Should The Practice Of Scientology Carry A Warning Label?

[Anonymous]

http://www.postchronicle.com/religion/a ... 1038.shtml

Should The Practice Of Scientology Carry A Warning Label?
By Jerry Staton
Sep 26, 2006

Evidence suggests that the practice of Scientology should indeed
carry a label warning of its potential drawbacks and side effects.
Many of Scientology' s methods, if not illegal, are downright
dangerous. As with any other diet or self-improvement program,
information- both pro and con-should be provided to anyone
considering becoming involved with Scientology in order to allow
them to make a well-informed decision.

(Aug. 12, 2006) Michael Lewitz, 43, formerly of Phoenix, AZ., who
now currently resides in Reynolds IN., was lured into the practice
of Scientology- as many people are-by his involvement with one of the Church of Scientology' s many front groups.

Involvement with one of these front groups--which include Applied
Scholastics, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the Concerned Businessmen' s Association of America, the Cult Awareness Network, the Foundation for Religious Freedom, Narcanon/Criminon, the Way to Happiness Foundation, and the World Institution of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) among others-begins innocuously enough with a desire to address a specific issue that one is concerned with and no knowledge of a particular group's affiliation with the Church of Scientology.

This involvement gradually progresses to the practice of Scientology
as its principles are introduced to the group's participants and
they are taught and encouraged to apply these principles to the
particular concern that got them involved with the group to begin
with and then eventually to other areas of their lives as well.

One such principle is the Church of Scientology' s practice of "dead-
agenting," which is intended to neutralize any opposition to
Scientology by slandering and libeling people who tell the truth
about Scientology and Scientology Inc. "Dead-agenting" is intended
to render an opposing individual ineffective by calling into
question her or his honesty, thereby invalidating the factual
information about Scientology and the Scientology corporation.

Another principle is the Church of Scientology' s practice
of "disconnection" that encourages the practitioners of Scientology
to disconnect or shun all contact with former friends and family
members who don't subscribe to Scientology' s methods and could
possibly talk them out of their decision to participate in this cult
group. Little known, unknown (or just simply unacknowledged) is the
fact that this practice violates Intentional Tort, which includes
the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Scientology' s
practice of disconnection destroys marriages, partnerships, and
friendships, causing untold emotional pain and suffering to all
involved. Everyone has the right to choose with whom they will or
will not associate with. "Disconnection, " however, is not a
choice. Practicing Scientologists are told whom they
must "disconnect" from and are denied services until they comply.

"Auditing," which is in fact covert authoritarian hypnosis, is the
main practice of Scientology and is one of the services that are
denied a member who doesn't comply with an order to "disconnect.

The Church of Scientology' s doctrine is practically
indistinguishable from the theories of hypnosis, and in fact, its
claims of the various ways that the practice of Scientology can
improve one's life are identical to those of clinical hypnotherapy.

All Scientologists begin as "pre-clears" who must pay for "auditing"
(hypnosis) sessions to rid themselves of "engrams" (suppressed
memories) that are negatively affecting their lives in order to gain
control of their "reactive" (subconscious) mind. Each "success"
(abreaction) advances them further across the "bridge" (from ego
state therapy and hynoanalysis) to the state of being known
as "clear" (dissociation) .

Scientology, however, does not take into consideration that not all
mental conditions respond to hypnosis and with some psychological
disorders, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD); the use of
hypnosis is contraindicated and can actually intensify its symptoms.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 2009309014 day one

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... July+Event  day 2

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Fishman/fishman.html > very interesting

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3248666967 > more of the same

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 6401185152 > more again - all very interesting

[Oz girl]

What in a nut shell do scientologists believe?

[Anonymous]

They start off posing as a "self help" spiritual group (sound familiar?), then they get the rubes to pay them for classes, seminars, etc. aimed at clearing residual influences from past lives, etc.  After they get free of these influences, they are "clear", and can learn the secret doctrines involving alien warlords, gold DC-3 aircraft used to transport soulds to brainwashing camps inside volcanoes, etc.

[Anonymous]

http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm

Who is Xenu?
I'm going to tell you a story. Are you sitting comfortably? Right, then I'll begin.
Once upon a time (75 million years ago to be more precise) there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy including our own planet Earth, except in those days it was called Teegeeack.

 Now Xenu had a problem. All of the 76 planets he controlled were overpopulated. Each planet had on average 178 billion people. He wanted to get rid of all the overpopulation so he had a plan.

Xenu took over complete control with the help of renegades to defeat the good people and the Loyal Officers. Then with the help of psychiatrists he called in billions of people for income tax inspections where they were instead given injections of alcohol and glycol mixed to paralyse them. Then they were put into space planes that looked exactly like DC8s (except they had rocket motors instead of propellers).


These DC8 space planes then flew to planet Earth where the paralysed people were stacked around the bases of volcanoes in their hundreds of billions. When they had finished stacking them around then H-bombs were lowered into the volcanoes. Xenu then detonated all the H-bombs at the same time and everyone was killed.

The story doesn't end there though. Since everyone has a soul (called a "thetan" in this story) then you have to trick souls into not coming back again. So while the hundreds of billions of souls were being blown around by the nuclear winds he had special electronic traps that caught all the souls in electronic beams (the electronic beams were sticky like fly-paper).

After he had captured all these souls he had them packed into boxes and taken to a few huge cinemas. There all the souls had to spend days watching special 3D motion pictures that told them what life should be like and many confusing things. In this film they were shown false pictures and told they were God, The Devil and Christ. In the story this process is called "implanting".

When the films ended and the souls left the cinema these souls started to stick together because since they had all seen the same film they thought they were the same people. They clustered in groups of a few thousand. Now because there were only a few living bodies left they stayed as clusters and inhabited these bodies.

As for Xenu, the Loyal Officers finally overthrew him and they locked him away in a mountain on one of the planets. He is kept in by a force-field powered by an eternal battery and Xenu is still alive today.

That is the end of the story. And so today everyone is full of these clusters of souls called "body thetans". And if we are to be a free soul then we have to remove all these "body thetans" and pay lots of money to do so. And the only reason people believe in God and Christ was because it was in the film their body thetans saw 75 million years ago.

Well what did you think of that story?

What? You thought it was a stupid story?

Well so do we. However, this story is the core belief in the religion known as Scientology.* If people knew about this story then most people would never get involved in it. This story is told to you when you reach one of their secret levels called OT III. After that you are supposed to telepathically communicate with these body thetans to make them go away. You have to pay a lot of money to get to this level and do this (or you have to work very hard for the organisation on extremely low pay for many years).

We are telling you this story as a warning. If you become involved with Scientology then we would like you to do so with your eyes open and fully aware of the sort of material it contains.

  Most of the Scientologists who work in their Dianetics* centres and so called "Churches" of Scientology do not know this story since they are not allowed to hear it until they reach the secret "upper" levels of Scientology. It may take them many years before they reach this level if they ever do. The ones who do know it are forced to keep it a secret and not tell it to those people who are joining Scientology.  
Part of the first page of the secret OT III document in L. Ron Hubbard's own handwriting  


Now you have read this you know their big secret. Don't let us put you off joining though.

* Dianetics and Scientology are trademarks of the Religious Technology Centre. This document is not connected with that organisation in any way.



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[OverLordd]

Look, they are heritics simple as that. Also, its a business that sells a product. They have great security and great advertising, so they keep the bad info out, and the good keeps going out to the sad people that keep buying what their selling.

[Anonymous]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1083100102009309014 day one

yay, ok, video critque time, lets see what people have to say, and I'll give my humble comments on the video.

To begin with, at the begining, the private security officer was just doing his job, but he was being rude and unreasonable about it while refusing to answer forthright questions. The police officer also pulled a no no, he put him self in a bad light. He grabed the camera and pushed it down. He should not of done that, it was wrong, it showed that he had something to hide, or that he did not want something to be seen. Police officers should not ever be afraid of being recorded. Now about the debate with the other 3 men.

You will notice a few things. To begin with the stuck to seemingly a script, the kept asking about his crimes, and they kept asking what he was afraid of and what he had to hide. They were trying to guilt him into something, they kept attacking him with no real discussion, commentary, or even statements of their own. They resorted to personal attacks. "Did you take time of from beating your wife to come here." And they changed the subject when confronted with real events or evidence of their wrong. They asked him. "Why are you here?" He asnwered rather truthfully and answered the question straight, but the individual, the man in the middle of the group of three blinked at him and went back to. "What are your crimes."

I will grant the individual with the camera kept on joking again and again lessing the seriousness of any possible discussion.

He was constantly accused of hiding behind a camera. Now, you want to know what I think, people should also act as if they are being watched honestly, have some intergrity, if your not willing to act as if some one is there with you, you should not say or do whatever it is you were going to do.

Around the 7:30 minute mark they once again launch into "He is there to hide his own crimes", which makes no sence what so ever! Bah, its upseting. They accuse him of being a child molester, then listen to his golden nugget. "The only people that attack The Church are people that are afraid of finding out something."

Once again, he attacks them with evidence and they come back with. "What have you done?" Like just because he might of done something wrong it invalidates everything they have ever done wrong.

And like the movie ended quickly, now I end quickly.

[Anonymous]

You will notice a few things. To begin with the stuck to seemingly a script, the kept asking about his crimes, and they kept asking what he was afraid of and what he had to hide. They were trying to guilt him into something, they kept attacking him with no real discussion, commentary, or even statements of their own. They resorted to personal attacks. "Did you take time of from beating your wife to come here." And they changed the subject when confronted with real events or evidence of their wrong. They asked him. "Why are you here?" He asnwered rather truthfully and answered the question straight, but the individual, the man in the middle of the group of three blinked at him and went back to. "What are your crimes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientolog ... .22_policy

The organization's actions reflect a formal policy for dealing with criticism instituted by L. Ron Hubbard, called "attack the attacker." This policy was codified by Hubbard in the latter half of the 1960s, in response to government investigations into the organization. In 1966, Hubbard wrote a criticism of the organization's behavior and noted the "correct procedure" for attacking enemies of Scientology:

    (1) Spot who is attacking us.
    (2) Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using own professionals, not outside agencies.
    (3) Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them.
    (4) Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press.

    Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way. You can get "reasonable about it" and lose. Sure we break no laws. Sure we have nothing to hide. BUT attackers are simply an anti-Scientology propaganda agency so far as we are concerned. They have proven they want no facts and will only lie no matter what they discover. So BANISH all ideas that any fair hearing is intended and start our attack with their first breath. Never wait. Never talk about us - only them. Use their blood, sex, crime to get headlines. Don't use us. I speak from 15 years of experience in this. There has never yet been an attacker who was not reeking with crime. All we had to do was look for it and murder would come out. -- Attacks on Scientology, "Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter," 25 February 1966 [1]



Hubbard detailed his rules for attacking critics in a number of policy letters, including one often quoted by critics as "the Fair Game policy." This allowed that those who had been declared enemies of the Church, called "suppressive persons" or simply "SP," "May be deprived of property or injured by any means... May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." (taken from HCOPL 18 Oct 67 Issue IV, Penalties for Lower Conditions )


In the 1970s, Hubbard continued to codify the policy of "attacking the attacker" and assigned a term to it that is used frequently within Scientology: "dead agenting." Used as a verb, "dead agenting" is described by Hubbard as a technique for countering negative accusations against Scientology by diverting the critical statements and making counter-accusations against the accuser (in other words, "attack the attacker"). Hubbard defined the PR (public relations) policy on "dead agenting" in a 1974 bulletin:

    "The technique of proving utterances false is called "DEAD AGENTING". It's in the first book of Chinese espionage. When the enemy agent gives false data, those who believed him but now find it false kill him - or at least cease to believe him. So the PR slang for it is 'Dead Agenting.'" -- L. Ron Hubbard, Board Policy Letter, PR Series 24: Handling Hostile Contacts/Dead Agenting, May 30, 1974 [2].

[Anonymous]

The answer to the topic question is "Yes."

Clamology is pretty much fucked, though. Almost everyone knows what it is and what it isn't by now. When you get South Park-erated, that's pretty much it.

[Anonymous]

They are a 501 (C) 3 tax exempt organization ... therefore they are legitimate!

[Anonymous]

They are a 501 (C) 3 tax exempt organization ... therefore they are legitimate!

 :rofl: You're funny.

[robertbyronz]

is it okay if I put up an animated avatar on my profile?

[Anonymous]

Depends.  :lol:

[Anonymous]

http://www.mcalesternews.com/local/loca ... 71049.html

Does Crimnon work? The jury is still out
By Doug Russell
News Editor

Some say the program works and works well. Others say there?s no proof it works at all and that implementing it could not only be a waste of taxpayer money, but in the long run could actually prove detrimental.

Which side is right remains a question.

A study to determine if Criminon works in Oklahoma prison systems has some prison workers up in arms.

?We have a program that works,? said Sherri Fabrey, a counselor at the Mack Alford Correctional Center in Stringtown.

?If you have something that works, why mess with it? Especially if you have something coming in that there?s no real proof of working??

Criminon is a non-profit program dedicated to offender rehabilitation and reform. It is an outgrowth of Narconon and is, like Narconon, associated with the Church of Scientology.

Criminon?s parent organization, the Association of Better Living and Education International, proposed the study at Mack Alford.

ABLE is the group that initially bought the former Arrowhead Lodge, current site of Narconon Arrowhead.

?The main problem I have is that there are no real studies of which I?m aware showing the Criminon program works,? Fabrey said.

The Criminon Web site lists two studies. One, by the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education, was of juvenile offenders in Utah.

The Foundation is itself tied to Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The ?First International Conference on Chemical Contamination and Human Detoxification,? held under the auspices of FASE in Los Angeles in 1995, was comprised of supporters of Hubbard?s detoxification methods.

The supporters agreed at the conference to join together and form what is now known as the International Academy of Detoxification Specialists.

A second study of Criminon, by the Urban Institute, is incomplete, according to a link on Criminon?s Web site.

Founded in 1968, the Urban Institute is a non-partisan social research organization which analyzes a variety of social issues, including economic, justice, health care and immigration. Its research is often provided to lawmakers and others who make policies regarding the public overall.

That FASE study compared 100 young people who received Narconon training to 100 who did not. Of the 100 enrolled in Narconon, 74 completed that training. Of those who did, about one-third did not have a history of re-offending within four years.

That?s about three-quarters of enrollees completing the program, with about one third of those, roughly 25 people, not reoffending within four years ? about one-fourth of all enrollees.

Taken another way, two-thirds of those who completed the program in the FASE study did reoffend within four years.

How does that compare with current programs?

People who go through the drug court program in Oklahoma are much less likely (19 percent) to reoffend than any other offenders, according to a 2004 report from the Oklahoma Sentencing Commission. By comparison, 35 percent of persons put on standard probation or parole reoffend, as do about 76 percent of those sent to prison.

A study by Andrew Spivak, of the University of Oklahoma Sociology Department, found that of 46,172 inmates released from prison in the state between 1985 and 1999, 48.1 percent were rearrested by May 31, 2004.

?We?re gearing more toward reentry through a variety of programs,? said Dr. Don Kiffin, who oversees an Oklahoma Department of Corrections program to help train and support ex-offenders as entrepreneurs.

?It?s plain that the more education someone has, the less likely they are to be a recidivist. If we can give them something to help them restart their lives, they?re less likely to go back to prison.?

According to the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy, between 70 and 85 percent of all people incarcerated in 1995 needed some level of substance abuse treatment.

Offenders who receive some type of treatment or education while they?re incarcerated are less likely to reoffend than those who don?t, according to Jerry Massey, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Some programs, such as educational programs like that overseen by Kiffin, fall directly under the DOC. Others, like the current treatment program at Mack Alford Correctional Center, are actually operated by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Whichever program offenders receive, the simple fact they?ve successfully completed one lessens the odds that they?ll be back behind bars, Massey said.

A five-year study of the program currently in place at Mack Alford, which was presented to the state board of corrections in September, indicates that 66.42 percent of inmates who completed that program were not rearrested for any crime, as compared to 29.57 percent prisoners released during the same time who needed substance abuse treatment but didn?t recieve it.

Massey said he does not have information on exactly how many prisoners started the current MACC program, compared to how many completed it.

The program is designed to promote effective ways people can deal with problems, including teaching them ways to look at alternate ways of responding to problems.

?Much of what the people at Criminon say is just anecdotal,? Fabrey said. ?We know our program works, so I don?t understand why the state is even looking at having this one here.?

?I understand they?ll look at just about any program to see if it will work,? Massey said, adding all Department of Corrections treatment programs are funded largely through grants. ?If there?s something else out there that will work, I?m sure the board will be interested,? he said.