Author Topic: SCIENTOLOGY (TM)  (Read 18443 times)

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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #15 on: June 20, 2005, 05:13:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 14:13:00, Anonymous wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-06-20 14:13:00, Anonymous wrote:


"
Quote


On 2003-07-03 10:45:00, Anonymous wrote:



"Thank you for that, that was perfect!"


"

"
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Antigen

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« Reply #16 on: June 20, 2005, 07:04:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 13:29:00, Paul wrote:


Ginger, if everyone on earth was as forgiving
as you are to Deborah, then there would be
no conflicts and certainly no war!

Darlin, thanks! That is about the highest bit of praise I can remember receiving lately.

Quote
Well if she wants tell the folks at Fornit's
then they will know. If not, well that is
free choice.

You are very forgiving of Deborah, I wonder
if you would forgive others, or me, as well.

Of course. I often run accross cites around here that are just remarkably poorly chosen. Ferinstance, the Washington Times, which is owned by the Unification Church (Moonies). Or, as I mentioned earlier, PURE. On the whole, people have just not been brought up lately to consider the source. It's a real shocker to some when they first get on the net and discover that not everything you read in print is the truth.

Quote

Since Deborah has been verified by you to
be knowledgable in the field of helping
the mentally ill, to not know about COS
or the validity, or history of all types
of psychiatric care is suspect. Sorry, but
it just is.

That's a rediculous statement, Paul. Sloppy propaganda there. Clams generally don't go out of their way to let everyone know about their affiliations w/ these front groups. It was only recently that some activists found out they were providing drug education programs in California schools.

Unless you know to look for the connections, you won't find them.

Quote
I am pretty sure when any groups has a set
of values based on absolutes, that is reason
to be suspicous that there is a spin on the
truth for whatever reason.

Yes, any group, including those that are absolutely sure that professional psychiatry is so entirely trustworthy they should have free, spontanious access to screen and treat our children. Do you have any idea how radical that is? We can't legally compel someone to feed their kids nutritious food (nor should we) or properly treat a common cold (as it should be). But you seem to think it's perfectly OK for some stranger w/ some certificate or other to enter into a Dr./Pt. relationship w/ our minor kids w/o informed consent. That's madness, Paul! It really and truely is! How would you like it if your new shrink showed up at your workplace or home and just informed you that he/she is your new shrink? You don't know anything about them, they might be a quack or a sadist or just someone you don't feel comfortable dealing w/ for whatever reason. But, there they are, your new doctor assigned randomly by some bureaucrat you'll never meet.

Is that an acceptable way to find a good shrink? If not for you, then what makes it OK for our kids?

Quote
Most legitimate "alternative" medicine sites,
whether physical or mental are now complementary
and don't demonize anyone's choice of treatment
philosophy.

It is all about being as healthy as possible,
while we are all lucky enough to be alive.


Ok, are we talking about choices? Or are we talking about mandatory mental health screening of all of our children?

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.  
-- Hunter S. Thompson

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #17 on: June 20, 2005, 07:55:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 16:04:00, Antigen wrote:

Quote


Since Deborah has been verified by you to

be knowledgable in the field of helping

the mentally ill, to not know about COS

or the validity, or history of all types

of psychiatric care is suspect. Sorry, but

it just is.




That's a rediculous statement, Paul. Sloppy propaganda there. Clams generally don't go out of their way to let everyone know about their affiliations w/ these front groups. It was only recently that some activists found out they were providing drug education programs in California schools.



Unless you know to look for the connections, you won't find them.


Hmmm, absolutely right, and thanks for that statement.

I had no clue, and thought nothing of it when first mentioned to me from an article in Reason magazine. I still didn't think much of COS and their impacts, well, because I had no reason to learn about their activities.

Sorta like learning about a software program, for not reason.

Then when Deborah was so demonizing I figured what the heck, google name + Scientology and jeeperz, it is amazing.

Quote
Quote
I am pretty sure when any groups has a set

of values based on absolutes, that is reason

to be suspicous that there is a spin on the

truth for whatever reason.



Yes, any group, including those that are absolutely sure that professional psychiatry is so entirely trustworthy they should have free, spontanious access to screen and treat our children.


I am baffled as to your quotes about forced medication and forced TeenScreens?

There is no forced medications unless there is a court hearing. It is so very rare. You make it sound like it is a common practice. In San Diego County we have 3.3 million people and less than two hundred are on court ordered medication. Most of these are only for three months.

Why? Because there are mandatory Reese hearings and when the patient is able to improve and speak logically then off goes the court order. If you just want to say I am bullshitting then you must come up with some proof. I see the numbers for San Diego County and I know the Patient Advocates who are paid to defend these patients. There just is no rampant forced psychiatric medication. You can say it all you want, but that is just bullshit.

Regarding forced TeenScreen with a voluntary program. Where is the forced in voluntary? I don't get it? Where do you get your information to make such absolute statements when the program is voluntary.

Heck, no one is complaining. Even the case where the parents of Chelsea are saying they did not receive the letter. The dad set up a hot line. No one called. No one called the school to complain nor to have their kids not take the screening.

If a parent does not want the screening then communicate. That is all, no biggie.

Voluntary is voluntary. Tell me where you get this big forced treatment data from?

BTW - I wrote to the reporter who did the story about Chelsea, her parents and the hot line. No response. Some story.

I think it is pretty obvious the Rutherford Institute just needed a test case, and they set one up. It will get tossed out because of the claims that they are making, they are unfounded.

They should stick to the facts, if that is what they are. They didn't receive the notice in the mail. They should not state that there is community outcry because there just isn't.

Quote
Do you have any idea how radical that is? We can't legally compel someone to feed their kids nutritious food (nor should we) or properly treat a common cold (as it should be). But you seem to think it's perfectly OK for some stranger w/ some certificate or other to enter into a Dr./Pt. relationship w/ our minor kids w/o informed consent. That's madness, Paul! It really and truely is! How would you like it if your new shrink showed up at your workplace or home and just informed you that he/she is your new shrink? You don't know anything about them, they might be a quack or a sadist or just someone you don't feel comfortable dealing w/ for whatever reason. But, there they are, your new doctor assigned randomly by some bureaucrat you'll never meet.




That would be a great statement if it were not pure hysteria. There is no forced treatment without a Reese hearing. 200 temporary cases in a land of 3.2 million is just not a mass treatment of forced medication, by any standards.

Psychiatrist are not forced on people. Sorry, we have all the protections of the law. The government even pays the Patient Advocate to uphold the law that it is not broken. So sorry, I do attend the meetings and get the data. You are making hysterical statements.

Besides, how do you even know if you haven't stepped foot in a school since you home schooled your kids? Did you read it on a dubios web site.

Remember to alway check the name + Scientology for now on, I am, thanks to Deborah!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Paul

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« Reply #18 on: June 20, 2005, 07:58:00 PM »
Ginger,

That last post was me, I forgot to log in.

As you can see I am experimenting with the
qoute system, and making quite a mess ...

Sorry about that.

Paul
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
or those who don\'t understand my position, on all subjects:

* Understand the law and your rights.

* Make sure you have the freedom of choice.

* Seek and receive unbiased information and
know the source of information.

Offline Antigen

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« Reply #19 on: June 20, 2005, 08:10:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 16:58:00, Paul wrote:

"Ginger,



That last post was me, I forgot to log in.



As you can see I am experimenting with the

qoute system, and making quite a mess ...



Sorry about that.



Paul"


That's quite alright. I fix this sort of thing all the damned time. If I weren't so lazzy, I'd dig into the code and make it so that this wouldn't happen. Oh well, pennywise, pound foolish.

Screening pre-school kids for anti-social behavior is about as useful as screening the Christian Coalition for sanctimonious behavior.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=sanho+tree&btnmeta%3Dsearch%3Dsearch=Search+the+Web' target='_new'>Sanho Tree

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Offline Antigen

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« Reply #20 on: June 20, 2005, 09:33:00 PM »
While I'm tempted to go point for point w/ you here, I won't. This is getting longer and more involved than I can promise to sustain. So I'll just quote and address your closing thoughts.


Quote
On 2005-06-20 16:55:00, Anonymous wrote:

That would be a great statement if it were not pure hysteria. There is no forced treatment without a Reese hearing. 200 temporary cases in a land of 3.2 million is just not a mass treatment of forced medication, by any standards.

Psychiatrist are not forced on people. Sorry, we have all the protections of the law. The government even pays the Patient Advocate to uphold the law that it is not broken. So sorry, I do attend the meetings and get the data. You are making hysterical statements.

Besides, how do you even know if you haven't stepped foot in a school since you home schooled your kids? Did you read it on a dubios web site.

Remember to alway check the name + Scientology for now on, I am, thanks to Deborah!



Reese hearings only happen for people who challenge the status quo. Most people, sadly, just do as instructed.

Whenever I look in on homeschooling circles, I run accross ppl who are looking into it specifically to get around school drugging requirements. And we only hear from those who question the standard policy. The rest just take the advice of the professionals (who, most often, are only following the directives of ppl holding teaching certs) and go ahead and give the kid his drugs.

And I've run into some of those parents, too, through my kids friendships. I've seen mothers threaten their kids w/ pills; "If you don't start behaving, I'll make you take your pill!"

It's sickening.

Even going back to my memories of elementary school, I hung out w/ the smart kids. No, not the ones who got 100% on all tests and strove to lap up to whatever neurotic charachter presented themselves as the authority for the moment. I mean the kids who made fun of them and who laughed when I did. In other words, the kids who were paying attention and had a nack for spotting bullshit.

Half of us got drugged and set on the 'special needs' track. It was frightening! The kid who was animated and smart and funny in 1st grade was now sitting cross legged on the floor, gap mouthed, drooling and entirely out of it. His name was Andrew. I loved him in a purely honest and innocent way. Didn't understand what was happening, but I damned sure knew it wasn't good!

The rest of us who's parents (for good reasons or silly ones) passed on the drugging option wound up in the advanced classes. I'll never forget our trip to Sea Camp. We earned it by scoring at least 80% on a highschool level biology course. Coincidentally or not, half the kids in that advanced track had been recomended for the same treatment Andrew got.

There's more. Paul, I understand where you're coming from. I'm not at all opposed to new or old drugs to treat whatever ails ya. In fact, I'm fully in favor of elimitating the FDA and leaving it to the free market to decide what stands the test of time.

Trouble is, most people in our society are not willing or able to look out for themselves. They expect and need some professional to make their decisions for them. That's a problem. Life is far too complex to leave it to some rote code. We all have to think for ourselves, on our feet.

In a word, I think abuse of psyche drugs and treatments occures far more frequently than you see. You only hear from those who have resisted.

Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary? Isn't killing people in the name of God a pretty good definition of insanity?
--Arthur C. Clarke, author

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Antigen

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« Reply #21 on: June 20, 2005, 09:59:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 16:55:00, Anonymous wrote:

Besides, how do you even know if you haven't stepped foot in a school since you home schooled your kids? Did you read it on a dubios web site.


Sorry, missed this. I have friends. Most of my kids' friends go to school. My 8yo tried it for 2 mos last year. Like being w/ other kids, hated that socializing on any meaningful level was strictly verboten. And my 15yo did Kindergarten and 1st grade. And my 21yo stayed in school halfway through 9th grade. It didn't exactly give her a leg up on life!

School is in the papers every single day around here. Everybody's involved. It permeates our small society. Even homeschool social circles seem to focus more on how to deal and treat w/ the schoolpeople than any other issue.

B'lieve me, I have plenty of contact w/ school culture!

And now the liberals want to stop President Reagan from selling chemical warfare agents and military equipment to Saddam Hussein and why? Because Saddam 'allegedly' gassed a few Kurds in his own country. Mark my words. All of this talk of Saddam Hussein being a 'war criminal' or 'committing crimes against humanity' is the same old thing. LIBERAL HATE SPEECH! and speaking of poison gas... I SAY WE ROUND UP ALL THE DRUG ADDICTS AND GAS THEM TOO!
 
--Rush Limbaugh, November 3, 1988

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Offline Paul

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« Reply #22 on: June 20, 2005, 10:10:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 18:33:00, Antigen wrote:


Antigen, obviously I don't know how to use the quotes properly, yet, but here are your right on:

1) This is getting longer and more involved than I can promise to sustain. So I'll just quote and address your closing thoughts.

*** Yup, this is getting exhausting ...

2) Trouble is, most people in our society are not willing or able to look out for themselves. They expect and need some professional to make their decisions for them. That's a problem. Life is far too complex to leave it to some rote code. We all have to think for ourselves, on our feet.

*** It is when things go wrong, for sure, but unlike an insurance company, county mental health is charged with helping those in need. So yes you are right, people are unprepared to deal with adversity and illness, allergies or whatever makes them dysfuntional.

3) In a word, I think abuse of psyche drugs and treatments occures far more frequently than you see. You only hear from those who have resisted.

*** I am not sure. Everyone has to sign a consent form. But you are right, most are dumb or don't care making them dumb.

The problem, and it is huge, is the jailed mentally ill are not at about 30,000 in California.  There are now more in jail than where ever institutionalized. Interestingly in jail, there is no forced treatment. Same ruled, Reese hearings, etc. In jail if you refuse meds and a good diet, etc. to try and get better, then it is ok to just sit and pass time. Nothing forced, and besides it is expensive to give meds to those who are going to spit them out.

So, some say anytime a mental health advocate mentions the jailed, or those in trouble or those tormenting those around them, or just dysfunctional and making people mad ... there is accusations of focusing on the negative.

One can't win.

It sure is better to be well than be sick ...



OK, good night, I am curious to what these quotes will look like :smile:

Oh, neat, I just discovered "look it over" ok, enough for now ... time to weedwack, of all things.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
or those who don\'t understand my position, on all subjects:

* Understand the law and your rights.

* Make sure you have the freedom of choice.

* Seek and receive unbiased information and
know the source of information.

Offline Paul

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« Reply #23 on: June 20, 2005, 10:23:00 PM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 18:59:00, Antigen wrote:

"
Quote

On 2005-06-20 16:55:00, Anonymous wrote:


Besides, how do you even know if you haven't stepped foot in a school since you home schooled your kids? Did you read it on a dubios web site.




Sorry, missed this. I have friends. Most of my kids' friends go to school. My 8yo tried it for 2 mos last year. Like being w/ other kids, hated that socializing on any meaningful level was strictly verboten. And my 15yo did Kindergarten and 1st grade. And my 21yo stayed in school halfway through 9th grade. It didn't exactly give her a leg up on life!



School is in the papers every single day around here. Everybody's involved. It permeates our small society. Even homeschool social circles seem to focus more on how to deal and treat w/ the schoolpeople than any other issue.



B'lieve me, I have plenty of contact w/ school culture!




Sorry about that. A previous post you made gave me the wrong idea. No doubt, you are in the thick of it.

I readily admit I have no exposure accept for some small presentation and I am just now getting involved in the Children's System of Care for County Mental Health ... and I am in over my head. Luckily I am just observing and there to preserve the patients (kids and parent's rights). I know that will put a smile on you face. But, that is my role ...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
or those who don\'t understand my position, on all subjects:

* Understand the law and your rights.

* Make sure you have the freedom of choice.

* Seek and receive unbiased information and
know the source of information.

Offline Antigen

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« Reply #24 on: June 20, 2005, 10:37:00 PM »
"There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds." --Alfred Lord Tennyson

I think you'll do a damned fine job; for one reason, and one reason only. You're not afraid to wade in hip deep into philisophicaly enemy teritory.

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
-- Ben Franklin At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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Offline Paul

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« Reply #25 on: June 21, 2005, 01:29:00 AM »
Quote
On 2005-06-20 19:37:00, Antigen wrote:



I think you'll do a damned fine job; for one reason, and one reason only. You're not afraid to wade in hip deep into philisophicaly enemy teritory.





It is simpler than a friendly or enemy territory analysis.

People have the right to believe whatever they want, and do what they want.

Others don't have the right to lie and deceive to influence people to do what they want them to do.

That is all, there is nothing much more to it.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
or those who don\'t understand my position, on all subjects:

* Understand the law and your rights.

* Make sure you have the freedom of choice.

* Seek and receive unbiased information and
know the source of information.

Offline Froderik

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« Reply #26 on: June 21, 2005, 01:43:00 AM »
I'll have to read this thread in the AM after I get jacked up on some coffee. Fuck Scientology, it's for the birds. Goodnight all...
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Offline Paul

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« Reply #27 on: June 21, 2005, 02:01:00 AM »
(Sunday, 24 June 1990, page A36:3)

The Times today begins a six-part series on the Church of Scientology, the controversial religion founded by the late author L. Ron Hubbard.

Since its creation nearly four decades ago, Scientology has grown into a worldwide movement that, in recent months, has spent millions of dollars promoting its founder and his self-help book, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health."

In the past five years alone, more than 20 of Hubbard's fiction and nonfiction books have become national bestsellers -- most of them achieving that status after his death in January, 1986.

Scientology executives estimate the church's membership to be more than 6.5 million, although some former members believe the actual number is smaller.

Scientology's largest stronghold is in Hollywood, the organization's management nerve center. The church is also a major presence in Clearwater, Fla., where Scientologists from around the world go for training.

No other contemporary religion has endured a more turbulent past or a more sustained assault on its existence than the Church of Scientology. It has weathered crises that would have crippled, if not destroyed, other fledgling religious movements -- testimony to the group's determination to survive.

Eleven of its top leaders -- including Hubbard's wife -- were jailed for burglarizing the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies in the 1970s. Within the church, there have been widespread purges and defections. Some former members have filed lawsuits accusing the church of intimidating its critics, breaking up families and using high-pressure sales techniques to separate large sums of money from its followers.

In 1986, Scientology paid an estimated $5 million to settle more than 20 of the suits, without admitting wrongdoing. In exchange, the plaintiffs agreed never again to criticize Scientology or Hubbard and to have their lawsuits forever sealed from public view.

Through all this, the church has persevered, dismissing its critics in government, psychiatry and the media as "criminals" and "anti-religion" demagogues who have conspired to persecute Scientology.

Today, the Scientology movement is writing a new chapter in its history, one that has attracted a new generation of supporters and detractors. Through official church programs and a network of groups run by Scientology followers, the movement is reaching into American society as never before to gain legitimacy and new members.

The apparent intent is to position Hubbard as a sort of 20th-Century Renaissance man, lending new credibility to his Scientology teachings.

Among other things, church members are disseminating his writings in schools across the U.S., assisted by groups that seldom publicize their Scientology connections.

Scientology followers also have established a number of successful consulting firms that sell Hubbard's management techniques to health care professionals and businessmen. In the process, many are steered into the church.

And Scientologists are the driving force behind two organizations active in the scientific community. The organizations have been busy trying to sell government agencies and the public on a chemical detoxification treatment developed by Hubbard.

There is little question that, although Hubbard is gone, Scientology is here to stay -- and doing its best to meet his expectations. "The world is ours," he once told his adherents. "Own it."

--------------------------------------------------

The Fornits posts; one article a day:

http://www.lermanet2.com - - Exposing the con

The Scientology Story

by Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos

A six-part series in the Los Angeles Times,
June 24-29, 1990

---

About This Series

---  

1. The Making of L. Ron Hubbard (Sunday, June 24)
         


1. Chapter 1: The Mind Behind the Religion
         
2. Chapter 2: Creating the Mystique
         
3. Chapter 3: Life with L. Ron Hubbard
         
4. Chapter 4: The Final Days
         
5. Defining the Theology
         
6. Burglaries and Lies Paved a Path to Prison
         
7. The Man in Control
         
8. Staking a Claim to Blood Brotherhood
         
9. Church Scriptures Get High-Tech Protection

---
   
2. The Selling of a Church (Monday, June 25)

         
1. Church Markets Its Gospel with High-Pressure Sales
         
2. Shoring Up Its Religious Profile
         
3. The Courting of Celebrities

---
   
3. Inside the Church (Tuesday, June 26)


         
1. Defectors Recount Lives of Hard Work, Punishment
   
---

4. Reaching into Society (Wednesday, June 27)
         

1. Church Seeks Influence in Schools, Business, Science
         
2. Courting the Power Brokers
         
3. The Org Board
         
4. Foundation Funds Provided to Jaime Escalante
   
---

5. The Making of a Best-selling Author (Thursday, June 28)
         

1. Costly Strategy Continues to Turn Out Bestsellers
   
---

6. Attack the Attacker (Friday, June 29)

         
1. On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes
         
2. Suits, Protests Fuel a Campaign Against Psychiatry
         
3. A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the Church
         
4. The Battle with the I.R.S.
         
5. The Battle with the "Squirrels
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
or those who don\'t understand my position, on all subjects:

* Understand the law and your rights.

* Make sure you have the freedom of choice.

* Seek and receive unbiased information and
know the source of information.

Offline Paul

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« Reply #28 on: June 21, 2005, 09:19:00 AM »
http://www.lermanet2.com/scientologynew ... atimes.htm

[The Fornits posts; one article a day:]

Reposted from:
http://www.lermanet2.com - - Exposing the con

---

The Scientology Story

by Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos

A six-part series in the Los Angeles Times,
June 24-29, 1990

---

About This Series

---

1. The Making of L. Ron Hubbard (Sunday, June 24)



1. Chapter 1: The Mind Behind the Religion

2. Chapter 2: Creating the Mystique

3. Chapter 3: Life with L. Ron Hubbard

4. Chapter 4: The Final Days

5. Defining the Theology

6. Burglaries and Lies Paved a Path to Prison

7. The Man in Control

8. Staking a Claim to Blood Brotherhood

9. Church Scriptures Get High-Tech Protection

---

2. The Selling of a Church (Monday, June 25)


1. Church Markets Its Gospel with High-Pressure Sales

2. Shoring Up Its Religious Profile

3. The Courting of Celebrities

---

3. Inside the Church (Tuesday, June 26)



1. Defectors Recount Lives of Hard Work, Punishment

---

4. Reaching into Society (Wednesday, June 27)


1. Church Seeks Influence in Schools, Business, Science

2. Courting the Power Brokers

3. The Org Board

4. Foundation Funds Provided to Jaime Escalante

---

5. The Making of a Best-selling Author (Thursday, June 28)


1. Costly Strategy Continues to Turn Out Bestsellers

---

6. Attack the Attacker (Friday, June 29)


1. On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes

2. Suits, Protests Fuel a Campaign Against Psychiatry

3. A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the Church

4. The Battle with the I.R.S.

5. The Battle with the "Squirrels
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Offline Paul

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SCIENTOLOGY (TM)
« Reply #29 on: June 21, 2005, 09:24:00 AM »
http://www.lermanet2.com/scientologynew ... lat-1a.htm

The Los Angeles Times

Part 1: The Making of L. Ron Hubbard

Chapter One:

The Mind Behind the Religion

From a life haunted by emotional and financial troubles, L. Ron Hubbard brought forth Scientology. He achieved godlike status among his followers, and his death has not deterred the church's efforts to reach deeper into society.

(Sunday, 24 June 1990, page A1:1)

It was a triumph of galactic proportions: Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard had discarded the body that bound him to the physical universe and was off to the next phase of his spiritual exploration -- "on a planet a galaxy away."

"Hip, hip, hurray!" thousands of Scientologists thundered inside the Hollywood Palladium, where they had just been told of this remarkable feat.

"Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray!" they continued to chant, gazing at a large photograph of Hubbard, creator of their religion and author of the best-selling "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health."

Earlier that day, the Church of Scientology had summoned the faithful throughout Los Angeles to a "big and exciting event" at the Palladium.

They were told nothing more, just to be there.

As evening fell, thousands arrived, most decked out in the spit-and-polish mock Navy uniforms that are symbolic of the organization's paramilitary structure.

The excited assemblage was about to learn that their beloved leader, a man who dubbed himself "The Commodore," had died. Yet, death was never mentioned.

Instead, the Scientologists were told that Hubbard had finished his spiritual research on this planet, charting a precise path for man to achieve immortality. And now it was on to bigger challenges somewhere beyond the stars.

His body had "become an impediment to the work he now must do outside of its confines," the awe-struck crowd was informed. "The fact that he ... willingly discarded the body after it was no longer useful to him signifies his ultimate success: the conquest of life that he embarked upon half a century ago."

The death certificate would show that Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, 74, who had not been seen publicly for nearly six years, died on Jan. 24, 1986, of a stroke on his ranch outside San Luis Obispo.

But to Scientologists, the man they affectionately called "Ron" had ascended.

The glorification of L. Ron Hubbard that brisk January night was not surprising. Over more than three decades he had skillfully transformed himself from a writer of pulp fiction to a writer of "sacred scriptures."

Along the way, he made a fortune and achieved his dream of fame.

"I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form, even if all the books are destroyed,"

Hubbard wrote to the first of his three wives in 1938, more than a decade before he created Scientology.

"That goal," he said, "is the real goal as far as I am concerned."

From the ground up, Hubbard built an international empire that started as a collection of mental therapy centers and became one of the world's most controversial and secretive religions.

The intensity, combativeness and salesmanship that distinguish Scientology from other religions can be traced directly to Hubbard. For, even in death, the man and his creation are inseparable.

He wrote millions of words in scores of books instructing his followers on everything from how to market Scientology to how to fend off critics. His prolific and sometimes rambling discourses constitute the gospel of Scientology, its structure and its soul. Deviations are punishable.

Through his writings, Hubbard fortified his clannish organization with a powerful intolerance of criticism and a fierce will to endure and prosper. He wrote a Code of Honor that urged his followers to "never desert a group to which you owe your support" and "never fear to hurt another in a just cause."

He transmitted to his followers his suspicious view of the world -- one populated, he insisted, by madmen bent on Scientology's destruction.

His flaring temper and searing intensity are deeply branded into the church and reflected in the behavior of his faithful, who shout at adversaries and even at each other. As one former high-ranking member put it: "He made swearing cool."

Hubbard's followers say his teachings have helped thousands kick drugs and allowed countless others to lead fuller lives through courses that improve communication skills, build self-confidence and increase an individual's ability to take control of his or her life.

He was, they say, "the greatest humanitarian in history."

But there was another side to this imaginative and intelligent man. And to understand Scientology, one must begin with L. Ron Hubbard.

In the late 1940s, Hubbard was broke and in debt. A struggling writer of science fiction and fantasy, he was forced to sell his typewriter for $28.50 to get by.

"I can still see Ron three-steps-at-a-time running up the stairs in around 1949 in order to borrow $30 from me to get out of town because he had a wife after him for alimony," recalled his former literary agent, Forrest J. Ackerman.

At one point, Hubbard was reduced to begging the Veterans Administration to let him keep a $51 overpayment of benefits. "I am nearly penniless," wrote Hubbard, a former Navy lieutenant.

Hubbard was mentally troubled, too. In late 1947, he asked the Veterans Administration to help him get psychiatric treatment.

"Toward the end of my (military) service," Hubbard wrote to the VA, "I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected.

"I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all."

In his most private moments, Hubbard wrote bizarre statements to himself in notebooks that would surface four decades later in Los Angeles Superior Court.

"All men are your slaves," he wrote in one.

"You can be merciless whenever your will is crossed and you have the right to be merciless," he wrote in another.

Hubbard was troubled, restless and adrift in those little known years of his life. But he never lost confidence in his ability as a writer. He had made a living with words in the past and he could do it again.

Before the financial and emotional problems that consumed him in the 1940s, Hubbard had achieved moderate success writing for a variety of dime-store pulp magazines. He specialized in shoot'em-up adventures, Westerns, mysteries, war stories and science fiction.

His output, if not the writing itself, was spectacular. Using such pseudonyms as Winchester Remington Colt and Rene LaFayette, he sometimes filled up entire issues virtually by himself. Hubbard's life then was like a page from one of his adventure stories. He panned for gold in Puerto Rico and charted waterways in Alaska. He was a master sailor and glider pilot, with a reported penchant for eye-catching maneuvers.

Although Hubbard's health and writing career foundered after the war, he remained a virtual factory of ideas. And his biggest was about to be born.

Hubbard had long been fascinated with mental phenomena and the mysteries of life.

He was an expert in hypnotism. During a 1948 gathering of science fiction buffs in Los Angeles, he hypnotized many of those in attendance, convincing one young man that he was cradling a tiny kangaroo in his hands.

Hubbard sometimes spoke of having visions.

His former literary agent, Ackerman, said Hubbard once told of dying on an operating table. And here, according to Ackerman, is what Hubbard said followed:

"He arose in spirit form and looked at the body he no longer inhabited....

In the distance he saw a great ornate gate.... The gate opened of its own accord and he drifted through. There, spread out, was an intellectual smorgasbord, the answers to everything that ever puzzled the mind of man. He was absorbing all this fantabulous information.... Then he felt like a long umbilical cord pulling him back. And a voice was saying,

'No, not yet.' "

Hubbard, according to Ackerman, said he returned to life and feverishly wrote his recollections. He said Hubbard later tried to sell the manuscript but failed, claiming that "whoever read it

(a) went insane, or

(b) committed suicide."

Hubbard's intense curiosity about the mind's power led him into a friendship in 1946 with rocket fuel scientist John Whiteside Parsons.

Parsons was a protege of British satanist Aleister Crowley and leader of a black magic group modeled after Crowley's infamous occult lodge in England.

Hubbard also admired Crowley, and in a 1952 lecture described him as "my very good friend."

Parsons and Hubbard lived in an aging mansion on South Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena. The estate was home to an odd mix of Bohemian artists, writers, scientists and occultists. A small domed temple supported by six stone columns stood in the back yard.

Hubbard met his second wife, Sara Northrup, at the mansion. Although she was Parsons' lover at the time, Hubbard was undeterred. He married Northrup before divorcing his first wife.

Long before the 1960s counterculture, some residents of the estate smoked marijuana and embraced a philosophy of promiscuous, ritualistic sex.

"The neighbors began protesting when the rituals called for a naked pregnant woman to jump nine times through fire in the yard," recalled science fiction author L. Sprague de Camp, who knew both Hubbard and Parsons.

Crowley biographers have written that Parsons and Hubbard practiced "sex magic." As the biographers tell it, a robed Hubbard chanted incantations while Parsons and his wife-to-be, Cameron, engaged in sexual intercourse intended to produce a child with superior intellect and powers. The ceremony was said to span 11 consecutive nights.

Hubbard and Parsons finally had a falling out over a sailboat sales venture that ended in a court dispute between the two.

In later years, Hubbard tried to distance himself from his embarrassing association with Parsons, who was a founder of a government rocket project at California Institute of Technology that later evolved into the famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Parsons died in 1952 when a chemical explosion ripped through his garage lab.

Hubbard insisted that he had been working undercover for Naval Intelligence to break up black magic in America and to investigate links between the occultists and prominent scientists at the Parsons mansion.

Hubbard said the mission was so successful that the house was razed and the black magic group was dispersed.

But Parsons' widow, Cameron, disputed Hubbard's account in a brief interview with The Times. She said the two men "liked each other very much" and "felt they were ushering in a force that was going to change things."

In early 1950, Hubbard published an intriguing article in a 25-cent magazine called Astounding Science Fiction. In it, he said that he had uncovered the source of man's problems.

The article grew into a book, written in one draft in just 30 days and entitled "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." It would become the most important book of Hubbard's life.

The book's introduction declared that Hubbard had invented a new "mental science," a feat more important perhaps than "the invention of the wheel, the control of fire, the development of mathematics."

Hubbard himself said he had uncovered the source of, and the cure for, virtually every ailment known to man. Dianetics, he said, could restore withered limbs, mend broken bones, erase the wrinkles of age and dramatically increase intelligence.

Not surprisingly, the nation's mental health professionals were unimpressed.

Famed psychoanalyst Rollo May voiced the sentiments of many when he wrote in the New York Times that "books like this do harm by their grandiose promises to troubled persons and by their oversimplification of human psychological problems."

But "Dianetics" was an instant bestseller when it hit the stands in May, 1950, and made Hubbard an overnight celebrity. Arthur Ceppos, who published the book, said Hubbard spent his first royalties on a luxury Lincoln.

Hubbard had tapped the public's growing fascination with psychotherapy, then largely accessible only to the affluent. "Dianetics," in fact, was popularly dubbed "the poor man's psychotherapy" because it could be practiced among friends for free.

In the book, Hubbard claimed to have discovered the previously unknown "reactive mind," a depository for emotionally or physically painful events in a person's life. These traumatic experiences, called "engrams," cause a variety of psychosomatic illnesses, including migraine headaches, ulcers, allergies, arthritis, poor vision and the common cold, Hubbard said.

The goal of dianetics, Hubbard said, is to purge these painful experiences and create a "clear" individual who is able to realize his or her full potential.

Catapulted from obscurity, Hubbard decided in the summer of 1950 to prove in a big way that his new "science" was for real.

He appeared before a crowd of thousands at the Shrine Auditorium to unveil the "world's first clear," a person he said had achieved a perfect memory. Journalists from numerous newspapers and magazines were there to document the event.

He placed on display one Sonya Bianca, a young Boston physics major. But when Hubbard allowed the audience to question her, she performed dismally.

Someone, for example, told Hubbard to turn his back while the girl was asked to describe the color of his tie. There was silence. The world's first clear drew a blank.

"It was a tremendous embarrassment for Hubbard and his friends at the time," recalled Arthur Jean Cox, a science fiction buff who attended the presentation.

More problems were on the way for the man whose book promised miracles but whose own life would move from one crisis to the next until his death.

He became embroiled, for instance, in a nasty divorce and child custody battle that raised embarrassing questions about his mental stability.

His wife, Sara Northrup Hubbard, accused him of subjecting her to "scientific torture experiments" and of suffering from "paranoid schizophrenia" -- allegations that she would later retract in a signed statement but that would find their way into government files and continue to haunt Hubbard.

She said in her suit that Hubbard had deprived her of sleep, beaten her and suggested that she kill herself, "as divorce would hurt his reputation."

During the legal proceedings, Sara placed in the court record a letter she had received from Hubbard's first wife.

"Ron is not normal," it said. "I had hoped you could straighten him out. Your charges probably sound fantastic to the average person -- but I've been through it -- the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits which you charge -- 12 years of it."

At one point in the marital dispute with Sara, Hubbard spirited their 1-year-old daughter, Alexis, to Cuba. From there, he wrote to Sara:

"I have been in the Cuban military hospital, and am being transferred to to the United States as a classified scientist immune from interference of all kinds.... My right side is paralyzed and getting more so.

"I hope my heart lasts. I may live a long time and again I may not. But Dianetics will last ten thousand years -- for the Army and Navy have it now."

Hubbard, who had earlier accused his wife of infidelity and said she suffered brain damage, closed his letter by threatening to cut his infant daughter from his will.

"Alexis will get a fortune unless she goes to you, as she then would get nothing," he wrote.

He also wrote a letter to the FBI at the height of the Red Scare accusing Sara of possibly being a Communist, along with others whom he said had infiltrated his dianetics movement.

The FBI, after interviewing Hubbard, dismissed him as a "mental case."

In one seven-page missive to the Department of Justice in 1951, he linked Sara to alleged physical assaults on him. He said that on two separate occasions he was punched in his sleep by unidentified intruders.

And then came the third attack.

"I was in my apartment on February 23rd, about two or three o'clock in the morning when the apartment was entered, I was knocked out, had a needle thrust into my heart to give it a jet of air to produce 'coronary thrombosis' and was given an electric shock with a 110 volt current. This is all very blurred to me. I had no witnesses. But only one person had another key to that apartment and that was Sara."

After months of sniping at each other -- and a counter divorce suit by Hubbard in which he accused his wife of "gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty" -- the couple ended their stormy marriage, with Sara obtaining custody of the child. In later years, Hubbard would deny fathering the girl and, as threatened, did not leave her a cent.

Not only was Hubbard's domestic life a shambles in 1951, his once-thriving self-help movement was crumbling as public interest in his theories waned.

The foundations Hubbard had established to teach dianetics were in financial ruin and his book had disappeared from The New York Times bestseller list.

But the resilient self-promoter came up with something new. He called it Scientology, and his metamorphosis from pop therapist to religious leader was under way.

Scientology essentially gave a new twist to the Dianetics notion of painful experiences that lodge in the "reactive mind." In Scientology, Hubbard held that memories of such experiences also collect in a person's soul and date back to past lives.

For many of Hubbard's early followers, Scientology was not believable, and they broke with him. But others would soon take their place, conferring upon Hubbard an almost saintly status.

But as Hubbard's renown and prosperity grew in the 1960s, so, too, did the questions surrounding his finances and teachings. He was accused by various governments -- including the U.S. -- of quackery, of brainwashing, of bilking the gullible through high-pressure sales techniques.

In 1967, Hubbard took several hundred of his followers to sea to escape the spreading hostility. But they found only temporary safe harbor from what they believed had become an international conspiracy to persecute them.

Their three ships, led by a converted cattle ferry dubbed the "Apollo," were bounced from port to port in the Mediterranean and Caribbean by governments that wrongly suspected the American skipper and his secretive, clean-cut crew of being CIA operatives.

While anchored at the Portuguese island of Madeira, they were stoned by townsfolk carrying torches and chanting anti-CIA slogans.

"They (were) throwing Molotov cocktails onto the boat but they weren't lit," a crew member recalled. "Fortunately, this was not an experienced mob."

The years at sea were a watershed for Hubbard and Scientology. He instituted a Navy-style command structure that is evident today in the military dress and snap-to behavior of the organization's staff members.

Hubbard named himself the "Commodore," and subordinates followed his orders like Annapolis midshipmen.

As former Scientology ship officer Hana Eltringham Whitfield put it: "Scientologists on the whole thought that Hubbard was like a god, that he could command the waves to do what he wanted, that he was totally in control of his life and consequences of his actions."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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