PM and Student – This is from memory of conversations on Marty’s blog over the last year and a half. George M. White had been working with a Buddhist monk translating some Buddhist writings from Pali and had posted some fascinating details about the life and times of the Buddha. The monk got transferred so that got put on hold.

Someone posted some videos by a rock and roll group called “Ghost” which has a “Satanic” stage act. One of the videos piqued George’s interest and he went onto a two month toot (lol) of investigating Hubbardism/Occultism. He posted several verbatim plagiarisms from Blavatsky and others.

“Student” may or may not return. He/she does not want his/her practice of O.T.O. aligned with scn. Incidentally, wiki states that in a 2002 BBC poll Crowley was listed as 73rd on a list of “Greatest Britons.”

Here’s the animated video which got George’s interest. From a caption in the video “What if man could harness the power of a god? In a sense, he would need god no longer, yes?” Have fun.

“From the Pinnacle to the Pit” by Ghost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A-IoOEPbUs

Oliver: Brilliant! I could hear the accompanying music in my head.

Kay: Looking forward to your book.

Bruce: Good analysis.

David Mayo was an old senior CS who was rumoured to have authored some of the current OT levels.

There is a commenter under the name of George White, whose area of specialty this is. I believe that in addition to interesting comments on various forums, there is at least one article to be found on Tony Ortega’s website. George also wrote a book, Lucifer’s Bridge: Scientology’s Lost Paradise, under another name, that can be found on Amazon.

If you haven’t see it already, the interview Hubbard’s son “Nibs” (who changed his last name to Dewolf) did with Penthouse magazine back in the 1980s is interesting. Some of what he says, in general, sounds dubious, though I suspect that may be because he is repeating tall tales that his father told him about Soviet spies and such. But I think what he says about how Crowley’s work continued to be an influence behind the scenes, gets at the truth.

I have mentioned before, I think that Scientology is more of a sort of initiatory esoteric order than most people realize – and that the people at the very top, or perhaps particularly Miscavige, may have very different practices and beliefs that are kept secret, quite likely as Hubbard himself did, and significantly rooted in his take on Crowley.

And I agree that ideas are important, but in the case of Scientology, it hangs so much on the claims and personality of Hubbard, and particularly his reputation for inquiry and honesty – or lack thereof – that it is legitimate to point out that his personal history makes it extraordinarily unlikely that he achieved the sort of things he said he did, without going into the details of trying to debunk his pseudoscience and dysfunctional organization.

I’d agree with you in general about the philosophical points. But Scientology is committing significant abuses, and doing substantial harm to people. Unless you subscribe to the darkest take on Crowley’s sort of proto-satanic utilitarianism, it’s not alright to ignore other people’s suffering.

I Yawnalot – I blew scn in 1983 because of the price increases. I had spent some time as a mission staff auditor but was public at the time I blew and wasn’t aware of the KSW hardliners.

Becoming a Dianetic and Class IV (scn grades) auditor could be accomplished in about the same time as doing a semester in college which gave rise to the hope that scn could produce a widespread impact. Becoming a Case Supervisor as you did would require a lot more work.

Just for conversation, a couple of years ago I was playing with a Walter Mitty fantasy. It was fun so I let it ride. Two days later it was taking on a life of its own and I yanked myself out of it by telling myself “Go do some MEST (physical) work!” which I did. – Laughter – Imagination gone wild. Hubbard might have played with “What would it be like to be the Buddha.”

Thanks for sharing your story too. Amazing what the whole picture looks like when we put all the pieces together.

“A Student” – I like this. It’s clearly and well stated. Hubbard picked and chose and plagiarized from numerous occult sources including Blavatsky, Besant, etc. etc. to fit his own purposes and reality.

A long time scn blogger has done extensive research on Hubbard’s occult usages and says he will publish his research soon.

Great comment, Kay, and let me tell you my story. When I was on staff, we had a WISE seminar at the org. There were several tables set up and on one of them was a booklet that was only about twenty pages long. I asked the WISEguy in charge if I could have it and he angrily told me that the booklet was fifteen dollars.
WTF?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fifteen dollars for a slender booklet that most churches and groups give away? The damn thing was only about twenty pages long! And the WISEguy was hawking this for fifteen dollars??????!!!!!!
This is the kind of shit that Mike and Leah and all of us are raising hell about!