Leah Remini and her Troublemakers, Part 19

Posted on August 13, 2017 by Mark C. Rathbun | 25 Comments

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Alex Gibney, Backpage Tony, Leah Remini, mike rinder, The Scientology Aftermath, Tony Orrtega. Bookmark the permalink.

25 responses to “Leah Remini and her Troublemakers, Part 19”

georgemwhite | August 13, 2017 at 11:16 am |

I really love this video! As a former devout Catholic, I truly understand Leah Remini’s struggle. In 1989, after Scientology, and after I realized what Hubbard put me through with his forbidden books, I did similar rituals even more extreme. For example, I went to Confession, read Saint Augustine’s City of God more than 3 times, adopted Saint Francis of Assisi, chanted his “Ode to the Sun” hundreds of times. We also visited Nuns in Nunneries and asked for prayers. I dug out my pictures of Sister Polycarpa and reviewed her exorcism instructions. etc, etc. I lit dozens of candles in dozens of old church’s. I read the lives of the saints etc, etc. Boy did I feel great!
chuckbeatty77 | August 13, 2017 at 12:32 pm |

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatta Somehow I bumped into the “non-self” Anatta idea from following down one of your comments George, thankyou.
The Oracle | August 13, 2017 at 1:56 pm |

Repelled that Leah Remini is pretending to be a religious Catholic. She is not. That she is dragging the Catholic Church into the theater as some kind of ally is pure illusion. Bearing false witness all the way into St. Patrick’s Cathedral for ratings is seedy. The distance between herself and the golden rule is glaring enough for Ray Charles to notice.

She has become a Sante Kimes figure. Easily exorcized from heart and mind with a button on the remote though. So are Tony Ortega and anyone else manifesting as “social media”. After all, she has been cast under A and E, (Arts and Entertainment). It’s all theater.

Thank you, Marty, for taking the time to fill in all of these details and missing information.

Recommending a good book. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

“I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us – then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.

The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
The Oracle | August 13, 2017 at 3:49 pm |

You are very talented at making good memories. 🙂
nojokin8 | August 13, 2017 at 5:03 pm |

And so? And so , once again, we get to watch actors on a stage with a typical fan club accompanying the play(s). So what? This is like a mini version of the same junk governments do to the idiots living under them.

IMO, the pedophile crimes in the Catholic Church were no more magnitude in importance than the the COS using “salvation” or “rehabilitation” of a Thetan card on the masses who poured into that Church. Outside of the fact that pedophilia was in smaller numbers along with rape as concerns the COS, still, no differently than the Catholics, the little people/members BELIEVED THEY WERE BEING SAVED. And they were all lied to. You’re right Marty. Same ole, same ole story. Getting old. IS old.
Right now, all around the world we have a larger stage set up with more fanatical characters than Leah or Rinder or even you, or Ortega, or EVEN THE GREAT LITTLE DM.
And the minions running around desperately attempting to keep from screaming with their eyes rolling back like the “snowflakes” acts, are in full season.
Leah and Rinder are obviously getting something out of this? $$$$$ ?
It’s usually always got something to do with money, if there is no Power/Control in the picture.
I stopped keeping track of the critics because I have my own thoughts and they didn’t like them . Didn’t match. No prob to me, but it was a prob for them.
I watched a couple of Leah’s shows. Yawned and went back to the World Stage instead since that is the one that is really going to be the kicker.
Best of luck to everyone. That’s my stance on all this COS junk going on.
I wonder how many people really are following anything about the COS. Even the politicians that DM managed to give donations to don’t touch the subject or ask for investigation.
People should be asking and checking into that if they want to get any action!
marildi | August 13, 2017 at 8:49 pm |

This part of the Carl Sagan quote is especially fitting:

“…when fanaticism is bubbling up around us – then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.”
georgemwhite | August 13, 2017 at 10:42 pm |

You are welcome, Chuck..
georgemwhite | August 13, 2017 at 10:44 pm |

Thanks, Oracle. City of God by Saint Augustine is a massive work. To this day, I don’t know why I picked it up and started reading. It was my first bridge out of Scientology.
Marcel Wenger | August 14, 2017 at 4:50 am |

George, I did OT VIII in 1989, too. IMHO here is what happened:
We were given enough tech and wins to keep us on the garden path leading to the various registrars. This does not mean that the bridge does not exist, quite to the contrary, it exists so much so, that the powers that be figured they better step in and close the thing down. They did a good
job as evidenced by good people like you and Leah winding up lighting candles…
georgemwhite | August 14, 2017 at 8:35 am |

Hi Marcel!
Great to hear from someone who did OT VIII in 1989!
I have faith in candle lighting. It evokes a lot of reverence. I have a picture of all of the people from the July, 1988 class on the Freewinds. If you are in it, I will share it with you. I have been reluctant to display the picture to keep privacy.
Richard | August 14, 2017 at 9:36 am |

It seems that Leah reverted to mysticism for real or for show.

George – Also after scn I once had a mystical experience which I might describe as The Presence of the Holy Spirit. That Presence was with me for two days before gradually receding. I’m sure the nuns you consulted with would have been happy to discuss that with me – laughter

mysticism – 1) the doctrine or beliefs of mystics; specifically, the doctrine that it is possible to achieve communion with God through contemplation
2) any doctrine that asserts the possibility of attaining an intuitive knowledge of truths through meditation – (substitute auditing for meditation in this definition and that might be the assertion of Mr. Hubbard)
3) vague, obscure, or confused thinking or belief

It seems that anyone can take their pick at how they view mysticism.
Nickname | August 14, 2017 at 2:25 pm |

Most people relate to the world through what might be called circuits. Established patterns, such as language learned, body type, and culture. A thetan is perfectly capable of operating without that, based on experience, but somehow he gets wrapped up in the present lifetime.
remoteviewed | August 14, 2017 at 2:57 pm |

Government investigations of Scientology are usually a joke. More of a side show than anything else like for example the Anderson Report.

If anyone thinks that they’d be effective in any way based on all the disinformation swirling around the issue generated by shows like Aftermath.

Fortunately we have a First Amendment in this country that precludes Government meddling in one’s religious beliefs or lack of them.
remoteviewed | August 14, 2017 at 3:05 pm |

IMHO when CIA found out that the OT Levels tended to give actual OT or Psychic ability as proven statistically by their Remote Viewing program they began an operation to thoroughly discredit Scientology by altering the Technology within the Organization itself and through cut outs funding people like Ortega, Remini ,Rinder et al to discredit it from the outside.

In other news. Isn’t it funny how many whacky tin foil hatted KoRNsPiRaCies turn out to be true?
remoteviewed | August 14, 2017 at 5:27 pm |

I guess they could if they didn’t really understand the basic meaning of the word and its entomology:

Mysticism, the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them.

The term mystic is derived from the Greek noun mystes, which originally designated an initiate of a secret cult or mystery religion. In Classical Greece (5th–4th century bce) and during the Hellenistic Age (323 bce–330 ce), the rites of the mystery religions were largely or wholly secret. The term mystes is itself derived from the verb myein (“to close,” especially the eyes or mouth) and signified a person who kept a secret. Early Christianity appropriated the technical vocabulary of the Hellenistic mysteries but later disavowed secrecy, resulting in a transformation of the meaning of mystes. In subsequent Christian usage, mystes, or mystic, referred to practitioners of doctrinally acceptable forms of religious ecstasy.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/mysticism

Personally I don’t see how anybody would confuse Scientology with Mysticism since it doesn’t follow your three conditions:

1) the doctrine or beliefs of mystics; specifically, the doctrine that it is possible to achieve communion with God through contemplation
2) any doctrine that asserts the possibility of attaining an intuitive knowledge of truths through meditation – (substitute auditing for meditation in this definition and that might be the assertion of Mr. Hubbard)
3) vague, obscure, or confused thinking or belief.

The first point is that Hubbard pretty much avoided what he called the 8th Dynamic and is the reason why he claimed that Scientology was non-denominational.

In two he never says that the thetan or spirit had “an intuitive knowledge” which is why he urges Scientologists to get trained and study what he calls the Applied Philosophy of Scientology.

Also Scientology auditing and meditation are two different things. Scientology and its forerunner Dianetics actually compare more to psychoanalysis or the ‘talking cure” than it does to meditation especially at its lower levels.

Finally the tenants of Scientology are not “vague” or “obscure” and any “confused thinking or belief” is usually rectified by clearing words on the subject itself or any allied subject that one might have confused with Scientology like…say…mysticism.

Personally I find it ironic that on one hand critics attack the subject as being “authoritarian” on one hand and then vague obscure and confusing on the other.

In my opinion it is neither since it clearly states and restates its basic tenets and it also allows one to make up one’s own mind about its workability by allowing one to test it for themselves.
marildi | August 14, 2017 at 7:07 pm |

“…A thetan is perfectly capable of operating without that, based on experience, but somehow he gets wrapped up in the present lifetime.”

Well, Nickname, I like the schools of thought that sum it up as indoctrination – by the home, one’s education, and general culture – thus forming an “ego identity.” This is not an actual identity but a total fabrication. Most of these schools of thought, from what I’ve gathered, do not consider that there is a thetan/soul – rather, a Oneness of consciousness/spirit/theta as the ultimate reality. “Oneness” is the philosophy of nonduality, as you may know.

Either way, soul or no-soul, I think the nonduality teachings would agree with what you say about the capability of operating without indoctrinated circuits or established patterns. However, depending on what you mean by operating “based on experience,” they may or may not agree – i.e. is it the experience of the thetan or of theta (putting it in Scn terms)? In other words, per my understanding and interpretation, the ultimate way of operating is on intuition/knowingness – that is, operating at the top of the Know to Mystery Scale, at Know.
Nickname | August 15, 2017 at 2:34 am |

One explanation I prefer is that the horrors of the past restimulate. But those can be erased. The thing really does spiral downwards, and anyone who has ever experienced pure panic, has had a taste of it: nothing makes sense, nothing is as it seems, the veil of sweetness is torn from the universe, and there it is in all it’s dispassionate iciness: ISNESS.

It gets worse, philosophically, trying to trace down insidious arguments and arrive at unshakable conclusions regarding existence, trying to “prove right and wrong”. You can end up wondering if God is a sadist who left us in an inescapable trap, to have less and less pleasure, more and more pain, drifting towards evil, fewer and fewer accomplishments, more and more failures, until we are left with nothing more than helpless and very intense hatred, feeding on itself, one for another, self for self.

AS-IS-NESS is the solution. Emotion is created by the being. Try it. You can decide to feel cheerful, just as you can decide to feel sad. Loss is created by the being: look at a drop of water from a faucet, and realize that you will never again in all of eternity see that drop of water ever again (that’s a really good restimulative process, thinking of everything as a loss (lol) the aberrative effect of time). Assignation of meaning and importance is created. I have a pencil I used in grammar school – it is important to me. In the vastness of Creation, which we neither comprehend nor know how to navigate, I assign importance to myself … but is that really a truth?

A being’s importance is indeed truth. And understanding is, just as Hubbard said, the only real wealth. Understanding results in as-is-ness – which results in a “nothing” that is a clarity. And that, is a good feeling. Maybe an ideal state is having nothing, having the ability to create anything and everything.

God did allow a capacity to understand. And apparently, if we want a better life, understanding is the way to achieve that. “The Factors” is so the greatest piece of writing! Is there another God? Is “our” God a “child” of an even greater God? How is it that we are capable of affinity and reality and communication? Is there anything else we might be capable of? Something we do not know of? Are we to evolve to a level of God, and understand God? As in the conclusion of The Factors … “And above these things there might be speculation only.”
Richard | August 15, 2017 at 11:11 am |

Hi marildi – Without being facetious to your comment, if I may, I feel like being a bit silly. I’ve mentioned before that I once or twice touched upon that Oneness concept. All identity or concept of self becomes totally irrelevant and I simply return into the all that is when I croak. Easy to say but not easy to do, staying in that frame of mind. I guess it takes work and I’m rather lazy right now. Maybe I’ll get re-energized “later.”

I think the Buddhists suggest that when and if we return we arrive in generally the same condition as when we left. I’ll go with that for now.
marildi | August 16, 2017 at 2:03 am |

That’s a beautifully written post, Nickname. You wrote:

“It gets worse, philosophically, trying to trace down insidious arguments and arrive at unshakable conclusions regarding existence, trying to ‘prove right and wrong’. You can end up wondering if God is a sadist who left us in an inescapable trap, to have less and less pleasure, more and more pain, drifting towards evil, fewer and fewer accomplishments, more and more failures, until we are left with nothing more than helpless and very intense hatred, feeding on itself, one for another, self for self.”

From my understanding, what you say in the above is basically what ancient teachings have also said, and now many modern ones as well. Their most fundamental principle is that the world of right and wrong, pain and pleasure, good and evil, etc. is an illusory world – a dream. In the dream, polarities never cease and thus suffering never ceases, as existence is based on competition, fear and greed. And the only way out is to see through the illusion and wake up from the dream.

In essence, all suffering in life – whether sourced in the past (which would even include implants!) or the present – is built in to a view of existence that consists of polarities. And it’s the polarities that have created the loss of intimate connection with one another and with all of life – since this is what separates “me” and “you”. It’s what “tears the veil of sweetness from the universe” (to use your poetic phrase) and causes us, deep down, to yearn for that connection.

It seems to me that there is truth in the above, and that auditing can be a giant stepping stone towards the goal of Awakening as it clears away much of the illusion.

Thanks for your thoughtful post!
marildi | August 16, 2017 at 2:15 am |

Hi, Richard. Not silly at all. What you wrote was expressed very well. And I really enjoyed reading it. I had it in mind when I wrote a reply just now to Nickname. Check it out.

You also made me think of Adyashanti’s book “Falling into Grace,” which I’m currently reading. I’m pretty sure you would like it a lot. And we can compare notes like old times. 🙂
Richard | August 16, 2017 at 1:05 pm |

remoteviewed – Thank you for the clarification. It was apparent to me from the three separate definitions that interpretations or translations of the word have changed over time.

Neuroscience attempts to place or define all mystical experience as a biochemical reaction in the brain. I’ve read that some neuroscientists are attempting to isolate the part or the brain which “creates” transcendental experiences.

Objectivists and Realists say no scientific proof or measurement is possible so transcendental/peak/samadhi experience is imaginative.

The jury is still out – laughter

Regardless of how it’s defined, anti-scn blogs tend to negate anything extraordinary attained or experienced in scn. At least that’s my perception.
Richard | August 16, 2017 at 1:44 pm |

I just read your reply to nickname. There’s plenty to think about in that conversation. Operating in the condition of Know/Awakened/Enlightened is taking a really big bite from the sandwich. I might choke.

I’ll look into Adya’s book which sounds interesting or at least get back into some more nondualism exploration. I’ve been taking a break.

I’d agree that suspending rock hard reality as occurs in auditing can open the mental door to other creative insights. 🙂
marildi | August 17, 2017 at 3:42 pm |

What’s intriguing about nonduality is that so many masters (and others) throughout history have apparently experienced it directly. Granting the truth in it, there’s no reason, in my book, why individual spiritual entities couldn’t exist, just as denser, physical life-forms exist – and there seems to be a lot of evidence for it besides subjective. Even George, coming from the Theravada tradition of “no-soul,” said one time that the soul isn’t permanent – but almost.

I hope you do read Adya’s book – and get back to me. 🙂
Richard | August 20, 2017 at 9:52 am |

I just came came back and read this quote from Sagan’s book. It’s just more pontificating on how dumb “everyone else” is. Too bad he passed away before he explained his methodology for reaching his scientific and elite level of understanding so “the world” can become smart, which of course he never did, just dumped the problem on the reader.

The dumbest person in the world is going to look over his shoulder and find someone he thinks is dumber. Waste of time focusing on this.
remoteviewed | August 21, 2017 at 3:15 pm |

Very well stated and very true!