Friday, May 25, 2007

Scientology 2: The Beckhams

Ever since my post on scientology, I've been wondering how the Beckhams are progressing. Tom Cruise is said to have 'sucked' them into the faith, which has always made a point of converting and then very assiduously nursing celebrities. So have Dave and Vicky gone 'clear'? Are they ready to move up the Operating Thetan levels and to learn the story of Xenu, the alien who brought billions of people to earth, blew them up and left their souls to wander, attaching themselves to humans down the ages? This Xenu stuff is a mistake. As far as I can make out, Xenu apart, this is a pretty orthodox belief system involving a prolonged ritual of purification of the immortal soul and a return to an original, blissful state. Technology and the projection of a benignly therapeutic image merely add a contemporary spin to this ancient idea. But, of course, the church's thuggish and stupid attempts to suppress criticism, its apparent brutality towards unbelieving families of the faithful and its deranged theories about the malignant power of psychiatry discredit the whole enterprise and convince most people, rightly or wrongly, that is is one gigantic scam. But what is really interesting is why anybody should feel the need to embrace this particular version of the soul-purification/original bliss myth. Perhaps it is simply that the idea itself is so potent. People are drawn to it and, as a result of their ignorance about older, wiser religions, fall into the trap of believing that this is something entirely new. But, on the bright side, scientology may well do the Beckhams some good by persuading them there is a meaning to life other than shopping. Also going 'clear' is said to raise the IQ.

11 comments:

  1. Atmavan manyate jagat - so I'm modifying my opinion on them being mostly harmless. They're mostly harmless to me but I recall at the seminar they homed in on people's anxieties and self-doubt. Like a lot of religions, the starting point is human weakness, get them while they're at a low, vulnerable point in their lives. I went out of curiosity and the free lunch.

    So let's hope McClaren finds a position for him in the team.

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  2. I'm enturbulated by your comment, Ian. Clearly, your thetan needs cleansing - try a non-bio at 40. And stay away from this site. Appleyard is a PTS.

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  3. your blanket has exceeded my tighrope of knowledge on this, neil. I haven't the foggiest notion...

    is it me or is Mrs. Beckham looking more like a filipino lady-boy by the month? it's commonly accepted now that every man jack (and jill) fall somewhere on the bi-sexual spectrum but if there's any doubters left in the male camp, take a look at that photo and tell me which one you find more attractive.

    hard to believe that it was he who did the chasing in this relationship.

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  4. Vicky as ladyboy! Spot on, Ian. Not that I have much experience etc....

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  5. Scientology seems to protect its members from rumors being spread about them. For large sums of moolah, they willingly do spin control. Rumors about T.Cruise and J. Travolta being gay have been assiduously squashed since they became scientologists.

    But it's pathetic to belong to a "religion" invented one day by a drunken sci-fi writer. I prefer the mists of origin to be shrouded in the distant past -- so well shrouded that I can't see a bunch of wise men plotting out some system to keep everyone in line.

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  6. are you saying they're an item those two, susan?!

    I suppose Mr. Cruise wouldn't be so much of a closet gay as a pocket gay. Mr. T could carry him around in his flight case for those boring long hauls. It's got to beat The Independent anyways.

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  7. Snork. That's me laughing so hard the coke is coming out of my nose.

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  8. What's a PTS? I am sure I am one whatever it is.

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  9. For members of the Church of Shite-ology, Byran, you would undoubtedly be considered a Potential Trouble Source. A badge of honour, I suppose.

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  10. Wonderful post!! I do, however, think we need to give Mrs. Beckham credit for tightly holding onto her purse because that it the bottom line when it comes to Scientology and I think nothing is going to compete with shopping in Mrs. Beckham's world. Nothing, lol!

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