I went to see Fahrenheit 911 yesterday. Wow, what a film. Funny, upsetting, and thought provoking. Funny how so many people are attacking the film, but I don't see anybody pointing out what exactly in it is false. The evidence presented against Bush is overwhelming and difficult to ignore. Go see this film!
Today i attended a conference called "Understanding Cults, New Religious Movements, and Other Groups" put on by the American Family Foundatoin (AFF) and the Edmonton Society Against Mind Abuse (ESAMA)
It was really interesting. The speakers I got to hear included:
Stephen Hassan: Mr. Hassan is a former Moonie and a licenced Mental Health Councelor, holding a masters degree in Councelling Psychology from Cambrige College. He has been involved in educating the public on mind control and destuctive cults since 1976 and is the author of two critically aclaimed books.
Stephen Kent: Dr. Kent is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the sociology of religion and sectarian groups. He has publishedarticles in numerous sociology and religious study journals and his 001 book, From Slogans to Mantraas" SocialProtest and Religious Conversoin in the Late Vietnam War era, was selected by Choice Current Reviews for Academic Libraries as an "Outstanding Academic Title for 2002". I have known him for several years.
Michael Martella: He was raised in a blble based cult which he was in for 20 years. He is now a licensed counselor and for the past hree years has been cunducting "Cult Survivor Workshops: for excult members.
And of course many more.
There were a handfull of Scientologists present, but they were well behaved. Though they did get visibly upset when Stephen Kent said during his presentation that L. Ron Hubbard was mentally ill and on drugs. During the Q and A portiion at the end of that talk, one of the Scientologists brought it up and claimed that the Psychiatric establishment labeled Hubbard as crazy because they considered him competition. But Dr. Kent brought up a letter that Hubbard wrote in the late 40's, requesting psychiatric help because he felt he needed it. And then he mentioned how bizzar some of the uper level Scientology materials are, and there was a lot of chuckles in the room about that.
One interesting thing that happened was that I got to briefly meet a Scientologist from Toronto named Mick Mccoy. I have known his mother (Betty McCoy, a founding member of the Edmonton Society Against Mind Abuse) for several years. In 1999 I picketed outside the local Church of Scientology with a sign that said "Why Won't Mick McCoy Call his Mom". At that time Mick hadn't spoken to his Mom in many years, because Scientology considers her an enemy. But now, though Mick is still a Scientologist he has been speaking to his mom, and it was really cool to see them spending time together and getting along.
The other day someone started a fire in a garbage can in the mens washroom at work. I didn't see the fire, but saw a bunch of people standing around and the security guard running in with a fire extinguisher to put it out. Today we all got a memo stating that there was strong evidence that the fire was deliberately set and police are investigating. I guess I'm not the only one that doesn't like working there!
It's a good thing it was contained, I'd hate to see what would happen if there was ever a real emergency in that place. There's been two evacuations while I've been working since I've been there. I heard once was because someone accidentally triggered the fire alarm, and once was a bomb threat. Both times they evacuated 500+ people single file through a single door. I supposed if there was actually fire and smoke visible they'd actually let us use the emergency exits, but it would still take a while to get everyone out.