Most of you know I have an extensive career in mental health and social work what most of you may not know is that I have a weird level of research into Scientology that goes a lot further than most people’s does.
I was just listening to some Scientology music, which is a level of nerdery so high that I realized I’m in far too deep and needed to come out as it were. It is my understanding that most people have watched the South Park epsidode about Scientology so they understand the Xenu methos, and they know about ol L. Ron being a huge fraud and the broad strokes of the story. They also sometimes know about Tom Cruise and John Travolta. If they’re really into it they might know about Shelly Miscavige and David Miscavige the current head of the church. They might even know about Sea Org and the 10,000 year contracts and the torture people in the Sea org go through.
So all of that is within what I would call relatively normal, other people within my degree field have known as much as that. I had to go through all of that to get into what makes me a nerd. I keep trying to understand Scientology better, and especially Hubbard. I think Hubbard was one of the most interesting men of the 20th century. As far as frauds go, he’s perhaps the second best in all of history. He was without a doubt accomplished, despite his many many many many many faults and failures, he did some things that just impress me. As a maladaptive character, as a narcissist, he’s able to warp reality in a way you have to take notice.
So I read Battlefield Earth multiple times through. I’ve watched the movie, lost count of the times. I think it is his best work. It says best what he needed to say, how he hated Psychology, banking, and in fact any kind of structure that refused to recognize his ego. Terl, the antognist who stands in the place of who he wished he could be but society denied him what he felt was his right, gets what he has coming. This is a revenge story where those who took what he deserved get exterminated, denied their future, and his character insert inherits the cosmos.
I’ve watched documentaries, listened to podcasts, read articles and books on the subject, and still feel I should do more. Now I’m listening to Scientology music, and it’s fittingly both bad and fascinating. I already knew about a song Hubbard himself sung called “Thank You For Listening” which is surreal, but today I discovered “Space Jazz”, which is an album released with Battlefield Earth and it has several strange songs, “Terl, Security Director” is probably the strangest. I probably won’t be relistning soon.
Then there’s the whole Mission Earth saga, and that it is too long for anyone sane to get into.
I really think that Hubbard could have been a competent scifi writer if he’d had better mentors. He just needed to learn to be more concise. He could have been molded and shaped into a decent writer, he could have been molded and shaped into a decent psychologist, but instead for whatever reason when the appropriate people saw him they decided to reject him.
That’s why he fascinates me. His shattered ego couldn’t take it. Society failed him so completely, and if we don’t learn from that failure…
Looking at our modern world, I don’t think we’ve learned from that failure. That’s why I’m fascinated by Scientology. We deserve to have Scientology in our world.
10 comments
-If L Ron Hubbard is #2, then Who’s the #1 fraudster?
Without a doubt Hitler, tricked his country into completely self distructing, tricked a whole bunch of other countries into thinking that authoritarianism was well organized, we’re still cleaning up his mess.
What makes a great fraudster in my mind is wasted potential, Hitler would have done really well in urban planning, or a number of other professions. If you look at what happened to him it was all about him having this burning ambition and nothing to do with it.
Then the ONLY place willing to pay him to do something were some army folks wanting him to go into politics….. So you take a disaffected loner and put him into politics. Ask yourself if you do that right now if that’s a good idea.
Again the problem was that he was motivated and he did have potential. All that along with unhealed trauma and lots of maladaptive behavior that no one thought was worth dealing with.
-Imagine that, had he not been rejected as a scifi writer, we would have 1 less cult in America. Just like another failed art student…
-Why the fascination with L Ron Hubbard? Bc you have cult leader qualities?
-Btw, have you been inside a Scientology building and took one of their “courses”? I have (before I realized it was a cult, before leah remini’s documentaries came out). Those psychology/personality/depression courses were actually pretty right on–except these ppl use it for evil. and they use everything you tell them for evil. thank goodness they didn’t try to recruit me. i guess i was the wrong ethnicity and richness for them (ie i wasn’t rich and white).
Yeah, you dodged a bullet brother.. these people are the real devils, and they don’t pay taxes either. Complete leeches, scammers, thieves.. they gaslight you into doing/give them what they want. The exact kind of people I wish would burn in hell tbh, even if I don’t believe in it.
Oh no, I have no need to get that deep. It’s a cult. Hubbard is just a fascinating specimen. I don’t want to actually get into one of the Sea Org fascilities either, unless I could do it without paying them.
Someday I might try and get my hands on the machine itself, just for my own collection, but that would be the closest I’d get to getting audited.
oh this was like a decade ago- i saw this magnificent old building which just happened to be owned by the Scientologists- and this was many years before Leah Remini’s documentary came out and the world found out about this cult- so i saw this beautiful building and thought hey, why not just walk in and see what’s inside. it was a beautiful building. anyhow, i went in and they did have a discount on some depression-like course so i took that course. maybe i looked too poor, or didn’t look gullible enough, but they looked at me same as when i went to a wine store and the sales ppl just ignored me and tended to the richer white ppl- that level of snobbery and uppity-ness pissed me off- so luckily i never went further than that one half-price course, and they never pressured me to join other things. like the surface-level stuff WAS sane- talking about just their psychology/depression-like courses. It’s kinda freaky how right now they were about the personality stuff too. anyhow, i guess i looked too poor, but they basically ignored me. there was this other girl- they DID try to get her to join other stuff and purchase other courses, and i think she did. me- they didn’t give a rat’s ass lol. again, this was WAY before they were exposed as a cult.
about 10-20 yrs ago…can’t remember the exact year, but yeah, their personality/stress/depression courses were actually pretty interesting and right on. too bad they’re an evil cult tho.
you should join just to be a mole and expose them all and get them shut down. i feel like you would be great that- unless they manage to pull you in, then you’d turn to be like one of their best leaders/recruiters lol
Back in the 80’s I helped a girl selling Dianetics books and she was living in a downtown Portland Scientology compound so to speak. She said she was living in a 5×8 room. I told her she was in a cult and being brainwashed and exploited. I gave her my number if she needed help. A leader Im guessing called me the next day and threatened me with serious violence and they said they know where I live. I was moving from Portland to Southern California to join a metal band as a guitarist at the time. So I told the guy I don’t live there anymore but I do know where they live and they effed with the wrong person. I put the fear of God into that person lol. My girlfriends dad was a higher up in a three letter agency at the time. I never heard from them again lol.