Andreas Heldal-Lund, who stared down Scientology, now faces his own mortality

Several weeks ago, our old friend Andreas Heldal-Lund messaged us with some unpleasant news. A tumor in his brain turns out to be a particularly aggressive form of cancer. He has been told he has another year or two, depending on how treatments go.

In recent days, Andreas has been making the news known to the public at his Instagram and Facebook accounts, and we told him that we would inform our readers that while he’s facing the end of his life, he’s doing so with a class and dignity and yes, even good humor, that is completely consistent with who he is and has been.

The world of Scientology watching owes a huge debt to Andreas, who, as Scientology’s war against the early Internet was in full cry in 1996, launched from his location in Stavanger, Norway a website he named “Operation Clambake.” Eventually, it would acquire the URL “Xenu.net.”

Operation Clambake would become one of the most important locations online for all things Scientology, including previously unpublished court documents, personal narratives by former Scientologists, and a huge and active forum community.

The “Xenu” in Xenu.net, of course, refers to the bizarre galactic overlord that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard describes in the secret “Operating Thetan Level Three” materials that Scientologists must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach. And “Operation Clambake” is a sly reference to one of Scientology’s most bizarre texts, the early book “What to Audit” that was renamed “History of Man” which has Hubbard describing Scientology’s take on evolution, including the claim that thetans (Scientology’s concept of an immortal soul) once inhabited clams before humans had evolved. The proof of it, Hubbard claimed, was that on occasion our jaws sometimes get stuck as our clam-memories resurface. Or something. Anyway, because of this book’s nutty claims, Scientologists are sometimes referred to as “clams.”

When Andreas first launched his site on November 7, 1996, he put out a press release explaining that he was making available contested documents from Scientology’s secret upper-level materials because he was offended that Scientology had tried to crush other early Internet pioneers who had dared to expose the church. Within a day, he had a response from Scientology’s lawyers demanding that he take down his site, and he was front-page news in Norway.

Holding firm against Scientology’s legal attacks, and operating from a country where Internet freedom was more liberally interpreted than in the US, made Andreas well known.

We have long admired him, not just for his free-speech fight, but also for the way he helped Tory Christman find her way from rabid Scientology activist to one of its more well-known defectors. We told that story back in 2001, and one of the things that comes through most strong in it is that Andreas helped Tory see Scientology’s abuses because of his kind, human touch.

In August 2012 we finally got a chance to meet the man in person when he dropped by the offices of the Village Voice. We ended up visiting Scientology’s Ideal Org in Times Square together, and were “body routed” inside to see a film. It was a great experience.

The next time we saw Andreas, it was at the 2015 “Getting Clear” conference put on by Jon Atack and Jim Beverley. And we especially savored the chance to get a photo of Andreas and Tory together.

At his Facebook account, Andreas has been describing what it has been like to let his friends know what’s going on with his health.

“The situation makes my friends come a lot closer, and we can talk about what we have meant to each other in life so far, things we probably never would have shared!” he wrote. “It also gives me the opportunity to settle and/or hand over all my pet projects and things I’ve used a lifetime to create and collect. I know now that they are in good hands. That also makes me content. Especially for a guy without my own children. And the relationship with my partner is much closer and more honest. When reality knocks you get a new perspective, and you seldom know or fully appreciate what you got until you realize you will lose it. I got and have experienced way more than most already, I get amazing healthcare and I got no pain now. And I have no regrets! Life is amazing!”

We asked him last night what thoughts he had about his overall journey exposing Scientology in such a major way, over so many years, and despite their best efforts to stop him.

“To me it was the right thing to come along at the right time in life,” he messaged us. “I had some skills that there was a need for, lived in Norway (legally safe), had time (after heartbreak) and Scientology managed to pour petrol on my fire every time I considered to quit. I felt that I contributed something valuable and good. So many people contacted me and shared their losses and their thanks. I feel very privileged now that I have this to look back at. This is part of me feeling I made a change or contributed something good to the world and history. But I stood on the shoulders of many better than me!”

We told him that what also made us root for him was his great sense of humor and his cleverness, which so bedeviled Scientology.

“I was amazed and surprised at how much attention what I did got globally. The media hype was insane! It was a cool experience, of course. I’m not ashamed to say it made me proud. But as I said it was not my genius, but the ones before me and the luck that I happened to enter the scene with what I could offer when I did. And I’m a little stubborn when someone tells me I can’t do something that I believe I should be allowed to do.”

He added that the experience helped him develop a deeper appreciation for the people victimized by Scientology.

“I once thought something like ‘How stupid can you be to fall for this?’ But quickly I learned that smarter people than I have fallen for cults and frauds. It was a revelation when I saw that at the right time and place it could also have been me.”

We’re just glad that Andreas turned his stubbornness to such a worthy effort. And that we got a chance to meet him, and consider him our friend. And we’ll treasure the rest of the time we have with him.

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

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