Scientology compound/airstrip/vault/landing site in the news again

PopHistorian

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
CNN TV is talking about the mysterious Scientology compound in New Mexico again. Probably just for ratings. Because it features a vault built into a mountainside and crop-circle-like symbols etched into the landscape that can be seen only from the air, rumors are flying. (See the symbols from the air here: hXXp://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/7365/United_States/New_Mexico/Trementina/Scientology_landing_strip_and_symbol)

The local sheriff has been invited there to help squelch escalating rumors that aliens will land there. He says he saw lots of people, farm animals, and food stockpiles, but other than these "survivalist" trappings, nothing too unusual.

Funny thing is, this is an old story that is almost word-for-word found here, hXXp://www.xenu.net/archive/WIR/wir09-48.html, from 2005. Here's part of it. It is kind of mysterious.
Landing Zone Earth

The Church of Spiritual Technology, the California-based branch of the renowned Church of Scientolgy, first came to Trementina, New Mexico in January, 1984. They began purchasing tracts of land and set to work on building a massive compound.

By 1990, workmen had finished the tunnel, cleared an air strip atop a mesa and built at least three luxury homes, valued at $2.5 million. The main house is massive, with 12,000 square feet of living space and 12 bedrooms.

But what goes on inside the remote, 4,175-acre spread known as San Miguel Ranch remains a mystery to most on the outside -- because church officials aren't saying.

What is known is that the compound's primary function is to house the writing of spiritual leader L. Ron Hubbard, whose works have been engraved on steel plates encapsulated in titanium. The project is funded by a $30 million bequest left by Hubbard for just such a purpose.

The plan is that in the future, when Hubbard's followers wish to return, they will be able find the source material more easily, sparing Scientologists the same embarrassments that have befallen other major religions.

Former Scientologists familiar with Hubbard's teachings on reincarnation say the symbol marks a 'return point' so loyal staff members know where they can find the founder's works when they travel here in the future from other places in the universe.

[...]

A satellite image of the area shows what appears to be a 6,000-foot-long landing strip with a base station at its end, with a series of switchbacks reaching over the mesas, heading towards the landing pad. The church is desperately trying to kill the story.

The church tried to persuade station KRQE not to air its report last week about the aerial signposts marking a Scientology compound that includes a huge vault 'built into a mountainside,' the station said on its Web site. The tunnel was constructed to protect the works of L. Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded the church in the 1950s. [...]

It is overseen by a Scientology corporation called the Church of Spiritual Technology. Based in Los Angeles, the corporation dispatched an official named Jane McNairn and an attorney to visit the TV station in an effort to squelch the story, KRQE news director Michelle Donaldson said.
The Church of Scientology, BTW, may be an example of a CoIntelPro that is openly attacked by the mainstream media in order to legitimize it -- literally to promote interest in it and in other spiritual-growth "detours."
 
AdPop said:
The Church of Scientology, BTW, may be an example of a CoIntelPro that is openly attacked by the mainstream media in order to legitimize it -- literally to promote interest in it and in other spiritual-growth "detours."
I saw that today on the tube and my first thought was that the fundies might feel threatened by Scientology.

Now that I think about it a little more, they were a bit short on celebrity tragedies. The Paris Hilton crap only goes so far, and the death of Anna Nicole Smith and subsequent custody battle for her baby daughter is old news. So I guess we're about due for some new hoopla. After all, they can plug Tom Cruise and John Travola in the process of talking about Scientology. Plus it keeps people in the wishful thinking mode since we mere mortals can only dream of celebrity fame and riches (cough). So those are a few more angles to consider.

But now they get Jerry Falwell to talk about endlessly for the next couple of weeks, or months.
 
mark said:
AdPop said:
The Church of Scientology, BTW, may be an example of a CoIntelPro that is openly attacked by the mainstream media in order to legitimize it -- literally to promote interest in it and in other spiritual-growth "detours."
I saw that today on the tube and my first thought was that the fundies might feel threatened by Scientology.

Now that I think about it a little more, they were a bit short on celebrity tragedies. The Paris Hilton crap only goes so far, and the death of Anna Nicole Smith and subsequent custody battle for her baby daughter is old news. So I guess we're about due for some new hoopla. After all, they can plug Tom Cruise and John Travola in the process of talking about Scientology. Plus it keeps people in the wishful thinking mode since we mere mortals can only dream of celebrity fame and riches (cough). So those are a few more angles to consider.

But now they get Jerry Falwell to talk about endlessly for the next couple of weeks, or months.
Think plugged Tom Cruise use Scientology to bring in more "followers" since he have a great deal of fans? I guess that is one of the purposes of Scientology/CoIntelPro. To control.
 
Mark wrote:
snipped:

But now they get Jerry Falwell to talk about endlessly for the next couple of weeks, or months.

He died yesterday.
 
mudrabbit said:
Mark wrote:
snipped:

But now they get Jerry Falwell to talk about endlessly for the next couple of weeks, or months.

He died yesterday.
Uhm, mudrabbit, that was Mark's point.
 
USA TODAY said:
Falwell was a uniter and a divider

By Susan Page and Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

He was the founding father of the religious right. When Jerry Falwell created the Moral Majority a quarter-century ago, many Christian fundamentalists eschewed the world of politics. But the Southern Baptist minister from Lynchburg, Va., launched a political movement that would help elect two presidents and sharpen America's cultural divide.

Falwell, who had a history of heart trouble, was found without a pulse in his office at Liberty University at midday Tuesday and pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital an hour later. His doctor, Carl Moore, said he presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality. He was 73.

"He will be remembered as one of the originators of the movement of conservative Christians, especially evangelical Protestants, to bring traditional values back into public policy by means of politics," said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron and author of The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections.

"He was at the genesis of the religious right," said Marshall Wittmann, legislative director of the Christian Coalition from 1993 to 1995 and now a veteran Capitol Hill aide.

Falwell also was a lightning rod. Critics say he crossed the Constitution's line between church and state and that he preached intolerance, particularly toward homosexuals. He drove moral issues to the top of the nation's political agenda and in the process contributed to the polarization of American politics.

"We will always remember him as a founder and leader of America's anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation's appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, an advocacy group.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, which supports separation of church and state, praised Falwell as "a determined advocate for what he believed" but said he "manipulated a powerful pulpit in exchange for access to political power and promotion of a narrow range of moral concerns."

Falwell was ridiculed when the National Liberty Journal, which he edited, issued a warning to parents in 1999 that the Tinky Winky character in the Teletubbies children's show on PBS was advocating a gay lifestyle because he was purple, carried a purse and had an antenna shaped like an inverted triangle, a symbol of gay pride.

Most controversial of all were Falwell's comments three days after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Falwell said "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians … the ACLU (and) People for the American Way" were partly to blame for the terrorist attacks.

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this, because God will not be mocked," he said in an appearance on the Christian TV program The 700 Club.

As a furor erupted over his remarks, he amended them, saying that only terrorists and hijackers were responsible for 9/11.

"Some of the stark and harsh rhetoric of American fundamentalism was always readily on the lips of Dr. Falwell," said Michael Cromartie, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington think tank that studies religion and politics. Even so, "he was an important figure in igniting fundamentalists into a public-policy resource of many millions. That's not a small accomplishment."

Consider the speakers Falwell drew to Liberty University: Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to address Saturday's commencement. Last year's speaker was Arizona Sen. John McCain.

McCain had scorched Falwell as an "agent of intolerance" during the 2000 presidential campaign but sought to repair relations as he prepared to reach out to conservative Christians for his 2008 bid.


LEGACY: Critics, allies both admired preacher's political skills
"In this harsh world of politics, differences and disagreements are legion," Falwell said in an interview last year with USA TODAY when asked about McCain. "But only the foolish let them stay permanent."

He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Macel Pate, and three children — Jerry, Jeannie and Jonathan.

Son of 'an agnostic, an alcoholic, a bootlegger'

Falwell was born on Aug. 11, 1933, in Lynchburg, a city of 64,000 in central Virginia that he never really left, moving away only to attend college. His mother was a devout Christian, according to biographer Susan Harding. He described his father as "an agnostic, an alcoholic, a bootlegger."

Falwell said he was born again on Jan. 20, 1952, finding God at age 18. He had entered Lynchburg College in 1950 to study engineering. Two years later, he transferred to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo.

In 1956, he came home to establish the Thomas Road Baptist Church in an abandoned bottle factory — it's now a megachurch with 22,000 members — and a week later started the Old Time Gospel Hour to broadcast his sermons on radio and, later, TV.

He founded Lynchburg Baptist College, now called Liberty University, in 1971. It has 7,700 students.

Falwell was friendly, outgoing, energetic and ambitious. Conservative commentator Cal Thomas recalls how he was swept into working for Falwell at the Moral Majority by "his strong personality, his deep convictions and his generosity." Falwell was smart and funny, Thomas says, and something of a practical joker.

Falwell's booming baritone voice made him a "master speaker," according to Harding, a University of Santa Cruz anthropologist who wrote The Book of Jerry Falwell. He was a buoyant fundamentalist who preached that all things were created by God in "six historic days," that Satan was the agent of evil in the world and that the Bible was entirely true, without error and authoritative in all matters.

At a time when some liberal ministers were joining the civil rights movement, Falwell argued that the clergy should stay out of politics.

"Nowhere are we commissioned to reform the externals," he said in a sermon in 1965. "I feel that we need to get off the streets and back into the pulpits and into our prayer rooms."

A decade later, his thinking had changed. "This idea of 'religion and politics don't mix' was invented by the devil to keep Christians from running their own country," he said in 1976.

He was ready to create a political organization to represent those who, like himself, were dismayed by the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision recognizing abortion rights and by a popular culture that they felt glorified immorality and rejected God.

Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation and a founder of modern conservatism, recalls a meeting in the late 1970s at which Falwell discussed his plans.

"I said, 'Out there is what you might call a moral majority' " that holds similar views, Weyrich said. "Falwell said, 'Wait a minute.' He turned and said, 'That's the name of the organization.' "

The Moral Majority was groundbreaking, even revolutionary. It sought an activist role for fundamentalists who had seen politics as something to be avoided.

"Falwell was the Isaiah of that movement," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists' Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Outrage over Roe v. Wade was key to convincing evangelicals to become more political, Land said. It "altered the political landscape of the country, and Falwell was the first to respond to that earthquake."

Falwell forged an alliance with those of other beliefs, including Catholics and Jews — a step that appalled some fundamentalists. Bob Jones, founder of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., was among those who denounced the idea.

"Historically, the fundamentalists feuded with Roman Catholics, with people outside the Christian faith," Green said. "They feuded with other evangelicals and they feuded with each other. For Falwell to come along and argue that people of different religious faiths should set aside their theological differences to cooperate in politics because they had common values was an extraordinary idea."

Falwell and others in his camp felt disillusioned by the shortcomings of the presidency of the born-again Jimmy Carter. They worked in 1980 to oust Carter and elect Ronald Reagan and conservatives to Congress.

At the end of the decade, the Moral Majority disbanded. "At the time, Falwell was quite frustrated," Green said. "But it had developed the idea of a broader religious coalition and this idea that religious traditionalists should be in politics. It had done its job."

The Moral Majority begat the Christian Coalition, led by Pat Robertson, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1988.

Falwell's political influence had ebbed a bit in recent years, in part because of his penchant for making controversial comments. He wasn't asked to address the Republican National Convention in 2004, as he had four years earlier.

Even so, he was seen by McCain and other Republicans with presidential aspirations as an important ally in reaching the conservative Christians who have become the most reliable voting bloc in the GOP.

Falwell is credited with launching the effort that has put issues such as the teaching of evolution, same-sex marriage, abortion rights and stem cell research near the top of the mainstream political agenda. "Values voters" were viewed as a prize, the group that helped elect George W. Bush president in 2000 and 2004.

Falwell "was willing to go into the arena in the secular world and do battle over these values," said Bobby Welch, president of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention.

"When we started Moral Majority, we were novices," Falwell said in an interview with CNN last week. "You could have gotten much of our preachers who were interested in public policy in a phone booth at the time. But it was an idea whose time was come."

Mobilizing the other side

His supporters were fervent. So were his critics.

In the 1980s, Falwell opposed imposing economic sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime and criticized Nobel Peace Prize winner and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a phony." (He later apologized.) He supported Ferdinand Marcos, the deposed president of the Philippines, and railed against communism.

His greatest influence was on issues closer to home — opposing the Equal Rights Amendment, supporting the teaching of creationism in public schools and resisting gay rights.

Robert Kunst, a liberal activist from Miami Beach, began to clash with Falwell when Falwell joined forces with singer Anita Bryant in 1976 in a celebrated attempt to repeal a law in Dade County, Fla. It prohibited discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing, public accommodation and employment.

In an interview with USA TODAY before Falwell's death, Kunst called Falwell an "anti-gay witch hunter" and a man with a "hateful heart." His activism against gay rights was so "venomous" that it helped mobilize homosexuals to fight back, Kunst said.

Even so, Kunst said the two men got along personally. The last time they saw each other was several years ago when Kunst was among two-dozen demonstrators outside a Baptist church in Palm Beach where Falwell was to speak. He held a sign that accused Falwell of "leading America's Taliban."

When Falwell saw Kunst, he came over to shake hands and chat for a moment. "He said, 'Hi, Bob,' and I said, 'Hey, Jerry, I'm still active,' and he said, 'I'm still active,' " Kunst said. "I said, 'Don't stop. After all, we have to keep using each other. There's a whole revolution going on here.' "

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-05-15-falwell-obit_N.htm?csp=34
He died of "heart attack."

I've heard of him before, but I didn't want to listen to him because he was highly against gays. He appeared obviously as a hated individual who would divide the nation. You think there is a reason for his death? As a way to drive others to promote his preach? Well, a food for a thought.
 
anart said:
mudrabbit said:
Mark wrote:
snipped:

But now they get Jerry Falwell to talk about endlessly for the next couple of weeks, or months.

He died yesterday.
Uhm, mudrabbit, that was Mark's point.
Oh geez, hit dense ol' me with a wet noodle!
 
Um, since this thread opens about 'Scientology', can someone tell me
*exactly* what Scientology represents? They got themselves a legal
designation as to be called a 'Church' in the USA, but it is an organization
but what is it really? I know that other countries have an aversion to
this group, so what is it that scares these countries? A Cult?

What exactly do they offer their members? Are they members of
the brotherhood of serpents or what?

I tried to use the glossary (it is down at the Cassiopaea main site) and searched
for other various places here but I cannot seem to find anything of significance.

Thanks!
 
dant, I have been a Scientologist, though not a "churchie" (member of Church of Scientology), but a free-zoner, almost a member of Ron's Org. There's no easy way to convey all the things going on in Scientology, but after over a year since I left I came to conclusion that this is a masterpiece of STS cointelpro - Church of Scientology and all the ofshoots alike. Think of it as a composite trap, which gets hold on individual on many different layers and which mechanisms, philosophy, rules of conduct are so entangled that it's terribly difficult to take all of the pieces apart. The biggest problem is - Scientology has pretty robust method of helping people deal with their traumatic experiences. Once an individual experiences so called "auditing" and it's results - psychological ones and physiological as well - he most often falls into the trap for good.

This stuff is deadly dangerous.
 
First, take a look at BBC's Panorama broadcasted this week:

http://video(dot)google.com/videoplay?docid=-126281853779690652

Then, watch the 'counterstrike' from scientology HQ:

http://www(dot)bbcpanorama-exposed.org/watch-the-video-documentary.php

Notice both sides playing some divide and conquer game, but the douze points definitively go to scientology.
 
j0da said:
dant, I have been a Scientologist, though not a "churchie" (member of Church of Scientology), but a free-zoner, almost a member of Ron's Org. There's no easy way to convey all the things going on in Scientology, but after over a year since I left I came to conclusion that this is a masterpiece of STS cointelpro - Church of Scientology and all the ofshoots alike. Think of it as a composite trap, which gets hold on individual on many different layers and which mechanisms, philosophy, rules of conduct are so entangled that it's terribly difficult to take all of the pieces apart. The biggest problem is - Scientology has pretty robust method of helping people deal with their traumatic experiences. Once an individual experiences so called "auditing" and it's results - psychological ones and physiological as well - he most often falls into the trap for good.

This stuff is deadly dangerous.
Thanks, j0da

I have been told numerous of times that it is a dangerous organization but I hadn't been
told why that it is. I guess from what you are saying is, it IS a "deadly dangerous"
organization with COINTELPRO connections and that is enough for me.

It is interesting how pervasive Scientology is and I am reminded by the movie
"Phenomenon" with actor John Travolta and the "message" that they are
trying to convey (of their beliefs) and I am certain I have watched other
similar movies embedded with similar messages. Interesting indeed.

Thanks for your input, j0da!
 
j0da said:
dant, I have been a Scientologist, though not a "churchie" (member of Church of Scientology), but a free-zoner, almost a member of Ron's Org. There's no easy way to convey all the things going on in Scientology, but after over a year since I left I came to conclusion that this is a masterpiece of STS cointelpro - Church of Scientology and all the ofshoots alike. Think of it as a composite trap, which gets hold on individual on many different layers and which mechanisms, philosophy, rules of conduct are so entangled that it's terribly difficult to take all of the pieces apart. The biggest problem is - Scientology has pretty robust method of helping people deal with their traumatic experiences. Once an individual experiences so called "auditing" and it's results - psychological ones and physiological as well - he most often falls into the trap for good.

This stuff is deadly dangerous.
My experience with them was very (creepy) strange. Years ago they were trying to recruit people by luring them to their offices off of a busy street in Brussels. I was just walking along when some girl started talking to me about how sugar was bad and if I wanted to know more. I sensed something was up, but I wanted to find out more so I went with her. She led me to this house where she introduced me to what seemed to be the local leader (for lack of a better term). He was the "closer" (as in closing the sale). I was taken into a room where it was just him and me and he started "working" me.
Using some book with pictograms he started explaining certain things (don't remember what exactly) and giving me a sampling which lead up to trying to convince me to buy this Hubbard book.
Interestingly enough, about a week or so before that I was browsing through the inventory of books at my local library when I came across this book this guy was trying to sell me. I told him that I was not going to buy this book since I could borrow it from my local library.
He got angry and claimed it was impossible they had this book and that I should spend X amount buying it from him. He got even angrier when his son barged in on our "meeting" wanting something from his dad and this guy barked at the little one because the child was interrupting his routine.
Gradually, while being there, I felt an increasing threatening presence from him (in the sense that they would keep me there against my will) and decided it was time to get out of there fast. I whipped out my wallet and checked it in front of him (there was not that much in it) and basically told him that I would have to choose between money for food or this book and that I was choosing food. That somehow convinced him. Maybe he realized I wasn't "juicy" enough money-wise.
When I left I noticed some of this underlings were leading along more people to the antichambre (where they were having a little reception) of the sales room.

Looking back, he definitely had spellbinding qualities: charming, good looking, very convincing, calculated.

Of course they sent me home with their personality test.
 
Dant, you might want to check out these links:

_http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/fishman/index2.html - The Fishman Affidavit

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishman_Affidavit

_http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/fishman.html - Press Release by Steven Fishman

_http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/verweng.html - Karen Spaink: Defense against Scientology
 
beau said:
Dant, you might want to check out these links:

_http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/fishman/index2.html - The Fishman Affidavit

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishman_Affidavit

_http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/fishman.html - Press Release by Steven Fishman

_http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/verweng.html - Karen Spaink: Defense against Scientology
Thanks, Beau,

Wow, there is a lot of information in these links and some of these things that Scientologist do
are downright scary! All sorts of Psychopathic and CointelPro activities are shown therein.

Gah!
 
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