing, Tom is strongly against the use of drugs. What a catch 22 for Katie. No drugs. But she'd better not cry out in pain either.

[fortunecookie]

It is unclear if Travolta's wife and Cruise's fiance'e had the chance to talk.

Or if Katie was allowed to talk.

[kentj]

This is outrageous, it is a clear violation the rules prohibiting Church and Movies.

While sniffing phu-phu dust and standing in front of the mirror yelling "I like myself" for a half hour each day could be called a religion - they have crossed the line this time.

What next I suppose the Mormons will be doing a movie about how the Indians are really Jewish and the "true meaning of the word "Scalping" comes from the Hebrew lost tribe meaning "buy low sell high".

[kentj]

HR 25 and the goof balls at the "Tom and John Show" are as different as night and day.

The future of our country rests with the Fair TAX HR 25.

The best issue those that oppose HR 25 can mount is that "Gee you don't want to be a dopey Scientologist do you???"

Check it out yourself WWW.Fairtax.com the most important pieces of legislation to ever go before our congress, with hundreds of thousands of people from both sides of the political fence supporting it.

Coming to Law near you HR 25 April 15th will be known as Tax freedom day.

[null and void]

Wow! That's a big question!

I can't give a very concise answer to that, but:

Scientologists believe that you *are* 'your' soul. They use the word 'thetan' do distinguish their concept of an eternal spirit that you are from the more traditional concept of a soul as something you have.

So the spirit is eternal, and can't be killed or destroyed, but can get into a great deal of trouble.

The suppressed memories of these bad experiences are stored in a part of the mind called the reactive mind. Unlike the other portion of the mind - the analytical mind - this part is not capable of reason, but reacts to stimulus that matches parts of traumatic previous experience. These unreasoned reactions can create their own troubles.

Dianetics, the practice that scientology evolved from, was designed to root out these memories, have the analytical mind evaluate their content, and refile the experiences in the analytical mind.

According to dianetic theory the painful memories, called engrams, build upon each other. Later events are chained to earlier events, and further obscure them. Dianetics starts with a recent trauma, reviews it into the ground, and seeks earlier similar incidents to be run in their turn. The goal is to find the earliest incident, called 'basic', related to a particular problem and 'erase' it. At this point the client experiences relief of the condition.

When the incident that all incidents are ultimately tied to 'basic-basic' is run the person is free of the effects of the reactive mind and has achieved the state of 'Clear'.

Early on it became clear that people running a chain of incidents would go to incidents that occurred before the clients present lifetime. That lead to the development of scientology.

In very broad terms, dianetics concerns itself with the reduction of disability, scientology concerns itself with the enhancement of abilities.

As for theology, scientologists have a construct called 'the 8 dynamics' a dynamic is an urge to survival. They divide survival into areas:

1st dynamic = Survival of self
2nd dynamic = Survival through sex/family/children
3rd dynamic = Survival through clan/tribe/group
4th dynamic = Survival of your species
5th dynamic = Survival of all living things
6th dynamic = Survival of the physical universe
7th dynamic = Survival of spiritual beings
8th dynamic = Survival of "everything else" AKA the God dynamic.

That's just about the only mention of God in Scientology. (Unless you count the 'Ron is God' club!)

The belief system is an eclectic mix of workable practices from other spiritual and psychological endeavors. All of the practices were 'discovered' (independently or 'originally') by LRH himself, the only 'source' for all that is scientology.

That's a start, I guess. I need to head out to work, I can answer any further questions later...

[job]

you need to google "operation clambake"

[null and void]

Operation clambake is good, but the question was what to they say for themselves. That's pretty thin, as it's quite a load to swallow in one gulp...

[monday]

"Magic is in no way associated with true religion. Your attempts to cast doubt as to the veracity of either religion does not make you appear more enlightened."

Yeah, but Tom Cruise is still a nutbar!

[job]

Actually, no its not. And I suspect that you are either a Scientologist, or paid by Scientology, as you conveniently left out all the other attributes of Scientology.

You failed to tell him about the evil galactic overlord Xenu, who caputered thousands of beings and then blew them up in a volcano to reduce population, and that those clusters of souls from the explosions are the engrams that keep us from our potential. The reason you did not tell him that was because when people hear how wacked out this sh$t is, they know immediately that it is a fraud.

You also failed to tell them that the engrams can only be removed by paying Scientology buttloads of money for auditing, to clear these old souls from your spirit, and that one of the primary methods is Hubbard's E-meter, which is nothing more than a Wheatstone bridge.

It's all bunk. And the fact that you present as just another self help philosophy is false and misleading.

[buffyt]

Very interesting!!!!

[Taiwan Bocks]

I'm not sure what you're talking about, but I'm sure you will be flamed right away.

[ZULU]

Thanks for the information.

I find it hard to believe this stuff personally, and find it hard to believe why any one else would.

I guess part of the reason is that we live in the "Post-Christian" world. The lack of clear moral guidelines - something most people find provides security and necessary stable base in life - has allowed other belief systems which provide a substitute for this to thrive.

Many people today claim to be Christians, but really aren't. They don't believe in the existence of Satan, angels and miracles, question the Resurrection and virgin birth, and have other reservations about Biblical scripture. Not to mention the rejection of traditional Judaeo-Christian morality which served as the moral mortar to keep western society together for so long. This is another reason why Islam, with its involved, but basially simple theology and apparent strict morality is so appealing to individuals.

Part of the blame in America is the fact that we have allowed God and Judaeo-Christian morality to be marginalized by a handfull of intolerant extremists, radical activist courts and pandering politicians. Another reason is the very structure of the Christian Churches themselves, particularly the non-fundamentalist Protestant Churches, which has increasingly lead their congregants to question tradional Judae-Christian morality about homosexuality, and other related moral and social issues.

This problem exists at an even greater level in Europe, which has provided even richer fodder for Islam than in the U.S. where a sizable fundamental Christian population still remains.

I think if the Christian Churches got out of secular politics and back to theological basics, and if the majority of people who still beleive in Judaeo-Christian values would simply demand of our politicians that a stop be made to these destructive actions of the state and federal courts, fringe groups like the scientologists and Muslims would have much less impact.

[Quilla]

My oldest sister has been a Scientologist for over 20 years. She has reiterated many of the statements null and void used to describe what Scientologists believe. It is my understanding that one must invest untold monies before they let them in on the Xenu/volcano/nuke garbage. Shoot, by then they're hooked so badly, both financially and emotionally, it's too late to back out then. Sis would never have divulged this science fiction aspect of the cult and I imagine nully got out before he was "treated" to that information.

[null and void]

I'm an ex scientologist. I was in for about 8 or 9 years in the 70's and very early 80's. Achieved the state of clear and worked up to OT-II before I saw the light and left.

I'm one of the very few people I know of who didn't just leave, I routed out following the policies for such things. I was even able to recover the monies I had on account, but did not ask for a refund for services rendered.

As I said, I'll answer any questions, the question was about underlying beliefs. Time limits prevented me from telling everything I know.

Your points are valid, although the e-meter is a little bit more than a simple Wheatstone bridge. (Not much more, though!)

There are parts of scientology that are well worth doing, and if there were a way to avoid that pernicious organization, I would recommend them. As it it the cost is just too high. And I don't mean the money...

[null and void]

Free advice - don't get too interested!

[null and void]

Excellent analysis.

[add925]

OK, at the highest level, it is revealed that we are descended from which Alien species?

[null and void]

Hi Quilla!

The Xemu crap is on OT-III, I did leave the church before I did that level.

Since I got in before the rates started skyrocketing I 'only' paid in the low 10's of thousands. I think it would be about a quarter mil to do it today, I haven't checked the prices lately.

Shoot, by then they're hooked so badly, both financially and emotionally, it's too late to back out then.

Yeah. And by then you've alienated all your old wog friends and have nowhere to go. I was lucky. There was a great exodus from the church at the time I left, so I was rejoining many of my friends who had left before me.

It takes quite a while to reintegrate into normal life!