I am Christian. Never a Scientologist, but very supportive of Mike and Leah. I have a question and not sure where to place it, this seems as good a spot as any….

I wonder when someone leaves Scientology do they go to a real church of some kind normally? Do they believe in God? I feel bad if they don’t have something in their life the is positive that replaces what they thought they were getting in Scientology originally.

Great exit story, Quackery 🙂

It gets mentioned as an example of all the “other faiths” including “Cao Dai, I-Kuan Tao, Mandaeism, the Rastafari movement, the Rātana movement, Scientology and Yazidism,”

How many of those, has anyone even heard of? And yet most if not all are larger than Scientology, some significantly (for instance, Cao Dai is a 20th century NRM that apparently actually has a couple of million followers in Vietnam, and an estimated 30,000 in the rest of the world – Hubbard’s followers should be jealous).

Scientology must love being grouped with the Rastafarians. I think that Scientology only even rates a mention, because they’ve made themselves so infamous.

I’m wondering if, during the previous eight years, you bothered to “fact check” Obama? I’ll bet not. LOL

Completely agree with your last sentence. A good start would be returning to the Constitution which has been decimated over the last few centuries by the pols and others seeking to get their own ways. We sure do not have a “leadership” OF the people, BY the people or FOR the people, sad to say.

Well, Dude, if you wish to claim it, go ahead. Let me know when the cult is formed and let me be your very first parishioner! The old guys are always smarter!

To qualify, the few Whales I knew had inherited their money. They hadn’t earned it, hadn’t ever created anything, built anything. They lived off of family money when their parents were alive and then inherited it. This was the cause, I believe, of their vulnerability to the cult’s love bombing. That song that Billie Holiday used to sing explains it: “Mama may have, Papa may have, but God bless the child, that’s got his own, that’s got his own”. These Whales, I think, didn’t themselves think that they had “their own”. Ripe fruit.

Someone or a group got paid big bucks from the Pew Foundation to do that study. If scn was even mentioned in it then I’ll bet that someone well versed in scn history (not me) could get a juicy grant for a treatise on scn. The Foundation would surely be interested in publishing a treatise about the world’s fastest growing religion. I’d say act fast while star power keeps scn in the news. Even the Pew judging panel would be curious.

They keep donating because the have to be right. They don’t dare be wrong. And the Whales and Celebs are constantly being MADE so very very right! Treated as royalty, revered. Regarding them, the Love Bombing Statistic is always in Power. Of course, we public ALL got love-bombed. I know I was. Its very seductive – being told continuously in subtle and not so subtle ways that you’re wonderful. Admiration – whew! I can really laugh at myself now for having believed it, for having been so conned, all those years. But the Whales and Celebs – maybe its not so easy for them to laugh it off, to turn away. Admiration can be addictive. Actors and creative people are, I believe, fragile and vulnerable, emotionally, needing and possibly even craving approval. As for the wealthy Whales, the few I knew were highly vulnerable to approval and flattery. Talk about controlled beings – wow.

Wow — never went into that sort of deep dive. Thanks.