theryche
Anchor Cove New Resident
Posts: 2
|
Post by theryche on Sept 6, 2006 17:06:31 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by entertainment weakly on Sept 7, 2006 10:01:01 GMT -5
I'm certainly running with it.
|
|
|
Post by noasinger on Sept 7, 2006 12:28:33 GMT -5
I'm pretty certain that Scientology doesn't have any ceremonies that only come around once in a great while. I used to be involved in the protest movement (I participated in the first Clearwater protest to focus on the Lisa MacPherson case, and in the Los Angeles protest on Hubbard's birthday) so I know more than I really care to know about that religion. (Hi Arnie! Hi Jeff! Hi Ray! Hi Scott! Hi Allison! Hi Dave!)
It isn't very likely that Scientology parents would be interested in letting their nubile daughter continue to hang out with a Suppressive Person who clearly kind of dislikes their religion -- too much potential for him infecting Bree with entheta if she hasn't developed Tone 40 yet.
Scientology kids also tend to talk about scientology ad nauseum. It's a religion with a massive chip on its shoulder, and one that likes to evangelise on the grassroots, not-ready-for-Level-3-OT level.
Edited to add: I believe that a great lot of hardcore Scientology parents send their children to Delphi schools, too; I'm not sure whether they are fond of homeschooling or letting their kids try out public school. I mostly had conversations with ex-Scientologists who had been hardcore in the 70s through the mid-90s, and at that time, little baby clams didn't mix much with entheta kids. I'm not at all knowledgeable what the climate is nowadays, though. On the other hand:
Scientology is well-known for repeatedly making up new, expensive bs levels and selling them to the membership as "Develop your thetan powurzz with these hawt new teh shite sooper seekrit levelz that were [conveniently] only just discovered emanating from the lips of the mummified head of L. Ron Hubbard" or whatever....
I'm still leaning toward the religion in question being something kooky but fairly harmless, like Raelians or one of the weirder splinters from Unitarian Universalism.
I'll buy the Scientology angle if this is a viral anti-Scientology campaign, on the other hand. It's exactly the sort of tone the more sophisticated camps within the protest movements might try to strike -- present the character as bright, appealing, and full of promise, then send her through a Purification Rundown and see how her health is damaged.
|
|
|
Post by entertainment weakly on Sept 7, 2006 12:46:48 GMT -5
Scientology has a great rooting in the occult and there are a number of rituals that are sometimes performed. They might not be complete parts of the religion, but they are occult-related tie-ins.
|
|
|
Post by noasinger on Sept 7, 2006 13:15:22 GMT -5
If you're primarily focusing on "occult connections" in looking at Scientology, you're pausing at red herrings. The family life created for "Bree" in these videos is not consistent with how the family of a devout Scientologist would raise their daughter.
Arnie's exposure of Hubbard's fascination with occultism primarily serves to chip away at the image of Hubbard himself. Scientology's theology is fairly well-known by now, thanks to the protester movement.
From talking with many ex-Scientologists, I can say with confidence that the religion is far more concerned with controlling its members to keep them funnelling money into the system than it is with exploring occult beliefs. Anything produced by Scientology for a teenage market about a Scientologist teenager would be bigging up their educational "technologies" and more explicitly taking credit for Bree's smarts.
|
|