“Creative Learning” Scientology Style – AKA “Death Lessons” for Kids (the Church of Scientology Bans its Own Books Pt 5)

Creative Learning: A Scientological Experiment in Schools | V Solcox and LJ Maynard | 1955
Download the complete book as a .pdf file here

---

In 1961 there was a scandal in the sleepy UK town of  East Grinstead. This is the Scientology book that contained the ‘process’ which led to genuine and justified outrage when it was practiced upon young children at school without consent.

L Ron Hubbard had recently bought Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, and taken up residence there. It became an international centre for Scientology and is still its UK headquarters.

The scandal concerned ‘lessons’, taken from a Scientology text. which were given at  Aston House, a preparatory school for girls. Its pupils were aged between 3 1/2 and 11 years.

It emerged (when a frightened child told her doctor, who passed it on to her parents) that they had been recieving ‘lessons’ during which they were required to imagine dying as a result of failing all of their exams, and to imagine that their bodies subsequently turned to dust.

In case you don’t believe a teacher would do something so stupid, the passage is reproduced below (it appears on page 215, Section 7). The plain text is addressed  to the children and the italic “Acknowlege” indicates where the teacher should say something to show that the kids has completed their stange ‘task’.

After the break,  I will describe the scandal in East Grinstead, L Ron Hubbard’s agressive reaction to it, and look at some of the other ‘lessons’ in the book, which would be laughable if they hadn’t actually been applied in schools. 

“Confidential” Magazine Warns Readers to “Beware of Scientology” in 1970

“Confidential” Magazine | October 1970 | Volume 18 No 10 | “Scientology Can Drive You Out Of Your Mind” | Jane Nellis   Download as pdf (NB – this document was made from a high-resolution scan – please be patient while it downloads/opens)

“Confidential” magazine was published continuously from December 1952 until 1978. It specialised in serious exposés and show-biz gossip (originally about cinema, latterly TV).

In this edition there were articles about Jane, Henry and Peter Fonda, Jackie Kennedy, a long article about the contraceptive pill and another about fashionable and flattering swimsuits (“Are You a Bathing Suit Patsy?”). It seems to have been aimed at a young female audience, and was presenting an edgy but  commercialised version of then fashionable counterculture themes.

The article about Scientology is the nearest this issue comes to real exposé journalism. The cover reads “Beware of Scientology” and the contents page, “Scientology can drive you out of your mind”. It’s not a puff piece.

If you can get past the hip style of the writing, it is an interesting take on the culture of Scientology ‘missions’ during this period (with a few good black-and-white photos). It also shows how the basic operation has hardly changed at all

L Ron Hubbard, the Real Inventer of ‘Study Tech’ and the Tibetan Book of the Dead – The Church of Scientology Bans Its Own Books (Pt4)

A Guide Through the After Death Experience | H Charles Berner | Download Here

This is a very short publication (only 22 pages). However, what it lacks in length is makes up for in its bizarre nature. The author attempts to interpret the Bardo Thodol – the Tibetan Book of the Dead – in Scientology terms.

Berner’s text is not dated, but it probably originated during the early years of Scientology when ordinary Scientologists were still encouraged to contribute (although the copyright always belonged to the Church of Scienotolgy. They wrote books which were sold at Scientology orgs alongside Hubbard’s works.

However In 1983, all such publications were banned and suppressed This included Berner’s odd text After Scientology had been transformed into a ‘religon’ (in order to avoid US tax) Hubbard declared himself to be “Source”. Ron was now the one and only valid source of ‘religious’ revelation.

Today, linking Scientology to Tibetan Buddhism is one of those ‘mixed practices’ which Scientology forbids. However , Hubbard  recommended the book on in the full-page forward (you can read this after the break).

Hubbard’s comments are general – so general you doubt he even bothered to read the thing – but he recommended it nonethless.

“The Church of Scientology in the United States” – An Army Chaplin Assesses Scientology in 1973

The Church of Scientology in the United States | Albert C Skinner USAR | 1972 | Download as .pdf

This document was made available when the archive of the U.S. Army Chaplain Center & School Library was scanned. Its title page describes it as a term paper written by Albert C Skinner for Chaplin Gremmels.

At the end, Skinner signs himself “Albert C Skinner Chaplin (CPR) USAR”, so his paper was likely part of ongoing training as a Chaplin in the US Army Reserve.

Here we have a evidently intelligent person whose vocation requires him to understand and respect a wide range of faiths and interact with believers, sometimes in extreme circumstances. However, in 1971 information about the Church of Scientology was hard to come by and there was no Internet.

Today, there is controversy about religious scholars who uncritically accept the Church of Scientology’s account of itself as a bona fide world religion and overlooking credible accusations of   bad faith and abusive behaviour

How realistic was Skinner’s assessment of Scientology, given his background and his relatively limited sources of reliable information?

Why are there Only 87 Scientologists in Ireland? Because the Irish Push Back

If you followed my marathon post yesterday about the opening of a new Scientology facility at Firhouse, in the republic of Ireland, you will have read some acerbic comments from the local press.

One of things they wondered is why Scientology was spending millions of Euros on a huge building in a country which only has 87 Scientologists (according to the 2016 census).

Part of the reason for these low numbers was the tenacity of one Mary Johnston. She was a Scientologist from for about two years (between 1992 and 1994).  After leaving, disillusioned, she claimed damages in the Irish courts for conspiracy, misrepresentation, breach of constitutional rights and deliberate infliction of  emotional harm.

She won an unspecified (but likely huge)  out-of-court settlement, after presenting her case. Scientology had such little confidence in itself that it abandoned the litigation and offered an substantial sum of money just before they were due to present their evidence in rebuttal.

This victory must have had a chilling effect on Scientology’s activities in Ireland and, unable to be as ruthless in Ireland as they are elsewhere, suppressed their ability to recruit and retain members for years.

Now, they are spending millions in the country with the aim of… who knows what?

After the break there is an episode on Ireland’s “Late late show”, hosted by the legendary Gay Byrne. this was about Scientology, and featured Mary Johnston, the Irish woman who pushed back.

The Revenge of the Guardian’s Office on “Amazing Science Fiction Stories”

What is Scientology | The ‘Reverend’ Robert H Thomas | Amazing Science Fiction Stories | March 1971 | Pages 104 – 112 |  Download entire issue as .pdf (download link will appear in new tab).

I have posted an issue of “Amazing” here before . That one was from  November 1970. It featured a reassessment of ‘Dianetics,  more-or-less 20 years after it was introduced to the world in the May 1950 issue of “Amazing’s” rival, “Astounding Science Fiction“.

In it, Barry N Malzberg went along to a Scientology org, took a ‘communications course’ and was generally very unimpressed by the whole proposition. He was scathing about Hubbard and dianetics.

It must be said that this expression of scepticism was good for the magazine.  “Amazing” had a little catching up to do in the credibility stakes and knew it.  Five years before “Astounding Science Fiction” published the first article about dianetics, they had fallen for a author whose claims were at least as implausible as Hubbard’s. Although they had traded on  “The Shaver Mystery” fad that resulted, it ultimately damaged their reputation.

Now they had an opportunity to implicitly criticise the credulity of the editor of the market-leading “Astounding Science Fiction”, John W Campbell, for falling for dianetics to the extent that he heavily promoted it as “a new science of the mind”. They took it.

However, in March 1971 “Amazing” had been struggling with a falling circulation for some time, and was in dire straits. It was vulnerable. At this time, it incomprehensibly published an propaganda piece entitled “What is Scientology” written by the ‘Reverend’ Robert H Thomas –  Deputy Guardian for the US Churches of Scientology.

The Guardian’s Office was, of course, Scientology’s secret police and dirty tricks department. I think it’s likely that this uncritical article appeared as a result of improper pressure from the Guardian’s Office – Scientology took the opportunity to kick “Amazing” when it was down and settle a score.

Scientology’s Propaganda Response to the 1977 FBI Raid

Press View The FBI Raid Download as .pdf (Download link will appear in a new tab) |Church of Scientology | 1977

When they were first presented, L Ron Hubbard quite explicitly asserted, in writing, that both Dianetics and Scientology were scientific enterprises – not religious in any way.

The problem with that approach was that dianetics and Scientology organisations had to pay tax, and Hubbard’s wild claims were subject to objective examination in the courts, where they could easily be refuted by real experts.

His eventual response was to reverse himself and register Scientology as a religion. This made it tax-exempt, and transformed easily falsifiable ‘scientific’ claims into religious doctrines protected by the US first amendment.

However, Hubbard made it clear to Scientologists that status as a ‘Church’ would not, “upset in any way the usual activities of any organization. It is entirely a matter for accountants and solicitors”. In other words, it was a convenient pretence

Scientology’s ‘religious cloaking’ was seriously  deployed in the aftermath of an FBI raid on ‘Guardian’ offices in Los Angeles and Washington, and today’s 31-page document shows it in action.

The Guardian’s Office was at that time Scientology’s secret police (subsequently replaced by the Office of Special Affairs or OSA). It had tasked two Scientologists with infiltrating the IRS. When they were apprehended by FBI agents,  raids were mounted to seize documentary evidence of suspicions that the Church of Scientology was running a systematic espionage operation.  It subsequently emerged that scientologists had been  illegally gathering information on an astonishing scale, stealing records from the offices of not only government agencies but also, bizarrely, psychiatrists. The operation was codenamed “Snow White”