Danger Mouse
Patron with Honors
Tonight I brought up a bunch of Scientology pamphlets, booklets, magazines, and assorted stuff from the basement. I spent an hour of so leafing through the pile. A little trip down Memory Lane for me before the stuff goes out to the recycle bin for trash day.
I don't want to go into much detail because I really don't want trouble with Those People. But I think I can give you a general idea without painting a big target on my back.
I first saw the word "Dianetics" in John Campbell's obituary in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. The name "L. Ron Hubbard" was used in a Frank Zappa story song called "Billy The Mountain" and also appeared on Return to Forever albums. Today I say that Chick Corea convinced me to put one foot in the cult and Frank Zappa convinced me not to put the other foot in.
When I was in the military, many miles from home, I was recruited into a mission (pre-purge) and did the Comm Course. Then the military sent me far, far away from Scientology. Then I got out of the military and moved far, far away from Scientology. I have to say that I never thought L. Ron Hubbard could be trusted. In fact, I thought he had pretty much told people not to trust him, just not in so many words. I thought that, at best, he might be like Professor Marvel at the beginning of The Wizard Of Oz: an obvious fake but maybe well-intentioned, underneath it all. You remember Frank Morgan's character going through Dorothy's stuff looking for clues he could use for a "psychic reading" but on the other hand, he was concerned about her safety when the tornado came through. I was wrong about that.
I grew up in a religious home but have been moving toward rationalism ever since. My mystical self thought that maybe there might be something to the OT stuff. In those days, even the military was researching it (Targ & Puthoff, Ingo Swann, etc.) as you may have seen in "The Men Who Stare At Goats." But my rational self was reading Carl Sagan at the same time.
The last event I attended before shipping off was the release of the second cassette tape, "Scientology & Effective Knowledge." When everyone stood up to applaud Hubbard's picture, the other smart aleck in the room leaned over and whispered "Author! Author!" and we both tried not to laugh out loud.
So I was done with Scientology. Almost.
Then L. Ron Hubbard died and Scientology didn't. In fact, it got a tax exemption from the IRS. And I thought, well, maybe the Great Oz actually did come up with something after all. By that time, I was in mid-career, no financial worries, so I did some of those introductory courses at the bottom of the Bridge. And I had some gains.
My reasoning was that, with Hubbard gone, all of you idealistic, well-intentioned, intelligent people (who are now posting on this board) would be taking over the Church. All of Hubbard's strange personality quirks would be gone and the Church would become as good as it had always pretended to be under Hubbard.
I was wrong about that, too. It didn't get better. It got worse. It became more like Hubbard's bad side every year. Until the stench got too obvious to ignore.
Final score: Miscavige, 1,000,000,000; Idealistic, well-intentioned, intelligent people, 0.
So now I'm done. This time for good and all.
I've been a lurker for a couple of years now. I thank all of you for your stories and ideas. Special thanks for ToryMagoo44's YouTube video about solo auditing OT and then Helluvahoax's "That is what Scientology is" post. Those were really the last two pieces in the puzzle for me.
And I should thank David Miscavige for getting me to read all eleven books in his new Basics. Wow! Really, really bad idea.
And for his Milestone One lectures, and all the space opera that came after it, to LRH. Your spell is now broken. Hip, hip...
I don't want to go into much detail because I really don't want trouble with Those People. But I think I can give you a general idea without painting a big target on my back.
I first saw the word "Dianetics" in John Campbell's obituary in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. The name "L. Ron Hubbard" was used in a Frank Zappa story song called "Billy The Mountain" and also appeared on Return to Forever albums. Today I say that Chick Corea convinced me to put one foot in the cult and Frank Zappa convinced me not to put the other foot in.
When I was in the military, many miles from home, I was recruited into a mission (pre-purge) and did the Comm Course. Then the military sent me far, far away from Scientology. Then I got out of the military and moved far, far away from Scientology. I have to say that I never thought L. Ron Hubbard could be trusted. In fact, I thought he had pretty much told people not to trust him, just not in so many words. I thought that, at best, he might be like Professor Marvel at the beginning of The Wizard Of Oz: an obvious fake but maybe well-intentioned, underneath it all. You remember Frank Morgan's character going through Dorothy's stuff looking for clues he could use for a "psychic reading" but on the other hand, he was concerned about her safety when the tornado came through. I was wrong about that.
I grew up in a religious home but have been moving toward rationalism ever since. My mystical self thought that maybe there might be something to the OT stuff. In those days, even the military was researching it (Targ & Puthoff, Ingo Swann, etc.) as you may have seen in "The Men Who Stare At Goats." But my rational self was reading Carl Sagan at the same time.
The last event I attended before shipping off was the release of the second cassette tape, "Scientology & Effective Knowledge." When everyone stood up to applaud Hubbard's picture, the other smart aleck in the room leaned over and whispered "Author! Author!" and we both tried not to laugh out loud.
So I was done with Scientology. Almost.
Then L. Ron Hubbard died and Scientology didn't. In fact, it got a tax exemption from the IRS. And I thought, well, maybe the Great Oz actually did come up with something after all. By that time, I was in mid-career, no financial worries, so I did some of those introductory courses at the bottom of the Bridge. And I had some gains.
My reasoning was that, with Hubbard gone, all of you idealistic, well-intentioned, intelligent people (who are now posting on this board) would be taking over the Church. All of Hubbard's strange personality quirks would be gone and the Church would become as good as it had always pretended to be under Hubbard.
I was wrong about that, too. It didn't get better. It got worse. It became more like Hubbard's bad side every year. Until the stench got too obvious to ignore.
Final score: Miscavige, 1,000,000,000; Idealistic, well-intentioned, intelligent people, 0.
So now I'm done. This time for good and all.
I've been a lurker for a couple of years now. I thank all of you for your stories and ideas. Special thanks for ToryMagoo44's YouTube video about solo auditing OT and then Helluvahoax's "That is what Scientology is" post. Those were really the last two pieces in the puzzle for me.
And I should thank David Miscavige for getting me to read all eleven books in his new Basics. Wow! Really, really bad idea.
And for his Milestone One lectures, and all the space opera that came after it, to LRH. Your spell is now broken. Hip, hip...