The Apostate:Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology. by Lawrence Wright

[angi_is_altered]

On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote. Before the

Comments

[jaguarjg]

The more I learn about Scientology the more it just looks like a bunch of white rich folk who happily ignore anyone getting fucked over so they can keep their little privilege club.

And what the fuck? If you can really swallow this shit and keep paying these guys and covering up for them, there is something seriously wrong with you. Paul Haggis..30 years..really? And that's after you read that shit below and didn't "get it".

“A major cause of mankind’s problems began 75 million years ago,” the Times wrote, when the planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of ninety planets under the leadership of a despotic ruler named Xenu. “Then, as now, the materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation.” Xenu decided “to take radical measures.” The documents explained that surplus beings were transported to volcanoes on Earth. “The documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were dropped on these volcanoes, destroying the people but freeing their spirits-called thetans-which attached themselves to one another in clusters.” Those spirits were “trapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol,” then “implanted” with “the seed of aberrant behavior.” The Times account concluded, “When people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves.”

Oic.

[browneyedguuurl]

Every time I read that I just can't even compute how the hell people don't laugh when they read that. At least Haggins had the common sense to call it madness.

This video is CRAZY!

[angi_is_altered]

[brewsternorth]

*nods* It's very good at preying on people's vulnerabilities and milking them for all they're worth.

Mind you, I get the impression that it's moved to the next level under Miscavige.

[imnotasquirrel]

I was morbidly fascinated with the psychology of destructive cults and gave speeches on them in school for English class (whenever our teacher allowed us to choose our own topics, lol), so I was probably more informed on cults than your average person. (Not that I was an expert.) And I still think that I could have very easily fallen victim to a cult*, especially in college. A lot of people think that only stupid folks fall victim to cults, but that's not true. Most of it is about emotional vulnerability. Cults are experts at preying on that.

* If I had ever run across them, which I didn't. :( I was actually thinking of seeking a rumored cult out because I really wanted to see what they were like for myself. My friends talked me out of it.

ETA: I read this book, Whatever Happened to the Class of '65, which profiled a group of adults 20 years after they had graduated from high school in the 60s. What struck me was that the kid who was widely regarded as the smartest and most intellectual of the group, ended up bouncing around different cults and organizations for some time, including Scientology. The thing is, even though the kid was clearly intelligent, he also seemed troubled and angsty.