QuotedurhamQuoteupsidedownnewspaperDurham? Let me guess: We are unwilling to learn, right? Well tell me you'd like to believe Scientology contains techniques to improve mental and spiritual wellbeing, learn faster and gain evidence of your own immortality. Tell me that you're willing to accept the critics could be wrong and that you want to make sure you've understood what Scie
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Durham? Let me guess: We are unwilling to learn, right? .
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

QuotedurhamQuoteupsidedownnewspapernutrino wrote: Quote Actually that isn't true about Scientology - there are a lot of things that affect a person apart from engrams. what, then? What, then? WHAT THEN? I can see exactly what rr and nutrino are saying, durham. You refute without substance. You never say anything. I don't really see much point in saying anything. The first
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

QuoterrmoderatorWhat is it about cults and extreme groups that attracts so many celebrities? Hollywood seems to be overflowing with such groups and stars flock to them. The path to celebrity mirrors the path to cultic enlightenment. Celebrity involves a necessary "splitting". Just ask the likes of Reginald Dwight, Cherilyn Sarkisian, and Thomas Mapother IV how often the attainme
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Quotenutrino"Much like the man playing him, Ethan works only if you don't know anything about what makes him tick." Perfect line. Because the truth is, I suspect, that nothing makes Tom Cruise tick anymore. Scientology has audited out the effects on Tom's life of childhood dyslexia and an upbringing by a psychologically (physically?) abusive father (step-father?). What
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

I love the X-men movie franchise. X-men 2 is the best. Then 1. Then 3, which I saw only very recently. The reason I like the X-men movies is that it steers refreshingly clear of the VERY tired good/white/human versus evil/black/alien scenario utilised in most Hollywood movies (Harry Potter, Narnia, Die Hard, Star Wars...) and instead deals with a myriad of co-existing groups with different
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Quoteget_past_at_any_lengthFirst of all, I thought this was a posting for celebrities associated associated with cult-like groups, not to debate Scientology. Yes, you are right. This forum is to discuss celebrity involvement in cult-like groups, and this particular thread about Tom Cruise's involvement in Scientology. But I can see why we digressed. It is exactly the nature of Scient
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

durham wrote: Actually that isn't true about Scientology - there are a lot of things that affect a person apart from engrams. what, then? What, then? WHAT THEN? I can see exactly what rr and nutrino are saying, durham. You refute without substance. You never say anything. "That's not true about Scientology..." "Understanding Scientology is difficult becau
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Quoteupsidedownnewspaper Durham, if you want to break free, I suggest to read over this thread. And Durham, seriously, pack a dictionary. If you get to the end and you're still a Scientologist, you have passed a word you didn't understand.
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

QuotenutrinoWith all due respect to Durham.... has has not answered anything ! Yes, you are SO right. And SO eloquent. I can really see how unwittingly I've fallen into the Scientology recruitment trap: with no answers to rebut, a victim must go looking for answers; in looking for answers, the victim is made to feel he has questions. Questions become self-doubt, self-doubt can be sol
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Wow. Nutrino and RR, thanks for the answers I was looking for (already had but couldn't enunciate so eloquently)! Durham, thanks for the answers as you see them. This thread for me is over. Ta ta.
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Quoterrmoderator Then there are the flamers. I was attempting the socratic method of enquiry in this thread: trying to ellicit information from a Scientologist in order to be able to reject it. Turns out I did only half of the job: senior members and moderators can't be beat when it comes to rejecting the ramblings of a cult member.
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

QuoterrmoderatorAgain, why are you here posting? At this point it seems you are not really interested in anything except posting Scientology propaganda and selling Scientology. Actually, I think that is my fault. I appreciate that the moderators and senior members have heard all of this before and apologise for provoking what to them is obviously a well-and-truly tired discussion! The di
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

I don't understand why insists on the idea that humans are oftentimes "trying not to know." In my language, this means "coping," by which I mean, "coping", a natural human characteristic. I'm not sure what you mean here. Can you elaborate? Sure. I suppose I mean that in the case of "raw meat" that has suffered a trauma and is "trying
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Hundreds of thousands of people have experienced that purif works. I will also look up the scientific journal I've seen explaining why it works. Hundreds of thousands of people have experienced that psychiatry works, haven't they? Regarding other aspects of Scientology - I have mental improvements from auditing that are permanent and not of the type "I feel better when surr
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Scientology works. People try it out and tell others about it. That's how it grows. But so does self-reflection, humility, personal religions, open-mindedness, therapy, massage... Are there people who don't need Scientology, durham? And what do you say to people who say they don't need Scientology: those that say last time they lost their wallet, they didn't feel sad
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Thanks for your reply, richardmgreen. Boy is this all ringing bells for me. All that marriage stuff. My housemate used to talk about the sometimes disastrous match-ups of his friends and family. I also remember attending a jewish temple with him and feeling like a real fraud standing there in the foyer. And I am starting to wonder if perhaps he wasn't so wayward afterall. Can you
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteRegarding your post, what does, "I don't get restimulated by anything much," mean? Is this referring to past traumas, perhaps, or just past experiences? If so, why is it a problem to be stimulated by your past experiences or even traumas? Are you talking about negating one's past experiences? Turning them off? Ignoring them? Or what, exactly? If you don't mind
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Tom Cruise said: "What it comes down to is, ''What do you know?' I don't care about what other people say. I don't live my life based on what other people think. I should do okay. I live my life based on what I know is right for myself . And what I care about is other people. And I care about my family and I care about the world and I wanna see it a better place.
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

QuotedurhamQuoteAre you clear yet? No but I'm pretty close - I feel pretty Clear. Life is great and I don't get restimulated by anything much. I'm on NED - New Era Dianetics. OT levels next year hopefully.d I am surprised you are happy to answer questions in this forum, Durham. And pleased: one of my biggest problems with Scientology is the closed nature of the Church. It
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Thank you. I feel foolish: just because the controversy is intra-judaist controversy, need not mean it is not a cult, I of course can see. I guess what most intrigues me about the movement is that it is so completely inaccessible to me. It seems like the kind of thing one must be born into rather than something one can adopt at any stage in life. But now I can see that is not true with re
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks for the link. I had come across that archive, actually. It is alot of information to digest so I best not speak too soon, but what struck me about it all is the absence of any controversy beyond intra-Judaist sect controversy. Of course, the group is a SECT (of Judaism) with controversial beliefs (that the messiah has...well...arisen) but is it really appropriate to list it here as a CU
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Okay, thanks for the starting point. Information is hard to come by.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

For several years on and off, I lived with a man who had grown up a Lubavitcher and was very surprised to find the term mentioned here on a forum regarding cults. I'd like to know more, but the information available on the internet is completely inaccessible to non-jews while the information available on RR is restricted to fairly cursory mentions on the messageboard, almost solely written
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Sometimes i think all this "cult weirdness" with these celebrities is often done on purpose to get more media attention with the Weird Factor. Maybe some of them sit around and laugh about it, as the tabloid news goes crazy with weird cult stories. Weird Sells. Coz I agree. I wish more people would attack movements like Scientology not based on the weird mythology but on the h
Forum: Celebrities associated with "cult-like" groups

Life has only the meaning you ascribe to it?? What kind of white-boy childhood fantasy delusion is that!? What an opportunistic nonsense! One only has to look around the world to see that people are not choosing their situations nor the way they must ascribe meaning to it. If I were a poor Tanzanian living on rotten fish guts in the mudflats of a polluted river and Briggs wandered up and
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Richard M Green, you sound like a knowledgeable kind of bloke but couldn't you please start organising your posts into single threads?? I am looking for information on Chabad Lubuvitch Hasidism and what I can find is single posts all over the place. I'd love to be able to read your collective thoughts on the matter, if possible.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I am not a therapist but I really suggest that you NOT accept as true OR false any of the ideas your ex-wife is dredging up from her childhood. From personal experience, I suggest you instead concentrate on helping your ex-wife to delineate productive and unproductive thinking patterns. This has helped immensely in my personal experience and it was only after a return to a more functional sta
Forum: Abusive and Controlling Relationships

I have been so scared of cults for a long time that it started to affect me in social situations. It is great reading these stories; I am realising that individuals have the power not to be coerced by these groups. There was life before Scientology existed, right? And if L Ron Hubbard can come up with "the answers" then so can we as individuals make our way to our own answers, righ
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups