I think the rest deserves to be posted:

Aw, hell, why stop now:

Where the whole Xenu story fits in. (very space opera, indeed)

Show me the money. (at these prices how can you afford to pass this up?)

PSYCHOSIS, 1. we know what psychosis is these days. It is simply an evil purpose; it means a definite obsessive desire to destroy. Now anybody has a few evil purposes when they suddenly think of this or that, that they don't want to do. They'd say "Boy I'd like to get even with that guy" or something. That's not what we're really talking about. This is the monitoring evil purpose which monitors all of this guy's activities, and that is a real psycho. Now there are people who are PTS and who act fairly psycho and there are people who are quote "aberrated." They've simply got out-points in their thinking. The psychiatrist never differentiated amongst these people. That's because he thought people had a disease called mental illness. It is not true. There is no such thing as a mental illness. There is no bacteria which produces psychosis. (ESTO 3, 7203C02 SO I) 2. if he's real crazy he can't see anything. He's just got to fight. Well, if you knew what he was fighting you wouldn't feel so sorry for him. He's back there on the track a few trillion years fighting the Ugbugs. He's solving a present time problem which hasn't in actual fact existed for the last many trillenia in most cases, and yet he is taking the actions in present time which solve that problem with the Ugbugs. What the devil is that all about? Well the guy is totally stuck in present time. He's got 99.999999999% of his attention units at some past period of the track. An exact precise period of the track. And in that precise exact instant he is fighting off something and is trying to handle something by some means and those are the means and practices which he is using in present time. He does not have any problem with you. You do not have any problem with him at all. You aren't back there where he is and he isn't up where you are. Now you can assume there are problems, but that isn't the problem he's trying to solve. That is the whole anatomy of psychosis. (SH Spec 61, 6505C18) 3. Dwindling sanity is a dwindling ability to assign time and space. Psychosis is a complete inability to assign time and space. (Scn 8-80, p. 44)

— L. Ron Hubbard

Modern Management Technology Defined

tojo2000 wrote:

I don't know why, but I find this stuff fascinating.

I feel your pain. I find Mormonism enthralling and have spent countless hours over the past several years reading books on Mormon theology and trolling through official and heretical web sites on the religion. So white bread yet so bizarre. And so oddly, satisfyingly American.

choad wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard

I read that article yesterday.  The only problem is since it's Wikipedia who knows how much is accurate?  It probably gets edited back and forth several times daily as those that love trashing Scientology battle with the Scientoloonies.

choad wrote:

Link to YouTube page

Pretty foolish of Hawking to use his own voice in that video.  They're on to him now!

Last edited by Zookeeper (2008-01-22 17:31:27)

The human predilection towards cult like behavior is fascinating for sure. Back in my college days I was once at the founding of a small but succesful cult. One day our seemingly normal secular jewish friend was yukking it up with our irreverent, sarcastic group of later day pranksters, the next he had a large gaggle of young girls and guys willing to pool their money to pursue his acid dreams. He spun his charisma into a prophet's coat. Too the surprise of us all his little movement kept attracting followers for over 10 years. Proselytyzing occured across the nation, the young girls kept coming, they attracted the boys, land was brought, and our friend did his best to ensure that a sufficient 2nd generation was fathered.

Last edited by Johnny Rotten (2008-01-22 18:35:06)

choad wrote:

In the left coast land of fruits and nuts, am I right? Even money, Johnny, says you still remember your TM mantra.

Dashiell Hammett wrote about this distinctly Californian disposition in the 20s and last two people I knew gullible enough for that nonsense date to the mid 70s. EST and yes, Scientology.

Military indoctrination is one thing but how anyone falls for deluded and desperate cult crap is beyond my comprehensive. Television isn't entirely to blame, is it?

I can think of two quick counterexamples.

Last edited by tojo2000 (2008-01-22 19:22:58)

jesusluvspegging wrote:

This is one of those things where there CANNOT be any clear root cause.  A couple possibilities:

-fear of death, plain and simple. 
-there's a noted dopamine/serotonin response to unified group behavior.  These chemicals are addictive.
-maybe you get to fuck the second coming of Jesus
-snazzy uniforms
http://i25.tinypic.com/xg0j0x.jpg

There are a lot of lost people out there that are looking for something to latch on to.   When you're feeling completely out of control it's natural to grab onto somehting.  For some people it's drugs/alcohol, for some it's religion, for some they look for a person they can latch on to, etc.  When they focus on something like art, exercise, or something looked favorably upon it becomes an inspirational story.  When it's the other it's a tragedy.  I'm not convinced they're not just the same thing, myself, not that I'm any expert.

Yes Choad,

they settled along the North coast, but the leader and much of the membership came from the suburban east. And it occured in the mid 80s through 1990s. The members were nearly all born after 1970, some well after.

Sorry to dissapoint you though, I never learned TM well enough to remember mantras. I was never a true believer in anything, being either cursed or blessed, depending on who you talk to, with an inherent cynicism. My totem isn't the coyote, but I have been known to offer him sustenance and shelter.

Strangely this has not stopped me from developing a reasonable semblence of compassion for my fellow man.

If you break down the human response to spiritual experience it becomes hard to differrentiate many aspects of cults from religion. As far as I can tell humans have been reinventing and succesfully socializing spiritual experience since the dawn of modern man.




celebrate the sun 1926 Bohemia

Last edited by Johnny Rotten (2008-01-22 20:28:12)

Johnny Rotten wrote:

If you break down the human response to spiritual experience it becomes hard to differrentiate many aspects of cults from religion.

That's because the only real difference is the number of members.

...from the way the Baptists tell it the Mormons have a whole industry and program designed around recruiting and turning practicing Christians.

I'd be very surprised if they didn't.

tojo2000 wrote:

George Orr wrote:

tojo2000 wrote:

I can think of two quick counterexamples.

I'm pretty sure Jim Jones was a left-coaster before he vamoosed to Guyana.

He apparently started off in Indiana and then moved his congregation to California because he believed it would be most likely to survive the coming nuclear holocaust.  If we vote in a Republican this time we'll probably finally find out for sure.

You are a fucking idiot.  Most of his congregation was from San Francisco.  He also had quite a few SF politicos in his pocket....

Toejam, when your father is done fucking your ass, try this....

Of course some new religions are more likely to proliferate into perpetuity than others.

Last edited by Johnny Rotten (2008-01-22 23:26:17)