I attended an Anonymous rally last Saturday. You know, Anonymous [1]—the international internet-linked underground that protests Scientology [2]. Anonymous sprang up on imageboards [3]—notably Futaba and the infamous 4chan—in 2006. Project Chanology [4], the organized, ongoing protest against the Church of Scientology, began in 2008 with a press release and a famous YouTube video [4], and has since taken on a life of its own.
[5]Scientology, as DI readers probably already know, is a scam masquerading as a sort of religion/self-actualization movement hybrid. The Church of Scientology (CoS) was dreamed up by a guy named L. Ron Hubbard, who used to write a lot of pulp fiction. In 1950, Hubbard published a book called Dianetics, in which he claimed that neuroses and other problems are caused by engrams. Engrams are like little negative scripts that get encoded into the unconscious mind (Hubbard called it the “reactive mind”). These engrams take root, supposedly, because when we’re unconscious, the reactive mind hears whatever’s being said around us, and takes it literally. Even fetuses get engrams–from the moment of conception, they can hear everything that’s being said in their mother’s vicinity, and their little reactive minds are busy recording engrams which, without Dianetic treatment, will cause all manner of psychological trouble throughout their lives.
I’m not making this up. L. Ron Hubbard made this up.
And, sadly, he got some people to believe it. Enough people, in fact, that he was able to morph Dianetics from a mere self-help fad into a new “religion”–the Church of Scientology.
Church of Scientology members “audit” each other a lot. They also spend money—a lot of money–on books and tapes and seminars. These things are supposed to erase their engrams and advance them toward a goal known as “clear”, at which point they’ll have perfect emotional AND physical health and unlimited self-confidence and no more engrams and pretty much be perfect.
Scientology teaches these things, and lots more. There are Hubbard’s teachings on spirit and matter, which involve concepts called theta and MEST [6]. And there’s Xenu. Ah, Xenu [7].
Xenu was an intergalactic ruler who, long, long ago, trapped a bunch of people in volcanoes and then blew them up. The souls of his exploded alien victims wound up inside other, unexploded people’s bodies, including yours and mine. They cause at least as much trouble as engrams do. Xenu’s evil exploits, though, are supposed to be a secret. Initiates into the CoS aren’t told the story until they’ve been in the cult for quite a while, at which point they’ve already spent tens of thousands of dollars—at least—on the CoS. Outsiders aren’t ever supposed to know about it. I guess the church is afraid it might sound, you know, a little silly.
So why does Anonymous protest CoS? After all, if folks want to waste their money on a cult started by a third class sci-fi writer and first class conman that’s their business, right?
Well, sure–except that Scientology hurts people. Their opposition to psychiatry in any form is well known and has been linked to a number of tragedies. Scientologists are told to break off all ties with family members and friends who question the cult’s teachings. Critics of the cult, and cult members who leave, or attempt to leave, the fold, have been harassed, threatened, defamed, subjected to nuisance lawsuits, and worse.
You see, Scientology is going to save the world. Someday all of us will be Scientologists, and then we’ll all be happy and productive and “clear”. That being the case, anything the Church does to silence critics is perfectly ethical. Anything. L. Ron Hubbard himself said so. They call it the Fair Game [8] policy.
Oh, and did I mention that your tax dollars are helping to subsidize this?
That’s right; the Church of Scientology is officially recognized as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization by the U.S. government.
It’s hard to estimate the size of the church’s assets and the income generated by all those classes and books and AV materials members must buy in order to progress to “clear” status. Scientology is not exactly a model of transparency and above-board business practice.
None of their self-reported statistics—regarding their finances, their “charities”, or their membership—are trustworthy.
But, thanks in part to some brave ex-Scientologists, online whistleblowers like Operation Clambake [9], terrific exposes by Rolling Stone [10] and Time Magazine [11], Anonymous, and others, Scientology’s public image is battered and their membership—and consequently their bankroll–does seem to be dwindling.
Remember, though, Scientology in one form or another has been around since 1950, and its imminent demise has been predicted at least since 1952, when Martin Gardner published Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. In his chapter dedicated to Dianetics, which was was the original, non-“religious” form of Scientology, Gardner wrote
At the time of writing, the Dianetics craze seems to have burned itself out as quickly as it caught fire…
Fifty-five years later, the embers still smolder.
So thanks be to Anonymous, that motley group of prankster-protesters who’ve dedicated themselves to protesting Scientology’s numerous abuses against free speech, human rights, and common sense, and to pissing off the cult’s upper echelons.
And what’s every bit as cool as that—they manage to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.
If you’re ever in the vicinity of an Anonymous protest, I highly recommend that you go over and express your support. You’ll find a friendly, witty, and articulate group of unrepentant trouble-makers. If you choose to join them, though, you may want to wear a mask, because, rest assured, Scientology will be watching you.
www.whyweprotest.net [12]
www.xenu.net [13]
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