Saturday, December 13, 2014

Amway and Scientology, Apart From the Labels, What's the Difference?


This blog post originally appeared on Quixtar Cult Intervention in June of 2009 on the anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.  The post was authored by David Brear.

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‘A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.’

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

Readers might be interested to know that, currently, around 18 500 hits appear when you search on ‘Google’ for: ‘Amway Scientology.’ However, this is hardly surprising since, down the years, all intellectually rigorous observers have been struck by the blatant (underlying) similarities between the two groups. In fact, it has become a matter of public record that a significant number of unquestioning players of the ‘Scientology’ game of make-believe have also been easily seduced into becoming de facto slaves of the ‘Amway’ myth.


Recently, there have been headline reports in the international media that a major criminal trial involving the ‘Church of Scientology’ and some of its leading adherents has opened in France. The charges (resulting from typical complaints filed up to ten years ago by destitute former adherents) comprise ‘d’escrocrie en bande organisée’ (‘organized fraud’) and ‘exercise illégal de la pharmacie’ (‘illegal practise of pharmacy’). Despite the mysterious refusal of State prosecutors to take prompt action, an independent Investigating-Judge, Jean-Christophe Hullin, examined the same compelling evidence and concluded that ‘Scientology’ has precious little to do with traditional religion. It is a deceptive commercial business using a manipulative system of progressively expensive initiation (dressed-up as a scientifically-based faith) designed to exploit vulnerable individuals to the benefit of a gang of arrogant racketeers based in the USA. At the risk of repeating myself, no matter what transpires in the current, localised French challenge to the authenticity of the global ‘Scientology’ myth , it will forever remain one of the sickest ironies of history that the United States of America, a nation born out of an enlightened rebellion against absolutism, should have poured trillions of tax dollars and the blood of hundreds of thousands of its finest citizens into keeping latter-day absolutism at bay in the 20th century, only have its elected leaders completely fail to recognize essentially the same cancer (albeit in heavy disguise) not just multiplying unchecked in the ‘Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,’ but also infecting the rest of the world.


True to form, ‘Scientology’s’ aggressive echelon of French apologists steadfastly pretend that their ‘Church’:
- is a legitimate, and long-established, world-religion.

- cannot be held to blame for the actions of its individual members.

- is the innocent victim of an unwarranted attack by religious bigots.

- always offers a refund to anyone who is not satisfied. etc.

However, the seven French citizens named in the ‘Scientology’ indictment (who risk maximum fines of 1 million Euros each and ten years in prison) are, in fact, not officially recognised (on the charge sheet) as members of any ‘Church’ or ‘faith group,’ but merely as officers of two (apparently independent) corporate structures registered in France as:
1. ‘SARL Scientology Espace Liberté (Scientology Free Space Inc.)’ a.k.a. ‘SARL SEL,’ a privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company with a declared purpose of being a retail outlet for books, recordings and various merchandise and educational courses (situated in the 17th district of Paris).

2. ‘Association spiritual de l’Eglise de Scientology - Celebrity Center (Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology - Celebrity Center)’ a.k.a. ‘Ases - CC,’ the French branch of an international philanthropic organization (originally incorporated in the USA in the 1950s).

The widespread inaccurate reporting of recent events in France is a perfect example of how mystifying ‘Scientology’ is and how its manipulation functions, in that, although the group’s own ‘religious’ script continues to be repeated (without detailed qualification or heavy irony) by most commentators, officially, there is no ‘Church of Scientology’ in the French republic. What’s more, there never has been. Indeed, the impossibly-complex international conglomerate which is now most-commonly referred to as ‘Scientology,’ was first presented externally to the American public in 1950 as a single privately-controlled, limited-liability, commercial-company, arbitrarily defined by its instigator as the ‘Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation Inc.’ This initial corporate structure was almost immediately challenged by numerous, intellectually-rigorous observers as a counterfeit beacon luring the vulnerable, and unwary, into a crackpot pseudo-scientific swindle with potentially disastrous consequences. Tellingly, within less than 5 years it had been dissolved to prevent, and divert, investigation and isolate its instigator from liability. Since that time, the underlying fiction has survived all further low-level challenges to its authenticity by subdividing and multiplying its constituent chapters and verses like cancer cells. In its wake, has been left a grim trail of destitution, debt, dissociation, depression, divorce and even death. Today, the same old fiction continues to be presented externally around the globe as a mystifying labyrinth of countless, ever changing and expanding corporate structures, arbitrarily defined as the ‘International Church of Scientology,’ comprising various parent ‘Churches,’ including, the ‘American Church of Science,’ the ‘Church of Spiritual Technology,’ etc., and numerous subsidiary ‘Churches’ and affiliated groupings of adherents, including, ‘United Churches of Florida’; ‘AAS’ (‘American Association of Scientologists’), ‘HASI’ (‘Hubbard Association of Scientologists International’); and as numerous unaffiliated groupings of adherents, including ‘CCHR’ (‘Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights’), ‘WHF’ (‘Way to Happiness Foundation’); ‘ABLE’ (‘Association for Better Living and Education’); ‘CBAA’ (‘Concerned Businessmen’s Association of America’); ‘ARAS’ (‘Academy of Religious Arts and Sciences’), ‘Narconon’, ‘Criminon’, etc.; and as numerous ‘privately-controlled, limited-liability commercial companies,’ including, the ‘Hubbard Explorational Company’; ‘OTC’ (‘Operation and Transport Corporation’); ‘Scientific Press of Phoenix Inc.’; ‘New Era Publications Inc.’, ‘Southern Land Sales and Development Inc.’; ‘Distribution Center Inc.’, ‘HealthMed Inc.’, ‘Sterling Management Systems Inc.’, etc.


Behind this shifty (but frighteningly familiar) edifice lurks a deceptively kitsch Utopian myth of exclusive redemption in a future, secure existence (where only unquestioning believers win Health, Prosperity, Happiness, Freedom, etc.). Self-evidently, this closed-logic game of make-believe is neither original nor unique. Therefore, it cannot be fully-understood in isolation. Although it remains hard for some casual observers to accept, the wider evidence proves beyond all reasonable doubt that the technical-sounding trademark, ‘Scientology,’ was plucked out of thin air in 1952 as the label for what was to become one of the most ridiculous, but nonetheless pernicious and profitable, totalitarian/cultic rackets in recent history. On closer inspection, ‘Scientology’ turns out to be the identical (criminogenic) twin of ‘Amway’- the entrance to a sustainable ‘advanced fee fraud’ based on a perverse plagiarism of various, traditional, esoteric, ritual belief systems. ‘Scientology’s’ fictitious, dualistic scenario of control has been peddled as fact to its core-adherents using a cocktail of pseudo-scientific mystification combined with the traditional myth of a ‘Supreme Spirit of Evil in a state of everlasting conflict with a Supreme Spirit of Good,’ but transposed into the vocabulary and imagery of 20th century, American comic-book science-fiction.


According to the bleating flock of apparatchiks at the ‘Scientology’ Ministry of Truth: currently, there are 8 millions happy ‘Scientologists’ worldwide. Unfortunately, in the adult world of quantifiable reality, the best available estimates from reliable sources (including French, Belgian and German government agencies) reveal that the overwhelming majority of persons who are deceived into buying into this self-gratifying group-delusion, abandon ‘Scientology’ within a short time (without complaint), and that there are probably less than 50 000 long-term believers around the world. That said, during the previous 12 months, the numbers of new customers being caught up in the ‘Scientology’ snowball have been in steep decline due to the energetic activities of a youthful protest movement known as ‘Anonymous.’ Ironically, this peaceful group only came into existence as a reaction to ‘Scientology’s’ leaders’ arrogant afforts to control all information about their activities on the Internet. Needless to say, the closed-logic ‘Scientology’ myth systematically categorizes all free-thinking individuals challenging its authenticity as ‘Suppressives’, ‘criminals’ , ‘ terrorists’, etc.


The author of the ‘Scientology’ myth, and its first self-appointed sovereign leader, was Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (b. March 11th 1911 - d. January 26th 1986), a.k.a. ‘Brother Ron’ a.k.a. ‘LRH’ a.k.a. Ron ‘Flash’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Captain’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commodore’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Admiral’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Doctor’ Hubbard a.k.a. ‘Commander in Chief of the Sea Org’ etc., a US Naval Reserve veteran, amateur hypnotist and prolific writer of pulp-fiction. Although all the quantifiable evidence proves Hubbard to have been nothing more than a penniless narcissist turned multi-millionaire charlatan, who ultimately withdrew into a progressively-paranoid, drug, and alcohol, fuelled delusion (spending his final years in hiding to avoid being held to account by agents of the US Internal Revenue Service), for more than half a century, the full explanation of his activities has been occulted his own reality-inverting script of:

‘Adventurer’; ‘Explorer’; ‘Pilot’; ‘Navigator’; ‘Best Selling Author/Screenwriter’; ‘Philosopher’; ‘Scholar’, ‘Researcher’; ‘Mathematician’; ‘Linguist’; ‘Geologist’; ‘Engineer’, ‘Nuclear Physicist’; ‘War Hero’; ‘Inventor’; ‘Philanthropist’; ‘Psychiatric Therapist’; ‘Dianetics’ (‘the Modern Science of Mental Health’); ‘AD’ (‘After Dianetics’); ‘Dianeticists’; ‘New Era Dianetics’; ‘Franchising’; ‘Research’; ‘New Science’; ‘Science of Certainty’; ‘Science of Survival’; ‘Auditing’; ‘Auditing Level’; ‘Processing’; ‘Training’; ‘Analytical Mind’; ‘Reactive Mind’; ‘Pre-Clears’; ‘Clears’; ‘Clear Certainty Rundown’; ‘Sunshine Rundown’; ‘Hubbard Dianetic Auditor’s Certificate’; ‘Journal of Scientology’; ‘Electropsychometric Auditing’; ‘E-Meter’; ‘Personality Test’; ‘Communications Courses’; ‘Introspection’; ‘Religion’; ‘Sacred Scriptures’; ‘Ministers’; ‘Thetan’; ‘BT’ (‘Body Thetan’
); ‘OT’ (‘Operating Thetan’); ‘GE’ (‘Genetic Entity’); ‘PTS’ (‘Potential Trouble Source’); ‘Missions’; ‘Fixed Donations’; ‘Diagnosis’; ‘Healing’; ‘Helping Mankind’; ‘Check-List’; ‘Returning Down the Time Track’; ‘Reincarnation’; ‘Engrams’; ‘Truth’; ‘Freedom’; ‘Self-Determination’; ‘Moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom’; ‘Code of Ethics’; ‘Ethics Technology’; ‘Ethics Officers’; ‘Justice’; ‘Human Rights’; ‘Evolution Theory’; ‘Education’; ‘Briefing Course’; ‘Self-Betterment’; ‘Cybernetics’; ‘Engineering Technology’; ‘Radiation’; ‘Modern Management Technology’; ‘Celebrity Centers’; ‘Spiritual Guidance Centers’; ‘Purification’; ‘Saunas’; ‘Oils’; ‘Vitamins’; ‘Minerals’; ‘position against Drugs’; ‘position against Alcohol’; ‘position against Satanism’; ‘position against Cults’; ‘Messengers’; ‘HCO’ (‘Hubbard Communications Office’); ‘CS’ (‘Case Supervisor’); ‘DSA’ (‘Department of Special Affairs’); ‘SZP’ (‘Special Zone Plan’); ‘DGA’ (‘Department of Government Affairs’); ‘Sea Project’; ‘Flag Land-Base’; ‘Guardian's Office’; ‘Orgs’ (‘Organizations’); ‘Sea Org’; ‘Cine Org’; ‘Organizing Board’; ‘Crimes’; ‘Punishment’; ‘Suppressive Acts’; ‘SP’ (‘Suppressive Persons’); ‘Fair Game Policy’; ‘Billion Year Contracts’; ‘Black Propaganda’; ‘Treason’; ‘Isolation Watch’; ‘RPF’ (‘Rehabilitation Project Force’); ‘EOC’ (‘End of Cycle’); ‘Conspiracy’;
etc.


Throughout most of his life, Hubbard steadfastly pretended moral and intellectual authority - going to the most extraordinary lengths to maintain an absolute monopoly of information about himself - whilst perpetrating, and sanctioning, a series of evermore serious crimes. The unconditional deference of his deluded core-adherents only served to confirm, and magnify, his own paranoid delusions. When his kingdom was threatened, Hubbard sustained his activities by the imposition of arbitrary codes and contracts (secrecy, denunciation, confession, justice, punishment, etc.) on his subjects, and by the use of humiliation, intimidation, calumny, malicious prosecution (where he posed as victim), sophism, the infiltration of traditional culture, corruption, intelligence gathering and blackmail, extortion, physical isolation, violence, etc; to repress any internal or external dissent. It was Hubbard and latterly his heir, David Miscavige (b. 1960), who organized the creation, dissolution and subversion of all manner of further (apparently independent) corporate structures pursuing lawful, and/or unlawful, activities to prevent, and/or divert, investigation and isolate themselves from liability. In this way, the ‘Scientology’ myth has infiltrated traditional culture to a degree almost without parallel in the sordid Pantheon of modern-day cultism. Sadly, an alarming number of unthinking observers (not just in the media, but also in law enforcement, and in the religious, and political, establishment) have swallowed L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘religious’ bait and insisted that his totalitarian fiction has every right to be peddled as fact.


Copyright David Brear June 2009
(the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings)




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