My analysis/deconstruction of Velcro Kitty's Black PR'ing of me
(Note: SNIP below indicates removing the name from somebody's posts, to Google-proof this page.)
From: Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/ <wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: Wulfen & Graffiti
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 00:27:37 -0400
Organization: ARSCC Toronto
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Wow. Now *I'm* really getting under the Scientology cult's protective layer of Body Thetans. I wonder what I could have done to receive my very own personalized Black PR post from one of alt.religion.scientology's resident Toronto Scientology sock-puppets? (You'll recall I referred to this potential DA in a previous post, see this post's Appendix F.)
So.
Gather round, children. Today we learn how the Scientology cult (through one of its alt.religion.scientology sock-puppets, Velcro Kitty {and yes I got that phrase from John Dorsay}) responds to people that criticize, debunk, and protest the cult's litany of sleaze, lies, and manipulation (oh, and not forgetting the occasional outburst of criminal behaviour). There's nothing complicated about debunking the propaganda of a totalitarian cult like Scientology - just stick to the rules you were taught in high school about picking holes in peoples' arguments, and then supporting your points with evidence.
Now I will use the previously named techniques to debunk Velcro Kitty's latest feeble Black PR attempt (my response to the content will come after the debunking). Note that I have nothing up my left sleeve. I have nothing up my right sleeve. Right, here goes...
First, what could I have done to merit such a sleazy, Scientological attack on my character? As you'll note from around the newsgroup, the cult only doles out this kind of treatment to critics who manage to irritate the cult in some way. Now, there's two things I've done (or caused) recently that I think would irritate a totalitarian cult. First, I was in the neighborhood of the Halifax Scientology franchise (the original, and imnho better term used for this type of Scientology locations), and posted a quick report to alt.religion.scientology (see this post's Appendix A). Scientology really doesn't like having information on its operations passed around the internet. Second, I posted an email I received from a young lady in Clearwater, Florida (a
major cult location, see this post's Appendix B and Appendix C). The young lady in question thanked me for my website, as the information provided helped her realize that association with the Scientology cult is a *bad deal*, that she was "in a bad scene" and should get out. Scientology *definitely* doesn't like people who help extract near-recruits from the cult's not-so-tender clutches.
Of course, just to cover all possible alternatives, Velcro Kitty *could* be posting merely on her own initiative, and not a a Scientology cult sock-puppet. However, I don't think this is very likely. First, Velcro Kitty spends a majority of her posts to this group on the same kind of Black PR posts, directed at Scientology critics (do a www.deja.com power search on the author Velcro Kitty in the alt.religion.scientology newgroup). Second, she quite avidly follows several of cult founder and Source L. Ron Hubbard's policies on handling criticism, which go along the lines of "Make it rough on attackers all the way" and "always attack, never defend." You'll notice that Velcro Kitty never discusses Scientology's Canadian criminal conviction, Scientology dishonest and manipulative sales techniques, and Scientology's neo-totalitarian policies and practices. She keeps her posts to the subject of how awful anti-Scientology protesters are, and never actually addresses the specific problems with the Scientology cult that so offend critics.
Now on to the actual alt.religion.scientology post with which Velcro Kitty attempts to Black PR me. Look at the subject of Velcro Kitty's post:
Subject: Wulfen & Graffiti
Right off the bat, this subject associates me with graffiti, giving the reader that special "guilt by association" feeling. This sets the tone for the rest of Velcro Kitty's post, where she tries to smear me in accordance with cult founder and Source L. Ron Hubbard's instructions on how to treat people who criticize ("attack" in the cult jargon) Scientology.
On Wed, 26 Jan 2000 12:51:27 GMT, Velcro Kitty <velcro9@home.com> wrote:
Chris,
(That's Wulfen to you, theta being... And as Android Cat has already pointed out, True Names don't work in real life.)
Now, Velcro Kitty uses my Real Life name, which I don't use on alt.religion.scientology despite having my name, home address, and phone number posted to this forum over a year ago by another Scientology cult sock puppet, wgert. This seems (imnho) to be intended to remind me that the cult knows who I am, in the usual "we know who you are and we know where you live" vein, except of course the cult doesn't actually know my present address and phone number. This impression of mine is reinforced by the fact that Velcro Kitty calls me "Wulfen" below. On IRC (EFNET #scientology) and this newsgroup, Scientologists don't call me "Chris" unless they seem to be trying to intimidate me.
How do you justify the Halifax Mission having been vandalised three times now since you've moved there in the fall?
Note Velcro Kitty's very cunning sentence construction (except where "there" apparently refers to the Halifax Scientology franchise, and no I don't live there). She connects my arrival in Nova Scotia with alleged vandalism incidents at the Halifax Scientology franchise, but never actually comes right out and states that I've committed vandalism (until the next sentence, anyway). She also implies that there is a repeated problem, and that I'm the cause of it.
However, except for the sentence structure, this is where Velcro Kitty's cunning first falls flat in this post (first sentence, is that a record?). She's using a form of argument called "begging the question", where the answer is assumed in the question. "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" is the classic example of this form of question. You can't answer that question without being smeared with the taint of wife battery. In the case of Velcro Kitty's question, any answer that I give to her "how do you justify" phrasing will leave me smeared with the taint of vandalism.
This assumes, however, that the question is posed in isolation, and that Velcro Kitty's credibility somehow trumps mine. In fact, Velcro Kitty is excluding relevant evidence that contradicts her position that I'm involved in vandalizing the Halifax Scientology franchise, which doesn't speak well to her credibility. In a post to alt.religion.scientology on the subject of the last time Velcro Kitty posted about Halifax Scientology franchise vandalism, (SNIP) (a person living in Halifax) pointed out a few things about the Halifax Scientology franchise, namely that she was there two days after the first alleged incident and didn't see any graffiti or remnants thereof, and not only that but two blocks away from the franchise is a "virtual gangland war zone" (see this post's Appendices D and E), another source for graffiti that Velcro Kitty neglected to mention in her zeal to smear me.
As well, notice that Velcro Kitty neglects to say anything about the alleged graffiti. She doesn't mention what it said, what date it was discovered, what dates and times it could have been applied (ie between when and when did it appear), whether police reports were made, what the police said (if anything), the police incident report numbers, or anything which would shed more light on the actual graffiti. Velcro Kitty is also quite reluctant to consider any other source of these alleged incidents of vandalism, an act of intellectual dishonesty performed to point the Scientological Black PR finger of blame exclusively at me, the only Scientology critic currently posting to alt.religion.scientology who lives in Halifax (as far as I know).
Velcro Kitty also insinuates other things in this sentence. The phrase "How do you justify" implies that I am the kind of person (bad, naturally) who would seek to justify the commission of property crime. This holds the further implication that I'm the kind of person who can wilfully ignore the law when it suits my purposes. This piece of Velcro Kitty's Scientology cult propaganda mirrors the cult PR line that people who criticize Scientology are in fact awful amoral people, promulgated in order to take attention off of the cult (by refocusing it onto Scientology critics) and to imply that the actual problem isn't with the Scientology cult, its with the cult's critics.
This is you or your peers that are spreading your group's lines in graffiti.
Now it comes out - Velcro Kitty accuses me (and/or some other people, maybe) of vandalizing the Halifax Scientology franchise. I've already addressed the "whodunnit" point above (or rather, (SNIP) has, see this post's Appendix E), so I'll take on the rest of the points in this sentence.
First, there's "you or your peers". This is to imply that I'm colluding with others, in some kind of sleazy conspiracy - that there's several people acting together who have it in for the cult's Halifax franchise. This sets the franchise (innocent good Scientology church, in the cult's propaganda) against these awful people who sneak around and vandalize churches. This propaganda line is intended to promulgate the image that the Scientology cult is the innocent here, attacked by who knows how many awful people.
Then, there's "your group's lines". This furthers the previous point, and the Scientology cult's paranoia that there's an organized group of people trying to bring down the cult. It also assumes that Scientology critics are all of one mind, organization, and purpose regarding the cult. This follows some of L. Ron Hubbard's (founder and Source of the Scientology cult) teachings where he raves on about how opposition to Scientology is really a conspiracy controlled by psychiatrists (Hubbard really didn't like "the psychs") and how good "theta beings" are being kept on this prison planet because of the acts of some evil "entheta beings" (see this post's Appendix G), bad people who want to bring everybody else down. This serves to insulate the Scientology cult from criticism - if the only people criticizing the cult are controlled by an evil conspiracy bent on destroying anything good, then the cult really doesn't have anything wrong with it. In itself this is a non sequitur, but that's not really the point - the point of Hubbard saying this is so that criticism can be dismissed as the product of "entheta", so that the Scientology cult can continue scamming its adherents for money.
These are acts of violence.
Actually, no. Velcro Kitty is either ignorant of the different types of crime, or is deliberately lying about the type of crime that vandalism falls into to smear me, in accordance with Scientology cult policy on dealing with critics. If these acts of vandalism even actually happened (something I doubt, given the credibility problems that adherents of the liar and bigamist L. Ron Hubbard have), they were *property crimes*. Property crimes are committed against *property*. Violent crimes are committed against *people*.
You say you don't breed an atmosphere of hate.
Velcro Kitty's implication is pretty transparent here - implying that I actually *do* "breed an atmosphere of hate", and just *say* that I don't. This is more of the Scientology cult's propaganda line that critics only protest the cult's actions because of some "religious intolerance" (cult slogan used in revenge pickets in Canada) against the Scientology cult, not because of the cult's abuses and sleazy actions and policies.
Here it is, Wulfen. What are you going to do about it?
The syntax here is a little confused. This sentence either implies "here is the graffiti" or "here is the atmosphere of hate you have created". Either way, Velcro Kitty asks "What are you going to do about it?" Note that she asks this despite not actually having established that there was any graffiti, or that I knew about the graffiti (assuming there even was any), or that I would actually deface the Halifax Scientology franchise given the opportunity.
In short, Velcro Kitty's post is nothing but hot air and cult smear propaganda - and should be granted the credibility such a post deserves.
(And now - my response to Velcro Kitty:)
Sheesh, Velcro Kitty. Is this the best you can do to Black PR and DA me? Even for you and the cult that you are an enthusiastic member of, this is pretty pathetic. Just for your information (and KR to whoever's the pro-tem DSA at the Toronto org), I just plain don't do that stuff. My anti-Scientology activity is and has always been picketing, passing out leaflets, posting to this forum, and maintaining my website. If you can't cope with the fact that this is statutorily legal, constitutionally protected, and certainly has nothing to do with hatred of your silly cult, that's not my problem. If you can't cope with the fact that websites like mine, containing a wealth of information about your cult's sleazy, profiteering actions, tend to discourage potential dupes, that's not my problem either. If the Scientology cult can't "handle" being exposed to the consequences of the free flow of information about its neo-totalitarian policies and sleazy, profiteering actions (ie declining membership and revenues), that's just the free market in action. You remember what happens to ideas and organizations which don't have much appeal in a full disclosure, free market environment, right?
(Finally - the Appendices I've been referring to:)
Appendix A (my post on my quick recce of the franchise):
From: Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/ <wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Quick Halifax recce note
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 23:15:03 -0500
Organization: ARSCC Toronto
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Wandered by the Halifax Scientology franchise yesterday - I noticed that there were three real estate signs. It looks like the franchise is looking for another tenant for the apartment above. Incidentally, a lot of businesses in the area seem to do this - rent out the apartment above the store. Perhaps not coincidentally, there seem to be a lot of students in the area - I think the area is where a lot of Dalhousie University students live.
Also, the franchise has an interesting arrangement for parking signs - two spaces for Dianetics parking and one with a sign labelled "tenant parking <br> NOT Dianetics". Hehehe...
Apart from that, the franchise doesn't seem to have any new posters since the last time I wandered by, several months ago.
-- Scientology's gate is down. --
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/
Appendix B (post with the story of the young lady who used the information on my website to help her decide that Scientology is a bad deal):
From: Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/ <wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: This is what it's all about... helping people avoid the cult.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:01:26 -0400
Organization: ARSCC Toronto
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Xref: news2.lightlink.com alt.religion.scientology:1062582
I got this email late last night. I stripped the headers and the lady's name off the email and am posting it with her permission.
--------------------------------------------------
I have to give you the short version. First ..I am grateful for your site. Four months ago I began working for a 0TVIII Scientologist, and slowly up to this point I have been slipping into their world. My parents sensed this and found your site and a couple other sites.
The information contained in these sites armed my parents with valuable information. With that information and my bond with them, we have narrowly escaped the clutches of local Scientologist (I live in Clearwater)
Evil, is a mild adjective for these people, they are very skilled. They say that they are effective communicators, yet they are really manipulative communicators. Acting, to gain your trust through back doors of one's psyche.
My situation in a nutshell, I worked for a Doctor who as I mentioned is supposedly from what I was told an OT VIII level Scientologist....I eventually started dating a patient that came into the office...I fell in love with him, he was my every dream come true....I also made friends with a couple of Scientologists that came into the office and did work for the Doctor....I sometimes went out with them, somehow the conversation would always go into Scientology.I always have had an interest in all religions and like to hear their philosophies and basis'. I learned a lot, I never totally subscribed to everything, I agreed with some of the things that were in preliminary teachings probably because they were universal and actually stolen or based on previous doctrines I had studied. But, nonetheless, I did have an interest in it and did not realize exactly how much I was getting sucked in. It's gradual...turns out (this is minus many details) I had my first offer to get some free auditing....they knew my financial standing and that this would be the only way to "hook" me. I almost choked when they offered, I thought of the stories of the drug dealers giving kids cocaine for free at first so they get hooked and come back for more...they knew the more they erased my reactive mind the more I would become dependent on auditing and the Technologies of Scientology. To them it was not such a bad deal, because hey they've done it and they had some "mind blowing" discoveries/cognitions. To them, they're lives are better because of it...if that is true, why all the deception?
I must tell you, this man treated me better than I had ever been treated in my life, and in quiet moments alone was the most caring wonderful person I had ever encountered....things were occurring that were throwing up a few flags in my head, but I didn't want to believe that it was too good to be true. Turns out, I believe as I put pieces together here, they were all working together, probably had a file started on me and were preparing to take me to my first auditing session on Sunday (this Sunday)...I know this is missing details, but the basics are here. I f you need/want details I will be happy to elaborate, mainly I want to voice my agreement about this deceptive culture and graciously thankyou for your whistleblowing and hard work, it is paying off. It saved my life as I know it.
Thank God for your site, my closeness with my parents and a life that was not in need of a solution, in other words, I was brought up with good morals and goals, and have been a practicing Buddhist and yoga participant for 2 years. Unfortunately, my open ways of thinking and toleration almost took me down a bad bad road.
There were many things that were warning flags and with my trusting nature, I ignored them, thinking, they would not hurt me, I am in control of me. I couldn't have been more wrong! My parents armed themselves with information and wanted to have a talk with me. I had told my boyfriend that I was on the fence about all this because I was torn between my love for him and my love for my parents and friends.....my loyalty to my parents saved me. After a talk with my parents they said they supported me solely in leaving my job right away, two week's notice would've raised their flags and they would've closed in. Simultaneously I have cut all communication with them all. One e~mailed me saying she was sad about what happened and could I enlighten her, my boyfriend and boss called my parents trying to find out something. My dad spoke with my boyfriend and was polite in telling him to leave me alone, next time it won't be so polite. I know there is reiteration in this letter, but I am still in the beginning stages of closing these people off, right now I am still a conquest to them....they are looking for some sort of "comm line."This is day two for me...so we'll see hopefully because of people like you and Richard Minton and other ex Scientologists etc., I have a safe haven and a wealth of knowledge to free/excercise myself from this.
It's like a dream. More like a nightmare.
My name is ---.
Thankyou.
Note: In the email where she gave me permission, the lady in question realizes that the person's name is "Robert Minton" not "Richard Minton". I'd rather post this unaltered, so I didn't change it as the lady suggested. However, you should all know that she did get it right, and it's her mother that said that he's Richard not Robert. :-)
It feels good when I help someone avoid getting scammed by the Scientology cult... I should do it again, and soon.
-- Scientology's gate is down. --
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/
Appendix C (followup with more of her story):
From: Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/ <wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: More on this story Was: Re: This is what it's all about...
helping people avoid the cult.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 19:35:28 -0400
Organization: ARSCC Toronto
Message-ID: <qtek8sgeje4lmv88tdmcqm9e95nbrav9d9@4ax.com>
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More from this young lady who now knows the true face of the Scientology cult. Again posted with her permission; headers stripped.
--------------------------------------------------
Please post this if it will help others, of course as you said with the removal of my name and headers. Any local Scientologist that reads it will know it's me anyway without the name.
I noticed there were a couple changes to be made such as Robert Minton rather than what I wrote which was Richard Minton, I thought it was Robert, but my Mom said it was Richard, nonetheless his name should be corrected if you are able to do it, or I can see if I can go back in and edit it and resend it to you...you tell me. I just want all the info to be correct.
It is just unreal to me the deception Chris. They are A list actors! ! ! ! That's the scariest part. People who don't have a strong home base are doomed, I think that's what happened to the guy I was dating. Also something I wanted to tell you...When I was offered the free auditing, it was offered by my boyfriend, he was soooo thrilled and said, boy I wish I was in your shoes. He could sense how uncomfortable I was and quietly and sternly did not like no for an answer. He hugged me and said he would never do/suggest anything that would hurt me...I said I did not want to commit, but I would meet the auditor. We drove right then to a class V org (which is in Tampa). Everyone was so nice and my boyfriend was explaining to me the orders of the church. I met the lady who was to audit me and she had a blank expression in her eyes, it was sooo weird. There was no soul behind those eyes. That, of course, alarmed me, but for some reason, I said I'd come back on Sunday. Then! my boyfriend wanted me to watch a video, it was weird, it was on LRH, filmed in the sixties. Firstly LRH frightened me, secondly the screen seemed to move (like it had a hypnotic effect), so I didn't look at the screen. My boyfriend and another other guy that was sitting in the lobby were totally sucked in to it. This is when I knew I was in a bad bad scene.
Angels....definitely one on my shoulder. Funny thing the course my ex-boyfriend is taking is PTS course, which means Potential Trouble Source, a person is a potential trouble source when they are in between Scientology and suppressive people. I am a PTS, and indeed a great class project for these people. It's all becoming clearer. Too wild!
--------------------------------------------------
-- Scientology's gate is down. --
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/
Appendix D ((SNIP) on the Halifax Scientology franchise graffiti, rewrapped slightly by me for the purposes of this post):
From: (SNIP)
Subject: Graffiti -- NOT!
Date: 14 Nov 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <MuqX3.2099$fy1.143@tundra.ops.attcanada.net>
References: <38277EAB.8B260F6F@home.com>
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Velcro Kitty <velcro9@home.com> wrote in message news:38277EAB.8B260F6F@home.com...
Re: Graffiti on Halifax Mission 6 November 99 Spray Painted All Over Front, Sidewalk and Back
Wait just one minute, pussycat -- are you talking about the one in Halifax NOVA SCOTIA? The one on the corner of Windsor and North Sts? Well I hate to break your heart, kitten, but I was there on November 8th and if it was vandalized, then give the city a medal for the quickest clean-up job in history!
Front = no graffiti
Back = no graffiti
Sidewalk = no graffiti
Now if graffiti's is spray painted onto a CONCRETE sidewalk, no amount of scrubbing is going to get that off overnight.
Check the reliability of your sources before you point the finger at someone, hunny, because there's not so much as a scratch around the Halifax building.
Appendix E (more from (SNIP), rewrapped slightly by me for the purposes of this post):
From: (SNIP)
Subject: Not only that ....
Date: 14 Nov 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <oCqX3.2100$fy1.219@tundra.ops.attcanada.net>
References: <38277EAB.8B260F6F@home.com>
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Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
But are you aware of the location of the Halifax Mission? Just 2 blocks away, North @ Agricola, is a virtual gangland war zone, you twit. To point the finger at a specific person is ridiculous, given the circumstances.
Velcro Kitty <velcro9@home.com> wrote in message news:38277EAB.8B260F6F@home.com...
Re: Graffiti on Halifax Mission 6 November 99 Spray Painted All Over Front, Sidewalk and Back
So, Hagglund, you claim your group is in no way violent and yet here your activities have led to this. All your talk about being non-confrontational and now your activities have created illegal acts. Are Wulfen and his girlfriend in Halifax involved in this? If Wulfen is involved in this or knows who did it, will he do the legal thing and turn them into the police? Are you condoning this type of activity? You claim that nothing will ever happen and now your supporters have gone to the next level. Whoever did this is perfectly willing to cross the line. How far are they going to go? How do you rationalize this one, Hagglund? What responsibility do you take for your buddies (if any)?
Appendix F (I posted this in followup to the post in Appendix A):
From: Wulfen - www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/ <wulfen@NOSPAMtotal.net>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Re: This is what it's all about... helping people avoid the
cult.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:13:31 -0400
Organization: ARSCC Toronto
Message-ID: <030k8sc3ig8ld5e5astbfh6sjunfcje76s@4ax.com>
References: <0kvj8s42vdlcr3cqiql11tp11c74doft3j@4ax.com>
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Just out of curiosity, now that I've helped a person steer clear of the unfriendly neighborhood Scientology cult, will I get denounced by some anonymous poster as a violent internet-based remote-deprogrammer?
Or will I get my own Black PR leaflet when I get around to picketing the cult's Halifax location? Hm...
-- Scientology's gate is down. --
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/
Appendix G (Chris Owen's post about Hubbard's research methods):
From: Chris Owen <chriso@lutefisk.OISPAMNOdemon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,alt.clearing.technology
Subject: ESSAY: Hubbard's research methods revealed
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 00:35:50 +0000
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Something that's puzzled me for a long time is just how Hubbard came up with Scientology's bizarre mythos: a shabby, run-down heaven with radioactive statues, Xenu, the Fifth Invader Force with "incredibly horrible hands" (sic) and so on and so forth.
One particularly curious point is that his original research notes have never been published. They probably show him to be a complete fruitcake, if a fascinating lecture entitled "Electromagnetic Scouting: Battle of the Universes" (April 1952, exact date unknown) is anything to go by. Back in 1952, this lecture was just another part of Scientology - there wasn't anything secret or, for that matter, sacred about it (this was in the days when it was explicitly stated that it was a science, not a religion). It wasn't until the start of the 1960s that such material began to be designated "confidential" as part of the OT courses. Access to this particular tape is highly restricted these days, so presumably it forms part of the OT materials.
The lecture features Mary Sue Hubbard auditing her husband. Ron is trying to locate and question "theta entities" - his term at the time for what were later termed Body Thetans - to find out their purposes. The Hubbards were using the first version of the E-meter (the Matheson version) to try out various ideas and seeing if they caused a reaction on the meter, indicating a response on the part of the BTs.
As the session begins, Ron declares that "I am, for the first time in ages, completely without a somatic" - the implication being that, as somatics ("a pain or ache sensation") are in Hubbard's view caused by BTs, the BTs have all run off and hidden to avoid being exposed by the E-meter. Sure enough, says Ron, "I got a notion they're all standing about 20 feet from me, at least."
The question-and-answer session gives a vivid insight into the way Hubbard worked out his mythos:
LRH: Well here we made this what we've been calling Home Universe. That's actually the MEST Universe...
MSH: Dropping there.
LRH: ...and was actually the Home Universe and we were just getting along fine and the reason we settled off and just started to make the Home universe and so on and dropped off the main body of theta is because theta started expanding. No more than that. It just started expanding. I think there was probably something wrong in its vicinity or something of the sort.
MSH: The needle's rising.
LRH: Something wrong in its vicinity.
MSH: Drop there. What was wrong in its vicinity?
LRH: It was getting encroached on, so it's sort of a divide and rule. It's the whole modus operandi of the other universes. They started riding up the main body of theta to some degree. No, no drop. Anyway, the theta universe just suddenly got ambitious and decided to make a universe and picked up everything and...
MSH: Your needle dropped...
----------
MSH: Well, what are these entities composed of?
LRH: What..?
MSH: Well, what would you call this kind of stuff?
LRH: Well, it may be first universe stuff - and stuff ...
MSH: Yeah.
LRH: ... maybe twenty-ninth universe stuff - fifteenth universe stuff - twenty-first universe stuff - thirty-three universe ... is there a thirty-three universe?
MSH: No drop.
LRH: No ...
MSH: They come from a lot of different universes.
----------
Here Hubbard comes up with the idea of Earth being a "prison planet", the basic rationale for Xenu dumping people here in the first place:
LRH: The entheta beings ... I think in recent times entheta beings have been triumphing in certain locales over theta and I think earth is a prison planet to some degree because the entheta beings have pretty well won out over the people that are here.
MSH: You got a big drop on that.
LRH: I did? Entheta beings have worn out all the people who are here and what I got a big drop on is just the .... Well, now we can do a rehabilitation job throughout this part of the universe and we can do a rehabilitation job on straightening out these entheta beings and theta. Because all the entheta beings are running around - they're here, out of line. They may be the product of a union. The entheta beings [unintelligible] or something of the sort. They didn't do what they were told.
MSH: You got a drop there.
[...]
LRH: Well that's what theta did. Now, theta sitting right out in space some place, other planets, and so forth, all of a sudden says, the hell with these bodies and beings, we've got a heck of a lot of theta beings ...
MSH: Bang! Needle is dropping.
LRH: ... who have been beaten by entheta beings.
MSH: Bang!
LRH: And the battleground is too rough and these things have mutinied so let's put 'em all in one place and lock 'em on to earth. They gotta stay on earth 'til we get 'em straightened out. They'll send somebody down here sooner or later and he'll straighten them out.
MSH: You're getting drops in needle on all this material.
----------
Hubbard goes on to slap Christianity and religion as a whole (which gives a whole new perspective to Scientology's accusations of its opponents as anti-religious). In point of fact, his comments in this session were of a piece with his many other denigrations of established religions, notably Christianity but also Islam and Hinduism. (This is perhaps not surprising; only six years previously he had been a member of Jack Parsons' black magic coven.) He also comes up with the generic name of the MEST beings:
LRH: ... These entheta beings are controlled over by religion. I think there was an experiment one time that was a religious experiment.
MSH: You dropped. Needle's dropping
LRH: Big experiment on religion.
MSH: Is that when Christianity came into being?
LRH: That's an entheta operation. No drop?
MSH: Slight.
LRH: It's got to be an entheta operation.
MSH: Is it?
LRH: Entheta - The entheta is actually, like anything that is under duress, these entheta beings - we shouldn't be calling them entheta beings - we ought to be calling them Targs... That's the proper name.
MSH: Crash!
LRH: Targs - Some of them are Targs. There are several other kinds. There are other kinds than Targs.
MSH: Where did you get the name - Targ?
LRH: That's common in a lot of theta languages. It means slave. Entheta slave.
MSH: You got a drop
LRH: Lower order slave. Body holders - horse holders - boot polishers. Entheta is really [unintelligible]. I guess there may be some other prison planets out in this galaxy.
MSH: Are there any other planets which are [unintelligible].
LRH: I think flying saucers right now that's coming to dump off more theta beings - ah, dump off more entheta, entheta-ed beings. Targs.
MSH: Mmm.
LRH: What they're dropping down here is Targ ridden. It's a disease - somebody gets Targ ridden - gets unbalanced. The thing to do is not so much how to know how to get rid of the Targs but how to straighten out Targs. - No drop?
MSH: No drop - Targ doesn't want to be straightened out.
----------
What I find particularly fascinating about this bizarre auditing session is that it shows exactly how Hubbard came up with his ideas. Prof. Martin Gardner wrote an essay on Dianetics in his classic book "[Fads and Fallacies] In the Name of Science" (1953) (an online version is at http://www.xenu.net/archive/fifties/e520000.htm) in which he analysed the flaws inherent in Hubbardian auditing:
Perhaps the most revealing parts of Dr. Winter's book ["Dianetics: A Doctor's Report", Dr. J.A. Winter, 1951] are the records of his own dianetic sessions - revealing because they indicate with unmistakable starkness the manner in which the auditor suggests to a patient what sort of things he is supposed to recall. The patient, it must be remembered, in the vast majority of cases, is already familiar with dianetic theory... The therapist's questions are of such a "leading" character that even Dr. Winter admits they "encourage fantasy."
Hubbard himself admits that many patients indulge in fantasies about their uterine experiences. "The patient tells about father and mother," he writes, "and where they are sitting and what the bedroom looks like, and yet there he is in the womb." Hubbard rejects the theory "that the tortured foetus develops extrasensory perception in order to see what is coming next." This is a good theory, he admits, but must be rejected in view of the fact that the foetus has no mind and therefore lacks clairvoyant powers.
A Dianetics "patient" undergoing auditing would typically recall a variety of incidents, some undoubtedly genuine buried memories and some patent fantasies, such as the aforementioned uterine experiences. Transcripts of Dianetics auditing sessions reprinted in the "Research & Discovery Series" volumes show that there was a great deal of free association going on in the "patient's" mind, albeit in many cases guided by the auditor's leading questions.
The Dianetics movement eventually broke up when Hubbard insisted on auditing "past lives", which had even less plausibility than so-called "sperm dreams" in the uterus. He and other supporters - many of whom were, significantly, science-fiction readers who had read his original article on Dianetics in "Astounding Science Fiction" in June 1950 - reported unearthing memories of past lives on Earth and in outer space.
A collection of Scientologists' accounts of past lives was eventually published in "Have You Lived Before This Life?" (1960), which for my money just pips "A History of Man" for the title of weirdest book ever published by Scientology. The accounts, which really are hysterically funny, include a those of a man who fell in love with "a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl", another man who recalled being run over by a Martian bishop driving a steam roller, the later critic Cyril Vosper's recollections of life as an intergalactic walrus which perished after falling out of a flying saucer and the story of "a very happy being who strayed to the planet Nostra 23,064,000,000 years ago". Freud would have had a field day.
It's easy to see from this lecture how such bizarreness originated. Put together a science fiction fan (and writer, in Hubbard's case) and an auditor. Add a large dose of free association and a scientifically unproven theory of what E-meter readings represent. Voila - the result is a stream-of-consciousness science fiction story with biofeedback, as measured by the E-meter, as the editor. It did not matter that it would not have passed muster as fiction, let alone as scientifically proven fact. Hubbard believed that his foundation stone - the ideas of the thetan and that thought could be detected electronically - was completely secure. The "Battle of the Universes" tape shows vividly how elaborate was the superstructure which he built so casually on such fragile foundations.
--
| Chris Owen - chriso@OISPAMNOlutefisk.demon.co.uk |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| THE TRUTH ABOUT L. RON HUBBARD AND THE UNITED STATES NAVY |
| http://www.ronthewarhero.org |
Appendix H (part of a post by me that refutes the Scientology cult propaganda that picketers are involved in hate crimes). It can equally be directed at Velcro Kitty:
By this I think you're implying that Toronto anti-Scientology picketers are breaking the law, or spreading hate. There's only one word I can honestly use for your position here: *Bullshit*.
Zundel was charged under the False News law - the case made its way up to the Supreme Court, and the law was declared unconstitutional under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (as a section 2b infringement, I do believe). He wasn't charged with hate crimes under the Criminal Code. Of course, I may be wrong - but do you have specific news items to disprove me?
I do have specific news items, showing how a protest can be a hate crime. Check out these URL's (unwrap them if you have to):
http://www.thestar.com/thestar/back_issues/
ED19990817/toronto/990817NEW03g_CI-NAZIS17.html
[Editor's Note: The above link is now broken. Hopefully it'll be back.]
(bottom 4 paragraphs in the Star story)
http://www.praguepost.cz/archive/news903d.html
Do you see what happened there? Skinheads (some masked) protested the fact that these Roma were in Canada with signs like "honk if you hate Gypsies". The police charged a number of them with "wilful promotion of hatred". Walter Froebrich (a man about town in Toronto racist circles, according to Toronto Anti-Racist Action's website) pleaded guilty. The rest of them were found guilty (I read this in a Star article some months ago, wish I'd saved it).
You do understand what happened, right? These people committed hate crimes. They were arrested by the police, charged, and convicted. This is very, very different from the anti-Scientology picketers, who have not committed hate crimes.
[NOTE: I was wrong in this a.r.s. post. Walter Froebrich pleaded guilty to his charge, and the rest chose to contest theirs. AFAIK those charges are still moving through the courts as of 2000-03-30. I'll update this note if I hear different. -Wulfen]
I'll start with the small differences, and work my way up:
First, these skinheads staged *one* protest, after which they were charged, put on trial, and convicted. Toronto Anti-Scientology picketers have staged 36 or 37 protests over 2.5 years, with not even any hints that anyone is going to be arrested. In fact, at several of the pickets, police have prefaced their comments with some variation of "you have the right to protest". This isn't the behaviour of a police officer who's about to arrest someone.
Second, these skinheads were protesting the existence in Canada of some Geneva Convention refugees, Roma who came to Canada to escape similar (and worse) treatment in the Czech Republic. Toronto Anti-Scientology picketers are protesting (and informing the public about) the Scientology organization's long history of abuse and sleaze. This is the same Scientology organization that has a criminal history, which continually displays its contempt for the law and the rights of Canadian citizens and citizens of other countries.
Third, these skinheads were using hateful slogans in their protest. For example:
"Honk if you hate Gypsies."
"Canada is not a trash can."
Toronto anti-Scientology protesters are not using hateful slogans. For example:
"Canada has only one criminally convicted church: Scientology"
"Scientology's Founder: Liar, Bigamist, Fraud Artist"
"Scientology: Bait and Switch 'Church' "
"Scientology: Space Alien SCAM! "
(among others)
As mentioned before, the skinheads' signs were used *once*, after which they were charged and convicted. Toronto anti-Scientology picket signs have been used over several years, in front of many police officers, without incident.
Fourth, the skinheads basically came out of the blue (ie no Notice of Demonstration, no websites afaik), did their stuff once and were charged and convicted. Toronto anti-Scientology picketers have either filed a notice of demonstration or called in a heads-up to 52 Division Foot Patrol for each and every picket. Toronto anti-Scientology picketers have been doing their stuff for years, and nobody has even so much as warned of impending arrest. Toronto anti-Scientology picketers have had their materials (leaflets, signs, picket reports, other stuff) on websites for years, and the police haven't charged or warned anybody about anything related to website material.
You may as well start to deal with the fact on a what's-real-is-what's-still-real-when-you-stop-believing-in-it level, instead of a Scientology what's-true-is-what's-true-for-you level - Toronto anti-Scientology pickets aren't hateful, and they certainly aren't against the law.
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-- Scientology's gate is down. --
http://www.total.net/~wulfen/scn/
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/8412/