monkey see, monkey do serves as a personal blog and creative outlet for
cruise on scientology
i find the church of scientology fascinating. especially their military sea org wing. i don’t have a problem with their religion really, seems very similar to hinduism and buddhism philosophically and in terms of method. but they definitely have an interesting culture to me. and by interesting i also mean odd.
a nine minute video of tom cruise speaking to church members, with a hilarious and corny mission impossible background music and afterward narration, is posted on gawker.
according to wikinews, the acronyms he uses mean:
- KSW = keeping scientology working, policy of ensuring the churches survival
- SP = suppressive persons
- PTSP = potential trouble source
go tom!
the churches attempts to have this video removed from the Internet is another example of how efforts like that backfire. i heard about the video because of that effort, and i’m writing about it in part because of it.
UPDATE: MTV has an article explaining more of the scientology lexicon tom uses.
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17. January 2008 at 2:06 pm :
To even compare scientology to buddhism, hinduism suggests that you have little to no idea what scientology is about. Go and find out what Fair Game means, go and find out what percentage of families have gone through SPs and PTSs (children send their parents e-mails, letters to tell them never to contact them again because their lack of belief in scientology is causing problems in their lives, parents send the same letters to their children). Ordinary scientologists are workmen for people like Cruise, Travolta and earn $50 a week. They have medical problems because the cult forbid them from seeking help. The children lack education and social skills because they don’t mix with other kids. Do some research.
17. January 2008 at 2:55 pm :
Thank you for the comment. I’m familiar with how they use the term ‘Fair Game’, but Hindu and Buddhist lineages are not free from their share of aggression and self-interest as well. Historically, there has been tremendous bloodshed even from those supposedly peaceful religions, though I doubt Scientology has gone to that extreme generally. And xenophobia is not unique to any one religion or belief system I’m sure you agree.
I was mostly referring though to Scientologies philosophic views: how they describe mind, reality, and determinism. I believe you could even make the reasonable claim with support that Scientology is consistent with Samkhya schools from India. They also use mind training techniques like meditation and contemplation - unlike most other western traditions - and some of their more advanced techniques appear to me quite similar to advanced practices in Shaivist Hindu tantra and Tibetan tantra.
18. January 2008 at 2:23 pm :
I still think Tom Cruise’s best acting can be seen in the movie Magnolia, but I’m not sure it was hard for him to summon that character. He seems a bit too spotlight hungry to me, an attention hound.
18. January 2008 at 2:33 pm :
He does know how to work a crowd. I haven’t seen all of his work but I do like some of it. It must be hard though to have so much attention and spotlight and not have it effect your personality - I can only imagine.
21. January 2008 at 3:09 pm :
“I can only imagine.” Modest.
21. January 2008 at 3:14 pm :
I did shake robin williams’ hand once, as well as richard pryor’s, but that’s about as notable as i get. No desire to be on a marque really. Sounds nightmarish…
22. January 2008 at 9:18 am :
I love Robin Williams… He’s so cute.
Lucky you.
22. January 2008 at 12:14 pm :
I’ve tried to cash in on my notability, but it hasn’t worked all that well yet.
22. January 2008 at 2:33 pm :
Clever too! There’s no stopping you.
And, if there is, there’s always tomorrow. Happy B-day, by the way.
1. February 2008 at 8:27 pm :
I’d be cautious about Scientology, even if they “borrow” methods from other philosophies/religions, that doesn’t make it ethical. A Christian prison chaplain friend of mine, trying to be inclusive, allowed the Scientologists to visit the inmates, but when he immediately started hitting them up for money they got the boot.