It’s our habit, from time to time, to remind readers of the source material for this thing Scientology that we like to keep an eye on.
After all, you can hear from current and former Scientologists about their “wins” and “gains” and how helpful Scientology is, but there’s nothing like going directly to Source himself — L. Ron Hubbard — to judge for yourself whether he was really onto the secrets of the universe.
For your listening pleasure, we’ve selected a Fair Use segment from a 1963 lecture that Hubbard gave as part of the “Saint Hill Special Briefing Course,” a key lecture series that any serious Scientologist to this day would study carefully at some point during their progress up the “Bridge to Total Freedom.” (When we’ve quoted Hubbard spouting similarly outlandish material about the nature of the solar system from an earlier, 1952 lecture titled “The Role of Earth,” some Hubbardites have claimed that it’s a lecture not considered important to the Bridge today. But it’s not so easy to dismiss the SHSBC. Still, it will be interesting to see if some LRH fans try.)
The name of the lecture is “The Free Being,” and our excerpt starts a few minutes after Hubbard has begun speaking on July 9, 1963. We found this particular lecture to be interesting because Hubbard is casually mentioning the miraculous abilities that come with “Operating Thetan” or “OT” powers, something that Scientologists are trying to “regain” through Hubbard’s processing.
OT powers are so potent that they were “looked upon as highly dangerous,” Hubbard says. In fact, just about anyone in the audience, at some point in their “hundred trillion years” of existence, could have used OT powers to destroy or slow down a planet by simply touching it.
Hubbard then goes into a lesson about the need for a balance of force and intelligence in any operation, and when he wants to give an example of relying entirely on intelligence without any force to back it up, he refers to a religious person appealing to God.
“You’re…saying ‘God will protect me,’ forgetting at the same time that you were the only god around to do any protecting,” Hubbard says.
It’s fun when he speaks plainly like this, and spells out that in Scientology, YOU are the god, and you are striving to attain such superhuman, miraculous powers that you could crush a planet with your bare hands.
And Hubbard’s just warming up. To his credulous audience, he then explains that the idea of humans evolving from an ape ancestor came from four galaxies away (and yes, he’s pronouncing it guh-LAX-ies here, which we always find so precious), and that Darwinian evolution is just a mental implant and “there’s not a damn word of truth in it.”
Hubbard then provides his own explanation for the origin of species — that the immortal beings we are, thetans, go through “fads” over the trillions of years of this universe, and that inhabiting the meat body of a caveman, for example, was simply a fashionable thing to do.
As for scientists, they are completely mistaken about the age of things in the universe, Hubbard says. And he can say this because he’s directly observed what scientists can only guess at — 612 million years ago, for example, he was running a “biological survey” here on Earth. He then indicates that once you have mastered your whole track of existence (something Scientologists work on as they explore past lives through auditing), then you can rapidly scan through eons of time, and watch seas and mountain ranges and deserts come and go. Neat trick!
And scientists are wrong about stellar evolution, too. Suns don’t come and go, Hubbard says. He’s personally watched suns in our local region of space lasting hundreds of trillions of years. (Cosmologists will tell you that the entire universe is only about 13.8 billion years old, but what do they know.)
Hubbard explains that stars turn on and off because it’s some thetan’s job to make that happen. And that reminded us of Slartibartfast from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a fanciful notion about beings creating their own universe. It’s fun science fiction, that’s for sure.
And then there’s the real reward for sitting through this portion of Hubbard’s lecture — he lets us in on the actual name of our sun and its solar system.
“This is Sun 12,” Hubbard says, and our society belongs to the “Espinol United Stars,” he adds before correcting himself, as if he’s trying to translate into English from some ancient space-language or something. He comes up with: “Espinol United Moons, Planets, and Asteroids, this Quarter of the Universe is Ours.”
And no one is in charge, he adds, since a force was chased away from Mars in 1150 AD.
“This system has been running wild since that time.”
If you say so, Commodore.
Once again, we ask you, do you find legendary charisma in this recording, which we’ve been told about so many times by both former church members and by journalists who attribute to Hubbard an almost magical ability to mesmerize his listeners? Or, do you find it hard to believe that anyone would give this crackpot any credence at all? You tell us.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 7, 2017 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, Kindle, and audiobook versions. 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.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
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