I know I am drowning everyone with TomKat stories today, but there seems to be a lot of movement in the Xenu Celebrity Disciple Camp today. Tom Cruise is throwing a fundraiser in New York City for his Scientology detox program he has set up there:
A New York City councilman has endorsed the controversial 9/11 detoxification program co-founded by Tom Cruise by undergoing the procedure himself. Hiram Monserrate, who is hosting a gala fundraiser for the treatment later this month, underwent 30 days of exercise, dietary changes and 2 1/2-to-4 hour stints in a sauna and claims the results were remarkable.
He tells the New York Post, “I will tell you I felt 100 times better after the program than I’ve felt in the last 15 years.”
And he insists he’s been approached by scores of Ground Zero rescue workers who have also used the treatment after exposure to high levels of toxins.
He says, “I did not meet one person in this program who said to me, ‘Hiram, I did not feel better.’ I don’t have a science degree, but if it made them feel better, it should be made available to any rescue worker.”
I’m pretty sure there aren’t many patients running up to their doctors either and saying “Doctor, I did not feel better after that lobotomy”, but surely that is a matter of conjecture.
I may be willing to give Cruise the benefit of the doubt about his detox program, just as long as he doesn’t ram his beliefs down the throats of people who go there for a harmless detox. The Church of Scientology had an Easter Egg hunt this past Sunday at their HQ down the road from me (what are the odds I ended up living there?), and it seemed harmless enough, with all the pink and yellow balloons taped outside the bricked walls of Saint Hill Manor. Mind you, I didn’t seem any of the kids in my neighborhood running up to collect eggs with their parents.
Note by Celebitchy Jessie is more generous with Scientology than I am. There’s plenty of evidence that Scientology is a cult that ruins lives and that this “detox program” is a dangerous scam to get new suckers into the fold. Not only is the L. Ron detox medically unsound, it could be giving 911 heroes with precarious health false hope in exchange for selling their souls to Xenu. Scientology’s claims of success are based on psuedo science and testimonials, and there is no scientifically proven study that it works. Even if it’s effective for some, is it worth the trade off to have a cult try and influence your life decisions, thoughts, and how you interact with friends and family in order to learn how to take more vitamins and have health-cleansing saunas?
People who are desperate will fall for anything – even a Scientology detox scam…..Jim Jones got all those people to drink Kool-Aid!
So Celebitchy, Jessie….any news on Tom and Katie’s relationship? The tabloids are run amok with “Katie leaves Tom” stories and I hope to see some here!!!
ER I read several of those stories and they’re all based on the fact that Katie wanted to go without Tom to Louisiana and he ended up planning on going with her. Life and Style might have a bit more, but I haven’t read their version. I’ll cover it though tomorrow as it’s the main story in the Enquirer, but was covered by some of the other tabs last week. I think they’re hyping a story that isn’t there, but if you want to read about it I’ll cover it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Scientology is a total fraud, it doesn’t do anything. Sitting in a sauna & taking vitamins is not detox. Tom Cruise is a worthless asshole, maybe Xenu should advise him to shut the fuck up & make a movie that doesn’t suck ass.
LOL at Dan’s comment. Right on dude!
Furthermore, 2 1/2-to-4 hour stints in a sauna would KILL you not just detox you! The sauna that I use warns that you can only be in there 35 minutes max or else you’ll fry your brain. Then again, maybe that’s Tommy Boy’s whole point in getting converts to Sciencrapolgy.
Ok Scientologists celebrate Easter?
Countrybabe–Apparently their God Xenu has no problem with them stringing pastel coloured balloon to lure children for an Easter Hunt that will no doubt turn into a seminar for the parents to enroll the kids in the special Scientology school in the area where I live.
Jessie, actually, xenu is not their God, I wonder who is, I think Tom Cruise himself since their pope Mscavige was the bestman at his wedding. I always imagined that if gid came down to earth and married, the pope would be his best man. Hey, hey am trying to make sense out of this crazy cult.
I think this whole detox thing is free and so it should be, so no one shouts, ‘cheat’ when it doesn’t work. It sounds too idealist, if all problems had simple solutions, then religons would not be the richest institutions in the world.
Oh, I forget, xenu is the evil spirit who invaded the world many years ago and corrupted our minds….I am I making sense? That cult confuses me too. May be only geniuses are allowed to join. LOL.
Celebitchy, the way you feel about Scientology is the way I feel about religion in general. It’s nothing more than an attempt by an elite few to control the masses with an arbitrary set of rules and some outright lies about “higher beings” (Xenu, Jesus, Allah…they’re all the same to me). When you say Scientology is giving false hope with this detox program, I ask you: how is that any different than a Catholic priest absolving you of your sins after confession? Is that not false hope? (Apologies to any and all religious people I’ve offended.)
If someone takes your lazy ass in for 30 days, makes you exercise and feeds your Burger King swilling mug proper food of course you are going to feel better. Duh. Did that not occur to the New York City council?
My exact thoughts, Carol.
Love the picture of Katie (sorry Kate) looking like a prisoner. Does that look like a woman who is happy and living a great life?????
Who ever said all religions are crap actually has a point. I don’t have one but I wonder how the hell they ocnvince peeps with all these bizarre ideas of virgin births, suicide attacks, thetans amd all that crap. I aint no believer, huh huh but am sure I would have failed to take in all that crap. Confess to a priest? Sya what?
O.K my advice to the fire men is to use this detox program, it is better than putting all those drugs into your system but if it fails, then I guess they will have to resort to drugs like the rest of us.
Is this Xenu stuff real or made up? They believe in some kind of a Xenu?
Okay I am an idiot…
And I agree with Jen, only I broaden it more horizontally rather than vertically to say that it is an effort by the masses themselves to control and identify themselves and others, not just an elite few. I don’t adhere to any denomination; I take what I think is good or valuable- univeral from any and all religions but I am not ‘converted’ into this or that, and people are not recognizable to me as either ‘this or that’ based on religion. Its another form of segregation and prejudice- like ‘Religionism’ or something. 🙂
I just think there are certain universal or fundamental truths of human existence that should be recognized and honored, and more than likely a creator- but we have NO CLUE what he/she/it is like or how it thinks- that’s all.
How scientology started:
L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction writer. He like to drink and he and a bar friend were having a conversation about religion and I don’t remember exactly how the bet came about but Hubbard’s friend bet him that he couldn’t make up a religion that people would follow. I believe the bet was for $1. Hubbard started right there in the bar drafting his new religion on a napkin. So, it is a known fact that scientology was made up by a science fiction writer to win a bar bet (which he did win) and people still follow it as a religion. Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard?
Jen, the Roman Catholics seemingly believe that a priest can absolve them of sin (I can’t say for sure, not being RC). This isn’t really the case (looking from the way things were done/viewed in the Early Church–yes, I’m giving an Orthodox perspective, here). One confesses to the priest (actually, it is supposed to be in front of the whole congregation) and asks for forgiveness, and the priest says a prayer for you, as all are supposed to do. The priest is the leader of the congregation, but it is understood that the priest is a person like the rest of us. He is supposed to provide a good example, but he isn’t the be all and end all of power and authority(as opposed to the RC priests, whose parishioners/students seemed to view as being next to God–hence the ability of pedophiles to take advantage of these positions of power and the protection of an “old boys'” style network to get away with nasty things). The thing is, you admit your faults and weaknesses when you genuinely repent: the reason they are public is because secrets fester away in us and indicate that we are not really ready to change/leave that action and behaviour behind. All the people in our congregation are in communion with us, and we are all supposed to support, help, and forgive each other. Only God can ultimately judge us–not any mortal person. There is much more, but I’ll leave off rambling at that.
Nice explanation, explanation! It gives substance to the practice… I wonder if all people who engage in that understand it as you do, rather than just do it out of routine and ‘obligatory’ habit. But that isnt particular to any one religion– I’m just saying. 🙂
Oh and how come Celebitchy gets a gravatar but we don’t… is that because of the pop-up format? But I remember also when it wasnt popup and I tried to get a picture it never showed up…
thanks for the added blurb in this story, celebitchy.
The only reason $cientology called itself a “church” is so that it could get the benefits of evading paying taxes to the IRS. $cientology is very very much about making money off of its recruits who generally live in poverty…giving all of their money to the cult to continue with their auditing sessions…if they stop paying for their continuing cruel and harmful quest to “audit”their way to nirvana…they get ex-communicated from the group, thus making all of their past efforts to reach the higher levels such as operating thetan, or OT…all a waste. and after investing their entire life savings and maxing out their credit cards, not to mention losing the community that they devoted all of their energy to……you can see how folks are reluctant to leave the cult…and when they do, they face not just ex-communication, but are also at the mercy of the lawyers at the helm of the cult, who will go to any lengths to completely blackball, blackmail and trash them, further reducing a person to less than a shadow of a human being. celebrity adherents who receive special status because of the glossy image they provide this cult are treated better…thus the “celebrity centre” in los angeles.
its sadly ironic that these assholes detest psychology and psychatrity, which is based on ongoing research and medical standards and a board of ethics…. but their “auditing” methods essentially blackmail a person interested in self-improvement by using all of a persons inner secrets, traumatic experiences, and vulnerablilty as a means to completely mind fuck a person and completely turn the clients inside out…without any moral compass or real ways of healing and moving on to a joyous present…;.the core of $cientology is devoid of compassion, God, truth, and love. For these reasons and more, this cult is pure evil.
to compare this cult with mainstream religion is just absurd.
pecarrie, i think that gravatars are distracting to what a person is writing / thinking. in general, they annoy me. if its your own blog, thats different.
Also, look at the symbol for $cientology….there is NO accident that there is a big X over the cross.
http://xenu.net/archive/techniques/
this website is comprised of a lot of former members and exposes $cientology.
here’s another article about “how is it that stupid, gullible people fall for this scam?”.(the earlier, understandable comment that desperate people will fall for anything..)
http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html
—this article discusses how it is that people fall for this cult.
Thank you for your posts Wig-O-Rama. People PLEASE don’t consider this flaming brainwashing organization (that is only a “church” for tax reasons) to other people’s personal wishes to bond with their spirit, maker or what have you. Comparing this $hit to all worship of higher power is a gigantic insult to those of us who seek spiritual enlightenment.
And the biggest difference is that no real church DEMANDS thousands and thousands of dollars to belong to it, and when their liquid funds run out, said organization sets you up in classes to show you how to max out your credit cards and start another business just to pay your bills. I know somebody in Scientology and he’s a lost little robot. A very POOR lost little brainwashed robot, who used to have a great income.
People like Wig -o-rama amuse me alot. They go from site to site trying to ‘warn ‘people about so called scientology dangers, what about the dangers of Islam Judhaism and christianity which for centuriess have caused the death of many people. The catholic church has so much in its closet with priests raping nuns and alter boys. Gives us a break. Mormons actually are polygamous and condone underage sex. All religions are crap!
Please people, give it a rest. Someone is trying to do something good. How hard is that to understand?
You guys are right, cults are different from organized religions in that they demand money, set up a closed system that completely shuts down anyone that dares question them and usually have a leader, living or dead, that is the be-all end all. This isn’t “something good” it’s a scam to get people into Scientology, which is a cult the destroys lives, intimidates people, and tries to ruin the lives of detractors with litigation and personal threats. I’m not a religious person, but I would not group religions in the same camp as cults. There are cult groups that pass themselves off as Catholic or other religions, like Opus Dei, that are different. I don’t agree with religions overall, but they are quite different from cults in that people are generally free to leave and are not made to give their entire life and belief system over to the cult.
Also Mr. T, it’s harder to actually think for oneself and question some person’s claim that “oh this Scientology detox helped me,” than it is to “understand” and swallow wholesale the bullshit claim that this is some miracle cure.
Jen, I don’t take offense to what you said-even though I am Catholic(cafeteria style maybe-I take what I need from it.)
I have a problem with all people in religions who are constantly trying to convert people.
I’m not trying to make fun-but maybe it’s the commercial part.
I just found that odd that they had a Easter egg hunt. Why would you do anything on Easter if you didn’t celebrate it?
My father was a Jehoves Witness, and they didn’t celebrate any holidays-which is why my mother got tired of him.
But Busy, you need to read more. Not all priests rape nuns and kids.
Maybe since since Cruise is their Christ. Maybe he decided to have holiday this week and allowed the hunt-to celebrate himself.
I abhor any kind of organized religion, I think there is nothing eviler, but you need to have your facts straight Busy. The Mormon church does not condone polygamy or underage sex, there is a small group (and I mean small, a couple hundred maybe) of former Mormons who are very much despised by the church that do those things. They have a “compound” in Arizona and their young men are kicked out and wind up in my city once in awhile and sometimes the young women escape so they make the news a lot. They are a despicable group, but have no affiliation whatsoever with the Morman church.
As far as Catholics the molestation is definitely a problem but the actual percentage of priests who are involved is not that high. It’s just that the church let many of them continue on for years and years the made for so many victims.
Busy Body – I understand where you’re coming from, but think about this: Do you hate all caucasian people because their forbears enslaved Africans? You cannot visit the sins of the father (or great-great-grandfather for that matter) upon the son and generalize like that.
Yes GG but so much goes on i those religions upto today that is pushed under the carpet. When Israel was bombing Lebanon, the leading Judaist Rabbi said that he had had a dream and this was actually the hand of God kiilng those people and it was a miracle. WTF. So much is done in the name of these religions even today, Look at Islam, the last I heard Bin laden and Muqtada are not yet forefathers.
My point, scientology should not be treated as a lone bad dog. All religions/ cults are the same and their am to to blind fold people. Blair said his mission to Iraq was divine and ordered by God. What people do not do in the name of whatever…..god, xenu, thetans, allah, Jehovah…
No, I don’t do any of that stuff and I’m a Christian so I still stand by my point. All muslims are not bad people who kill, all christians are not bad people who kill, all Jews are not bad people who kill, etc.
Scientology isn’t even a religion and they don’t identify with any higher creator the way I read it. Apples and oranges.
You have to realize that this is your opinion, and it’s not shared by people who do have some level of personal spirituality that is helping them with their own individual lives. None of the named religions actually condone violence, but certain people certainly do. Please try and respect others’ beliefs? My beliefs mean a great deal to me and I respect your right to blast everything wholesale, while ackowledging it’s untrue. Anyway, we disagree – I’m not going to be arguing religion. I’m not a professional debator.
Thank you, Carol. I used to be a mormon(I’m not really any religion, now), and STILL get irritated at how many people believe that ALL mormons are polygamists. I’ve kind of given up trying to correct people who are wrong about it, since I don’t practice the religion anymore, but it’s still annoying 🙂 The underage sex thing, is one that I actually HAVEN’T heard. Usually people talk about mormons NOT having sex (until marriage). Maybe they DO encourage getting married and popping out babies, A.S.A.P., but not necessarily underage sex, unless you are MARRIED. Anyway, just wanted to give Carol kudos for clearing that up. 🙂
The underage sex thing is rampant in the polygamous offshoot. Their daughters are married off by 13 and there’s only a handfull of skeevy older men who run the thing and they pass each other’s daughters around. It’s really nasty. Wikipedia has a short article about Colorado City, the Arizona town they run. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_City,_Arizona
It’s a lot worse than that article makes it sound though according to the few teens who has escaped.
I read a lengthy article in some magazine (Smithsonian?) that went into great detail about the inbred genetics and their terrible problems with that in that town.
(from wiki)The Colorado City/Hildale, Utah area has the world’s highest incidence of fumarase deficiency, an extremely rare genetic condition which causes severe mental retardation. Geneticists attribute this to the prevalence of cousin marriage between descendants of two of the town’s founders, Joseph Smith Jessup and John Yeates Barlow; at least half the double community’s roughly 8,000 inhabitants are descended from one or both.[6]
The magazine article said that they continue to reproduce, even though the offspring are so damaged they are practically vegetables and must have caregivers. Very sad situation that could still be prevented, yet their stubbornness in clinging to their brain-damaged leader is unfailing. The Mormons don’t condone any of this, by the way, and are just as horrified as anybody.
He’s right that you’ll feel better if you do all that shit. And if you don’t ram your body with steak and other toxins in-between like ignorant mr. cruise who needs to keep his mouth shut you won’t have to detox so often. what a fucking dildo. and by dildo I mean total a-hole loser. None of all that detoxing has to do with scientology, though. I detox all the time and I’m not a fucking wackjob.
p.s. true about religion. I believe it’s fucking blasphemous. it even says so in the conversations with god books, not to be confused with “coffee with xenu” of course.
People that complain about religion are often seeing it from a very narrow angle.
In my church (United Church of Canada) we focus on social justice. We make meals for the sick. We visit elderly shut ins. We sponsor families from Cambodia. We support fair trade organisations and buy local produce. We build with Habitat for Humanity. And yes, we do marry gay people. I defy you to find anything abhorrent in those acts. Don’t lump all organised religion together.
Thank you, julie. It really hurts me to hear people squashing something that does so much good. You really can’t lump “religion” into one chunk, like people are trying to do. Sorry, but it’s just ignorant to do so.
If you’ve had a bad experience with religion, then yours is what it is. But blaming like the above shows a severe lack of information about individual church organizations.
Ditto Alyson R.
And ditto to whomever made pointed out the difference between ‘religions condoning/approving of violence’ and ‘people condoning/approving of violence’.
My point is, most religions have good intentions and are well meaning but their doctrines are abused by people in a bid to control others. I don’t like to defend religions but to an outsider like me, scientology is the same as all those other faiths. I am Sure Jenna Elfman has never annoyed anyone with Scientology and so are many members but the fact still remains, the leaders at the helm of these faiths will manipulate them to their end scientology non withstanding.
Busy Body, you REALLY do need to educate yourself more about different religions–the basic doctrine, their background and their current day affairs. By not being willing to do so (as you continue to repeat yourself) you are judging, stereotyping and choosing to be ignorant. Not all beliefs are alike as you seem to think they are. But, of course, you are entitled to your opinion on them–no matter how ‘non-fact based’ it is.
thank you, action.
as you said, busy body doesn’t appear to be educated about religion and current events. i completely understand a person choosing not to connect themselves with any religion, and to even be athiest. the thing is that you have to at least have a broad range knowledge about exactly what it is that you are rejecting before you come to your own conclusions. to just slam all religion isnt very intelligent. and to not see that there is a multitude of positive aspects of organized religion that so many people share with their families, the commmunity and the world. (i am referring to Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism) religion is very complex, but in essence what these three religions teach people to do is to be good stewards of the world, to make their life meaningful by helping others, and to come together to work towards making earth a little slice of the garden of eden…showing the love and gratitude we have for god by helping all of god’s creations in a multitude of ways, social outreach is a very big component.
of course, people are people wherever you go, so if thats the lens you are looking through, you will find tons of dorks. yes there are dorks that make a mokery of their religion. it’s not god and the religion that are bad….to put it nicely, its people being human and hopefully learning by their mistakes about what it is to have a deep connection with god and the extensive depth of wisdom and love that can be found in religion and its various texts.
kidnapped soldiers
and btw, i would also like to address what busybody said about the war Israel was in with Lebannon. ok. First of all, Lebannon kidnapped several young Iasraeli soldiers who were doing duty in an area of Israel which is a few miles south of the border with Lebannon. Lebannon is essentially run by Syria. Syria sends terrorists belonging to groups such as Hamas an unlimited supply of weapons…weapons whch are used for terrorist attacks both within Lebannon and terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers on innocent Israeli civillians.
Diplomacy was tried and tried and tried, and lebannon refused to return the kidnapped soldiers. they refused to stop the rockets that they fly over the border into israel on a regular basis killing more innocent people.
Israel was in a very threatening situation being that it is surrounded by 26 Arab countries who would like to Kill all the people in israel, and kill Jews. diplomacy is a nice thing, and its great when it works, but at times, there comes a point at which taking military measures to protect yourself is what is called for. I dont know about that one Jewish (not Jewist) rabbi that you mentioned…so what, thats what he said…there are thousands of rabbis out there.. judaism does not have an omnipotent absolute single leader…so, that’s what one rabbi said…that person is not the final end all be all for expressing their thoughts about events.
Referring to $cientology, there is nothing wrong at all…nothing wrong with taking the experiences of countless people who have had their lives completely devastated by the Cult, and using that knowledge to simply inform people about the dangers out there in the hopes of reaching and protecting at least one person from falling under their brainwashing , manipulation, and the unspeakable devastation that occurs.
i dont know about you, but my friends and I warn each other about dangers out there and we also support one another.
Geez weez people, am trying to say, scientology is no different from all other religions, its intentions may be good but they are manipulated by some people to their ends.
Thank you Lucy for that recount of the Summer Lebanese war, might I remind you that after all that destruction, those Israeli soldiers are still captives, over 1000 lives were lost and nothing was gained? That Israel left withthe tail between their legs and Hizbollah stronger than ever after what they saw as victory?
That is not the issue here anyway. What am trying to point out is that even though Judaism does not condone murder, some people will abuse it to that end! Like all religions…..
Besides, I have always thought that those people who keep on harping about scientology give it more recognition and more recruits and my view is that just shut up about it. People who join religions are usually blind and just because you slam it will not stop them joining it, just don’t give them a chance to hear about it and get curious in the first place.
“People who join religions are usually blind”
And people who make these kinds of statements are usual prejudice.
Religion isn’t for everyone. And I respect your belief that you don’t believe in organized religion (or any religion). You can be atheist (which to me is a religion in and of itself) and I respect that, too.
However, your lack of respect by being insulting for those who do CHOOSE to belong to one organized religion or another is abominable.
i agree, action. well said
Amazing, the comment board ignores the article’s subject (9/11 detox works ?), in favor of criticisms ranging from vanilla, through strawberry, to tutti-frutti. 9/11 heroes throw away their inhalers, sweat glass shards, and say they feel enormously better. Does it work — clearly does. Is is scientifically substantial — questionable. Is a medical doctor present at all times — clearly is. Did Tom help — people have thanked him for it.