Going Clear is available on Netflix. If you have not seen this, take the time to watch it. If you haven’t watched it since it first came out a decade or so ago, it’s worth re-watching. This documentary had massive impact on the way the world viewed Scientology. And paved the way for so much that has come since - including The Aftermath (which is available for free on Tubi). The story that is told and how is laid out is brilliant — facts about Hubbard and Scientology and interviews are brought together to paint a devastating picture that is beyond dispute. … [Read more...]
Some Thoughts on the 1st Amendment
The First Amendment to the Constitution is a vitally important document that is cause for great celebration and almost as much dispute. It enshrines a number of very important rights -- freedom of religion, speech, the press, to peaceable assembly and petition the government. I believe the Bill of Rights was intended to protect people rather than the government or corporations (in fact the ONLY right afforded any corporation in the Bill of Rights is that given the press in the First Amendment) and yet, over the years, much law has developed that protects religious … [Read more...]
Monday Morning Funnies: Vancouver Org Slaying the Yelp Reviews
I included an item in the last Thursday Funnies about a Vancouver scientologist trying to solicit positive reviews for the org -- lamenting there were only 7 reviews and by adding his 5 star review he had bumped the average up to 4.1 from 4.0. Uh oh, look what happened.... Val Ross alerted me to the fact that his post is now the FIRST image on the Yelp site for Vancouver org! Begging people to give good reviews. And the average Yelp rating has gone down to 3.9 with a massive 10 reviews now... Scientology and social media are oil and water. … [Read more...]
AI Predicts the Future for Scientology
One of our readers asked Chat GPT (or perhaps another AI tool) for a prediction on the future of scientology and he forwarded it to me. This is a pretty good indicator of the status of scientology in the world -- a far different picture than is presented in their press releases and events touting "unprecedented expansion" and other hype that is not backed up by anything outside their words and staged propaganda videos. Predicting the future of the Church of Scientology involves examining various factors, including its historical membership trends, current dynamics, and … [Read more...]
Those Who Came Before Us
Following my recent blogpost on Kristi Wachter's excellent site, this is another fantastic piece of work found at the Why We Protest Scientology Wiki site providing a list of Former Scientologists Who Have Spoken Out This list has taken a tremendous amount of work to compile -- it not only includes the names of the people but a vast majority have links to where their public statements were made. Incredible. This list totals 3276 names -- a huge number when you consider there are less than this number of OT VIII's in scientology today, and probably around this many Sea Org … [Read more...]
The Truth About Scientology: OT VIIIs
I recently did a post about how many OT VIII's there are in the world. One of our regular readers, TrevAnon, emailed me that there is a list of OT VIII completions at the Truth About Scientology website. I did not realize this website was being kept up to date. It is an astonishing resource, the work of the indefatigable Kristi Wachter. I reached out to Kristi to thank her and ask if she minded if I promoted her and her site here. I asked her if there was anything I could do to assist her. Her reply: It's very kind of you to think of mentioning my site. If you have space and … [Read more...]
High Conflict Personalities
Another article sent to me recently that I am republishing and commenting on here as it explains a lot of what we see going on in the world of scientology. The more knowledge and understanding one has of the phenomena associated with cults and cultish behavior and the toxic traits and personalities you find associated with them, the better chance one has of not being damaged and retaining one’s sanity. This article is oriented towards avoiding hooking up with a High Conflict Person as a partner, but the description of this type of individual is broadly applicable. It originally appeared in P … [Read more...]
How Being in a Cult Can Affect Your Mental Health
Someone sent me this article recently which I had not seen before. It was originally published on MentalHealth.com and I found it to be generally informative though by nature of it being very broad to cover all cults, I think there are some things in here that are not so applicable to scientology. I have left a few comments in red italics throughout. How being in a cult can affect your mental health Author: Sean JacksonMedical Reviewer: Morgan Blair People who join cults often do so out of a strong desire to belong, matter, and give meaning to their lives. In reality, cults often d … [Read more...]
David Minkoff is Bringing REAL Freedom to Israel…
How do we get Israel out of suppression and reactive mind slavery? This is the doctor who lost his medical license as a result of his failure/incompetence in treating Lisa McPherson. Now he is going to save Israel. This is of course not the first time Scientology has claimed they would bring peace to the Middle East and solve all of Israel's problems. Typically they have done fundraising to distribute WTH to "bring peace" and touted the great "successes" they have had in doing so. They were wrong then, just as they are wrong now. This is an earlier post from my blog about this very … [Read more...]
Dear Leader(s)
Watch this short video here. Anyone who has ever attended a scientology event featuring David Miscavige will find these short videos eerily familiar. The blind, over-the-top adulation. The fear of being identified as someone who is not enthusiastic enough in their praise for the Dear Leader. In N. Korea this might result in being sent to a prison camp. In scientology it’s a minimum trip to the ethics department for an expensive attitude adjustment program — or as happened to me, assignment to clean the bilges on the Freewinds . That was because an announcement failed to elicit a standing ova … [Read more...]