I guess we learn something new every day.
I knew Scientologists were crazy, but had no idea they excercised this much power over people.
One would have to be insane to join such a cult and even crazier to stay after they discovered the threats.
They must be almost as crazed as Muslims.
I am surprised some despondent member hasn’t blown some of them away.
It happens, like this incident in Portland. Mostly, they try very hard to detect such people and keep them out of the organization.
Consider the number of people who are Communists, despite the documented evidence of what Communism does.
From my non-professional assessment of the people sucked into the cult of Scientology, they fall into two distinctly different groups:
1. The people who have experienced a life crisis - drug addiction, a cheating spouse, divorce, bankruptcy, etc. They look for something to latch onto in life during a time of duress and the “church” is there, offering all manner of support... in return the church starts to use them as “fresh meat” to garnish their earnings, use as nominal slave labor, etc.
2. Celebutards, who are recruited into the church in a completely different manner. Celebs are used to put a respectable public face on the clams’ operations and they’re treated completely differently. Hubbard viewed celebs much as Lenin viewed “useful idiots” - gullible dupes used to further the ultimate ends of the scheme.
Now, here’s why so many people stay after they start to realize the truth:
Scientology uses a technique called “auditing.” This is like a confessional, but with an inquisitor who is probing for all manner of very personal, embarrassing information. The “auditor” then writes all this down and this information is stored by the clams for use against their members, should they start to cause problems.
Crazed as muslims? I don’t know. But the clams are plenty nuts, and not in a charming way.