Brad Jones, The Cinema Snob

[Kugelfisch]

Joe Rogan's interviews with former Scientologists are among the few videos of his I can tolerate.

Yup, they are pretty good. Mostly because alpha mush brain Rogan isn't talking a lot.

[Guest]

No joke, I completely missed Scientology back in the day. I have so much to catch up on regarding what exactly it is. Is it a philosophy? A religion? A pyramid scheme? Everything I read about it reads super vague to me about what exactly it's supposed to give you and what you put into it.

Short version: Sci-Fi writer hack Hubbart writes novels like a madman. He's still the number one most published Sci-Fi author by the way. Dude just pumped out trashy novel one after another. Despite that, he's not making a lot of money.
Self help books become popular, so Hubbard just makes some shit up and writes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. It's a massive success.

Hubbard earns a lot of money with it. He also holds talks and lectures, making even more money. But there's one thing that pisses him off: paying taxes. So he figures if he can make some more shit up and turns his idea into a religion he can get tax exemption. That's basically it.

As for what it is and what the beliefs are, that's intentionally vague. If you join now you'll have communication classes and such. It's all based on the premise that mental health is a purely mental thing and all ailments can be cured by just adopting the correct mindset. The crazy shit comes way, way, waaaaaay later. You can be a Psylon for ten years and never hear a single word about Thetans and Xenu.
If you have Netnigs, then I'd recommend "Going Clear". It's a very interesting rabbit hole to go down.

Is it not also that they basically sell you courses where they teach you more of their secrets so you can "level up". Like Freemasons teaching you mysteries as you progress through the tanks, but much more expensive.
Would be bad for business to just tell everyone what your tenets are.

Plus: Operation Snowwhite! Bonus conspiracy.

[Guest]

What has the Church of Scientology to offer that the Church of the Spoony One doesn't also provide for far less?

A fancy cruise ship manned by slaves?

[Kugelfisch]

Is it not also that they basically sell you courses where they teach you more of their secrets so you can "level up". Like Freemasons teaching you mysteries as you progress through the tanks, but much more expensive.
Would be bad for business to just tell everyone what your tenets are.

Plus: Operation Snowwhite! Bonus conspiracy.

They were pretty clever about their sales model. They had the left hand way bridge and the right one. So they could have their rich paypigs on the one side and their slave workers on the other. Tell those with relative minimal investment only the shit you know they will believe, tell the rich idiots the outrageous shit after they've dumped tons of money so they are reluctant to leave. Pretty clever.

Not an entirely new idea, though. Father Origen of Alexandria wrote Contra Celsum in 248AD and spoke of two different Catholic truths. The shit they tell the stupid peasants and the true belief they (the clergy) keeps to themselves. It's a winning model that's literally as old as the Bible.
L. Ron did his homework. As much of a cunt as he was, he wasn't a stupid one.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

A fancy cruise ship manned by slaves?

The only thing stopping Boss from calling his army of slaves is his lethargy.

[Guest]

Odds on Laura being outed as a kinky Lesbian?

[mad bum]

Laura certainly seems like a swinger much like Brad, take that for what you will.

[RedLine]

She might fool around with some women, but in her heart she is a total cock goblin.

[mad bum]

I get that impression as well.

[drisko]

She might fool around with some women, but in her heart she is a total cock goblin.

Snob 2 confirmed her love of the black stuff.