Are horror stories about Scientology true? If so...

[Scepcop]

Are horror stories about Scientology like in the following film true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpwvCRJG5v4

There are so many of them, including those involving murder too.

If so, why would the Scientology institution do such horrible torturous things to its members? What do they gain from it? Wouldn't they risk incurring criminal charges, get a bad reputation, and possibly get arrested and shut down by the Federal Government?

It doesn't seem logical. Why would an institution do so many things to give itself such horrible publicity from the media?

And how can they get away with all that? Why didn't the government shut them down long ago and arrest them?

Also, why would its members endure years of ridiculous extreme torturous inhumane conditions? I would have been outta there on the first day! Who would be that stupid?

But then again, why would so many ex-Scientologists make up stories that weren't true? What could their motivation be?

But if they are true, then how could Scientology get away with it? They would have been shut down long ago wouldn't they?

I don't get it.

Any idea?

Come to think of it, why are so many well known scams allowed to exist and operate in the USA? Amway, Scientology, John Robert Powers Modeling Agency, etc? Every indepdendent unbiased investigator has concluded that they are scams. So why haven't they been shut down long ago?

[Craig Browning]

Any "cult" has stories of this sort,you should read some of the tall tales tied to the early Mormon movement. One of my favorites that's still invoked by idiots behind pulpits, is the woman that jumped out of one of the towers of the Salt Lake temple into the lake itself, to commit suicide and escape the sex slave abuse of the Elders...

Well, the Mormons are so shy about their sexual natures that they really try to conceal things in very deep ways and secondly, it is physically impossible to jump out of the temple into the great Salt Lake given there's several miles between the two and besides that, very few people have access to the upper-levels of the building itself.

When it comes to Scientology, while I don't agree with some of its practices I can honestly say that I've seen far more good come through it than bad. My views on that group have shifted a bit but it might simply be that I've not been in Hollywood for many years so I'm not as exposed to things as before. They are quite the expansionist when it comes to that area and creating a high profile sense of presence.

[Scepcop]

Btw, the media also has horror stories about the Moonies and their Unification Church. But when I went to one of their retreats in the late 90's with a group from Berkeley cause I was bored as hell, I was not subjected to starvation or mind control techniques at all, likethe media said. Why not? Who was lying? The media or the church? In fact, I was treated very well. I did not agree with their bizarre beliefs. But I was not subjected to any pressure or mind control or starvation techniques likethe media and books about it say.

So if the media's story about the Moonies didn't check out when I visited them, how do we know if their stories about Scientology are true or not?

[Scepcop]

[Craig Browning]

[EnfieldWasLegit]

Moonies, Scientologists- seriously bad news in my opinion. Not to difficult to find stories and read about people who were devastated by these groups. The stories are well documented, not the stuff of urban legends.

[Scepcop]

I have a question about cults:

Does the media ever lie about cults?

I went to a retreat with the Moonies in the late 1990's in Berkeley, CA. And they did not do what the media said about them. They did not starve me to make me more susceptible to mind control, but fed me well there. And they did not give me any pressure to believe in anything. The people were very nice and kind, and seemed very genuine, no snobbiness or pretentiousness at all like mainstream people are.

How can that be? Did the media lie about them? Or have they changed their ways?

The Moonies were nicer and more inclusive than any church group I've ever met. But they seem kind of zombie like in that they believe everything their leader Sun Yun Moon says, no matter how ludicrous.

But I did not experience any pressure or control from them.

Also, what about the Scientologists? Are all the horror stories about them true, including murders? If so, how come their leaders are not all in jail?

[mr. mike]

You didn't see how they actually act because you didn't join the Unification Church. What you experienced was one of the oldest cult tricks, acting nice to outsiders and "love bombing" new members of the organization. after the short "honeymoon" period, the cult begins asking things of the member and shaping them psychologicaly to their ends. It takes about six months to a year to make a good cultist (it matters on the cult; some of them are more demanding than others.) Also, the Moonies have had nothing but bad press since the late 1970s; they need new blood, so they will go to greater lengths to recruit people.

[The Warrigal]

In the 1960's the Australian Government sure as hell tried to close down the Church of Scientology.

However the Governments attempt to ban the chuch/cult was struck down by the High Court which ruled that the Constitution does not give the Government the power to pass any law in respect of religious belief.

The High Court Justices were simply doing their duty and applying the law. They were certainly not endorsing Scientology.

As for Scientology itself and it's founder L.Ron Hubbard, I know only hearsay and cannot weigh here with any facts or personal experiences of my own.

However, I do agree with Mr.Mike that con artists are never more charming than when they are buttering up a prospective victim.

[mr. mike]

The Warrigal, a good overview of Scientology on the Internet is xenu.net.....Dianetics became the "Church of Scientology" in the late 1950s to dodge taxes. When they moved to Australia, the "church" was denounced by a certain Justice Anderson, who said: "Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill."* It was only because the group (which is more like an alternative to psychotherapy than an actual religion) is legally considered a church that the Australian government was unfortuneatly stymied. In France and Germany the CoS is closely watched by those governments and not considered a true religion. Hopefully the government of Australia can create a work around so they can demand that Hubbard's creation can be taxed. Meanwhile I can say that the "church" has shrunken down to 10,000 members in the US; there is a website called Ask the Scientologist (www.askthescientologist.blogspot.com) which is run by an ex-member that makes a good case that Scientology is on the ropes.

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* Stolen from xenu.net's 'What Judges Have to say About Scientology" page.