Scientology

"The one thing that was really cool about L. Ron Hubbard was that he really got the concept that if people united, and not in some airy-fairy way, but if they united and they put their, you know, muscle and brawn together and they worked really hard, you could create a better civilization."

"They [the Guardian's Office] were L. Ron Hubbard’s intelligence agents. That was their purpose; and indeed an intelligence specialist in the U.S. has said that they were as effective as the CIA."

"The prospect of a new global order is also central to many variants of the Human Potential and New Age movements and Scientology. All these very different kinds of NRM nevertheless share a conviction that human beings have, perhaps for the first time, come into possession of the knowledge required to free them from traditional structures of thought and action."

"But of course their doctrine states that the purpose of a suit is to harass, not to win, so from that perspective they hurt us all. They've had a real chilling effect on journalism, both before and after my piece."

"Scientology promotes not watching the news. It keeps you inside a Truman Show where you're totally unaware of things. It's like your own thinking gets shut down and you get used to not considering anything that might be critical of Scientology."

"There is more evil in one second of the history of the Roman Catholic Church than there is in the entire lifetime of Scientology."

"And this really directly affects my relationship with people, with individuals around me, with my loved ones, and also with audiences."

"You can't drive past an accident, because as a Scientologist you are the only one who can help."

"The secret feeling that you’re basically superior to your fellow man is probably more human than anything, except the related doubt that you’re superior to anyone. Racism is based on the need to believe in superiority, and one of the basic factors underlying many neuroses is the doubt of even equality. L. Ron Hubbard has capitalized on this situation in a book—printed by Hermitage House—Dianetics, available to all at $4.00 per copy. It isn’t at all surprising that the book has been a best seller, since it gives the credulous reason to believe that he can really be the superman he always felt he was. It also purports to be a science, which is the current catch-word to replace the older black-magic in the popular mind. The fact that it lacks a fundamental scientific basis has little to do with the average, untrained reader’s idea that he is being scientific in trying out the “experiments”—totally without controls or any basis of objective evaluation—in the book."

"People mistake L. Ron Hubbard and his Scientology. They see the apparency, and not the actuality. By design. Scientology does not work as stated; but as intended. As intended by its creator L Ron Hubbard. To keep the Doorway open. To remain in the realm of the Great Beast. To feed the hunger of the Will. His Will. When he emptied the purse of man and the heart of women; it seeks onward and outward. Appetite. Forever appetite. Scientology is the snare. The passion flower. the Cloak of Lights. The glow of power. A power always wanting. Always needing. The Will never satisfied."

"The trade secrets that they're trying to protect, all that science fiction space opera stuff at the end of the road, it's already on the hard load--hard drives of millions of people. In other words, the cat's out of the bag. So anybody that cares to investigate this organization are just a few keystrokes away from finding the truth-- and it's out there."

"The Celebrity Centre is just like, you know, the stable datum of like, growth and sanity, and growing as an artist, and, um, it's just like I'm always safe when I come here."

"I got a lot of benefit from auditing. It was the fastest and deepest way to handle situations that I had yet encountered. I immediately wanted to learn to do it. … With Scientology, I was able to characterize the Mind more accurately, and to cease justifying it. This greatly clarified what I was doing. … After my experience with Scientology, I saw what it means to see the Mind as a machine. I can now operate my Mind accordingly, with exactitude. I can do the familiar mind over matter experiments - the control of pain and bleeding, telepathy, those things."

"I felt great and I got rid of some stuff that I didn't realize that I was dragging around. And I said, "Whoa, I think I've become a Scientologist.""

"Scientology means 'scio', knowing in the fullest sense of the word and 'logos', study. In itself the word means 'knowing how to know'.Scientology is a 'route', a way, rather than a dissertation or assertive body of knowledge. Through its drills and studies one may find the truth for himself. The technology is therefore not expounded as something to believe, but something to 'do'."

"The Aetherius Society is technically a “UFO religion,” in that it depends upon a belief in extraterrestrial entities operating UFOs. There are many such religions, the largest of which is Scientology."

"Why Scientology is a religion? Religion is about the spirit, and Scientology deals with the spirit. We are in the tradition of the much older religions -- Buddhism, Hinduism -- helping the person as a spiritual being improve himself. That is what religion is about. That is why this is a religion. It doesn't fall into any other field."

"But we’re friends with Penn Jillette, and Showtime wouldn’t let him do an episode of Bullshit! on Scientology..And hearing other people say, "You can’t do that,"—you can only say "You can’t do that" so many times to Matt and me before we’re gonna do it..So we realized we had to do it, and now that we’ve done it, now it’s like we’ve sort of opened the floodgates. People will be less scared."

"Scientology is thus one of several groups that form part of the Human Potential Movement (HPM) - an umbrella term for organizations that offer enhanced quality of life."

"What was most incredible about being with him [L. Ron Hubbard] was that he made you feel that you were important..He didn't in any way promote himself or his own self-importance. He was very, very loving and had the widest range of knowledge and experience that you could possibly imagine -- he'd studied everything."

"Many of the new religions attract individuals by the promise of peace of mind, spiritual well-being, gratifying experiences, and material success. In doing so they stress their concern for the individual and highlight one's personal worth and self-development. This is especially so in human growth movements such as Scientology."

"I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going...They have a lot of very good technology. That’s what really appealed to me about it. It’s not faith-based. It’s all technology. And I’m obsessed with technology."

"I knew Ron Hubbard before he ever started Scientology. I was in a writing group with him in Greenwich Village and he kept saying, "You know, the only way to make any money, you can't do it with pulp writing, you got to, you start a religion." And nobody took him very seriously."

"Now, to those who are for dianetics: ITEM: Only a fool will accept the whole because one or two of its parts acceptable. To observe some of the remarkable effects of dianetic therapy and thereby conclude, without evidence, that all Hubbard’s theories are correct, is about as intelligent as trying to chew into a peach-tree because you found the peaches good. ITEM: There is a deplorable proclivity in the human animal to get faddistic about certain ideas. Faith is a beautiful thing. So are forest fires, and the color of gangrene. I think faith—especially capital-F Faith—is more dangerous and more disgusting than either. It is a substitute for thought. Dianetics, for all its effectiveness, is not a panacea, and Ron Hubbard is not the Messiah. If you are feeling either of these two things, go take a cold shower."

"A new mediation is necessary, one which was already in existence and practice in the time of Esotericism and Theosophy but has since been lost. “Secular” and “religious” are not categories in contrast to each other: they must go together. Scientology – in my opinion - through its new “physical” and “spiritual” principles signals this new direction that religions and humanity as a whole, perhaps, ought to follow."

"Almost all the information in the show is taken from their own literature..We thought that the best way to satirize the Church of Scientology was to let the Church speak for itself."

"This is how they suck you in, they offer these innocuous-seeming self-improvement courses for 40 bucks, then they start to interest you in Dianetic auditing..It's a kind of crack psychotherapy."

"I'm part of a, of a frontier in a way, you know, that very few people ever get to be part of. Like a pioneer in many, in many ways, and I've, I've seen my efforts come to fruition."

"The cutting edge on such battles is often the Church of Scientology..They have very well honed procedures and tactics to remove information that they find objectionable."

"As one ascends further into the levels of Scientology, new doctrinal points are revealed. A variety of problems afflicting the human race are explained as caused by an event that took place 75 million years ago. Humanity lives in an illusion that is due to a long chain of events ultimately traceable back to a cosmic cataclysm caused by the ruler of our local part of the universe, an entity named Xenu. These esoteric doctrines are clearly influenced by science fiction themes of contemporary popular culture."

"Among the material the church has been trying to suppress is what might be called a "genesis myth of Scientology": a story about a galactic despot named Xenu who decided 75 million years ago to kill a bunch of people by chaining them to volcanoes and dropping nuclear bombs on them. (Apart from anything else, this sort of aggression on Xenu's part strikes me as a excessive — volcano chaining or nuclear bombing, but not both!) … Does a "church" normally have "competitors" in the trade secret sense? If the Catholics got hold of the full facts about Xenu, does this mean they'll get more market share?"

"Scientologists believe that most human problems can be traced to lingering spirits of an extraterrestrial people massacred by their ruler, Xenu, over 75 million years ago. These spirits attach themselves by “clusters” to individuals in the contemporary world, causing spiritual harm and negatively influencing the lives of their hosts."

"Hubbard kept adding steps, each more costly, for his followers to climb. In the 1960s the guru decreed that humans are made of clusters of spirits (or "thetans") who were banished to earth some 75 million years ago by a cruel galactic ruler named Xenu. Naturally, those thetans had to be audited."

"L Ron wrote that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien lord called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs. Ex-Scientologists have insisted to me that Xenu is part of Scientology. If so, it is a religion that requires its followers not to tell others about its core belief, which is very odd. Critics say that if we all knew about Xenu, then Scientology could not charge people as much as £100,000 to find out about him."

"I can stop you. I know what you're talking about. I'm familiar with the material. I think what you're getting at is the confidential scriptures of the Church."

"Well, John, does that sound silly to you? I mean it's unrecognizable to me."

"That's not what we believe."

"John I already answered this.. let us know what you're talking about, it's like loony. It's weird.. makes you look weird."

"It is not a story, it is an auditing level. I'm not explaining it to you, and I could not explain it to you. You don't have a hope of understanding it."

"Do you know that the incident, the 75 million year ago incident has been a matter of public record for many years?"

"The discussion of the -- of the volcanoes, the explosions, the Galactic confederation 75 million years ago, and a gentleman by the name Xemu there. Those are not trade secrets."

"Talk about the Van Allen Belt or whatever is that, that forms no part of current Scientology, none whatsoever. Well, you know, quite frankly, this tape here, he's talking about the origins of the universe, and I think you're going to find that in any, any, any religion, and I think you can make the same mockery of it. I think it's offensive that you're doing it here, because I don't think you'd do it somewhere else."

"That's the end of that subject."

"That's when you first come into contact with the Xenu story."

"75 million years ago, Xenu was an evil galactic dictator who had some problem with billions of his people, so he loaded them into spaceships that looked exactly like DC-8s. Even worse, he charged them twenty-five dollars if they had extra luggage. Then, Xenu brought them here to Earth where he stacked their bodies around volcanoes, which he then blew up with Hydrogen bombs."

"That's the guy from like 75 trillion years ago who drugged mankind and nuked 'em in volcanoes. What was his name - Xenu."

"Scientologists also believe that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord … an evil warlord by the name of Xenu dumped 13 trillion aliens from different planets into the Earth's volcanoes and then vaporized them with H-Bombs. And the radioactive souls of these these poor, vaporized alien creatures continue to enter into our bodies implanting engrams and false ideas about Christ and God and psychiatry, and that's why we have to purge ourselves of all of these engrams."

"Could you believe that 75 million years ago, Xenu froze hundreds of billions of people and dropped them into volcanoes on Earth, before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs?"

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

"You see, Stan, there is a reason for people feeling sad and depressed. An alien reason. It all began 75 million years ago. Back then there was a galactic federation of planets which was ruled over by the evil Lord Xenu. Xenu thought his galaxy was overpopulated, and so he rounded up countless aliens from all different planets, and then had those aliens frozen. The frozen alien bodies were loaded onto Xenu's galactic cruisers, which looked like DC-8s, except with rocket engines. The cruisers then took the frozen alien bodies to our planet, to Earth, and dumped them into the volcanoes of Hawaii. The aliens were no longer frozen, they were dead. The souls of those aliens, however, lived on, and all floated up towards the sky. But the evil Lord Xenu had prepared for this. Xenu didn't want their souls to return! And so he built giant soul-catchers in the sky! The souls were taken to a huge soul brain-washing facility, which Xenu had also built on Earth. There the souls were forced to watch days of brainwashing material which tricked them into believing a false reality. Xenu then released the alien souls, which roamed the earth aimlessly in a fog of confusion. At the dawn of man, the souls finally found bodies which they can grab onto. They attached themselves to all mankind, which still to this day causes all our fears, our confusions, and our problems."

"Mwahaha! Instead of inspecting your taxes, I will feed you a special potion to paralyze you."

"They had elected a fellow by the name of Xenu to the supreme ruler and they were about to un-elect him. And he took the last moments he had in office to really goof the floof."

"Simultaneously, the planted charges erupted. Atomic blasts ballooned from the craters of Loa, Vesuvius, Shasta, Washington, Fujiyama, Etna, and many, many others. Arching higher and higher, up and outwards, towering clouds mushroomed, shot through with flashes of flame, waste and fission. Great winds raced tumultuously across the face of Earth, spreading tales of destruction..."

"No doubt you are familiar with the Revelations section of the Bible where various events are predicted. Also mentioned Is a brief period of time in which an arch-enemy of Christ, referred to as the anti-Christ, will reign and his opinions will have sway. All this makes for very fantastic, entertaining reading but there is truth in it. This anti-Christ represents the forces of Lucifer (literally, the "light bearers" or "light bringer"), Lucifer being a mythical representation of the forces of enlightenment, the Galactic Confederacy. My mission could be said to fulfill the Biblical promise represented by this brief anti-Christ period. During this period there is a fleeting opportunity for the whole scenario to be effectively derailed, which would make it impossible for the mass Marcabian landing (Second Coming) to take place."

"We have calculated that on average, each person on planet earth has 2,209 of these Body Thetans (BT's for short), Hubbard's term for the alien spirits, attached to you causing you to be constrained by Xenu's false reality. The average cost for Scientology to OT 8 is a mere USD 360,000, meaning that each BT only costs USD 163 to clear. Now that is a bargain if there ever was one."

"How could this be? The church's OT VIIIs, Katz said, are purported to be "completely able to make whatever they want to have happen in life." She acknowledged the seeming inconsistency of feeling so lost after having attained the highest spiritual level in Scientology. She said that away from the church, she felt in control, she felt like an OT VIII. But with anything that had to do with the "church agenda, she felt a loss of control. "It was like having two different lives.""

"Reaching the highest level — OT VIII — usually requires a Scientologist to spend years and tens of thousands of dollars on courses, counseling, books, lectures and other materials. … Reaching levels seven and eight can cost tens of thousands of dollars more, depending on the pace of a person's counseling progress."

"He says he spent about $200,000 progressing up the church's Bridge to Total Freedom and reached OT VIII in 2006 aboard the church's cruise ship, the Freewinds."

"She said it took her 13 years to complete the OT VII level, traveling to Clearwater every six months, often spending $7,865 for intensive auditing sessions. As an OT VIII, she said she spent $16,385 for one 12½ hour, intensive auditing program. "And it didn't resolve the issue, which I was promised it was going to," she said."

"There are up to 28 processing steps that require a mix of intense training, auditing and a surrender of reason before a Scientologist can reach Operating Thetan Level VIII, the highest level attainable. What this actually means remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that the total discounted rate for Scientologists to achieve this perceived goal is $277,000, the ASHO Official Scientology Price List reports. For this and other reasons, such as paying members 10 percent commissions for new recruits, Scientology has been denied non profit status in other countries."

"On March 24, the swashbuckling truth-seekers at Wikileaks.org published what they referred to as "the collected secret 'bibles' of Scientology," and three days later, church-friendly lawyers threatened the site with legal action if the documents weren't taken down. Calling them "Advanced Technology of the Scientology religion," the lawyers pointed out that the documents are copyrighted works registered to the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a church-related holding company. Wikileaks did not remove the documents. But it did tell the world their veracity has been verified."

"A Scientologist who spends $280,000 on the cult's “intensives” and courses to achieve “Operating Thetan Level VIII” status may consider himself spiritually superior …"

"Even more controversial is a passage in the disputed Level VIII documents that debunks major religions as instruments of "enslavement" and depicts Jesus as "a lover of young boys and men...given to uncontrollable bursts of temper and hatred.""

"Mike and Donna Henderson, onetime Scientologists from Clearwater, were victims of this culture. OT 7 and OT 8 respectively, they were nearly bankrupted by their involvement with the church. Today they are two of a growing number of ex-Scientologists who predict that in these dark economic times, Scientology's "unvarnished demand for money", as Mike puts it, may lead to its demise."

"It is in our interests, to broadly disseminate the truth of these levels rather than allow suppressives to distort and misuse this information for their own purposes."

"As it happens, the RTC initially claimed copyright of all the OT materials in the affidavit — including this OT VIII text — but later amended its claim to exclude the OT VIII materials, now arguing that they are a forgery."

"Despite all of the church's extreme measures, however, the Fishman affidavit, along with all of the confidential OT materials, reappeared on alt.religion.scientology on July 31, 1995. Since then, they have been reproduced on site after site, server after server, in innumerable languages, rendering any concept of confidentiality or secrecy fairly moot in the cyber domain."

"In this case, elsewhere, the church's war on the Internet appears to have backfired, and its attempts to staunch the flow of confidential material online have only accelerated their global dissemination."