Re: [Marxism] scientology

[bkelly <kellyr818@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not to beat the Scientology horse to death, but.....

One difference between Christian stories of the virgin birth, snakes in 
the garden, etc and Scientology's strange sci-fi theology is that 
Scientology attempts to keep these beliefs secret from new initiates. 
Scientologists progress through a series of levels. It is only after a 
lot of indoctrination (and many dollars) that the scientologist is 
considered "ready" to be introduced to the secrets of the sect. People 
start by working on problems in their own life via Dianetics, are moved 
gradually to working on problems from "past" lives, and by the time they 
are considered "ready", are working on problems encountered in the life 
of aliens from outer space called "thetans" who have landed on their body.

I don't know very much about Falun Gong, so can't say whether it has the 
legitimacy problems that Scientology does. Scientology was born of 
expediency. Hubbard had gotten in trouble for basically practicing 
medicine without a license in the early days of Dianetics, and the 
"religion" of Scientology was created shortly after the Feds started 
looking at his operation.

I worked closely with a couple of Scientologists at one time and 
couldn't figure out why these 2 bright guys were involved in it (they 
were high-level Scientologists...privy to the sects "higher" teachings.) 
So I read up on it. To be fair, I read Hubbard's Dianetics. It's junk 
and Hubbard is a /horrible/ writer. I also read some stuff from 
ex-Scientologists who speak about their experience in the sect. There 
were some real horror stories. I also found that the organization can be 
quite ruthless to its critics (especially ex-members). If anyone is 
interested, there's a website called Operation Clambake <www.xenu.net/> 
that has links to many critical articles.

The killer for Scientology is that in recent years, its secrets have 
leaked out. That has hurt the organization more than anything any 
government has done to date. The "church" tried every legal trick in the 
book to prevent this from happening. They failed. Now the Xenu story and 
the rest of the space opera theology has shown up on the Comedy Channel 
among other places. My guess is the "religion" of Scientology is on the 
way to being  laughed out of existence. That's a fate it dearly deserves.

Muneeb Sikander wrote:
> i hope this does not offend any1...People think scientology is crazy but the 
> virgin birth of christ,The talking snake thats all normal please...Its just 
> that scientology takes things to the next level makes it even crazier...
>
>   
>> From: sabocat59@xxxxxxx
>> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:37:27 +0000
>> Subject: Re: [Marxism] scientology
>> To: muneebsikander@xxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>> Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
>>
>> n China the persecution of a new religion "Falun Gong" is considered to be 
>> religious persecution by Western governemnts, some of whom are beginning to 
>> behave in exactly the same manner with regard to Scientology.
>> ____________________
>>
>> Any serious student of Chinese Martial Arts, or Wushu, knows that Falun Gong 
>> is simply a recomposition of ancient Chi Gong energy cultivation exercises 
>> which have always been a part of soft martial arts such as T'ai Chi Chuan, 
>> Bhaguazang, etc. They are a simplification and repitition of basic practice 
>> sets, and involve seated meditation as well.  What is new is the social 
>> network, but then Chinese history is replete with examples of secret martial 
>> arts societies which have posed challenges to the central Confucian 
>> authorities.  Nothing new here at all. 
>>
>> Greg--from the Berkshire Woods
>> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>>
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