»Scientology - Whats the lowdown?«

I`ve had one of those evenings where sleep just isn't on the cards and thus invested some good time websurfing. A friend of mine was waving around a copy of "Battlefield earth" the famed most aweful movie of all time and i idly looked over the web for details. I didn't come away wanting and one site had 250 reviews all saying how aweful it was and some had me in hysterics.

More serious, however, were the references to the author and to the star, John Travolta and their connection to the religion known as scientology (the film was based on a book by the founder and Travolta is a member). After some web hunting and a good deal of reading here...

never saw battlefield earth, i saw a book at the store about scientology, i picked it up, flipped through it, and grasped nothing of what it was about. of course i only read a few pages though. much too expensive for me to want to buy it and read more.

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It really made me think about how the media can be used to affect folk like us, for good or ill.

always has been, always will

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Scientology is held to be, by many, a dangerous cult group hell bent on world domination

which group (cult or otherwise, yes religion of all kinds is a cult, just a massively supported one) isn't?

any ideology or mode of thought could dominate the world if given enough support and suppression of other ideologies

I've read a bit of L.Ron Hubbards work (the entire Mission Earth series), and watched the film mentioned, but I don't have much of an idea about the religion and I've never been a fan of it. Funny, I thought that Silvercat knew all (you have posted some very good thoughts)... sorry to praise. Heheh, I did have a link lined up, but you have already located it yourself.
As for The Matrix, I have a feeling that the two concepts are very different... maybe I should watch the film a second time and try to look for the propaganda... wouldn't be much of a shock to find some though.

After a quick look at the site, I realise that his books did have a lot of anti-psychiatry in them, though he called it satire then, not truth...

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Scientology plans to achieve this goal is by the process of "clearing" the planet

<shudder> I hope that is not true, it's always very sad when people follow the "cleansing" path...

Eep, my thanks for the kind words, though there are many here who know a lot more than I. In all honesty i`m starting to fall out of touch with all things matrix, but a lot of the discussions we have here are just common sense stuff.

Yes, its certainly interesting how this religion is based on what was once just some science fiction writing and that now people teach it to kids as "the real deal". There is an interesting Hubbard quote that says something along the lines of "there isnt any money in writing, better to start a religion, thats where the real cash is" (paraphrase). Then the man does just that and people believe him...that i cant figure out.

Yes, I've seen that quote he made, and it does say a lot about the situation. I always assumed that he made that quote as a jest when he originally said it, and it turned into irony, but maybe he always had the thought on his mind...