If you saw HBO's outstanding "Going Clear" on Scientology, you should read Twitter about it.

[madfloridian]

Last edited Mon Mar 30, 2015, 03:02 AM - Edit history (1)

https://twitter.com/hashtag/goingclear?f=realtime&src=hash

In my mind the best so far is from Leah Remini.

Leah Remini ?@LeahRemini 1h1 hour ago

Thank you to the brave who did something about it. And to those who didn't have a voice, you do now. #GoingClear

More:

rhonda talbot ?@devilstrifecta 55m55 minutes ago

Thank you @Paul_Haggis I actually feel sick having just watched #GoingClear Your bravery & journey made this great doc even more real. xo

Skylar Mundy ?@Skybearlove 1h1 hour ago

Thank you @HBODocs for making #GoingClear and helping former Scientologists like me not feel so alone. Thank you for exposing the truth.

Mario Lopez ?@MarioLopezExtra 2h2 hours ago

Between Miscavige & Durst, @HBO is really killin it on the crazy rich white dude front...

Kristen Bell ?@IMKristenBell 2h2 hours ago

#goingclear is a terrifying look at the fallibility of the human mind. "To find yourself, think for yourself."- Socrates

Jocelyn ?@jocemiller 3h3 hours ago

What's become evident is #GoingClear is a horror film, and people who've left the abusive "church" of Scientology are incredibly brave.

There are more added constantly.

In my mind Jason Beghe and Paul Haggis were the most memorably outspoken. I recognized some of the others from Jenna Miscavige Hill's book...they were her minders and auditors.

AND...L Ron Hubbard had the grimiest teeth I have ever seen!

Kudos to HBO for this documentary for which they hired 160 lawyers.

[XemaSab]

1. The book was AMAZING

and the last 1/3 was footnotes.

[madfloridian]

2. "the last 1/3 was footnotes"

Love it.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Yeah, i just tore through it myself.

Couldnt put it down. Holy shit.

I consider myself a fairly well-read student of both US History and bizarre shit, but I was only dimly aware of a lot of that backstory. Fuck.

[LeftyMom]

26. Ooh, can I borrow it next time I see you? nt

[XemaSab]

27. OMG yaaaaaaaassssss

Hit's scanlous.

[MADem]

3. Haven't seen it yet, but I plan to, so here's a K/R for the thread. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. The best tweets:

(Picture of Bob Durst with his hands over his face)

Bob Durst's Reflux ?@AndTheBurping 1h1 hour ago

Just finished watching #GoingClear. I can't believe I'm the HBO documentary star everybody thinks is crazy. (Blink. Blink.)




Lord Xenu ?@therealxenu 2h2 hours ago

Don't believe that new HBO documentary about me. They didn't tell me the mic was on when I was using the bathroom. #GoingClear
21 retweets 34 favorites
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Natalie Eshaya ?@NegativeNatalie 2h2 hours ago Los Angeles, CA

#GoingClear is making Robert Durst look SO NORMAL. I'll never sleep again.
1 retweet 15 favorites
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Mario Lopez ?@MarioLopezExtra 4h4 hours ago

Between Miscavige & Durst, @HBO is really killin it on the crazy rich white dude front...

[Capt. Obvious]

33. @TheRealXenu

[SleeplessinSoCal]

6. What a waste of space Tom Cruise is.

I want to feel sorry for him, but I think his ego is dangerous to to himself & unsuspecting seekers.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. K & R

Don't get HBO here in Europe, but will try to find it online.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. "The Church" exploited John Travolta when he was at his most vulnerable.

His fiancee, Diana Hyland, died in his arms from breast cancer more than three decades ago. I can understand being lost spiritually and Scientology filled the gap in his life. And like a cult, they made him dependent upon them for stability and "vision". It's hard to walk away from a cult generally, even harder when it's a well organized cult like Scientology.

[Snarkoleptic]

9. Marty Rathbun is a fromer senior exec. in Scientology's "auditing" division.

He left the group and has been spied on and harassed for years.
His you tube channel chronicles much of this. If you want to check it out, I recommend starting with the newest videos first.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sthtexlensman/videos

[madfloridian]

10. Yes, he was one Jenna Hill trusted along with his wife I think.

I will check out the videos for sure. He is the one who got arrested when the Squirrel hunters were harassing him? That was awful...the police arrested him instead of the guys on his property.

[Snarkoleptic]

14. I DVR'd the movie and am currently trying to avoid reading the thread.

Check out the POV squirrel buster footage at the youtube channel and also the more recent one where top execs. confront Marty at LAX.
Freaky stuff from freaky cult members.

[JPZenger]

11. Scientology was able to intimidate the IRS

Through a constant system of intimidation, legal maneuvers and harassment techniques against individual IRS agents, Scientology was able to force the IRS to accept their tax-exempt status.

[Snarkoleptic]

15. They infiltrated the IRS as well.

Got caught doing it...scary stuff!

[madfloridian]

12. 16 Things We Learned from the Shocking Scientology Doc Going Clear. Esquire

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34001/going-clear-surprising-facts/?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_161844441

8. Jason Beghe is the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with.

It's a good thing that Going Clear is playing on HBO and not PBS; otherwise, Beghe—who plays Hank Voight on Chicago P.D.—might not have made the final cut of the film, as his fascinating insights into the Church and his own experiences as a Scientologist are filled with expletives. But in the most charming way possible.

9. Marty Rathbun is the Michael Jordan of auditing.

In the film, Beghe refers to Marty Rathbun, a former executive with the Church and one of its preeminent auditors, as both the Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky of auditing. Which amuses Rathbun. "Here is my recognition after all of these years," Rathbun tells Esquire in an interview, with a laugh. "I really looked at what sort of set me apart or put me at this place where he would say, 'Hey, he is really good,' and recognize all of this complicated, sophisticated stuff that goes with it. The only thing that set me apart was my ability to instill confidence in somebody."

They are still harassing him.

11. Scientology is tax-exempt.

After having its tax-exempt status revoked by the IRS in 1967, current Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige was able to have it reinstated on October 1, 1993. A major celebration followed, with the Church declaring that "The War Is Over."

They harassed the IRS so badly, the IRS caved.

14. Being labeled an SP (suppressive person) is not a good thing.

In the documentary, former Scientologists share the stories of how they were labeled SPs and forced out of the Church. "It is really Byzantine and complicated, depending on your status and whether you are staff or a certain level," Rathbun tells us. "The bottom line is that if you don't tow the line, if you are critical, if you express criticism to any degree and you persist with it, you will be labeled a suppressive person. And when you are a suppressive person, all other Scientologists—by longstanding policy—must disconnect from you in every way, shape, matter, or form, including any communication or any association whatsoever." When Rathbun chose to leave the Church after 27 years, his wife stayed. "I spent the last 10 months attempting to sort of reconcile the fact that I had to go because of the extremity of abuse that was going on.(My wife) was a second-generation Scientologist. She chose to stay."

[Initech]

13. One of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time.

[tammywammy]

16. I didn't realize Leah Remini had left Scientology.

Good for her.

[madfloridian]

19. Yes, she was on many shows speaking out.

I think they gave her a rough time.

[tammywammy]

20. Of course they did

She's a suppressive person now. I wonder if the squirrel squad follows her around?

[madfloridian]

21. She did mention being followed. Didn't mention who it was.

[tammywammy]

22. Her and everyone else that's escaped has my pity

Scientologists aren't easy to quit and the harassment is awful as well.

I wish I had HBO. Hopefully they'll release it to Netflix or Hulu or I can buy it on Amazon Prime.

[madfloridian]

23. I imagine it will be on DVD soon.

At least I would think so.

[RiffRandell]

36. She was very vocal but looked a little scared.

I don't watch Dancing with the Stars, but they would show her interviews on the news as she spoke about how they were rooting for her to fail on the show.

I give her a lot of credit. I recorded it Sunday but my husband has been in Calgary on business, won't be home until Friday and I want to watch it together as he's interested in seeing it.

[xmas74]

29. She questioned Miscavaige about his missing wife.

She's a brave woman for that alone. She also contacted LAPD about it.

[madfloridian]

17. It even covered this event in Tom Cruise's life.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/hbo-documentary-going-clear-tackles-the-question-why-scientology/2223024

Another allegation: That Miscavige became concerned in the 1990s when it seemed Tom Cruise's commitment to Scientology was wavering, and that he ordered Rathbun to ease him back into the fold and keep him happy. According to Rathbun, this involved bugging the home phone of Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman. Later, according to Gibney, who cites FBI files as his source, the church secretly selected a young actor, Nazanin Boniadi, to be Tom Cruise's girlfriend and recruited her for the role, initially without her knowledge. Then, after their relationship took hold, church officials engineered a breakup because Boniadi rubbed Miscavige the wrong way. The story was first reported by Vanity Fair in 2012.

The actress is on Homeland.

[MinM]

28. On the Media: Nazanin Boniadi

NPR's on the media had an excellent segment on this ..

LAWRENCE WRIGHT: The Church was always looking for an exemplary figure that would represent Scientology to the world, a shining celebrity that would give credibility and attention to the Church. He's their symbol. He’s the most important Scientologist, except L. Ron Hubbard, there ever has been. He's their main pitch man. It’s his close friend, David Miscavige, who runs the Church. It’s Tom Cruise, who benefits materially from the labor of these impoverished Sea Org workers who have built him an airplane hangar for his airplane collection and handcrafted a limousine for him and surround his household staff and cook his dinners.

BOB GARFIELD: And, if you're right, pimping him a girlfriend.

LAWRENCE WRIGHT: You know, he was breaking up with Penelope Cruz and he let it be known that uh, he wanted another girlfriend, and they auditioned a number of different Scientology women, and they came upon a very attractive Iranian-American. Her name was Nazanin Boniadi, and they told her that they had a mission for her. And they put her in the Celebrity Center, away from her family, and they took her shopping in Beverly Hills for a new wardrobe. They fixed her hair. They fixed her teeth. And then they took her to New York. There she found the object of her mission was Tom Cruise. She moved in with him, lived with him for a while and then went in with him in his hideaway in Telluride. David Miscavige and his wife came, and one night they were talking, and [font color=blue]Miscavige speaks in a kind of rapid Philadelphia brogue and she couldn't quite understand him. And so she, a couple of times, asked him to repeat himself.

And the next day everybody was inflamed with her, the way she treated the leader of the Church.[/font] And after that, Cruise decided to have nothing more to do with her, and [font color=darkred]she went off to Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual headquarters. She was made to clean out a garbage dumpster and clean a public toilet with a toothbrush[/font]...

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/265094-going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-prison-belief/transcript/

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/scientology-and-film-critics/

[madfloridian]

32. I wonder if she is still a Scientologist?

Thanks for the link to that Wright interview.

[Blue_Tires]

37. Wow..If I joined the church I wonder who they'd set ME up with

[bettyellen]

30. They are behind Lisa Marie going after Michael Jackson....

thats what they try to do. Can you imagine auditing Michael Jackson? OMG

[madfloridian]

35. Just read that Lisa Marie quit them a couple of years ago.

http://damemagazine.com/2013/02/19/lisa-marie-presley-and-scientology-has-she-left-building

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?13106-Lisa-Marie-Presley-Has-Left-Scientology!/page54

Guess her mom is still part of it so she has been reluctant to speak out.

[bettyellen]

38. It's kind of amazing how they've kept the press away from Travolta....

Forget which rag published pics of him kissing his porn star boyfriend and still few people know about him. Or about how shitty he cared for his disabled son. They're a pack of rabid jackals, they are.

[madfloridian]

18. Squirrel Busters actually proud of their cute lil t shirts. Ugly stuff toward Rathbun.

[UTUSN]

24. I'm going to Amazon the paperback. n/t

[DanTex]

25. Really good film. And very creepy.

[Warpy]

31. You want creepy?

They've been after them for years in the UK.

[Greybnk48]

34. The documentary is excellent.

I was shocked my so much of it, especially their intimidation tactics and use of blackmail. I feel sorry for John Travolta, really sorry. They got their hooks in him when he was very young, before Kotter, and now they blackmail him if he even hints at leaving. OTOH, Tom Cruise is clearly batshit crazy.