L. Ron Hubbard can't change your life
Scientology is back in the news and for all the wrong reasons. The cult, based on science fiction and much loved by American celebrities is finding itself increasingly on the outs with Europe’s judiciary.
On October 27, a French court found that the organisation was guilty of taking advantage of its members and of “commercial harassment” of potential members.
There were six Scientology officials convicted; three with organised fraud who received suspended jail sentences, ranging from 10 months to two years. The head of Scientology in France, Alain Rosenberg was fined almost $A50,000 and given a two year suspended jail term. The other two defendants received fines of $A3,000 and $A1,500.
The Scientology “Celebrity Centre” in France was fined $A650,000 and a Scientology bookstore received a fine of $A325,000.
Recent amendments to French law prohibited the organisation from being banned in France but there remains the prospect that Scientology will be blacklisted if there are any subsequent instances of fraud brought to the attention of the courts.
In Belgium, Scientology finds itself in the dock at the moment while the Germans have already banned the organisation.
In the United Kingdom, Scientology is not considered a religious institution and when Scientology sought tax exempt status in 1999, this was summarily rejected.
The standard defence from Scientology is that the organisation and its followers (some might say customers) are suffering religious persecution. For them, prosecutions such as the one two days ago in France are a type of latter day witch burning. There is a massive global conspiracy, scientologists say, and liken themselves to the early Mormons who felt obliged to take up arms to fight for their freedom.
The comparison works in one sense at least because both the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard and the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith Jr. were convicted fraudsters.
Unlike many European nations, the hand of friendship has been extended from the governments in the US, Australia and New Zealand to the sons and daughters of Hubbard.
All three countries (and a number of others including Spain, Slovenia, Taiwan and South Africa) consider Scientology to be exempt from taxes. In Australia, Scientology goes under the name of the Church of Scientology.
Australia once led the world in bringing Scientology to account. In the 1960s, Scientology was banned in three states and the Victorian Government banned the scientologists’ tool of the trade, the e-meter, a black box device designed to test a person’s “wellness” during an “audit.”
But in 1982, the judicial sages in the High Court determined that Scientology is a religion thus could be extended tax exempt status.
In a difficult judgement, the High Court did not seek to define exactly what a religion is other than to say it could be described as a number of fruits who congregate together to hang on the every word of an even fruitier leader. The judgment included this interesting passage: “Charlatanism is a necessary price of religious freedom, and if a self-proclaimed teacher persuades others to believe in a religion which he propounds, lack of sincerity or integrity on his part is not incompatible with the religious character of the beliefs, practices and observances accepted by his followers.”
While I understand the judgment, in my view Scientology is not a religion. It is first and foremost a profit making enterprise. Its net worth is almost impossible to measure due partly to its tax exempt status in the US and elsewhere and the labyrinthine structure it operates under but Scientology is worth billions and turns over hundreds of millions every year.
Of course one might say the same thing about the Roman Catholic Church or the Anglican Church.
Scientology is a cult because it practices what it calls “disconnection”. Scientology members are directed to stop all contact with family members who are critical of its methods. This type of enforced alienation provides a textbook definition of a cult.
So what is Scientology all about? Well, I can’t quote from its texts as these are all under copyright and trademark protected. The organisation has been known to sue anybody who quotes from its texts or uses its emblems without permission.
So in my own words, it all goes back to an alien called Xenu who was the dictator of the ‘Galactic Confederacy’. Around 75 million years ago, Xenu brought billions of aliens to Earth in a spaceship that looked suspiciously like an old DC-8. Xenu stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. However, it all came a cropper when the souls of the billions of these alien ne’er do wells clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. And these souls continue to wreak chaos and havoc today.
In other words, Scientology is steeped in Gnosticism – the belief that humans are divine souls trapped in a world created by an imperfect god (or alien dictator in this case). There’s also a grab bag collection of street corner Buddhism, Hinduism and quasi-religious therapy thrown in for good measure.
Is it dangerous? Well, yes and no in much the same way as a shark would only be deemed dangerous if it bit you.
Scientology’s public enemy number one is psychiatry. Scientologists consider psychiatry to be a lethal combination of necromancy and pseudo science. Scientologists are actively discouraged from engaging in any form of psychiatric therapy.
This is where Scientology’s manifest and ugliest failures have occurred.
In Sydney in 2007, a young woman was charged with murdering her father and sister and seriously injuring her mother. The young woman who could not be named, suffered a range of serious mental health problems.
It was alleged that she was denied psychiatric treatment due to her parents’ beliefs in Scientology.
And in 1995 in Florida a 36 year-old woman, Lisa McPherson died while in the care of scientologists. McPherson, too suffered acute mental illness.
Records show that McPherson was placed in isolation as part of a Scientology program known as the Introspection Rundown. Weeks later, scientologists drove McPherson to a hospital where a Scientologist doctor was in attendance. They had driven past four hospitals to get there.
McPherson was pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy revealed multiple contusions and insect bites on her body.
And that’s the problem with cults like Scientology. They promote a lot of easy answers to complex problems; easy answers in this case provided by a convicted criminal and science fiction author and not a very good one at that.
Over to you ...
I thought Virginia usually handled the "hard core" interviews.
