Mike O'Connor

""The religion angle" also solved his problem with making medical claims. There were large lawsuits about that. Claims to cure things like cancer, blindness, deafness, and the common cold are in his "sacred scriptures" as Scientology call his writings. He was sued big time over this. The religion angle fixed it, because although you can not claim to cure disease using a device such as his "E-Meter". claims about miraculous healing are ok. The man was a genius and created the most successful scam of all time. E-Meters, now called "religious artifacts" still sell for thousands of dollars to followers, but every single one has a court ordered sticker saying the device by itself "does nothing". Whatta deal!" - Mike O'Connor

"Smart people get sucked into this scam because it is very, very finely honed and thought out. Things are revealed on what is called "the gradient". The very beginning concept is some fairly interesting pop psychology about things in your past affecting things in your present, combined with basic courses on things like effective communication. Only much later are you introduced to the fact that your past includes past lives, and the space alien thing takes years to reveal. By that time you are so far in and deeply committed, not to mention you have confessed everything you've ever done to these guys, that is beyond embarrassing to quit now. Most people go until they realize it's a scam, others go farther and manage to pull out despite the fear of losing their eternity, a few get too deep to leave. It's all fine with the Scientology organization. They have a no refund policy. And many people are hesitant to criticize something they were fooled about and spent thousands and thousands of..." - Mike O'Connor

"It was not introduced as a church. It's lowest concept of "engrams" was introduced as an interesting theory in one of the science fiction rags L. Ron Hubbard wrote for. Then it was a self-help book that made many medical claims. Then the book, and Dianetics courses he offered at very reasonable prices became his business. Only later did Hubbard hit on "the religion angle" as he called it, and even later, did he come up with his Xenu myth - people needed higher and higher level top secret concepts if he was going to charge them the big bucks. By hiding behind the First Amendment, he could avoid lots of criticism from people who didn't want to appear bigoted about a religion. And it made the whole scam tax free! And the courses, now called services, were still offered at very reasonable prices. What price eternity, after all? He gave fake collars to his course teachers, invented a cross symbol, and a catchy name that made it seem like a scientific religion. This is not a religion. It is..." - Mike O'Connor

"People need to understand that Scientology is not a religion. It is a straight out money scam. It only uses "the religion angle", to quote founder L. Ron Hubbard, because it is a near-perfect shield to hide the scam behind. He first tried to make it self-help, then medical, that got him in trouble, then hit the religion angle. Decades later, look how well that has worked - people are afraid to touch it, because they don't want to be anti religion and do want to be pro freedom. Hubbard was a genius to hide his money scam behind the cloak of religion. It's the most successful money scam of all time." - Mike O'Connor