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Scientology...

edited June 2006 in Buddhism Today
Scientology, yes, all of us up and in with the "now" have heard of this religion, but, does anyone know of its history? I have provided here a few links for everyone unaware of this sickening cult practice to see what form of filth they have polluted the minds of the average man and woman, brain-washing these people, just to go deep into their checkings account.

http://www.xenu.net/ excellent site debunking all of the Scientology secrets.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html this is a article that shows the lives of some of the casual men and women that have been involved with Scientology, and the price they had to pay.



"THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them."

- L. Ron Hubbard, "Off the Time Track," lecture of June 1952, excerpted in JOURNAL OF SCIENTOLOGY issue 18-G, reprinted in TECHNICAL VOLUMES OF DIANETICS & SCIENTOLOGY, vol. 1, p. 418

^^^^^^^this man (which is the founder of scientology, btw) was only looking for one thing-control.

i'm curious, does anyone here think that:

"Our organizations are friendly. They are only here to help you."

- L. Ron Hubbard, "Dianetic Contract" 23 May 1969

AND

"Scientology is used to increase spiritual freedom, intelligence, ability and to produce immortality."

- L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY TECHNICAL DICTIONARY, copyright 1975, reprinted 1987, p. 370

??????? would love to hear everyones opinion about this practice.



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

- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967

[SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology]

with love, unlike that last quote,
Wesley.

I may be on some Scientologists "to kill list" now, if thats the case, then :rockon: my fellow posters!!

Comments

  • edited April 2006
    Scientology I ignore. I am aware it involves alien spirits inhabiting humans and an alien called "xenu" and UFOs. I am respectful of other religions, but it's hard for me to consider this a religion since it was started by a has-been sci-fi writer (Hubbard) created this for personal gratification and to be remembered. It's used by hollywood actors and involves questionable practice. Speaking of which, how would we treat scientology? A religion or a far fetched sci-fi story?
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Hey, Wesley

    I just spent the last four hours reading through link after link after link and I'm left momentarily speechless. The only thing I can say at this time is that celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston, and Kirstie Ally to name a few, must have been extraordinarily vulnerable and incapable of independent thought when they became ensnared in this ridiculous cult. They must have either been completely ignorant of the fully documented facts (which range from the U.S. army, the F.B.I., various State courts of law and the American government itself, again to name just a few sources) or they are willingly ignoring the facts surrounding this complete lunacy called Scientology. I would laugh if this weren't so serious. I simply can't understand how these people fell for what is clearly the manipulations of a snake oil salesman. This is a massive con. If there's one born every minute, I guess the heads of Scientology knew that there's one born every second in Hollywood.

    The reason I'm concentrating on the celebrity aspect of this scam is that people like Tom Cruise etc. have enormous power both financially and in the sense of the cult of personality.

    I still can't believe anyone could possibly fall for this obvious bullshit. I mean, it's so incredibly clear and well documented that this whole thing is a con job. I feel so sad for these people, especially Katie Holmes. So sad.

    Please note: Narconon is the Scientology drug rehab program and is in no way affiliated or connected to the Alcoholics Anonymous branch Narcotics Anonymous. If anyone reading this is seeking help for drug addiction please note carefully the difference.

    Brigid
  • edited April 2006
    Brigid wrote:
    Please note: Narconon is the Scientology drug rehab program and is in no way affiliated or connected to the Alcoholics Anonymous branch Narcotics Anonymous. If anyone reading this is seeking help for drug addiction please note carefully the difference.

    thanks for that input, I read that the Narconon treatments also estimates (in U.S. dollars) $15,000, quite steep if you ask me, espicially for a fake science, for more info on Narconon(well, exposing it) here are some links:

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/

    http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/CoS/narconon/



    also on note about celebrities (sp?) that are in Scientology, I find this potentially threatening to people across the world. people will be blindly led into this practice, so i can understand some people out there getting involved w/out prior knowledge of Scientologys actions. No one seems to "Make a proper investigation" anymore, just blindly led.

    may I make another quote here
    Wikipedia wrote:
    In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (also Xemu) is an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to cause problems today. These events are known to Scientologists as "Incident II", and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The story of Xenu is part of a much wider range of Scientology beliefs in extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described as space opera by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

    who the hell can believe this rubbish? i'm open to the fact that "anything is possible" but, no, sounds like a Trekkie that couldn't put down the water bowl
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Hey Wezz,

    Just a casual observation, statement. I have read Dianetics cover-to-cover and I don't remember anything about this?

    It is true that L.Ron Hubbard or as my Homies prefer to call him L.ro, wrote Science Fiction, but I'm sure that the actual "therapy" of Dianetics does in no way seem connected to the Space Opera you describe. it is possible that I misread part of it though, can you give me a page reference or similar?

    cheers,

    and may all your audits be good ones!

    DISCLAIMER: No I'm not a Scientologist. Auditing is the way of removing Engrams (stored bad memories etc. from the brain-according to Dianetics/Scientology).
  • edited April 2006
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard_bibliography

    ^heres a list of the books Hubbard has wrote, including his fiction and writings on scientology.

    and for the Xenu part, there is a grade in Scientolgy OT III (operating thetan 3) where all of this is described to the person who has reached this rank.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

    info on Xenu is still kind of hard to get, although it's not the core teaching of scientology, if anyone can find any info feel free to share

    up above is the best I could find on information of Xenu.

    much love,
    wesley.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Xrayman wrote:
    Hey Wezz,

    Just a casual observation, statement. I have read Dianetics cover-to-cover and I don't remember anything about this?

    It is true that L.Ron Hubbard or as my Homies prefer to call him L.ro, wrote Science Fiction, but I'm sure that the actual "therapy" of Dianetics does in no way seem connected to the Space Opera you describe. it is possible that I misread part of it though, can you give me a page reference or similar?

    cheers,

    and may all your audits be good ones!

    DISCLAIMER: No I'm not a Scientologist. Auditing is the way of removing Engrams (stored bad memories etc. from the brain-according to Dianetics/Scientology).

    Xray,

    You'll find this information in Hubbard's books "Scientology: A History of Man" and "Mission into Time". The Dianetics book you read probably has a picture of an exploding volcano on the cover, an allusion to the volcanoes in the Xenu story.

    Hubbard was a prolific writer and in addition to his books he also wrote countless pamphlets and training manuals in Scientology and gave lectures like:

    "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes", April 1952
    "Technique 88 and the Whole Track Part I", 26 June 1952
    "The Role of Earth", November 1952
    Philadelphia Doctorate Course (PDC), 1 December 1952
    "History and development of processes: question and answer period", 17 December 1954
    "Create and Confront", 3 January 1960
    "E-Meter Actions, Errors in Auditing", 12 June 1961
    "State of OT", 23 May 1963
    "The Free Being", 9 July 1963
    "Auditing Comm Cycles", 6 August 1963
    "The ITSA Line", 21 August 1963
    "Org Board and Livingness", 6 April 1965
    "Assists" lecture. 3 October 1968, #10 in the Class VIII series. and gave lectures
    (From Wikipedia here.)

    Dianetics is just a small portion of Hubbard's inventions. You can also read about Space Opera here.

    If you follow the links Wesley provided in his first post you'll get some interesting information, to say the least. There simply are no words strong enough to convey how ridiculously unbelievable the whole idea of Scientology is. You'd think the whole thing was based on a joke or something. And the history of the "religion" itself reads like a bad novel. Bad in the sense that it would require the reader to suspend their disbelief to an unbearable level. Had it's history and controversies been presented as a novel to a publisher it would have been turned down on the basis of its convoluted and simply unbelievable story line. The F.B.I. were involved, as were the governments of various countries not to mention various courts of law and the U.S. Army, in investigating him and the cult and trying to bring its leaders to justice. How it hasn't been prosecuted to death as well as laughed off the planet is an absolute mystery to me. I imagine it stands as a testament to the power of money, intimidation and the threat of lawsuits.

    Wesley,

    I became quite alarmed myself when I began researching today. But I've come to the conclusion that there are only so many people on this planet who are vulnerable to this kind of lunacy. It has no lasting power whatsoever and as soon as it begins to lose what power it has stories of ex members will surface as will more facts about its criminal activity and eventually the whole thing will unravel and be lost in the mists of time.

    Brigid
  • edited April 2006
    I do agree with you all in that I also feel that scientology is a little far fetched and very hard to understand why anyone would view it as a religion. However, isn't that really the root of ALL religions. Some people aren't content with "just being", they need things to help them feel better about their existence, why things happen, their afterlife, explanations of the unexplainable. For some this seems to be an easier way of life. But really if this makes them happy (even temporarily) then who are we to judge and say what they are doing isn't right or is ridiculous.

    "He becomes a monk in all the different religions of the world so that he might free others from delusion and save them from falling into false views." - Vimalakirti Sutra 8

    and

    "Do not allow skepticism to blind your eyes to other worlds." - Jatakamala 29.7

    and last but not least

    "If other teachings are beyond us, it doesn't matter how wonderful they are; we can't embody them. But as every Buddha desires to save all living things from rebirth, don't hinder our shallow practice." - Tannisho XII

    I don't mean to overwhelm with quotes, I'm only trying to say that I don't feel that it is fair for us to judge other's attempts in what they do. After all, I think we can only be compassionate to others so that no harm is done. And they are only doing what they feel is right in their mind, even if we feel and know that it is false views.

    This is only my humble opinion so please take no offense.
    -Dawn
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Yea, and people hang sh** on me for believing in the Easter bunny and Santa...

    Oh, and by the way, Santa is an anagram of "Satan". woooo scary sh**

    P.S. Wes, thanks for the refs and thanks to you Brigid for your contrib. and yes DandM, people will believe weird shit-it is not for us to judge.

    cheers,
    Xrayman
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Dear Brigid,
    "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes", April 1952
    "Technique 88 and the Whole Track Part I", 26 June 1952
    "The Role of Earth", November 1952
    Philadelphia Doctorate Course (PDC), 1 December 1952
    "History and development of processes: question and answer period", 17 December 1954
    "Create and Confront", 3 January 1960
    "E-Meter Actions, Errors in Auditing", 12 June 1961
    "State of OT", 23 May 1963
    "The Free Being", 9 July 1963
    "Auditing Comm Cycles", 6 August 1963
    "The ITSA Line", 21 August 1963
    "Org Board and Livingness", 6 April 1965
    "Assists" lecture. 3 October 1968, #10 in the Class VIII series. and gave lectures
    (From Wikipedia here.)


    thanks for the information above, I am somewhat concerned that you can write/expound complete and utter rubbish-people will buy it-you make millions. *thinking aloud* Actually, it sounds like a great idea!

    I'll get to work on it right now!

    regards,
    Xrayman
  • edited April 2006
    thanks Xrayman, glad the info was helpful.


    If any positive thing to say about Hubbard is that he did sit down and write many books on his "religion", but yet you can simply counter-react that statement by simply saying that he did it for more money, but at least you can see he shown some interest in his religion and didn't decide to pull off a quickie.


    with love,
    Wesley
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Xray,

    LOL! I want a piece of the action.

    Dawn,

    I understand and would agree with what you're saying if Scientology were a spiritual path instead of a cult and money making operation. The followers of this cult are victims of extreme exploitation and this needs to be critically examined and plainly stated.

    Scientology is in no way a religion or spiritual pursuit and L. Ron Hubbard clearly admitted this. It's a business, set up and run like a business and it's consumers are being lied to and victimized. Hubbard has admitted that his motivations were to exploit those who had uncritical minds, in the same way that P.T. Barnum said "There's one born every minute".
    Criticism is the very thing lacking from those who become victims of cults and it plays a wise and crucial role in a compassionate world.

    Brigid
  • edited April 2006
    Brigid,

    I totally understand where you are coming from and have taken this approach many times with Christians I have had the pleasure of calling friends. However, what I’ve come to realize is that I get better results when I show them a mirror of their views, rather than criticize their views. This is the root of understanding. As soon as I started to criticize them barriers came up, but when I actually started to discuss and try to learn where they were coming from then the more compassion was felt all around and the more they wanted to listen to my views as well. Any time I’ve tried to debate religion with anyone they tend to only dig their heels in deeper. The compassionate approach not only avoided debates but also helped everyone. And try to tell a Christian that their views are ridiculous, now try the same thing with a Scientologist.

    And really it’s all irrelevant. They are all only concepts.

    -Dawn
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Dawn,

    I hear you. But Christianity isn't a fair comparison. It's not a cult. And I would never waste my time debating beliefs with an indoctrinated, brain washed member of any cult.

    Although I think some of the beliefs involved in Scientology are simply ridiculous, my concern rests mainly with the documented history of the cult, not its belief system. It's important to critically analyze the motives and actions of Hubbard and his team while he was building the business called Scientology. That's my main concern.

    People can believe anything they want. However, cults are dangerous, very dangerous, and they need to be understood by the general public. That's what my point of concern is.

    Brigid
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited April 2006
    You know what is odd also?!!??!

    People believe that some dude raised people from the dead, turned water into wine and died and then magically came back to life. Oh yeah!, then he levitated and floated up into the air!

    There are people that give up everything, live a life of poverty and beg for their food - cuz some dude told them about this mysterious "englightenment" thing.

    I wonder if Christianity or Buddhism sounded as weird, back then, as Scientology does now.

    -bf
  • buddhafootbuddhafoot Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Brigid,

    I totally understand where you are coming from and have taken this approach many times with Christians I have had the pleasure of calling friends. However, what I’ve come to realize is that I get better results when I show them a mirror of their views, rather than criticize their views. This is the root of understanding. As soon as I started to criticize them barriers came up, but when I actually started to discuss and try to learn where they were coming from then the more compassion was felt all around and the more they wanted to listen to my views as well. Any time I’ve tried to debate religion with anyone they tend to only dig their heels in deeper. The compassionate approach not only avoided debates but also helped everyone. And try to tell a Christian that their views are ridiculous, now try the same thing with a Scientologist.

    And really it’s all irrelevant. They are all only concepts.

    -Dawn

    Dang it, Dawn!

    Stop stealing ideas from my head!

    -bf
  • edited April 2006
    no, Christianity isn't not a fair comparison. and yes, Scientology is a potential threat. The main problems are Hubbard and the "church" (not to sound like a heretic lol) Because when you get right down to it, it goes straight to Hubbard, his perverted views, and his lust for money, wealth, and power. And believe me, it's not some of these peoples faults for believing in some of this rubbish, you can not blame these people for being the way they are. it's those people who I wish would have done the same thing I did.

    several months I picked up a book on Scientology, read it, seemed good, I thought to myself "Wow, this seems great!". No space aliens or a man named Xenu. I found it to be a great philosophy and that Hubbard was a extremely smart man. this book had all the good stuff to it, on how it would help you, on how spiritual fulfillment could be attained, it seemed fresh and new ( mind you this was before my studies on Buddhism became full-time, although I have been lightly reading on it the past year, only reason on my delay to become deeper in Buddhism was my relationship, which was thankfully ended around 2 months ago:D) but then I was getting second thoughts on this, so I decided to look it up on the internet.

    needless to say, i'm very glad I did, I would have just dug a hole and put myself in it if it weren't for a proper investigation.

    with love,
    Wesley
  • edited April 2006
    Brigid wrote:
    Dawn,

    I hear you. But Christianity isn't a fair comparison. It's not a cult. And I would never waste my time debating beliefs with an indoctrinated, brain washed member of any cult.
    Brigid


    I can not agree. The way that I was raised as a Catholic is similar to a cult. A good look at the indoctrination through thier formation practices and spiritual sealing with sacraments definately is cultish.;)
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Even if it is no longer entirely accurate to term Christianity a cult (although it was treated as such by the Romans and the Greeks), the groweth of cultish sects within the Christian framework is worrying.

    There was a time when the mainstream churches (Roman, Orthodox, Protestant) could contain varying opinions. Certainly there are episodes of repression but there are far more examples of open-minded exploration, advancing human well-being and happiness. There is evidence of a mind to retrenching and withdrawing from these margins. The result is that the Christian churches have begun to adopt the methods and mindset of the cults.
  • JerbearJerbear Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Well gang,
    I'm sorry to say that I was involved in one cultish group of xtians (the exgay movement) which is wholeheartedly indorsed by evangelical/fundamentalist christianity. What does that say of these branches? That results are more important than methods? But back to Scientology.

    What strikes me is when someone says that they can't understand how one can get involved in a cult. There may be many reasons. The biggest being the emptiness we feel as humans. We try so many things. Yeah, JT and TC had lots of money but were they happy? Obviously not. I've really appreciated JT's approach and keeping it low key. TC needs some professional help. There is something wrong with the boy. Or the people that are truly seeking and got caught up in the wrong group. Having been in a cultish group, it's tough when you wake up to the fact that it is cultliike and then you have to get the courage up to leave when everyone in the group who are your "friends" are telling you to stay or the leadership is threatening.

    With all of that said, I still have impact in my life from the group I belong to. I think it good because I question much more critically. I don't automatically assume that someone is telling me the truth! I make them share with me why they think/believe what they are saying. By the way, it's shocking to me how many professing Christians say "Because the bible says so".
  • edited April 2006
    In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and recently founded religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. Its separate status may come about either due to its novel belief system, because of its idiosyncratic practices or because it opposes the interests of the mainstream culture. Other non-religious groups may also display cult-like characteristics.
    In common usage, "cult" has a negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group by its opponents, for a variety of possible reasons. – Wikipedia

    Does that sound like any other mainstream religion that we may all know of. Of course when any belief system is in it’s infancy there will be people who oppose it. I’m sure Jesus wasn’t crucified because everyone LOVED his ideas and views. That doesn’t change the fact that he had a lot of good ideas and was really interested/concerned with what happened to “his” people. I’m also sure that David Koresh (Branch Davidian) didn’t think he was involved in a “cult”. Now try telling the FBI that David Koresh was only involved in a religious practice. I’m sure we know how that conversation will go. Not that I approve of what happened at Waco, Texas and I understand some of the reasons for the siege.
    My basic point here is that it’s not for us to say what’s good for someone’s religious thoughts and what’s not. If we are to be true to ourselves in the Buddha’s teachings then we would realize that none of it really exists to begin with! Absolute truth is one hard thing to swallow!!!

    Enough of my ranting, thanks everyone for listening. Everyone on here has some really awesome views and points. That is the kind of positive feedback we all need to help us along our path.
    - Dawn
  • XraymanXrayman Veteran
    edited April 2006
    Okay that's it!

    Who want's to join me in the EBC?

    (Easter Bunny Cult) You can all call me Big Bunny! Do it now, my children!

    (original idea by The Goodies-1974)

    cheers,
    Xray
  • edited April 2006
    I'm not knocking the master, just the fellows who came after putting words in his mouth. The buddha didn't want to be made into something that he wasn't either.
  • edited May 2006
    From everything I've read about Scientology, and specifically some of the things Hubbard himself had said about Scientology, I consider it more a huge money-making scam than a religion/cult. But who knows? Someday the alien overlords could return and prove me totally wrong.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited May 2006
    LOL!!!
  • edited May 2006
    not really meaning to bring this topic back up but....I couldnt resist

    http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=641
  • JerbearJerbear Veteran
    edited May 2006
    One very sick website. But I had to look!
  • not1not2not1not2 Veteran
    edited June 2006
    My wife and I were watching videos from this website last night, so I thought I'd revive this thread for a little while.

    http://www.xenutv.com/

    It is run by Ex-Scientologists who work on getting people out of the cult. It puts a real face on Scientology and gives a lot of firsthand accounts. I particularly liked this video:

    56k|hi-bandwidth

    This is an interview with 30 year member and OT7, Tory Christman-Bezazian. There's some good information on this link from her as well:
    http://www.xenutv.com/interviews/tory2.htm

    _/\_
    metta
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited June 2006
    Cool! More info! And thanks for the 56k link, Not1. I'm actually going to download the video because I'm really interested in seeing it. I never download video normally because of how long it takes, but I'm willing to wait for this one.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited June 2006
    To all,

    After deeper research I've come to the obvious conclusion that Scientology is a cult, pure and simple. It's members are recruited, choice plays a very small part in the matter. It's a sick, unbelievably cruel and extremely dangerous organization responsible for deliberately driving people into psychotic breakdowns through mind control techniques. There are a number of deaths surrounding Scientology that people need to be aware of as well. This is true horror and has nothing to do with spiritual understanding whatsoever.

    To anyone who hasn't read the facts and experiences of those who have been tortured physically, emotionally and spiritually I urge you to do so.

    Here's one important link. It's an affidavit that pretty much sums up the horror. Please read this.
  • edited June 2006
    Brigid wrote:
    To all,

    Here's one important link. It's an affidavit that pretty much sums up the horror. Please read this.

    It would seem that person had profitted plenty from that organization. Might be he was laying it all out to avoid prosecution.

    Not unsimilar, the Catholic Diocese of Dallas vowwed transparency when it was slapped with 120 million dolar verdict in a child abuse case with several vtims 6 years ago. Then just last week the diocese released to the press that it had concluded that a priest had molested an accuser. This statement came 3 years after the priest had been relaced by another from my old home parish. That fact was left out of the article.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited June 2006
    Iawa wrote:
    It would seem that person had profitted plenty from that organization. Might be he was laying it all out to avoid prosecution.
    Um...I don't think he profited at all.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited June 2006
    Here is more info:

    Here.

    Here.

    and here.
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