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It all started when Tom Cruise killed Oprah.

On second thought, please allow me to back up a bit. For decades, the Scientology organization international, of which Hollywood actor Tom Cruise is, of course, a prominent devotee, has been charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to followers for their “spiritual freedom” coursework and in that time, hundreds, if not thousands, of allegations of forced family separations (“disconnections”), forced abortions and other abuses have emerged. Founded in the mid-20th century by science fiction writer Lafayette Ron Hubbard (a. k. a. L. Ron Hubbard, Ron Hubbard, or simply “LRH”), Scientology today calls itself a religion but many have alleged that it exerts a type of control over its adherents which is much more manipulative and total than the typical standards of a “free” or democratic type of society would require of a faith-related organization. From time to time since its founding, Scientology has been met with intense scrutiny from private individuals and governments alike. In the last few years, however, Scientology’s public image has taken what is perhaps its most significant nose dive to date, thanks in large part to a protest campaign by the on-line prankster phenomenon known as Anonymous. Anonymous’ campaign, Project Chanology, initially launched merely as retribution for Scientology’s attempts to remove a leaked promotional video featuring Tom Cruise from the web, has helped like nothing else to bring to the fore the work of Scientology critics such as Mark Bunker, who has been speaking against the abusive practices of the group for many years. Bunker’s web site, Xenu TV, is an up-to-date archive of everything anti-Scientology and contains links to many off-site anti-Scientology resources. One of his more recent endeavors, one which helped to kick off a string of PR victories against the group, was a two-hour tell-all interview with American actor Jason Beghe, who left Scientology in 2008 after a membership of fourteen years, in which Beghe describes his former life as a celebrity on the inside. Beghe, who says he entered Scientology after a spiritual quest he began in his youth went stagnant, estimates that he paid Scientology a million dollars for courses and course materials, courses which left him, quote, “f***ed up.” Joining the organization, he initially found a powerful new sense of identity through a meditative exercise but then began to deteriorate as he was indoctrinated into Scientology’s very expensive and tightly regimented program. As time went on and he noticed what he considered to be the deleterious effects of this extraordinarily strict system on some of its followers’ personalities, including his own, he grew more and more displeased with the organization and eventually parted ways with it. Beghe says he made it to Scientology’s upper levels before jumping ship, reaching the organization’s “clear” (perfect) status twice and even paying for and completing five of the “Original Thetan” or “OT” levels beyond that. Despite his graduation into these advanced course levels, however, Beghe says he continued to suffer from the troubles which Scientology had claimed it would cure. When Scientology did not deliver what it had promised and, in Beghe’s estimation, even left new marks of its own, Beghe decided that Scientology was “destructive and a rip-off [...] very, very dangerous for your spiritual/psychological/mental/emotional health” and left. The authorship of Scientology’s core beliefs and practices is attributed to occult-inspired science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. Beginning in the 1950′s, Hubbard marketed his techniques as Dianetics, a science of the mind and an alternative to psychiatry. For reasons many, including the German government, have suspected may have had more to do with obtaining tax-exempt status than with sincerely promoting a religious faith, the Scientology organization followed was presented along what Hubbard referred to as “the religious angle” and incorporated as a “church” instead. As Beghe notes, the rank-and-file Scientologist, still riding the highs of his or her initial “wins” in the early stages of the program, perhaps, may tend to mean well and, in fact, be quite sincerely devoted to helping others. However, Scientology’s techniques seem to readily lend themselves toward the production of fanatics who believe that they have evolved into a new species: “Homo Novus,” (“New Man,” another form of the ancient “magickal Superman” concept) per Hubbard. And although Scientology spokesmen have routinely denied or refused to comment upon the existence, at Scientology’s core, of tightly guarded scriptures penned by Hubbard concerning extraterrestrial visits to Earth, a once-secret tape recording made by L. Ron Hubbard himself and intended only for OT level three aspirants teaches that a space alien named Xenu or Xemu committed a genocide on Earth millions of years ago, after which the dead souls of the murdered attached themselves to early humans. These spiritual fragments, Scientology says, are responsible for all of humankind’s misery and Scientology’s unique and very costly therapy is the way to rid oneself of them. In a way, Scientology is an easy target to attack being that it is relatively small, its outrageously expensive teachings are so patently absurd and its leadership is so transparently malevolent as to routinely order or even personally engage in stalking behavior or worse of anyone who would speak against them, tactics referred to as “fair game” policy by Hubbard. At the same time, however, they seem to be every bit as destructive and ruthless as some of the bigger predators who are more difficult to confront and are therefore worthy of every last ounce of the scornful attention they’ve attracted. [END] Permalink: Scientology Versus the World