An interested reader sent this in after the recent posting on the subject of Alexa and Google trends.
I found it interesting to see the correlation between “interest” in scientology and interest in Tom Cruise. And I thank Why Bother for bringing the Google Trends data to my attention.
The graph shows the US trends and the following one shows the worldwide trends:
And this one is Worldwide trends:
The first spike in the infamous Oprah Couch jumping followed by the “glib” Matt Lauer commentary. April 2006 Suri is born. August 2006 Paramount terminates their agreement with him. November 2006 is his wedding to Katie Holmes. January 2008 his “Freedom Medal of Valor” video is leaked to the internet. December 2012 news of the Cruise/Holmes divorce breaks.
There is NO interest in scientology other than what is generated by Tom Cruise — the only exception is the media on Going Clear last year. And clearly, on a very long term basis, any interest at all in scientology is waning.
Miscavige is right to pander to Cruise. He is all that he has to give even any semblance of relevance to scientology these days.
Though the old adage “any media is good media” may have some validity in some circumstances, I don’t see any way this can be spun into a positive. Apart from his wedding and the birth of Suri, all this interest is negative and one can only imagine people looking up scientology to see if it offers a reason for his bizarre/irrational actions. Of course, like in the crazy person IAS video, Miscavige would proclaim this is Cruise “reaching billions” I think a more accurate assessment of it would be that this is Cruise alerting billions to steer clear of scientology.
Again, thanks to Why Bother for setting this train of thought in motion.
And how, TJ, is she to break free? I doubt she has any idea that we’re out here. A prison is a prison and, in her case, connection to the outside world is severely restricted. I don’t see the FBI – or anyone else – suddenly “rescuing” her. However, remember that she loved the power she had while she was with Miscavige and brought it all down on her own head. Sad case.
I don’t know, thegman77. 🙁 I really don’t. I do not think she is able to read this, or that she even knows that this blog exists, I guess my statement was more like a cry into the wind, meant to reach her on some karmic/subliminal level, kind of silly, eh? It’s like when I read about Annie Broeker, I just want to go back in time and help her leave, break the imprisonment, it’s really unrealistic and silly and I do know that it’s pointless to write such a thing (embarrassed face) but it’s just how I feel, I’m passionate about freedom and human rights on all levels. I guess I should take more care in what I write on a public blog and leave the histrionics to myself, lol.
Apologies if it rubbed you the wrong way, and hopefully I won’t do it again (but no promises, I may relapse at some point, though I’ll try not to). Of course I don’t know the lady personally, and I’ll leave the assessment about her personality and actions to those who did know her or at least know of her nature through those that did.
Best wishes for a happy Monday to you! 🙂 Or Tuesday or whatever day you may be reading this. Sunny and beautiful here… thank goodness I’m free! Wish everyone was.
So, is there any chance that Tom Cruise begins to believe he is the bigger Big Being and attempts to wrest control away from Miscavige?
Or, any chance that Miscavige becomes so fearful of this happening that he cuts all ties with Ton Cruise and declares him?
Never underestimate the ego of a Tom Cruise or the paranoia of a David Miscavige.
You can be sure that Tom Cruise has no earthly idea of how to run a cult and no interest in that either. He’s got a full time as actor/movie star. There’s no reason for him to want to be doing anything else.
The manic laugh that will not be forgotten. In most interviews I’ve seen of him talking about scientology and how it’s a privilege to be a scientologist and so on, he seems to try too hard to convince even himself as he stutters and stumbles along – pompous and arrogant.
He’s a lot to live down. He can do it but he’ll have to make a drastic move away from scientology altogether.
I think his ego is too big for him to move anywhere…… On another note, I think some of those spike in scio might be me…… Eeeeek, sorry all I do need some lulz
Wow. Numbers don’t lie if they are an honest representation of what is really out there.
I learnt in business the hard cold truth what the most valuable commodity is, and that is people’s attention. And that opened up a huge gamut of expense, human behaviour, marketing, responses and endless study trying to keep the finger on the pulse as trends change etc etc. But this Cruise thing has nothing to do with marketing or the success of scientology or the future success of Tom Cruise either, it’s beyond that, it’s the fascination of celebrity imo. And miscacige cannot use that attention Cruise attracts as he thinks he can, a lot of it is like a morbid type of fascination. Rolf Harris, Bill Cosby et al are finding out what being a celebrity coupled with gross behaviour can do. Cruise walks a fine line with scientology – it has and is growing larger and more dominant than any PR can ever set right. His attention creating is for all the wrong reasons these days. You’re screwed Tom, you have distanced yourself from the truth so far, it’s not even a blimp on the horizon anymore.
I watched a showing of the Oscars last night and saw Leonardo DiCaprio receive his Oscar for Reverant. Now THAT is an actor. Another one is Tom Hanks. These guys are masters of the art of acting and are sane seeming to boot. I found myself realising that Tom Cruise doesn’t attend these events, either not invited, or pulling up his nose, or because he’s never nominated. Let’s face it, he’s not really Oscar material now, is he?
Leo DiCaprio was described recently in the media as the highest grossing star in Hollywood. Is it no wonder? This guy can act! And he’s a man of conscience too. Tom Cruise is just not in this league. If he doesn’t draw the line at this scientology thing soon, he’s screwed, if not already. Already, his latest movie was premiered in a country in Europe, I think it was, and not in the United States. Telling?
Do you think Miscarriage as declared the Oscars a suppressive entity? Where were all the scientology Hollywood stars? Are they boycotting the Academy or just not up to Oscar standard.
Once Cruise was pitched as the largest grossing actor in Hollywood.
You’re not too clever at this PR thing, are you Cruise? You miscalculated the loyalty of your fans big time when you pushed your luck going public in support of scientology. Will you every recover? You’ll have to do something magnaminous like publically deplore the cult’s policies of child slavery, disconnection, generally repudiate the cult. Will you ever be ready for that? Are you big enough for that?
http://tinyurl.com/zpy6l4a
You can add all the other people’s names you want, at the site, so I added LRH and DM.
DM beats out LRH, but both are pitifully low interest.
Same with Dianetics and Narconon. Going Clear gets far more interest.
That’s really interesting. I tried several search terms too, there were a few times the spike was affected for John Travolta & Scientology and for Kirstie Alley, so it’s evident that celebrities do generate interest in Scientology. Hubbard was right! lol. How often do we get to say that? :-p
Mr. Botha is eager to refute the false interpretations of today’s graphs with stunning and humiliating revelations. Unfortunately he has been called away on urgent business and will not be able to respond in a timely fashion. He wishes to say, “Lucky for you” and “You’re getting off easy this time.”
Interesting info! Anyone who’s ever taken the time to comment on scientology media stories (such as their commercials-disguised-as-news on The Street) has probably found themselves confronted by various scientology shills. Although not numerous, these shills are extremely tenacious. Being the one-trick ponies that scientology drills them to be, they are usually short on facts but quick to hurl insults, misinformation, distractions, lies, non-confirmable claims and personal attacks on the bearers of news considered bad for scientology.
While this is of course standard “church” m. o., I have to admit that I’ve always been a bit surprised about the considerable lengths that these same shills would go to in order to defend Cruise from the usual celebrity media controversies–even if those are entirely unrelated to the cult. (Incidentally, Travolta gets a much more half-hearted effort from those same shills.)
This certainly helps making sense of that. Great piece, Mike!
That is really eye-opening to see the correlation between Tom Cruise and Scn in the graphs, it’s absolutely undeniable that Cruise is the main thing that generates interest in the CofS. No wonder he’s held in such high esteem by DM.
That brings memories back when, after T Cruise video where he mentioned KSW, the RTC Reps rapidly proceeded to do a new check out on that Policy to ensure no staff had miss-understood
All FSO staff was checked out by them and, of course, they found the most ‘special’ mis-understoods in the Policy. We all had to re-read it for the 1,000 time or so.
Weird to see how Miscavige reacted to that video in an attempt to keep Cruise in a sort of (fictitious) pedestal.
We have some time since passed the point of achieving uniformly workable stupidity.
The only thing now is getting the stupidity applied.
I’d say stats are up in that department!
It’s a privilege to call yourself stupid.
And, Mary, it’s something you have to earn.
Ha ha. That’s cool Mike. Thanks for explaining those graphs.
Hey Wei Botha – how does it feel to be hoist by your own petard?
So now Tom “I do my own stunts’ Cruise is the face and final hope of $cientology. Obi Wei spoke truly, ‘this turd won’t flush’. TC will never open his mouth for $cienoland again, the backlash would put him into the ‘financing my own films’ land. Hell, he already be there. I can’t think of any reason for Jack Reacher 2.
such a shame really, because those Jack Reacher books are pretty good, but TC is terribly miscast… Reacher is supposed to be this big, hulking army badass dude, not ever a descriptor I’d use for TC. like I always say, any roles that TC has been in could have been better done by better actors. Tom Hardy would have kicked ass as Reacher.
Tom Cruises voice puts me off. It’s not his fault but it still puts me off.
As the numbers don’t lie unless they come from
David Miscavige spells out that Scientology
is not a good stock pick.
Tom Cruise is not a hedge on infinity either,
hide your couches, daughters, scotch, and fancy motorcycles.
Hee hee, you just made me have an image of Miscavige on a little moped instead of one of his over sized motorcycles. Hmm, I think I’m getting a good idea for a new Photoshop project.
BRAVO, The truth will be David Miscaviges DEMISE.
Agree totally with everything you’ve said about Tom Cruise. How beneficial can he be to the cult at this point when his own PR people have him in shut up, shut down mode – totally muzzled. Everybody I know thinks he’s a joke, and they like to look up scientology only for news of the latest scandals rocking it – like a guilty pleasure.
Very true… Well put …
Wait a minute, Alice! Everyone knows actors are the smartest people on the planet! You can’t deny that! That’s why they join Scientology……..right?……..right?
love this trending feature – thanks for sharing it! i swapped out TC for leah remini as a search term, and those last two up-ticks from 2015 are an exact correlation. kudos to Hurricane Leah!
Off Topic: There is a Go Fund Me campaign that was started by Phil Jones who has 2 children in the cult that have disconnected from him. He is going to put up a billboard in Hollywood against this disconnection policy. It would be great if we can all donate to this cause. It would be nice if we ended up having a billboard in every city where is an org.
This is the link:
https://www.gofundme.com/reconnectingfamily
We will “contribute to the motion” of bringing a billboard ALIVE on Hollywood Blvd so David Miscavige can read it while he is SCOHB!! Have fun Miscavige!! Your cult is dead!
This billboard is for ALL people who have been disconnected from loved ones by Scientology and the money target is for 3 months – anything over will add to those 3 months. All it takes is many to give a little. Let your loved ones know they are missed and loved. Let your friends know that you are supporting that message. Let us all support in every way we can any and all efforts to Stop Scientology Disconnection. Thanks, Mike.
https://www.gofundme.com/reconnectingfamily
Done! (salute)
Unfortunately – Shelly Miscavige has gone most likely – insane. She has stockholm syndrome and it is a High Crime in Scientology to word clear that phrase.
How ironic – Shelly Miscavige got into Scientology to clear the World of Criminality and Insanity and she is held like a Prisoner – against her own free will….like a Criminal – and has more than likely lost her rational and reasonable mind.
Good Work David Miscavige – you are doing the exact opposite of what you joined for and you are so stupid – you either don’t know it or are raging mad yourself. We say more likely – raging mad and crazy! Psycho!!
Naaaa, Shelly is doing IDEAL Birth Control cooped up
in the D.M. Tower of London in the San Bernardino Mountains.
The Tech to be released in GAT 3 !!!!
Phil Jones also has a website which should also do a good job of exposing SCN’s “non-disconnection policy”. There will be a link on the site where someone can post their personal story of disconnection. Anyone with family that are currently disconnected should write their story there. I know I’m going to do that and I do know that I have read a number of stories from others that post here. The link to post a story wasn’t working a few minutes ago though.
http://stopscientologydisconnection.com/
A person on Ortega’s site commented that someone should rent one of those mobile billboards that can continually circle the Fort Harrison and AOLA/LA Org. That would drive DM crazy! Maybe wake up some sheeple as well and they might question their dog…I mean … their god, DM.
Thanks for the link – I gave. So much easier to give when there isn’t a gun to your head.
I wish they would also do a billboard for Clearwater, I’d happily donate to that one too.
I even observed that one pseudo-anticult was using many articles of regarding TC to get visitors on his commercial website, the name of the star getting some 20% of his visitors.
In reminiscence of the Snow White Program, I give you Dear Leader talking to his reflection in the solitary confines of Building 50.
Dave: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most famous being of all?
Mirror: My COB, you are the most famous here so true. But Tom Cruise is a thousand times more popular than you.
Gadfly, that was so funny, lol! 🙂 I can just picture that in my mind, thanks for the laugh! – T.J.
Thanks T. J. Love bringing joy to the world.
For Gadfly ‘Like’ LOL
Dear Gadfly, more like Silence of the Lambs “I would fuck me”!
I’m waiting for Dave’s autobiography to come out. Working title is ‘Mein Chumps’
And then Hitler sues for copyright infringement. Wow. Hitler vs. DM .Talk about smackdown! Ladies and Gentlemen! Tonight, it’s the battle of the egos!
The church has ALWAYS had a bad public reputation – at least since I joined in 1974, through to leaving 35 years later. I was in Div 6 (new public division) and the the GO PR bureau, then back in Div 6, then public, then under the radar, then gone! In all my years of affiliation, the public response to Scientology was consistently NEGATIVE.
And why wouldn’t it be? All their humanitarian work is fake, and all their clever ads are shallow. But the real kicker – all the promised gains and abilities are false. If they were true, you couldn’t keep people away.
Zola, I have not finished reading about the outcome yet but I can give you some news about the Philadelphia Ideal Org. The building was purchased by the church and the church is being sued by the City of Philadelphia for buying the building and leaving it empty for 6 years.
Here is the link:
http://gizmodo.com/philly-is-suing-scientology-over-its-vacant-cathedral-1475854816
There is a law in Philadelphia called the Blight Law. If you own a commercial property you must maintain it under this law and you are not allowed to leave it vacant and unoccupied because it does not generate and income for the city in such a state. The new Philadelphia Ideal Org is still vacant in violation of the Blight Law because it has an owner. As far as I know.
Do you think the IAS knew, or their attorney’s to overlook a law like that and initiate a lawsuit against the church? Not very good planning. 🙂
So don’t worry about where all their money goes! 🙂
Zola – 35 years? wow! Just curious, what made you stay so long, and why did you leave? Did you have to disconnect from anyone? And please tell me you are doing all right now, I really hope so, sending many good wishes your way and kudos to you for managing to make it out and exercising your free thought now, it’s great to have you here contributing to this blog. *hugs* – T.J.
Hello TJ, thanks for the kind thoughts. Yes, I made it out ok, and no disconnection of family, just a few friends. My first wife was an ED of an org, but she and her present husband are also out. Our daughter was regged do to join the Smee Org at a young age but I had seen the Cadet Smorg while doing OT 3 in LA, and there was no way I wanted that for my girl. A fenced in patch of concrete for a playground and a bunch of kids looking like extras for Lord of the Flies.
I got in at a young age of 19, and did the HAS, then HQS. I did in fact get ‘gains’ from those courses…helped me get over the teenage shyness. But I bought into the save mankind – we are the only hope, illusion. God knows I wanted it to be real. I was young, a bit rebellious and here was a means of changing the world – and become an OT super being in the bargain. What’s not to like?
I’ll have to continue this another post…got to go now.
Thanks Zola, glad to hear all is well with you. 🙂 So smart that you were able to avoid sending your child to the Cadet Org, whew, saved her from that. Joining Scientology was a promising project for many people, it was meant for good things to happen, the intent was betterment on many levels, but the reality was lacking. Celebrate freedom everyday! Life is beautiful. – T.J.
Zola, I detect a small amount of CI…
Makes me wonder what the overall result of Tom’s ability to attract attention might have been if he hadn’t assumed the worst aspects of Dave’s sociopathic valence to put on public display.
I sometimes wonder how his marriage might have worked out if he had not willingly turned himself into a Miscavige mini-me. I can only imagine the contempt that crept into Katie Holmes’ face when she saw her husband degrading himself right before her eyes. How she stayed as long as she did afterwards, is a mind boggler.
Speaking of Tom Cruise’s marriage to Katie Holmes, here’s something I’ve never been able to figure out:
Facts: The Sea Org has to call TC “Sir” and he won the Freedom of Whatever Meritorius thing and he’s up there on a pedestal as an example to all Scientologistswith regard to ethics and he himself has stated that he believes its his hat to get peoples’ ethics in “ruthlessly”…OK.
Facts: The Sea Org has extremely strict 2D rules for its members, i.e., no sex, not even kissing or touching, before marriage, and out-2D is punished severely.
Facts: Tom Cruise lived with Katie Holmes, got her pregnant, and didn’t marry her until 6 months after she bore his child. He was not attached to anyone else at the time nor was she.
My question is, how was that made all OK to the Sea Org back in the day? They are forbidden to even kiss before marrying, yet Tom Cruise can knock a girl up and take his sweet time about marrying her?
Now, don’t get me wrong: I have no problem with what he did. These are not MY 2D rules. But certainly they are Scientology’s Sea Org rules! That same Sea Org before which Tom Cruise is held up as a paragon of virtue and ethics on all dynamics…I don’t get it…how did they explain this to the Sea Org?
Aqua, you’re never going to get a good answer to your question as you’re trying to apply logic to an insane organization.
Right, it’s a double standard. The policies are inconsistent, money rules and brings power. – T.J.
Here’s something. Watch the 2007 Basics event. Look at Katie Holmes sitting front and center next to Tom. Notice how downcast she looks in comparison to TC who’s applauding his ass of with a big smile on his face. This lady clearly doesn’t want to be there. So she took Suri and ran.
What a wonderful and appropriate post for Oscar Day. This is the vultures of Project Celebrity come home to roost, displayed in graph form. I wonder if L. Fraud ever considered the possibility of celebrities bringing attention to the cult and failing to bring in starstruck fresh meat. Probably not. If Yvonne were still alive, she’d be headed to the Hole the moment that DM sees this post (and he will; he’s as faithful a reader of Mike’s site as any of us).
So now we all know why Wei Botha hasn’t shown up again. He’s still in the emergency room getting treatment for one massive footbullet. Thanks, Wei, for alerting us to Google Trends and giving us yet another massive weapon for our arsenal. And speaking of Arsenal, they’re playing as I type this, so back to the game…
Watching game too… But I’m a Chelski fan (since the 70’s, not a johnny-come-lately)
Great comment. Made me laugh too. Yes, I guess we owe Wei Botha a shout out. 🙂
I’d like to give a big thank you to Why Bother as well.
Nice one Espi!
Yo Dave,
Wei Botha know that you were a bit off the mark the other day. Who else do you have in OSA that could come out and play today?
You know that if you put an RSS feed on your cult site to Mikes Blog you might get a boost on Aleska. Just sayin.
“Newcomer, COB doesn’t need to cater to a wog organization like Alexa, which is a marketing tool of Amazon. If you don’t already know, Amazon has been declared a suppressive group by HCO.”
Robbie ‘Red’ Reich, Temporary Spokesperson I/C, COS, HFA, GAT 2 MCSC, HDA (Provisional)
“I think a more accurate assessment of it would be that this is Cruise alerting billions to steer clear of scientology.”
As we all know, Tom Cruise is the leader of Anonymous. 😛
Tom Cruise should definitely be on the top ten list of “People Bringing Down The Church of Scientology.”
He’s up for a People’s Choice Award for his contribution.
Yay!
There’s going to be another spike in interest soon— when Ron Miscavige’s book comes out. And another BIG spike when the FBI raids the Co$…. Again. The hits just keep on coming
Do you have some inside scoop about an FBI raid or is it just wishful thinking. I am wishful thinking you have an inside scoop. One can dream.
i have the same dream! i do believe i read a comment in the past few months or so (maybe on tony’s blog?) from someone who i thought had direct knowledge in which they said the FBI currently had CoS on their radar again. my mouth has been watering ever since.
MIne, too. We can but hope.
i think this confirms my long held suspicion that of all the people who have ever heard of Scientology, 99% know exactly one thing about it: Tom Cruise’s wacky religion.
Yeah, but, doesn’t that mean he’s reaching billions?
A little off topic. I was driving some out-of-towners around, and after pointing out various sights, I noticed Celebrity Centre up ahead and told them “That’s Scientology.” Three of them said very loudly in unison, “eeeewwwww!” I was surprised not by their response but the volume of it. One of them said to me it was a cult. Nothing like getting an honest reaction to bring home the fact of how bad the church’s PR really is.
A few years ago I stayed in a hotel in Hollywood, just off Hollywood Blvd (and now we know that David Miscavige just loves to SCOHB). Anyway, there was a building with the word SCIENTOLOGY in huge letters on the side of the building. The letters were vertical not horizontal in alignment. The result – frankly it was CREEPY. Being creepy it drives people away and does not attract them. But David Miscavige is so busy with SCOHB that he does not realize this.
Ha! Yeah. Like those horror movies where the couple checks into the solitary creepy backwoods hotel available and the first thing the camera pans to is the creepy vertically aligned HOTEL VACANCY lettered sign. It always has one or two of the letters blinking sporadically, making buzzing and popping sounds, due to shorts in old wires (sounds appropriately like a bug zapper). It would be funny as hell if somehow someone could prank scientology by switching their sign with a back lighted one, still with the vertically aligned letters but with the same short circuited blinking and sometimes with the letters s, c, i, e, t, l, and y all going out at the same time, spelling the word “noogy”.
Sometimes adolescent humor is the best humor ha ha.
You think it’s bad now? Just wait until the FBI rescues Shelly. That will bring “bad press” to a whole new “trash can of infinity”.
Might have to move the front porch of infinity to the backstairs of asininity.
Or…the front porch of Mercedes. The front porch of Lexsus. And for those small beings, we could have the front porch of Gremlin. Let’s not limit what kind of front porch we can have. Unless of course you’re a CSCIDB.
We can only continue to hope for the liberation of Shelly, but in reality I think it’s a lost cause, sadly… it’s been too long that she’s been locked away and DM is well aware of the risk of her speaking out, so he’s not gonna let that happen. I recall when the guard spoke out about being hired to watch her at the remote area she was at. I think she is like Annie Broeker Tidman and will be held for life. 🙁 so sad… Break free, Shelly! There’s a whole wide world out here full of beauty, come join us.
Reposted in the proper place. My goof!
And how, TJ, is she to break free? I doubt she has any idea that we’re out here. A prison is a prison and, in her case, connection to the outside world is severely restricted. I don’t see the FBI – or anyone else – suddenly “rescuing” her. However, remember that she loved the power she had while she was with Miscavige and brought it all down on her own head. Sad case.
The same way anyone else can. Actually easier than some as she had a meeting with the LAPD where she could have walked away with them and their offer of help.
Oh hey, didn’t see this comment here… I’ve already posted a reply above. It is interesting to note that the Police Officer that went to “investigate” Shelly’s alleged confinement has ties to the Church of Scientology, he was reportedly in attendance at CoS events prior to being assigned to Shelly’s case. It was not a very transparent investigation or case in general, and I can understand if she felt that it was unsafe to trust or confide in the person sent to look into it.
The entire subject of mind control, undue influence of thought, “prison of belief”, cult mentality, etc., is fascinating. I’ve had debates with close friends and family members who are vehemently against believing such a thing exists, I’m obviously on the other side, and can totally understand how someone can be manipulated and subtly influenced into acting in ways that are against their beliefs and giving up their “free will” without even being aware they are doing so, partly from personal experience, it’s easier to understand if it’s happened to you personally. – T.J.
She doesn’t WANT to leave. THAT is the long and short of it. Anyone who REALLY wants to leave can. That’s the fact. The sad part is that the still ins are simply “brain washed” (for lack of a more precise term). If Shelly wanted out tomorrow, she’d GONE. Just like everyone else who finally DECIDES to leave. THAT is the key.