Movie View: GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY and the PRISON OF BELIEF

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY and the PRISON OF BELIEF.

Thank you HBO for broadcasting this film. I hope millions upon millions see it the world over to spread the lunacy, the idiocy, the slave labor, and all the cultish details that make up Scientology.

After you watch this documentary it's more like the prison of dis-belief.

GOING CLEAR doesn’t break a lot of new ground but it does pull a lot of information, from the beginning of it all to 2014, together in 2 hours. The point isn’t so much about new information, but about spreading the evil and misinformation that is Scientology. It’s all about control, ‘cuz they shore don’t care about their people (see the movie).

What does Scientology do exactly? When you see long time Scientologists, John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and others describe it, you come away with… what? “I feel better after an audit” (see the movie). You have to pay for the audit, and the prices get higher as with even longer audit sessions, with an “e-meter” no less ( see photo above). It’s no wonder that Travolta and Cruise can’t leave, they have so much personal information on them if they ever left, Scientology would ruin their reputations. Not excusing them, but it’s their life in these idiots hands now. Of course, they gave up all this information in decades of… “audits” that are written down and sealed away somewhere.

Why do you think Mrs. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, “escaped” from LA and showed up in New York with only herself and the kids in a big secretive move? See… you don’t get to “leave Scientology” baby. Well, SHE DID! Boo ya Katie!

The most telling moment in the film was when one of the interviewees said something like, "Ask a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim to explain the core tenants of their religion, and they can do it in under a minute. It takes 7-8 years to find out the core tenants of Scientology." Yes, because if you discovered that alien beings, called Theton's, were the end result of your tutelage you would have never entered into this crazy-ass mess. By the time people have devoted themselves to this they're so brainwashed that when they discover what's going on it's too late. They've already drunk the Kool-Aid (sorry Kool-Aid) and they're done. Hook, line, and sinker.

I’ve been following the cult activities of Scientology for at least thirty years now. I’ve had friends interviewed in malls… ever see these people with clipboards in the malls in the eighties? Those were usually Scientologists trying to get you to do a survey that eventually led to a session, in a back room, and even a free book of L. Ron Hubbard’s “Dianetics.” I had a friend who did this once. He told me that the “session” went on for at least an hour and he poured all this heartfelt emotion out to the point he even cried – to total strangers! How did they do that? Exactly. His father has passed not that long ago and he was an open book, and they found the buttons to push. They gave him a number and an address that he could visit in Atlanta if he wanted more help.

A best friend’s cousin from New Jersey, young guy out of college, gave up everything he had, sold his house, cash, etc. to live at the Scientologists campus (prison) in Clearwater. His family weren’t allowed to see him. Last I heard they had seen him twice in twenty years. They had to go to Clearwater to find him. Scientology said it was his choice. Right. By this point he was brainwashed just like all the others.

GOING CLEAR is a movie everyone should see, especially young people. These days it’s not as easy to pull the wool over one’s eyes with the advent of so much information at our fingertips. The film does offer up more in-depth details as some of Scientology’s once highest members have left and are now spilling the beans, admitting now that they’re embarrassed, and even ashamed, that they could have been so clueless. Brainwashed they were, but their involvement shed a lot more inner workings of Scientology, and made this film just that much more… clear.

Whether it’s Scientology, or some other outfit, GOING CLEAR is a good example to not be sucked in by these smiling cult figures. Everyone needs help sometime, but kids this ain’t it.



Oh, and my interviewed buddy? Would you believe they gave him “the” book when they were done?

Had that exploding volcano image on the cover. Spewing poison.

Science Fiction: Text or Celluloid?

I have to tell ya, I love science fiction on the tube, the big screen, I'll take it wherever I can get it. Ironically, I'm not a big fan of Science Fiction in text form. If there's a story in there, then okay, I can read it. Too technical and I don't want to keep up. I know this is why horror fiction always pulled me in. It was the story of what the characters had to go through, to make it, to LIVE! Sure, it's fiction, and sure, it's a story that you most likely would never let yourself get into (unless you joined the local sacrificial cult, then yer askin' for it bubba), but you can probably relate to most situations in a horror tale. Science fiction, again there are the exceptions, never really pulled me in like horror has.

This brings me to Invasion: Earth, a six episode BBC series from 1998. Yes, that's right, I've just seen it 12 years later (thank you NetFlix!). This one does have a story, and I began to get involved with the characters, I was hooked. So this is where it gets interesting, the aliens are infiltrating (I won't tell you how or why) our system, our world as it were. And of course they're coming to take over the UK first! Better call up Manchester to come and kick some arse (that and a few pints of Guinness at their side). As we go along in the story, you have to wrap your head around the fact that this story is dealing with some weird avenues of "science" fiction. Which they continue throughout the whole series. They didn't just plop a little science fiction down in the first episode and then start kicking the alien ass. No, there is science all over this bad boy. But again, they kept a story going, with characters you like (and dislike) that makes you want to continue to tune in for the next episode. So if you have a chance, watch this, it's not your SGC or Star Trek, but I dare say it's a thinking mans story. Not that I have any idea about some of the science in this, ( certainly, mostly fiction ) but it was very interesting. As I'm watching the credits, (yes, I'm one of those), I see one of the names under "Story" is none other than Stephen Baxter. Yes "that" Stephen Baxter. The science fiction writer, who is known for "heavy in the science" department of his fiction. Which brought me back to yes, this is a science fiction story. Truly.

On science fiction in text, as well as film, that I've really found informative is The British Science Fiction Society for a lot of up-to-date happenings, interviews, and the like. Those British have a lot going on, (thankfully!) and of course a lot of their work gets published over here in the US as well. Some very specialized releases are coming from PS Publishing in the UK these days, in signed and limited releases from science fiction and horror writers.

You can get a great idea of PS Publishing in one of their Postscripts anthologies. The Michael Marshall Smith issue is particularly good and if features many authors like Chris Fowler, Rick Hautala, Connie Willis, Tim Lebbon, Joe Hill, Mark Morris, Stephen King (you've heard of him ;-), and a lot more.
You can see more about POSTSCRIPTS 10 at the Overlook Connection Bookstore.

Visit the British Science Fiction Association home page HERE!