We have another “quote video” that normally you can only see inside a Scientology “org.” In this case, it’s an excerpt that is used to entice church members to fork over $125 for a set of lectures that L. Ron Hubbard gave in Johannesburg in 1961.
The South African Anatomy Congress is described this way by Bridge Publications…
“Immediately following the Anatomy of the Human Mind Congress in Washington, DC, L. Ron Hubbard flew to Johannesburg. There, he delivered the same Congress, but this time tailored specifically for South Africans. In this unique event, he demonstrates the Anatomy of the Human Mind Course to a capacity Congress — the largest ever — literally demonstrating the rock-solid simplicities of Scientology and how to teach them to others: the time track, start-change-stop, the cycle-of-action, valences, the nature of aberration and much more.”
In our segment, Hubbard shows up those fancy-pants scientists who miss the obvious for the complex…
Once again, we’ve asked Marc Headley, who worked at Scientology’s International Base until 2005, for his memory of this film’s production…
This one starts off with a still shot of Hubbard holding a skull, which seems completely reasonable, looking back. We immediately go into an over-the-shoulder shot of him doing some more of his writing while in the voiceover he talks about hundreds of natural laws that were borne from Dianetics. If you made it past that last part then up next is everyone’s favorite security guard turned greenskeeper turned David Miscavige’s personal workout coach and bicycle handyman — Kenny Seybold.
We then get a few random folks walking around while Hubbard talks about opting for the simplistic approach to things. So a lot of people walking around until we get to 2:30 and we see Jim Lucas doing his best Walter White impression. For the longest time Jim Lucas was the Dept 2 Comm Runner.
All he did was deliver mail and dispatches throughout the property. There was so much paper being generated and sent around that this guys full time job was to bring stuff to people all day every day all year round.
At 2:36, Andre Letch takes over and is looking at whatever Jim was cooking up in a microscope slide. Andre Letch was an audio technician and could usually be seen under a mixboard or other outdated equipment that was constantly breaking down.
Ned Grannis then studies a mutated molecular model of what I guess (I never went to school past 15) would be hydrochloric acid that has been toasted like a marshmallow while Hubbard talks about his brief stint at George Washington University and nuclear physics (he failed the only course he took in it).
At, 3:18 we are treated to Frank Fehn and Sara Sergeant fighting inside of a rotating cube ala the original Superman before we see a bunch of feel good handshaking shots as we ride off into the sunset and turn into a plastic CD binder.
Thanks again, Marc!
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Ryan Hamilton wins round one, for the most part
We’ve been telling you about Ryan Hamilton, the Las Vegas attorney who has now filed five federal lawsuits on behalf of clients who are suing Scientology’s Narconon drug rehab facilities in Nevada and California. Hamilton is making the complaints in those lawsuits very detailed, packed with information that has been revealed in similar suits around the country.
We told you that Narconon’s attorneys came back with an interesting response in one of the five suits — they complained that Hamilton’s filing was too detailed, and they filed a motion to dismiss the case. A hearing was held, and Hamilton tells us that the magistrate denied Scientology’s motion. While Hamilton didn’t get everything he was asking for (he’s been aggressively countering Scientology’s motions with his own), the important thing is that the lawsuit passed that first test and now moves on to discovery.
That’s good news for the other four plaintiffs, and we have a feeling even more lawsuits are coming.
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L. Ron Hubbard’s jazz odyssey
We very much enjoyed Nathan Rabin’s fun piece in Slate yesterday that examined L. Ron Hubbard’s musical legacy by reviewing four albums associated with his literary output. Rabin can hardly believe how strange and awful was 1982’s Space Jazz, which was supposed to be some kind of soundtrack to Hubbard’s novel Battlefield Earth. That was followed by 1986’s Mission Earth featuring Edgar Winter. .And 1986’s The Road to Freedom and 2001’s The Joy of Creating rounded out the list. Our favorite line from the piece…
The Road to Freedom does nothing to refute the notion that Hubbard was a charismatic lunatic who managed to convince a surprising number of otherwise intelligent people that he was not just sane but humanity’s last, best chance at sanity. That, friends, is what you call a long, long grift.
Fun stuff. But the thing that really surprised us was that Rabin somehow missed the most important album of all — and one that actually featured Hubbard himself as producer and writer and was made in his presence. That was, of course, 1974’s The Power of Source, the album featuring the Apollo Stars, made up of crew members sailing with Hubbard on the Apollo when he ran Scientology from sea between 1967 and 1975. For a lengthy background on the album, this article has some excerpts from Bare-Faced Messiah. It’s also interesting to note how grim everyone looked on the album cover, including a young Annie Broeker.
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Karen de la Carriere serves up some Mango
If you didn’t have time to sit through Steve Mango’s epic-length movie about his four-year adventure in Scientology’s Celebrity Centre, Karen de la Carriere has done us a service by interviewing Steve in a shorter format. Learn how the church preys on Hollywood hopefuls…
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 2, 2014 at 07:00
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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
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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
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PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
