what does r/scientology think of Bernie's website?

OMG I'm sorry this reply is so long.


I do agree, they should know where their money goes. From the way I see it Scientology has so many things that just don't fit together. It's so multi-faced and that's why I'm here and crazy curious about it. The more I read the more damn questions I have.

The supernatural parts of all beliefs are a bit weird if you don't believe them. Most religions have some weird shit like that which we look at as an outsider and go what the hell? So I won't be like, yeah you can believe the weird Jesus stuff, but you can't believe the weird alien stuff.

People rip into Scientologists for the stuff at OTIII, but how many Scientologists make it that far? I'm guessing not a lot of normal people do because I read that it costs about $150,000. Logically then, the crazy shit is for the rich people. If you have so much money that you can spend it on that, that I, as a normal middle-class citizen, don't give a shit. To me that means a person can be a Scientologist and they keep all that supernatural stuff away from you until you buy in; which in itself is pretty terrible, BUT people buy into the Jesus stuff without even being coerced. They do it from the start and out of their own free will! So who is crazier... you know? At least a Scientologist might get to OTIII and be like, shit I've spent a good amount of time and money on this, I should probably go with it.

The sick stuff you're mentioning about "disconnection, dead-agenting, fair game etc", PTSs and SPs that's the crazy part. That's the cult-y part in my opinion. That's some deep and messy stuff which the church will always deny because it's just so fucked up. They literally couldn't say "yes we do that", because on pretty much every moral level it's bad and wrong. But again, it's based on beliefs so I'm very conflicted. If I truly believed in something and it was a big part of my life, and there was a person in my ear going "nah don't believe in that, if they take your money you're in a cult, you're being mind-controlled" I'd be like fuck off I am. If I believed it was helping me and I was contented with giving my money in return for those services, I can see myself believing that a person was a PTS (if I was a noob going into Scientology for the first time anyway; I couldn't be a Scientologist now because I see all the bullshit).

In my life already I'm a huge believer of positivity and discipline > motivation. When I have friends who just complain and whine, I don't want to be around them. Their negativity is like a virus and I put a lot of conscious effort into being kind and looking for the bright side when I know it's a stretch and their shit brings me down so I avoid them.

So yeah, I dunno, Scientology has their destructive things and I see them, I'm aware of them. But at the same time I feel like the higher up you go, the more prevalent it is, so maybe the lower levels aren't that bad. I've read a lot of the content and some of it even seems pretty good and productive. So I see the bad, but I'm also aware of the people even here on /r/Scientology who have said, I did a little bit of the lower level stuff and it definitely helped my life.

It's so hard to criticize because it is so multi-faceted and based in belief. There is good and bad and you can amplify either with what you read, but that is literally the same for every religion. This whole post didn't even resolve anything for me haha, I'm still ridiculously interested in it for now.

/r/scientology Thread Parent Link - bernie.cncfamily.com