I think cgod took one of these on a lark. Maybe he can share.
I took one and even played around with them for a few months. They called me this year about 15 years after I talked to my last Scientologist, was fucking creepy. I had fun for a while then they got real pushy and did some weird shit to me, I don't really want to talk about it. There are some cool people in Scientology and some king weirdos.
From Wikipedia:Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States, Italy,[10][11] South Africa,[12] Australia,[13] Sweden,[14] New Zealand,[15][16] Portugal[17] and Spain;[18] ,[19][20][21][22] and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion.[23] In other countries, notably Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Scientology does not have comparable religious status.
I want to know how they achieved this. Other nouveau religions--e.g. the Boo Hoos--have not had any success in getting the courts to recognize them. What makes Scientology different? Money, perhaps? If I were king I would strip tax exemption from religious institutions wholesale. What a scam that we all foot the bill for.
If anyones interested in the history of that battle: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/nytimes.html
Thanks. This is an awesome read. I had a suspicion that extortion was probably at least a component. I love this: "This is a church organization that has been subjected to more harassment and more attacks certainly than any religion in this century and probably any religion ever, and they have had to perhaps take unusual steps in order to survive," Ms. Yingling said
Perhaps she's never heard of the Jews.
After some thought on the possible consequences of relating my Scientology experiences I think I'll pass. There is more then enough information on Hubski when combined with the information they already have and the fact that they reached out to me in the past year to make me leery of giving my honest opinion on my experience, I don't want my family targeted for harassment. I will say that I am not anti-Scientology. I think that if someones life is going in the wrong direction they might be better off finding Hubbard then Jesus. That being said the whole thing is a mishmash of pseudo science and mysticism that largely makes no sense. There are some good things to be gleaned from it, but nothing that you can't find elsewhere if you are willing to put in a bit of work.