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Scientology’s Meltdown: A Story Told in Pictures

Osiris

Patron with Honors
I hope for the end of Scientology to come swiftly...

The Ultimate Justice...would be if all Scientology Assets were sold &

all the moneys ordered to be divided up with all the Members & Ex-members
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
...

From Tony's cool montage.....


hubbardcommodore.jpg


I believe that is a photo of a VVGIs Ron and Mary Sue at the send-off party where they were basking in applause after announcing that Mary Sue was firing into the Federal Justice Bureau on a 5-year garrison mission "...to put Ron's tech into the prison system!"


 

onthepes

Patron with Honors
...

From Tony's cool montage.....


hubbardcommodore.jpg


I believe that is a photo of a VVGIs Ron and Mary Sue at the send-off party where they were basking in applause after announcing that Mary Sue was firing into the Federal Justice Bureau on a 5-year garrison mission "...to put Ron's tech into the prison system!"

But why is Woody Allen in the picture
 

Kookaburra

Gold Meritorious Patron
...

From Tony's cool montage.....


hubbardcommodore.jpg


I believe that is a photo of a VVGIs Ron and Mary Sue at the send-off party where they were basking in applause after announcing that Mary Sue was firing into the Federal Justice Bureau on a 5-year garrison mission "...to put Ron's tech into the prison system!"



You joke, HH, but I do recall hearing something very much like that in all seriousness when Mary Sue went to jail. :eyeroll:
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Ooh, look, Hubbard's wearing an SO uniform. :)

So is Mary-Sue.

(Not sure about the cap badge. Can't see Hubbard's, but the other guy's looks like an anchor, not the usual SO star/wreath.)

Paul
 

Gadfly

Crusader
So there was this Nebraska cornhusker, L. Ron Hubbard, who convinced some people that he had unlocked the mysteries of the universe as no one had ever done before or since

This has been played out over and over throughout history. People get caught up in it because they have no larger overview of how this has happened OVER and OVER in the past.

I am currently reading a VERY interesting book, Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America by Peter Washington. Blavatsky is the woman who began Theosophy after she claimed to receive detailed messages from a few Tibetan Masters. Entire books were transcribed by her (so she said). Today there are MANY groups, and MANY websites, that take as total truth all these ideas about Tibetan Masters and The Great White Brotherhood. Blavatsky and Theosophy mark the beginning of when these sort of ideas began infiltrating into the West, and also the beginniong of the West's deep infatuation with "esoteric and exotic eastern ideas":

Man and life are not products of physical evolution.

Man is a spiritual being on a path of evolution and growth.

There is one (spiritual) reality that exists behind all physical appearances and diversity.


Now, I am not saying that there isn't some truth to these ideas, but anyone who seriously studies all of the various "movements" that occurred through the 1800s until now, can't help but notice that these ideas MAINLY slid into America on the coat-tails of tricksters, liars and deceivers. Hoaxsters! Personally, I think Hubbard was familiar with how well some of these con artists did, and he modeled himself after them.

Theosophy mingled with masonry, and with Rosicrucianism. Then that morphed into Steiner's Anthroposophy, and various occult magical groups such as the Golden Dawn. Those influenced what became Crowley's Thelema. And from there, thus was begat Scientology. Now, amidst all of these there was a wide range of people, from the wholly sincere and honest, to the horribly secretive and deceptive. One can't and shouldn't generalize about these things too much, but that the vein of charlatanry runs DEEP throughout them there is no denying. To me, Hubbard follows THAT aspect of it - the deceivers.

The book is a critical look at just exactly HOW and WHEN various eastern ideas began seeping into the west, usually at the behest of charlatans and con men (or women). I am about 90 pages into it now, and the similarities to Scientology are many and varied. Interestingly, Hubbard could almost be the reincarnation of Blavatsky. She had a reputation for telling VERY TALL TALES about herself. She could manipulate and control others easily. She "spewed" her "data" in volumes upon volumes. She would make up just about anything to get what she wanted. AND, many BELIEVED everything she said!

Just like Hubbard she "convinced some people that she had unlocked the mysteries of the universe". She was an heir to Hubbard in this regard. There are some other very good books out there about the "history of the occult in the West", and anybody who wants to get a grasp of what Scientolgy is and where it comes from needs to read about such things. It gives one a much larger frame of reference from which to view and understand Hubbard & Scientology. Simply, Hubbard was just another trickster on a great long line of earlier tricksters beginning with Spiritualism and mediums in America. The tricksters took advantage of the decent people's hopes and dreams about "spiritual things".

What is interesting about Hubbard is that he never resorted to "shows". Spiritualism had its tapping of spirits on tables. Theosophy had the first examples of "channeling of advanced beings from other places and dimensions". And while Hubbard TALKS about OT abilities and Advanced States of existence, he managed to convince people without much "stage gimmicry". Though, yes the movies of him auditing ARE a sort of "stage show act". And, his lectures are very much "an act". But, somehow he convinced people that these various states existed without EVER exihibiting them to anybody! :duh:

People just believed him. While reading the above book, I did find a key here about all of these. These people WANTED TO BELIEVE. It is easy to trick people when they want to see the end result of the trick! :yes:

It is easy to get people to see illusions when they very much WANT the illusion to exist. It seems that people like Hubbard (and Blavatsky) had an almost uncanny natural instinct for knowing what certain groups of people WANTED to BELIEVE. And, once they knew THAT, they worked it - damn, they worked it!
 
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onthepes

Patron with Honors
This has been played out over and over throughout history. People get caught up in it because they have no larger overview of how this has happened OVER and OVER in the past.



Theosophy mingled with masonry, and with Rosicrucianism. Then that morphed into Steiner's Anthroposophy, and various occult magical groups such as the Golden Dawn. Those influenced what became Crowley's Thelema. And from there, thus was begat Scientology.


Good stuff Gadfly. Found this on Wikipedia regarding Golden Dawn: "By the mid 1890s, the Golden Dawn was well established in Great Britain, with membership rising to over a hundred and including every class of Victorian society.[7] In its heyday, many celebrities belonged to the Golden Dawn, such as actress Florence Farr, Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne, Irish writer William Butler Yeats, Welsh author Arthur Machen, English author Evelyn Underhill, and English author Aleister Crowley."

Seems there were celebrities involved in that one. Also Hubbard had the "Golden Dawn" lectures, which seems ironic at the moment. Thanks for that.
 

Moosejewels

Patron Meritorious
Ooh, look, Hubbard's wearing an SO uniform. :)

So is Mary-Sue.

(Not sure about the cap badge. Can't see Hubbard's, but the other guy's looks like an anchor, not the usual SO star/wreath.)

Paul

Looks more like "purser" uniforms from a cruise line :wink2:
 

Moosejewels

Patron Meritorious
. . . . What is interesting about Hubbard is that he never resorted to "shows". Spiritualism had its tapping of spirits on tables. Theosophy had the first examples of "channeling of advanced beings from other places and dimensions". And while Hubbard TALKS about OT abilities and Advanced States of existence, he managed to convince people without much "stage gimmicry". Though, yes the movies of him auditing ARE a sort of "stage show act". And, his lectures are very much "an act". But, somehow he convinced people that these various states existed without EVER exihibiting them to anybody! :duh: . . . . . .


:unsure:
Would those flashy, hynoperformance / mass hysteria events be classified as shows ?
:unsure:
 

Gadfly

Crusader
. . . . What is interesting about Hubbard is that he never resorted to "shows". Spiritualism had its tapping of spirits on tables. Theosophy had the first examples of "channeling of advanced beings from other places and dimensions". And while Hubbard TALKS about OT abilities and Advanced States of existence, he managed to convince people without much "stage gimmicry". Though, yes the movies of him auditing ARE a sort of "stage show act". And, his lectures are very much "an act". But, somehow he convinced people that these various states existed without EVER exihibiting them to anybody! :duh: . . . . . .

:unsure:
Would those flashy, hynoperformance / mass hysteria events be classified as shows ?
:unsure:

No doubt! Those events, at least the ones that began in about 1981 and exponentially became more insane up until the present, remind me of a good 'ole fashioned preacher REVIVAL! Hee-hah!

They act as a form of hypnotism and elicit a form of mass hysteria. Of course, the regges are lined up after the events to take advantage of the vulnerable states of the attendees.

There was never a point in my entire Scientology career where I EVER could tolerate sitting through one of those events. They were so contrived, and packed full of PR and lies.
 

Adam7986

Declared SP
What is interesting about Hubbard is that he never resorted to "shows". Spiritualism had its tapping of spirits on tables. Theosophy had the first examples of "channeling of advanced beings from other places and dimensions". And while Hubbard TALKS about OT abilities and Advanced States of existence, he managed to convince people without much "stage gimmicry". Though, yes the movies of him auditing ARE a sort of "stage show act". And, his lectures are very much "an act". But, somehow he convinced people that these various states existed without EVER exihibiting them to anybody! :duh:

It's actually shocking how little you need to show people in order to make them believe you. People believe what they want to believe. Scientology's membership grew at a time when people fancied being something larger than life.

Now that people are becoming more interested in life itself and information has become more readily available they don't look for an escape like Scientology. Either because it is just too difficult to trap yourself in a bubble in the age of information or because, like I said people have become more interested in life itself rather than escaping from it.

The people who are still stuck in the cult are there either because they are threatened with disconnection or because they don't want to go back out into the real world and face it like the rest of us.

Scientology is an escape, from parenting, from reality, from bad thoughts. It allows you to feel like you are in control because someone has taken control of everything from you. You no longer have to make those tough decisions because someone else makes them for you.

People go into Scientology looking to improve themselves by following someone else's path. Then Scientology sucks all their logic and decision making powers away from them. It makes life so easy and blissful for a time but it before long you are left with nothing but Scientology.
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
This has been played out over and over throughout history. People get caught up in it because they have no larger overview of how this has happened OVER and OVER in the past.

I am currently reading a VERY interesting book, Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America by Peter Washington. Blavatsky is the woman who began Theosophy after she claimed to receive detailed messages from a few Tibetan Masters. Entire books were transcribed by her (so she said). Today there are MANY groups, and MANY websites, that take as total truth all these ideas about Tibetan Masters and The Great White Brotherhood. Blavatsky and Theosophy mark the beginning of when these sort of ideas began infiltrating into the West, and also the beginniong of the West's deep infatuation with "esoteric and exotic eastern ideas":

Man and life are not products of physical evolution.

Man is a spiritual being on a path of evolution and growth.

There is one (spiritual) reality that exists behind all physical appearances and diversity.


Now, I am not saying that there isn't some truth to these ideas, but anyone who seriously studies all of the various "movements" that occurred through the 1800s until now, can't help but notice that these ideas MAINLY slid into America on the coat-tails of tricksters, liars and deceivers. Hoaxsters! Personally, I think Hubbard was familiar with how well some of these con artists did, and he modeled himself after them.

Theosophy mingled with masonry, and with Rosicrucianism. Then that morphed into Steiner's Anthroposophy, and various occult magical groups such as the Golden Dawn. Those influenced what became Crowley's Thelema. And from there, thus was begat Scientology. Now, amidst all of these there was a wide range of people, from the wholly sincere and honest, to the horribly secretive and deceptive. One can't and shouldn't generalize about these things too much, but that the vein of charlatanry runs DEEP throughout them there is no denying. To me, Hubbard follows THAT aspect of it - the deceivers.

The book is a critical look at just exactly HOW and WHEN various eastern ideas began seeping into the west, usually at the behest of charlatans and con men (or women). I am about 90 pages into it now, and the similarities to Scientology are many and varied. Interestingly, Hubbard could almost be the reincarnation of Blavatsky. She had a reputation for telling VERY TALL TALES about herself. She could manipulate and control others easily. She "spewed" her "data" in volumes upon volumes. She would make up just about anything to get what she wanted. AND, many BELIEVED everything she said!

Just like Hubbard she "convinced some people that she had unlocked the mysteries of the universe". She was an heir to Hubbard in this regard. There are some other very good books out there about the "history of the occult in the West", and anybody who wants to get a grasp of what Scientolgy is and where it comes from needs to read about such things. It gives one a much larger frame of reference from which to view and understand Hubbard & Scientology. Simply, Hubbard was just another trickster on a great long line of earlier tricksters beginning with Spiritualism and mediums in America. The tricksters took advantage of the decent people's hopes and dreams about "spiritual things".

What is interesting about Hubbard is that he never resorted to "shows". Spiritualism had its tapping of spirits on tables. Theosophy had the first examples of "channeling of advanced beings from other places and dimensions". And while Hubbard TALKS about OT abilities and Advanced States of existence, he managed to convince people without much "stage gimmicry". Though, yes the movies of him auditing ARE a sort of "stage show act". And, his lectures are very much "an act". But, somehow he convinced people that these various states existed without EVER exihibiting them to anybody! :duh:

People just believed him. While reading the above book, I did find a key here about all of these. These people WANTED TO BELIEVE. It is easy to trick people when they want to see the end result of the trick! :yes:

It is easy to get people to see illusions when they very much WANT the illusion to exist. It seems that people like Hubbard (and Blavatsky) had an almost uncanny natural instinct for knowing what certain groups of people WANTED to BELIEVE. And, once they knew THAT, they worked it - damn, they worked it!

Great stuff!

I really enjoy reading about earlier con artists who used the religious or spiritual guise to fleece marks. Some years ago I read some things about Blavatsky and the parallels to Hubbard were stunning. I just dug up an old post I made about it. Even the left-hand-on-chin portrait was copied LOL.


Fear not EO, the passage of TIME will render Ron Hubbard and Scientology as a quirky footnote in 20th century esoterica.

Exactly like Helena Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, in the 19th century.

Hpb.jpg
l_ron_hubbard.jpg

Like Hubbard she was a prodigious writer, pounding out tens of thousands of pages filling vast volumes of advanced spiritual discoveries.

Like Hubbard she was properly accused of being a charlatan, liar, drug user, racist and falsifier of documents.

Like Hubbard she explained these "enemy attacks" as proof of the workability of her technology (*).

Say goodbye to Ron the same way history forgot Blavatsky.

The bright "spots" you still see are just the momentary after-effects of a flashbulb that went off called Scientology.


* BLAVATSKY: "...you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at― as it is now by those who still do not understand its real purport ― and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day ― those evils which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out of existence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it."
 

Gadfly

Crusader
Great stuff!

I really enjoy reading about earlier con artists who used the religious or spiritual guise to fleece marks. Some years ago I read some things about Blavatsky and the parallels to Hubbard were stunning.

As the Theosophy movement expanded, with Annie Besant, at the helm even more similarities appear. At one point a scandal erupted with a very important top member (Colonel Olcutt) being accused of impropriety with young boys. It couldn't be denied. So they BURNED all the evidence, and misrepresented what happened to the rest of the flock because, justifying it with, "we couldn't allow the temporary indiscretion of a weak member disrupt our very important cause for Mankind". The same 'ole shit! The "we are helping advance Mankind and usher in a new civilization" was ALSO a big button! And, interestingly, as with Scientology, they had no actual plan or way to do it - JUST SLOGANS and WORDS! But damn, some of them were REAL serious about making it happen! :ohmy:

I am at about page 180 now, and reading all about Gurdjieff. The author describes this about him (sound familiar?):

Followers were first seduced by the Master, then subordinated, and finally thrown out, often for no apparent reason!

In the case of Scientology Hubbard set it all up so that this same sequence above is modeled as a pattern. Just look at HOW MANY people have come in, been seduced by Scientology, using up all their time, energy and money, have been totally subordinated to "tech and policy", and then later WASTED (thrown under the bus, put in the PRF, "busted", declared, etc.). Hubbard had good teachers!

Rudolph Steiner was different though. Although he was originally attracted to Theosophy, he detested the charlatans and fakery. The author nails it about him with:

Rudolf Steiner was that unusual thing among alternative spiritual teachers: a rigorous and highly trained western intellectual.

Hubbard pretended to be a highly trained "intellectual", but in fact was an intellectual dilettante! And, in usual contradictory form, Hubbard also denigrates and belittles "intellectuals" (stuck in their "ivory towers").

I am laughing at so many sections. The writer is funny at times, when he pokes fun at these various hoaxsters. At one point he is describing a spiritualist seance where "notes with golden writing were materializing out of the cloudy vapors at the ceiling, with all in attendance silent in total amazement". He added, "of course it didn't hurt that strategically-placed holes had been drilled in the ceiling to make it easier for the maid to drop the notes at the perfect moments"! :hysterical:

At one point Blavatsky admitted that it "is okay to resort to trickery because it is in their own best interests, for their soul development, to start on the path of the Masters". :omg:

I actually read a great deal of the original books by all of these people in these various movements back when I was in college and a bit after that. It is interesting to look back now and notice how certain ideas influenced me, and set me up for falling for Scientology. I mean, so far, of each author mentioned, I had read at least 2 or 3 books by EACH (and actually, much more)! :duh:

I have had a few "holy shit" moments already, and a sort of BIG COGNITION seems to be forming. If it erupts into anything that I can communicate I may try to do so - since it involves a sort of basic connecting link that underlies ALL of this (both in terms of WHAT is going on here for both the searchers and the tricksters).

What is common, that I notice already, is that these people assume that there is some "big all-encompassing truth that can be found and taught to others as doctrine". It is to some degree believed by the leaders and founders, at least for awhile, and always believed by the followers. They just take for granted and assume that there MUST BE "a Hidden Truth", "The Secret Doctrine" (name of Blavatsky's book), of some "Fundamentals of Thought" that can be discovered and taught to others - to make better people and a better world. THAT seems to be the common "carrot on the stick".

That, and that people need and want to DEVOTE and DEDICATE themselves to something bigger than themselves (which is always an IDEA). Hoffer talks about this last factor too. This often appeals more to the younger generation that is rife with "idealists". Many of us here on ESMB were first attracted to Scientology when we were at out most innocent, naive and idealistic dumbest! :lol:

These spiritual leaders and movements are also often VERY critical, as was Hubbard, of things the way they are (which criticisms are often based on actual real life situations that DO suck). :confused2:
 
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