Scientology....and the Delphian school in Oregon...

Anybody know anything about this... I don't even know what scientology is all about....

My wife seems to be into it (all of a sudden)... and is thinking of sending my son to this
school for the summer....

Anyone know anything about this .... I suspect it is cultish.... but want to hear from people
who know about this

Thanks

I would avoid it if at all possible. There are many many many other camps and schools to send kids to in the summer. Why this one? What would your son be interested in otherwise (thinking we can come up with possible alternatives)?

She didn't even tell me about this... I just saw the application in our office...

I'm an atheist basically...or more Buddhist if anything.... What is this shit

and come up with some alternatives. This is a cult.

five minutes... I've been reading from Wikipedia... I don't like what I'm seeing..

But it seems as though my wife has gotten involved with this... .I've just found out.

This may explain some of her weird behavior...

Holy shit !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard

is widely reported to have said 'the easiest way to make a million was to start a religion' - so I included this reference:


"Whenever he was talking about being hard up he often used to say that he thought the easiest way to make money would be to start a religion."
-- reporter Neison Himmel: quoted in Bare Faced Messiah p.117 from 1986 interview. Himmel shared a room with LRH, briefly, Pasadena, fall 1945.


"I always knew he was exceedingly anxious to hit big money - he used to say he thought the best way to do it would be to start a cult."
-- Sam Merwin, then the editor of the Thrilling SF magazines: quoted in Bare Faced Messiah p.133 from 1986 interview. Winter of 1946/47.

"Around this time he was invited to address a science fiction group in Newark hosted by the writer, Sam Moskowitz. `Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous,' he told the meeting. `If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion.'
-- Bare Faced Messiah p.148. Reference given to LA Times, 27 Aug 78. Supposed to have happened in spring 1949.

"Science fiction editor and author Sam Moscowitz tells of the occasion when Hubbard spoke before the Eastern Science Fiction Association in Newark, New Jersey in 1947: `Hubbard spoke ... I don't recall his exact words; but in effect, he told us that writing science fiction for about a penny a word was no way to make a living. If you really want to make a million, he said, the quickest way is to start your own religion.'"


http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/scientology/start.a.religion.html

because the first thing a cult does is cut off a new member from friends and family who don't join.

RUN! And don't let your son get near these people.

That alone should be enough to keep away.

It is a lovely setting, but hey, the scientilogists are considered a cult.

Good luck!

http://www.scientology.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

At least not according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphian_School

Scientology is thought by many to be cultish and dangerous. Check around the web. I'm sorry to hear that your wife is showing interest in it.

five minutes... I've been reading from Wikipedia... I don't like what I'm seeing..

But it seems as though my wife has gotten involved with this... .I've just found out.

This may explain some of her weird behavior...

Holy shit !

It's Tom Cruise discussing Scientology. It was made by the "Church" for internal use only and was not intended to be released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0

Especially notice the part starting at approx. 1:00 where he talks about how a Scientologist who comes upon an accident has to stop because, being a Scientologist, he's the only one who can help! :crazy:

Tory Christman posts some great stuff about the cult. She was in it for 30 years and finally got out about 10 years ago. Everything you've ever wanted to know about $cientology (and how to get out of it).

Here's her youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ToryMagoo44

Oh and did I mention that it is fairly close (in the same rural city) as the federal prison?

Very weird place.

Take it from me, a fifth-generation Oregonian.

Scientologists. Beautiful setting. But, Scientology.

Nuttier than squirrel turds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_Schools

My wife has been taking "sleeping pills" lately ...but their affect
seems to make her incoherent...

Know anything about this

:shrug:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (or CCHR) is an advocacy group established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. The group promotes several video campaigns which support views against psychiatry. The organization holds that mental illness is not a medical disease, and that the use of prescription drugs is a destructive and fraudulent practice.

Maybe They haven't found out yet...

I am not too familiar with medicine, but it sounds like she may be needing real medicine, but is being "prescribed" whatever those pills really are.

If she is seems "incoherent" to you, there's got to be something wrong going on.

See what you can do to get her to go to a doctor who isn't in the cult.

Because even that isn't odd enough to think scientology is cool. When you start thinking Star Trek is real, and speaking in Klingon, then you reach their level.

I read a couple of L Ron Hubbard's books in the fifties. He was a second rate SF writer and his followers believe that a space ship is coming to take them to some planet paradise. They are just weird. John Travolta and Tom Cruise are two of the proponents. Wait till they start asking for money for the monitoring sessions.

I also want to find out her turned her on to this shit!

They're always around.

Scientology appeals to people by offering them a grand game; a unique and comprehensive self-improvement system; a solution for almost every problem (many people come to Scientology when their lives are in crisis); and a welcoming group focused on major societal issues such as drug abuse, mental health, education, spirituality and morality. After joining the Church of Scientology, one meets with increasing demands for money, time and recruiting others. Those who resist these demands bolt, usually quickly. Those who remain go step-by-step into agreement with indoctrination, all the while believing that they are becoming more aware and self determined.



How and why people surrender their critical thinking skills and succumb to "re-education" has been the subject of study and controversy since the 1950s, when researchers began to encounter forms of coercive persuasion, or ideological re-molding, that were developed in China and the Soviet Union and were used on prisoners of war and on civilians in a variety of milieus. The methods of thought reform identified by such groundbreaking investigators as Dr. Robert J. Lifton (3) and the late Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer (4) have been shown to be present in virtually all high-demand religions presently operating in the United States and the Western world. (5)



This current generation of thought reform practices, in the opinion of many researchers, poses a greater threat than did the politically oriented behavior control practices of the past because its primary attack is not just upon the individual�s political views but rather upon the sense of self. (6) "Basic consciousness, reality awareness, beliefs and world view, emotional control, and defense mechanisms" (7) are destabilized, with resultant loss of independent perspective and thus of the capacity for informed consent.



Some of the influence techniques that attract and hold people in a thought reform environment are:



• Creating a triad of "miracle, mystery, and authority...MIRACLE - ideology imputing miraculous powers to leaders and/or activities...to produce an atmosphere of awe...MYSTERY - secrecy obscuring actual beliefs and practices... hides unattractive aspects of cult routine...AUTHORITY - claims on members� time, talents, bodies or property to meet group needs. A leader�s allegedly immense intellectual, spiritual, or even physical powers may rationalize whims and doctrines, to hold sway over followers. While leaders are intelligent and articulate, often their biographies and abilities are puffed up." (8)



• Attributing "all individual suffering to misapplication, misunderstanding or even casual doubting of the group�s unfailing teaching." (9)



• Inducing "sensory deprivation and sensory overload, guided imagery and visualization, trance induction through repetition of words or slogans..." (10)



• Controlling the environment, i.e., the group member "is deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it." (11)



• Creating a mystique of importance around the group and its leader, so that the group and its goals are seen as more important than anything else. (12)



• Requiring a level of perfection that is unattainable, with consequent guilt and shame serving as powerful control devices. (13)



• Demanding extraordinary levels of confession, including confession to crimes that one has not committed, making it "virtually impossible to maintain a reasonable balance between worth and humility." (14)



• Claiming absolute infallibility of the group�s leader and doctrine. (15)



• Creating a unique language, often non-understandable to outsiders, the effect of which "can be summed up in one word: constriction.... is, so to speak, linguistically deprived; and since language is so central to all human experience, his capacities for thinking and feeling are immensely narrowed." (16)



• Giving the member a new identity by bringing his or her thinking into alignment with the group�s, prompting a redefinition of the self and a reinterpretation of the past in terms of the new present. The individual "switches worlds...and through socialization, discovers the �plausibility structures� that make the new world coherent, fully tangible and fully believable...The formula for reinterpretation of the past is, �Then I thought...now I know.� (17)



• Relegating outsiders to the status of reduced value or non-person. (18)



Reports of personal experiences from many ex-Scientologists in court testimony, books, articles, interviews, lectures and internet forums bear out that every one of the above mentioned influence techniques is used in Scientology. (19-26)



http://www.xenu.net/archive/infopack/7.htm

"• Relegating outsiders to the status of reduced value or non-person." (18)

She views me (all of a sudden) as an under-achiever , lazy...etc..
She disrepects me unreasonably..

All this is new... I have been scratching my head for months !!

Scientology is like a cross between the branch davidians and amway - get her away from it, or get yourself and your son away from her IMMEDIATELY.

She will probably go to the church on Sunday...

I'm going to go seperately and check it out.

the school and ask if you can all get together for coffee to talk about.

At minimum, it will reveal who gave the idea to your wife.

and decided to join... According to her she just joined a week ago...

Of course, I don't believe her.

The only person I met who was connected with it was a teacher, a man who tried the "I can look into your soul and I really understand you" line on me. :puke:

He looked like Mitch Miller (only older DUers will get that reference).

Other than that, I know only that it's a Scientology school.

It's Scientology so you should be skeptical. Nothing specifically bad to report about his experience there and he maintains a positive opinion of the place. Perhaps related is the fact he's now in the "sea-org"(!?).

Proceed with caution and maybe pay a visit yourself . . . see what you think.

I had no idea of the scientology connection. I do recall some bizarre fan behavior.

their hands on your wife's money. It's a total scam. They go after celebs like Tom Cruise to fill their coffers, but anyone with a bank account is welcome and they use high pressure sales tactics that would put a car salesman to shame.

I used to work with a woman whose husband was a character actor. He wasn't a well known name, but he got a lot of small roles on tv and in movies. Anyhow, the two of them were approached by Scientologists who invited them to spend a weekend on a yacht off the So Cal coast. The husband declined, but the wife went and brought along her teenage daughter. Things quickly went south and the wife felt very uncomfortable as she received an intense high pressure sales pitch. She was so scared that in the middle of the night, when the yacht was fairly close to land, she and her daughter jumped off and swam to shore.

who tell you how to max out all your credit cards and then get new ones so you can keep running up a huge tab taking their bogus classes.

Come to think of it, the end of this practice might be the silver lining to the whole credit crisis.

I'm going to suggest you google it yourself though and make a decision based on the results you find.

Not only are they crazy but they have been accused of murders and have caused many people to commit suicide. The practice of "fair game" any one that comes out against them they basically destroy their life, they have tons of capital. Hell they even sued a cult watch org that helped people get their family members out of cults, into the ground bought the name of it reopened it and placed all scientology members in it.
that and the simple fact they believe that an intergalactic war lord name Xenu brought aliens here placed them near volcano's then detonated the volcano's with hydrogen bombs trapping their souls on the planet and now the very same alien souls cling to us and cause all our problems. Your in for one hell of a ride dealing with that brand of crazy.

I remember that.

Damn shame.

When I was in my 20s, freshly divorced and living alone in a new city, I met a cute girl in my apartment complex that was actually putting out such strong vibes that I was spooked. But, being a young lonely guy, spooked wasn't enough. She asked if she could come to my apartment one day. We weren't dating and I didn't know her, but I said sure. She arrived with a "friend", an older dude in a suit. It was terribly freaky--she was pitching Scientology alongside this guy...he's all business-like and she's definately promising me a lot more than salvation. It took forever to get them to leave, and she knocked on my door for weeks until I got mad enough to scream at her...she finally gave up.

I don't know if they use sex to sell the religion, or that the extreme flirtation I encountered was normal. I do know that it was one of the most frightening things ever--because I knew it was a scam, she was damn cute, and that was almost enough.

They are a cult and it's not just your money they're after.

They also have to protect the lies they spread. If it gets to a point where the "church" has to choose between its secrecy and any of their members' health, they choose secrecy every single time.

and definitely don't let your son get stuck.

Here's a link to the website's forums where Scientology education (including the Delphi schools) is discussed:
http://www.exscientologykids.com/eskforums/viewforum.php?f=3

And don't let your son anywhere near Scientology!