The South Australian parliamentarian said he had been contacted by a number of former Scientologists after questioning the organisation's tax exempt status in a recent television interview.
Senator Xenophon said their correspondence implicated the organisation in a range of crimes, including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.
In one, Paul David Schofield said his first daughter, Lauren, had died after she was allowed to wander around one of the Church of Scientology's Sydney buildings and fell down some stairs.I had heard about the forced imprisonments conducted by the so-called "Rehabilitation Project Force" -- although as I understand it, Hubbard usually enforced this policy on the high seas, during his Captain Bligh period. However, this is the first account I've run into concerning Scientology's use of potassium chloride, which is used to kill people during executions by lethal injection. I wonder what the Hubbardians are doing with the stuff?
Mr Schofield's second daughter, Kirsty, also died, in this case after ingesting potassium chloride at the family home - a substance he said was used widely in the organisation's "purification" programs.
In another letter, Aaron Saxton said as a member of the organisation he participated in the "forced confinement and torture" of others.
If you check Google Video, you'll find some good documentaries about Scientology, most of them produced by the BBC. This 1967 video shows Hubbard flat-out lying on camera about his previous marriages. The true facts were a matter of public record, and Hubbard knew that. Moreover, he knew that his interviewer knew. Yet he lied anyways, contradicting himself -- and actually seemed to believe what he said at all times. That's the scary part.
This recent ABC investigation would tend to buttress Xenophon's allegation. Check out the "salute the dog" section!
7 comments:
Xenophon? More like Xenuphobe. I am sorry, that was bad.
You are right it is damn time someone step up to these... people. A person with power, not some small group of mask-wearing folks. Governments seriously need to take them on.
http://www.exscientologykids.com
Broke my heart this morning. It also has some new info on it I'd never read before--an estimate that 10,000-20,000 people are in the insance, abusive Sea Org. I had no idea it was that high.
Thanks for the link, Nibbles. That's an excellent site. They have a good summary of the Xenu material.
Many years ago -- late 1980s -- a folder of documents circulated around fringe circles. (I knew a lot of weirdos in those days.) These pages were written by a guy whose name I can't recall, but he basically did a stint as Hubbard's auditor -- which is sort of like being the Pope's confessor. Hubbard produced a lot of material in his last years, which he spent mostly bombed out of his mind. These post-OT3 revelations began with these portentious words:
"XENU HAS ESCAPED!"
You see, in the standard OT3 mythos, Xenu was imprisoned for his crimes within a mountain on a distant planet. But in this material -- OT IV material, I guess -- he had pried himself loose and made his way to Teegeeack, a.k.a. Earth.
Hubbard then went on to name the world leaders who had been possessed by the spirit of Xenu. Among them was FDR. Not Hitler, not Stalin: FDR.
Physical infirmity was, in LRH's view, a sign of Xenu-ness.
There was a lot more -- the stuff got wackier and wackier -- but I can't recall it. I lost the papers years ago. I know that other collectors of fringe ephemera must still have this material. The Scientologists will no doubt claim that it is all a forgery, and that the man who wrote it is what they call a "squirrel." But I think this stuff really did reflect Hubbard's actual craziness.
If anyone still has this stuff, I'd be very grateful if he could share it. I would be happy to publicize it.
If you look at the Hubbard sf books published post-mortum, you'll see indications that he had read a LOT of right-wing conspiracy theory.
Sorry, Nibbles. I've been doing a little more reading just now, and it turns out that Xenu's mountain prison was not on a distant planet, but somewhere in the Pyrenees.
I KNEW there was something about that area of the globe that appealed to me!
The Xenu stuff is just so goddamn nutbar. You wonder how anyone can get sucked into that.
ESK.com had another piece of info about Scientology I'd never read on that very question--they mention that one reason people feel compelled to stay with The Church, even after getting hip to the Xenu garbage, is that The Church has many of them convinced that Scieno disciples are saving the planet. Saving the planet. I didn't realize that in addition to emotional blackmail, physical degradation, programming and abuse, the Scientology overlords used moral justification to cement the conditioning. Terrible.
Nibbles, earlier this evening I looked up Xenu on YouTube and found a three-part audio lecture by Hubbard in which he reveals the Xenu mythos back in 1967. The audience titters at first -- they seem to think that Hubbard is describing a mere story -- but then they fall silent.
Hubbard keeps nattering on and on, rapid fire, obviously making much of the story up off the top his head, pausing only to take small drags off his Kools. He almost seems to be in an altered state of consciousness. Listening to him speak, I understood those stories I had heard about how, in his science fiction days, he was known as the world's fastest writer -- he would type not on sheets of paper but on ROLLS, so he didn't have to pause.
One other thing soon becomes clear: The guy was schizophrenic. I mean in a clinical sense. I'm not a psychiatric professional, but I strongly believe that a shrink would come to the same conclusion.
As he goes on, much of what he says simply makes no sense. It is gibberish, even if we allow for the fact that he made up a lot of in-house terminology.
Tommy Davis and David Miscaivage also appear to have severe troubles.
What a strange phenomenon!
"You wonder how anyone can get sucked into that."
...as opposed to getting suckered into a theosophical school who's godhead is an angry jealouse guy who writes down everything you do, and likes only 1/1000th of his population, and grants them special real estate deals?
Or how about the God who loves us so much that he damns us for all eternity, out of love? ...or how does one get sucked into the insanity that Jesus came to America, to Salt Lake, or of course the 72 Virgins religions, the snake handlers, the shakers (now those ones were smart in the sense that they had an expiry date built in).
Are any of these logical? Is there even one that accepts all others as equal? Can we get a big box, and take Adonai, Jesus and Ghosts, Alla, and Xenu and put them in that same box with Remus and Zeus and Baal and the Mayan gods who liked to see living hearts ripped from slaves and virgins.... all in a box! Lock it! I know it wont happen tomorrow, but can't we get over all of this shit already??
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