Well this is a fun coincidence. Just three days after we heard from Australian television journalist Bryan Seymour about Scientology’s attempt there to interest his network in favorable coverage of the church, Scientology Australia spokeswoman Sei Kato (Broadhurst) has sent out a fresh new media guide!
Bryan forwarded it on to us along with his observations about it. We think you’ll find his criticisms spot on, and we’re looking forward to your comments about Sei’s attempt at media manipulation. Tell us which is your favorite whopper!
Here’s what Bryan sent us…
This “Media Guide to Scientology” would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerously misleading.
For instance, it claims:
2.10 Alien myths
No religion wants to get into a debate about their religious beliefs with any news organisation, but this one is easily corrected. It is simply not true. Scientology holds no belief about being descended from aliens. Scientology believes in the existence of God, the Creator, and that every individual is his own immortal soul, a spiritual being called in Scientology, a “thetan” (from the Greek letter “theta” meaning, “spirit”).
Some of the information one finds on the Internet concerning Scientology religious beliefs is a mixture of misstatements, distortions and outright lies designed to twist Scientology theology. These scurrilous statements, issued by the “Internet fringe”, are not only patently untrue, they are intentionally designed to ridicule Scientologists and denigrate their actual religious beliefs.
The Church is always available should the media have any questions about the Church.
I was the first to broadcast on television the audio of L Ron Hubbard giving the Xenu lecture, you can hear it here.
This is not the “Internet fringe” – it is the founder of Scientology spelling out their wacky alien dogma.
Other blatant lies in this “media guide”:
– Scientology believes in God. They don’t.
– Scientology is expanding. In fact it is rapidly shrinking.
– Disconnection is not practiced. It is practiced and I have helped, and I am currently helping, several families to reconnect with their relatives.
– The E Meter locates areas of spiritual distress. It is a pointless, simple device with no scientific merit.
– The OCA personality test measures changes in how people feel about themselves. In fact, the OCA has no scientifically proven usefulness whatsoever.
– Narconon – there’s no mention of the investigation into a string of deaths at Scientology’s drug treatment/recruitment program
– It claims there are “203,000 Scientology Volunteer ministers on call around the world…” an incredible feat given it’s estimated there are only around 40,000 church members worldwide.
– “Scientology is unique in that it does not require or tell anyone to “believe” anything” – in reality Scientology has a strict regime of expensive courses that require the subject to believe in an ever-expanding “universe” of dogma and so-called “tech” recorded by L Ron Hubbard.
– The Sea Org – there’s no mention of the ban on women members having babies. Nor the long hours, appalling pay and conditions.
Perhaps the greatest fail is that there is no mention of the true nature of Scientology’s sad founder, L. Ron Hubbard, a man who lied about almost every aspect of his life and who, after being rejected by the American Psychological Association, turned the “psychological folk art” in his book Dianetics into a religion “to make a lot of money”.
For a true guide to Scientology, read “The Truth Rundown” report put out by the Tampa Bay Times, read The Underground Bunker, and see the videos at Bryan Seymour reports.
— Bryan Seymour
Thank you for that, Bryan. Here’s the media guide…
There’s so much here to have fun with. But we also want to tackle this “alien” thing that Bryan picked up on. What Sei Kato Broadhurst is doing here is the same thing that Vonni Ribisi did in an interview with Marc Maron. There’s simply no doubt that Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, infused Scientology with all sorts of space opera fun. But what Scientologists will do is object to the nomenclature — “alien” — as a way to deflect interest in Hubbard’s outlandish ideas.
Hubbard was quite open, in lectures, about his claims that our solar system — whose true name, he said, was “space station 33” — had been visited by waves of invading forces which control the place to this day. The Fourth Invader Force controls part of our solar system, he claimed, while the Fifth Invader Force controls others. Here, you can listen to it for yourself as Hubbard describes the situation in a 1952 lecture titled, Role of Earth…
So there’s no question that Scientology is steeped in Hubbard’s wacky cosmology involving civilizations going back trillions of years, with evil psychiatrists implanting our souls with booby-traps that we have to remove with the help of his counseling techniques. Those “evil psychs” are originally from the planet Farsec, according to Hubbard.
And yet, despite all this, Scientologists don’t like to use the word “aliens” to describe these galactic visitors to Earth. So they pretend that we’re way off by using that word, and then try to give the impression that Scientology isn’t steeped in such space opera. (And we’ve said in the past, this is a shame — the space opera is the best part!)
We don’t blame Sei for trying to pull the wool over the media’s eyes. Scientology has reached a crisis point and is struggling to survive. But journalists who actually accept these stories at face value without looking into L. Ron Hubbard’s actual teachings — even those which are not part of supposedly “confidential” OT teachings — really don’t deserve to call themselves reporters.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 29, 2016 at 07:00
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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
