Life, the universe, Scientology, and all that

Well, I went and did it. I sent MoFo my check. I presume the battle is not over yet, and they still need money.

I'm very bothered by the scieno's use of dirty tricks in an attempt to silence critics and keep their scripture secret. It's more than a little frightening to me.

One of the most important freedoms we have is the freedom of religion. On the other hand, cult religions represent one of the biggest threats to our freedoms, and even to our safety (e.g. the Aum Shimri Kyo cult).

I think the way to reconcile these two apparently contradictory truths is to demand that all aspects of religion be open to inspection. It is vitally important that people have the information they need to make intelligent decisions about their religious affiliation before they get swept up into the intellectually narrowed environment of any religious organization, after which time they may loose the ability to critically examine their situation. In particular, the government must never protect religious "trade secrets", or religious secrets of any kind. Note that I don't mean to imply that the government should force religions to reveal their secrets.

I was impressed by MoFo's arguments proving that the scieno's so-called "trade secrets" don't conform to the standard notion of what a trade secret is, but I'd like to see them argue from a more general principle. The idea behind the freedom of religion is that the government must stay out of the religious arena. If the government helps a church maintain secrets, the government is getting involved where it does not belong.

It's vital to a healthy society that an open discussion of religion be allowed to exist. What Dennis Erlich is doing is commendable. He wants to provide people with information he believes will help them make better decisions concerning their own lives. The Church of Scientology is attempting to use the copyright laws to silence Dennis. I'm not sure about how the copyright laws currently read, but I think it's important that in the case of religion, the "fair use" clause ought to be applied very liberally to religious scripture. We must be able to quote enough of the scripture to support an intelligent discussion of the religion.

I'm sure it was never the intent of the copyright laws to protect religious secrets.

As to Dennis violating the non-disclosure agreement he signed while a member of the church, we ought to think of it as analogous to whistle- blowing. In other words, if an employee of some corporation signs a non-disclosure statement, but then discovers that his company is fraudulent, and he blows the whistle, there are laws that protect him. Likewise, Dennis signed the statement in good faith, believing at the time that the church was honestly working to benefit mankind, and only later did he discover that it was fraudulent. So he blew the whistle, so to speak. The law should protect him.

Also, I'm sure the government does not allow doctors and hospitals to have "trade secret" cures and medicines. So even if the scienos claim they are some kind of (mental) health care provider, they have no good claim to trade secrets, in my opinion.

As far as Scientology itself goes, I've always tried to be understanding. There are lots of ways to be lost in our society - drugs, mental illness, dead end jobs, other cults and religions, destructive relationships. So I've always felt that becoming a Scientologist might be a step up for some people. Not financially, of course. I still believe that at the beginning levels, Scientology does help people deal with social situations. Unfortunately, there seems to be a high price to be paid - mind control.

The gas attack in Tokyo by the Aum Shimri Kyo cult was something of an eye opener for me as to just how much control a cult can exert over people who might otherwise be quite rational people. What's to prevent the scienos from declaring the whole town of Glendale suppressive, and gassing the town under the fair game laws? Saving the world is important business, you know.

Many years ago, I crossed paths with Scientology. I was just walking down the street, and I got sucked in for a personality test. And I bought the Dianetics book and skimmed through it. I thought parts were silly, but I also thought parts were interesting. So a while later, walking down a different street in a different town, I again got sucked in. This time I actually signed up for a course. They gave me some reading material to read before I was to start the course. After reading through that material, I decided I didn't want to go through with their zombie drills. So I went and got my money back, without every actually receiving any instruction. I continued getting mailings from them for at least a year, but I never went back.

As I was taking their personality test, I was aware that I should be answering the questions differently to get a "high" score. So I wasn't the least bit surprised when my scores were low in some areas. For example, there was a question asking me if I was always the life of the party when I went to parties, and I answered "no". So I wasn't surprised to learn that I needed to improve my social skills. They promised me that by taking their course, I could improve my score, but I also realized that an improvement in the test score would hardly be proof of any genuine personality improvement.

I think I can explain what attracted me to Scientology, and it's probably similar to what attracts most people. The first thing I noticed was that the receptionist at the front desk was a very attractive young female with a very nice personality. That was attractive. But then the guy who discussed the results of my personality test with me was decidedly unattractive. He was a prick. I wondered how the guy and the girl could get along with each other. She explained to me that he had taken a lot of the advanced courses. That's all she would say about that.

This incident occurred when I was 20 years old. At the time, I must admit I was a little lost, and I felt the world was in pretty bad shape. It seemed the Scientologists were genuinely interested in improving the world, and maybe they had something to offer me. But as I talked to them further, I decided that I wasn't really seeing beneath their facade, and that bothered me. They kept telling me they have some great thing to offer, but they could give me no evidence or reason to believe there was anything substancial underlying their claim. But I always wondered if I should have pursued it further. Reading about Markabians and volcanoes in a.r.s. has led me to believe I made the right choice.

I guess I ought to comment on why I wasn't put off by the silliness of some of the Scientologists' claims. Basically, it was because I had been brought up to believe in some guy who could walk on water, and so I simply expected religion to include silly beliefs.

BTW, I learned through the grapevine that a guy I knew in high school ended up in the Sea Org around 1976. His name is Eric Dopplemeyer, a tall lanky guy. I'm not sure I'm remembering his first name correctly. If any body knows of him, I'd be really curious to learn what's become of him.

How about a few random thoughts ...

It bothers me that the scienos were able to get a warrant to raid Dennis' house. It sounds suspiciously like the scienos had some under the table strings to pull.

I want to learn a little more about the Klemesrud affair. Could the scienos possibly have gone to all that trouble just to get him to drop Dennis as a customer (or censor him)? Must be something more to it.

I'd like to thank Ron Newman for his excellent web page.

I was a little dismayed to learn that my favorite actress, Juliette Lewis, is a scieno.

Does everyone know that a "Thetan" is a queer devil (Satan with a lisp)? Was the first clear a Thetan?

Henry does good work.

Am I the only one on ARS who doesn't know Tarla's real name?

I just saw BATMAN FOREVER. Scieno Nicole Kidman plays a psychologist who discusses repressed memories. The movie didn't do much for me, but what was I expecting?

That's all folks,

David Petry - S.P. wanna-be