It's Saturday morning and that usually signals another of Terra Cognita's thought-provoking essays. But I am changing things up and have a special surprise for all you Terra fans coming tomorrow and each Sunday for the foreseeable future.Tune in tomorrow to find out... So, for something of the moment, we turn to Cult Shopping Network news. Though I am blocked from experiencing the social media amazingness of scientology's online domination, some of our readers are not. Thanks to Valerie for forwarding some recent tweets that highlight the excellent reception CSN TV has received. And … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
Not surprisingly, this week's funnies are dominated by an apparently endless stream of hype for the "milestone of milestones" - the HSN of cults. Scientology TV A spiritual awakening? They actually think canned Infomercial matter could awaken anyone spiritually? That's how out of touch they are. 150 "confirmeds" That means 50 will show up for the biggest, bestest and most important event EVER! In Chicago. Celebrate with "local non-profits" WTH Fdn, Narconon, CCHR, Youth for Human Rights and the other scientology front groups wanting your … [Read more...]
Scientology and TV
Scientology is taking to the airwaves (sort of) tonight. It's interesting times. They put out a press release that resulted in this story in THR: This story highlights just a few of their problems. They have nobody willing to talk to the media, and apparently these days, nobody willing to respond in any way. Not the recipe for success in this field. Every story that mentions scientology tv is going to mention Going Clear and The Aftermath -- that favor will not be returned. Scientology TV is a novelty that will be forgotten fast. A quick scan of the comments on this s … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
The most significant ever... As always. Even more significant than opening SuMP? It's only the best until the next one. The one thing you can do to thrive... Stay away from any registrars. Super fun... If that's what you call being endlessly beaten for money... But the "beach backyard" sounds cool. But "Best dressed" in beach gear? Perhaps this is a smallest speedo contest? I bet anyone can see the difference... No? Really? You are not looking hard enough... They're STILL fundraising They have Santa Barbara, Hawaii and … [Read more...]
Where’s The Beef?
This post was prompted by some back and forth with one of our commenters. It got me thinking, and though I may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, sometimes I cast a bit of light onto the shadowy world of scientology. I recently posted about the ineffectiveness of the massive investment scientology made into TV advertising. It has resulted in no appreciable increase in interest, though it is somewhat debatable that this is what they even care about rather than providing the latest reason to collect money from their members to buy more ads. But that poses the question: what … [Read more...]
Scientology Advertising Fail
My good friend Shel Goldberg sent this to me. I thought it fascinating. Obviously, scientology has been spending a lot lately on TV commercials. The ad is on youtube and has over 1.8M views so far. Of the 1.8M views, only 297 comments and ZERO likes or dislikes. I've never noticed a youtube video that had no likes or dislikes, unless it had 0 views. The church must be so paranoid of dislikes. I can only imagine. So, in the last 24 hours, the video has been seen by 200K+ as it was about 1.6M yesterday when I first started this research. BUT, yesterday there were also 295 comme … [Read more...]
New Ideal Orgs
Tony Ortega covered the recent openings of Salt Lake and "Silicon Valley" ideal orgs with some interesting on-the-ground reports from observers. I have, as is my wont, a few observations of my own. Salt Lake City: This is the official photo on the scientology.org website. If you had the time or inclination, you could actually count the heads present. My guess would be 350. (Update, a reader counted every head in this photo, the number is 242). But if you read their press release, the gathering consisted of "more than a thousand" in attendance. It's … [Read more...]
Fear and Loathing in Clearwater
You may have read or seen others commenting on this recent article by Tracey McManus. Clearwater City Council candidates mum on Scientology’s impact downtown I found the article fascinating (I have included the full text of it below) for a number of reasons. First, EVERYONE in Clearwater knows exactly what the biggest problem facing Clearwater is. The downtown is dead. While neighboring Dunedin, Safety Harbor and even St. Petersburg are flourishing and prospering, Clearwater languishes in the empty storefront doldrums. Yet Clearwater has greater potential for its dow … [Read more...]
The Safest City
This is more of the scientology bubble crazy on display. They have been convinced that handing out copies of the Way to Happiness "reduces crime" and "brings calm" to neighborhoods. Why do they believe this? First is because L. Ron Hubbard proclaimed this to be the case. He determined that problems in society all stemmed from the lack of a moral code, and that by distributing HIS it spread calm and peace and bring about miraculous changes. And of course, if L. Ron Hubbard says not enough smoking is the true cause of cancer, that LSD is stored in the fatty tissues of the body or that … [Read more...]
Ribbon Yanking Extravaganza
It's a big weekend of ribbon yanking for the Chairman of the Bored. These HAVE to be done this weekend or they will not make it into the March 13th event -- and he doesn't have anything else to hype at that event other than to bring the Sherminator on stage to ramble on with some more fascinating tall tales about the life of LRH, and handing out some awards to pre-ordained winners of the "Birthday Game" (you will see, the ONLY winners allowed now are "ideal"). So, it is absolutely imperative these ribbon yankings were made to happen. After YEARS of endless PR pieces about … [Read more...]