The Master

[Commander Birdsong]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

I am SURE that, since Friday and Saturday are movie nights for Flag staff, and Friday for public who skip out on going to graduation.... that all have or will be briefed NOT to go see this movie. Any who do will have ethics chits and have to see the MAA as there WILL be spais!! I love freedom of speech and of the press. It's not for scientologists, though. Someone should tell them!

our mother said not to put beans in our ears, beans in our ears, beans in our ears...

many people on this board have friends who are still active. can anyone give us any word from inside?

when i was on staff at fcdc the movie "the exorcist" was declared suppressive but i doubt CoS would dare to do that. in fact i'm sure publics are going to see it in what might no longer be droves

 

[Jquepublic]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

our mother said not to put beans in our ears, beans in our ears, beans in our ears...

many people on this board have friends who are still active. can anyone give us any word from inside?

when i was on staff at fcdc the movie "the exorcist" was declared suppressive but i doubt CoS would dare to do that. in fact i'm sure publics are going to see it in what might no longer be droves

The Exorcist?! Wowza, now I have to watch it all over again to figure out why.

 

[NoName]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

many people on this board have friends who are still active. can anyone give us any word from inside?

I can tell you that I've noticed that communication among the still-in is getting to be very secretive and untraceable. I find that fascinating, personally. It makes me feel even more strongly that the few remaining believers are planning something big.

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

The Exorcist?! Wowza, now I have to watch it all over again to figure out why.

It was "suppressive" because it violated scripture that speaks about the High Crime of exorcising beings without a paid invoice.

 

[Div6]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

The Exorcist?! Wowza, now I have to watch it all over again to figure out why.

No you don't. It was deemed "overly re-stimulative". As was Kubricks "2001: A Space Odyssey". And others. Hollywood was thriving on creating that kind of effect (and still does). Not just Hollywood, writers often aimed for being "banned in Boston (getting on the Catholic Church's list) as it increased sales, and the controversy was free PR. Twain, Joyce, Vonnegut et al have all commented about this...

You can watch it again if you want...some see parallels between the subject of exorcism, demonic posession, and the subject matter of the OT levels. I guess it depends on your point of view and orientation.

 

[Jquepublic]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

It was "suppressive" because it violated scripture that speaks about the High Crime of exorcising beings without a paid invoice.

You have been cracking me up lately! I don't think you've changed so it must be me. I think my sense of humor finally grew back.

 

[Jquepublic]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

No you don't. It was deemed "overly re-stimulative". As was Kubricks "2001: A Space Odyssey". And others. Hollywood was thriving on creating that kind of effect (and still does). Not just Hollywood, writers often aimed for being "banned in Boston (getting on the Catholic Church's list) as it increased sales, and the controversy was free PR. Twain, Joyce, Vonnegut et al have all commented about this...

You can watch it again if you want...some see parallels between the subject of exorcism, demonic posession, and the subject matter of the OT levels. I guess it depends on your point of view and orientation.

Thank you for saving me two hours this weekend! It was scary in its time but by today's horror standards, it's a pretty cheesy film.

 

[Commander Birdsong]

Re: Philip Seymour Hoffman Movie "The Master" - 1950s New Religious Movement

The Exorcist?! Wowza, now I have to watch it all over again to figure out why.

it was a local declare, not CoS

it happened because several staff members were shaken not stirred by it

 

[Commander Birdsong]

So true!

But, isn't it the personal assault that ultimately triggers true believers to finally exit culthood?

If, for example, Marty Rathbun had, rather than being very personally and psychologically assaulted, instead been feted at an international award ceremony with a gold medallion given an appropriate hagiographical designation, would he not have remained in the cult to this very day?

The "winning" dowager who blew her somatic was incited to litigate against her guru because of his abominable behavior which affected her personally. Maybe that is the key to how the cult works--it continues in perpetuity for every individual up until the exact point that the "tech's" cruelty is pointed in their direction.

I am left believing that if the "miracles" were really true, even personal assaults would not prompt cult members to ever depart. Thus, I think every devotee's departure is, given enough time, inevitable.

i don't know marty and while he is free to speak for himself i'm not sure he knows what he's saying when he does

i do know a little about film and literature and The Conversation as it is called and various protocols and i am confident of my analysis of this very tightly structured passage in the film and in my reading of several very clear statements made by our auteur. this is where he makes his clearest most direct statements.

then you have for instance...

 

[Commander Birdsong]

...the scene where freddie goes off to a movie and the shot is him in the seat with no one seated near and we hear the soundtrack of a casper cartoon.

the director is plainly saying something, but what?

then other scenes are very enigmatic

but

dowager's salon to coutroom MUCH and MANY clear simple and varied statements

 

[Commander Birdsong]

so much to say, so little time

monday is a holiday so i can't get into the library again until tuesday

well i submit to you all that anderson makes his Bottom Line statement about L. Ron Hubbard in one particular camera shot in the dowager's salon to philadelphia courtroom sequence

anyone care to speculate on what that shot might be?

 

[SweetnessandLight]

Oooooh, I still haven't seen it, but I will soon.

All these comments are intriguing me!

I will pay attention, Birdy!

 

[Mimsey Borogrove]

Oooooh, I still haven't seen it, but I will soon.

All these comments are intriguing me!

I will pay attention, Birdy!

I liked it and, though it wasn't what I expected, it is a good flick. Great acting throughout, though Jaoquin getting his jollies with a girl made of sand was a bit, oh, scenery [STRIKE]screwing[/STRIKE] chewing? Please post your review when you do. Mimsey

 

[Commander Birdsong]

I liked it and, though it wasn't what I expected, it is a good flick. Great acting throughout, though Jaoquin getting his jollies with a girl made of sand was a bit, oh, scenery [STRIKE]screwing[/STRIKE] chewing? Please post your review when you do. Mimsey

a scene from the opening repeated at the end

a familiar literary convention which was quite strong in the thirties and forties which held that a work should end where it begins. "for whom the bell tolls" is a good example with the protagonist lying on pine needles a it opens and closes

 

[Commander Birdsong]

Oooooh, I still haven't seen it, but I will soon.

All these comments are intriguing me!

I will pay attention, Birdy!

yes do see it

and everyone who has seen it should see it again

once just to see a flick. another time to study it.

this is very very much a film to study. i think it will be considered a seminal work even by those who have little interest in scientology and we are "concerned parties" and there is very sharp discussion of the man and his work

and the core of this dialogue is the passage from dowager's salon to philly courtroom which is perhaps intuitively but almost certainly knowingly and deliberately a corrida; a bullfight, with morse as picador sticking the whatchamacallits (what are those things called?) into "the guest of honor" the bull, our beloved lancaster/laffayette, and the judge as matador going in over the horns (quell) for "the moment of truth"

 

[SweetnessandLight]

Good analogy Birdy, even though I haven't seen it yet!

I think you are thinking of the banderillas, dowels with sharp picks on the tip which are stabbed into the bull's body around his shoulders. They usually have colored ribbons wrapped around them, and flutter and flap around the bulls ears and just behind his head, further freaking him out and inducing him to fight.

Unless you're thinking of the picador who stabs his neck between the shoulders with a spear or lance, to enrage him, weaken or sever his neck muscles making him lower his head and less able to toss it around and gore the Matador with his horns.

Brutal business, isn't it?

Everybody focuses on the Matador, but it's really a team effort, just like COS administration... It's not just one man that is keeping that Cult going...

I hope to go see the film this week. I like it already just from all the comments!!! Big screen, like in the good old days of cinema.

 

[pineapple]

...the scene where freddie goes off to a movie and the shot is him in the seat with no one seated near and we hear the soundtrack of a casper cartoon.

the director is plainly saying something, but what?
<snip>

Well, just free-associating ...

Casper = ghost = thetan ... = bt's(?)

We hear the phrase "the captain never leaves the ship."

Captain/ship = the Commodore, the Sea Org

We hear the phrase "X marks the spot."

Suggests buried treasure, Hubbard's "Mission into Time"

X = first letter of "Xenu"

That's what came to my mind.

 

[pineapple]

When Dodd speaks to Freddie over the phone in the movie theater scene he says "Who got to you?" It reminded me of this, from Richard de Mille's interview for Bare-Faced Messiah: "So I became somewhat critical and Hubbard called me and said, 'I miss you. Why don't you come back.' I expressed scepticism and he said, 'Who's gotten to you Dick?'"
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/miller/interviews/demille.htm

 

[Mimsey Borogrove]

A very common train of thought for the true believers - who got to you? I had it when the AAC ( or whatever it was called - Mayo's group ) started sucking off Scino's - the enemy got them. Was Richard anything like Quell?

Mimsey

 

[Gadfly]

A very common train of thought for the true believers - who got to you? I had it when the AAC ( or whatever it was called - Mayo's group ) started sucking off Scino's - the enemy got them. Was Richard anything like Quell?

Mimsey

Yeah, the whole "enemy line" thing is drilled into their heads.

I had quite a few experiences where I found myself either with some OSA executive or on an e-meter being asked:

Who told you that?

Where did you hear that from?

When did you first get that idea?

The attitude is that you must have been infected or infiltrated in some way to sway from the dogmatic path of standard Scientology. It never occurs to them, because it isn't accepted as a possibility, that you can just, all on your own, decide that something really sucks about Hubbard or Scientology. That option doesn't exist in their "blueprint of reality".

To them, there MUST be a "third party". Otherwise you would love Scientology & Ron forever! Ron says so!