Thanks for continuing the conversation, Geeze. I think it's an important film
-- and one that doesn't just apply to Scientology but to the entire range of
spiritual teaching.
The most important thing that Wright (no relation) and the filmmakers have said
in interviews they wanted to get across in this film *worked* for me. That is,
that these people we see onscreen who fell for this Scientology brainwashing
routine may appear to us non-Scientologists as crazy, but they were NOT crazy
beforehand. They were *made* to be this crazy, systematically. And it could
happen to us, too.
It *did* happen to me. I've seen variants of this same brainwashing routine in
several different spiritual trips. To a lesser degree than Scientology,
admittedly, but still the same routines were there, and used for the same
purposes. I think there needs to be more discussion of this "dark side" of the
spiritual path among those ostensibly walking it.
I hope that this film gains the viewership and the discussion it deserves.
From: "geezerfr...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 5:34 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Notes from a viewing of "Going Clear"
Excellent synopsis Barry, thanks!Here's a section of an interview with Alex
Gibney and Lawrence Wright with a few added points that should give long time
TMO folk (or ANY cult member) pause. Particularly note the importance of
amassing real estate holdings:The rally where David Miscavige announces L. Ron
Hubbard’s death is particularly amazing.
Gibney: He never uses the word death, because of course it’s not a death! LRH
has left his body — he no longer needs his body.The crowd’s response is
remarkable as well: They start off nervously laughing, and then end up
cheering, not even recognizing the absurdity of what Miscavige is saying.
Gibney: One of the reasons I structured the film the way I did is to show that
Scientology is evolutionary and immersive. If you’d walked in out of the street
and saw that speech without having gone through the process, of course you’d
react cynically. So we waited until midway through the film to show that
footage to give viewers a sense of how it might feel; by then, you have to
become immersed, and when you do, things change for you.The movie touches on it
briefly, but what is the principle behind Scientology’s drive to amass real
estate holdings, not only in the U.S., but also overseas?
Wright: The Scientology ideal is to “clear” the planet, which means bring
awareness to people all over the world. Their strategy, in part, is to create
these extraordinary buildings [in historic areas] that have been elaborately
refurbished inside. They’ve done this in Times Square, Hollywood, and Music Row
[in Nashville], and the same thinking applies in Europe and even in Israel.
There was a scandal in Israel several years ago where the church had acquired a
historic building in Jaffa [that burned in a suspected case of arson].
Distilling the book into a two-hour film naturally resulted in a lot of
material being excised. What sections did you most regret having to leave out?
Wright: I wish we’d been able to explore the role of children in the Church a
little more deeply, especially those who join the Sea Org when they’re really
young and sign away their lifetime, or however many lifetimes fit in a billion
years. They lose their education, they are impoverished and when the time comes
later in life when they decide they’ve had enough and are going to walk away,
they have to leave their families behind. That’s the fate of those children if
they decide they’ve made a mistake. No child should be allowed to make a
fateful decision like that. In talking to some of these children, it’s very
clear to me that the Church has been in violation of child labor laws. Where’s
the enforcement? I find that very shocking, and I wish we had had a little more
room to explore some of those stories. It’s not as if some of the celebrities
don’t know about it, because there are pages that attend to Tom Cruise and so
on. Does it ever occur to Tom Cruise, “Why isn’t this child in school? Where
are his parents?”In addition to being an exposé into Scientology, Going Clear
is also an account of the past thirty years of Hollywood history. As the film
makes apparent, so many contemporary movie stars like Cruise and Travolta, as
well as filmmakers like Paul Haggis, emerged from within the city’s Scientology
community.
Gibney: I think what Scientology discovered is that the real religion of
America is celebrity. If they could hitch their wagon to that star, things
would turn out a lot better for them. They had a kind of recruiting system,
particularly through [stage director and acting teacher] Milton Katselas’s
acting class. Actors, often by professional need, are sometimes very needy and
insecure, because they have to be open. I think that it was also smart from an
institutional perspective to be able to recruit people by saying, “You need a
part, and we can help you get that part.” So Scientology has had a formative
role for many people, but there are also a lot of powerful people in Hollywood
who I think were scared by Scientology, because it had in its stable some very
powerful people. It was very difficult to buck that if you wanted to work with
those people, particularly actors, because actors are the coin of the realm
when it comes to movies. If you want to get a script made, then you have to
attach a major star.'Going Clear': Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright BringTheir
Scientology Doc Into Focus
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