Posted on 03/29/2014 10:07:21 PM PDT by canuck_conservative
... Miller’s account of Hubbard’s life was so devastating that Scientology tried to have his book banned. “Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard,” finished the year after Hubbard’s 1986 death, was successfully printed everywhere but in the US, where, after two years of litigation, Miller’s American publisher threw in the towel....
Scientology’s early books made much of the fact that Hubbard had become one of the nation’s earliest nuclear physicists and was a medical doctor. Miller demonstrated that neither was true.
Hubbard’s college records showed that he’d failed the only class he took in nuclear physics and that he’d dropped out of George Washington University after his sophomore year and never took a degree.....
In 1953, Hubbard suggested to a follower that there might be an interesting way to avoid government prying — by trying the “religion angle,” he called it.
In December that year, he formed the first “Church of Scientology” in Camden, NJ. Another church in Los Angeles, in February 1954, soon followed....
At its height, Scientology attracted about 100,000 adherents, according to top former officials who had access to enrollment documents. (The organization has never had the millions of members it claims. Today, experts estimate that it has dwindled to only about 25,000 active members.)
Scientology has always garnered more attention than its size would suggest, in part because, starting in 1955, Hubbard asked members to target celebrities for recruitment. Actors like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley — all recruited in the 1970s and 1980s, when the organization was larger — keep it in the news....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Germany was right to ban this kookiness.
It’s interesting to see how much public opinion can be shaped by just a few ideologically driven liars in the right places.
Scientology is an excellent case study in propaganda. It’s frightening to think how easy it was for a motivated and unscrupulous organization the infiltrate the media and some elements of the government and spread a wildly distorted and inaccurate view of themselves and their goals.
ping
I had a falling out with the group, deciding that the interview/study sessions with trainers were much too intense, and that their goals were unrealistic. Supposedly, as one cleared one's mind of baggage they would become a thetan, of pure mind and focus. The trainers told me the goal was to clear all of San Francisco by 1984. I argued that it was an unrealistic goal, no matter how many thousands of members they had in SF, and decided to get out. The trainers worked their influence hard, attempting to keep me in line but finally gave up. The "religion" has it's detractors, many of which have no idea what goes on inside. But the short stay I had with them did focus my mind, and made me a better debater and worker. In dealing with others (non-Scientologists), it helped me realize that lots of people are full of b.s. and it's relatively easy to pick apart their arguments when you confront them with facts. Car salesmen, politicians, basically lots of people are out there spouting disinformation but if you carefully analyze what they say then you will not be duped. (Most libs are duped into believing nonsense.)
I had a similar experience long ago with a group that used Scientology techniques outside the Scientology organization, a squirrel group. I don’t regret joining the group, and don’t regret leaving. I developed a respect for Scientology’s techniques and a fear of the organization.
LOL! That quote is all the world needs to remember about L Ron or the Church of Scientology!
Such a prophet! Not!
Maybe he was actually referring to the Wall having too many chinks.
Regards,
I knew someone who had a good deal of experience with Scientology in the 70’s also. He was holding his infant son when 2 members of the Guardian Office threatened him with expulsion if he did not spy for them. He immediately went to the director of the Mission who sent an Ethics report to LA about these 2. Little did we know at that time, the LA org was responsible for this behavior, we thought it was rogue agents, it was not, it was SOP. In my experience, this is a schizo type group in the sense that some real gains can come through some of its services,and this is what you see from the celebs who only see that side. The cult part is the scary part.
Hubbard wrote grade B science fiction.
M4L
You don’t say so, but I’m sure you recognize that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of techniques that could have gotten you that same clarity of mind that have no need to wrap their thinking up in pseudo religious terms.
Perhaps.
Get back to me when they ban islam.
Yes. As a former member, I can certainly attest to that!
It’s frightening to think how easy it was for a motivated and unscrupulous organization to infiltrate the media and some elements of the government and spread a wildly distorted and inaccurate view of themselves and their goals.
Even more frightening when you realize other -isms have been far more effective!
That mirrors my somewhat longer stint in southern California.
And yet, thanks to Bill the Clintoon, it is recognized today as a full-fledged, legitimate, tax-exempt religion.
Yep.
Did he? I've read some of it, nothing I would rate higher than a C-. Where was the B stuff?
True, but Hubbard gathered them into a a more or less coherent package and put it all in one place. He might even have actually created some of the techniques, he claimed to have created them all.
Too bad he hammered them all into a one-size-fits-all program where everyone has to go through exactly the same steps in exactly the same order, whether they need a particular step or not.
Even worse that scientology requires all your loyalty and all your money!
Yeah. The back story on that must be pretty interesting...
Just in case anyone does...
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