Whenever I read about or watch video about Scientology I come away feeling particularly unwell. As an organisation they strike me as becoming very media savvy and well-versed in tactics to distort information as or when it appears in mass media. I find more than most things Scientology makes me afraid. The way they practice the same marketing speak as large corporations means they understand it is not what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it. If you look confident and sound convincing, we the audience will often just roll with it. Which is why you have to give Scientology credit for latching on to the historical notion of the church, “The Church of Scientology”, it quickly places them as just another religion “doing good things”.
Janet Reitman’s article Inside Scientology (Google cache, archive.org) is a good read. You can watch MSNBC interviewing Janet Reitman about her Scientology article on YouTube. Since Reitman’s article, the BBC Panorama program looked into Scientology [video.google.com]. This is a fascinating episode, not just because BBC reporter John Sweeney loses his cool in a big way near the end.
As Russell Brown noted, it doesn’t end there. Video is available on YouTube shot by the BBC Panorama team showing prior aggression from a Scientologist. Scientology appears to have responded by posting videos on YouTube: BBC reporter losing it!, BBC Reporter John Sweeney’s “excuse” for losing it. In the description of the videos there is a recommendation users visit BBC Panorama-Exposed. This website is run by the Church of Scientology and contains a professionally-edited response to the BBC Panorama episode. As becomes clear, John Sweeney does himself no favours, allowing for Scientology people to post various videos.
It was hopping through Google Video and YouTube I came across an intense video shot by a guy called Mark Bunker from XenuTV.com. In it he films what appears to be three Scientologists repeatedly questioning him “What have you done?” “What are you afraid of?” and telling him “you’re a little gnat”. It is compelling viewing.
I think it takes some guts to stand up in mainstream media and question something like Scientology. Given their history of pressuring and discrediting people who will do that, you would be forgiven for thinking that there might be stories out there easier to cover.
The internet is custom-built for an organisation like that of Scientology. Unlike more traditional media i.e. books, newspaper, etc, often there is no quick way to tell if something is legitimate or faked on the web. Audio can be chopped up and put back online as “unedited transcripts”. People can comment on YouTube or edit an Wikipedia article and what is written can be quickly picked up and spread as fact. An organisation like Scientology which relies on the public taking things at face value would appreciate the power the internet gives them. Got a negative video about Scientology on internet? Create your own video discrediting the video.
One issue that the computer game industry is having to face up to is the reality of paid surfers who artificially promote a game or service, for example a person being paid to visit online computer game forum’s and post “X computer game is awesome, it’s all I’m playing at the moment!”. The same person may be paid to find online negative comments about the same game and post seemingly honest contrary positions “I don’t think X computer is that bad, I’m playing at the moment and IMHO it’s pretty good”. Using the slang and language of the online community brings legitimacy to your actually-fake posts. This is where Scientology could use the same tactics, subtlety but falsely influence the tone of online conversations simply by using large numbers of seemingly legitimate user accounts to post comments.
LINKS (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard [youtube.com]
Scientology: “Speaking Freely” Tory Christman [video.google.com]
(Updated 2007-05-30: Fixed links, tightened up two sentences on last paragraph)
May 28th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Huzzah! I agree wholeheartedly. I can’t understand how anyone can condone such closed-mindedness, to attack anoyone who disagrees. This isn’t a religion its a dangerous cult.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am
I don’t know why non-Scientologists persist on this viewpoint of paranoid “beware of the monster” attitude about Scientology. It’s just another philosophy trying to survive in a world dominated by drug companies and political interests. Sure, our officials have learned how to deal with the media (out of necessity!)
We’re not monsters. We’re not zealots. Fine, Scientology may not be for you. But how about approaching us with a bit of tolerance and open to dialog, instead of this “everything they say has got to be twisted and evil” mentality?
Sweeney and the BBC were going at us with a slam job. I’m happy to see they got busted at it. I have yet to see one single reporter come to our centers and ask objective, serious questions such as “what have you gotten out of Scientology” or “what do you guys do for volunteering” or “what is your view of the path to enlightenment as opposed to, say, eastern religions?” etc.
Greg
Scientologist and proud of it
http://www.liveandgrow.org
May 28th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Okay, fine Greg “Slayer of Critic” blogs.
How about these questions?
What is the Rehabiliation project force? Is it totally voluntary?
What is Fair Game, how do you classify people to be suppressive?
What is your personal opinion on Operation Freakout?
What does Clear the Planet mean?
What is in the vaults in New Mexico?
Can anyone be able to criticize Hubbard without being deemed a criminal?
If the Xenu story is not real why has the church sued for copyright infringment about Xenu?
If a high profile psychiatrist is drowning in a lake, would you take the time to save him?
If you met someone who was “squirreling” the tech, would you report them to the RTC?
What do you feel about Freezoners?
- Does Scientology sometimes refers to non-scientologists as “raw meat” and “wogs”?
- Were 11 members of Scientology, including Hubbard’s wife arrested for infiltrating the IRS in the USA?
- Does Scientology believe that psychiatry caused the rise of hitler?
- Does Scientology refer to journalists as “merchants of chaos”?
May 28th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Greg has made a point, and I for one appreciate him taking the high road. The prejudice shown on this blog toward him and Scientology is very high. You guys might want to back it down a notch, as you’re coming across as a bunch of conspiracy theorists. Talk to your average Scientologist and you’ll find — big surprise! — a person who genuinely wants to make the world a better place. You make them sound sub-human and evil — and they aren’t.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Wow. It’s happening right here. I’m pretty convinced by what Greg and jay have said - maybe I should buy that computer game after all.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Hi Jay, the common Scientologists are the ones being taken advantage of, the management and higher ups are the evil bastards.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:46 am
The BBC Panorama is an interesting thing in many ways; a 21th century media case in particular. A thing like that could not have happened 10 years ago: a documentary and a documentary about the documentary.
Besides that it changes the game slightly, it also seem to have had another impact: If one watch the BBC Panorama Exposed documentary one will clearly see how Sweeney are creating a story of “a closed church” by knocking on backdoors, steel doors and other places where he know he will get a no. Also showing up at the Scientology headquarter asking to speak to the boss knowing that person haven’t been giving an interview since the award-winning Nightline show in 1993 AND that that person is at that moment Sweeney asks to speak with him, in a worldwide church broadcast.
So Sweeney had a plan and a story he wanted to tell. But then Scientology did their documentary days before the BBC Panorama should air and released the YouTube clip of Sweeeney “loosing it.”
Also the Scientology celebrities Sweeney had interviewed backed out and did not allow him to use them in the final BBC Documentaryl.
So Sweeney edited the BBC Documentary shortly before it aired. And what we saw was a documentary mainly about Scientology documenting and following him. Not the original story he had planned.
The final BBC Documentary thus didn’t contain anything waranting “6 months research” but became mainly an attempt to justify doing one in the first place by using that the church had filmed him as an excuse for critizism.
But it seems the church ‘got him’ as he couldn’t use his original planned story.
Anyway, it has many layers but show some interesting new trends.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Excellent article. Once a person sees one of Mark Bunker’s XenuTv videos, there is nothing of redeeming value to credit Scientology with. No church should get away with what they do. Scientology is the antithesis of goodness.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Hello Greg! Hello Jay!
I thought you guys might be interested to know that there is documented proof that your esteemed post-leader, Frater LRH (oh yes!) was entwined in the machinations of a certain lodge in California, the Agape Lodge, which practiced the Thelemic philosophy of the OTO, run by Aleister Crowley. He acted as a spirit guide for a certain mad scientist named Jack “Whiteside” Parsons, and assisted him in the invoking of an avatar of Babalon, the “Scarlet Woman”, so he could sire the Antichrist and destroy the world. Happily, LRH stole all of Parsons’ money, his girlfriend, probably his dog too. He then rewrote Thelema, made it “more commercial”, and drawn out over a longer period of time. He admitted this in a Playboy interview. But I dunno, maybe he was just joking?! Ha ha ha!
Have fun, you black magick Thetans. Iao Iao!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:16 pm
I think my post speaks for itself, I tried to be as honest as possible and so I was when I said Scientology makes me afraid. Now I know my local soup kitchen feeding the inner-city homeless doesn’t make me feel that way so there is definitely a conversation to be had here.
There have been a few questions asked in the comments and I for one would like to see them answered or at least a reply of some sort. That would at least be dialogue.
Greg - I too would like to see reporters come to your centers and ask good questions. But consider the content linked to in the above post, should we ignore all this, or just parts? Scientology seems to be reactive and unable to handle examination.
What is Fair Game? Who are the Freezoners? Were 11 members of Scientology, including Hubbard’s wife arrested for infiltrating the IRS in the USA?
Jay - You mentioned conspiracy theorists and I imagine the words of W.T.F. Barbecue are a classic example of this. Does this Playboy interview featuring L. Ron Hubbard exist?
Thorsten - How do you think the web should handle anonymity? Should we all be like those people on Amazon.com who have taken the time to verify their “Real Name”? It certainly lends their reviews of products a certain kind of credibility. Or have we managed to stumble onto the right balance?
May 31st, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I vaguely remember what Fair Game is, dunno about Freezoners, and I do know that LRH sailed around the world with his coterie on yachts because a bunch of countries (ie France, which convicted him in absentia of fraud) wanted him on various charges.
And yeah, the story about Jack Parsons sounds incredible, but it’s verifiable. Unless of course all the people who lived in his boarding house at the time are part of an elaborate conspiracy, along with the judge who presided over the court case between Parsons and LRH, and Crowley and various members of the OTO who concoted a bunch of letters (or possibly recent forgeries? Yeah right - forged by the guys who faked the moon landings, no doubt). If it was a conspiracy, what foresight! To think that a petty conman could become so powerful…
And yeah, that Playboy article exists. I’ve been fascinated by this story coincidentally for the past few weeks and want to sort of collate it for my website or maybe Damn Interesting if possible.
The fact remains that LRH went along to a few meetings with Parsons, stayed at his house, stole his girlfriend, and hung out with him during rituals. I don’t know, you could find this innocuous, somehow? But I bring it up because I want to see Tom’s face when he tries to parse that one.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Jay wants us to meet the average Scientologist. I trust, without meeting them, that average Scientologists are probably great people.
The average American Christian fundamentalist politician probably reads his own briefings. The average anti-GM protester is probably genuinely concerned with the state of the enrivonment. The average Islam worshipper probably doesn’t encourage flying planes into buildings. The average Iraqi probably doesn’t maintain a WMD production facility. The average video gamer probably doesn’t gun down their fellow classmates.
The average people are never the problem. It’s the kooky fringe believers pushing at the bounaries of rational justification who cause the rest of the world problems.
Scientology certainly has it’s share of kooky fringe. A Scientologist founded museum in California, for instance, alleges that Psychiatry is responsible for the Holocaust, the September 11 Attacks, and the suicides of Kurt Cobain and Marilyn Munroe. Is that an “average” opinion?
Check it out!
http://www.cchr.com/index.cfm/13207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatry:_An_Industry_of_Death
June 14th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Fair Game practices by the church of scientology are alive and in use against anyone critical against it. Journalists, reporters,parents of members and government employees and officials have been subject to Fair Game for being critical of scientology for many years now and BBC’s Sweeney was no exception to this rule. Example:
Church of Scientology: A Religious Mafia?
http://www.watchman.org/sci/scientologymafia.htm
The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power
http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/time910605.html
From Apologeticsindex.org:
“Scientology’s ”Fair Game” Policy
Fair Game, the notorious Scientology policy describing how to deal with critics, ex-members, and other undesirables dehumanized with the label ”Suppressives”; they may be ”Sued, tricked, lied to, or destroyed,” as per policy. A more recent policy has banished the WORDS ”Fair Game”, but the policy of what to do to these ”SPs” or ”Suppressives” cannot ever be cancelled, as it is Hubbardian scripture, and his words cannot ever be altered in any way per Scientology’s policy. [Usage example:] ”Dennis Erlich, being an SP, is subject to Fair Game.” ARS Acronym/Terminology FAQ v3.5 ”
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/f08.html
Wikipedia on Scientology’s Fair Game
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Game_(Scientology)
What is “FAIR GAME”? Check out http://www.fairgamed.org/
FAIR USE EXERPT of the original reference given for use of tactics to destroy enemies of scientology:
“HCO Policy Letter of 18 October 1967,Issue IV Remimeo PENALTIES FOR LOWER CONDITIONS (Applies both Orgs and Sea Org)”
[..]
“ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
LRH:jp L. RON HUBBARD
Copyright (c) 1967 Founder
http://www.xenu.net/archive/disk/fairgame.htm
http://www.xenu.net/fairgame-e.html
_____________________________
For members of this cult, the above is the feared consequence for deciding to leave or even questioning scientology in a public manner; Consequently many are afraid to leave for fear of what might happen to themselves or their family members. This is the reason why many members, including celebrities, remain in scientology.
I was a member for 18 years and it took many years after leaving it for me to get up the courage to fully face what this organization did to me, my family, my friends.
I was once just like the scientologists who write in to defend the church but I was blind and did not see that while beliving I was being made FREE in scientology I’d actually lost my rights to my freedom of speech, my freedom of thought and my freedom to make my own choices.
I have those back and that is why I am posting information on the internet today. I pray for all these victims, who for the most part ‘know not what they do.’
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:32 am
Wow. Fantastic article and responses. I read every word. I am interested in self improvement and I find Scientology a very interesting subject. I’ve been trying to read Dianetics by L Ron Hubbard for about 10 years now. I’m up to chapter 3. I guess I have a lot more ‘clearing’ to do. Thanks for the education. I will heed the warnings and tread carefully.