The folks over at Gawker got their hands on an e-mail allegedly sent out by Leah Remini. They make they the argument that it could be from her or not from her and that it could be a Scientology bluff. Here is the letter in it's entirety. I am just going to copy a few of the parts which make me think it is real, and also makes me wonder just how damn expensive is this religion.
I remember thinking and saying out loud, "I WILL NEVER be like those idiots who wait 10 years to go OT!" 10 years later, I hadn't moved. I mean I did everything else but move on to Solo One. I did other courses, I got myself in to trouble, then needed some FPRD and then I would finish that and it would be "my finances"... I would hear people talk to me about other Clears and refer to them as "stalled Clears" and I would be like "Yeah-they are totally stalled.
Whatever the reason, there is an answer and a solution. I don't care what it is: you were not serviced right or fast enough, people don't get you, you have other things going on that we don't get, you are helping others, you are upset, you haven't been acked, your life is actually
going well, your life is not going well, there's no money there's no time, if you were a millionaire you would do it no problem,
Do you think I make some sort of commission off you? The answer is that I don't have better things to do than to support my group and help when I can. Clears ARE my group. And no- I don't make a dime.
You're waiting because of money? Or for your wife to do it first or for you to strike it rich? It will not happen without your decision to go up the levels. That is the truth. You owe it to yourself, your family, and to mankind to move and move NOW.
Granted, this is a very, very, very long e-mail and very difficult to get through since it is like reading another language, but I am shocked by how many times the issue of money is brought up. How much does being in Scientology cost? Why is there the commission line? Do other members get commissions off other members at certain times? How come you need to pay to move ahead in the religion? Is it percentage based or is it only the richest succeed? That last paragraph is especially telling, because it seems to indicate that the only way someone can really get ahead is to strike it rich.
With all of these revelations and leaks, it just seems like this organization just gets more and more shady. I can't tell the difference between this e-mail Leah sent and any other scam pyramid scheme type letters. I am wondering if this is all one big pyramid scheme that is going to come crashing down on the top of Tom Cruise. Not that he would have far to fall, unless he was wearing his heels. Can you honestly tell me if you read this that you could see she was talking about religion and not water purification filters she was selling and exhorting the people below her on the pyramid to move up and sell more? Just remember that all pyramid schemes eventually come crashing to earth. Not of course that Scientology is a pyramid scheme, just saying that I can't tell the difference in the e-mail I read.
Wait, Scientology can help you get acked?! If I'd known that I would've joined up years ago!!!
ReplyDeleteLOL.
ReplyDeleteI read this earlier today and thought the same thing, EL. All those references to money and not having it in regards to moving forward.
I read the whole thing and the idea I took away from the whole thing, is that they are paying for these sessions with their case workers, and these sessions are supposed to enable them to be emotionless enough to not have a markable e-meter reading when summing up past life events. So, more sessions for $$$, equaling a better reading, to move on up.
The sad thing is, her little pep letter sounds like she's so IN to it.
So fucking weird.
I got lost in the email LOL. Just sounds crazy like TC.
ReplyDeletetrix..soooooooooooo fucking weird indeed.
ReplyDeleteAmway kids. Amway.
'nuff said.
In college I moved into a new apartment and got junk mail for the old tenant for a few months; he was a Scientologist and must have gotten brochures from them at least once a week for three months. They were all about going to higher levels in the "religion" and how spending anywhere from several hundred dollars to well over a thousand for these seminars or whatever Xenu calls them, he could move up the food chain and be one of Xenu's chosen. Scientologists have to pay for any/everything in their "church" and it is far from inexpensive; I think the cheapest things were close to $1,000 and many were well over that (and I graduated a few years ago).
ReplyDeleteSeriously creepy stuff; it was like reading cult literature. David Koresh and the Branch Davidians made more sense than Scientology does.
Of course you have to be rich to be a Scientologist, although many join with the hope that once they clear themselves, they'll realize all their dreams and strike it rich. Odd, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteEvery course they take costs thousands of dollars, so every time they move up a level, they've already invested thousands of dollars into it. Then, sometimes they're told they're stuck and need a refresher, so they start back where they were in a previous level. It's all bullshit and pyramid is a good way to describe it.
Also, Scientology = diarrhea mouth. Man, these asshats can ramble.
@ reese - "like cult literature" ? It iS 100% pure CULT lit.
ReplyDeleteEvery parent needs to warn their kids about these people - especially if you're sending them off to college.
well, the matter should be handled like they do it in Germany. There they say, you have two legal options to choose of:
ReplyDelete1. either you are a church, then you get your money in form of an monthly deduction from your members, like all other religions do,
or,
2. if you dont do that, you are no church. So you will be considered a company, and you declare what´s going in and pay your taxes on that. if non profit, show how you spent all the money.in both cases, the cash flow has to be visible.
since they are not willing to share the income and what they use the money for :-), they are considered as sect, and as that, monitored thoroughly. So, instead of a huge drive towards it, people, especially celebs, are staying far off it.
Yes--any "church" member can act as an FSM (field staff member) and get someone to take a course and then get a certain percentage of commission from whatever that someone pays for a course. Generally, the "FSM" will apply that commission toward more of their own courses. Naturally.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes--it's all very expensive. As far as I know, there's no sliding scale--they all pay a set price, unless they're in the Sea Org or on staff and sign their lives away and then courses are free. But when you're working for Scientology, you don't have a lot of time to take courses. Oh, bitter irony!
If someone isn't wealthy, and isn't on staff, they'll be pressured into taking out loans, maxing out their credit cards--whatever it takes to get to the next course.
Don't know if this letter was written by Remini, but it does sounds like standard Scientology crap to me.
Enlightenment doesn't cost money. Neither does wisdom, or self-evolution. Never has, never will. That's the bottom line and it makes me wonder how "religious" cults get away with shit like this.
ReplyDelete"Scientology = diarrhea mouth. Man, these asshats can ramble."
ReplyDeleteLMAO! That's awesome. And true.
It is so hard for me to believe how people fall into this crap.
ReplyDeleteYou have to pay up the ying yang and you can't be friends with people who don't have the same beliefs as you do. Pure Cult.
Scientology courses are hideously expensive. I tried to find some examples from my fave website but I don't have time right now to go through them. The info is there, though, if you read. I recommend bookmarking this site and reading the stories as you have time.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.factnet.org/Scientology/dianetics_abuse.html
Reese- now you know why he moved!
ReplyDeleteDon't they tithe as well? I was under the impression they also paid 10% of their earnings to the church. In addition to the courses.
ReplyDeleteHere's their price list from 2006 - so it's pretty outdated:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html
Jebus lord..there really is a Xenu in Scientology?
ReplyDeleteI though that was a joke...WTF???
Who believes this shit????
My god the comments...i'm going to die.
Tom Cruise you are a crazy f*cker.
I forgot to tell you all that the Scientologists have been hitting up my apartment complex hardcore. They were out there the other night, I could hear them knocking on all my neighbor's doors. They looked like Mormons, so I tried to avoid them on that basis initially. But then they ran into my boyfriend coming home from work. They've been leaving all these pieces of literature and questionaires, its really weird. When my boyfriend told him that we're not looking for a new "faith" (he's a lot less antagonistic than I, it seems) they for some reason asked him to confirm the apartment building complex street number, as if they couldnt have possibly asked any of the other tenants they'd been bugging, or just looked on the sign on the road leading in. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteJax, yes there really is. Did you see the South Park Scientology episode? Apparantly, their animation of the story was pretty accurate, Xenu and all.
ReplyDeleteMary is right. If you bring someone into COS, you get a percentage of all of the money they spend/donate to COS forever and forever.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot like Amway, only nothing they give you cleans your dishes.
trix - that just proves that the scientologists are tracking the comments and logging IP addresses of the commenters on this site. They've already found where you live. (kidding)
ReplyDeleteActually, dnfrommn, it totally crossed my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are the ones we're supposed to be avoiding at the door, in this country. I dont need ANOTHER set of young men in stiff suits walking their bikes into my apartment building hallway, blinding me with the glare of the fluorescent lights bouncing off those shiney little nametags.
seriously, how desperate (and possibly insane) do you have to be to believe in this shit? as you can tell I'm just *covered* in thetans!
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's because we share the same first name, but I had really hoped that she wasn't knee-deep into the Scientology bullshit. She used to seem like she was down to earth and had some freaking common sense. Obviously she didn't, and that's sad.
ReplyDeleteTrix- well lucky you live in Seattle where it rains 90% of the time and has many hills..these young men should't be bothering you for long. lol.
ReplyDeleteUnless they have special equipped Xenucycles.
I seriously can't get over the fact that people actually beleive this crap.
Did any one see the Anonymous videos? that was creepy and chilling but i wanted to cheer at the end.
There's a really interesting section in the Tom Cruise Unauthorized Biography about how Mimi Rogers and her dad and (I think I'm remembering correctly) her then-husband were into this Amway/multi-level-marketing-like scheme, having parties at their place in the Valley to try to get celebs and powerful people into the slightly more private Valley Scientology location. They definitely got commissions, and they were, shall we say, highly motivated. One guy who thought he was their friend and was invited to numerous "casual" cookouts said that he didn't think Mimi Rogers ever spoke to someone unless it could get her some career or commission action.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the COS is in panic mode right now, due to the extra negative attention from the mainstream media. It's probably hard to recruit new people now that the whole Xenu-aliens-volcano story is no longer a big secret. They have to rely on those already deeply immersed in the cult to keep the dollars flowing in.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to February 10th with glee, and hope that Project Chanology results in epic lulz.
We do not forgive. We do not forget.
The one thing that Anonymous has going for them is that all of the people who are involved are the types who don't want to attention whore their own name, they like the feeling of knowing that they're doing all of this and nobody knows who they are. Because of that, it's going to be a heck of a lot harder to stop them.
ReplyDeleteAnd as long as everybody thinks it's just a bunch of teenage boys, the better it is.
LOL Jax, unfortunately, the hills dont stop 'em much...they roll around in those dark Cadillac SUVs, you know, the ones that "bad guys" drive in the movies, like Twister. Somehow though they still show up on my doorstep looking like drowned rats and it takes a lot of resolve not to invite them in and feel sorry for them a little....
ReplyDeleteBut I'm trying to make it a policy to not feel sorry for crazies. Britney Spears included.
The Andrew Morton TC book mentions that in Scientology you get 10% of commission from the people you recruit if they reach a certain level. Total pyramid scheme. It costs 500,000 to a million dollars to get to the high levels.
ReplyDeleteI can't decide which part of scientology I like best - the clams or the volcanos.
ReplyDeletemooshki--amen.
ReplyDeleteonce again, guys, you want a good scare, a good laugh and have a lot of time on your hands?
go to
XENU.NET
these are the folks that work with families trying to get their loved ones away from the scios. they have copies of the pamphlets, stories of escapees, what all the secrecy is about, and all the really scary shit.
excellent site.
I used to have a MAJOR "thang" for Leah Remini when she was on that late 80s "Living Dolls" sitcom - her cute face, her big brown Doe eyes and poofy brown hair... her East Coast/Brook'lyn accent too... lrrrrrr... what a fox she was.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind TC or JT because they're pilots... and decent actors... and I agree with their views on drug-pushing psychiatrist$. But *IMO*... $cientology is just an'OTHER' fancy New Age term for *A.LaVey/A.Crowley 'Do What Thou Wilt' luciferianism*... sort of like Taoism with extra "Em"phasis on personal Ego. I'm not sure (or care) about WTF a "Xenu" is or isn't... but getting "clear" is just like saying "I no longer have a conscience, guilt or recognize the concept of Right or Wrong anymore. Therefore, I'm now 'CLEAR' to (literally) *do* WHATEVER THE H*LL I WANT to APPEASE MYSELF!". ?}:[>--..
Scientology/-gists don't bother me anyway because I's po' n' ain't got no moneys fo' dem... n' sheet.
... BTW... BAAAAAAAAAA...
To get a real idea how dangerous Scientology is read three books.
ReplyDelete"Bare Faced Messiah" by Russell Miller, "L Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman" by Bent Corydon and
"A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed" by Joh Atack
Scientology is real Fascism and the famous people who join and participate will never be looked upon the same way after reading these titles. Tom Cruises vacation home on a Scientology compund was built and seviced by Church members who are slaves in the Rehabilitation Project Force . The "RPF" is a Sea Org Chain gang of memebers who do not think right and need to get reeducated into the Scientlolgy mind set. The RPF is slavery.
I've always wondered if *LRH* was involved in MKULTRA in one *form* or another. It's speculated that Jim Jones had some "alleged ties" to the CIA... which Congressman Ryan (R.I.P.) might have been on the verge of uncovering at the time of his assasination... *cough*theJusticeDepartmentsealed thecourtrecordssowe'llneverknow*cough*...
ReplyDeleteThat whole "Jonestown" thing just reaked of MKULTRA/CIA involvement from the git-go; the "People's Temple" congregation was recruited only from the poor, emotionally lost and weakminded... whereas the Co$ recruits only the wealthy, emotionally lost and weakminded... both "churches" have their flocks say, "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"...