Joe Rogan Talks Battlefield Earth, Tom Cruise, and Everything Scientology

The last one to come up with a good one was like Scientology, right? That's the last one that stuck. So that was 20th Elrond Hubbard. Yeah. 20th science fiction author, by the way. Fucking genius. Really bad science fiction author. Really bad. But it talks a lot and says a lot to the power of persuasion. You ever read his stuff? No, I... You need to read his stuff. Okay. Is it like Harry Potter? It's all first draft. There's never a second draft. It's the most nonsense. And narcissistic. But it's bonkers. Like it's the stuff, it's bonkers. Like some of the reading, like he would write these stories and he would get paid like, you know, like a penny a word or some shit like that. And he would write like a bunch of them for like Strange Times Magazine stuff like way back in the day. Like this is what he did before he created Scientology. He wrote these stories. And you know, like, what was the one that John Travolta movie that they made? Battlefield Earth. Damn, Jamie! He's a wizard. You got that mushroom coffee going? He's a wizard. Jesus. Are you an AI? Did you ever see that? Did you ever see Battlefield Earth? It's... Oh, with the eyebrows? Amazing. What? Elrond Hubbard didn't write that. Yes, you do. Are you fucking kidding me? And it was John Travolta's like lifelong dream to turn that movie into one of the most preposterous movies of all time. He turned that book into a masterpiece. He looks like every white guy who wishes he was black. Look at the dreads. Look at their... They're supposed to be giant and the humans are these little tiny people who pick them up by the neck. Who is that? Is that... Mm-hmm. Forest Whitaker. Oh my god. Yeah, so anyway, this movie is... It's like Showgirls. You ever watch Showgirls for fun? A great movie. For fun. Great movie. It's so bad. You're like, what in the fuck? It's like... There's a lot of movies like that that are great because they're awful. I need to rewatch this. Yeah, he looks like a dude who hacky sacks in a park during the day. Please do this for me and for your fans. For me and for your fans. Spark Up. And do a fight companion for Battlefield Earth. You watch in Battlefield Earth for the first time and queue it up so that people can watch along. They'll just see you, but they could like watch Battlefield Earth on one screen and you on the other. If they queue it up at the same time, they'll get you reacting to the movie. That's such a good... I'm gonna do that for the next podcast episode. Yeah, great idea, right? That's a great idea. I think you might have to have headphones on because you probably couldn't have the content of it streaming, right? My mind is blown that he wrote this. Oh dude, you gotta read some of the stuff he wrote. You read some of the stuff he wrote and you go, this is terrible. So is this like, is this bad? It's terrible. It looks really bad. It reminds me of like... It's so bad. It's just like, what is... What the fuck are you doing? The fuck are you doing? But people like that and I've said this about Hitler and people who are... Just people who have these massive capabilities of persuading just a massive people. Like L. Ron Hubbard? L. Ron Hubbard. It's like a missed opportunity to do something good. Well, this... Have you ever read that book, Lawrence Wright's book? Is that what it is? Clear? Is it Lawrence Wright? Is that who wrote it? I think it is. The book on Scientology is amazing. I mean, fucking amazing. And they did... Was it an HBO series he did on it? They did some... Anyway, it just... It's a book about like about... It's about how he created it. How L. Ron Hubbard created the... Alex Gibney. Alex Gibney. Director and screenplay. There must... Okay, that's that. But there was a Lawrence... There was a book written too. Yeah, there was a book written too. Going Clear. Maybe it's Going Clear. That's what this is called. That's called Going Clear. I wonder, like, you know in marketing, how there's like a tipping point to like where things become like... Both titled the same thing. So, Going Clear, Lawrence Wright too. Okay. So, I think the other one is that Alex Gibney directed the... Is that what it is? They're both called Going Clear, yeah. Anyway, the story behind it is he was self-helping himself. So, he was psychologically kind of fucked up. And he was sort of self-diagnosing and self-medicating. So, he gave himself therapy by taking a lot of these principles of different self-help books and different psychology books that he had read. And then he started applying that. And then he started putting that together with some like fucking... UFOs? UFOs and Thetans. So, like Tony Robbins on crack? But when... I forget what the director's name... I mean, Going Clear on HBO, it's fucking amazing. And one of them, there's this guy who's a big-time Hollywood guy who is in Scientology. I forget what he did. He's a director, right? Paul Haggis said that. Yes, that guy. And Paul, like he's a really, really respected Hollywood guy, right? Makes movies. And he's deep into this thing, right? Probably given him millions of dollars or something like this. And then finally, he gets to read these handwritten notes that he's been waiting for. Like, this is the... You're on to the next level. And he's like, is this... Am I being trolled? Like, he thinks it's like almost like a test. The next level? Like it's Super Mario Brothers? Exactly like Super Mario Brothers. But that's kind of smart. That's smart marketing. Well, it is. A false sense of achievement, like you've achieved something different. And that's like what I was saying. Like, do you think how in marketing, there's like a tipping point to when things become viral and more popular. Do you think there's like a tipping point to Scientology, just the floodgates opened and then everybody was sort of following? If you follow a lot of the tenets of things like Dianetics, all these self-help tenets, if you follow the good stuff, you can actually do better. And you'll do better because you're also focusing on the fact that you're following this path that's going to do better. So your intention, your focus during your day is of improving and doing better. And applying all of that. So a lot of people that whether they join this or whether they take something less benign, like Tony Robbins stuff, which is very motivational, but without the cult, mostly. I mean, he's not your guru. He seems really good for a guy that's experienced what he's experienced, right? But to be that, doing that kind of stuff for this long. I'm actually reading Awake the Beast Within. I read Unlimited Power like in 1989 or some shit. It was great. Yeah, it's a great thing. There's a lot of great stuff in it. But those people that if you're one of those people that's doing something like that. Like the giant, not the beast. Giant. Yeah. Who was the other example that I used? The other motivational dude. Jamie, help. How did we both forget? I said Tony Robbins and who else? Anyway, point is, there's people want something that guides them in a positive direction. If they think it's going to be Tony Robbins or if they think it's going to be Scientology, they're trying to do better, right? So if you say, well, Scientology really helped my life. It did. But why did it help your life? It helped your life because you decided to focus on doing better in your life and use the tenets of Scientology, which some of them are really good. Yeah, I read Dianetics or at least I read like a couple of chapters. It's like religion. There are aspects of it that you can apply to your life and benefit from it. But then there's the tribal side that gets crazy with everything though. Look how focused Tom Cruise is. He is very focused. Where is he? Is he in a bunker right now? He's in outer space. He's having his ankle broken half doing Mission Impossible. Do you see that shit? Was that when he jumped on the wall? Dude, he's like, how old is he? 172. He's at least 56 years old. He's 5,000 years old. He's from another galaxy. 57? Okay. Do you think you could take him down? 57 years old. 57 years old. He jumps from one building all the way to the other with his fucking rope attached to him and mishits it and slams his ankle into the side of the building. You see his foot compresses his ankle. It's Fucksville. Why do they allow? What clause in the movie contract are they like, yeah, we're gonna have Tom or do you think he was just like fuck it. I'm gonna do it. He's gonna do it and you could eat shit all day because he's fucking Tom Cruise. Sit down. Yeah, you can't handle the truth. He wouldn't know that helicopter piloting for the mission movie too. Yeah, dude. He did it. He drove. He flew. That's what they said and showed but he's a legit maniac like love him or hate him. That guy is a legit maniac a badass actor. If you don't think he is watch interview with the vampire and shut the fuck up. Yeah, that's a good one. He was amazing. Also legend for the ladies who are listening from the 1980s ladies from the 80s the legend. What Tom Cruise was in the legend. You remember that movie? Are you a nerd? That's right. You'd watch that. I remember that movie. That was a dope. It was really hanging on. No. Yes. No, it is. Why does he look like Donald Trump's son? No, this is him really hanging on right? No, no, no. I have chills. Yes. Oh God. Are you for real? Yes. I have such a height like you understand how hard that is to do. No, no, because I wouldn't do it. This crazy fucks holding on to a plane. Now, do you attribute that to Scientology? Yes. Only well only other way he could have done it. So also he's flying this helicopter for real. So he's doing this crazy helicopter stunt for real by himself. This fucking maniac. He also drives race cars. Now, is that a death? Is that a remember when I said about playing pool? You watch someone play pool in a movie? Color money. He looked good in color money. Do you think there's a level of sociopathy that's playing there? Why do you have to find negative? Why can't you just look at the question? I didn't say I offered a question. They're making it happen. Jesse may why got in the dark side? Why is it half empty? Jesse man. Listen out. I just look at these fucking crashes that he has riding his motorcycle. You just got to think out of all the people that have done all the action movies. Who is who's wild in this motherfucker? He's the Michael Jordan of action movies. Who's wilder than this motherfucker? Like legitimately Vin Diesel. I just threw a name out there. I threw a name. I threw a name like you should be with that name. I know you have to be to make up that name. Then diesel. It is a it's a it's a lot. It's a name. It comes with a lot of attitude. Do you think Tom Cruise is? Like a is he a daredevil or is it you just think he's do you think he thinks he's immortal? Because of Scientology. I think he thinks he gets his own planet when he dies. Was that a Mormon? That's a Mormon, right? Mormons get their own planet. They do. Yeah, fuck dude. There's a fucking album from Johnny and Marie or the Osmond Brothers from the Osmond Brothers. And in the inside the album when you open it up from back in the Disney the album the name of the album is the name of this thing. That happens when you get your own planet when you die and then there's all these different people. They all have their own planet inside the album. Okay, we need to know that album title. Here it is. Here it is. The plan. Okay, that looks like is that it a cult? Which one is it? I think it's the one with the planet on it. Look at the pink people. There's one that you open it up and then the inside of it. It's got all the different. Do I remember? I remember we did this before I just I know we did Joe Rogan. You're a treasure chest of information. Useless shit. I told you my chimp brain is overused. I can't imagine being like Tom Cruise. I can't imagine like someone is that sounds like it can impossible to imagine how you manage all that. That's why the guys jumping off buildings. He's hoping he falls. You know how to manage it Scientology. Oh, yeah, that's how he manages it. We need to start a new cult. It is me. It's so is excuse my night naiveness in this situation is the head man in Scientology still God or is it L Ron Hubbard? Is there is the entity that we're praying to God? I mean they say things like to LRH and they fucking salute him and shit, but I think they think of him as I'm like a guy who just sort of like brought them the word and then the word is the true origin story of human beings with the Thetans and they were frozen. They threw him into the volcano and so it's not necessarily the word of God. It's just the word of the aliens he created. It's an alien thing. It's like I think to paraphrase it and butcher it. I think the idea is that you are like using this shell and then you have this thing that's inside of you that really has come from like other galaxies and it was released here and now it's trapped inside your body or some fucking wacky shit. But the writing dude the writing so bad. You need to read. I can't wait to watch Battlefield Earth. I love a reason to watch a movie. Please get high and do a simulcast. Please. You'll have to tell me you'll have to give me I'm going to ask you some pointers after so I make sure I nail it. Just do it where it's just you and a bong and Battlefield Earth. That's what it should be called. Me a bong and battlefield earth. Did you sit there? Yeah, you sitting there on the couch crisscross applesauce bong and every now and then you're like, oh my God. He just hold on. You're like, this is so crazy movie is so wacky, but that movie is probably a million times better than the book. The book itself like I'm telling you his writing was so awful that it's confusing. It's like how did he do this and he even wrote or he was quoted as saying if you really want to make money start a religion really quoted saying that he would take pictures of him with the captain's jacket on a bunch of medals. He gave himself. I mean, it's like it sounds like mental illness. You have to read going clear. It's crazy. I didn't read it. I did the audio. You listen to it. Listen to it, but it's it's still reading. It's amazing. I actually going clear. I read at least one or two of the chapters. I actually sat down and read it, but most of it I listened to. It's amazing. It's amazing. Like, can you realize like what he was? He was like this guy was mentally ill who was trying to self-diagnose and then self heal and then came up with this whole system of like Dianetics. This whole system of how to like manage your mind and and and that and again for some people it actually is effective because it gives them a structure. Well, yeah, maybe you know the silver lining to his mania is that he managed his mania and then made fucking cash. Yeah, but he's dead either way. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's that's what we need to learn. Oh, who knows? There's so much money. Who's in that trust? They're like one of the number one real estate holders in all of Los Angeles. It's creepy when you drive by their the main building and like high tree kills. It's like I got a guy with a head thing on electric. Have you seen that? Yeah. Yeah, they do people that go into there. They don't even know they're going into a Scientology building. They think they're going in for some anti psychiatry thing. It is. It is a little you know, the whole thing is misleading the whole origin of it is misleading. What is misleading? The guy probably believed everything he said. He's probably out of his fucking mind. If you really pay attention to who L Ron Hubbard was he seems like he was lying constantly. It was probably a maniac was he a result of the CIA chaos. I was previous before all that. But have you ever seen the interview where Tom Cruise is on with Matt Lauer on the Today Show and Tom Cruise is mad at Brooke Shields on psychiatric drugs. Yes, and he's like reaching out to her through like he's he's saying how you can like what she needs to heal. Yeah. Yeah, and he's he's so intense dude. He looks suited. He looks suited on something. Look at his face. It's so intense. I just think he's very adamant about this particular aspect of the Scientology belief system. And one of the things is they don't believe in psychiatric drugs. There's got sure I'm pretty sure that I believe in any of those right that but but the conversation is so interesting. I wonder if you did like a personality trait test of the people who are followers of the Scientology religion. What the common denominator is amongst them to you really want to see something amazing. I see Tom Cruise's graduation speech was that that one way stood on the podium and they gave him like the most amazing man of all time. Metal they gave him a metal like a gold medal. It's the size of a fucking hubcap and it's hanging around his neck with flavor. Flav and he said look at this and somebody leaked this. It is fucking amazing. So the head guy of Scientology that guy gets it from they salute each other because they're in the fucking army. They hug like in a crazy like they both probably came there and then Tom Cruise goes up. They give him this gigantic dinner plate of a metal and this this is like a speech. It's like a pump up speech that was like a Scientology thing. Look at his metal. He won most awesome human of all time. And so he's standing there in front of this huge globe behind him. There's this huge image of the earth behind him this huge seal. Freedom Medal of Valor. Freedom Medal of Valor. It's amazing. Most amazing person of all time. Metal based off of what what the fuck ever you hate her. Jesus Christ everything with you is hate. I know I'm just analyzing on imagine how crazy you have to be to stand there in front of these people with this goddamn dinner plate hanging off your neck and then at the end they salute to L Ron Hubbard. They look they look at the picture of them. They go to LRH. They do like this. It's a man. It's a secret society. There's a photo. There's the photo of LRH. What's with the decor? It looks like the inside of their saluting. See that everyone gets up and salutes to LRH. Dude. He looks like the thing from Ghostbusters. Dude. I would the painting. I would like to join just for fun. Hugo. Remember that see how much they can convince you. What is it? Vigo Vigo. You know what I'm talking about. How much could they convince you if you had to live like a Scientologist like if you just said like look I'm going to do a thought experiment and I'm going to study all their work and I'm going to be non-critical about all this and I'm going to live my life but and I'm going to do it for three years. Do you think people have tried to do that probably just like for fun on their own because they're so bored and just felt like well what happened if they did and like what happens if they get caught. Yeah, but you would have to be there. Or if they were desperate. Yeah, you'd have to be in the system. What if they just want that was like their last hope and they just were hoping it would help whatever issue they had. I'm sure that's happened both ways. How many people looked at the success of Scientology though and go I need to do something like this but they never did probably everything. Can you it's like a comedian looking at you being like I fucking I wish I thought of that.