...when Ron was a pulp writer--and a very good one, I might add... Dad always said that "Ron" was the most charming man he ever met, and that he wouldn't trust him with a nickel. He wasn't surprised when Dianetics and Scientology came along...

That is, he was fast, could be counted on to meet deadlines, and turned out acceptable product. But only a handful of his stories were better than mediocre and none of them were great.

I'll grant you the charm, though. By all accounts he could charm the socks off a rattlesnake, or however that old cliche goes.

Both fine old idioms from the days before television when people knew con artists for what they were.

Now they have a fast track into government office or community leadership.

google snakes in socks, and what do you get? Reptile smugglers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8327213.stm?ls

I thoroughly loved seeing just how sprawling and weird that ten volume series could get.

and it had a hell of an Edgar Winter soundtrack too.

When I was younger I read all kinds of SF, and that series was wonderfully escapist. It was full of psychotic characters with the premise that the Earth was already doomed from the very start. But it was also full of black humour and hilariously biting social commentary. I still can't believe that was a ten book series, and those books were thick! He was a master at pulp and holding a readers attention.

But on this subject, good for his great grandson to speak up. The study of the rise of Scientology should be studied as a good example of just how quickly and how insidious organized religion can infect the community.

Good for him. Thanks for sharing this, truly fascinating!

And how long does it take for these "religions" to become legitimate in society's eyes?

10 years later, he wrote Dianetics.

Are they accumulating worldly wealth?

I don't buy into that whole transcendentalist warped translation of the rapture. It's a very childish make believe bully story ever conceived by humans.

The whole "we are better then you because we believe and you don't so you will get your come-up-ins when our god takes all the good people away." And they are awesome, they are the good people and also know who the good people are supposed to be. It's crazy childish non-sense.

The last time I read Revelations, I clearly remember how it ends. After the end of days and all the second coming happens the earth is supposed to have like a thousand years of peace and love, unicorns and rainbows, until our sun dies taking the earth with it. Maybe its cause all those nutters got raptured and God says good its now safe to come back.

A place where I'd be forced to spend eternity with them is NOT a place I would consider Heaven and Hell just wouldn't feel like punishment if they were not there to make it horrible, like they do here on Earth.

Oh look you're still here. You must be a sinner too.

I get dirty looks a lot but never punched, at least not yet.

... really want someone else to tell them the "truth" and to make the tough calls for them.

Religion is about power and control (and with that, money).

Always has been, always will be.

...the Christian book industry as nothing more than a money making scheme.

the only thing the authors believe in is: a very gullible public.

Pronouncements and all. Just saying.

It doesn't have 'a god'. There are some rare sects of it that are theistic or quasi-theistic, but not many.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/buddhism8.htm

that nothing in Buddhism is about placating an eternally psychopathic and pissed-off godhead. Buddhism is directed inward, not outward towards a batshit crazy sky daddy. Which is why I have great respect for Buddhism.

Last edited Tue Jan 20, 2015, 02:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Buddhism doesn't believe in a creator god. Buddhism focuses on responding appropriately to the here and now. And by "appropriately," what is meant is to not react to situations in such a way that you cause yourself and others harm and suffering. Do no harm. What's not to like about that?

Also Buddhists don't proselytize. We (I'm a Buddhist) aren't interested in converting people. It's pointless to waste time and energy trying to convert people to Buddhism if they aren't ready or interested in knowing about it. There are plenty of Buddhist teachers, books, centers, etc out there, if one is interested. One doesn't have to a member of any particular religion to be a good person. If you can live your life in such a way that "do no harm" is a guiding principle, then you are doing a lot already.

What a beauty of a ringneck!

Her parents killed her siblings so I pulled her two days after she hatched. I hand fed her and she just turned one. Thanks for asking. I have six pairs sitting on 14 eggs so far.

in case anyone's interested.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/25/jamie-dewolf-scientology-brainwashing_n_2550647.html

"I think it is one of the most brilliant and devious, systematic brainwashing systems that's ever been invented," DeWolf told CurrentTV. "It works through electrified hypnosis. It works through past life regression therapy. It works through a lot of hodgepodge of ideas that you sort of throw together with this extremely brutal sort of security sense and this kind of like CIA-like structure that becomes really intoxicating to people."

Continuing, DeWolf said, "To meet people who've been out of the cult, yeah you want to ask them about Xenu and aliens, but the fact is these are smart people they've just been completely destroyed systematically."

DeWolf, a slam poet, was raised a Baptist Christian and was never involved with his great-grandfather's religion.

He has also opened up to the New York Post about the dangers of Scientology, saying it destroyed Hubbard's life.

SNIP

I doubt that's how it "works" since they are both about as iffy as...well, scientology.

I mean, what makes them "work"?

suggestion, propaganda. all the same. some people will fall for anything.

as to whether hypnosis can have an effect on the brain.

Yeah.... but ELECTRIFIED hypnosis?

That was powerful.

It's been well documented.

Anatole France. "Putois"

It's laugh out loud funny while showing up some
interesting truths and facets about mythology
and its creation.

of how Scientology got its start.

. . . among others. None of them really liked him, but they knew he did at least have pulp-level writing skills.

The s-f writing community was quite small back in the day.

L. Ron Hubbard also started Writers of the Future in 1984. It's a quarterly contest, no fee to enter, judged by serious, established, s-f writers. At the end of the four quarters, all the winning stories and usually a couple or so of the finalists, are gathered up and published. There's award money: $1,000 to the first place story, $750 to second, $500 to third. All the first place stories then compete against each other for an additional prize of $5,000. In addition, the published stories all get some reasonable word rate, although I don't recall what it is. All the winners and published finalists get to attend a week long writing workshop run by some pretty big names in the s-f community, are fed and feted, and there's a very fancy awards dinner.

I know all this because in 1994 I was a Writer of the Future. You won't have heard of me because I haven't published anything since, but quite a few well known writers got their start in WOTF.

My year the workshop and awards ceremony were held in Hollywood (the ABA convention was there that year also) and we were put up at the Celebrity Center, Scientology's private hotel.

It was very interesting and very creepy. We noticed that anytime more than two of us gathered together in any public part of the Center, all of a sudden one of the resident Scientology drones would materialize. We all came to the conclusion, separately from each other, that our rooms were bugged. If not, they were keeping VERY close track of us. We were also given a tour of their facilities, and there was a covert effort to convince us to sign up. Maybe it wasn't so covert as we could all see through it and basically laughed in their faces.

What was also bizarre and disturbing was the constant presence of Hubbard, huge portraits, frequent invocations of his name, as if he were still alive and might walk through the door at any minute.

To a great extent Scientology keeps the entire WOTF thing separate from the church. More than one of the contest judges has said they would not participate were they not convinced of the separation. It is clear that they (Scientology) would LOVE to have big name s-f writers on board, but I think what they don't get is that most s-f writers are very independent minded, and we are harder to herd than cats.

As I've mentioned, many s-f writers whose names you'd recognize if you happen to read the genre, got a start in WOTF. Many others submitted multiple times until they got published enough they were no longer eligible. The contest is only open to those with no or no more than a couple of professional publications. Having been a Writer of the Future gives a newbie credibility.

Anyway, that's my encounter with Scientology.

It was purely a financial matter, but they stalked and harassed him and his family for years afterwards. He was followed, his wife was followed, his daughter was harassed on campus at UCLA. After he joined our firm we abruptly lost some entertainment related business without much explanation. He couldn't believe the resources they seemed to be able to put into tracking someone who really hadn't done anything to them other than try to get them to pay their bills.

where was hanging out with two of his best friends and peers. One was Robert A Heinlein author of "starship troopers' the other, Harlan Ellison. If you are a sci-fi reader, your mind just went whoa, as these guys,though poor at the time, now have sold Millions worldwide. The bet was to see who could make a religion, in part inspired by the bet Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and percy Shelley did to make a horror story. The result of Shelley's bet became Frankenstein, which many in sci-fi consider the very birth of sci-fi. So,inspired, they did this bet.

To my knowledge, I do not know what Harlan's entry was, though he touches on religion a LOT.
RAH wrote a novel called "Stranger in a strange land." It formed a religion that had a following, and spawned a 60's slang word "Grok" meaning to understand emotionally.

and of course, LRH actually made his religion happen.
One more insteresting note: jamie is not teh first Hubbard to have come clean. This is the person he talks about, his grandpa

Powerful stuff that the header for the post didn't reveal is inside of it. Well worth viewing!

The subject matter wasn't new to me...I've read a few "banned" books online (like "Bare Faced Messiah: The True Story Of L Ron Hubbard," which you can read here: http://www.xenu.net/archive/books/bfm/bfmconte.htm)

But I thought he was pretty gifted when it came to delivering his message, and his blood ties to the subject made the truth even more chilling.

Near the end of his life, Hubbard was so drugged he didn't know if he was coming or going. He was in a trailer on the "ranch" in Hemet California (where current head honcho David Miscavage often hosted Tom Cruise, with or without Nicole Kidman). It was the job of Scientology's drones to go into the trailer and inject Hubbard's ass with drugs that would keep him subdued and unaware of anything happening in his world.

It's all out there, including all of the "O.T." ("Operating Thetan&quot Levels, including the one where Hubbard promised that he would come back as the AntiChrist and wage a holy war, and his recollection of his trip to "Heaven" where he almost got run down by an oncoming commuter train, the gates were all broken, and there were weeds everywhere.

The Google is your friend.

"L Ron knew if you don't have facts, all you need is faith."

Sums up religion pretty nicely.

So why, I asked him, does he have a tattoo of the Scientology symbol on his right arm, which is clearly visible in the video? "I am a huge fan of irony," he says. "Also, on my left arm is the symbol for the Zodiac killer. I knew I had the power in me to be a killer or a god. And they are reminders to me that artists have the potential to go wrong."

Besides, he says, he's branded by Hubbard in a different way. "It's my DNA. It's my flesh. I'm pretty much wearing L. Ron all up in me, when I look at the mirror. And when I look at my brother, who looks just like him. It's freaky."

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/08/jamie_dewolf_top_25_crippling_scientology.php

But how is LRH different from any religious cult?

you win!

which was its primary purpose.

Other scams that came before COS benefited from exemptions for religious organizations. COS, not so much. Hubbard found other ways to fleece the flock.

the will of the PTB. How money/power is sustained/enriched depends on the point in history.

about what Scientology would do to those who tried to hurt the cult (financially, I don't recall violence—although, I wouldn't doubt that happened as well).

Growing up catholic:. The standard answer in religion class, if asked them to prove there was a god, was 'you have to have faith'. That was the answer to everything. I don't have any!!!

I wish my parents were alive to hear that -- they had a brief brush with Scientology before I was old enough to remember, and we got letters in the mail from the organization for decades. I used to bring the post in and toss the junk mail in the trash can on my way to the front door. I was in my late teens before I thought to ask: What is all this Scientology mail about? and heard the story of their youthful desire for self improvement and their realization that every step up that ladder cost an increasing amount of money, which they emphatically did not have. They realized it was a scam and departed.

and I heard some interesting tales from the old-timers. None more than the story told by Gordon R. Dickson, relating the beginnings of Scientology as told to him by none less than Robert Heinlein.

It seems Heinlein, Hubbard and another writer, Clark Ashton Smith IIRC, were sitting around shooting the bull over drinks at a science fiction gathering back in the 1940s. Hubbard bet the other two men he could invent a bogus religion and make a fortune. Which this remarkable clip seems to confirm.

Heinlein subsequently told the story to Dickson, who repeated it verbatim to myself and a couple of other guys working at the bookstore.

not that they were not all thick as theives. The scio fi community was a close knit group where everybody did know everybody, so the bet could have easy been smith instead of Ellison.

does anyone remeber the term "grok"form the 60's

His birthday is May 27, 1934. He'd have been awfully young to have been at a meeting of writers in the mid/late-1940s. Having met Harlan a few times - and I like the man - he IS rather prone to gild his own lily. Possible but highly unlikely that he was there.

I grok Spock!

I mean, the guy is still mad that about the Hugos he never got...I knew heinlein was in on it, and I would NOT put it past Clark Ashton Smith (aka the major authoir of the4 Cthulu mythos besides Lovercraft himself).