Anonymous made sure to be an uninvited guess at the CoS' Christmas party in Columbus, attended by Scientologists and their children. See how they brag about it here and here, with its usual cortege of approving and cheering anons and OGs.
I would say that, in addition to shrinking in numbers, Anonymous seems to have strayed very far away from its initial goal as well. When was the last time the CoS went to a Christmas party attended by critics and their children with signs branding them as criminals?
Monday, December 22, 2008
An Idea of Stats
It's hard to keep stats of the number in the monthly anti-Scientology protests those days, since they are not rounded up anymore, and they are not always reported for individual locations either. I guess it would be possible to draw a figure but it would take an awful lot of time. Not worth it.
To have an idea, though, I have taken a quick look at the Dec 13 entries for the London post game, as London was always by far the biggest player in the field.
If this post is true, and there are no other entries about numbers (really I did not wade in all details through the 9 full pages posted that far), then we are speaking of a maximum of 20!
This for a location that peaked at 725 in March and was still at 566 in July when all the rest of the world took the plunge, and was still at 120 back in September!
To have an idea, though, I have taken a quick look at the Dec 13 entries for the London post game, as London was always by far the biggest player in the field.
If this post is true, and there are no other entries about numbers (really I did not wade in all details through the 9 full pages posted that far), then we are speaking of a maximum of 20!
This for a location that peaked at 725 in March and was still at 566 in July when all the rest of the world took the plunge, and was still at 120 back in September!
The LA Times Makes Amend
The other day I wrote that the LA Times ignored Anonymous in its yearly review. However, in its specific review on the impact of the Internet in 2008, it does acknowledge the movement:
Anonymous lives: In March, a video of Tom Cruise extolling the values of Scientology leaked onto YouTube. When Scientology officials tried to stamp it from the site, the church drew the ire of young Internet denizens around the world, spawning a wave of masked protest that put Scientology on the defensive.PS - the LA Times is wrong, however, to claim that the video was leaked in March.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Diskeeper Suit on Slashdot
Slashdot picked up on Touretzky's article about two ex-employees suing Diskeeper (a company run by Scientologists) after being fired, alleging that the company makes Scientology training a mandatory condition of employment.
Diskeeper's surprising response to the lawsuit appears to be that religious instruction in a place of employment is protected by the First Amendment. The blogger at RealityBasedCommunity.net believes that the legal mechanism that Diskeeper is using to advance this argument is inappropriate and will be disallowed, but that the company will eventually be permitted to present its novel legal theory.
Give More than You Receive
One of the useful things I learned from Scientology was the notion of service. The most important thing you need to know for a business to succeed is to provide a service which people find useful. The way LRH develops this notion goes further than what may seems obvious.
I am traveling a lot and it always surprises me how people in developing countries try to make a profit by over-pricing their services. Well, it's human, but hardly the best approach. If they were pricing reasonably but concentrated on delivering a perfect service instead, they would ultimately reap considerably more than the petty gain they seek to make. They may even get rich. They don't know that, and that's of course one of the reasons why they struggle through life in the first place.
Bottom line, give rather than expect receiving. You may lose a little here and there, but ultimately you will find that things just come your way.
Of course, Scientology does not have a copyright on that notion, but I found a particular aspect of it quite nicely developed in an article rightly entitled "Why Give More than You Receive".
PS - when I was working in Saint Hill, U.K., I used some of my free time to hop on a motorbike and go to Brockwood Park nearby to hear Krishnamurti speak. When he was not speaking, he would sometimes mingle with the crowd in a humble way. For example, he would line-up for food just like everyone else. When someone would come to him to shake his hand and thank him, he would shake back and thank a hundred times more enthusiastically. This sometimes was funny because he was a small Indian type, and some of the Caucasians where strongly built types, but it remained in my memory as a perfect application of this principle, even onto small things.
I am traveling a lot and it always surprises me how people in developing countries try to make a profit by over-pricing their services. Well, it's human, but hardly the best approach. If they were pricing reasonably but concentrated on delivering a perfect service instead, they would ultimately reap considerably more than the petty gain they seek to make. They may even get rich. They don't know that, and that's of course one of the reasons why they struggle through life in the first place.
Bottom line, give rather than expect receiving. You may lose a little here and there, but ultimately you will find that things just come your way.
Of course, Scientology does not have a copyright on that notion, but I found a particular aspect of it quite nicely developed in an article rightly entitled "Why Give More than You Receive".
PS - when I was working in Saint Hill, U.K., I used some of my free time to hop on a motorbike and go to Brockwood Park nearby to hear Krishnamurti speak. When he was not speaking, he would sometimes mingle with the crowd in a humble way. For example, he would line-up for food just like everyone else. When someone would come to him to shake his hand and thank him, he would shake back and thank a hundred times more enthusiastically. This sometimes was funny because he was a small Indian type, and some of the Caucasians where strongly built types, but it remained in my memory as a perfect application of this principle, even onto small things.
Chris Guider
Scientology's little big man keen to 'assist' Dragons.Summary:
An article on Chris Guider, known for being the one "who played in all three grand finals on the one day", an exceptional feat which he attributes to Scientology:
"Through the purification rundown, which I did mid-1985, I went from being extremely fatigued after just one game in late 1984 to a point where I played three championship games in one day, all grand finals."Being one of the smallest men ever to play, he became a target for giants and so became very creative around the ruck, a skill which he transferred to Hollywood's Celebrity Center, where he worked as a full-time staffer and where he aided people overcome their self doubts and reach the highest levels of performance.
Guider has now returned to Australia after a near 20-year absence and hopes to create what he calls "an ideal Scientology organization here in Sydney". He also wants "to ignite the fire with my old football club, St George Illawarra, and get them back to the top of rugby league".
PS - The article makes a small mistake towards the end by claim Anonymous is a group of ex-Scientologists.
Church or Not?
This post from ARS (in French) claims that contrary to what is being told in the European press, Scientology is not recognized as a Church in the USA but merely as a charitable Association.
Who's the Oddest?
From celebuzz.com :
“One demonstrator shouted through a home made bull horn equipped with lips and eyes made of felt and Styrofoam. Lesson learned, Scientology may be odd but the protesters don't seem very far away.”
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Nancy Cartwright Readying $1 Million for the CoS
The Cos gets ready to buy yet another building, and Nancy Cartwright is ready to give $1 million in the process. With 2,200 donors already and $8.7 raised so far, Scientologists surely out-do in a single area the whole money raising effort of Anonymous across the world.
Related Blog Entries: R-NancyCartwright-
Scientology Church Opens in Carytown
Not only Anonymous did not manage to close a single org or mission, as they once were hopeful to when they enthusiastically thought they at last managed to do so, but now even new missions are opening.
Happy Anniversary, Anonymous!
Cruise New York Premiere Reported in the U.K.
Anonymous can't manage to get much in the press those days, but they can still manage to parasite high profile Scientologists for photo opportunities when they get in the news. It is the case in this U.K. article about the New York premiere of Valkyrie.While the content of this article is totally negative and biased against Cruise (sounding more like a rag than a reputable media, even affirming the existence of a secret tunnel which even critics say did not exist), it does include quite a few interesting photos.
Musing on Bernie and Other "Stooges"
Even though I am not posting to ARS I get my daily dose of "criticism" from so-called critics in ARS, just for maintaining this blog and expressing views that are not approved by the ARSCC committee. Critics who happen to have similar views as mine, or who dare say that Bernie may not be a complete evil moron after all, get to be tagged likewise.
Just check this thread for entertaining reading.
Even Ted Mayett, who is far from being a "cult apologist" as he almost solo picketed the CoS for years long before Anonymous got its pampers changed, is now assimilated to one for the mere crime of expressing doubts about Anonymous.
Here is a poetic excerpt from this piece of high level "criticism" on the part of so-called critics:
But of course "we are not cultists, they are" - right?
Just check this thread for entertaining reading.
Even Ted Mayett, who is far from being a "cult apologist" as he almost solo picketed the CoS for years long before Anonymous got its pampers changed, is now assimilated to one for the mere crime of expressing doubts about Anonymous.
Here is a poetic excerpt from this piece of high level "criticism" on the part of so-called critics:
As an apologist, he's comparable with J. Gordon Melton, the "scholar" who is periodically paid to suck David Miscavige's cock and studiously put a stamp of approval on the RPF gulags or commit other gross insults to modern civilization.Pretty soon they'll have their own "SP List", reminiscent of the one that was once maintained on the now defunct Anonymous forum "enturbulation.org", and of course just like the one of the CoS.
But of course "we are not cultists, they are" - right?
New NRM Scholarly Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NRM_Scholars/ is a new Yahoo Group whose aim is to be an "alternative Spirituality and Religion email group for researchers with interests in alternative spirituality and religion, broadly conceived". It is not a discussion forum, although queries seem to be allowed.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to have feed. That makes it harder to follow. I'll try to make the suggestion.
Update: The posts do not seem to be available through the page either, apart for a statistic on the number of existing messages. Apparently, the messages are circulated by e-mail, not posted. Only files and documents and other information seem to get posted.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to have feed. That makes it harder to follow. I'll try to make the suggestion.
Update: The posts do not seem to be available through the page either, apart for a statistic on the number of existing messages. Apparently, the messages are circulated by e-mail, not posted. Only files and documents and other information seem to get posted.
Les Grossman and Scientology Tone 40
It just occurred to me, as I was blogging about Tom Cruise's Les Grossman character, that one of the reasons he is quite good on this role, on top of him being a natural-born actor, is that it almost perfectly illustrates the "Tone 40" concept of Scientology, at least in the way it is (mis)applied. I wrote a whole page about it in the past, entitled: "The Total Causation Philosophy of Scientology".
What is more, I have known some high-level executives in Scientology that were quite like the Grossman character. The concepts I develop in the page above, lend themselves quite well to this kind of verbal abuses, and I believe that some people for whom it already is a natural tendency, must feel rather comfortable with these.
From what I read, L. Ron Hubbard himself may not have been that far off this kind of behavior.
David Miscavige too. Having had all the time to exactly mimic LRH because he was one of his personal messengers (who have to repeat exactly the same words with the exact same tone), Miscavige seems to have learned well from his mentor in this respect as well...
This being said, I remember some Scientologists arguing about the fact that the real "Tone 40" is supposed to be the exact contrary than what is being portrayed. While at the beginning it is true you shout on the astray with all your lungs, the drill ends up without a word uttered - the real aim of the drill being to get that same level of intense intended intention but without actually shouting anything, even while just speaking normally...
It is singular indeed that Margery Wakefield in the link above completely omits the later, and truer, part of the drill, that consist of giving the same comment totally silently, with intention alone. It also further illustrates how critics can twist the real Scientology (either by ignorance, stupidity, or intent), then proceed to "criticize" Scientology based on such a misunderstanding, echoed later by an army of critics repeating this kind of "criticism" all over the Internet and beyond.
Later on, this is even better illustrated as she writes about giving a person such a command while shouting, whereas the real drill of that one is precisely not to shout at all, but give the commands, albeit verbally, with total intention.
She may not be the only one to misunderstand that concept, though, and I believe many Scientologists do too, as I mentioned in the beginning of this entry. For a while, I myself fell for it, as my memory of the drill after all these years was mostly the screaming part, until I read the reminder above.
PS - an other illustration of gross misunderstanding of Scientology concept is when I saw a staff member actually hitting her leg again with the same strenght as the initial accident in an attempt to apply the idea of contact assist, where you have to redo several times what you just did in the accident to ease off the mental image and subsequent pain of it. Obviously, you don't have to hit your leg again, you only have to redo the movement without the hit, but she had understood it that way and fanatically applied it even though it must have meant excruciating pain!
What is more, I have known some high-level executives in Scientology that were quite like the Grossman character. The concepts I develop in the page above, lend themselves quite well to this kind of verbal abuses, and I believe that some people for whom it already is a natural tendency, must feel rather comfortable with these.
From what I read, L. Ron Hubbard himself may not have been that far off this kind of behavior.
David Miscavige too. Having had all the time to exactly mimic LRH because he was one of his personal messengers (who have to repeat exactly the same words with the exact same tone), Miscavige seems to have learned well from his mentor in this respect as well...
This being said, I remember some Scientologists arguing about the fact that the real "Tone 40" is supposed to be the exact contrary than what is being portrayed. While at the beginning it is true you shout on the astray with all your lungs, the drill ends up without a word uttered - the real aim of the drill being to get that same level of intense intended intention but without actually shouting anything, even while just speaking normally...
It is singular indeed that Margery Wakefield in the link above completely omits the later, and truer, part of the drill, that consist of giving the same comment totally silently, with intention alone. It also further illustrates how critics can twist the real Scientology (either by ignorance, stupidity, or intent), then proceed to "criticize" Scientology based on such a misunderstanding, echoed later by an army of critics repeating this kind of "criticism" all over the Internet and beyond.
Later on, this is even better illustrated as she writes about giving a person such a command while shouting, whereas the real drill of that one is precisely not to shout at all, but give the commands, albeit verbally, with total intention.
She may not be the only one to misunderstand that concept, though, and I believe many Scientologists do too, as I mentioned in the beginning of this entry. For a while, I myself fell for it, as my memory of the drill after all these years was mostly the screaming part, until I read the reminder above.
PS - an other illustration of gross misunderstanding of Scientology concept is when I saw a staff member actually hitting her leg again with the same strenght as the initial accident in an attempt to apply the idea of contact assist, where you have to redo several times what you just did in the accident to ease off the mental image and subsequent pain of it. Obviously, you don't have to hit your leg again, you only have to redo the movement without the hit, but she had understood it that way and fanatically applied it even though it must have meant excruciating pain!
Bernie Madoff and Scientology
I just made a blog entry about the Reed Slatkin ponzi being among the largest in history. Bernie Madoff may soon join that chart, but what is the link with Scientology, you may ask. Only a distant one: that Richard Behar, author of the famed Time Magazine article on Scientology, "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", may be the one commissioned to write a book on Madoff.
Related blog entries: R-Slatkin-
Related blog entries: R-Slatkin-
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