Scientology has been reeling from a growing number of defections where often high-ranking former members have accused the organization of everything from beating members to reducing members to virtual captive slaves. However, Scientology is most vulnerable to defection of celebrities. The organization caters to celebrities and has special programs for their care and treatment. That is why the recent departure of Leah Remini has been a big blow for the organization which touts such big name followers as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Catherine Bell, Nancy Cartwright, and Fox anchor Greta Van Susteren. Now Remini has gone on the offensive and filed a missing person’s report with the police department. The missing person? Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife, Shelly Miscavige, who has not been seen in public in six years. However, it is now being reported that Shelly has been found, like some Scientology Big Foot, and had a sit down with the LAPD (which has closed the investigation).
Account indicate that Remini was disciplined for asking about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige who she considered a friend. When the Scientology leader showed up at the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in November 2006 without her, she asked where Shelley was. She says that church spokesman Tommy Davis told her, “You don’t have the fucking rank to ask about Shelly.”
Usually these reports do not entail substantial police work outside of the jurisdiction, though Shelley is believed to have been sent to a compound near Lake Arrowhead in the mountains above Los Angeles, which is the headquarters of the Church of Spiritual Technology. It appears that the Church moved quickly to snuff out the investigation with a face-to-face meeting with the LAPD. The LAPD has reportedly decided that Remini’s allegation was “unfounded.” Remini is not vulnerable legally for the report since it does not constitute a false report under the criminal conduct. An “unfounded” report is viewed differently from a “false” report and indicates a lack of knowledge by the reporting citizen.
It is fascinating to see the effort launched to counter Remini. With a church that seems built around celebrities, such defections can be a blow. However, celebrities like Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) appear ready to make up the difference. She reportedly has given $10 million to the church.
You are proving me right about you, Mike. Those science fiction writers are good; Hubbard is better. Have you read the ten volume Mission Earth? Oh, I forgot, you’re too biased to make a rational opinion. In case others get the wrong idea, sci fi is about 0.1% or less of what this writer wrote. You are stuck in a single past incident. Do yourself a favor & read Dianetics in a new unit of time. We all need to get out of the stone age & realize the wealth of scientific data available to us from this one man. These blogs are supposed to be about freedom. Here’s your chance to find a lot more of it. You have NO idea, the impact of this one writer on this planet, even now. He sits completely opposed to the Illuminati, so OF COURSE there are attacks! Don’t be such dummies, people; would you really side with Big Brother & the Illuminati? Next you’ll be telling me that 9/11 wasn’t an inside job!!!!
rafflaw
1, August 9, 2013 at 10:26 am
Remini needs to watch her back.
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do they need volunteers?
Scientologists = Basket Cases
Mr. Spindell is in the majority of people who think Scientology is a creepy, weird cult. I guess they’re a small step up from that cult that required castration of its members, but a cult is a cult is a cult.
Thanks, Sinclair. You have it right. Spindell can come up with some bright ideas sometimes, but he’s a basket case when it comes to Scientology. Rants & raves every time I say something positive about it, as with several other regular bloggers that like to hatemonger on stuff they know nothing about.
“Spindell can come up with some bright ideas sometimes, but he’s a basket case when it comes to Scientology.”
Limey,
Have you ever heard Hubbard speak live in a panel discussion with Sci Fi writers who had known him for a long time? I have. This occurred back in the 50’s on the Long John Nebel all night radio show in NYC. They made mincemeat of his ideas, because they knew him personally. L.Ron didn’t take kindly to them and didn’t do very well. The writers were Frederick Pohl and Lester Del Ray.
Ol’ L.Ron was pretty much a nut, but he was probably the life of any party he was invited to. I got this from Wiki:
In August 1945 Hubbard moved into the Pasadena mansion of John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons. A leading rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Parsons led a double life as an avid occultist and Thelemite, follower of the English ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley and leader of a lodge of Crowley’s magical order, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).[9][114] He let rooms in the house only to tenants who he specified should be “atheists and those of a Bohemian disposition”.[115]
Hubbard befriended Parsons and soon became sexually involved with Parsons’s 21-year-old girlfriend, Sara “Betty” Northrup.[116] Despite this Parsons was very impressed with Hubbard and reported to Crowley:
[]From some of his experiences I deduced that he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. He describes his Angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the Empress and who has guided him through his life and saved him many times. He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles.[117]
Parsons and Hubbard collaborated on the “Babalon Working”, a sex magic ritual intended to summon an incarnation of Babalon, the supreme Thelemite Goddess. It was undertaken over several nights in February and March 1946 in order to summon an “elemental” who would participate in further sex magic.[118] As Richard Metzger describes it,
Parsons used his “magical wand” to whip up a vortex of energy so the elemental would be summoned. Translated into plain English, Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement whilst Hubbard (referred to as “The Scribe” in the diary of the event) scanned the astral plane for signs and visions.[119]
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Sinclair Upps: I don’t doubt that most scientologists are sincere and good people at about the same percentage as one would find in any other population. However, there are organizations in any area of human endeavor that have a corrupt leadership which must be supported by a certain number of corrupt or delusional members. In my opinion sufficient evidence is publicly available from a variety of sources to support the conclusion that the leadership of Scientology is corrupt, and that corruption takes the form of exploiting the sincere needs and desires of the organization’s members, and abusing both members and ex-members in a variety of ways. I do not believe that any of the commenters above view all religious organizations other than scientology as only positive forces. It just happens that scientology, and the concerns raised by the organization’s prior actions, are the subjects being discussed.
I was raised a Catholic, and that religion was perverted. I found a lot of actual truth in Scientology, but much it is pure bunk! Any rational human being, discerning to any extent, would be able to determine that for themselves. The celebrities are easy prey as the majority of them consider themselves special people, above and/or better than the rest of us. The rest of them just want to be members of the group. Richard Bach’s story of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” typifies the herd mentality. Unfortunately, as is often the case, these people do not practice what they preach and are hypocrites.
I sincerely hope that I do not have another manic episode, and I am doing everything within my power to avoid that happenstance. Every time I’ve been manic, I have always gone after them. I don’t get the absolute futility of it then. These people are not capable of honest self-reflection into their behaviors. And even though Dianetics touts itself is being the modern science of mental health, they want absolutely nothing to do with really mentally ill people. They want to get the “most able” people first. Actually, it’s more about making money than helping people. However, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Love, Maggie
On Aug 9, 2013 7:03 AM, “JONATHAN TURLEY” wrote: > > jonathanturley posted: “Scientology has been reeling from a growing number of defections where often high-ranking former members have accused the organization of everything from being beating members to reducing members to virtual captive slaves. However, Scientology is most vu” >
A person near and dear to me — someone in a relatively high place (and also from Tampa) worked on the Lisa McPherson case. The conclusion (and I completely trust this source)? “Something is rotten…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Lisa_McPherson
(The silly and tired retorts like “tin foil hatters” and “take your meds” are losing their punch, honey. The truth is powerful medicine. Cozy up to the counter and have a swallow, “Sinclair” Downs.)
“Something is rotten…”
AP,
Thank you for supplying the first of what could be many links about the con game that is Scientology.
I’ve watch Scientology — and its obsessive critics for years. Sorry, I rather hang around Scientologists than its foes. Much of the comments here and elsewhere online smack of the canards used against Jews, Catholics and other religions and minorities. I live in Tampa, where there are a lot of church members. They tend to be pretty normal, well-adjusted people, and one of their hallmarks is open mindedness. Many members belong to a religious order, and I assume they agree to the discipline of their order. By comparison, are the Jesuits a democracy? Are monastic orders of many religions democratic? That’s the “authoritarian” aspect that the commentators here allege.
One of the most common devices used by anti-Semites was that even when Jews proved they had not committed some crime or sin, the anti-Semites would come back with claims that the new “proof” was merely a deeper conspiracy. Or, if it was shown that there was no proof of a crime or sin, the anti-Semites would screech that that was merely how clever their foes were in hiding the evidence.
That’s pretty much what you have in of the posts above. Apparently the LAPD is part of the conspiracy, according to the tin-foil hatters here.
It’s interesting that the haters of Scientology describe evils that, among other religions, are considered virtues. Scientology fights back against those that defame it — is that so different than what Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League do? Scientologists apparently urge members to “disconnect” from relatives and friends that are opposed to the church — is that so different that the vehement opposition many Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other families apply to their children who marry outside the faith?
Turley has has been a champion of oppressed minorities. It’s a shame he is siding with bigots here. If people want to be Scientologists, let them — it’s pure First Amendment. If people don’t want to believe in Scientology, that’s equally an expression of their rights — but don’t become hate-mongers.
“Much of the comments here and elsewhere online smack of the canards used against Jews, Catholics and other religions and minorities. I live in Tampa, where there are a lot of church members.”
Nonsense. Scientology much?
I’m generally not big on conspiracy theories, but I have to wonder what kind of assurance the LAPD had they were actually meeting with her and that she was able to speak freely.
At least Germany gets it.
I’d like to know when our intrepid prosecutors in this country are going to realize there is a difference between a religion and Ponzi scheme/protection racket (poorly) hiding behind the facade of faith.
It appears that the Church moved quickly to snuff out the investigation with a face-to-face meeting with the LAPD. The LAPD has reportedly decided that Remini’s allegation was “unfounded.” -Jonathan Turley
Some things are so predictable.
And as rafflaw said, “Remini needs to watch her back.”
Well do you drink of the swimming pool cruise was in…… Fruitcakes…..like gifts that keep being regifted….l.
Elaine, Thanks!! You owe me 2 minutes of my life back!
Scientology is the model for various authoritarian governments, both religious and secular, all over the globe.
And vice versa.
The toxins of power do not discriminate when it comes to corrupting those who exercise power.
“When the Scientology leader showed up at the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in November 2006 without her, she asked where Shelley was. She says that church spokesman Tommy Davis told her, “You don’t have the f**king rank to ask about Shelly.”
In this statement alone which I find totally credible, we see that Scientology is a dangerous cult, rather than a religious discipline. Unquestioned and unquestionable hierarchies of authority are typical of how cults manifest themselves.
Elaine’s link shows the nonsense that underpins this phony “religion” that was created by Hubbard as a profit center. Seriously, the Torah’s creation story is far more credible than Hubbard and to me the creation story itself is not at all credible.
Wallow in your sin and unbelief. It is God’s way to burn you.
Robert Wheeler Todd K7VHQ
Remini needs to watch her back.
nick,
A short history of Scientology for you:
When is that spaceship coming to take all these fools?