Inside Scientology

[clearmiddle]

If we are a Truth seeking enterprise here, and I think we are, then one of our actions is to find out what IS true, what does have value, in whatever it is we are looking at...

While I have not personally been involved in Scientology, other than losing a friend to it, I was involved with another group, an est spinoff, that borrowed a fair amount of thinking from Scientology. I am still using some of that learning to understand my own behavior and that of those around me, 30 years later. It requires careful sifting.

You can learn useful lessons from all sorts of "bad" situations, so why not from "bad" groups? I was involved with a religious cult when I was growing up -- my mother was a member -- and they taught me to "be different," and to be suspicious of the medical industry. Those were sound, relevant lessons that have served me all my life even though the cult itself turned out to be a total scam.

Even pathological groups have to in some way appeal to their victims in terms of things that people have inside themselves -- you have to do that to create plausible lies. Sometimes that means bringing out hidden qualities. If the individual in such a group is inclined to question, learn, and grow, the experience can be a valuable one.

 

[cholas]

Here is an interesting bit from an interview with LRH's son, Ronald DeWolf, in Penthouse mag 1983:

"The Antichrist. Aleister Crowley thought of himself as such. And when Crowley died in 1947, my father then decided that he should wear the cloak of the beast and become the most powerful being in the universe. What a lot of people don't realize is that Scientology is black magic that is just spread out over a long time period. To perform black magic generally takes a few hours or, at most, a few weeks. But in Scientology it's stretched out over a lifetime, and so you don't see it. Black magic is the inner core of Scientology --and it is probably the only part of Scientology that really works. Also, you've got to realize that my father did not worship Satan. He thought he was Satan. He was one with Satan. He had a direct pipeline of communication and power with him. My father wouldn't have worshiped anything. I mean, when you think you're the most powerful being in the universe, you have no respect for anything, let alone worship... The explanation [of black magic] is sort of long and complicated. The basic rationale is that there are some powers in this universe that are pretty strong.

As an example, Hitler was involved in the same black magic and the same occult practices that my father was. The identical ones. Which, as I have said, stem clear back to before Egyptian times. It's a very secret thing. Very powerful and very workable and very dangerous. Brainwashing is nothing compared to it. The proper term would be "soul cracking." It's like cracking open the soul, which then opens various doors to the power that exists, the satanic and demonic powers. Simply put, it's like a tunnel or an avenue or a doorway. Pulling that power into yourself through another person --and using women, especially -- is incredibly insidious. It makes Dr. Fu Manchu look like a kindergarten student. It is the ultimate vampirism, the ultimate mind--flick-, instead of going for blood, you're going for their soul. And you take drugs in order to reach that state where you can, quite literally, like a psychic hammer, break their soul, and pull the power through. He designed his Scientology Operating Thetan techniques to do the same thing. But, of course, it takes a couple of hundred hours of auditing and mega-thousands of dollars for the privilege of having your head turned into a glass Humpty Dumpty --shattered into a million pieces.. I think [cults] are very dangerous and destructive. I don't think that anyone should think for you. And that's exactly what cults do. All cults, including Scientology, say, "I am your mind, I am your brain. I've done all the work for you, I've laid the path open for you. All you have to do is turn your mind off and walk down the path I have created." Well, I have learned that there's great strength in diversity, that a clamorous discussion or debate is very healthy and should be encouraged... Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul.... I think my father has received the ultimate punishment, which is being locked and trapped in his own insanity. There's no way out for him..."

Found here(Thanks AI):http://www.undovedmind.org/ISGP/articles/dutroux/Belgian_X_dossiers_of_the_Dutroux_affair.htm (bottom of page).

 

[denekin]

Even pathological groups have to in some way appeal to their victims in terms of things that people have inside themselves -- you have to do that to create plausible lies. Sometimes that means bringing out hidden qualities. If the individual in such a group is inclined to question, learn, and grow, the experience can be a valuable one.

And isn't that our job? We get into so much trouble because we want to find a teaching that is Finished Static Truth. Whereas our real job is to discover it. If the individual in such a group, as you say, Megan, is inclined to grow, to question, to think clearly and feel coherently, then they are not dominated by the group.
They are not True believers, just good students...and as such, they'll learn.

I wonder if they initially tried the softer approach of helpful compliance, only to find playing nice offered no advantage, merely a drain on their energy. I'm no fan of the CoS, but there are probably a few things we could learn from them in their dealings with "preliminary investigations" and the like, e.g. strategies or methods.

Gonzo

One that that comes to mind that we can learn is to NOT close down, not retrench, not isolate ourselves. To encourage people to open minded investigation of what the Forum and SOTT are all about. And to reveal the abusive tactics used against Laura and her work without being martyrs or overt antagonizers. "Just the facts, ma'am." The social environment at the time of the foundation of Scientology was very different than now.
It's important to remember that Hubbard was doing his original innovative thinking during the McArthy era when conformity was the ultimate American virtue.

Hubbard started with the great success of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950. Initially, he trained Dianetic auditors, and then they went home to Santa Fe or Wichita or Seattle and worked as part of a loose Dianetic franchise. Old auditors I met 35 years ago talked about those times as the"good old days". Auditors experimented, observed, shared success and failure stories and Hubbard was initially pleased to oversee and evaluate the work of hundreds of freewheeling auditors.

If I remember correctly -from what the old guys and gals told me- three things happened to tighten up the organization: One was negative press and academic attacks on Dianetics. There was the controversy of past lives arising in Dianetic Sessions. Orthodox doctors, psychiatrists and psychotherapists could NOT go there. To believe in past lives, to embrace reincarnation made you kin to theosophists and other crypto-Hindu riff-raff. Not proper. Not at all. Certainly not American. Even if some of Hubbard's critics suspected past lives were real, few had the courage to stand up and say so. Imagine what any priest or minister from any orthodox Christian church had to say about past lives! The development of Hubbard's ideas was a threat to the basic premises of Western Civilization!

The second was Hubbard's disapproval of what some of his auditors were doing with Dianetics. And this is something we see over and over again in this kind of enterprise: The One Who Gets The Ball Rolling (in this case Hubbard) did not like - and probably in some cases with good reason- the direction some of his students were taking. The need arose for some gentle "policing" and "enforcing of standards". And I suspect this was at least initially justifiable. How many of Gurdjieff's students understood what he was doing well enough to really represent it accurately?

The third issue with Hubbard and the CoS was when Hubbard developed and released the original Scientology thesis:

Many of Hubbard's original followers were more comfortable looking at Dianetics, and even Scientology as a form of psychotherapy. Hubbard's need to frame it as a religion was over the top for them. He was a heavy handed guy, and I suspect that like a lot of Gurus (Maharishi, Muktananda, Werner Erhard, etc etc etc) he knew that his vision had merit, it just didn't occur to him that that merit was not as Sublime or as Total as he wanted it to be. The tragic marriage of authentic Insight and Wishful Thinking!

Now, add to this cocktail the story of Wilhelm Reich (see below) and his treatment by the US government. Hubbard did not know Reich personally but knew of his work and had followed his career. He suspected if the Government could do this to Reich they could do it to him. Reich was known, respected, and/or vilified internationally. And so was part of Hubbard's motivation for building his Church Militant simple self protection?.

From Wikipedia:

Reich was living in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. On March 2 that year the Nazi newspaper Völkischer Beobachter published an attack on one of Reich's pamphlets, The Sexual Struggle of Youth.[5] He left immediately for Vienna, then Scandinavia, moving to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) obtained an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators.[6] Charged with contempt for violating it, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved requesting the judge to read all his books and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956 several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA - a notable example of censorship in U.S. history.[2] He died in jail of heart failure just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.[7]

While none of Hubbard's theories and practices had the Absolute Value he ascribed to them, the attacks on him by people who clearly were out to invalidate his work without attempting to understand it, drove him into increasing megalomaniacal isolation. "You're with us or you're against us" took over. I have always thought that the great tragedy of his life is that he could not work with others openly. He had to be the Head Honcho. There were very bright people who worked with him, especially in the beginning. They left and continued working on their own.

There is a funny story about Hubbard. I don't know that it's true. The year before he started the Church Of Scientology he was a speaker at a convention for science fiction writers. He is supposed to have said something along the lines of; "You can't make real money as a science fiction writer. If you want to make REAL money, you have to start a religion..."

I think the Cassiopaean team is on the right track: tell the Truth, stand up to Falsehood, proceed as planned. Find the fine line between Justice and Vengeance.

The CoS clearly goes for Vengeance. It's a fun reptilian impulse but it tends to create more problems than it solves...

As to what Cholas posted from Ron DeWolf's interivew, I discussed it about a month after it was published with an old man, in his eighties, who had known and worked with Jack Horner, L Ron Hubbard and A E VanVogt. His response to DeWolf's claims that his father practiced black magic he thought was probably true, But he also pointed out that if you take any process used in Scientology, from the simplest communications course processes to the most advanced OT levels, those processes could be used angelically, to authentically promote and nurture growth, or demonically to blind and enslave. Those processes, those practices, of their own nature, did not determine the outcome: the motive and understanding of their use, by the teacher, and by the student, determine their effects. I doubt that that idea is a Great Truth, and clearly there are practices so out there that this premise would not apply, but I have always found it useful to keep in mind.


ADMIN: fixed quotes

 

[obyvatel]

I would encourage anyone reading Hubbard's books to edit out the self promotion, the proselytizing, the One Way-isms, and focus on the actual principles presented. there is a great deal that is valuable there. (Hubbard was an awful writer IMO, and, except for his Science Of Survival did not let his works be edited. He punctuates the way one speaks, which means a lot of his punctuation doesn't make sense.) I have joked for decades that Hubbard is the most plagiarized writer of the 20th century. He was a truly seminal thinker, and a man who IMO did not understand many of his own ideas. He was "inspired beyond one's own intelligence." His ideas about the Suppressive Personality (his term for psychopaths) are excellent, and yet he strikes me as a classical suppressive himself. Clearly he was a megalomaniac. He created a very closed system, with only one conceivable source of understanding-himself. Total hierarchy.

The kind of work that Hubbard was promoting perhaps cannot be promoted beneficially in the long term if the message and the messenger need to strongly distinguished. In other words, if the founder could not walk the talk, then that puts a question mark on the overall picture. I think the bolded words you used above in describing Hubbard along with his alleged links with black magic and occult points to a hyperdimensional influence. Hubbard may not have been an original and seminal thinker - but may have been strongly influenced or even completely controlled by other forces.

As to what Cholas posted from Ron DeWolf's interivew, I discussed it about a month after it was published with an old man, in his eighties, who had known and worked with Jack Horner, L Ron Hubbard and A E VanVogt. His response to DeWolf's claims that his father practiced black magic he thought was probably true, But he also pointed out that if you take any process used in Scientology, from the simplest communications course processes to the most advanced OT levels, those processes could be used angelically, to authentically promote and nurture growth, or demonically to blind and enslave. Those processes, those practices, of their own nature, did not determine the outcome: the motive and understanding of their use, by the teacher, and by the student, determine their effects.

The principles that scientology apparently emphasized - physical and emotional detoxing - are time honored principles which are powerful. Like the C's mentioned in the context of the EE breathing program - when you sweep out the old garbage, you need to put good stuff in there - otherwise the space is going to be filled up again by somebody else with other contents. And therein lies the importance of the spiritual orientation and intent of the people directing the process - and from what has been described, it does not paint a pretty picture. Taking people off drugs and off the streets is a good thing in material terms - spiritual effects of powerful teachings which may not be inclined towards light is yet another story - or so I tend to think. Reminds me of Illion's comments in "Darkness Over Tibet" regarding sins against the body and sins against one's soul.

I think Laura's comment here describes the crux of the situation.

Sounds like CoS was created for the express purpose of giving good practices a bad name by perverting them and use them for evil intentions.

It is perhaps not a mere coincidence that FOTCM and SOTT are under "official" attack today with the stage having been set up earlier with scientology practices being under the scanner. Perhaps one more example of the hyperdimensional controllers moving back and forth in time to set things up?

 

[Beau]

Scientology back in the news again today:

Corporate Scientology Targets South Park

The following internal Corporate Scientology memorandum is being published as part of a series that exposes the standard operating pattern and methodologies of the Office of Special Affairs (OSA – the harassment and terror network of Corporate Scientology). Hubbard once noted the truism that that which one knows the technology of he cannot be the adverse effect of. So it behooves those who have decided to expose and reform the beast to know a little about the tactics it employs to combat such efforts.

To this day OSA operates mainly on Cold War era intelligence and propaganda techniques much like those of the CIA, the FBI, the KGB, and STASI of the fifties and sixties. Their main activity entails stifling criticism by an escalating gradient of techniques beginning with quiet investigation and moving up to infiltration, identification of and use of influential friends and contacts of the target, loud investigation, threats, attempts to harm the target financially, intense propaganda to discredit and ultimately, if all else fails, utter destruction of the target through overt harassment. While in this age of information many OSA operations result in epic failures, the well-heeled – if desperate – cult continues to muzzle many a would-be reformer and news agency.

In ’06 the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, became targets of Corporate Scientology’s OSA. Operations were run in an attempt to silence Parker and Stone. While Corporate Scientology was ultimately unsuccessful, left behind an instructive data trail during their efforts.

16 April 2006 Report by Commanding Officer Office of Special Affairs (Corporate Scientology harassment agency, also known as OSA)(Parenthetical notations added)

Re: South Park

Eric Sherman (then-corporate Scientologist writer), who is good friends with Lloyd Kaufman (independent film maker), contacted him about South Park. Kaufman knows Trey Parker and Matt Stone and has been friends with them for years. As regards their attack on Scientology, Kaufman felt that this is the same thing they do to everyone. He said that they consider that what they do is satire and that they attack anyone or any group without any regard for who they are or what they are. They love it when they get some reaction. This week they created a new flap when they were going to show a picture of the prophet Mohammed but were censored from doing so by Comedy Central. (This was covered in the press – Comedy Central was criticized for being hypocritical, i.e., they allowed South Park to show Jesus defecating on an American flag and George Bush, but not to show an image of Mohammed. This upset Christians in particular the Catholic League.)

To find a direct line into Stone and Parker some of their friends have been identified. One is Matthew Prager, who has been a friend since 1991. He worked with them as a writer on a show called, “That’s My Bush” which Parker and Stone created. Prager said he worked in executive positions at Disney, MTV and finally, at HBO, before shedding his tie for blue jeans at “That’s My Bush.”

Another is John Stamos who is best friends with Matt Stone. Apparently his ex-wife, Rebecca Romijn, is also good friends with Stone. Rebecca is a former supermodel and currently has her own TV show. In 2000’s X-Men, she had her first major movie role as Mystique and returned to the role in the 2003 sequel.

David Goodman is another friend of Parker and Stone. He was in college with them and has co-written some of the South Park episodes with them.

These connections are being PRC’d. (PRC = Public Records Check –an intense collection of every public record available on the target)

There are some strings that will be pulled on the PRC on Stone. Otherwise the special collections (covert information gathering such as trash collection, purchased phone records, hacked airline reservations, purchased bank records) will be debugged in order to get some viable strings that can be pulled.

It is clear that this investigation is not going anywhere and DCOE (D/Commanding Officer External OSA) is getting it debugged.

 

[Buddy]

Their main activity entails stifling criticism by an escalating gradient of techniques beginning with quiet investigation and moving up to infiltration, identification of and use of influential friends and contacts of the target, loud investigation, threats, attempts to harm the target financially, intense propaganda to discredit and ultimately, if all else fails, utter destruction of the target through overt harassment.

And the moral core of this organization that justifies all this activity? Whatever is the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics; where each individual is said to have 8 dynamics, or increasingly widening contexts in which he operates.

What are the dynamics?

A Every individual has an urge and determination to survive. Pursuit of survival is the common denominator of all life.

For an individual, this drive for survival embraces eight distinct divisions known in Scientology as dynamics. The dynamics are best conceived as concentric circles with (1) self in the middle and extending to (2) family and sex, (3) groups, (4) mankind, (5) all life forms, (6) the physical universe, (7) spirituality and (8) infinity or the Supreme Being.

The first dynamic, self, is the effort to survive as an individual, to be an individual and to fully express one’s individuality.

The second dynamic is the urge toward existence as a future generation. It has two components: sex and the family unit, including the raising of children.

The third dynamic is the urge to survive as a member of a group. A company, a political party, a church or a social organization are all examples of the third dynamic.

The fourth dynamic is the urge for survival of man as a species. All of the races of man together constitute the fourth dynamic.

The fifth dynamic is the urge to survive for all life forms -- animal or vegetable and anything directly and intimately motivated by life.

The sixth dynamic is the urge for survival of the physical universe and reflects the drive of the individual to enhance the survival of all matter, energy, space and time --the component parts of the physical universe.

The seventh dynamic is the urge toward existence as a spiritual being.

The eighth dynamic is the urge toward existence as infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being. Thus, this dynamic can be called the infinity, or God, dynamic.

As noted earlier, the dynamics can be conceived as a series of concentric circles in which the first dynamic would be the center and each new dynamic would be successively a circle outside the preceding circle.
_http://faq.scientology.org/dynamics.htm

From this basis, anyone can see how a person with a mere 7 or 8 dynamics is outnumbered by any 2 or more people. That's the "moral" non-repentant justification for:

...utter destruction of the target

The concept of "individual rights", which is based in man's antecedent common law freedoms (which also gives anyone the right to choose his religion as well as his trading partner) is conveniently ignored, though existing by default.

 

[Vulcan59]

Former insider speaks out against Scientology in St. Petersburg Times.

 

[Buddy]

Former insider speaks out against Scientology in St. Petersburg Times.

Interesting and intense read. As economies worsen and the pressure increases on CoS "registrars" to make their sales quotas there'll probably be more stories like this.

Also interesting is the book at the heart of CoS's sales strategy. Leslie Achilles "Les" Dane (a former car dealer) wrote a book in 1971 titled "Big League Sales Closing Techniques", originally published in 1971 by Parker Publishing which was later taken over by Prentice Hall. LRH "took a shine" to the book, bought some copies and began incorporating the closing techniques into instructional course materials and even had Dane give seminars on the book.

After Dane's death, an on-again/off-again CoS member Peter Letterese of Peter Letterese and Associates ("PL&A") bought Dane's copyright interest in the book. PL&A also purchased the outstanding rights of Prentice Hall in 1994. PL&A subsequently withdrew Big League Sales from the market. It's been out of print since 1994. A quick check of the market shows the book selling for hundreds of dollars.

There's lots more to that story, but the above is the interesting bits, though this is just par for the course with today's CoS. Seems like when certain people find something that works for them, they want to own it totally - either to keep the "tech" a secret, or make the "prospect" go to them to get it.

---------

Also available: some text from "Author of Inside Scientology Sits Down with INSIDE EDITION"
Airdate: 7/29/2011:
http://www.insideedition.com/news/6651/author-of-inside-scientology-sits-down-with-inside-edition.aspx

 

[dantem]

Gerry Armstrong speaks about Scientology

Published on Apr 8, 2012

Gerry Armstrong, Ron Hubbard's former personal secretary, talks about his twelve years in Scientology, his reasons for leaving the organization, and Scientologists' attack on his speeches denouncing Scientology.

Armstrong talks about psychopaths, sociopaths, Nazis and the Scientology's Teachers. The lecture was given somewhere in Russia. Found out after watching the new Sott Report's videos and following vids on youtube.

Still watching...

 

[Buddy]

Thanks for that link, dantem. Indeed, ..."ordinary people are the world's only hope."

 

[Laura]

I watched it and then also watched this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr2BijIprqg&feature=related

Well worth watching!

Then, there's James Randi on LRH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj-w09kpQcY&feature=related

 

[forge]

Dr. Martin Malachi once remarked in a radio interview that there are secrets in the Vatican that if he told it to the radio-show host [and the listeners]:
- It would hurt you.

A lot of info about Christianity is safely withheld from public in the Vatican archives. Malachi also told that, one of his trusted acquaintances was allowed into the presence of the Pope and the priest friend told him that he could sense no holiness, no purity, no sanctity in the room [with the previous Pope it was the opposite] from the person of the Pope and the Trusted [high ranked] church Servants. Rather he sensed corruption, madness, darkness there.
- Smoke has invaded the Sanctuary. - he told symbolically.

Also Vatican priest scientists [holding multiple degrees] are keeping strict watch space through telescopes from the most southern part of Earth, from observatories, because they know "something" will come from that direction. They aren't alone, super-rich famous people and gov. are equally involved in watching space from the South.

What came to my mind watching Panorama the Secrets of Scientology at 42:00.

 

[denekin]

the sad thing about all the has gone wrong with the church of Scientology is that so much of the basic practices of Dianetics and the original scientology grades are such great psychological exercises. (The OT levels were a mishmash of thinly disguised esoteric practices and Hubbard's imagination) I have been sharing the SOTT and YouTube presentations with former scientologists and those who, like me, were never in the church but learned to do basic processes to our benefit: there is a uniform disappointment, some actually refer to it s a "heartbreak" that -so far- no one talks about the actual processes used. There is such a glee about exposing the cult weirdness (which exposure surely and obviously needs to be done) that babies are being thrown out with the bath water.

And there is also a pattern here, one I lived through with TM in the seventies, the tone and intention of the enterprise changes with time, and consistently for the worse. The TM movement I knew in 1968 disappeared and was replaced with something unrecognizable by 1975, and it got weirder from there on...Old Scientologists express the same idea, it was inspired in the beginning and then choked on its own success. As the TM movement, Siddha yoga, Scientology gained momentum, the more the psychopaths were drawn to the vortex of success and power. I have watch political and spiritual groups be usurped by the psychopaths for decades. Psychopaths make great devotees, while they're on stage....

 

[Laura]

I agree, Denekin, some of the CoS ideas are useful; how could it not be? But I think that what we have here is a clear case of Ponerology with layered levels. I don't think that Hubbard began it with benevolent intentions; it was intended that "occult meanings" would be hidden and only certain, generally benevolent things exposed to the outsiders or lower levels. When you see how the techniques are so closely related to CIA interrogation techniques, you know something is wrong. And when the founder of the church refers to Aliester Crowley as his "good friend" and relates what he has done to "magic", that's a big neon warning sign.

Hubbard, himself, is personally repellent and I get the creeps just watching or hearing him; like seeing a huge, reptile.

 

[Alana]

I have to say that there are a lot of info in the videos accompanying the latest SOTT report that I had no idea about, regarding the founder of Scientology and some of the things that go in there. And it doesn't seem at all to me that the organization started out well and then turned bad, especially taking into account what Gerry Armstrong is saying, who has been there and working next to Hubbard from the beginning. I highly recommend that video too.

I agree, Denekin, some of the CoS ideas are useful; how could it not be? But I think that what we have here is a clear case of Ponerology with layered levels.

That's what it seems to me too. And while listening to all the ex-members and their accounts, how they were either born to it because of their parents, or they were out looking to understand their world and themselves and there was Scientology, my guess is that even if any of these good-willing people encounter something off or sinister, they would probably critically interpret what they are seeing and move on. Along with the constant stress by peer pressure, the possibility of bullying, or being deemed oppressives and lose their families, etc, etc....

I can't find a more politically correct way to express how I feel just after finishing all videos, other than: these people are nuts!!!!