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IT's funny that this turned into Catholicism vs Scientology...
Tom Cruise was once a Franciscan Seminary student.
I don't think it's a big deal until people get fantatical about it, and start thinking they're better than everyone else, which a lot of people do...just like a lot of them do with religion.
That's more revealing about those people themselves than it is about the actual relgions...usually. That need to be better than everyone else...makes you wonder what makes them feel so bad to drive them to need to feel better...at that fanatical level.
IMO, it's usually some kind of hang up/obsessions they have that it is not socially acceptable, and I think they have hard a time believing other people don't share that hang up...thus they seek enlightenment/cure and they think they have found a way to be saved and can then save everyone else.
I read Dianetics years ago knowing of that quote by L. Ron Hubbard that DieMrBond posted, only I always thought he said if a man wanted to be truly immortal, he'd found his own religion...
I read Dianetics after reading Battlefield Earth(which was a much better book than movie), probably in the early to mid 80's...
I never really saw it as a compe or to the established religions when I read it, nor did it really bill itself as one IMO...more like a self help book. It's kind of funny what it's turned into since then...I remember reading it around the same time I read another book called PsychoCybernetics, which was similar.
I have a friend that is a Scientologist and she got me to try it out a couple of years ago...
It is funny...they do ask you if there's anything you wouldn't want anyone to know about you. I wouldn't have a hard time believing they do blackmail...
Anyway, it was kind of a strange experience but I don't see what the big deal about it is. I could see it being kind of helpful...because people get to talk about stuff, it's also really similar to basic hypnosis...only it doesn't really do as much. This girl I know has been doing it for years...and she's not robotic, she is a freaking wildchild.
The thing I noticed when I tried it is that is that most of them were snooty know it all bags...especially the higher ups. They wear these damn Blazers with these crests on them and carry little pocket dictionaries around with them in case they see a word they don't know(seriously).
Someday some asshole will probably try and use Scientology to murder millions of people...but it will probably be a long time from now.
As for Tom Cruise? He probably does have some kind of deviant obsession...and he's got a huge ego....but I doubt he's been brainwashed or anything like that.
