Our video source came through with another gem this week. It’s the “quote video” that Scientology created to help sell the Unification Congress, that fateful Phoenix event in December 1954 when L. Ron Hubbard explained how he was going to unify Dianetics (which he had invented in 1950) with Scientology, which he had developed in 1952.
Here’s how Bridge Publications describes this set of lectures, which it sells for $225.00…
“The historic Congress announcing the reunification of the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology with the release of Dianetics 55! Until now, each had operated in their own sphere: Dianetics addressed Man as Man — the first four dynamics — while Scientology addressed life itself — the Fifth to Eighth Dynamics. The formula which would serve as the foundation for all future development was contained in a single word: Communication. It was a paramount breakthrough L. Ron Hubbard would later call, ‘the great discovery of Dianetics and Scientology.’ Here, then, are the lectures, as it happened.”
So let’s see what Ron had to say!
Once again, we turned to former Scientologist Marc Headley for his memory of this film’s production…
This one has mostly hired actors or Pac Base Crew, until we get to the 2:44 mark and then we see a whole bunch of Int Base staff in one of these blown out “Ideal Org” entrances that are more packed than all org lobbies put together.
Then right away we see Kathleen Goodwin (who has left Scientology, or “blown”), Sue Hall, Steve Young, Gibran Muñozcano (blown), Lisa Lewis, (blown), Mike Gilchrist, Jennifer Champagne, Alison Ramer, and Becky Hughes/Oakes (RPF’d).
Then we see a bunch of close ups of random folks, and then we end on a close up of Tony DeCrescenzo (Laura’s ex-brother in-law).
What I took away from this video was LRH leveraging the war angle. And the laugh that was added in Tape Editing after he told an unfunny joke. Other than that, I would lump this video in with every other gobbledygook bore fest we have covered in the past.
Thanks for that assessment, Marc!
Now, let’s catch up on some other recordings that have been floating around.
This next one is your proprietor, droning on for an entire hour with Mel Fabregas and his Veritas Radio. And this is only the first of two hours of the stuff. (The second hour is available only to subscribers.) Jamie DeWolf had experienced car trouble or something and couldn’t make the show, so when Mel asked us to help out, we jumped into the fray. We thought Mel did a great job with his questions.
Over at the Travel Channel, Steve Hassan and Mark Ebner had fun taking apart Scientology’s historical highlights. (And that reenactor is just too much!)
And Chris Shelton, who had his video debut here at the Bunker in February, begins a series of his own on ‘What’s Wrong with Scientology?’
A followup: Recently, RadarOnline had an odd story about Vance Woodward’s Los Angeles lawsuit that also discussed some 2007-2008 tax records for Scientology’s UK operations that Radar said had never seen the light of day. We wondered about that, because the UK entity, the Church of Scientology Religious Education College Inc. (COSRECI), was covered heavily by Australian television journalist Bryan Seymour in some very memorable Today/Tonight programs.
So we asked Bryan if those tax records were the ones he used in his reporting.
“Yes those are the figures from my 2010 story,” he told us. (And before Bryan, Chris Owen had been writing about many earlier years of COSRECI tax records.)
In Bryan’s 2010 story, he explained that Scientology doesn’t have tax-exempt status in the UK, but COSRECI gets around that by being originally registered in Australia — to an address, Bryan found, that was a nondescript farm where the owner knew nothing about Scientology. It seemed to be a stunning charade. We asked Bryan what had happened after his great reporting.
“The financial sector regulator in Australia were handed the documentation and did what they always do — nothing! I also passed on the information to the UK Authorities, namely the HRMC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs)… here is the last e-mail I received from them: ‘As explained in my e-mail of 1 July, we can’t discuss individual taxpayer affairs due to our statutory duty of confidentiality’.'”
Well, that’s frustrating. Bryan’s been covering the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 story lately, but we hope he can get back to reporting on Scientology soon.
And finally, we talked to Ray Jeffrey yesterday, and he confirmed the latest action in the docket of Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit against Scientology. The church has filed a notice indicating that they will appeal Judge Waldrip’s decision to deny Scientology’s anti-SLAPP motion. As soon as we can get a copy of the actual brief that Scientology submits, we’ll bring it to you. In the meantime, a reminder — the next big date in the case is next Wednesday, when oral arguments will be presented in regards to Judge Waldrip’s order allowing Monique to depose Scientology leader David Miscavige. Arguing for Miscavige will be former Texas Supreme Court chief justice Wallace Jefferson, and arguing for Monique will be Leslie Hyman.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 4, 2014 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
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