I just watched this the other day on youtube (posted up March 30) in its entirety ,,,
Not sure how long it will stay up, so I recommend watching it now. :))
Thoughts on "Going Clear," the Scientology Documentary
by OnTheWayOut 19 Replies latest jw friends
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fedup
For the x-jws that watch this documentary, we feel and say the exact same things that the x-scientologists are saying in the documentary.
Some may say that we don't believe in the crazy teachings of Scientology or Mormons, that they are more outrageous than the JWS, but the essence is there, the mind control that an org can place on you and things that they make you do, that under any other circumstance we would not do, but say, "That's #$#%^ NUTS!"
The policing, the control, the judging, the disfellowshipping, the money, the properties that the religion accumulates, the lying, etc...
In most parts of the documentary just replace Scientology with WatchTower, and it's all the same, the power hungry paranoid characters are always the leaders in the cults that ruin peoples lives.
I couldn't stop watching it, very interesting.
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talesin
fedup, I felt the same. It's so much like the JWS, in almost every way.
I remember watching Paul Haggis speaking of this in 2010/11, and he feared for his family's safety but refused to hush up.
Noted that there was nothing about the Isaac Hayes affair. -
daringhart13
I watched it the night it debuted on HBO.....I can't recommend this documentary enough.....it's an outstanding look at human nature and religion/cults.....
The parallels with JW's was endless......especially the requirement to 'disconnect'......i.e. disfellowship
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OnTheWayOut
Finklestein from page 1, we know all about people who "got overwhelmed in power, control and financial greed." Thanks again.
talesin, thanks for trying but your link doesn't work in the USA. Glad ya saw it.
fedup, I wholeheartedly agree. I tend to think that JW stuff is really really whacky. But the stuff that a JW doesn't know about the inner workings are whacko also- the two/thirds majority to decide what God thinks about something, retroactive rules on disfellowshipping to nail Ray Franz. How about when they taught that Jehovah lived in some particular region of the known universe? .....or virtually anything from their REVELATION GRAND CLIMAX book about events in the 20th century fulfilling some strange prophecy from Revelation that was concerning Jehovah's Witnesses?
talesin, I suppose they didn't touch Isaac Hayes because he is dead and there's just a bunch of hearsay.
daringhart13, those parallels are definite.
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talesin
OTWO, that sux! It's running here in Canada. And I know how frustrating that is.
Yes, the Isaac Hayes story would be its own documentary. I remember at the time, there were people passing out leaflets about the story downtown - and if I recall, the South Park people had things to say. An early warning sign, imo. Now the truth is coming out because of those who are brave enough to speak.
It was interesting that they went up against the IRS and won. We just don't know how well-connected these cult leaders are.
EDIT: Interesting - I can't play the vid from my link, but I can open a window and it works when I go directly to youtube. And, here is the 'note' on the youtube vid.
"FULL MOVIE: NO LINKS! THE ACTUAL HBO DOCUMENTARY ON YOUTUBE! NO REFFERAL SCAM!ENJOY, LIKE AND SHARE! SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE.
This video has been blocked in the the USA. If you have problems viewing the Documentary use a web proxy to access youtube over Canada or anywhere mainland Europe. You can also google "unblock youtube videos" should you be affected by the block.
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief HD 2015 Documentary
No Commercial Gain Is Being Made From This Video, it is for Educational purpose only. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. No Copyright infringement intended. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing, Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. The music in this video remains the property of the copyright holder and images. No challenge of ownership is intended or implied.
The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lawrence Wright's book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, which was published in January 2013 and was a National Book Award finalist. HBO announced in December 2014 that Alex Gibney, an Oscar-winning director who made Taxi to the Dark Side and The Armstrong Lie, was directing a film based on the book, to be released at the 2015 Sundance Festival. It was the first time that HBO had tackled Scientology directly, though not the first time it had clashed with the church, which had mounted demonstrations outside HBO's headquarters after a 1998 documentary presented anti-depressant drugs – fiercely opposed by Scientology – in a positive light.
Gibney began working on the film in 2013 after becoming intrigued by Wright's book. He collaborated with Wright, who came on board as a producer, to explore the book's underlying theme of "how people become prisoners of faith in various ways". He saw Scientology as one of the toughest subjects he has had to tackle in his career as a documentarian, alongside government complicity in torture, corporate financial malfeasance, and clerical sexual abuse.
Fear of Scientology's litigiousness meant that no American network was willing to license any material to the film makers, which Gibney found "astounding". He commented that he "found it interesting that universally this subject — more than any other — provoked all the networks to decline to license. I think at the end of the day, that tells you more about Scientology than it does about the networks, which is how ruthless they've been in trying to silence any criticism." The church's reputation for harassing its critics made it necessary for Gibney to use burner phones to contact interviewees and film in secret: "Sometimes for the on-camera interviews we'd set up gear in somebody's house and I'd make sure I'd be there hours before. Then the person would show up there so it was like they were just going to somebody’s house."
Explaining why he chose to make a film about Scientology, he told Reuters that he considered it to be "an important topic. Not only about this church of Scientology, which everybody's fascinated with partially because of the celebrities, but partially because of the way that the church seems to turn people to do things that I think they would normally never do if had they not entered the church." Gibney, Wright and the former Scientologists who appeared in the film told a post-screening question-and-answer session that they hoped that it would raise public awareness about the alleged abuses committed by the Church of Scientology and would prompt the media and law enforcement agencies to investigate further."[bold is mine]
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flipper
OTWO- My wife and I watched all 2 hours of it on you tube. I thought the producers of this show did an excellent job of exposing Scientology, right down to the violence of the leader David Miscavige who beat his followers. One of the men interviewed even admitted it and talked about the other abuses and violence he eye witnessed. One man mopping up a restroom floor with your tongue as a punishment ? Disgusting. One lady having to clean restroom toilets with a toothbrush as discipline or punishment ? Disgusting again. Scientology is an abusive cult- a criminal organization - like the Jehovah's Witnesses and WT Society in which both organizations take ADVANTAGE of their members unsuspecting nature due to the indoctrination and mind control. Then both of these cults USE this " mind raping " as a technique to financially rape their members as well throughout their lives without members getting ANYTHING out of it. The cults get richer, the members get poorer.
Exposure of these abuses is the best thing to happen. Fortunately lots of these celebrities who were former members came out as a force to reckon with and exposed Scientology in public. Now if we can only get former JW celebrities to do the same to the WT Society it might wake up the public to the many ways the WT Society is abusing it's members. Peace out, mr. Flipper
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OnTheWayOut
Talesin, from myself and Flipper and others it seems if we want to find it, we can. Thanks to you for suggestions to any who haven't found it yet. So it appears that "Fear of Scientology's litigiousness" almost prevented this damaging documentary from ever seeing the light of day. I am glad someone was persistent.
Flipper, I hadn't thought of it, but yeah- we could really use celebrity former JW's to come out in force. Any would-be documentary makers reading this, please take note of what it might take to get your project off the ground.
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Simon
Scientology doesn't tell new members about the Zenu and the spaceships dropping creatures into volcanoes and all that nonsense.
It's only because major religions are so established that their beliefs aren't viewed as equally whacky. I mean, super-being impregnates woman with his child, can walk on water, raise the dead? I think aliens with spaceships is possibly slightly more believable.
The whole thing does reinforce how impossible it is to fail with religion - it's the ultimate business to be in. Lots of influence, people working for free, tax breaks and no accountability / need to deliver anything. How can anyone fail at it?!?
Once a religion gets to a certain size it is self-sustaining and even if it goes through a patch of bad press it will survive and still make money.
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OnTheWayOut
Simon, there was an episode of Star Trek; The Next Generation that said that all the different races of the galaxy were actually consisting of parts of the DNA of a super-chain of DNA of one race. It helped us understand why they all are "humanoids" and could mate to produce offspring.
Being a science fiction fan, Scientology could very well be along similar lines and actually make more sense. You are right. Mainstream religion is just as wacko to me. I suppose I fell for forgetting that in my comments.
In the past, it may have been nearly impossible to fail with religion once it is self-sustaining, but I don't think that will continue to be the case as the information age moves forward. Scientology may be going away within our lifetimes (or it may struggle on- no predictions from me). But the people at the top will probably get away with the money. I suppose that's a side-theme of mine. My greatest wish after the toppling of the Watchtower and locking up the leaders is to just let them run away with the money and leave the people behind to escape back to "the world."