Scientology views putting lives at risk, says Australian of the Year

The philosophy and religion of scientology is as far from the official church (consisting of the private nonprofit corporation called The Church of Spiritual Technology, the Religious Technology Center and the Church of Scientology International) as it is possible to be and still be on the same planet.

When Hubbard was alive the church did indeed practice the philosophy of scientology and helped many people to become more aware as beings. The philosophy was promoted and people were welcomed into the church. Families and family life was encouraged and promoted and the cost of the services were reasonable.

After his death, however, a new regime took over and all that changed. The emphasis turned to money to the exclusion of all else and a paranoiac obsession that anyone not with the church was against it. Church members were not allowed to look at the internet or anything the church management deemed contrary to church doctrine. Abuse of various kinds were, and to my understanding, still are, perpetrated against members still in the church. This is a classic case of violating the basic doctrines of the philosophy.

Many of the original followers that assisted Hubbard with his research were booted out. Scripts and books were changed and a very effective 1984 job has been done on the literature and the basic services the church was originally set up to deliver by the founder are now at a standstill.

It is a misnomer to say that that the church practices scientology because it no longer does. The copyrights and the name, ‘Scientology’, maybe owned by the commercial organisation called the Church of Spiritual Technology, but it is simply giving lip service to a philosophy no longer practiced. The church is now a commercial vehicle for making money, and reducing costs through the out and out suppression of individuals within the church through, violence, abuse, cheap labour, threats, and harassment. The threat against existing scientologists, staff and members within and without the church is the denial of one’s future existence if one does not comply. Patent nonsense of course as, like in most philosophies, one is regarded as a spiritual being. Nevertheless for those still held within the tightly regimented enclave it seems real enough. Practiced by the church also is harassment of scientologist who are no longer members of the church but who deem to practice the original philosophy.

This includes legal as well as illegal harassment.

The only scientology you will find practiced, these days, is outside the church, in the Independent Scientology Free zone where the basic principles are still adhered to and it is considered that man has spiritual freedom.

How many people actually know what scientology is? Not very many! They do not even know the basics of real scientology. many of the current critics do not differentiate between the original philosophy and the current incumbents activities, instead, simply lumping them all together.

Of great concern is that the fellow in the street does not have a clue about what scientology is. All one gets is rhetoric and a diatribe of, “it’s bad”, “Scientology kills people” or “scientologists eat babies” and other such generalised idiocies. Ask people if they know what the ARC triangle represents, or what is a stable datum or what the eight dynamics are or that it is an applied philosophy and man is considered a spiritual being and they would not have a clue. Many get confused of course and cannot, or do not differentiate between the message and the messenger. In this case it is the messenger that has turned sour.

The criticism of the church therefore is very understandable. In the eye of the freezone scientologist, the church has committed the unpardonable sin of suppressing the original philosophy and, instead, imposed an authoritarian and criminal dictatorship totally at variance with the original philosophy.

Nevertheless, the bald ignorant statements of, “they be all bad over there” is not a sound approach for adjudicating the merits or otherwise of any philosophy, whether practices by critics or church alike. Most of the original scientologists HAVE left the church in disgust or, as a result of abuse by the current management incumbents of the church, managed to ‘escape.’

Many of the members of the International Freezone Association Inc, a group of independent scientologists have personal stories of abuse and denial of the basic rights of scientologists in violation of the basic tenets, with the church.

Unfortunately the baby very often gets thrown out with the bath water in an indiscriminate vigilante style blanket decision and that is what concerns me here. If a bad hat took over a largely good organisation does one then destroy the whole organisation or does one seek out the bat hat and remove him from the organisation?