Why certain celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta can't leave Scientology, according to the HBO documentary 'Going Clear'
Some more suggestions about what may go on in Scientology and how it may be hard to resign from it...
I sometimes think most of us are trapped in one way or another no matter who we are ! wealthy or not...some one or thing has some sort of hold on us !
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The exterior of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles. When L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in February 1954 in Los Angeles, one of his main pillars in building its membership was courting celebrities.
A year after the church was founded, it created a long list of celebrities to recruit, a ccording to Lawrence Wright's best-selling book " Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & The Prison of Belief." The list reportedly included Hollywood royalty like Marlene Dietrich, Walt Disney, Jackie Gleason, John Ford, Bob Hope, and Howard Hughes. It's hard to find evidence of these legends ever entertaining the idea of joining the church, but it appears that Hubbard saw movie stars as a way of legitimizing Scientology.
Six decades later, Hubbard's premonition proved to be correct. Scientology, which today has only about 50,000 members, is worth over $1.2 billion, and much of its financial success is in part thanks to famous people who have fundraised, recruited, and given the church access to the upper echelon of society.
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(PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/GettyImages) According to "Going Clear," Tom Cruise has turned a blind eye to abuse in the church of Scientology.
For years, two of the church's most prized endorsers have been John Travolta and Tom Cruise.
But director Alex Gibney suggests in his latest documentary for HBO, an adaptation of Wright's book called "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," that it is time for Travolta and Cruise to reassess their involvement with the church, in part because of the abuse their fellow members have allegedly endured.
The film highlights numerous instances in which church members have allegedly been abused. Members have allegedly been segregated from their families and the rest of the church to do physical labor like cleaning toilets with only a toothbrush.
In the documentary, Gibney speaks with one of Travolta's closest confidants at the church, Spanky Taylor, who says she was part of a group that was punished by the church.
Taylor says she was forced to work 30-hour shifts with little food and slept on the roof of the church's Los Angeles building. She says she was pregnant at the time and away from her infant daughter, who was placed in the church's nursery in a urine-soaked crib surrounded by fruit flies. In the movie, Taylor says she reached out to Travolta for help but never heard from him.
According to the film, Cruise has also turned a blind eye to the harassment suffered by Sea Organization members, the clergy of Scientology who reportedly show their loyalty by signing billion-year contracts but get paid only about 40 cents an hour for their services. The film alleges that the presents Cruise receives on behalf of the church — like a beautiful airplane hangar or luxury limousine — are delivered on the sweat of Sea Org members.
So why are Cruise and Travolta still in Scientology?
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(Jason Merritt/Getty Images) The film suggests that Scientology has so much dirt on high-profile members like John Travolta that they could never leave the church. The film alleges that the church would disclose the celebrities' deepest, darkest confessions to the tabloids if they ever tried to leave the church.
That's because the pair have reportedly spent hours and hours of their lives submitting to Scientology audits, the church's form of spiritual counseling.
When Business Insider talked to Gibney last week at HBO's New York offices, the director said he felt it was the duty of Cruise and Travolta to speak out, and he hoped the attention of "Going Clear" would make it easier for them to do so.
"I think one of the reasons we're trying to turn the spotlight on them is not to victimize them but to say you really have a responsibility," Gibney told us. "You're given an enormous amount of wealth as a movie star and with that comes a certain amount of responsibility, particularly when people are joining an organization because of you. If the popular opinion begins to swing that way, I think you can see a sea change with them."
For Cruise it may be harder to get out. The film reveals just how important he is to the church, suggesting Scientology went as far as breaking up Cruise and Nicole Kidman's marriage to bring him closer to the church after he began distancing himself around the time he and Kidman filmed Stanley Kubrick's final film, "Eye's Wide Shut," in 1998.
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(Jim Smeal/WireImage via Getty Images) The documentary alleges that Scientology broke up Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and turned their adoptive children against Kidman. Orchestrated by Scientology's leader, David Miscavige, the church turned the two adoptive children of Cruise and Kidman's against Kidman, according to former Scientology executives who speak in the film.
The church allegedly told the children that Kidman was a "Suppressive Person," Scientology talk for someone who's not a believer of the church, and persuaded them to completely disconnect themselves from her.
The church also allegedly tapped Kidman's phones in an effort to convince Cruise that he needed to end the relationship.
Gibney and Wright, along with former Scientology members Mike Rinder and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis, talked more about these issues in the film recently at a New York Times "Times Talk."
A representative for Scientology told People.com these assertions made were "utterly ludicrous" and "insulting" to Miscavige.
Reps for Cruise and Travolta didn't respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
"Going Clear" opens theatrically in limited release March 13 and on HBO on March 29.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-hbo-documentary-going-clear-125500993.html
Any members prepared to admit they are Scientologists? ???
Don't worry, I won't hold my breath. ::)
This organization scars me, looking at their methods and compound I am stunned at the money they have available and wonder at what really goes on in their highly guarded world.
I have not figured out how to add an image yet, but look at these pretty amazing! of course this is just a small part of the whole, all tax free! :o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Base#mediaviewer/File:Gold_Base_aerial_view.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Base#mediaviewer/File:Gold_Base_aerial_view.jpg)
Hi Dyna,
Greetings as a new member to PRC.
With ref to adding an image that I think you refer to,
This is how I add images if I find one on the Internet that I want to post..
1st make sure that you fully click on the image to open it fully as sometimes when one sees an image, you cannot obtain a link url for it until you do..
Then Right click and you can get an option to copy the URL of the image be it gif, jpeg or what ever..
Then as you are making your post on PRC..when you either quote another members post or add a reply..
when the post box opens to add your content.. look above on the left hand side below the B I U S where the various icons are.. you will see a youtube one and another with an image on
click that and you get ..( I added 2 dots .. to show [img otherwise when I just tried it, it did not show up for some reason, but do not add in anything other than the url between the end of the RHS opening bracket on the left and LHS of the closing bracket on the right )
[img..]http://your url link[/img ..]
Paste your URL for you image in between the brackets
then add any extra writing outside the brackets etc and click post..
and you should get your image with any luck ! :P
Hope you can understand what I am trying to describe !
If you have an image that is your own, rather than from the internet, on some websites and forums, there is a way to upload ones own images, but I am not sure if this is easily accessible on PRC...I think there is a special URL page to do it somewhere, otherwise in the past I had to send my images to either a "Zorgon" or a moderator to upload them for me..
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Gold_Base_aerial_view.jpg)
Scientology = Proof positive "there's a sucker born every minute."
astr0144 Thank you, yes that was perfect, pretty sure I can insert photos now, that link though also shows more of the compound, I don't think I have ever seen anyone use that type of razor wire...doesn't seem all that filed with the love of God ;D
That was what I had been led to believe and I THINK may be so...
But then I did hear some suggestions that there may be a positive side to it for those who are willing to go into it in more depth..
But when I read articles like this, it rather puts me of considering risking it ! ??? :-\ :)
Quote from: WarToad on March 10, 2015, 05:17:54 PM
Scientology = Proof positive "there's a sucker born every minute."
Glad you were able to follow and work out my explanations Dyna..they are not always that easy to follow. :)
Maybe not Gods love, but more like their love for money and power I would think ! :)
Quotedoesn't seem all that filed with the love of God
Quoteastr0144 Thank you, yes that was perfect, pretty sure I can insert photos now, that link though also shows more of the compound, I don't think I have ever seen anyone use that type of razor wire...doesn't seem all that filed with the love of God ;D
Quote from: Pimander on March 10, 2015, 04:19:58 PM
Any members prepared to admit they are Scientologists? ???
Don't worry, I won't hold my breath. ::)
I'm rabidly pagan.
Shasta
Ron L Hubbard + Aliester Crowley = Bum orientated Sex Magic Cult.
That's the main reason they don't leave. Imagine their careers if what they did at Inner Circle banquets was revealed! Sodomy, Beastiality, Necrophilia, Peadophilia, Infanticide, Cannabilism, the list goes on.
You reap what you sow!
Quote from: WarToad on March 10, 2015, 05:17:54 PM
Scientology = Proof positive "there's a sucker born every minute."
That's religion for you. :P