Anybody else excited for "Going Clear" tonight on HBO?

in Other TV
I've been following news regarding Scientology for over a decade, destructive cults being a matter of general interest to me. I can't wait for the doc to drop tonight, although I probably won't get to watch it tonight on account of The Walking Dead. HBO docs have been super strong so far, I can't wait.


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I think there should be a way to destroy destructive cults. It's pretty established law that a person cannot legally give consent to human right's violations, so if the FBI busts in to the Seaorg's prison facility and can be sent packing just because the crazies say "but we like it this way", I'm sorry, that's bullshit. The place should be torn down and charges filed. If we can tell legitimate marketing and investment from ponzi schemes, if we can determine (albeit imperfectly) legitimate medicine from horseshit, we should be able to draw a bright line between religions and what are essentially mind control cults.
And as a recovered addict, a lot of the same games you play with yourself to justify it are very similar to the sates of people justifying what's going on in their cult. And you become afraid to seek help because of the humiliation that comes from telling others what kind of decisions you made. anyway, just my 2 cents on the mind set it takes to get hooked up with that stuff. It really doesn't take a total loser. It could happen to pretty much anyone if they are having a hard time or feeling powerless and every human on earth feels that way at times.
This doc did a good job of presenting the ex-members as solid people who got caught up in a crazy world that spun out of control.
I swear, I really like Tom Cruise as an actor, and will continue to watch his films, but the look in his eyes...jeez.
Love the way they talk: "LRH." They had a bunch of other buzzwords, too.
My wife is from Germany and when she was a naive teenager, she started talking to a Scientologist dude in a park somewhere. Suffice it to say that she went to the center "just around the corner," but left when they started asking personal questions. They were trying to get her wrapped up in this cult.
She hates that it happened, but I tell her she was young and we all do stuff that we can learn from. Also, there are warning signs outside of Scientology centers in Germany.
While they didn't come out and say it, I definitely got the impression that they are keep John Travolta by threatening to "out" him. That is so sad and wrong for so many reasons.
And yeah, Tom Cruise is totally creepy in this. Yikes.
After seeing the doc, I see so many similarities. The Master is streaming on Netflix, if you have it.
The interesting thing about being in a cult is you never can be quite sure what people's mental and emotional processes are really like, as you become quite adept at hiding and denying them. Tom Cruise is a very creepy dude and seems to have benefited quite a lot at the expense of others in the religion, but I pity him, I really pity them all with the exception of Miscaviage. I've heard numerous accounts of people interacting with him in real life, a couple of whom I know personally, and he seems very smart, funny, and kind. The cognitive dissonance he must experience in daily life must feel like a physical strain on his mind.
I did a lot of research on this for a project in grad school. I even took a couple of their beginner's courses. Even at the beginning level I was on, I could sense the enormous amount of bullshit. It was all there - the Orwellian doublespeak, a whole boatload of promises and answers to happiness and life fulfillment, the hard sells to get me to sign up to more advanced and much more expensive courses. The whole environment felt very controlling and manipulative. It was scary. I could tell the people working there were under a lot of pressure to keep people advancing through the "bridge".
I am impressed by your commitment to your reasurch.
That was some crazy shit. Through the first half or so of it there was no really new information for me and I figured it was just going to be a very well made refresher/filling in mechanical holes on what I already knew but then... They're like the fucking mafia. I mean, I knew there was a lot of shady stuff going on, but damn. Anyway, I don't really have much to add to the conversation, but that was a really interesting documentary.
On a side-note, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend the Millennium episode Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense. It's probably my favorite episode of the show (or at least definitely one of my favorites), and it's a Scientology parody. If you don't know much about Millennium in general it doesn't hurt the experience very much and it's very entertaining.
@ghm3 I need to do a re-watch one of these days too. It was a really, really great show. It's funny, it took like three seasons of Lost before I stopped calling John Locke "Watts."
1. One of the guys saying that when he came out of Scientology, he felt so free. "I didn't have to have a problem." Holy shit, that so perfectly describes my relationship with Christianity and why I now find walking into a (Christian) church a negative experience. I never fully grasped the 'why' behind that emotion until that moment. Thank you, documentary. I am so sick of having a problem, and knowing that if I solve that problem, I'll just have another problem, and another, an infinity of falling short. This isn't even addressing the mental abuse of Hell hanging over my head as a child. That's a whole 'nuther sticking point for me.
2. Whenever Cruise acts crazy, I know to blame it on one or more BTs (Body Thetans).
3. Someone mentioned this, but the woman realizing that while she could choose suffering for herself, she could not choose that for her child, after finding her sleeping in urine and her eyes glued shut with dried mucus. Similarly, the mother who was saying goodbye to her daughter for perhaps the last time. Trying to memorize the smell of her hair, the feel of her skin. .......... I can't even.
4. I want to read a novel about being selected as Tom Cruise's girlfriend. I want that novel. Now. The lead-up, the duration, the aftermath. Gimme.
5. L Ron Hubbard holds the Guinness Record for most books written. Now if that isn't great party trivia.
6. They have to have more dirt on Travolta than him (possibly) being gay.
7. Again echoing what others have expressed, this documentary gave me more sympathy for those within the cult. Elizabeth Moss, for example. I was so baffled hearing she was a Scientologist. Now, for all we know, she could want out.
8. I bet Katie Holmes has threatened to reveal her dirt on Tom Cruise if they reveal their dirt on her. I bet that's why she could leave. I mean, she could have recordings of stuff, for all we know.