WebProNews

Tag: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

  • Jett Travolta: John Travolta Says He Wouldn’t Have Made It Through His Son’s Death Without “Beautiful” Scientology

    Jett Travolta, John Travolta’s son, died in 2009 following a seizure.

    Without Scientology, John Travolta says he wouldn’t have made it out of that alive.

    Jett Travolta’s death left John Travolta in pieces.

    “Oh, my god, I wouldn’t have made it without the church’s assistance,” Travolta said of Jett Travolta’s death. “Honestly.”

    John Travolta was not only helped through Jett Travolta’s death, he has been helped, and has helped others, through many issues using Scientology.

    Travolta hasn’t seen the new documentary, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, and he doesn’t intend to.

    He said, “I haven’t experienced anything that the hearsay has [claimed], so why would I communicate something that wasn’t true for me?”

    He added, “It wouldn’t make sense, nor would it for Tom Cruise, I imagine.”

    John Travolta said that while Scientology helped him through his son, Jett Travolta’s, death, it has had many more benefits, as well.

    He said, “[Scientology] has been nothing but brilliant for me. I’ve been so happy with my [Scientology] experience in the last 40 years that I really don’t have anything to say that would shed light on [a documentary] so decidedly negative.”

    He added, “I’ve been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and [Scientology has] been so beautiful for me, that I can’t even imagine attacking it.”

    John Travolta said that Scientology always works and he would never say anything negative about it.

    He said, “I’ve helped so many people through hard times. Loss of children, loved ones, physical illnesses. Through many tough, tough life situations I’ve used the technology to support them and help them. It’s always worked. So, why would I even approach a negative perspective?”

    He added, “That would be a crime to me, personally, to do that.”

    John Travolta obviously leaned very much on Scientology after the death of Jett Travolta, and it must have helped, but just how much of this documentary is accurate? Some of the clips are a little startling. Have you seen Going Clear? What did you think?

  • Leah Remini Praises ‘Brave’ Documentary That Calls Out Scientology

    Leah Remini praised a controversial HBO Scientology documentary, calling the filmmakers “brave.”

    Just hours after the airing of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Leah Remini tweeted her admiration for the film.

    “Thank you to the brave who did something about it. And to those who didn’t have a voice, you do now. #GoingClear,” tweeted the 44-year-old actress, who made headlines when she left Scientology in July 2013.

    The film, directed by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, is based on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, which takes an in-depth look at the religion and includes interviews with former members of the church.

    First premiering at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim, the church has denounced the film through statements and a twitter campaign against the film.

    “The accusations made in the film are entirely false and alleged without ever asking the Church,” Scientology officials said in a statement. “The Church is committed to free speech. However, free speech is not a free pass to broadcast or publish false information.”

    The most recent tweets in a Twitter campaign launched through an account called Freedom Media Ethics to slam the documentary show a number of photos of men and women sleeping in a movie theater while watching the film, with captions such as “HBOring..Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…”

    Leah Remini made headlines when she left Scientology more than two years ago, claiming that she had lived through years of “interrogations” and “thought modification.”

    “I wish to share my sincere and heartfelt appreciation for the overwhelming positive response I have received from the media, my colleagues, and from fans around the world. I am truly grateful and thankful for all your support,” said Leah Remini in a statement.

    Needless to say, the backlash was immediate from other celebrity Scientology followers, including Kirstie Alley.

    “When you are generalizing and when your goal is to malign and to say things about an entire group—there are tens of millions of Scientologists in the world—when you decide to blanket statement that Scientology is evil, you are my enemy,” said Kirstie Alley.

    Remini told Buzzfeed several months after leaving the church that she did so for her daughter.

    “In my house, it’s family first—but I was spending most of my time at the church,” she said. “So, I was saying ‘family first,’ but I wasn’t showing that. I didn’t like the message that sent my daughter.”

  • Leah Remini Thanks Those Behind Scientology Documentary For Giving A Voice To Those That Didn’t Have One

    Leah Remini was quick to thank the makers of the HBO documentary on Scientology, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, and support their work.

    Going Clear was meant to expose some of the darker elements behind Scientology and give a clearer understanding of what goes on in their world.

    Leah Remini famously left the religion in 2013, and since then has not been shy about exposing the lesser known and creepier side of Scientology.

    In an interview last year, Leah Remini said, “I don’t want to be known as this bitter, ex-Scientologist,” adding, “I’m not trying to bash anybody and I’m not trying to be controversial. I just want people to know the truth.”

    Well apparently, Leah Remini thinks that Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief did a good job of letting people know the truth.

    The truth for Leah Remini wasn’t pretty. She described her life after her mother brought them to Florida, just before she turned 10, to live in the Scientology compound as miserable and a terrible one for a child to have to endure.

    Leah Remini said, “We went from a middle-class lifestyle [in Brooklyn, N.Y.] to living in a roach-infested motel with six other girls off a freeway in Clearwater.”

    She added, “We were separated from our mother. We had to sign billion-year contracts we didn’t understand. And we kept saying, ‘Why are you doing this to us? Why are we here?’”

    Leah Remini went on to describe the awful child labor that she endured before her mother finally left the compound with her daughters.

    “We were working from morning until night with barely any schooling.”

    She added, “There was no saying no. There was no being tired. There was no, ‘I’m a little girl who just lost her father and everything I’ve ever known.’ There was only, ‘Get it done.’”

    What do you think of Leah Remini’s support of the new Going Clear documentary?

  • Leah Remini Reaches Out to HBO Filmmakers, Thanks Them for Scientology Documentary

    Leah Remini has reached out to HBO filmmakers following the network’s airing of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. The former King of Queens star wanted to thank HBO for broadcasting the powerful documentary.

    It was back in 2013 that Leah Remini made a high-profile exit from the Church of Scientology, calling the church’s leader David Miscavige out on keeping secrets from its members. She also filed a missing persons report on Shelly Miscavige, the leader’s wife. She hasn’t been seen in public since 2007.

    Leah Remini thanked all involved with Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief via Twitter.

    It was about a year ago when Leah Remini spoke out about her reasons for having left the Church of Scientology.

    “They say they’re loving, caring, non-judgmental people, but secretly, they were judging the world for not believing what they believed. To me, that is not a spiritual person. That’s a judgmental person, and that is the person that I was. I was a hypocrite, and the worst thing you can be in this world is a hypocrite,” she said.

    She added that “everything the Church taught me was a lie.”

    After a representative of the Church of Scientology issued a statement about Leah Remini, calling her a “self-absorbed woman” as well as a woman “with an insatiable craving for attention,” the Leah Remini: It’s All Relative star got the last word.

    “I don’t want to be known as this bitter ex-Scientologist. I’m not trying to bash anybody, and I’m not trying to be controversial. I just want people to know the truth,” she said.

    Leah Remini no doubt believes that these HBO filmmakers uncovered the truth in Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

    Did you see the documentary about the Church of Scientology that aired on HBO Sunday night?