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Court documents revealed despite Scientology protest

Title: Court documents revealed despite Scientology protest
Date: Wednesday, 6 November 1985
Publisher: Clearwater Sun (Florida)
Author: Richard Benke
Main source: link (96 KiB)

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LOS ANGELES — The Church of Scientology secretly teaches that 75 million years ago Earth was called Teegeeach and was among 90 planets ruled by Xemu, who spread his evil by thermonuclear bombs, according to court documents that sect members tried to prevent the public from seeing.

Xemu, attempting to solve overpopulation problems, destroyed selected inhabitants of the planets and implanted the seeds of aberrant behavior in their spirits to affect future generations of mankind, according to the documents briefly placed in open court records in connection with a lawsuit.

Church President Heber T. Jentzsch said Tuesday that news accounts of the documents were distorted. He contended that such piecemeal, out of-context reporting tends to hold his religion up to ridicule in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Contending the materials were stolen, he said in a telephone interview, "any access to these materials is illegal." He said the church had obtained an injunction in Great Britain against disseminating the materials, and that now "the case moves into the U.S. arena." He said he had filed suit against those he viewed as responsible for the theft.

"We know the psychiatrists are behind it; they've been after us for a long time," he added.

"This is just another attempt to put religion on trial," said Ludwig Alpers, spokesman for the sect's Clearwater headquarters. "What has occurred is that our confidential scripture has been stolen and altered for the use of evaluation by godless psychiatrists.

"This act would be similar to taking the bread and wine of the Catholic church, which represents the body and blood of Christ, and holding it up to scorn."

Scientology is based on science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard's 1948 book "Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health." Through the use of a so-called E-meter, rather like a lie detector, members undergo exercises and counseling to eliminate negative mental images and achieve a "clear state."

The documents at issue were submitted as part of a civil case brought by former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim, who claims the organization defrauded him by promising him higher intelligence and greater business success through Scientology courses that cost thousands of dollars.

Superior Court Judge Alfred L. Margolis, despite strong Scientology objections, issued an order Friday making the documents public Monday. He re-sealed them Monday and took under submission a Scientology motion Tuesday to keep them sealed.

An estimated 1,500 followers of the sect, founded by Hubbard, lined up at the Los Angeles County courthouse Monday to copy the documents in an effort to crowd out anyone else who wanted to see them before the order to reseal them.

The Los Angeles Times, however, obtained copies and reported their contents Tuesday. They contain rare glimpses of so-called upper-level or "OT3" teachings of Scientology, available only to members who graduate through preliminary church programs.

Details of OT3 have previously been published in the personals columns of The Reader, a weekly Los Angeles newspaper, and the daily Clearwater Sun.

Jentzsch said all such published accounts have been distorted.

Generally, the documents suggest that much of mankind's problems began 75 million years ago, when Teegeeach was one of 90 planets ruled by Xemu.

They say Xemu decided to take radical measures to control overpopulation. Beings from the planets were taken to at least 10 volcanoes on Earth where H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were detonated, destroying the beings but freeing their spirits, called thetans.

They said the thetans were trapped in a compound of frozen alcohols and, during a 36-day period, Xemu "implanted" in them the seeds of aberrant behavior for generations to come.

"The materials as I've read them in The Times are altered, corrupted and denigrated and twisted in order to undermine religion," Jentzsch said.