Xenu Made Me Make This Post

[metaphorge]

I wonder if anyone has ever considered if Scientology is an intentional parody of religion?

I'm pretty sure that was not ElRon's original intention, but it would please me greatly if that had been the case, and it does serve as a pretty excellent object example.

Comments

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering if the whole Tom Cruise thing isn't either a massive art project or an attempt to make more people realize how insane Scientology is.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

I really need to track down a copy of this video without the semi-Mission Impossible music; so MANY choice sound bites to be had.

I <3 Gawker.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

...that is, if the video without the music exists; I initially assumed it had been added for satiric effect, but it looks like the clip is lifted directly from a Scientology awards show. The mind boggles at how anyone in Hubbardland could have thought this was a remotely good idea.

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

"The mind boggles at how anyone in Hubbardland could have thought this was a remotely good idea."

You do realize that the juxtaposition of "good idea" and "Hubbardland" leads to a paradox, right?

Unless, by good idea you mean "Make shittons of money!"

[ashlupa.livejournal.com]

Actually, we have excellent anecdotal evidence that it was entirely intentional--perhaps not as a parody, but as a money-making cult. Chatting with some of the older authors at D*Con can be quite informative.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this is the reality of the situation, but I like my fantasy better. ;D

[illuviel.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[jeffry-wynne.livejournal.com]

There is a lot of greatness in Scientology, and the philosophies and ideas of ElRon. Their programs for alchohol addiction, criminal rehabilitation, study and focus techniques, as well as exposing the money-hungry pharmacudial society where everything comes in a pill are well used and quite valuable. That said, these videos and blow-hards like Tom Cruise don't do the ideas any favors. It all just comes off as creepy, cult-like and clueless.

They aren't so much a parody as way around the unethical and illegal taxation of our citizens. As for being a money-making venture, most things of value are. I know they gave me free services when I was suicidal and pulled me out of a state I couldn't get out on my own.

Just my opinions.

[jeffry-wynne.livejournal.com]

Nothing. But trying to drug to everyone on the planet seems excessive. ;-)

[jeffry-wynne.livejournal.com]

Not what I'm saying at all.

[boiwondering.livejournal.com]

Are you intentionally trolling, i.e., being purposefully offensive and misrepresentational in order to pick a fight?

I ask because the distance from jeffry_wynne's comment to this conclusion seems entirely too great to have been bridged by accident, and the inherent snarkiness in your response doesn't lend itself to any sort of reasonable dialogue. You seem to have begun with a preconceived destination in mind, and interpreted his comments to suit that.

If this isn't the case, my apologies for being rather forward here.

...and as a preemptive precaution: I'm not in any way associated with Scientology, nor do I wish to be. To me, as a "religion," they rate about on the same level as most others, but for the spectacularly crappy PR job they've done. Sure, they have a number of nut-jobs in their fold, and some of their tenets and advice are both ludicrous and (IMO) outright harmful, in my opinion... but then, I'm hard pressed to name a religion about which that isn't true.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Very well said. (Not surprising, though.)

[boiwondering.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

...but what wasn't surprising?

[boiwondering.livejournal.com]

That's as may be, but your answer is a non sequitur. I didn't ask about who or what you are; I asked about what you were doing, specifically as regards your response to jeffry_wynne's comments.

In any event, further discussion is likely to be entirely fruitless, and therefore a waste of time.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Dude, that icon is awesome, though I really want it to also morph into Lou Ferrigno as The Incredible Hulk....

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Obviously, for a religion to take off as well as Scientology has it has to have its good points, so I agree that a number of the underlying ideas are good and do work for a number of people (as can be said for what is now Landmark Education, which shares a lot of Scientology's roots), and you are right on about (for the sake of shorthand) the pharmaceutical/industrial complex, taxation et al.

The two main problems Scientology seems to have are a mythological structure that did not seem to age very well and without a clear methodology to evolve, and a very bad strategy at handling outside criticism. Now that I think about it, most other religions didn't seem to do either of these things very well in their infancy. Maybe it's something like growing pains?

[box3.livejournal.com]

That's because Scientology is creepy, cult-like and clueless. What a great way to mind-wash the masses; prey on the vulnerable. Yuck.

[jeffry-wynne.livejournal.com]

I'm a Scientologist, and it isn't any of those things.

[jeffry-wynne.livejournal.com]

Do we know each other in real life? If not, that is a highly personal question, and if we do, I still wouldn't want any financial information about me floating out here in cyberland for all to see.

I'll say this though;

They gave me free services when I was in really bad shape in 1997. Nobody seems to know they help out people in crisis in that way. I also don't pay any dues or any of that kind of stuff. If they have a workshop that interests me, then I go and pay the fee. It is pretty simple economics from my end.

I'm also a practicing Zen-Buddist. Neither one seems to conflict with the other.

Scientology has a lot of weird stuff associated with it, and I personally haven't seen ANY of it (aside from these creepy videos and some FANATICAL people, who seem to show up in ALL philosophies and religions). I've also never tried to get anyone else to go there. If someone asks what I think, I tell them my story and leave it at that. I just don't like when people just start bashing it out of knowhere, usually to look cool to their friends. Isn't that what so many people on LJ land are trying to get away from from? The whole us vs them mentality of High School?

[tfcocs.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen Bowfinger? It bombed at the box office, but not because it was a bad film, IMHO.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Netflix'ed. ;D

[mistressxenobia.livejournal.com]

You will like.
One of the funniest movies ever - especially the traffic scene. :)

[127fascination.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is their vocabulary and "lore" sounds insane. Its hard to get the altruistist messages filtered out of the lunacy they speak. For example, he said something about "changing our reality" for the better (I assume). That sounds a little like RAW, not LRH, and my interest is peaked. So maybe they can do some good, but I don't know enough about the bad that they might do. But it all get trumpted when they start talking about the KSW, SP, engrams, and overlord shit and I run screaming from the room.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

As I said above, I think the two biggest problems that Scientology faces are a mythological structure that did not age very well (most sci fi does not) and without a clear metholodogy to evolve, and a disastrous policy of handling outside criticism. There should be a whole chapter in Start Your Own Religion 101 textbooks on why it is a bad bad bad idea to try to use intellectual property law to silence your critics. ;)

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I didn't even know that anyone non affiliated with Scientology believed it to be anything BUT a joke!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_controversy#L._Ron_Hubbard_and_starting_a_religion_for_money

[mistressxenobia.livejournal.com]

I always thought that CoS started as a bet between Elron, Heinlein and Sturgeon as to if you could start a really wacky religion and make money with it.


Have you read Sturgeon?
God DAYEM he's amazing!

[plutopsyche.livejournal.com]

the parody video Tom Cruise WANTS you to see! (http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3f716ffebe) on FunnyOrDie.com (http://www.funnyordie.com/)

[box3.livejournal.com]

What an intense load of shit. There's no content to that waffle.

Panorama - Scientology and Me

[thecolorblue.livejournal.com]

have you seen the summit that was leaked onto pirate bay? i watched some of it last night. it's basically a three-hour long mindwashing infomercial for new "technology."

whew. i feel like it's time for some word clearing now. let me go learn up on the tone scale.

Storm the studio

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Burroughs's Maya control system builds on L. Ron Hubbard's theory of the reactive mind, a pre-linguistic symbol system which has determined human behavior from the beginning of civilization. Hubbard's Scientology (one of many marginal theories Burroughs has espoused) had entranced Burroughs with the belief that it could free mankind from mind control such as that mastered by his Maya priests. The Maya connection in Burroughs's campaign to "rub out the word" is Maya hieroglyphs. His alternative to the word is picture writing— hieroglyphs and ideograms. He believed in the direct transmission of ideas, in the transparency of sign to referent, bypassing linguistic symbol systems. Critics have noted the paradox in Burroughs's repeated "Rub out the Word" written by a man addicted to writing.

— Paul H. Wild, "William S. Burroughs and the Maya Gods of Death: The Uses of Archaeology"

[thecolorblue.livejournal.com]

also, doesn't it strike you that he's doing the same acting job as in magnolia?

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got that out of it too. :)

Not a religion at all....

[xot.livejournal.com]

After watching the vid clip, I would like to put forth the hypothesis that Scientology is not an intentional spoof of a religion, but an intentional spoof of the (American) English Language. It Mr. Cruise talks like that all the time he'll have to hire someone to go around with him to hold up cue cards so that he can have a living subtitle track.

LRH took great "technologies" from a lot of different places... So I tried to read Dianetics, but I stopped when it said the Government had a sex ray aimed at me. I just couldn't swallow that. Like my sex drive needs a JATO!

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone has a real problem with the faith of Scientology; Anonymous has been very careful to make clear that their beef is with the Church itself.

And I think that's the important thing to keep in mind- we'd be against any church that acted in a manner so irresponsibly and so criminally. Scientolgoists should be as free as anyone to believe as they see fit. The Church of Scientology, however, has a long criminal history that involves the control, injury, and deaths of its adherents, the harassment and assault of its critics, and the infiltration and extortion of the United States Government. An organisation which behaves as the CoS has behaved must not be tolerated in society, regardless of whether it styles itself a Church, a business, or a Mafia.

[ssha.livejournal.com]

I don' get no video. :( The links bes borken for me or something. Oh well, it is probably because I'm on a Mac.

[elinor.livejournal.com]

You is posting!

As I understand it (from conversations with People Who Ought to Know at WorldCon 1987), ElRon invented Dianetics and Scientology for a bet ('I bet you can't invent a viable religion' kind of thing), then realised it would make a lot of money and ran with it.