(10-13-2010, 06:03 PM)Lavazza Wrote: It's hard not to conclude that after watching the BBC documentary.. Wow. Yes, if what that film shows is in any way accurate then we can see that there are indeed quite a few negatively influenced ideas, and ideals... The part about separating from family members is especially heart breaking. And their "fair game" philosophy speaks for itself.
Scientology is just more notorious than others because they attract the rich and famous, but other religions have similar policies. I have a friend who belongs to a religion called The Brethren who has not been allowed to see or even talk to her son for many years, because he dared to leave the church. They consider everyone else 'outsiders' and are not allowed to step inside non-church-members' homes. She wants out but feels she can't leave, because her whole life is wrapped up in the church. She would lose her husband, etc. and thinks would have no means of making a living. It's sad. She has joined an internet support group for people trying to get their families back after leaving the church.
Classic 'cult' conditioning.
(10-13-2010, 06:03 PM)Lavazza Wrote: Although, I'm sure it, Scientology, is helpful too. Apparently they have a huge success rate in treating people with addiction. At what cost though, is the question I suppose. What are the other positive aspects? I really want to learn all sides to this topic.
I know several Scientologists and once attended a seminar which turned out to be an invitation to Scientology, under the guise of a business meeting. They do indeed have some useful techniques, in particular a technique called the tone scale, which is a technique for raising a negative emotion to positive in increments. I found this useful.
My Scientology friends don't seem evil at all, but one thing I've noticed they all have in common: an intensity. They're just really, really intense people. Power seems very important to them. They are casual friends, business acquaintances actually, so I really don't know them all that well personally. It's just an observation.
(10-13-2010, 06:03 PM)Lavazza Wrote: Also, the part about Scientology ministers coming to disaster relief areas, I can attest to this. My neighborhood was impacted by a disaster about a month ago and they made their presence known. (all is well with the Lavazza family by the way, disaster avoided)
Yes, that's true. Something amusing though potentially destructive happened recently...My company published a picture of people using our water machine to donate medical-grade water to Haiti victims. But when I saw the pic on our corporate website, I immediately notices several people in Scientology t-shirts! They weren't members of our team, but were standing off to the side.
I immediately called our office and told them that Scientology is rather, ahem, controversial, and was it intentional to feature Scientology on our international website?
Being Japanese, they had no idea what Scientology was but definitely didn't want to be affiliated with something so controversial, so they cropped the pix.
Anyway, just as with other religions that may be STS in their hierarchial structure, there are undoubtedly many members who manage to polarize STO despite the inherent STS influences. There does seem to be a blatant and powerful control structure in Scientology. There have even been accusations of criminal activity, but I have no idea whether that's true or not.
Controversies
Quote:Hubbard continued to codify the policy of "attacking the attacker" and assigned a term to it that is used frequently within Scientology: "dead agenting." Used as a verb, "dead agenting" is described by Hubbard as a technique for countering negative accusations against Scientology by diverting the critical statements and making counter-accusations against the accuser (in other words, "attack the attacker").
That sounds pretty STS to me. But nothing different than what our political campaigns routinely do. And many individuals, caught in their own blockages, do, in order to avoid looking in the mirror.
But Scientology is supposed to be a religion. So that's pretty blatant STS philosophy, for a religion.
The Scientologists I know clearly believe they are doing good. They engage in charitable activities and help others. As always, I would separate the people from the possibly STS-based structure they are involved with.
While there might be some useful ideas, techniques and knowledge to be found in Scientology, it's not anything that can't be found elsewhere. Why subject oneself to indoctrination and control, just to get some knowledge, when knowledge can be had for free?
It's highly questionable whether the knowledge is even worthwhile, anyway. Hubbard was a sci-fi writer, so there is speculation that he made it all up, for kicks, and then laughed his way to the bank.
The beliefs themselves are really creepy, imo. Straight out of a Star Trek episode...creepy aliens, humans just being automatons, and all that. That, methinks, is a clue as to its inherent polarity!