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George Malko

Wrote, produced and directed television shows and documentary films and wrote articles for Saturday Review, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Holiday and Esquire.


Scientology: the Now Religion - Introduction

McMaster continued speaking with an infinite calm which seemed to emanate from some deep wellspring of febrile tension kept in extraordinary check. He interspersed what he said with moments of light, graceful wit. He bathed us all in the loving clarity of Scientology's sweet reason. Then he was finished, and the congregation rose, applauding wildly, unable to make their hands and the expressions on their faces communicate what they really felt for him as he moved sideways to an exit, raising his arm in gentle benediction, stopping to accept an embrace from a girl, nothing shy, no embarrassment - were the Apostles embarrassed? - continuing to the door, turning once more, right hand raised, a blessing, a grateful farewell, and he was gone.

The hall emptied slowly but I lingered behind, and turning, I found myself once more staring at the photograph of L. Ron Hubbard, the man whose inventive genius had allowed McMaster to become the world's first *clear*. What he had said, I realized with some surprise, had not impressed me very much. In the now almost empty room, I barely remembered whether or not he had actually spoken on any particular theme. Only one thing stuck in my mind, and I saw him saying it once more, fingers of his hands touching to form a delicate bridge, his eyes slowly sweeping all of us with a look both generous and shy: "How can there be two sides to the truth?"

Finally, I don't really know what L. Ron Hubbard believes. I've often wondered whether or not he ever read Dr. Nordenholz's book with its dry postulatings of what might be done with man's consciousness, or whether Buckminster Fuller's vivid blasts about the Game of Life made more than a passing impression. When he wrote of his visit to Heaven in his HCO Bulletin of May 11, 1963, complete with a description of the Gates, was he only speaking in allegory? Does he really believe that thetans have done all the things he has written and said they have done, possess all the powers they are presumed to possess; and raising Scientologists to an advanced level of ability where they will be able to absorb it all is the true heart of Scientology? Or is it simply a brilliantly conceived system of programming a human being so that after a certain amount of "processing," at a certain level, he will be prepared to believe...anything?

When all of L. Ron Hubbard's theories and mouthings are reduced to their essentials, when the thetan stands alone, stripped of his theological trappings of "games," "past lives," "randomity," "time tracks," and "implants," one tiny, nagging suspicion lingers on: Is it possible that all of us are simply involved in yet another of this man's vivid flights of fantastic fiction, and it is all nothing less than a superbly evoked living nightmare, manipulated somewhere by a giant typewriter in the sky?

Winnipeg Free Press (Jun. 1974): "Libraries Face Libel Threat"

The Church of Scientology of Canada has advised some libraries that they may be cited as party defendants in a libel suit unless they remove certain books from their shelves, Steven Horn, council member of the Canadian Library Association said Wednesday. [...]

Mr. Horn said the church has told members of the association that actions for libel have been begun by the church against the authors, publishers and distributors of three books before the Supreme Court of Ontario.

The libraries were advised that if they did not remove the works from circulation until the courts had settled the actions, they could be cited as party defendants and be liable for damages.

The books are: Scientology: the now religion, by George Malko; Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman and The Mind Benders by Cyril Vosper. [...]

New York Times (Jul. 1970): "Book Review: Boggle Your Mind With Scientology" by Jack Leonard

Halfway through this mind-boggling book, in the middle of a discussion of affinity tone scales, black Thetans spitting white energy, the planet Helatrobus, aircraft door implants and gorilla goals, George Malko pauses to observe, "of course all this struck me as being insane garbage."

Of course. Up to this point, Malko had been so stoically groping his way through the mystagogical smog of L. Ron Hubbard's mind that one wanted to scream at him: but it's preposterous! Since screaming at books is about as useful as voting in presidential elections, the tension grew until Malko chose to relieve it.

One can thereafter endure Scientology's E-Meters, Alice games, gradient scale drills, capping beams and opposition terminals — not to mention the eight dynamics, the 24 logics and the 58 axioms — with that same incredulous gape one brings to the economic theories of Ezra Pound or Wilhelm Reich's orgone energy accumulator of the protocols of Zion or the Flying Nun.

Malko, a freelance writer and film producer, tells us the whole inspiring story of L. Ron Hubbard, who rose from the lowly estate of a science-fiction novelist to become our first operating Thetan. [...]

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