Inside Scientology The story of Americas most secretive religion

 A New World Order Watch Media Publication (www.visionreportwatch.com)        March, 2012: Issue 21

The Vision Report Watch is a publication of Rema Marketing (www.remamarketing.com) and is published once per calendar month.   The Vision Report Watch is a private membership service. For any queries regarding this subscription service please contact us at  [email protected]. 

 A New World Order Watch Media Publication (www.visionreportwatch.com)        March, 2012: Issue 21

3  LETTER FROM THE EDITOR   

An initial  welcome from the editor of the  Vision Report Watch. 

 

 

 

 

16  SCIENTOLOGY AND UFOS   

The close link between Scientology and the  UFO phenomena is not without controversy.  What does this organization believe about  the origin of life and the universe. 

 

 

4  SCIENTOLOGY‐HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  17  SCIENTOLOGY AND THE OCCULT   

There are many questions being asked about  what  Scientology  really  is.  Is  Scientology  the  "Religion  of  Hollywood"  being  marketed  by  mega‐celebrities  like  Tom  Cruise,  John  Travolta  and  some  of  Hollywood's  biggest  moguls?  

 

Hugh Urban's article titled "The Occult Roots  of  Scientology?:  L.  Ron  Hubbard,  Aleister  Crowley,  and  the  Origins  of  a  Controversial  New  Religion,"  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  insights into understand the occultic roots of  the Scientology movement. 

 

 

 

 

11  THE RISE OF DIANETICS 

21  THE THEOLOGY OF SCIENTOLOGY 

 

Hubbard described Dianetics as "an organized  science  of  thought  built  on  definite  axioms:  statements  of  natural  laws  on  the  order  of  those of the physical sciences".  

 

A fascinating look at the views of Scientology  on biblical themes of great importance to the   Christian Faith. Are there similarities or are  they poles apart? 

 

 

 

 

13  INTERVIEW WITH HUGH URBAN 

24  THE VERIDICT ON SCIENTOLOGY  

 

What is the verdict on Scientology? Is it  Hugh B. Urban is an author with expertise in    simply a revival of an age old movement that  the study of secrecy in religion, particularly in  was present during the apostolic era?  relation  to  questions  of  knowledge  and  power.  He  has  recently  focused  on      contemporary new religious movements, and  has  published  articles  on  Heaven's  Gate,  25  THE DEMON CULT  Scientology and modern Western magic.    Book review of the month.   

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Vision Report Watch    Dear Member Is the Church of Scientology gaining or losing members and influence? The answer to that question may depend on who you ask about the controversial movement. A recent group of defectors from Scientology claim that the church is showing signs of decline in participation and finances due to abuses by leaders. In contrast, a new scholarly book on Scientology is more divided about whether the movement and its distinctive blend of science, psychotherapy and esoteric religion is growing. In late June 2009, a special 35-page series in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper of Florida reported on allegations of church abuse from top Scientology executives who left the church in the last few years. The ex-members, who include former spokesperson Marty Rathburn, the former head of Scientology headquarters, Tom DeVocht, and Amy Scobie, who helped create the church's celebrity network, allege that physical violence permeates the organization's management. Scientology head David Miscavage is said to have beaten many church staffers over minor infractions and for challenging his leadership. In the last few years attacks on the Scientology have grown more frequent and bolder by ex-members and other critics. The recent allegations were denied by church officials, who claim that the defectors are trying to stage a coup and seize control of the church. The defectors also claim that Miscavage's leadership has hampered church growth. Their access to internal data reports suggest to such critics a gradual decline of key statistics, including the “value of church services delivered” and the number of auditing hours and courses completed. Rathburn said that to pump up revenue, the church has repackaged its old books as new writings to sell back to members at high prices-a charge the church denies. In this months edition of the Vision Report we take a detailed insight into the Scientology factor and address all of the key components of this controversial movement. All the best now.

Enjoy the read. Reece Woodstock Chief Editor, Vision Report Watch

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight

There are many questions being asked about what Scientology really is. Is Scientology the "Religion of Hollywood" being marketed by mega-celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and some of Hollywood's biggest moguls? Is it a pseudo psychotherapy cult or con game?

SECRECY Scientology's obsession with secrecy has developed for a purpose. It has been deliberately designed to hide its abuses, casualties and its real purposes and nature.

Less that 2% of the individuals within Scientology have ever seen the inner secret initiations and information of this story. Significant parts of this story have never been seen before in any form. Scientology members who have been exposed to Hubbard's secret writings are required to sign Others are asking: "Is Scientology a worldwide nondisclosure agreements for the rest of their lives. criminal organization? Is it a bizarre new form of To attempt to enforce secrecy Scientology has even mystical Nazism and fascism? Is Scientology the registered Hubbard's secrets as its "trade secrets". next Jonestown, Waco, Swiss Solar Temple and Japanese Aum suicide\murder tragedy waiting to This story is the result of decades years of research from the work of many different researchers and happen, or is Scientology all of these things? sources. Often in unexpected ways, the style and This report cannot address all of the questions that structure of this story will seem to suddenly twist are now being asked about this most unusual and turn as it tries to unveil the convoluted secret organization. Many of the above queries have been Scientology and the layers of deception and adequately answered in other reports widely misinformation used to hide it secrets from available on the Internet. This report will although uninitiated outside eyes and ears. In discovering the pierce through the many layers of initiation secrecy, secret Scientology for yourself keep in mind that the security clearances and fear that cloaks the real overall context of Scientology and its actual actions Scientology - and answer some of the most difficult IS as important as specific initiation details. and intriguing questions listed above regarding the organization birthed by L. Ron Hubbard. Is it a secret society or UFO group trying to go mainstream? Is it the "Brotherhood of the Beast" and host for the incarnation of the Antichrist as touted in the document that Scientology defectors call OT-8?

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight

WHY NOW?

Hubbard wrote in a Scientology magazine more than three decades ago. Although the original effort faded, the idea of using celebrities to promote and defend Scientology survived and is now being expanded though Hubbard's successor David Miscavige.

The release of this story is important because Scientology's global growth and its activities should stimulate grave social concern. Scientology has a claimed 6,000 staff members. It is estimated that it makes three hundred million dollars a year in income and has two billion dollars in worldwide Celebrities are considered so important to the assets. movement' s expansion that the church created a There are now hundreds of Scientology and special office to guide their careers and ensure their Dianetics groups and Scientology "front group" "correct utilization" for Scientology. The church has recruiting organizations. Scientology and Dianetics created a special branch that ministers to are now operating in almost every country in the celebrities, providing them with first-class treatment. world. It is making inroads into global political Its headquarters, called Celebrity Center systems and it appears to be taking over a International, is housed in a magnificent old turreted mansion on Franklin Avenue, overlooking the significant part of the Hollywood media machine. Hollywood Freeway. ORIGINS OF HOLLYWOOD FASCINATION In Miscavige's Hollywood, Scientology has L. Ron Hubbard and his alter ego Scientology have assembled a star-studded roster of followers by always had a fixation for recruiting Hollywood aggressively recruiting and regally pampering them celebrities. As far back as 1955, Hubbard at the church's "Celebrity Centers," a chain of acknowledged the value of famous people to his country club like clubhouses that offer expensive fledgling, offbeat group when he inaugurated counseling and career guidance. Adherents include screen idols Tom Cruise and John Travolta "Project Celebrity." actresses Kirstie Alley, Mimi Rogers and Anne According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target Archer, Palm Springs mayor and performer Sonny prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring Bono, jazzman Chick Corea and even Nancy them back like trophies for Scientology. He listed Cartwright, the voice of cartoon star Bart Simpson. the following people of that era as suitable prey: Edward R. Murrow, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest WHY SCIENTOLOGY PURSUES CELEBRITIES Hemingway, Howard Hughes, Greta Garbo, Walt Disney, Henry Luce, Billy Graham, Groucho Marx Celebrities are of vital use in Scientology for and others of similar stature. "If you bring one of numerous purposes: to recruit the masses, to them home you will get a small plaque as a reward," endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings, to give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight America and to forward Scientology's secret goals of world control. In a society that often equates celebrity with credibility, using highly recognized celebrities to help hide, deflect or overcome Scientology's horrendous public relations problems is understandable.

magazines, newswire services, newspapers or publishing houses, and radio networks or stations and publishers and editors of any type of news media." LEGAL: "This would be any judges, law enforcement officials, lawyers, barristers and so on."

The roles that celebrities play in Scientology are dictated by a series of Scientology policies called the Opinion Leader Policies that were written by Hubbard. These policies state that you need to get your people into the power points in society, (points where you are the opinion leader or you control the opinion leader.) The Celebrity Center Program is nothing more than an extension of Hubbard's plan of world domination by taking over or controlling opinion leaders.

FINANCIAL / CORPORATE: "This would be any members of the board or presidents, vice presidents or other senior officials/executives with banks or other financial institutions (such as savings and loan companies, credit unions, etc.) financiers (this could be government or private industry) stockbrokers, financial advisers and commodities brokers."

To create a favorable environment for Scientology's expansion, church executives are working to win allies among society's power brokers and opinion leaders. This theme is expounded in church publications, "We need to be able to approach the right people in order to get things done," wrote Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, in the newspaper Scientology Today. "We need to find out how to reach key people in the media, in government, in the control points of society, the people who rule things." Underscoring the campaign's breadth and determination, a pullout questionnaire entitled "Communication Lines to the World" was inserted in the Scientology newspaper. It asked Scientologists to list their connections to people in six areas:

ENTERTAINMENT / CELEBRITIES: "This would be any producers or directors in the stage, motion pictures or television; actors, artists, writers and any opinion leaders in these areas." In HCO PL 12 January 1973 policy letter, Hubbard States: "The most important action to undertake when going about making a Safe Point is to carefully and painstakingly find out who exactly are the Top Dogs in the area in financial and political circles and their associates and their connections, and to what each one is hostile." All of this information is sent to the intelligence branch of Scientology. (Keep in mind one of the major activities of a secret society is turning its members into deployable agents who will fanatically use their resources and connections to forward the goals of the group or knock out the enemies of the group.) HOW CELEBRITIES ARE RECRUITED INTO SCIENTOLOGY

The first thing to realize about recruiting celebrities in Scientology is that they are kept ignorant about what is really going on until they are hooked. The celebrities are shielded from all bad news. They are pampered and isolated in the finest buildings in settings like country-clubs. They're kept totally away POLITICS: "This would be political figures on a from all the cruelty and the abuse that goes on local, state or national level, such as local city inside the organization, and at Scientology's gulagofficials, mayors, governors, senators, type concentration camps and punishment centers. congressmen, and members of parliaments. It would also include government agency officials and Most Scientology celebrities are victims that don't know that they are being systematically deceived civil servants." and rendered suggestible by use of counseling MEDIA: "This would be any media terminals that processes that are no more that covert hypnosis. A very few of them know about Scientology's secret you know, such as owners or proprietors of

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight goals, but most of them have no idea about the suicides or the attempted suicides at the Celebrity centers or other centers. Any time they hear anything negative they are told "It's all lies. Don't listen to it" THE BATTLE-PLAN To recruit a new celebrity, Scientology staff members at a Celebrity Center often create a battle plan. This battle plan in many cases could or would contain a flowchart of the celebrity's key connections, their "psychological buttons" and their "emotional buttons. Everything is done to learn as much as possible about the target non-Scientology celebrity. The following are just a few key areas of information that are assembled on the target: who are the celebrity's closest friends, their business contacts, places most often frequented, credit histories, public records and police reports. Any information on the targeted celebrity is fair game. It can be used to manufacture an "innocent" or coincidental recruiting opportunity or can be used to produce a recruiting influence leverage over the target.

Once the meeting is started some general communication is first established to relax the target. They can't obviously just walk up and say "Come to the Scientology center"; first they have to establish a rapport with the person. Once they have got a conversation going they gradually try to steer the discussion over to the target's emotional or psychological buttons, and\or they start "admirationbombing" the target. When the emotional button "hook" has been placed into the target then they start telling them about Scientology and invite them Wherever possible, a Scientology celebrity is used to an event or in to the center. to help set up and recruit a non-Scientology celebrity. Because a Scientology celebrity's loyalty The late Yvonne Jentzsch, the original head and to Scientology can be absolutely blinding, originator of the first Celebrity Center, said the way to hook celebrities is to "admiration-bomb" them. (This means you emotionally over flood them with attention and admiration.) From her teaching and example, the Scientology staff quickly learned as a method of invisible but powerful control to give celebrities the excessive God-like admiration they are vulnerable to. A former celebrity center staff members reports Scientology celebrities would not be beyond watching her handle celebrities. Yvonne divulging almost anything they know about the non demonstrated that she could "push these admiration and attention buttons" on the celebrities to get them Scientology celebrity target. to do just about anything. On one hand, she'd say Once all this information is assembled the Celebrity "We really can use these celebrities to bring in more Center staff implements the Battle Plan. They try to people", and on the other hand she would talk set up a meeting scenario that looks like a chance derogatorily about the various celebrities that she meeting. The best "set ups" are enacted where a lot was manipulating. About Karen Black she said. of unknown Scientology shills can be placed around "Karen's just a dingbat, and so promiscuous." Chick the target celebrity. Some other Scientology Corea was a puppy, she said. "I can get him to do celebrity friends are there too, (Scientology has anything for me, just give me the phone." been using charity events lately for this.)

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight Keep in mind that celebrities are usually not college graduates with Doctorates. Most celebrities have no idea that there is such sophisticated and pervasive hidden manipulation governing every step of the recruiting process used to get them into Scientology.

a lot more than the average member gets. What they get is:

1.) Some free services and discounted services. In the HCO PL 1 January 1963 policy letter Hubbard says: "Central Orgs (organizations) are instructed to process selected celebrities who are just beyond or Generally celebrities got into show business to who are just coming into their prime. The pay is to achieve fame (attention and admiration.) These are be any contribution you would care to make if we ready made hooks for them. The Scientology have helped. No other pay is demanded." recruiting con is so good that during the recruiting meeting the target celebrity is made to think that the 2.) Commissions. In some cases they get new friends (hidden recruiters) are friendly, VERY commissions of ten percent of the take from people knowledgeable and the offers of help or benefit coming in the door. being suggested are just the perfect coincidence to 3.) Special perks. One of the perks that celebrities provide what just happened to be needed. get is a considerable amount of free use of Scientology's private country clubs and properties. TARGETING CELEBRITY VULNERABILITY The following recent revelations were made about A low point in her career led Karen Black, 36, into typical celebrity treatment in a affidavit to Los Scientology 10 years ago. "It made me real happy," Angeles lawyers by Andre Tabayoyon, a she says with a smile. "Mr. Hubbard has a very Scientologist for 21 years. formidable technology for the relief of the despair that people carry around with them. It makes you I, ANDRE TABAYOYON, declare as follows: very free." I witnessed money from various non profit When Scientology targets celebrities, it focuses on Scientology organizations, and labor provided by three kinds: those who are on their way down - they various non profit Scientology organizations being have a reason to listen; those who haven't made it used for the personal benefit of Miscavige, Tom yet, they also have a reason to listen because they Cruise, other Scientology senior executives and want to get on top; and those who have made it but other Scientology celebrities (such as John have some sort of severe problem in their lives that Travolta, Chick Corea and Priscilla Presley). makes them vulnerable. Scientology also exploits celebrities' vulnerability by providing a false but seemingly "meaningful" new role for their celebrity power. Scientology involvement suggests to the celebrity that they are going to be more than just fluff and frill, or another Hollywood empty headed pretty face or a sex symbol. Scientology gradually suggests to targeted celebrities that by joining this world movement they become part of a secret and special elite and are gaining a "world historic destiny" for their celebrity power. In the shallow celebrity world of Hollywood this is a powerful initial intoxication and inducement to get involved. Scientology celebrities aren't endorsing Scientology just because they personally like it. They are getting

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight WHAT'S EXPECTED FROM CELEBRITIES IN booklet (which mentions Hubbard but not Scientology) when she unveiled it on the popular SCIENTOLOGY Arsenio Hall Show. Since then, it has been Every possible effort, pressure, and sales tactic is distributed to prominent environmental groups brought to bear on existing celebrity membership to throughout the U.S. recruit other new celebrities into Scientology. Celebrities are heavily indoctrinated to their duty Although the advertising isn't finished yet, the new and responsibility of recruiting new celebrities. They campaign includes a half-hour "documercial" also are expected to constantly promote and talk entitled "The Problem of Life." It dramatizes a about Scientology. Recruiting and other Scientology couple who are looking for answers to the questions promoting activities proves their loyalty to the of life," a spokesman said, such as: What's it all organization and approves their security clearance about? Where are we going? Wouldn't it be good to have a job that is fulfilling? The couple to go to the next secret level. unsuccessfully visits a doctor, a psychotherapist Celebrity activity is closely monitored. If they don't and a marriage counselor. "At the end, they find out promote Scientology in their media coverage or if Scientology could provide the answers," the they don't promote it at their events or do special spokeswoman said. The documercial ends with a events for Scientology their loyalty is questioned. 10-minute direct-sales pitch from Jeff Pomerantz, The following are three examples of Scientology the soap-opera star (best known for his role in the "Dynasty" series) who is one of the church's several celebrity endorsements and promotions: celebrity members. "lt's nice to know you can be a cause of your life as well as an effect," convert John Travolta, 23, says of Celebrities are not only pushing Scientology and his Scientology training. "lt's a logical and very sane Scientology's non religious alter ego Dianetics for way of living. I don't get upset as easily as I used to. multilevel marketing like commissions; they are also I don't think I could have handled my success as heavily pushing the Scientology front groups, like Narconon, the Way to Happiness, Applied well without it." Scholastics, and others. From 'The Auditor": The Monthly Journal of Scientology -AOSH ANZO 136. "The Road To Scientology and Dianetics are held in such Freedom" album of LRH songs released on CD! disrepute that in public Scientology must use front Attendees of the 23rd of June event were able to groups to defend it, speak for it, and attack its snap up the brand new edition of "The Road To enemies. Internal confidential documents seized by Freedom" album now available on CD and cassette. the F.B.I. show that social reform activities were This album features such leading artists as John designed primarily to attack critics publicly from the Travolta, Chick Corea, Julia Migenes, Karen Black, safe and respectable position of a humane social Nicky Hopkins, Amanda Ambrose, Gayle Moran and reform group. Leif Garrett. This album is a unique and highly enjoyable collection of songs composed by L. Ron An example of Hubbard's thinking on this matter is Hubbard to impart to the listener some of the basic policy directive HCO PL 12 January 1973 "The Safe knowledge that Scientology offers. Whilst viewed as Point": controversial by those who seek to oppose man's spiritual freedom, the lyrics on this album offer HOW SCIENTOLOGY KEEPS CONTROL OVER answers to questions man has asked for eons." ITS HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS Kirstie Alley is active in disseminating a new 47 page booklet on ways to preserve the environment. The booklet, entitled "Cry Out," was named after a Hubbard song and was produced by Author Services Inc., his literary agency. Author Services is controlled by influential Scientologists. In April, Alley provided nationwide exposure for the illustrated

In the beginning of the recruiting process for celebrities and non celebrities alike, Scientology uses personality and other tests to cull out which target members are the most suggestible from the least suggestible. These tests and exercises inform Scientology staff about who can and can't be put

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  Blackberry Under the Spotlight into hypnotic trance. If a person can't go in a trance, they usually don't stay in Scientology long, because almost all of Scientology's techniques are based upon covert hypnosis and the increased suggestibility hypnosis produces. The celebrities who are still in Scientology have passed the hypnotic suggestibility culling process. That is not to say that celebrities are statistically any more hypnotically suggestible than anyone else in the population. It just means that through its clever culling process Scientology has isolated them and has "worked" their other vulnerabilities to establish and maintain their control over the celebrity.

CONTROLLING CELEBRITIES’ RELATIONSHIPS Gradually, but methodically, Scientology will try to directly or indirectly isolate the celebrity from anyone who is not in the pro-Scientology camp. First Scientologists do it by just occupying as much of the celebrities 24 hour day as possible. They get the celebrity to lots of courses and events and wherever possible they surround them with as many fellow Scientologists as they can. Soon the celebrities are seeing less and less of their old non-Scientology friends, and these old relationships seem less and less important. If the celebrity starts having any problems with their old non Scientology girlfriends or mates they will often find "miraculously" attractive Scientology females or males directly or indirectly will start to befriend them. Numerous celebrities have ended up dumping their old girlfriends or wives and marrying Scientology staff members because of these deliberate isolation and manipulative befriending efforts.

In the next step of the recruiting process, Scientology celebrities are bombarded with hypedup, hypnosis imbalanced "success stories." Moments after completing every suggestion pregnant hypnotic Scientology counseling session the celebrity targets are then REQUIRED to write their own glowing "success stories." (In many of these counseling sessions Scientology buries the hypnotic suggestion for the intended result in the The goal of a Celebrity center staff member is to occupy and control every part of the celebrity's life questions being asked.) and resources. By unwritten de facto policy, the After their own "counseling" sessions, celebrities most attractive Scientology staff are assigned to the are taken to a public area and admiration- bombed Celebrity Center public areas. When the nonfor their Scientology success. They are NOT Scientology wife or husband or girlfriend or allowed to have any objective testing time after they business associate of some celebrity sees them have been put in the covert hypnosis to verify the getting involved in Scientology, one of the first legitimacy of what's happened to them. Then they things they notice is how Scientology is baiting the are controlled by social pressure by having signed individual to change their non-Scientology friendly their names to glowing unverified testimonials. Very sexual, emotional or business relationship partners. few people will later admit that they signed or claimed something that wasn't true or fairly tested. It Of course this is not a problem - at least initially - if is just too embarrassing for most people to admit you decide to become a Scientologist to keep your current relationship. For example, Tom Cruises new they were so thoroughly conned or controlled. wife, the striking, red-headed Aussie actress Nicole Kidman used to tell her friends that she was upset by the assertive American Scientologists' always hanging around Cruise, She was particularly displeased at their behavior during the Cruises' wedding, last Christmas Eve in Telluride, Colorado. By late March, however, after wrapping with Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman, Kidman now was saying she had made peace with Scientology. "She was very open about it."

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THE RISE OF DIANETICS  In the book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard describes techniques that he suggests can rid individuals of fears and psychosomatic illnesses. A basic idea in Dianetics is that the mind consists of two parts: the "analytical mind" and the "reactive mind." The "reactive mind" (or, "unconscious mind") acts as a record of shock, trauma, pain, and otherwise harmful memories. Experiences such as these, stored in the "reactive mind" are dubbed "engrams". Dianetics is a proposed method to erase these "engrams" in the "reactive mind" to achieve what is referred to in Scientology as a state of "Clear". A "Clear" is one who is thought to no longer possess his reactive mind.

By his own admission, Hubbard made what he considered was one of the greatest mistakes of his life when he used the biological definition of engram as a "trace on a cell", which was not in line with the proper biological definition. Hubbard described Dianetics as "an organized science of thought built on definite axioms: statements of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences". These Dianetic "axioms" can be found in Hubbard books such as Scientology 0-8: The Book of Basics and Advanced Procedures and Axioms. Unlike conventional therapies, Hubbard said, Dianetics would work every time if applied properly and "will invariably cure all psychosomatic ills and human aberrations."[citation needed] In April 1950, before the public release of Dianetics, he wrote: "To date, over two hundred patients have been treated; of those two hundred, two hundred cures have been obtained." In Dianetics, the unconscious or reactive mind is described as a collection of "mental image pictures," which contain the recorded experience of past moments of unconsciousness, including all sensory perceptions and feelings involved, ranging from pre-natal experiences, infancy and childhood, even the traumatic feelings associated events from past lives and alien cultures. The type of mental image picture created during a period of unconsciousness involves the exact recording of a painful experience. Hubbard called this phenomenon an engram, and defined it as "a complete recording of a moment of unconsciousness containing physical pain or painful emotion and all perceptions." Hubbard proposed that, via pain, physical or mental traumas caused "aberrations" (deviations from rational thinking) in the mind, which produced adverse physical and emotional effects. The conscious or analytical mind, out of a desire for survival, would instinctively shut down during moments of stress. The memories recorded during this period would be stored as engrams in the unconscious or reactive mind. (In Hubbard's earliest publications on the subject, engrams were variously referred to as "Norns", "Impediments," and "comanomes" before "engram" was adapted from its existing usage at the suggestion of Joseph Winter.) Some commentators noted Dianetics' blend of science fiction and occult orientations at the time.

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THE RISE OF DIANETICS  Dianetics claims that these engrams are the cause of almost all psychological and physical problems. In addition to containing the experience of physical pain, engrams can also include words or phrases overheard by the patient while he was unconscious. For instance, Winter cites the example of a patient with a persistent headache supposedly tracing the problem to a doctor saying "Take him now" during the preclear's birth. (wordy/unclear) Hubbard similarly claims that the cause of leukemia is traceable to "an engram containing the phrase 'It turns my blood to water.'" While it is sometimes claimed that the Church of Scientology no longer stands by Hubbard's claims that Dianetics can treat physical conditions, it still publishes them: "... when the knee injuries of the past are located and discharged, the arthritis ceases, no other injury takes its place and the person is finished with arthritis of the knee." "[The reactive mind] can give a man arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure ... And it is the only thing in the human being which can produce these effects ... Discharge the content of [the reactive mind] and the arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of ills goes away and stays away." Some of the psychometric ideas in Dianetics can be traced to Sigmund Freud, whom Hubbard credited as an inspiration and was said to have used as a source. Freud had speculated 40 years previously that traumas with similar content join together in "chains," embedded in the unconscious mind, to cause irrational responses in the individual. Such a chain would be relieved by inducing the patient to remember the earliest trauma, "with an accompanying expression of emotion." According to Bent Corydon, Hubbard created the illusion that Dianetics was the first psychotherapy to address traumatic experiences in their own time, but others had done so as standard procedure. One treatment method Hubbard drew from in developing Dianetics was abreaction therapy. Abreaction is a psychoanalytical term that means bringing to consciousness, and thus adequate expression, material that has been unconscious." It includes not only the recollection of forgotten memories and experience, but also their reliving with appropriate emotional display and discharge of effect. This process is usually facilitated by the patient's gaining awareness of the causal relationship between the previously undischarged emotion and his symptoms." According to Hubbard, before Dianetics psychotherapists may have been able to deal with very light and superficial incidents (e.g. an incident that reminds you of a moment of loss), but with Dianetic therapy, the patient can actually erase moments of pain and unconsciousness. He emphasizes: "The discovery of the engram is entirely the property of Dianetics. Methods of its erasure are also owned entirely by Dianetics..." With the use of Dianetics techniques, Hubbard claimed, the reactive mind could be processed and all stored engrams could be refiled as experience. The central technique was "auditing," a two-person question-and-answer therapy designed to isolate and dissipate engrams (or "mental masses"). An auditor addresses questions to a subject, observes and records the subject's responses, and returns repeatedly to experiences or areas under discussion that appear painful until the troubling experience has been identified and confronted. Through repeated applications of this method, the reactive mind could be "cleared" of its content having outlived its usefulness in the process of evolution; a person who has completed this process would be "Clear". The benefits of going Clear, according to Hubbard, were dramatic. A Clear would have no compulsions, repressions, psychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as 50 points. He also claimed that "the atheist is activated by engrams as thoroughly as the zealot". He further believed that widespread application of Dianetics would result in "A world without insanity, without criminals and without war."

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INTERVIEW WITH HUGH URBAN  Several years ago a review took place regarding a remarkable new book about Scientology. A review copy of Hugh Urban's “The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, put out by the Princeton University Press, had arrived almost the same day as Janet Reitman's highly anticipated book about the church, Inside Scientology. What was impressive about Urban, is that the 216 pages, not only laid out a robust history of Scientology in a highly readable narrative, but also did what others really hadn't before: put L. Ron Hubbard's creation in the cultural and political context of its time -- Scientology is a Cold War product, and absorbed all of that era's paranoia and desire for secrecy. Urban's book was also impressive for its depth of research -- here in one volume were citations of many of the most significant court decisions that have rocked Scientology over the decades, as well as concise rundowns of many other church controversies. The book makes for a great companion to Reitman's journalistic approach: both books have come out at about the same time, and both with common goals of looking at a controversial subject from an objective, scholarly point of view. I really only had one question after I was finished with the book: who the heck is Hugh B. Urban? With his book now in stores, I called up Professor Urban to talk to him about his background and his goals now that he's put out such an impressive volume. The Ohio State University professor tells me that he's the son of a psychologist, and comes from a religious Episcopal family, which may help explain why he's been interested in particular in the way secrecy is used in religion. "I work mostly on the religions of India, and I have more recently been working on the new religious movements of America and Europe," he says. "I guess questions about knowledge and power and what it means to keep information hidden from others has always fascinated me." Looking into the way secrecy is used in Indian religions, he turned to the way secrecy is used in new religious movements here, and naturally, that brought him to Scientology: "It's the most interesting case," he points out, and he'll get no argument here. "The first real thing I did on Scientology was the 'Fair Game' article, which eventually became the core of Chapter 3 in the book," he says, referring to his 2006 article in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America." "That was driven by my interest in secrecy and religion. It's not the best thing I've written, but it was well received," he says -- and more importantly, it's the article that sold the Princeton University Press on Urban writing a full book about the subject. To me, that in itself is significant. It's been many years since we've had books about Scientology, and now two come out nearly at the same time, and from a major, mainstream publisher and a university press. What's changed that has made publishers suddenly more interested in the subject?

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INTERVIEW WITH HUGH URBAN  Urban says publishers may be more comfortable now that Scientology has stopped automatically filing lawsuits against newspapers and publishers. "Since the lawsuit with Time magazine [a $416 million monster in 1991 that was dismissed, costing both sides millions in legal costs], they've changed strategies. It's dropped off significantly," he says. "Look at South Park and the episode that revealed the Xenu story -they didn't do anything, really, to them...It seems like they've realized that the 'sue everybody' strategy isn't working, and it has the opposite effect of making them look more defensive and reactionary." And besides, he points out, Scientology has its hands full with other problems. "I think they have so many things to deal with, especially since Rathbun and Rinder came out, they don't have time to go after publishers," he says, referring to Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, two high-level church executives who defected in recent years and are now speaking out about abuses in Scientology. Instead of experiencing harassment, he says, he's found the church to be uncharacteristically benign. "I think they are trying to present a friendlier face. After your review of my book showed up, [Scientology spokesman] Bob Adams called me and we had a pretty lengthy conversation about this. He seems to be taking a different strategy of being more open."

Of course, he points out, it's still an odd approach -- the church ignored him and only contacted him after his book was published. Still, he says, he can't complain about the treatment he's been getting lately. "In general my interactions with the church have been pretty cordial," he says. Scientology hasn't blasted his book the way it did Reitman's -- at least not yet. Urban admits that he didn't know her book was coming out at nearly the same time as his. "It's a happy coincidence that the two books came out at the same time. I think they do make a nice pair. Hers does the more journalistic expose kind of of thing, and mine is a more academic approach." Both strive to give Hubbard his due for creating such a long-lasting enterprise. "Even people who leave Scientology acknowledge that he had charisma. And his literary output is astonishing," Urban says, referring to sheer amount of words the man put to paper. "That's one reason the movement has declined, is the absence of Hubbard. David Miscavige just doesn't have the same charisma to run the show."

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INTERVIEW WITH HUGH URBAN  Urban's book also wrestles with the definition of religion itself. "Scientology has been central to our view of how religion has changed in the post-war era," he says, and that changing definition is part of a larger conversation that involves academics, the government, and the press. Both Urban and Reitman seemed to arrive at the same conclusion about this: whether Scientology is really a "religion" is less interesting than how it behaves. "The behavior is really what hasn't been looked at closely enough, and that's because the religious status gives it a hand's off attitude for some people," he says. But increasingly, allegations of abuse are coming to the surface about the way Scientology staff is treated. "If those allegations have any basis to them, that needs to be investigated, I think." (Lawrence Wright's New Yorker story in February revealed that the FBI has been looking into claims of abuse in Scientology, but there's been no indication since whether anything will come of it.) Urban sounds eager to plunge into more writing about Hubbard's organization. "It's not a long book. I could have written five times as much based on my notes and interviews," he says, and we spent some time discussing what areas in the field could still use a book treatment. I said there will surely be material for a book that simply traces what's currently happening as Scientology seems to be splitting apart. "I think we could be witnessing a reformation," Urban says, in agreement. "The survival of Scientology may depend on it. If they keep fighting wars on the Internet, it's not a very productive thing for their future. What Rathbun is doing seems like it might have more life to it." For now, Urban says he's busy with a new project: "One thing I'm trying to do now is create a Church of Scientology archive at our special collections here at Ohio State," he says. He's received material from Nancy Many, who appears prominently in his book, and Chef Xenu, a member of Anonymous who appears in it has also been helping to amass material. He's also keeping an eye on what Scientology is up to in Columbus, Ohio. "They're building a new Ideal Org in a former Time Warner building. It has capacity for 800 people, which seems a stretch. They told me downtown [at the current 'org'], there are only about 100 families involved." It does seem exceedingly strange that Miscavige is pushing for new buildings around the world as every reliable source we can draw from indicates that church membership is actually very small and declining. Why new buildings when they don't have the bodies to fill them? "I can only speculate. One obvious strategy is that 'if you build it they will come.' The other is that it's an investment. And third, buying nice old buildings can give you some kind of historical weight," he says. "The other mystery I'm interested in is this link between the Nation of Islam and Scientology. I don't really understand it at all," he says. But that mystery may have to wait for another day. For now, Urban says, he's next going to tackle "the testimonies of ex-Scientologists and how to use them." Some in the academic religious studies field argue that talking to defectors is unreliable for getting an accurate picture of how a new religion is evolving. But Urban and I both agreed that such a concern is no reason to discount entirely the testimonies of so many people who have left Scientology and are speaking out about it -- not when they tell the same exact stories, over and over.

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SCIENTOLOGY AND UFOS  Blackberry Under the Spotlight Scientology teaches that all humans have experienced innumerable past lives, including lives in ancient advanced extra-terrestrial societies, such as Helatrobus and the Marcabians. Traumatic memories from these past lives are said to be the cause of many present-day physical and mental ailments. Scientologists also believe that human beings possess superhuman powers which cannot be restored until they have been fully rehabilitated as spiritual beings through the practice of “auditing”, using methods set out by Hubbard in his various works. According to Hubbard, when thetans (the Scientology term for a human being) die they go to a “landing station” on the planet Venus, where they are re-implanted and are programmed to “forget” their previous lifetimes, thus causing amnesia. The Venusians then “capsule” each thetan and send them back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California; whereupon, each thetan searches for a new body to inhabit. To avoid these inconveniences, Hubbard advised Scientologists to simply refuse to go to Venus after their death. Scientology has been discussed in the context of UFO religions in UFO Religions by Christopher Partridge, The Encyclopaedic Sourcebook of UFO Religions by James R. Lewis,[8] and UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture by Gregory Reece.[9] Stories of extra-terrestrial civilizations and interventions in past lives form a part of the belief system of Scientology. The most well-known story publicized and held up to ridicule by critics is that of Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy who is said to have brought billions of frozen people to Earth 75 million years ago and placed them near a number of volcanoes, and dropped hydrogen bombs into them, thus killing the entire population in an effort to solve overpopulation. The spirits of these people were then captured by Xenu and mass implanted with numerous suggestions and then “packaged” into clusters of spirits. From the early 1950s onwards, Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, published a number of books, lectures and other works describing what he termed “space opera”.

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SCIENTOLOGY AND THE OCCULT  Blackberry Under the Spotlight During the previous interview with Hugh Urban he had stated that he was planning to continue his research into Scientology, and would be looking into a variety of areas. But many could not have predicted that one of those interests included a closer look at L. Ron Hubbard's wild occult history that preceded his publication of 1950's Dianetics.

Urban's article is titled "The Occult Roots of Scientology?: L. Ron Hubbard, Aleister Crowley, and the Origins of a Controversial New Religion," and if you've read his book, its introduction will seem very familiar. He then lays out the basics: after returning from his service in the war, Hubbard moved into John Whiteside "Jack" Parsons's Pasadena rooming house (the "Parsonage"), which was something of a flophouse for his occult friends. Parsons was heavily into Crowley's "magick," and soon found a willing partner in Hubbard -- and even wrote to Crowley himself about their attempts to engage in some of Crowley's rituals. The relationship between Hubbard and Parsons ended badly, with accusations of fraud and theft. But later, as Hubbard developed his ideas for Dianetics and Scientology, his experience with Crowley's "Ordo Templi Orientis" (OTO) seems to have permeated his thinking and even the terminology of the church.

Long time Scientology watchers will be at least somewhat familiar with the tale: that after his involvement in WWII, Hubbard shacked up with Jet Propulsion Lab rocket scientist Jack Parsons, a man heavily into the occult, and in particular the teachings of The Great Beast, British occultist Aleister Crowley. You may even know something about the strange things Parsons and Hubbard did trying to create a "Moonchild." But what Urban does produce a thorough, academic study of the ways that Crowley's "magick" found parallels in what would become Hubbard's most famous creation, Scientology.

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SCIENTOLOGY AND THE OCCULT  Blackberry Under the Spotlight Urban notes that the church itself has virulently denied that Hubbard's occult activities had anything to do with Scientology, or that remnants of Crowley's occult ideas can be found in its scriptures. But one of the most useful things about Urban's article is the way he shows that it's the church's own statements and legal maneuvers which tend to verify the connection between Crowley's "magick" and Hubbard's "tech."

which he is conscious to his individual Will." Sound familiar? In Hubbard's Scientology, which he insists is a science that will allow you to discover your true nature, you learn that you are a thetan, and through his processes you will ultimately be able to leave your body and become an all-powerful being able to create universes.

But that was in the future. In 1945, Hubbard moved If you've read Urban's book, you'll know that he in with Parsons, and the two got up to some accomplishes this neat trick with calm, deeply seriously kinky activities. Early in 1946, Parsons researched and thoroughly convincing material told began what he called his "Babalon Working" experiments as he and Hubbard began trying to in a crystal-clear prose style. take Crowley's ideas into new territory. To begin his investigations, Urban goes back to the early 20th century and Aleister Crowley's rise as the Crowley had written about the possibility of a most famous occultist of his day. Joining OTO and "magickal child" or "Moonchild," and Parsons then becoming one of its leaders, Crowley wrote decided he'd try to make one. He identified a widely, and Urban focuses particularly on his book woman named Marjorie Cameron as the person Magick in Theory and Practice, which Hubbard who would be his "elemental," and then the two got busy, Urban writes... would later cite in lectures. According to Parsons' remarkable personal accounts of these rites, Hubbard was intimately involved in the Babalon Working...Hubbard was asked to serve as Parsons' seer or "scribe" during the Babalon Working; indeed, Hubbard became nothing less than the "voice" for Babalon herself, First and foremost, Crowley repeatedly emphasizes who spoke through him and was recorded by that Magick is a science. To distinguish his practice Parsons. from parlor tricks and stage illusions, Crowley spells Magick with a "k" and insists that it is an exact So was Ron sitting by taking notes, or speaking in science based on specific laws and experimental tongues, or something else while Jack was having techniques. Hence his book begins with a occult-flavored sex with Marjorie? Whatever the "postulate" followed by twenty-eight "theorems" three got up to, on March 6 Parsons wrote to presented as "scientifically" as chemistry or Crowley saying that the deed was done and that in mathematics. This science is fundamentally about nine months a Moonchild would be born. the correct knowledge of the individual self and its potential. In short, "Magick is the Science of Crowley was not impressed. He wrote to a friend in April, "Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody understanding oneself and one's conditions." is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I Urban goes on to explain how in Crowley's magick, contemplate the idiocy of these goats." the fundamental concept is Thelema, which represents a person's inner will, and the ability to do But all was for naught, apparently. No child was "what thou wilt." Doing the processes of Crowley's born, Hubbard made off with another of Parsons's magick rituals, the point is for a magus to astrally girlfriends, Betty Northrup, and absconded to project himself so that he can ultimately become an Florida in a sailboat-sales scheme gone haywire, all-powerful being who is "capable of being, and and in 1952, Parsons blew himself up with an using, anything which he perceives, for everything accidental chemical explosion in his home lab. that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole Universe of When Urban began to describe some of the ideas in that book, this Scientology watcher has to admit to the hairs on the back of his neck going up. The similarities to what Hubbard would later say about his own "technology" are stunning...

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SCIENTOLOGY AND THE OCCULT  Blackberry Under the Spotlight "Perhaps the most remarkable part of this whole story is that the Church of Scientology admits that all of this did happen," he writes. Apparently unable to deny entirely that Hubbard took part in wild occult sex rites with a rocket scientist, the church has, over the years, floated the howler that Hubbard was actually on a military mission to infiltrate Parsons's little black magic club in order to neutralize it.

and how they echo Crowley. (He also points out the ways that Hubbard's midcentury, Cold Warinfluenced religion is also very different than the Victorian occult ideas of Crowley.)

Urban only includes a couple of short quotes from Hubbard's "Affirmations," but he encouraged me to take a longer look at them where Gerry Armstrong -once a trusted employee who was asked by "It is worth noting, however, that neither the Church Hubbard to gather his personal papers -- put it of Scientology nor any independent researcher has online in 2000. ever produced any evidence for this claim," Urban Um, this stuff is amazing. Before I reproduce some calmly notes. excerpts of it here, I'll quote Urban about the Urban then turns to even more sensitive material document's background... that the church has never denied the authenticity According to a mutual release and settlement of... agreement between the Church of Scientology of One of the most important documents for making California and former member Gerald Armstrong in sense of the Crowley-Hubbard link and the occult 1986, Armstrong agreed to return a number of roots of Scientology is a curious text called the confidential documents to the church, including all "Affirmations" (or "Admissions") of L. Ron Hubbard. copies of Hubbard's "Excalibur manuscript" and "all Composed in 1946 or 1947, "Affirmations" appears originals and copies of documents commonly known to be Hubbard's own personal writings, meant to as the 'Affirmations' written by L. Ron Hubbard." have been read into a tape recording device and Here the church clearly indicates that the text was then played back to Hubbard himself. No church written by L. Ron Hubbard, and it is difficult to official has ever publicly denied that "Affirmations" is understand why the church would file suit to retain an authentic Hubbard document, and Scientology's ownership of the text were it not an authentic own legal position indicates that it does consider the document. document to be church property and clearly wants to keep control of the text. As Urban says, in these extremely personal writings, Hubbard sounds very much like Crowley. "Affirmations" indicates that the author is engaged in some kind of magical ritual and hoping that his "magical work is powerful and effective." In fact, the "affirmations" describe themselves as "incantations" designed to become an integral part of listeners' natures, impressing upon them the reality of their psychic powers and magical abilities. Perhaps more significant, however, is the repeated mention of a female guardian figure, the most important spiritual adviser and aid to the listener. The emphasis on the guardian here seems to have been directly influenced by Crowley's Magick in Theory and Urban makes a good point. And so, brace yourself Practice… as we read a pre-Dianetics L. Ron Hubbard talking Urban goes on to note parallels between what to himself and trying to encourage himself despite Hubbard writes in his "Affirmations," and then goes several physical ailments and some other knocks he'd taken in his life... into a lengthy description of Scientology's concepts

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SCIENTOLOGY AND THE OCCULT  Blackberry Under the Spotlight "My service record was not too glorious... "I can have no doubts of my psychic powers...

"(o) That I believe in my gods and spiritual things... "(p) That nothing can halt my ambitions...

"Sexual feeling has been depressed by several things amounting to a major impasse. To cure "(u) That my code is to be all things a "magus" must ulcers of the stomach I was given testosterone and be... stilbesterol. These reduced my libido to nothing... "(x) That my magical work is powerful and "In 1942...while training in Miami, Florida, I met a effective..." girl named Ginger who excited me...From her I received an infection of gonnohorea (sp?). I was "Course II... You can sing beautifully. Your voice terrified by it, the consequences of being discovered can imitate any singer. Your tones are round and by my wife, the navy, my friends. I went to a private true... doctor who treated me with sulfa-thiazole and so "Material things are yours for the asking. Men are forth... your slaves. Elemental spirits are your slaves. You "I carried this fear of disease to sea with me. I was are power among powers, light in the darkness, reprimanded in San Diego in mid-43 for firing on the beauty in all... Mexican coast and was removed from command of "You will make fortunes in writing. Any book you my ship... care to write now will sell high and well...You talk "Sara, my sweetheart, is young, beautiful, desirable. easily to a dictaphone and the copy is excellent. We are very gay companions. I please her The copyist has no effect upon your work. You don't physically until she weeps about any separation. I care what she reads... want her always. But I am 13 years older than she. She is heavily sexed. My libido is so low I hardly "Your psychology is advanced and true and wonderful. It hypnotizes people. It predicts their admire her naked... emotions, for you are their ruler... "I have a very bad masturbatory history. I was taught when I was 11 and, despite guilt, fear of "You will live to be 200 years old, both because you insanity, etc. etc. I persisted. At a physical are calm and because of modern discoveries to be examination at a Y when I was about 13, the made in your lifetime... examiner and the people with him called me out of the line because my testicles hung low and "You will always look young. Your weight is 180 lbs. cautioned me about what would happen if I kept on And you will attain and hold that weight... masturbating... "Many women are not capable of pleasure in sex "By eliminating certain fears by hypnosis, curing my and anything adverse they say or do has no effect rheumatism and laying off hormones, I hope to whatever upon your pleasure. Their bodies thrill restore my former libido. I must! By hypnosis I must you...You have no fear if they conceive. What if they do? You do not care. Pour it into them and let fate be convinced as follows... decide..." "(b) My mind is still brilliant. My memory unaffected by drugs or experience... "(d) That things sexual thrill me...That naked women and pornography excite me greatly... "(m) That I have only friendship for Jack Parsons...

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THE THEOLOGY OF SCIENTOLOGY  SCIENTOLOGY ON THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY AND CHRIST "Anyway, Everyman is then shown to have been crucified so don't think that it's an accident that this crucifixion, they found out that this applied. Somebody somewhere on this planet, back about 600 BC, found some pieces of R6, and I don't know how they found it, either by watching madmen or something, but since that time they have used it and it became what is known as Christianity. The man on the Cross. There was no Christ. But the man on the cross is shown as Everyman. So of course each person seeing a crucified man, has an immediate feeling of sympathy for this man. Therefore you get many PCs who says they are Christ. Now, there's two reasons for that, one is the Roman Empire was prone to crucify people, so a person can have been crucified, but in R6 he is shown as crucified." Ron Hubbard, The Class VIII [Auditor's] Course, "Krakatoa and Beyond", Oct 3, 1968, aboard the Apollo "Religion does much to keep the assumption in restimulation, being basically a control mechanism used by those who have sent the preclear into a body. You will find the cross as a symbol all over the universe, and the Christ legend as implant in preclears a million years ago.", Professional Auditors Bulletins, vol. 2, p. 26 , copyright 1954. "A few operating thetans - scarcity - could lead to trouble. Witness the chaos resulting from the activities and other-determinism technology of one [ie. Christ] operating thetan 2,000 years ago." (Professional Auditor's Bulletins, PAB 31, Duplication) "Neither Lord Buddha nor Jesus Christ were OTs according to evidence. They were just a shade above clear". Hubbard, Certainty magazine, Vol 5 #10 . THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE OTs are Scientology's highest spiritual level, and Clears are at the next lower rung. Scientology "technology" transforms people into Clears by the tens of thousands, all of whom are spiritual equals to Jesus Christ. According to Hubbard's OT III cosmology, all of us on Earth were implanted 75 million years ago with false memories which he collective calls "R6". These implants cause us to do all sorts of crazy things, but Hubbard's auditing can break the power of the implants. Here, Hubbard says that Christianity is nothing more than a religious system built on parts of the R6 implants. The behavior of the mentally ill was used as a model for Christianity. After establishing the origins of Christianity upon the ravings of the mentally ill, Hubbard goes on to deny the existence of Christ, saying instead that all men share the implant of the cross, which is part of R6. Thus, according to Hubbard, responding to Christ is simply being under the control of a false memory implant. The highest auditor class is XII. This lecture is delivered to Class VIII trainees. It is my understanding that Class VIII auditors typically deliver the clearing and lower OT levels of processing. In any case, Class VIIIs are well-indoctrinated and predisposed to accepting Hubbard's claims without question. These auditors then go on to "counsel" lower-level church members with this "knowledge" of R6 and God. SCIENTOLOGY ON THE LEADERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AND ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY "Also the Christian Church used (and uses) implanting (with a squirrel version of the "7s"). These gangsters were the Nicomidians from lower Egypt who were cased out for criminal practices (implanting officials).

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THE THEOLOGY OF SCIENTOLOGY  They took over the Niocene Creed before the year zero, invented Christ (who comes from the crucifixion in R6 75m years ago) and implanted their way to "power". The original Nicomidians date about 600 BC and people who were Christ data at 75m years ago." - L. Ron Hubbard, Resistive Cases, Former Therapy, HCOB 23 Sep 1968. THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE The 7s refers to a Scientology auditing process. Implanting refers to the insertion of false memories into people's minds, implying that the Christian Church exerts mind control over its followers. While it may be true that some cults with Christian backgrounds use mind control, it is untrue that the Christian Church in general and as a matter of doctrine uses mind control. In typical fashion, Hubbard accuses others of his own crimes; Scientology uses a subtle form of mind control (I prefer the term "thought shaping") to keep their adherents in line. Bob Penny, former member, wrote an essay on Social Control in Scientology, which is found in the FACTNet archive. I cannot fathom how the Christian Church could "take over" the Nicene Creed, since the Creed is a formulation of Christian dogma and did not exist before Christianity. The Nicene Creed was a result of the First Council of Nicea, in 325 AD. Hubbard misstates both the time and place in this case. Again, Hubbard asserts that Christ never existed and is part of R6, the bad movies that were shown to everyone on Earth 75 million years ago. "implanted their way to 'power'" deserves some translation from Hubbardese. "implanted" refers to the coerced insertion of false memories into someone to achieve control. "power" is the highest condition in Hubbard's Ethics system. To be in power means to be at cause over others. SCIENTOLOGY ON THE CREATOR AND GOD "I imagine when we finally manage to communicate with beetle under rocks and free them, we'll no doubt find the Creator of Heaven who 43 + Trillion years ago designed and built the Pearly Gates and entrapped us all. "Good Lord, I'd hate to be guilty of that overt. But never mind - you aren't either. That guy is GONE (I hope!)", HCO BULLETIN OF MAY 11, AD1963 THE CHRISTIAN RESPONSE The Pearly Gates refer to the Helatrobus Implants. See "Hubbard on Heaven". According to Hubbard, heaven is a false memory given to us by an evil "Creator of Heaven". Apparently, the Helatrobus Implants are present in a wide variety of life forms, including insects. While Hubbard may have meant his reference to communicating with beetles to have been amusing, one of the final steps for the old OT VII contains instructions to: ("1. Find some plants, trees, etc., and communicate to them individually until you know they received your communication. 2. Go to a zoo or a place with many types of life and communicate with each of them until you know the communication is received and, if possible, returned." OT7-48) An "overt" is a wrongful act committed by someone against someone else. For example, the Helatrobus Implant is an overt. Hubbard hopes the Creator of Heaven is GONE.

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THE THEOLOGY OF SCIENTOLOGY  SCIENTOLOGY AND REINCARNATON "The Egyptians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, Sikhists, Brahmans, NeoPlatonists, Christians, Romans, Jews and Gnostics all believed in reincarnation and the rebirth cycle. It was a fundamental belief in the Roman Catholic Church until 553 AD when a company of four monks held the Synod of Constantinople, (without the Pope present) and decided the belief could not exist. They condemned the teachings of reincarnation as heresy and it was at this time that references to it were expunged from the Bible." ("Have You Lived Before This Life?" by L. Ron Hubbard, Introduction, 1977 edition, both written by anonymous authors. Advance #93, p2,; quoted in Margery Wakefield's book "The Road to Xenu", Chapter 7) [It say that the council] "condemned the teaching of reincarnation. 'If anyone assert the pre-existence of souls,' they decreed, 'and shall submit to the monstrous doctrine that follows from it, let him be anathema.' And, thus there was a formal curse upon believers and all references to the subject were expunged from the Bible. Origenism and the belief in the pre-existence of souls was declared heresy" (ibid. timeline in appendix on p284) THE CHRISTIAN REPONSE TO SCIENTOLOGY Hubbard essentially says that he is restoring an ancient Christian doctrine. Yet, reincarnation was never a fundamental belief of Christianity, but rather a result of Hubbard's poor knowledge in history. Any New Testament scholar can tell you that early manuscripts from 100-500 AD have no references whatsoever to reincarnation. Not only Fundamentalists, but also the most Liberal Theologians as well as Historians agree with this. Nothing has been "expunged" (lost) from the Bible. The Text of the Bible is the best documented of any book in world history! We have two complete copies of the Bible in codex form, written in 300AD! The Synod of Constantinople didn't mention reincarnation. It dealt with, inter alia, the teachings of Origen, who stated that human souls existed before birth. (Pre-existence). Origen concluded that all souls will be restored in the end, not reincarnated. Also the devil will be saved in the end. Therefore the Synod declared Anathemas against Origen: "I. IF anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows it: let him be anathema." (Quoted in Nicene Fathers, "The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church", ISBN 0-8028-8129, p. 318.) Reincarnation was not mentioned. Origen was condemned for his heretical opinions about the soul, but not even Origen believed in reincarnation: "In this place [Matt. 17:10] it does not appear to me that by Elijah the soul is spoken of, lest I should fall into the dogma of transmigration, which is foreign to the church of God, and not handed down by the Apostles, nor anywhere set forth in the Scriptures..." (Origen's Commentary on Matthew, Book XIII, The Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. X, p. 474) Regarding the "four monks" present, the following may be quoted: "In accordance with the imperial command, but without the assent of the Pope, the synod was opened on the 5th May A.D. 553, in the Secretarium of the Cathedral Church at Constantinople. Among those present were the Patriarchs, Eutychius of Contantinople, who presided, Apollinaris of Alexandria, Domninus of Antioc, three bishops as representatives of the Patriarch Eustochius of Jerusalem, and 145 other metropolitans and bishops, of whom many came also in the place of absent colleagues." (Hefele, Quoted in Nicene Fathers, "The Seven Ecumenical Councils", p. 299.)

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THE VERDICT ON SCIENTOLOGY  Blackberry Under the Spotlight SCIENTOLOGY IS NEO-GNOSTICISM Scientology is a Gnostic [gnosis: to know] system in every sense of the word. The material is doled out on The Gradient at steep prices. Each course is a prerequisite for the next. The church member is compelled to take that next course to secure their spiritual salvation or be condemned to sliding back to a state of degradation. Hubbard set up Scientology as circles within circles, a spiritual treadmill without end. Scientology always has a new "breakthrough" technology to learn that will unlock your spiritual potential. Gnosticism parallels Scientology: "Even for specialists, Gnosticism is hard to define. It is a set of forms of religious belief that probably came into existence in the first century BCE as a heretical form of Judaism. Gnosticism flourished in the second to fourth centuries CE as heretical forms of Christianity. It is, as Pheme Perkins correctly argues, not a systematic set of ideas but of "mythemes" and speculations that were combined in a host of different ways both within and without Christian vocabulary. Gnosticism claimed that there exists a higher god that has become trapped in the material world due to a flaw in God's wisdom. The book of Genesis was therefore understood to be a story of how the demonic Jewish God, (often labeled Yaldobaoth) tried to trap human souls in material bodies. To free the soul from its entrapment, the Higher God sent a revealer into this world to inform humans of its divine origin. Those who understand this revelation, this gnosis, are empowered to rise above this world of demonic materialism and resume their places in the realm of the Higher God." (Gnosticism and the New Testament, Pheme Perkins, 1993, pp 261) QUOTES FROM TERTULLIAN "The Valentinians, who are no doubt a very large body of heretics - comprising as they do so many apostates from the truth, who have a propensity for fables, and no discipline to deter them (therefrom) care nothing so much as to obscure what they preach, if indeed they (can be said to) preach who obscure their doctrine. The officiousness with which they guard their doctrine is an officiousness which betrays their guilt. Their disgrace is proclaimed in the very earnestness with which they maintain their religious system. (Quote from Tertullian)

[Compare Scientology's strange Xenu stories and the policy of keeping the doctrine secret] In like manner, the heretics who are now the object of our remarks, the Valentinians, have formed Eleusian Dissipations of their own, consecrated by a profound silence, having nothing of the heavenly in them but for their mystery. By the help of sacred names and titles and arguments of true religion, they have fabricated the vainest and foulest figment for men's pliant liking, out of the affluent suggestions of Holy Scripture, since from its many springs even errors may well emanate. [In like manner, the Scientologists show many similarities to these early heresies and mystery religions from the first and second centuries. Compare the references to 'religious values' and 'Scientific research' and that you can be 'Christian and Scientologist at the same time'.] Let, however, any man approach the subject from a knowledge of the faith which he has otherwise learned, as soon as he finds so many names of Aeons, so many marriages, so many offsprings, so many exits, so many issues, felicities and infelicities of a dispersed and mutilated Deity, will that man hesitate at once to pronounce that these are "the fables and endless genealogies" which the inspired apostle by anticipation condemned, whilst these seeds of heresy were even then shooting forth? [Compare the intricate cosmology of Hubbard with thetans, marcabs etc. The reference is to Paul, I Timothy 1:4] QUOTES FROM IRANEUS For who would not expend all that he possessed, if only he might learn in return, that from the tears of the enthymesis of the Aeon involved in passion, seas, and fountains, and rivers, and every liquid substance derived its origin; that light burst forth from her smile; and that from her perplexity and consternation the corporeal elements of the world had their formation?" (AH I,4:3, p. 321) [Compare Hubbard's statements about Dianetics and Xenu. (Dianetics was totally unprecedented, Hubbard was the only one in 75.000.000.000 years to solve the problem of Xenu, etc.)] .

www.visionreportwatch.com

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SCIENTOLOGY: HOLLYWOODS RELIGION  I had entered Scientology at the age of eighteen a shy and emotionally disturbed teenager, a psychological survivor of a painfully dysfunctional family. I had little confidence or self-esteem. Within months, I was transformed into an aggressive and radical Scientologist. As a result of daily hypnotic rituals and the unending barrage of propaganda from "bulletins" and tapes, I was completely indoctrinated and fiercely dedicated to the group. During the next twelve years, I traveled to six cities spreading the gospel of Scientology, working in various Scientology centers at various jobs. I did volunteer work for the Guardian's Office, the notorious CIA-like branch of the "church" which dealt with such things as espionage, agents, infiltration, covers, plants, intelligence, and covert activities. It was as a "G.O." volunteer that I once sat in on a meeting in which the murders of two defectors were planned. I understood that these murders were justified on the basis of the Scientology credo: "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics." In other words, the ends justify the means. I was given written policies — fully illustrated — on how to break and enter into buildings. At one point, while working for Scientology in Washington, D.C., I was required to break into the nearby headquarters of the American Psychiatric Association and steal financial and membership records. Which I did. I was coached to perjure myself in a lawsuit involving a Florida judge, and although I never did appear in court, I was fully prepared to implicate the judge in sexual misconduct in order to serve the "church." After just a few months of a systematic program of hypnosis and indoctrination, I was operating entirely on a stimulus response basis. I would have followed any command I was given. Including murder. Or suicide. I was not alone in this. The systems of thought and mind control devised by Hubbard in Scientology were very good — but not perfect. As in all organizations, there would inevitably be a few troublesome souls who would question, doubt, and generally resist the program. It was to deal with this troublesome remnant that Hubbard developed his system of "ethics," a system which would effectively close the loop of social control in Scientology. Like being sent to the principal's office in grade school, the order "to go to ethics" strikes certain terror in the soul of a Scientologist. This is because the Ethics Officer holds the ultimate power in Scientology, the power to apply the dreaded label of "Suppressive Person" and to cast a member out of Scientology and into spiritual oblivion for millions of lifetimes to come. A Scientologist will do almost anything to stay out of trouble with Ethics. "Ethics" is defined in Scientology as rationality toward the highest level of survival along the dynamics. But in Scientology, ethics has to do primarily with the group — the group being Scientology. Anything that promotes Scientology or benefits Scientology is therefore defined as "ethical," whereas anything which is contra-survival for Scientology becomes, by definition, "unethical." Similarly, there is a phrase frequently heard in Scientology, "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics," meaning that which is good for the group (Scientology) and for mankind is more important and takes precedence over that which is good for the individual. A dangerous philosophy. The chart of "ethics conditions" in Scientology is as follows, in descending sequence: • Power • Power Change • Affluence • Normal Operation • Emergency • Danger • Nonexistence • Liability • Doubt • Enemy • Treason  Confusion The theory in Scientology is that a person will always be in one of these conditions with regard to any area of life. So a person could be in a condition of Affluence at his job, a condition of Emergency in his marriage, a condition of Nonexistence in his finances, a condition of Normal Operation with his health, etc. And for each of the conditions, Hubbard devised a formula which, if applied, is supposed to cause the person to progress to the next higher condition. That some of these formulas may not make much sense does not matter. Because Ron (Hubbard) has said this is what they are, they must be right. Right? The formula for the condition of Confusion is, simply: FIND OUT WHERE YOU ARE.

The above are excerpts from “Understanding Scientology: The Demon Cult

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