Chapter 2 Scientology - the Aftermath, review, 4 out of 10 points. (for trying)
- Me
- 22 jan. 2017
- 9 min läsning
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, a tv-program that has been on the american channel A&E this autumn/winter. If you're not living in America, you can watch them here: 123movies.net. (Or elsewhere, just google the title and "watch series online" and you'll find a lot of suggestions.)
I want to start this review with just a little breakdown on how cults work.
- It's in three categories. If you dont' want to read the long part below, you can just get the three words: 1 The Leaders, 2 Hardcore Followers (Sea-Org members) and 3, Parishioners. For more information about the three categories, read more under the review.
I go straight to the tv-show now.
Leah Remini has been a parishioner at Scientology since she was very young. She was 9 years old when her mother joined forces. Leah tried out the Sea-Org for a few years in her youth. She was not into it, but instead she knew she wanted to act and eventually, after a lot of hard work, being on various shows and pilots, she became the star for the sitcom The King of Queen.
She kept being a devout parishioner of the church, and seeing as this is Scientology, nothing is "normal". In order to stay on, she had to devote every evening, Monday to Sunday, every month, every year. She'd go to the church and did her work in order to climb up the bridge. (The secretive religious part of the cult) She paid enormous fees in order to get to do the courses and for the material (books etc). She went to every gala and party that the church organised. She was doing her duty to spread the words and to have others join up. She also went through thousands of hours doing the thing that Scientology has named "auditing". Auditing is the Scientologies way of getting rid of all of the past grieviences. And once you've made sure to take care of this lives problems, you go on to the life before, and so on and so forth. It's a never ending "therapy".
So, the show.
It starts off with Leah Remini sitting on a chair in what looks like an empty hall. She is telling the viewers her story, and how hard it has been to leave, and how much she needs to do this show. She stumbles on that she has also written a book of her life, "Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology". The book tells her personal experiences with the organisation. If you have read the book, you'll know what she will be talking about in the TV-program. But if you haven't read her book, or read any book about Scientology, or one of the other million books about it, or the interviews of old members, or documentaries such as "Going Clear" (it's on Netflix). Well, then this TV-show is for you!
She is working very close to the ex- hardcore member, Mike Rinder. He is with her all through the journey in this tale.
Remini speaks about the phenomena of disconnection and how it stopped her from leaving the Scientology movement for many years. Her whole family was in there, and all her friends, and all that she believed in. She was one of the lucky ones, because when she finally left the church, her family came along with her. That's very unusual. She says that if she can help only one person to leave, then all has been worth it.
We then move on to meet people who have been members and who has their stories to tell. It's a beautiful thing; to get these people to speak out against the church, even though they know that there will be consequences from doing so. Scientology has in their rule-book something called "fair game" which means that anyone who publicaly speak about the organisation in a bad manner, is a free-for-all dish to do anything, whatever and all bad things to. In the show we get to hear about what they've done to Remini and to Rinder. It's horrifying stuff, like telling all the neighborhod that this one or that one person is a well known pedophile. Or to have cameras fitted in your house and outside your house. And much more.
So it is a brave thing to speak out, and the people who are being heard, are amazing.
I would had liked the interviews to be much deeper. I would had liked to hear from more normal Sea-org members. I would have liked to hear from people who were brought up into the organisation. I would have liked to hear more about the things they just brush past, like something they call "the hole" - a place that they send people who have been naughty. Or not. But still being sent.
There is whole lot of things that they could do with this show. But as it is, we get a LOT of shots of Remini and Rinder sitting in the car, going someplace, talking about how drinking water makes you want to pee. It is clear that the program likes to create some sort of comradery between them two, and they'll speak in the car about stuff that they both already know, but have to pretend to be surprised about. Like private investigators following them around. They already know that this is happening, will be happening and has been happening. And yet Remini is completely ignorant of this. It's very unbelievable.
The same thing happens during the interviews, when Remini constantly act surprised. Now, she is an actress, but this show would be so much better if she wasn't acting all the time in it.
Actually, it makes me very bored with her, and that makes the information we get also seem sometimes untrue, (even though I know that it is the truth) . But it makes no sense to me, why she is so uniongenius.
I truly had such high hopes for this serie but they're all smashed by the ill-informed, unoriginal ideas.
In the end I simply couldn't stand Remini doing another shot of her face, talking about the same thing over and over and over again. Yes, we know that they're the bad wolf in sheep clothing. If we're watching this show, we know. So why, oh why, did they make this show so repetitive and dull?
It's not new in any way, it's the same we get from everything that is already out there. But often presented in a better format, without having surprised head-shots of an actress, who is beautiful and probably very well-meaning, but doesn't seem to have made her home-work before starting up this program.
I have no doubt in my mind or heart that Remini has had a hell of an awakening, and a horrible time realising that all she has believed in all her life is a lie. But that doesn't mean that she has to force-feed that information to us in every episode, every step of the way. Yes, we get it Leah! We really do!!
If you really want to know stuff about Scientology, I would suggest a few other documentaries, books and interviews. Some of them are old(er) but everything in Scientology stays the same.
Books:
Documentaries:
Interviews:
Okay, I give this show a 4 out of 10, for at least trying to do something important.
-----Warning--- This will also feature in my new "book" about cults.
1. The leaders.
The know-it-all. The one who gets the money and the power. This person or persons are often the starters of the cult, but not always. They can have been appointed leader, or they can have taken the position him/herself. (like David Miscavige in Scientology). They can be the ones who first come up with the way of releasing the world from pain (Going Clear in Scientology) or do something really good in the world. More often than not, a cult leader doesn't decide one day that he will make a cult for himself (or herself) but they do want to create a group around them and their ideas. The cult leaders are often very charismatic, well spoken, good looking individuals. In Scientology the first and foremost leader is L.Ron Hubbard. He was a well known author of science fiction. In his books of fiction, you can find some of the details of which he built the "religious and most secretively" part of Scientology.
2. The hard-core followers. (Sea-Org-Members)
These are people who truly believe the message of the organisation. They will devote their lives to the cult. I am not talking about giving money, or going to church each Sunday. No, these people are the clergy of the place. They will eat, sleep, work, love and fear, all within the premises of the organisation. Within Scientology they are named "Sea-Org members, due to the beginning of the cult and how they lived on ships. They will not be able to do anything without permission from the leaders, or the leaders most trusted persons. To say that these people are prisoners of their own doing, is actually quite right. In Scientology the belief is that they're going to help the world, by the technology that the leaders have created. Everybody will be "clear" of their human selves, or at least the part of humans who reacts and acts in a bad way. Free from bad feelings, bad ideas, sickness, psychological illnesses, drugs and alcohol. It's really a nice notion, isn't it? The feeling you have to create for the individuals is a sense of inclusiveness, and also equally important, of exclusion. It's a us versus them theme that make the people stick to the doctrine, even when they're sometimes skeptical of the idea, leadership, work-hours etc. A brilliant way of making people stick to the cause is by not letting people get too close to each other. So the constant moving round of parents/child, or partners, or friends, so that you'll never be really certain that there is someone there for you. Make sure that the ones who should be close to you, who you should be able to trust are either far away from you, or made to snitch on you, if you should utter a word of criticism or lack of interest/energy of doing what you've been told to do. In Scientology you sign a billion year contract so that you'll stay for every one of your life-times.
This is the group that every cult need, or it will not work. They do everything, from the menial tasks to working with the leaders on projects et al. Another thing to add is that the Sea-org-members usually stop taking the courses, and they'll have a very hard time to moving up the bridge, to get to the religious parts of the church.
3. Parishioners
These are the people who will attend the things they find interesting, normally you could equal them with the church-goers at any religious institution. Sunday service, or the book-club on Tuesdays, or the bake-sales for charity or for a new church organ. These are the people who pay for it all.
But - within a cult, these parishioners are like a normal persons on speed. They will be forced to constantly buy the new book, the new course, the tickets to the big functions created by the leaders, through the hard-core followers, and "enjoyed" by the largest group there is, the parishioners.
Within the church of Scientology, the parishioners will be forced to follow "course" - move up the bridge. Moving up the bridge is the very way Scientology works. There are thousands of steps in order to get to the highest part of the bridge, and it will cost everything you ever earn, it will be paid by loans and credits, and if you're into it, you'll be sure to bring in your mother, father, sister, friends. Once everyone you know is in the organsation, you'll have a real hard time leaving it, because if you do, you'll lose the ones who you're leaving behind. The chances are that you'll be "disconnected" by them, as the church is very clear on that the ones outside the church are enemies.
One of the things that is so fascinating with Scientology is that the religious part is hidden from most people until they've hit the highest part of the bridge. So they have to believe in other things than that inner sanctum, that we're used to see, in form of Jesus, God, Mohammed, Siddhartha. What brings the Scientologist together is only the idea of saving the planet, not to worship a higher being. But really, if you've reached the highest level of the bridge, you've spent all your time for twenty years, and all your money forever, you'll be in debt no doubt, and you'll be ruined if you don't stay in the church. And you've been given the biggest secrets of your religion. And no matter how weird and strange the secrets seem, you need to hold on to them and keep a front of importance, because if you don't, you'll be a laughingstock no doubt. So you go on.
(I realise that this was a bit much information for a review.)
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