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ESMBer has academic paper published

Terril park

Sponsor
Just over 2 years ago I was asked to give a talk at Infom's 25th
anniversy conference. They also asked if they could publish it'.
Its just been published by them in "Cult Wars in historical
perspective" I leave the conclusion here and a PDF. There have
been a couple of minor edits not included here.

bb

Conclusion

"In this essay, I have given some details of how COS is shrinking and why. Debbie Cook’s email appears to have had a strong impact on COS (Cook 2011). For example, Freedom Medal winner Wendy Honnor was inspired to leave COS by it (Rathbun 2012). The exodus of many South Africans from COS was influenced by Cook, as was the breakaway Israeli Mission Dror. Her email has most likely been seen by a large number of COS members because she asked that it be forwarded to others. In response, Miscavige initiated a lawsuit against Cook and her husband, but it backfired spectacularly, especially because Cook’s testimony was filmed by ABC television in the U. S. In her testimony, for example, she asserted that she “was put in a trash can, cold water poured over me, slapped, things like that. And it would—one time it went on for 12 hours” (Rathbun 2014). In addition to detailing what she went through, Cook also detailed indignities and violence visited upon others by Miscavige. The day after Cook testified, COS withdrew its lawsuit and a settlement was reached. Taken together, the evidence from Cook, Rinder, Rathbun, and many others points to a dramatic contraction of the COS. Course rooms which once used to have hundreds now have only a few. The COS seems no longer to bother with training auditors. Instead, the public is relentlessly pursued by a multitude of high pressure salespersons. In addition, almost every day media criticism of the COS can be found somewhere in the world. Far from prospering, the Church of Scientology appears to be in significant decline."


Church of Scientology and The Freezone .pdf
 

BunnySkull

Silver Meritorious Patron
You can't post a pdf - upload and link.

That sure doesn't read like an academic paper. Where was it published?
 

shanic89

Patron Meritorious
Conclusion

"In this essay, I have given some details of how COS is shrinking and why. Debbie Cook’s email appears to have had a strong impact on COS (Cook 2011). For example, Freedom Medal winner Wendy Honnor was inspired to leave COS by it (Rathbun 2012). The exodus of many South Africans from COS was influenced by Cook, as was the breakaway Israeli Mission Dror. Her email has most likely been seen by a large number of COS members because she asked that it be forwarded to others. In response, Miscavige initiated a lawsuit against Cook and her husband, but it backfired spectacularly, especially because Cook’s testimony was filmed by ABC television in the U. S. In her testimony, for example, she asserted that she “was put in a trash can, cold water poured over me, slapped, things like that. And it would—one time it went on for 12 hours” (Rathbun 2014). In addition to detailing what she went through, Cook also detailed indignities and violence visited upon others by Miscavige. The day after Cook testified, COS withdrew its lawsuit and a settlement was reached. Taken together, the evidence from Cook, Rinder, Rathbun, and many others points to a dramatic contraction of the COS. Course rooms which once used to have hundreds now have only a few. The COS seems no longer to bother with training auditors. Instead, the public is relentlessly pursued by a multitude of high pressure salespersons. In addition, almost every day media criticism of the COS can be found somewhere in the world. Far from prospering, the Church of Scientology appears to be in significant decline."


These references would not be accepted in a first year paper at university, let alone be acceptable in a published academic paper.
 

ChurchOfCylontology

Patron with Honors
The gang is totally right on this one, Terrill: if it wasn't published in an *academic journal*, it's not an "academic paper". Even then, there are academic journals that are not actually peer-reviewed. This publication is only a white paper at best.

Michael A. Hobson
Independent Scientologist
email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mhobson2011

I can't believe I'm about to type this.....but, yes, Hobson is correct. Being published by a non-profit organization loosely affiliated with a university (even if they lease offices from the university) is not something academics put on their CV. While it is nice to have your words in a publication, it is far from being considered an academic work that can be cited.
 

BunnySkull

Silver Meritorious Patron
Why are these references unacceptable|?

Am I really going to do this?... Ok, to begin with if you're talking about the social or soft sciences blog/podcasts are being used more and more however if you are going to cite/reference a blog post by someone you don't just put (Last name YEAR), even a laid back professor would flunk a freshman for such terrible citation. You also don't make huge sweeping statements, with many sentences and just (Surname YEAR). Each statement of fact needs to have a citation - not just a huge generic catch all at the end.

Example of MLA style reference/citations would need the following info:

Author. Title. Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable)

This is why you also use footnotes/endnotes because you can't fit all that in after a sentence very easily. There are also now sites dedicated to archiving pages on the web so if you need to cite something on the web for an academic paper you can capture and archive it indefinitely so that anyone reading your paper will easily be able to check the reference. See if Marty shuts down his blog tomorrow the references used in your paper would mean nothing, because no one could check or read them.

You also can't use opinionated language in a paper or go on hunches.

"Debbie Cook’s email appears to have had a strong impact on COS"

You show exactly what effect the email had either with hard numbers or quotations from people who received it and acted upon it.

It describes Cook's lawsuit and media appearances but don't bother to actually cite the actual case # and district, nor even the media that she actually appeared in, just (Rathbun 2012). You don't cite a blog that talked about a lawsuit or a media, you cite the actual lawsuit and media that was broadcast or published. Seriously I don't know why the paper bothered to occasionally put (Rathbun 2012) at the end of some sentences, it might as well just concluded by saying "read all of Marty's 2012 blog posts" and you'll find what I'm talking about eventually.

There are other problems, but I think this addresses the most glaring issues if this is to be structured as an academic paper of any sort. There are very strict, very concise guidelines to writing such papers if one is interested in doing so. In fact entire stylebooks are available on the subject of academic writing.
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
..

The gang is totally right on this one, Terrill: if it wasn't published in an *academic journal*, it's not an "academic paper". Even then, there are academic journals that are not actually peer-reviewed. This publication is only a white paper at best.


Scientologists writing an Academic paper happens more frequently than is generally believed. In fact, inside most orgs it is a daily occurrence within the Academy (hence, Academic).

Scientologists call the paper a "Student Points Graph".

Naturally, it is peer-reviewed (by other Scientologists) to accurately & scientifically determine the degree of planetary clearing which has been achieved to date.

Unlike wog scholars, Scientology academic authorities are not the least disturbed by the fact that (to date, since 1950) the aggregate number of student points has exceeded one trillion--yet, the first clear has not yet manifested itself, on this planet[SUP]1[/SUP]. Scientologists' serenely unflappable non-reaction to this alarming down-stat has been very favorably attributed to their dedicated practice and mastery of TR-0.






[SUP]1[/SUP] 'on this planet': Counter-intuitively, the fact that in 66 years of planetary clearing, zero clears have been produced 'on this planet' is in fact a huge win! To wit, none of the other planets have yet reported their clear stats, thus (using the Data Series) one may safely assume their production volume of clears is so overwhelmingly great--they simply don't wish to be DevT'd by stopping and writing MEST reports.
 

Terril park

Sponsor
The gang is totally right on this one, Terrill: if it wasn't published in an *academic journal*, it's not an "academic paper". Even then, there are academic journals that are not actually peer-reviewed. This publication is only a white paper at best.

Michael A. Hobsonjavascript://
Independent Scientologist
email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mhobson2011

Thanks for the constructive criticism from yourself and others.
I am not an academic and went to art school but not university.
Writing this essay I was given around 10 pages of instructions
as to how to do so and it was a very steep learning curve and
took place over a year or so. The editor Prof Eugene Gallagher
was extremely helpful and patient and even went so far as to
buy one of Marty's books when I couldn't pinpoint a particular
reference.

To the best of my knowledge no academic has better
knowledge than myself on the current Freezone/indie arena.
John Atack who I referenced several times probably dosn't but
knew earlier history better than anyone IMO. He helped on
many FZ/Indie legal cases including Mayo.

The opinions usually expressed about academics in the
area of new religious movements is that they are not critical
enough.

From my essay:-

"It is my opinion that the tide is also turning for academics in the field of new religious movements.Previously they had been in general uncritical about the COS and Scientology. Now James Beverly has just put on this conference. I had the pleasure of taking Dr. David Barrett and Professor Beverly to an “Anonymous” protest at COS in London. I've exchanged mails and conversed with Professor James Lewis of the University of Tromsø and introduced him and one of his students to Ron's Org vin Moscow. He and at least one of his students are writing papers about the Freezone (see Lewis
2013). This would be considered enemy action by COS. Also, I was invited to talk about The Freezone at Inform's 25th anniversary conference—in the eyes of COS, more enemy action."

Here is a better list of the references I used.

Atack, Jon 1990. A Piece of Blue Sky. New York: Lyle Stuart.
Brodie, John, and James D. Brodie 1974. Open Field. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Cannane, Steve 2012. “Scientology Membership in Drastic Decline.” Available
at http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3536106.htm. Accessed 19 August 2015.
Childs, Joe, and Thomas C. Tobin 2013a. “Couple's Lawsuit Accuses Church of Scientology of
Fraud, Deception,” Tampa Bay Times, 23 January 2013. Available
at http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...urch-of-scientology-offraud-deception/1271893.
Accessed 10 July 2015.
__________2013b. “In Texas Lawsuit Judge Orders Scientology and its Leader to Stop
Harassment,” Tampa Bay Times, 21 August 2013. Available
at http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...logy-and-itsleader-to-stop-harassment/2137671.
Accessed 10 July 2015.
Childs, Joe 2013. “Wife of Scientology Critic Details Alleged Church Harassment,” Tampa Bay
Times, 12 September 2013. Available at http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...t-church-legal-team-shows-up-in-force/2141406.
Accessed 10 July
2015.
__________2014. “Scientology Lawyer: Confrontations with Defector were “Peaceful Protests.”
Available at http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...s-withdefector-were-peaceful-protests/2160220.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
Church of Scientology 2015. “What is Scientology?” Available at http://www.scientology.org/whatis-scientology/scientology-background/the-growth-of-scientology.html.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
Cook, Debbie 2011. New Year‘s Email from Debbie Cook. December 31, 2011. Available at
http://www.mikerindersblog.org/new-years-email-from-debbie-cook/. Accessed 10 July 2015.
Egan, Simon, dir. 2006. “The Beginner’s Guide to L. Ron Hubbard.” Available
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emKvMPGSc0s. Accessed 10 July 2015.
Flasch, Helmut 2010. “David Miscavige Declared Suppressive.” Available
at http://www.scientology-cult.com/david-miscavige-declared-suppressive.html. Accessed 19
August 2015.
Hauri, Max 2013. Personal communication via email, 9 October 2013.
Hickey, Kate 2014. “Scientology’s Dublin Mission Video Claims Slammed by the Irish (VIDEO).”
Available at http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Sc...n-video-claimsslammed-by-the-Irish-VIDEO.html.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
Hubbard, L. Ron 2015 (1981). The Way to Happiness. Bridge Publications: Commerce City, CA.
Available at http://www.thewaytohappiness.org/thewaytohappiness.html. Accessed 19 August 2015.
Lewis, James R. 2013. “Free Zone Scientology and Other Movement Milieus:
A Preliminary Characterization,” Temenos 49:2, 255-76.
__________2014. “The Dwindling Spiral: The Dror Center Schism, the Cook Letter and
Scientology’s Legitimation Crisis,” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 5:1, 55-77.
Martin, Ron 2014. “Ocean FM Investigates Scientology video.” Available
at http://radiotoday.ie/2014/01/ocean-fm-investigates-scientology-video/. Accessed 19 August 2015.
Ortega, Tony 2011. “Scientologists: How Many Of Them Are There, Anyway?” The Village Voice, 4
July 2011. Available at http://www.villagevoice.com/news/scientologists-how-many-of-them-arethere-anyway-6717701.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
__________2014a. “Jillian Schlesinger: How I Got into Scientology, and How I Got Out.”
Available at http://tonyortega.org/2014/03/26/ji...into-scientology-andhow-i-got-out/#more-14022.
Accessed 10 July 2015.
__________2014b. “Scientology’s Drug Rehab Network Sued for Conspiring to Misuse Counseling
Credentials.” Available at http://tonyortega.org/2014/05/19/sc...-conspiring-to-misuse-counseling-credentials/.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
_________ 2014c. “Oklahoma Empanels Grand Jury To Investigate Scientology’s Drug Rehab.”
Available at http://tonyortega.org/2014/06/11/oklahoma-empanels-grand-jury-to-investigate-
scientologys-drug-rehab/#more-15274. Accessed 10 July 2015.
__________2015a. “O Canada! All Eyes in the Scientology-Watching World Will be Looking North
Next Week.” Available at http://tonyortega.org/2015/06/16/o-...d-will-be-looking-north-next-week/#more-23330.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
__________ 2015b. “Scientology Leader’s Father Signs a Book Deal for ‘IF HE DIES, HE DIES.’”
Available at http://tonyortega.org/2015/06/30/sc...a-book-deal-for-ifhe-dies-he-dies/#more-23751.
Accessed 19 August 2015.
Rathbun, Marty 2010. “OSA’s War against Independence.” Available
at https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/osas-war-against-independence/. Accessed 19
August 2015.
__________2012. “Wendy Honnor IAS Freedom Medal Winner is Independent,” 24 June 2012.
Available at https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/tag/wendy-honnor/. Accessed 10 July 2015.
__________2013. Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. N. p.: Amazon Books.
__________2014. “Scientology Inc. v. Debbie Cook – The End Game,” 24 April 2014. Available
at https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/scientology-inc-v-debbie-cook-the-end-game/.
Accessed 10 July 2015.
Rinder, Mike 2014a. “GAG II Killed Auditor Training Dead.” Available
at http://www.mikerindersblog.org/gag-ii-auditors-made/. Accessed 19 August 2015.
__________2014b. “10 Million Scientologists—Where Are They?” Available
at http://www.mikerindersblog.org/10-million-scientologists-where-are-they/. Accessed 19 August
2015.
__________ 2015. “The SHSBC is Dead.” Available at http://www.mikerindersblog.org/the-shsbcis-dead/.
Accessed 20 August 2015.
Soriano, Mercy 2015. “HBO's 'Going Clear' Scientology Documentary: 5.5M Viewers; Film
Slammed as John Travolta Stays Loyal.” The Christian Times 18 April. Available
at http://www.christiantimes.com/article/hbos.going.clear.scientology.documentary.5.5m.viewers.an
d.counting.film.slammed.as.john.travolta.stays.loyal/52118.htm. Accessed 20 August 2015.
Touretzky, David S. 2015. “The NOTs Scholars Homepage.” Available
at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/NOTs/index.html. Accessed 10 July 2015.
United States National Library of Medicine 2015. “Livertox: Clinical and Research Information on
Drug-Induced Liver Injury.” Available at http://livertox.nih.gov/Niacin.htm. Accessed 19 August
2015.
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
.

--snipped--

To the best of my knowledge no academic has better knowledge than myself on the current Freezone/indie arena.

Outstanding! I have been searching for an authority on the Freezone and Indie arena to ask a question:

To date, has any FZ or Indie achieved the state of Clear?

I trust that this question will not cause you undue hardships that require vast amounts of time to research. Respectfully, I assume that you can report on this simply by memory, since your four decades of involvement in clearing technology certainly would have resulted in your having personally attained the state of Clear, accompanied by the Homo Novis powers of perfect memory.


SCIENTOLOGY: It is commonplace within Scientology academia to find scholarship, authorities & science. The words.
 

strativarius

Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
.



Outstanding! I have been searching for an authority on the Freezone and Indie arena to ask a question:

To date, has any FZ or Indie achieved the state of Clear?

I trust that this question will not cause you undue hardships that require vast amounts of time to research. Respectfully, I assume that you can report on this simply by memory, since your four decades of involvement in clearing technology certainly would have resulted in your having personally attained the state of Clear, accompanied by the Homo Novis powers of perfect memory.


SCIENTOLOGY: It is commonplace within Scientology academia to find scholarship, authorities & science. The words.

:drama:
 

ethercat

Cat in flight
Can anyone tell me how to post a PDF here?

You can upload a PDF (up to 1 megabyte) the same way you upload an image as an attachment. Below the posting window, under Additional Options, click the Manage Attachments button, and see if you can figure it out from there (because I don't want to write up complete instructions right now). :)

Also be aware that your total attachment space is limited. The space you have varies, depending on your post count member level.
 

I told you I was trouble

Suspended animation


If anyone reads it, would you mind posting (in 3 or 4 words or less) what it says ... actually don't bother ... I already know.


:biggrin:

PS Oh nooooo, my halo's dropped off (bloody indies!).
 
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