Last episode was pretty interesting. The fact that he made up an injury while in the Navy, claimed to have cured himself with Dianetics, and then gave himself fake medals, is all just crazy. Oh and of course Scientology just hand waved that away, and said the Navy had to fake it due to his super duper top secret classified work.
Check out the Steve Fishman deposition (there's like 9 parts). You can really see just how swept up this guy is. I really think Scientology sort of fits the bill for a lot of people with more analytical minds. Traditional religions are hard to quantify, Scientology on the other hand is like making progress in a game. It's easily measurable.
All you really have to do is read one of L. Ron Hubbards books to see exactly what the man was. Any one of them, it doesn't matter. His writing is honest and straightforward. He truly lacked subtlety or grace. He just didn't give a fuck.
He was more like the Hollywood Warhol than anything. Oddly, I have more respect for him than Warhol.
I think analytical people can see Scientology for exactly what it is. The draw of Scientology isn't the philosophy, the draw of scientology is in the peer group mainly and it has the secondary draw that every self help seminar ever given or book ever sold relies on.
The really interesting thing is that Hubbard made no secret about it. There is a type of person who will trust you if you tell them you're about to lie to them. Hubbard did understand a very specific type of person.
Whats blows my mind is that Miscaviage and all the Sea Org leaders barely have a high school education yet have wielded power to become a massive enterprise. Through dedication and will they have smashed their ivy league enemies.