When we heard, more than a week ago, that Tom Cruise would be rappelling into the Stade de France to take the Olympic flag on a (mostly pre-recorded) trip to Los Angeles, we raised a question here at the Underground Bunker: If by tradition the mayor of Paris (Anne Hidalgo) would hand over the flag to the mayor of LA (Karen Bass) for the 2028 games, would Cruise then have to receive it from Bass?
I had 52 years of being in Scientology. 46 years as a zealot and 6 years active and under the radar. I completed a major course while mentally out of the cult and feeding Tony and Mike inside information.
I’m hear to tell you that Tony’s quote from Yashir Ali, is absolutely correct:
“ What we know for sure, and as people like Leah Remini have talked about extensively, is that when a Scientologist is wavering in their commitment, it is images like this that keep them in.………..…..
Then they see Tom Cruise in such a position of great honor, and they just tell themselves they’re being crazy.
Why would Tom Cruise be involved in anything bad or criminal? Why would the Olympics place someone involved in something bad and criminal in such a place of great honor?”
I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. As a CELEBRITY MUSICIAN with more than 800 performances for Scientology and being the most effective composer for Scientology, having co-written the iconic music for the ubiquitous DIANETICS commercial, I have some first hand experience of the fact that it’s CELEBRITIES who helped get thousands into Scientology and keep them in.
It’s not the fear factor of leaving, it’s the endorphin rush of seeing Scientology celebrities at an event or in a hit TV show or movie. I saw it over and over again.
Tom Cruise’s is a vacuous stooge for Miscavige and his Karma will catch up with him and I hope it is soon.
Regarding TC: I found it amusing when reporting confirmed he came down with the theme from Mission Impossible playing. They have 4 years, but getting LA setup to host the Olympics is fairly an impossible mission itself.
Regarding ECT lawsuits: If only the medical world had their version of Trish Duggan who could 'invest' in those companies to keep them going. So much money and time spent by Scientology to attack psychiatry and psychology all because Hubbard got denied by the VA and decried by the AMA and APA and he's Source.
This is a triumph of dead Hubbard's, to have such a moment.
But, as humans get over such showmanship, and should any newbies fall for Tom's (Hubbard's) cult, they will be disappointed.
Movies in hindsight are better than the false memories and false imaginings you dream up doing the Scientology pseudo-therapy and exorcism quackery procedures.
Tom Cruise does what he does best. And Hubbard's cult continues doing what it does best, using people like Christmas bulb adornments for dead Hubbard's con.
I like how Tony uses the word adornment for Cruise re Scientology.
I hope Lawrence Wright gets a word in on this into the media.
Thanks Tony for this article. It's just so frustrating to stay on TC's good side that the media willfully turns a blind eye to his heavy and unwavering support of $cientology. I do wish that Mayor Bass doesn't escape some well deserved criticism for this. So many people were more deserving of this than TC, but the IOC only sees stars and dollar signs.
I’m not convinced ECT is the solution but given the choice between Scientology and ECT, I’d say ECT wins hands down in the chance it may help someone. If people were to take a hard look at the damage done to those trying to halt ECT, it may make them wonder why they are trying so hard.
I am glad I went to the river with the dog instead of watching the ceremony. I hope Karen Bass isn’t around to plan the opening ceremonies in 2028. She proved herself to be the sellout we all knew she was.
I recorded the closing ceremonies because I didn't want to sit through all of the commercials. I was engrossed in the Air Disaster shows on another cable channel. TC's leap of faith from the top of the stadium was somewhat 'cool', I get dizzy when looking at heights like that. I could never stand on the edge like that, but then I would not let myself be harnessed up like a Thanksgiving turkey either. Oh, and I have done sky diving in the past. That never bothered me.
Then TC rambled through a huge crowd who high fived him and smiled for the camera. That part of the show fairly disgusted me. TC got his as* kissed truly well by the camera. Then TC took the flag, stashed it on the back of a motorcycle and drove through the crowd and exited the stadium. Cut to canned footage (in these days of electronic storage of visual medium, why use the old film term 'footage'?, but I digress).
TC then rides to a C-130 and flies the flag to LA where he parachutes out and hands the flag to someone and then places the Olympic rings on the Hollywood sign. Holy world spanning As* kissing Batman. I have to think that TC paid a lot to the Olympic Committee to get that acting job. I can't think of any other reason why he would be 'knighted' and allowed to hog the camera as he did.
Tony, I take great exception to the phrase, "perhaps the single biggest reason that the ailing organization remains in business today: Scientology’s chief celebrity, Tom Cruise."
No, just no. TC may be the most visible Cleb in the $cienoverse these days, but increasingly restrictive contracts, the use 'arbitration' and the all too usual 'fair game' keep the minions in some sort of line. Add in all of the lawyers on Davy's payroll and a tax exemption and Whales who are very free with their money and the Clampire survives another day. But TC has had nothing very important to do with that.
I leave with one observation of TC's performance, his face looked very puffy on the stadium top and I kept getting chipmunk vibes from his smile. My smarmy meter exploded from all of the as* kissing.
I think Tony’s statement about Cruise is spot on. This stunt Cruise pulled off just gave all Scientologists in the world a massive shot of endorphins. And for a brief moment gave the cult a PR boost.
I can't honestly say that I'm for ECT. My aunt had it in the 60s and my one-and-only girlfriend in the 70s. The experience with those two was utterly disastrous but who's to say it was the treatment or the underlying disease?
My best friend in High School also had severe bipolar (as they call it these days) and ended up a suicide. Would ECT have saved his life? We went to see the play from Ken Kesey's book, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in San Francisco, so it is probably fair to say he might have refused ECT (I don't really know for sure).
When I was at the Int Base I played the part of a doctor applying ECT in a film (that was released but then redone). Of course, they used all the horror-show memes that were made famous by Ken Kesey.
Is today's ECT a kinder, gentler version? How does it really work? How does the brain really work? All unanswered questions now that Scientology's brutal certainty has been questioned in my mind. I do know that severe clinical depression is horrific enough to make the sufferer grasp for desperate measures. If you've never experienced it, or seen it in a loved one, you really have no idea.
I agree, I’m no fan of ECT. It’s different now and not a torture for the patient when applied.
I’m during some research on it. Here’s an interesting study. I’m still skeptical. There is so much more work to be done on handling depression and mental illness.
I had 52 years of being in Scientology. 46 years as a zealot and 6 years active and under the radar. I completed a major course while mentally out of the cult and feeding Tony and Mike inside information.
I’m hear to tell you that Tony’s quote from Yashir Ali, is absolutely correct:
“ What we know for sure, and as people like Leah Remini have talked about extensively, is that when a Scientologist is wavering in their commitment, it is images like this that keep them in.………..…..
Then they see Tom Cruise in such a position of great honor, and they just tell themselves they’re being crazy.
Why would Tom Cruise be involved in anything bad or criminal? Why would the Olympics place someone involved in something bad and criminal in such a place of great honor?”
I agree with that statement wholeheartedly. As a CELEBRITY MUSICIAN with more than 800 performances for Scientology and being the most effective composer for Scientology, having co-written the iconic music for the ubiquitous DIANETICS commercial, I have some first hand experience of the fact that it’s CELEBRITIES who helped get thousands into Scientology and keep them in.
It’s not the fear factor of leaving, it’s the endorphin rush of seeing Scientology celebrities at an event or in a hit TV show or movie. I saw it over and over again.
Tom Cruise’s is a vacuous stooge for Miscavige and his Karma will catch up with him and I hope it is soon.
Regarding TC: I found it amusing when reporting confirmed he came down with the theme from Mission Impossible playing. They have 4 years, but getting LA setup to host the Olympics is fairly an impossible mission itself.
Regarding ECT lawsuits: If only the medical world had their version of Trish Duggan who could 'invest' in those companies to keep them going. So much money and time spent by Scientology to attack psychiatry and psychology all because Hubbard got denied by the VA and decried by the AMA and APA and he's Source.
This is a triumph of dead Hubbard's, to have such a moment.
But, as humans get over such showmanship, and should any newbies fall for Tom's (Hubbard's) cult, they will be disappointed.
Movies in hindsight are better than the false memories and false imaginings you dream up doing the Scientology pseudo-therapy and exorcism quackery procedures.
Tom Cruise does what he does best. And Hubbard's cult continues doing what it does best, using people like Christmas bulb adornments for dead Hubbard's con.
I like how Tony uses the word adornment for Cruise re Scientology.
I hope Lawrence Wright gets a word in on this into the media.
Chuck, I agree. Cruise is a tool.
Thanks Tony for this article. It's just so frustrating to stay on TC's good side that the media willfully turns a blind eye to his heavy and unwavering support of $cientology. I do wish that Mayor Bass doesn't escape some well deserved criticism for this. So many people were more deserving of this than TC, but the IOC only sees stars and dollar signs.
I’m not convinced ECT is the solution but given the choice between Scientology and ECT, I’d say ECT wins hands down in the chance it may help someone. If people were to take a hard look at the damage done to those trying to halt ECT, it may make them wonder why they are trying so hard.
I am glad I went to the river with the dog instead of watching the ceremony. I hope Karen Bass isn’t around to plan the opening ceremonies in 2028. She proved herself to be the sellout we all knew she was.
I recorded the closing ceremonies because I didn't want to sit through all of the commercials. I was engrossed in the Air Disaster shows on another cable channel. TC's leap of faith from the top of the stadium was somewhat 'cool', I get dizzy when looking at heights like that. I could never stand on the edge like that, but then I would not let myself be harnessed up like a Thanksgiving turkey either. Oh, and I have done sky diving in the past. That never bothered me.
Then TC rambled through a huge crowd who high fived him and smiled for the camera. That part of the show fairly disgusted me. TC got his as* kissed truly well by the camera. Then TC took the flag, stashed it on the back of a motorcycle and drove through the crowd and exited the stadium. Cut to canned footage (in these days of electronic storage of visual medium, why use the old film term 'footage'?, but I digress).
TC then rides to a C-130 and flies the flag to LA where he parachutes out and hands the flag to someone and then places the Olympic rings on the Hollywood sign. Holy world spanning As* kissing Batman. I have to think that TC paid a lot to the Olympic Committee to get that acting job. I can't think of any other reason why he would be 'knighted' and allowed to hog the camera as he did.
Tony, I take great exception to the phrase, "perhaps the single biggest reason that the ailing organization remains in business today: Scientology’s chief celebrity, Tom Cruise."
No, just no. TC may be the most visible Cleb in the $cienoverse these days, but increasingly restrictive contracts, the use 'arbitration' and the all too usual 'fair game' keep the minions in some sort of line. Add in all of the lawyers on Davy's payroll and a tax exemption and Whales who are very free with their money and the Clampire survives another day. But TC has had nothing very important to do with that.
I leave with one observation of TC's performance, his face looked very puffy on the stadium top and I kept getting chipmunk vibes from his smile. My smarmy meter exploded from all of the as* kissing.
I think Tony’s statement about Cruise is spot on. This stunt Cruise pulled off just gave all Scientologists in the world a massive shot of endorphins. And for a brief moment gave the cult a PR boost.
I can't honestly say that I'm for ECT. My aunt had it in the 60s and my one-and-only girlfriend in the 70s. The experience with those two was utterly disastrous but who's to say it was the treatment or the underlying disease?
My best friend in High School also had severe bipolar (as they call it these days) and ended up a suicide. Would ECT have saved his life? We went to see the play from Ken Kesey's book, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in San Francisco, so it is probably fair to say he might have refused ECT (I don't really know for sure).
When I was at the Int Base I played the part of a doctor applying ECT in a film (that was released but then redone). Of course, they used all the horror-show memes that were made famous by Ken Kesey.
Is today's ECT a kinder, gentler version? How does it really work? How does the brain really work? All unanswered questions now that Scientology's brutal certainty has been questioned in my mind. I do know that severe clinical depression is horrific enough to make the sufferer grasp for desperate measures. If you've never experienced it, or seen it in a loved one, you really have no idea.
I agree, I’m no fan of ECT. It’s different now and not a torture for the patient when applied.
I’m during some research on it. Here’s an interesting study. I’m still skeptical. There is so much more work to be done on handling depression and mental illness.
https://today.uconn.edu/2022/10/electroshock-therapy-more-successful-for-depression-than-ketamine/#