Subject: Origins of Scientology (was Re: Scientology debunking help!) Summary: Sci-Fi bar
Subject: Origins of Scientology (was Re: Scientology debunking help!)
Summary: Sci-Fi bar bet? Yes!
Keywords: deprogramming and cults
> (6) Did L.Ron Hubbard create Scientology on a bet made at a science fiction
> conference?
I took a class with Joe Haldeman back at Tech and got the story first-hand.
Several sci-fi writers, including Joe and L. Ron, were sitting around
drinking at a Con. Someone mentioned that any science fiction writer worth
his/her salt should be able to create a religion that people would follow
en masse. Much drunken raving ensued, the upshot of which was that if
L. Ron hadn't made one million dollars within ten years, he'd pay Joe
$10. In fact it only took around three years.
I've always wanted to mention that to the poor Con dupes who stand on the
sidewalk and ask you to take their personality test.
.
DEATH . .. You eat a lot of acid, Miller,
. . . back in the hippie days?
. . . .
. .. . . . . - Otto Maddox
. . . . . ..
. . . . . . .
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Subject: Re: Scientology debunking help!
Keywords: Scientology Dianetics debunking
Date: 12 Jan 90 17:12:06 GMT
In article <5979@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ns299ad@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
(Pablo R Alvarez) writes:
> I'M LOOKING FOR SOME SERIOUS CONSISTENT AND CLEAR
>ANTI-SCIENTOLOGY EVIDENCE (if such a thing exists)
Reportedly, the book by L. Ron Hubbard's son, "Bare Faced Messiah",
is a must-read. I, for one, want to read it.
Another book is "Mind Game", by Norman Spinrad, Jove Books, copyright
1980. This is a roman a clef, about an author whose wife joins the
"Transformationalism" cult. Yes, the cult is led by a pulp-era
science-fiction writer. He even says things like, "We're developing
the Atomic Age of the mind." Gee, any guesses? One of the
revelations was that the cult ordered members to make various career
moves, and then gave them "life directives" to steer business to
enterprises that were secretly cult-owned.
As for Scientologists being arrested for wiretapping: yes, it's true.
Hubbard's wife was arrested: she ran a security group (Guardians?)
within the "church", and they planted one of their people in an FBI
field office to act as a spy. It made the news, at the time.
In the earlier days, there were also entirely too many stories about
members suiciding. Not good. I also recall a claim about a summer
camp surrounded by barbed wire and guard dogs. Hmmm. Then there's the
IRS judgement that it wasn't a church for tax purposes, because of a
contract Hubbard had with the group which gave him (personally) half
of some category of gross revenues. Then there's the "fair game"
doctrine, whereby members are encouraged to dispense with ethics
when dealing with ex-members. There's also the price: one (satisfied)
member told me that he'd paid $8,000.
Consulting "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia" (Peter Nicholls,
copyright 1979, Doubleday), I find:
"Hubbard also taught that traumas could be pre-natal, and eventually
that they could have been suffered during previous incarnations. A
"clear", one who had successfully rid himself of aberrations, would
possess, according to Hubbard, radically increased intelligence,
powers of telepathy, the ability to move outside his body, the
ability to control such somatic processes as growing new teeth, and a
photographic memory. ... In 1952, after an organizational rift,
Hubbard left the Dianetic Foundation, and soon advertised his new
advance on Dianetics, Scientology."
...
"The worst setback scientology received was the result of the Board
of Inquiry set up in the state of Victoria, Australia, in 1963. The
Anderson report which followed in 1965 found that "Scientology is
evil: its techniques are evil: its practice a serious threat to the
community, medically, morally, and socially: and its adherents sadly
deluded and often mentally ill." 151 witnesses had been examined
before this conclusion was reached. Scientology was then banned in
Victoria. A later disaster was the deportation of L. Ron Hubbard from
the UK as an undesirable alien in 1968. Scientolgy has since been
directed from the ships of Hubbard's fleet, usually found in the
Mediterranean. In 1978 he was sentenced, in his absence, to four
years' imprisonment in Paris after being found guilty of obtaining
money under false pretences through scientology."
I saw his ship in Hamilton Harbour when it berthed in Bermuda.
It was barely short of being a cruise liner.
My next pieces of evidence came off the net in Nov 85. It's long,
and ripe, and I will post it as the next message.
--
Don D.C.Lindsay Carnegie Mellon Computer Science
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Subject: Re: Scientology debunking help!
Keywords: Scientology Dianetics debunking
Message-ID: <7551@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 12 Jan 90 17:13:31 GMT
In article <5979@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ns299ad@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
(Pablo R Alvarez) writes:
> I'M LOOKING FOR SOME SERIOUS CONSISTENT AND CLEAR
>ANTI-SCIENTOLOGY EVIDENCE (if such a thing exists)
Subject: Attack of the Thetans from the Planet Teegeeach!
Date: 07 Nov 85 10:45:18 PST (Thu)
From: jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa
[from the Los Angeles Times, via the San Francisco Chronicle]
SCIENTOLOGISTS SCRAMBLE TO KEEP SECRETS
Los Angeles
Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that the members of
the Church of Scientology believe that mankind's ills were caused by
an evil ruler named Xemu who lived 75 million years ago.
Scientologists have been trying to prevent the release of the
documents, which they consider secret and sacred, and about 1500
church members crammed three floors of the Los Angeles County
Courthouse on Monday, effectively blocking public access to
documents.
Nevertheless, the Los Angeles Times had already obtained access
to the documents, which were submitted as part of a civil case
brought by former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim, before lawyers
for the Scientologists requested they be sealed.
Wollersheim charges that the organization defrauded him by
promising him higher intelligence and greater business success
through Scientology courses that cost thousands of dollars.
In arguing to keep the court documents sealed, the church has
told its members that it could be physically and spiritually harmful
for them to learn about the upper levels of Scientology before they
have mastered the preparatory courses. Scientology attorneys have
argued that disclosure of the material violates the group's
religous freedom.
Scientology is widely known for its use of "auditing", a form of
one-to-one counselling in which a lie-detector-like instrument called
an E-meter is used to help a person erase negative experiences,
supposedly freeing him to achieve his full potential.
The group bases its beliefs on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard,
the reclusive science-fiction author who in the early 1950's
published the best-seller "Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental
Health."
What is rarely discussed, however, is Hubbard's secret
teachings, which disclose his thoughts on why mankind has been
plagued by problems through history, the topic of the disputed
documents.
Generally, the documents suggest that a major cause of mankind's
problems began 75 million years ago, when the planet Earth, then
called Teegeeach, was part of a confederation of 90 planets under
the leadership of a tyrannical ruler named Xemu. Then, as now, the
materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation.
Xemu, the documents state, decided to take radical measures to
overcome the overpopulation problem. Beings were captured on Earth
and on other planets and flown to at least 10 volcanoes on Earth.
The documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in
existence today were dropped on the volcanoes, destroying the people
but freeing their spirits, called "thetans," which attached
themselves to one another in clusters.
After the nuclear explosions, according to the documents, the
thetans were trapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol and,
during a 36-day period, Xemu "implanted" in them the seeds of
aberrant behavior for generations to come. When people die, those
clusters attach to to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves.
Before a Scientologist can learn about thetans and how to
eradicate them, he must go through a progression of costly programs.
For hours on Monday, Scientologists swamped workers in the
clerk's office with hundreds of requests to photocopy the documents.
Superior Court Judge Alfred L. Margolis, over strong objections,
had issued an order Friday making the documents public at 9 a.m.
Monday - on a first-come, first-served basis.
Scientologists, by snaking the line through three courthouse
hallways, made sure that they were the only ones to buy copies of the
materials.
Shortly before noon, Margolis, at the request of Scientology
lawyers, resealed the materials, pending a hearing later this week.
Jeff Pomerantz, a Scientology spokesman, said the strategy was
intended to "keep the materials secure ... Religion is not supposed
to be disseminated from the courtroom."
--
Don D.C.Lindsay Carnegie Mellon Computer Science
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Subject: Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard
Message-ID: <9001132258.AA28783@cie.uoregon.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 90 22:58:40 GMT
Donald Lindsay writes:
>In article <5979@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> ns299ad@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
> (Pablo R Alvarez) writes:
>> I'M LOOKING FOR SOME SERIOUS CONSISTENT AND CLEAR
>>ANTI-SCIENTOLOGY EVIDENCE (if such a thing exists)
>
>Reportedly, the book by L. Ron Hubbard's son, "Bare Faced Messiah",
>is a must-read. I, for one, want to read it.
>
_Bare-Faced Messiah_ was actually written by the British journalist Russell
Miller, but it is indeed a must-read.
I became interested in this book because of the Church of Scientology's
(actually their publishing arm, New Era Publications) attempts in court to
prevent its publication -- naturally, if it was bad enough for them to
suppress, it was good enough for me to read! New Era's lawsuits in Britain
and Canada were unsuccessful, and their suit in Australia was withdrawn, and
the book was published in those countries. However, when the New York
publisher Henry Holt & Co. tried to publish it, the courts of America, the
land of the free and the home of the First Amendment, had a different reaction:
It turns out that in two of the earlier chapters of the book, Miller draws
upon some early unpublished diaries and writings of the young L. Ron Hubbard,
writings which are very revealing and embarrassing to the Church. So New Era
sued for breach of copyright. U.S. District Court Judge Pierre Leval found
that the First Amendment interest in having these important facts and words
of a controversial religious figure made public outweighed New Era's flimsy
copyright interests (because you just _know_ New Era is never going to publish
these writings itself), and so by the "fair use" doctrine, Holt could go ahead
and publish the book. However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals strongly
disapproved Leval's First Amendment reasoning. It held that publication of
_Bare-Faced Messiah_ was NOT "fair use" and that New Era WOULD have the legal
right to suppress its publication. Though they affirmed Leval's decision not
to suppress the book, they made clear the ONLY reason for this was that New
Era had waited too long before bringing its suit (the doctrine of "laches").
I find this current state of fair use law in America very frightening, since
if any representative of a public figure brings its lawsuit soon enough,
potentially important unpublished writings can be withheld from the public.
In fact, the sequel has already begun: the former Scientologist who showed
Russell Miller the secret Hubbard writings, Jon Atack, is now writing his
own expose on the Church. New Era has ALREADY brought a lawsuit against the
Atack manuscript, so this time "laches" does not stand in the way of their
mission to suppress embarrassing information on the Church. Time will tell
how this one will come out....
In addition to sci.skeptic, I'm also posting this on misc.legal in case any
fellow law students &c are interested or have comments. The case citation is
_New Era Publications International, ApS v. Henry Holt & Co., Inc._,
684 F Supp 808 (SD NY 1988), motion denied 695 F Supp 1493 (SD NY 1988),
affirmed on other grounds 873 F2d 576 (2d Cir 1989), petition for en banc
rehearing denied 884 F2d 659 (2d Cir, August 29, 1989).
R.J. Hall rjhall@cie.uoregon.edu Q-Link: Rjhall
(:(: DISCLAIMER: The views expressed may not even be my own! :):):)
------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Scientology: Asimov knew L. Ron Hubbard
Date: 15 Jan 90 21:55:38 GMT
Here is part of my long posting on Isaac Asimov; he actually
knew L. Ron Hubbard in the early days of "Dianetics". This is more
about John Campbell, Jr.; an early Dianetics enthusiast. It is evident
that Hubbard started out by proposing that the negative experiences
that lead to "engrams" occurred when one was a fetus. It is only later
that he started to claim that these experiences occurred in past
lives. Dianetics/Scientology looks suspiciously like some takeoff of
Freudian psychoanalysis.
More seriously, he has had to cope with one pseudoscience
freak in a position of authority, the late John Campbell, editor of
the science fiction magazine _Astounding_, renamed to _Analog_,
magazine. It was especially difficult for him since it was to him that
Asimov submitted many of his science-fiction stories. In the early
1950's, Campbell sounded off about "dianetics", a theory that L. Ron
Hubbard had developed. A fetus could hear and misunderstand everything
that goes on around it; and these misunderstandings could cause a
great deal of trouble later on. If one removes them, one becomes a
"clear" and a very superior being. Campbell complained that Asimov had
a "built-in doubter", something Asimov prided himself for having.
Eventually, Campbell and Hubbard split up, for reasons Asimov found
obvious: "I knew Campbell and I knew Hubbard, and I also knew that no
movement can have two Messiahs."
Campbell later got enthusiastic about the possibility of
levitation, and urged Asimov to write a story about it, called
"Upsy-Daisy". But Asimov's story, "Belief" was a bit too rational for
Campbell's taste. I don't quite recall what happened to it. Campbell
also showed off the "Hieronymus machine", which is a box full of
electronics that registers emotional states when one rubs one's hand
against a plate. It could work just as well with a diagram of a
circuit. When Asimov tried it and his hand got sweaty, Campbell made a
momentous discovery: "Negative stickiness!" Later, Campbell would get
enthusiastic about the Dean Drive, which supposedly converts angular
momentum into linear momentum (the two quantities are actually
conserved separately). Campbell would also challenge Asimov with:
"Every society but ours has believed in magic. Who is to say we are
right and they are wrong?" To which Asimov responded: "Every society
but ours has believed that the Sun moves around the Earth. Would you
want to settle that matter by majority vote?"
^
Loren Petrich, the Master Blaster \ ^ /
loren@moonzappa.llnl.gov \ ^ /
One may need to route through any of: \^/
sunlight.llnl.gov <<<<<<<<+>>>>>>>>
lll-lcc.llnl.gov /v\
lll-crg.llnl.gov / v \
star.stanford.edu / v \
v
"What do you MEAN it's not in the computer?!?" -- Madonna
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Subject: Re: Scientology (infiltrates major corporations?)
Keywords: scientology, e-meter, dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard
>Excerpted from the San Jose Mercury News, Tuesday Morning, May 9, 1989
By Brad Kava
Mercury News Staff Writer
SCIENTOLOGY ON THE JOB
3 EX-WORKERS FILE GRIEVANCE
Three workers at a prominent Silicon Valley electronics
company say they were forced by their superiors to take com-
munications courses taught by firms connected with the
Church of Scientology - with practices that included star-
ing into co-workers' eyes for four hours at a time to "guide
and control communication."
The workers said they left Applied Materials Inc. of
Santa Clara after being harassed over their refusal to take
the courses. They filed a civil rights grievance last week
with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
A spokesman for Applied Materials said the courses were
dropped last October after the employees brought complaints
about the training sessions to management. However, the
three who left the company said they were expected to use
the material taught in the seminars until they left in
February. They said they were given bad evaluations and
treated unfairly when they complained.
Applied Materials, a highly regarded company, makes the
machines that produce microchips. Founded 20 years ago, it
recorded sales of $363 million last year for a profit of $40
million, up from $336,000 the previous year. It employs
2,000 people in Santa Clara. Last October, during his
presidential campaign, George Bush gave a speech at the com-
pany. Its chairman is James Morgan, husband of state Sen.
Becky Morgan, R-Los Altos .
Founded in 1950, the Church of Scientology, which as
10,000 members in the Bay Area, is based on the writings of
science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard , who died in 1986.
At the core of the religion is the belief that an evil
tyrant named Xemu destroyed the inhabitants of 90 planets 75
million years ago and trapped their spirits - called thetans
- in a frozen compound. Xemu implanted the thetans with
the seeds of aberrant behavior, evil traits that continue to
resurface in each generation and plague mankind to this day.
At the heart of Scientologists' practices is the use of
"auditing," a form of counseling in which a lie detector-
like instrument called an "E meter" is used to help a person
erase negative experiences and achieve full potential.
The religion's critics say the E meter and auditing are used
to manipulate members and keep them compliant by focusing on
embarassing or troubling events in their lives and eroding
their self-confidence.
Ford Greene, the San Anselmo attorney representing the
three former Applied Materials employees, said the instruc-
tion given at the communications seminars was identical to
materials in Scientology handbooks. The ex-employees said
the seminars they attended with Applied Scholastics
included unusual techniques, such as staring into a co-w
orker's eyes without "twitching, moving or changing posi-
tion" for hours at a time. A textbook given with the
course explained that the drill could be used for practical
purposes and was designed for situations "where a person
wishes to have good communication with another and wants to
have his/her total attention on that person." The employ-
ees said they weren't told by their bosses that the courses
were affiliated with Scientology.
Ingrid Gudenas, the president of Applied Scholastics'
Bay Area office said that although the company's workshops
are based on the works of Hubbard, they do not address reli-
gious issues. "Hubbard is well-known as an author of both
fiction and non-fiction," Gudenas said, in a written state-
ment. Gudenas said participants are told the course is
based on Hubbard's teachings before they begin. Many of the
course participants, including some from Applied Materials,
say they have benefited from the courses, she said. THE
COMPANY LISTS PROMINENT CLIENTS FOR COMPANY SEMINARS,
INCLUDING APPLIED MATERIALS, BEATRICE, CHEVRON, NATIONAL
SEMICONDUCTOR and the U.S. ARMY. [boldface mine - CT].
Schuchmann, [an] ex-employee, said when she learned that
Applied Scholastics was linked to the founder of Scientol-
ogy, she asked that she not be included in the training.
She said her boss put her in another communications course,
telling her it was not affiliated with Scientology. But
when she took the other course, Schuchmann said, she found
it was run by officials from the church's Clearwater, Fla.,
branch, called WISE - World Institute of Scientology Enter-
prises. The course was given in a conference room at
Applied Materials. The WISE class often quoted Hubbard 's
words and concepts such as: "Bugged targets, " "hat dump-
ing" and "permitting dev-t" which are terms for poor busi-
ness practices.
Religious studies experts say that the use of arcane
languages removes followers from the stream of everyday life
and helps indoctrinate them into that religion's philosophy.
Horace Treadwell, with the EEOC, said he couldn't comment on
investigations until they are resolved. Nationwide, the
EEOC has had a number of complaints about discrimination by
employees who say their companies are using "New Age" tech-
niques and training courses. A ruling by the commission's
legal department issued last September said that such
courses may be discriminatory if they are "explicitly based
on religious beliefs."
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank