A member of my family is a Scientologist (of many years) and is very happy with her choice. She has not disconnected with the family some of whom are not totally positive about Scientology.

Religion is a CHOICE; Talking to someone or avoiding them is a CHOICE!

They are simply an alternative to the brainwashing cult that is "normal" society and pretty much iterative of it
Why this article made the central column whilst so much is swept away, I cant imagine
Well, I can, but that would be detrimental to the so-called newswire

You do realise there is a war on don't you ? I can't see why this is promoted let alone featured. Isn't this exactly the same coverage that scientology gets in corporate coverage ? Sure, the Scientologists are a nasty cult, but they cause less damage than the bigger idiotic cults, like say Catholicism. They don't particularly target actvivists, especially poor activists, unlike other cults that have posted here like the LaRouche cult ( whose brainwashed members are great crtiics of the brainwashed members of other cults such as the moonies and the scientologists).. The Scientologists don't kidnap people off the street and brainwash them to get recruits, they invite them in ! Getting outsmarted by the cult is the equivalent of being run-down by a glacier.

The cult is so obviously bogus - ie it is not even a good sci-fi story - that only the stupidest person could fall for it. Maybe we should encourage cults just to attract morons from decent causes. If we are truly interested in raising human intelligence and saving the environment, maybe we should be encouraging every cult to become a suicide cult ?

So what is the aim of the campaign ? To end Scientology ? Fair enough, but what are you going to do with all the willing cultists when they are freed ? You can't just let them loose, how do you stop them committing just as stupid decisions in future ? Are you going to have a special hospital or education programme for them ? Reprogramming them from believing 'Scientology saved me' to 'Scientology is evil' isn't difficult but it is avoiding the main problem, that these people are just cyphers.

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, to be fair any business that profits from the mentally deficient is to be condemned, but can anyone here promise Tom Cruise a better life post-scientology ? How would you protect a deprogrammed Tom Cruise from exploitation by smarter little kids ? Are you going to start the 'Tom Cruise Nature Reserve' were ballheads like him can roam free from natural predators like insurance salesmen.

Was I was 14 I had an intelligent mate who took me by to our local scientology outfit as a head-fuck way to kill time. We filled out the personality tests and then left without waiting for the results. We were followed out onto the busy street was a cajoling scientologist, at which point my mate shouted loudly 'If you try and put your hand down my mates trousers again then I'm phoning the cops'. The entire bustling street suddenly froze and looked at us. I went bright red in horror, the scientologist went pure white and beat a hasty retreat - that closed the office for the afternoon.

War is a consequence of competition between units of authority, be they corporations, states or religions.
Ideas are a matter of personal choice be they political, economic or religious.
Abandon all your superstitions!
Support the weak!
Fight the Power!

Get off your high horse. Just coz this action/campaign isn't the mainstream stuff (ie climate change, stop the war etc) that you spend all your time on doesn't mean we shouldn't support it.

It is MORE important to support the non-mainstream actions as they are the ones that need more numbers, more awareness raising and are more at risk of dying out.

Just because there are other organisations doing things that are just as bad is NO reason not to protest against this one. Changing the actions of one organisation usually has a knock-on effect through other similar organisations. Also, if you were to organise a protest against another similar organisation, I would hope that you would be supported.


At the end of the day, this protest is happening. There are way too many issues surrounding Scientology that make it worth doing. Get out there and support it!


(And for anyone who's saying that the protests go against peoples rights to believe what they like, if you actually read any of the information then you would see that they are against the actions of the organisation 'The Church of Scientology' not in any way against the religion of Scientology.)

The reason why it is a feature, is that it is a series of protests and actions ignored by the mainstream media, as well as that the anonymous way of posting in Indymedia sometimes attracts non-anarchist groups and individuals who aren't able/willing and are afraid of posting anywhere else - and that's fine, too and they deserve support as well, maybe even more than the StWC.
And for the claim that only idiots would fall for Scientology - the sect operates also under frontgroups and advertises its "communication skills" and "personal development" courses, so people might not imediatedly notice who is behind the offered questionnaires and personality tests in the pedestrian zone. Also, psychatric treatment is forbidden under the cult's rules, making people with mental health problems particularly vulnerable to this mulitnational corporation's exploitation.
It would be good if fellow activists have at least a minimal awareness of that sect aims and rules and politics.

...When geeks take over Indymedia content and not stick what there good at - uploading code.

There are plenty of cults to take on, but none more important than the big players in this world...

Scientologists are not main feature material... the mainstream press has ignored them because it's boring and repetitive and of little consequence.

This is the beginning of the end of Indymedia - this network needs geeks but not for editorial purposes.

Please, keep your bigoted opinions about geeks only being needed for coding to yourself. We can do politics and news, too, you know, in all likelyhood better than you can.

...if the geeks have managed to look outside their clique internet groups - and onto the world stage - but there are huge, well organised demonstrations about Tibet happening at present. I know it doesn't involve wearing a cool mask from your favourite film, dressing up etc etc...

But maybe a feature on some of the heroes and that have thrown themselves onto the frontline in defiance? I realise it doesn't star Tom Cruise and there's no weird funny videos to accompany it all... but we're all hoping you can see through this and stop exploiting Indymedia with nerdy pursuits.

As much as I agree that Scientology is wriong and they manipulate people, there is so much more to be getting on with. Our media and governments are maipulating us on a daily basis on a grander scale than the Church of Scientology could ever hope for. The last Scientology demo was on the same day as the STW march. Millions have and will die unless we stop these 2 illegal wars as soon as possible. Don't rely on STW for anything other than arranging a bi-annual march form a-b. What's happened to the 2 million who marched in 03, it's time to be heard again.

I on the other hand agree with this being front page, the extent in which scientology are making inroads into psychiatric and drug and alcohol care with their dodgy treatment beliefs definately warrents exposure, coupled with the fact that they share a lot of similarities with free masons - Exerting power and influence with large amounts of cash and people in high positions, added to this the genuine protests, often by ex-members, or families and freinds who have been burned by Scientology.

Well done IMCers for front paging this.

P.S. I am really mortified to find out Beck has become a Scientologist - I really like his music, sorry Beck, but I am gonna have to only torrent your music from now on, unless you put scientoly messages in it, then I wont listen to it at all.

I didn't know about these protests until I checked out Indymedia.

I do know there are wars going on, protests in and about Tibet, climate change etc. etc. They receive good coverage in the mainstream media and plenty of coverage here.

So keep up the independent approach is what I say and don't bow to following a pack mentality, whether promoted by corporations or those who wish to constrain Indymedia content to their own set of concerns.

Firstly, the model of open publishing consists of not just publishing an article on the newswire, but you can also propose a middle column feature to the front page. Just email the uk features list (imc-uk-features AT indymedia dot org) with a proposal. So if you think this feature has somehow eclipsed the current olympic protests then contribute a feature to this participatory media project. There are also resources around on docs.indymedia.org that'll help you with the formating and content of a proposed feature.

Scientology is a system of control and domination that uses capitalism very effectively to fleece it's members, legitimise itself and grow - just like many of the multi-nationals we target. This is all compatible with indymedia's mission statement. Indymedia should be used as a medium to expose this cult and it's very harmful activities. Anonymous is already an international movement and there are many parallels in how they work as a non-hierarchical group and how the rest of the libertarian movement operate. We can all learn something about how this group has evolved on the internet and their physical protests all over the world. And i'm sure many of Anonymous are learning from us too, or there's more of an overlap between then you'd care to admit.

Open publishing also means evolving marginalised groups can get their voices heard, and it means that other activists will also hear these voices. They can either empathise with this or decide to ignore it, the important thing is, it still get's published on Indymedia and those voices are getting louder and louder.

"I am really mortified to find out Beck has become a Scientologist"

I would just like to point out, FWIW, that Beck was born into Scientology, he didn't become one in later life. Still a shame either way, although he doesn't preach about it anywhere as near as much as a certain Mr. Cruise.

Anyways, keep up the good work, Anonmyous!