“I’ve given a lot of thought of why academic fails to even begin to seriously study Scientology properly.”

What would be the point of studying one unstable man’s delusions? The “technology” itself is a proven failure. I briefly wondered if Hubtard actually believed in his tech.
Then I remembered that he knew from the beginning that once he hooked a member, he had to isolate them so they wouldn’t learn the truth. The whole thing is a con and Hubtard knew it.

When Dianetics came out The New Republic called it a “bold and immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable common sense, taken from long acknowledged findings and disguised and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology”. Some of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction writers also criticized it; Isaac Asimov considered it “gibberish” while Jack Williamson called it “a lunatic revision of Freudian psychology”.

Hubtard, figured out how to disguise pure BS in a way that made people want it. That was his only real achievement.

There are people that believe crystals can do wondrous things. Science knows otherwise. No one is going to study the false claims of the believers or the sellers. There isn’t much to learn by studying a provably false belief or claim.

Not sure if Scientology has an IRB of sorts – but I highly doubt Scientology would even give permission for a study to commence – unless it guaranteed a favorable outcome for them.

True. Hubbard once said in some 50s lecture. “We have all the tech, I just keep shuffling the deck.”

LRH makes perfect sense to me.
Everyone knows that Money is the Root of all Evil so if you clear everyone’s Bank accounts, you will have Cleared the Planet.

I think Crowley got a bad rap because he cultivated it by purposely outraging the British press in his era. He wanted to repel them. He wanted to repel small thinkers.

Things he did and said to the press that drove them batty wouldn’t get a raised eyebrow these days.

He was openly bisexual. He wore skirts and other wacky outfits. And there’s a reason he called himself the Beast and 666. In the Tarot, including the deck he designed, the Devil is actually a protector of the secrets to the universe.

Logically, if you wanted to protect those secrets from people who would exploit the knowledge for negative purposes, would you put a fluffy miniature poodle to guard the gate? Or would you put the scariest, meanest junkyard dog on guard duty?

The Devil in the Tarot is an illusion meant to scare away the faint of heart and the undesirables attempting the path to enlightenment. It’s a failsafe system. It’s not the Christian devil.

Thank you, Peggy.
Yes, I am doing relatively OK. As an update, I had a cardiac ablation last month to handle (basically kill) some errant heart cells that were generating electricity and interefering with my heart beat. They run wires and a device which burns a spot in the heart up the arteries in your thighs into your heart. They use 3 EKG machines at once. Highly technical. It took over 8 hours. Some of the arythmias came back but the doctor said that they can be generated from the inside or the outside of the heart. Mine were probably from both. They do the inside first as it is a much less risky procedure than having to go in from the outside. So my problem, though not cured, is apparently better than it was and the doctor is happy to leave it at that for now.

Love, according to Crowley, is the “assimilation of phenomena” and the union of self with the universe. ‘Love under Will’, as no doubt you’re aware, means simply to experience anything, without prejudice, in accordance with one’s ultimate purpose. This is, in part, reflected in the first of Hubbard’s “Two Rules For Happy Living.”

Scientology is supposed to remove the barriers and influences preventing the individual from being/knowing himself. And in some respects, it does.

But even if scientology does help some confront and experience life more easily, the church exploits this with hefty price tags, incessant crush regging and its arsenal of cruel and unusual punishments.

Even if scientology does help some find their true purpose, the church will instill new purposes and assume much greater influence and control.

Even if scientology does help some become more empowered and “enlightened”, it is within the construct of expectation and Hubbard’s preconditioned sci-fi narrative.

OT9 should have only one command: wordclear “placebo effect.” Once completed, the OT is handed a small piece of paper… “The gains were real but the path you walked was illusory. I’m sorry. Here’s a full refund. Enjoy your life. Love, DM.”

I have found the “Clear Cognition” a few months after being in Scientology. I believe that Lafayette, the “big the thetan” had the memory of a fish. He would realize something, write it up, and then realize it again for the first time.

Laughter – To be expected – It was the Dawning of The Age of Aquarius and a lot of people were still fried on psychedelics.