Hi
http://forums.enturbulation.org/7-general-discussion/uk-ads-standards-agency-refuse-investigate-scilon-ads-need-moar-complaints-12459/#post226952
The link above is to a thread on contacting the ASA regarding sci flyers, pamphlets etc (any type of ad). I say we should complain about the dubious claims the church makes on these flyers. Toning/shutting down the sci's main method of advertising should hopefully be useful.
I've sent mine in :)
Lawtears
Friday 9 May 2008
Thursday 24 April 2008
Lisa McPherson
This is the thing about scientology. There is just so much stuff involved with it it's hard to cover all bases. I heard about Lisa McPherson in Feb/March but simply glossed over the details, what since I had a million other URLs to look at. Last night I looked at the web site in detail and good lord. I had expected to see something pretty bad and I've seen enough corpses so the pics wouldn't bother me.
Reading the police reports, scientology logs, depositions etc, it's quite clear that she was imprisoned, insane and in need of severe medical (non psychological) help weeks before she actually died. It's another shocking fact that noone went to jail for that. From the scientologist's own logs: "she was too weak to stand." Who in their right mind wouldn't at least call a taxi to get her to a hospital? The hospital was minutes away. Dragging her along the ground would have been kinder. And this was a full week before she died!
Here's an example. Suppose you have to leave your home for a few weeks for business. When you come back you find your wife/daughter/other loved one looking like a starving refugee covered in cuts and bruises from hitting walls etc and cannot go from lying on the bed to standing without assistance do you:
1) offer a pureed banana and a protein shake? Then give encouragement.
2) shit yourself and dial 911 (or your local emergency service)
3) shit yourself then throw her over your shoulder, manhandle her into the car, drive the two blocks to the nearest emergency hospital
The scientologists chose option 1.
And the DA seemed to let them away with it.
So could it be concluded that scientology thinks that purging negative engrams is more important that living? If it seems that death is on it's way (the signs were there well before she died) and you are not going to take her to a hospital to try to prolong life, then why don't you just kill her and get it over with? There was no reason for her to die. Ok, the normality of her life was obviously not normal. But whether she lived or died was entirely in their hands. They chose death and she died slowly over the course of two weeks. At any point she could have been saved.
Now the average anti-cos is probably thinking "yeah, this proves they are bad." No, it doesn't. It means that some scientologists are idiots and should be in jail. It means that America's policing system is shit. But it doesn't prove that scientology is bad. Not at all. What does prove that scientology is bad is that every other scientologist in the world can't/won't look at this case and think "we need to do something" "this is bad" or even an honest "We fucked her"
Scientologists: are you all so selfish, so content in your cotton wool universe that even another scientologist's life is no longer relevant?
Reading the police reports, scientology logs, depositions etc, it's quite clear that she was imprisoned, insane and in need of severe medical (non psychological) help weeks before she actually died. It's another shocking fact that noone went to jail for that. From the scientologist's own logs: "she was too weak to stand." Who in their right mind wouldn't at least call a taxi to get her to a hospital? The hospital was minutes away. Dragging her along the ground would have been kinder. And this was a full week before she died!
Here's an example. Suppose you have to leave your home for a few weeks for business. When you come back you find your wife/daughter/other loved one looking like a starving refugee covered in cuts and bruises from hitting walls etc and cannot go from lying on the bed to standing without assistance do you:
1) offer a pureed banana and a protein shake? Then give encouragement.
2) shit yourself and dial 911 (or your local emergency service)
3) shit yourself then throw her over your shoulder, manhandle her into the car, drive the two blocks to the nearest emergency hospital
The scientologists chose option 1.
And the DA seemed to let them away with it.
So could it be concluded that scientology thinks that purging negative engrams is more important that living? If it seems that death is on it's way (the signs were there well before she died) and you are not going to take her to a hospital to try to prolong life, then why don't you just kill her and get it over with? There was no reason for her to die. Ok, the normality of her life was obviously not normal. But whether she lived or died was entirely in their hands. They chose death and she died slowly over the course of two weeks. At any point she could have been saved.
Now the average anti-cos is probably thinking "yeah, this proves they are bad." No, it doesn't. It means that some scientologists are idiots and should be in jail. It means that America's policing system is shit. But it doesn't prove that scientology is bad. Not at all. What does prove that scientology is bad is that every other scientologist in the world can't/won't look at this case and think "we need to do something" "this is bad" or even an honest "We fucked her"
Scientologists: are you all so selfish, so content in your cotton wool universe that even another scientologist's life is no longer relevant?
Tuesday 22 April 2008
The good in scientology
(Oh, and dear reader, just to be clear, I think that the church is bad, but only because of the church. Note the thing between 'scientology' and 'cult' in the following:
scientology=Church of Scientology=cult.
Remove that thing in the middle and suddenly, scientology doesn't seem like a cult any more. Strange that!)
I've been trying to think of this for a while. Despite all the rhetoric out there, I believe that there could well be good things in scientology.
Consider some things:
1) Let's pretend you line up all 6 billion of us and chop off one leg off each person. Does this do any good? Well think about it (btw ignore the bleeding to death factor, pretend we have a great nurse behind us too.) Someone somewhere on the planet is dying because of an infection or physical damage to their leg. They're in the middle of nowhere, they're poor, they're going to die. They can't get antibiotics/surgery. So, chopping off their leg would represent a severe improvement to their life, namely, it would continue. So obviously chopping a leg off everyone would do somebody some good somewhere.
Similarly (but not precisely the same) it is so with scientology.
2) There must be some good in scientology. Otherwise noone would actually join it. If you're one of the few who's "legs need chopped off" then perhaps you should try something more, well, buddist. Certainly, there are worse places to try. Meditation, hypnosis, weird psychedelic experiences all seem more valid than scientology. For me, all I needed to know was who I was and what I was for. I've pretty much got that worked out now. But it didn't need scientology. It's entirely feasable that scientology does to it's clientelle what I did to myself over the course of a few years. Except my way was cheaper.
Jason Beghe implies that most of his time was wasted (ie OT-OT5) and was a con. I think that describes the cult's bait. Getting up to clear might do some people some good. Beyond that, you're just a fish caught on a line just as you've tasted the good stuff.
The free stuff is only a click away. Use it instead.
Lawtears
scientology=Church of Scientology=cult.
Remove that thing in the middle and suddenly, scientology doesn't seem like a cult any more. Strange that!)
I've been trying to think of this for a while. Despite all the rhetoric out there, I believe that there could well be good things in scientology.
Consider some things:
1) Let's pretend you line up all 6 billion of us and chop off one leg off each person. Does this do any good? Well think about it (btw ignore the bleeding to death factor, pretend we have a great nurse behind us too.) Someone somewhere on the planet is dying because of an infection or physical damage to their leg. They're in the middle of nowhere, they're poor, they're going to die. They can't get antibiotics/surgery. So, chopping off their leg would represent a severe improvement to their life, namely, it would continue. So obviously chopping a leg off everyone would do somebody some good somewhere.
Similarly (but not precisely the same) it is so with scientology.
2) There must be some good in scientology. Otherwise noone would actually join it. If you're one of the few who's "legs need chopped off" then perhaps you should try something more, well, buddist. Certainly, there are worse places to try. Meditation, hypnosis, weird psychedelic experiences all seem more valid than scientology. For me, all I needed to know was who I was and what I was for. I've pretty much got that worked out now. But it didn't need scientology. It's entirely feasable that scientology does to it's clientelle what I did to myself over the course of a few years. Except my way was cheaper.
Jason Beghe implies that most of his time was wasted (ie OT-OT5) and was a con. I think that describes the cult's bait. Getting up to clear might do some people some good. Beyond that, you're just a fish caught on a line just as you've tasted the good stuff.
The free stuff is only a click away. Use it instead.
Lawtears
Monday 21 April 2008
Blogger terms of service
Just reviewing the TOS for this blog when I came across this:
HATEFUL CONTENT: Users may not publish material that promotes hatred towards groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity.
Ok, so where does this blog fit in? Do I promote hatred towards a religion?
1) Religion
Scientology is not a religion, IMO. Philosophy? Ok. Religious philosophy? Sure. Religion? Um, no.
Why? Because I refuse to believe that some guy 50 years ago made a religion. That's not how religions are made. Some guy 2000 years ago, sure. Especially when Islam, Christianity and Judaeism seems to merge in some way. Especially when the way of life was so completely different we probably couldn't comprehend. But one guy, 50 years ago, when he was broke? Come on! It's not a religion.
2) Do I promote hatred?
Hatred is a powerful emotion. I usually comes about due to extreme circumstances. I'm not likely to post content, only words. I can't see my words being quite that powerful.
And can criticism be construed as hatred? I hate marmite. I think it tastes like shit. I hope you hate it too so that together we can drive this spread from our supermarkets. Have I just promoted hatred of a consumer product? It seems so. But my criticism is for the product, not the people. Although obviously the people who eat this stuff must have some genetic mutation on the tongue or are just insane ( / joke)
Likewise with scientology. The managerial structure/policy I don't like. The people inside it are good. They just need to leave or go Free. Either one is great. Spread your religious philosophy around in the same way every other philosophy gets spread. Let it grow in the 'Open Source' way. That's how you make a religion. Real people coming together. Not a phony operation with a price tag, lies and coercion.
But Co$ is more sneaky than the makers of marmite. Co$ says it tastes good. Co$ taints it's products so that the first few tries tastes quite nice (lots of sugar, perhaps.) Then less sugar goes in (like a gradient) then pop, you're stuck liking marmite.
So am I promoting hatred of a religion? No. I promote hatred of the management. I promote hatred of the structure (billion year contract!) I promote hatred of Fair Game. However, the philosophy, the part of scientology which could actually be called religious? Of course I don't hate it. You could believe the earth was flat and the moon was made of cheese. I wouldn't hate that either.
As to my personal view of the religious elements of Co$, it seems LRH made the church by adding a little hypnotic suggestion, eastern meditation, psychology (ironic, isn't it), one or two choice items from other religions/beliefs and a chunk of sci-fi. As I said, not a religion. But if fiddling with the useful bits helps someone's life, then that's great. Do tell more (with a comment perhaps?)
Indeed. I like hypnotic suggestion, eastern meditation and psychology. Maybe I'm almost a scientologist :) But I'll never eat marmite.
Lawtears
HATEFUL CONTENT: Users may not publish material that promotes hatred towards groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity.
Ok, so where does this blog fit in? Do I promote hatred towards a religion?
1) Religion
Scientology is not a religion, IMO. Philosophy? Ok. Religious philosophy? Sure. Religion? Um, no.
Why? Because I refuse to believe that some guy 50 years ago made a religion. That's not how religions are made. Some guy 2000 years ago, sure. Especially when Islam, Christianity and Judaeism seems to merge in some way. Especially when the way of life was so completely different we probably couldn't comprehend. But one guy, 50 years ago, when he was broke? Come on! It's not a religion.
2) Do I promote hatred?
Hatred is a powerful emotion. I usually comes about due to extreme circumstances. I'm not likely to post content, only words. I can't see my words being quite that powerful.
And can criticism be construed as hatred? I hate marmite. I think it tastes like shit. I hope you hate it too so that together we can drive this spread from our supermarkets. Have I just promoted hatred of a consumer product? It seems so. But my criticism is for the product, not the people. Although obviously the people who eat this stuff must have some genetic mutation on the tongue or are just insane ( / joke)
Likewise with scientology. The managerial structure/policy I don't like. The people inside it are good. They just need to leave or go Free. Either one is great. Spread your religious philosophy around in the same way every other philosophy gets spread. Let it grow in the 'Open Source' way. That's how you make a religion. Real people coming together. Not a phony operation with a price tag, lies and coercion.
But Co$ is more sneaky than the makers of marmite. Co$ says it tastes good. Co$ taints it's products so that the first few tries tastes quite nice (lots of sugar, perhaps.) Then less sugar goes in (like a gradient) then pop, you're stuck liking marmite.
So am I promoting hatred of a religion? No. I promote hatred of the management. I promote hatred of the structure (billion year contract!) I promote hatred of Fair Game. However, the philosophy, the part of scientology which could actually be called religious? Of course I don't hate it. You could believe the earth was flat and the moon was made of cheese. I wouldn't hate that either.
As to my personal view of the religious elements of Co$, it seems LRH made the church by adding a little hypnotic suggestion, eastern meditation, psychology (ironic, isn't it), one or two choice items from other religions/beliefs and a chunk of sci-fi. As I said, not a religion. But if fiddling with the useful bits helps someone's life, then that's great. Do tell more (with a comment perhaps?)
Indeed. I like hypnotic suggestion, eastern meditation and psychology. Maybe I'm almost a scientologist :) But I'll never eat marmite.
Lawtears
1st ever post
Hi everybody. As ever, special thanks to Tori, Mark, Andreas, Jason, Jenna and others. Keep making those waves!
As I've more or less 'impulse-bought' this blog, I don't have much to say. Keep anonymous protesting. THEY ARE A CULT etc.
I do have this to say. If you have wandered here looking for some sign of positive information about the cult, then you will be disappointed. After the Tom Cruise video, I went searching for something positive to say about the cult. And no, not the tat off scientology.org I wanted something tangible, something in your face, like Jason Beghe. I searched for the opposite of the Jason Beghe video in vain. The only thing I could find was footage of interviews which looked liked expensive productions in plush surroundings. Some austere figure droning on about how his life is better in vague terms for a few minutes each, while Jason THEY FUCKED ME UP Beghe spends two hours on the intimate detail.
Yes, it really is a cult. Yes, management lie continually about it. Yes, it's probably wise to be paranoid of management. A pity since some of the ground staff seem ok, just stuck in a cult.
And that's the thing. I protest against scientologists *in general* because they are *generally* part of a cult. That said, three cheers for Freewind and for all 'squirrels' everywhere. Unfortunately the black PR spouting from Co$ has pretty much painted you all with the one brush. I wish all free scientologists the best, especially in the copyright courts.
And if you're not a free scientologist, please, consider squeezing the church dry for your future and consider leaving. Has your life been improved by scientology? Great. Now's the time to leave. It's about you. Not them. Your life and family. If you feel you have to give something back to scientology, then leave and spread the word of the tech far and wide when it is safe to do so. Co$ can't do this anymore. And they did it fraudulently when they could.
Not bad for a first post. Oh I also want to post my book review of "The Fundamentals of Thought". Amazon censor critical reviews and my posts occasionally vanish from groups.google. Briefly: it's badly written, poorly structured bollocks. I'll write something more substantial somtime :)
Lawtears
Have fun
As I've more or less 'impulse-bought' this blog, I don't have much to say. Keep anonymous protesting. THEY ARE A CULT etc.
I do have this to say. If you have wandered here looking for some sign of positive information about the cult, then you will be disappointed. After the Tom Cruise video, I went searching for something positive to say about the cult. And no, not the tat off scientology.org I wanted something tangible, something in your face, like Jason Beghe. I searched for the opposite of the Jason Beghe video in vain. The only thing I could find was footage of interviews which looked liked expensive productions in plush surroundings. Some austere figure droning on about how his life is better in vague terms for a few minutes each, while Jason THEY FUCKED ME UP Beghe spends two hours on the intimate detail.
Yes, it really is a cult. Yes, management lie continually about it. Yes, it's probably wise to be paranoid of management. A pity since some of the ground staff seem ok, just stuck in a cult.
And that's the thing. I protest against scientologists *in general* because they are *generally* part of a cult. That said, three cheers for Freewind and for all 'squirrels' everywhere. Unfortunately the black PR spouting from Co$ has pretty much painted you all with the one brush. I wish all free scientologists the best, especially in the copyright courts.
And if you're not a free scientologist, please, consider squeezing the church dry for your future and consider leaving. Has your life been improved by scientology? Great. Now's the time to leave. It's about you. Not them. Your life and family. If you feel you have to give something back to scientology, then leave and spread the word of the tech far and wide when it is safe to do so. Co$ can't do this anymore. And they did it fraudulently when they could.
Not bad for a first post. Oh I also want to post my book review of "The Fundamentals of Thought". Amazon censor critical reviews and my posts occasionally vanish from groups.google. Briefly: it's badly written, poorly structured bollocks. I'll write something more substantial somtime :)
Lawtears
Have fun
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