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What is Scientology?

OK, so what is Scientology?

Scientology is a cult founded by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in the late 1950s. It started with a book entitled "Dianetics: The New Science of Mental Health", which promoted use of questionable techniques to concentrate the mind and increase mental powers.

The "auditing" procedures set out in "Dianetics" are still the mainstay of the cult of Scientology, except that they have been extended, and have been universally condemned by the mainstream psychiatric profession as extremely harmful. (Of course, Scientologists condemn the mainstream psychiatric profession as extremely harmful.)

Why is Scientology a Threat?

On the face of it, Scientology should almost certainly be just another minority religious cult, but there are a few features that have really contributed to its visibility on the net.

The first is the Scientologists' dictum: "Never defend, always attack". Most active net citizens are curious individuals, who want to know more about things. As questionable facts about Scientology emerged, people started to ask questions. Rather than clamming up, the Scientologists attacked with a tirade of abuse, threats, and lawsuits.

Due to the copious amounts of money paid by their members for training courses, the Scientologists have some pretty high-powered lawyers at their disposal. The most prominent of these is Helena Kobrin, working out of the US.

In order to protect themselves, Scientologists have the "fair game" rule. Anyone who opposes Scientology is fair game for any defamatory tactic, inside or outside the law. Here is the actual text from missive HCO P/L 18 October 1967, "PENALTIES FOR LOWER CONDITIONS":

SP Order. Fair Game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.

Scientologists will reply that, in 1968, Hubbard "cancelled" Fair Game. The term "Fair Game" was revoked in another missive from the HCO, but the final paragraph of the "cancellation" letter deprives the act of any meaning:

This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP.

As an example of what being "fair game" means, here are some examples of harassment afforded to writers of books critical of Scientology.

The same two rules are most ruthlessly applied to anyone trying to disclose the "church secrets".

Scientology's Secrets

Scientology was incorporated as a church mainly to avoid the attentions of the US Internal Revenue Service. However, its structure is such that church members at one "level" are not allowed access to teachings at the next "level". In fact, the higher level teachings are said to be harmful to those who have not been prepared for them. (As far as I can see, the only harm that can result is from laughing too hard.)

Naturally, the only way to "progress up the bridge" is to have an extensive (and expensive) course of training. At current prices, a complete nothing-to-OT8 course can cost upwards of $300,000. Yes, that is three hundred thousand dollars. In order to protect this lucrative progression, church documents are protected not only by copyright, but by trade secret laws.

Here we have a problem. Remember, the organisation was incorporated as a church to avoid laws pertaining to trade, an yet they are requesting the protection of a trade secret law.

Ordinary copyright law allows for fair use of documents, in that you may quote passages or extracts for the purposes of a review, but the trade secret laws cover any use of all or part of a document. Scientology can, apparently, sue people for quoting just three lines from one of these documents, and has done so.

One side effect of this is that in order to prove this usage, various Scientology documents have had to be entered into US court records, where they are publicly accessible documents. So, in a fervent attempt to cover up their own secrets, they have themselves placed them in the public domain. No wonder that this process has come to be known as "Operation Foot-Bullet" by gleeful critics.

Scientology's Beliefs

All of Scientology's belief system was written by L.Ron Hubbard (LRH), a science fiction writer. He has been diagnosed in absentia as a schizophrenic paranoid manic-depressive by psychologists analysing his writings and reports of his behaviour.

The first set of teachings say that negative aspects of our life, from poor memory to bad health, are caused by bad memories or "engrams". These can be eliminated by a lengthy process of counselling involving a primitive galvanic skin response device called an e-meter. (E-meters are usually made from a simple wheatstone bridge, and two tin cans, and would cost under 5 pounds to construct.)

The methods used to remove engrams are varied, and run the gamut from basic psychotherapy to simple brainwashing. For example, subjects are often ordered to perform a meaningless action hundreds of times. Questioning is stonewalled.

The first real leap of faith comes when subjects are required to believe that engrams do not just accrue from actions in this life, but from previous lives as well.

According to LRH, the Univers is trillions of years old, and evolution has been continuing through all that time. Primary causes of engrams came from when we were clams (they can't decide whether to open or close), another type of clam called a "weeper", sloths (they kept falling out of trees), and Piltdown Man (he had big teeth and kept biting things by accident).

Quite apart from the engrams part, Piltdown man was exposed as a fake. Scientology's teachings have therefore been amended recently, to show that LRH was using "Piltdown" as a label for a particular ancestor of mankind, not the actual Piltdown man which was exposed as a fake. This is against one of their own most sacrosanct edicts, that LRH's writings are 100% correct, infallible and immutable.

Anyway, once all the engrams, past and present, have been removed, the subject achieves a state of "clear". A "clear" should have perfect memory, perfect health, and live forever.

The fact that the first so-called "clears" did not attain these ideals lead to a frantic casting about for additional sources of engrams, and one was duly found: suppressive persons (SPs). These (usually close members of family, or friends trying to persuade the subject to leave) must be "disconnected" - the subject thus relinquishes all ties with anyone even mildly critical of Scientology.

OK, so now the subject has audited out all the engrams imposed by SPs. Are they finished? No. They then have to contend with the so-called OT levels of teaching. This is where you start to encounter "dangerous" material, so don't laugh too hard. Ready?

The most famous of the OT levels, OT III (known colloquially as "oat tea three") contends that, millions of years ago, a galactic warlord called Xenu removed the souls ("thetans") from billions of people on different planets, freeze-dried them, subjected them to mental torture and dumped them on Earth (then called "Teegeeack"). This is referred to as Incident 2, and happened about 75 million years ago. Xenu was then overwhelmed and confined in an "electric mountain trap" in Hawaii, where he remains until this day. (There seems to be no explanation that the Hawaiian islands were not formed until the end of the Cretaceous period, about 10 million years later.) Here's the actual stuff on incident 2, taken from Geffrey Filbert's book "Excalibur Revisited":

INCIDENT 2: Dates approx. 75 million years ago, earth years, location, Earth, named TEEGEEACK at that time (meaning planet of sorrow), involved 33 planets of this sector, each with populations of 80 - 200 BILLION PER PLANET. XENU, the ruler, and -Renegades+ decided to solve overpopulation as follows, but was halted and XENU placed in a mountain trap after over 5 years of war.

Incident 2 Patter: DETERMINE IF A LOYAL OFFICER, RESIDENT OF EARTH. or FROM ANOTHER PLANET. *If the latter two, start at their being picked up and shot and if from another planet, frozen in an ice cube, transported (flying saucer), taken to mountain, a volcano always, H BOMB EXPLOSION, TERRIFIC WINDS, EFFORT TO ORIENT, MAGNETIC STRIP UP FROM CENTER OF VOLCANO OR DOWN FROM AN AIRPLANE, EFFORT TO GET OFF AND FIND REST OF SELF, PROTEST, BEING PULLED ON STRIP, VISUAL DISPLAY OF INSTRUCTION BY A -GO TO THE PILOT+, WHO SAYS -HE+S MOCKING IT UP+. There are 26 - 29 days of implanting (the CC and OT II, God and Devil material, reasons for this being done, helicopters, etc.) that need not be run. SOME WERE PACKAGED INTO CLUSTERS in the HAWAII and LOS PALMAS ISLANDS (8 to a cluster).

The tortured thetans cluster together, and attach themselves to people, bringing with them all their engrams. The further OT levels are mainly about removing these normally invisible "body thetans" by contacting them telepathically and auditing them. Body thetans apparently look like sultanas.

Hubbard also gives accounts of visiting Heaven over 1 billion years ago, suggests that "Star Trek" is in fact the resurfacing of buried race memory and actually occurred, and that James Bond's arch-enemies SMERSH also exist and are out to destroy the world.

Does this sound like trade secret material to you?

Scientology's Claims

All this is simply the "how" of Scientology. The "why" part is even harder to believe. Once you are in control of yourself through Scientology techniques, you stand to gain the following:

Freedom from disease.
Freedom from the effects of aging.
Perfect memory.
Immunity from radiation.
The ability to command others (using a speech form known as Tone 40).
Infinite reincarnation.

And in the more advanced levels:

Freedom from the restraints of space and time.

None of these have been satisfactorily demonstrated to skeptical non-Scientologists.

Given all these impressive powers, reputedly held by hundreds of committed Scientologists worldwide, how is it that they cannot track down the publisher of one critical underground newsletter, Scamizdat?

Scientology's Founder

Russell Miller's definitive book "Bare Faced Messiah: The True Story of L Ron Hubbard" is now available on the web. If you want to find out about LRH's real story, this is the book to go for. If you prefer an old-fashioned paper copy, it's in the reading list at the bottom of the page.

The Scientologists tried to prevent it being published, and went to court to order it silenced due to inaccuracy. However, since they were unable to provide documentary evidence of their claims, the book was published after all.

For example, Hubbard claimed to have completed the first mineralogical survey of Puerto Rico, in the 1930s. The US Geological Survey have hever heard of him. His entire life is riddled with deceit, self-contradiction, and just plain lying.

Scientology in Britain

Scientology is not just an American phenomenon; it is alive and well in Britain. The Hubbard Dianetics Foundation (a church front group) regularly distribute leaflets in Reading town centre, for example. They are based at East Grinstead, where they have the largest organisation outside the US.

These people are trained in hard sell and harassment techniques. Please do not allow them to get your name and address - they will hound you for years.

In short, just say "no", kids.

Some Thanks...

"Steve A" sums up the closure of anonymous remailer anon.penet.fi rather well:

Thank you, Scientology.
Thank you for closing anon.penet.fi.
Now, rape victims can no longer discuss their experiences anonymously.
Now, people feeling suicidal can no longer get help via email from the Samaritans, anonymously.
Now, victims of sexual abuse can no longer share their feelings with, and gain support from, others who have suffered in a similar manner.
Now, citizens in totalitarian states can no longer tell the 'net of the evils being done to them without fear of reprisal.
Now, individuals working in corporations cannot "blow the whistle" on illegal, unethical, or just plain wrong activities of their employers.
Now, women who don't want to be pestered at their email addresses cannot post in the knowledge that they cannot be identified.
You are no doubt very proud of what you've done. I have no doubt that there was much crowing and backslapping when Julf made his announcement.
Scientology wants to make the world a better place? Perhaps, if you're not a rape victim, woman, child abuse victim, oppressed minority, or suicidal.
Typical.
Thanks for nothing, Scientology. The net will exact an appropriate price, I am sure.

"Julf" referred to above was the guy who set up and administered the service, which allows people to send e-mail and post news articles anonymously. He has been subject to raids by the Finnish police, at Scientology's insistence, when someone posted some of their nonsense through his service, and was forced to reveal the full name of the person who did so. As a result of this and other threats by the Scientologists, he has decided to close down the service. As Steve says, "Thanks".

CAN=Clam

Scientology lawyers have also managed to close down the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) through continuous litigation in the US courts. CAN was a group dedicated to disseminating information about religious cults, and offered support and advice to relatives of cult members, and to ex-cult members themselves. CAN is now bankrupt due to legal costs and its trading identity has been sold off.

Who to? The Scientologists. Last week its name, logo, Post Office box and telephone number were finally sold to the highest bidder: a Los Angeles lawyer named Steven L. Hayes, who is a Scientologist. Hayes says he is working with a group of people "united in their distaste for CAN" who plan to reopen the group so it "disseminates the truth about all religions." This is like selling off the trading name of Alcoholics Anonymous to United Distillers, or the identity of the Socialist Worker newspaper for use by the National Front.

So it looks like the Cult Awareness Network will now be a propaganda tool for the Scientologists. Even more worrying is their successful attempt to buy 270 boxes of confidential files, containing information about ex-Scientologists and other cult victims. I am sure they will use them in the same responsible way as their own "confidential" auditing transcripts.