One of the most important concepts in Scientology is that it harbors fantastic secrets about the nature of the universe, but you aren’t allowed to learn them until you’ve spent several years and lots of money to prove your dedication to the cause.
Thanks to the Internet, and South Park, and reporters at the Los Angeles Times, some of those secrets have been out for years and years, making it tougher for Scientology to convince newbies that the huge sums are worth it.
In particular, the McGuffin that Scientology has tried in vain to keep under wraps is the notorious story L. Ron Hubbard dreamed up about a galactic overlord named Xenu, who was responsible for an interstellar genocide 75 million years ago that left behind a lot of angry and confused disembodied souls that today cling to all of us by the hundreds or thousands. These unseen entities are referred to as “body thetans,” and upper level Scientologists pay hundreds of dollars an hour convincing themselves that they can locate them and drive them away. It’s batty.
And of course, how many people would join Scientology in the first place if they realized that eventually you’ll be paying thousands and thousands of dollars to drive away invisible intergalactic massacre victims from your person?
So for that reason, you can see why Scientology tries to keep the Xenu story under wraps, and why it’s interesting to note how, over time, it was leaked repeatedly before South Park in 2005 made it the subject of an episode and really turned it into a cultural touchstone.
Well, we believe that the first time anyone ever mentioned the name “Xenu” in print and revealed the practice of auditing body thetans as the ultimate aim of Scientology was in the 1972 book Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman, a disappointed former Scientologist (and good friend of journalist Paulette Cooper, whose own book The Scandal of Scientology had come out the year before).
Richard Leiby, the Washington Post reporter, told us at one time that he believed he was the first reporter to mention Xenu in a newspaper story, in the Clearwater Sun in 1981, well before the Los Angeles Times or the St. Petersburg Times.
And now, our researcher friend has come through again with a fun find.
It’s another early revealing of the Xenu story that happened in 1974, and in, of all places, a classified ad.
Brendon Moore was a 28 year old Calgary electrician who was unhappy with how much money he’d been taken for in Scientology, and he showed up in a Calgary Herald story that May…
Mr. Moore told the Herald he left Calgary in January of 1974 for Los Angeles. He paid $1,140 to get “the level of power.”
Scientology claims that after this process people gain “the ability to handle power.”
“In Los Angeles, I was told I needed many hours of processing to get me ready for this level — somewhere between 50 and 125 hours at $50 per hour.” This could have cost Mr. Moore as much as $6,250.
“I didn’t need this processing. I was ready for power, but it was refused me on the grounds that I needed the extra processing,” he said.
“So I didn’t get the level of power and came back to Calgary. I went to Los Angeles to get the power again in March with the same result.”
Mr. Moore said that as a result of continual requests for the processing he had paid for the Los Angeles organization issued an order declaring him to be insane.
But even after that dig at Scientology in the article, Moore was apparently not done trying to get back at Scientology for what he felt was a rip-off.
In July, and then in December, classified ads appeared in Calgary newspapers spelling out the OT 3 story as a warning for people not to take Scientology seriously.
Can you imagine?
Here, take a look at the December 7 ad, which had Moore’s name on it.
He appears to spell Xenu’s name as “Xenn,” but still, you would think the church would have been very unhappy to see these secrets splashed in a newspaper in Canada, right?
TOP SECRET
Scientology Rip-Off
The following is OT III data. OT III stands for Operating Thetan Section III. This is one of the levels one reaches after expensive preparation in Scientology.
To a Scientologist, it is common knowledge that to discover OT III data before being prepared for it will kill a person. The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard says on a tape that the data on OT III is so vicious that it is designed to kill anyone who accidentally comes across it.
I was a Scientologist for seven years and I was taken in by the idea that the data on this level would harm me unless I had completed all the preparation steps. So I took preparation to the tune of about $5,000 in Calgary. I then went to Los Angeles, California to take more advanced levels. I was prepared to spend an extra $4,000 on these. To my surprise I was ordered to take more preparation which could have run to an additional $7,500. I refused and left Scientology shortly after.
I really felt like a fool when I learned what OT III was, after leaving Scientology. When you consider that L. Ron Hubbard was a science-fiction writer, the following should not surprise you.
75,000,000 years ago, a wicked character named Xenn, who was a leading figure in this Confederation of planets, decided to control over-population by means of fusing beings together under duress so they thought they were one. This was done by dropping hydrogen bombs on volcanoes which had beings dumped on them. After the explosion, the beings were further confused by showing them religious pictures of devils, angels, etc. Hubbard tells those Scientologists who have first paid for it that everyone’s body is made up of these befuddled beings and that only this OT III material is exclusive to Scientology. When you do this level, you get rid of these beings and are free from being overwhelmed by them.
Isn’t that a good story? It’s a really expensive one!
Brendon Moore
According to our math, Brendon Moore would be about 77 if he’s still around. We’d love to hear from him about putting this ad in the paper and whatever he might have heard back on it.
Drop us a line, Mr. Moore!
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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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I audited OT III in early 1969. I did not realize at the time it was the source of my first depression. I didn’t even know what depression was then. Assigning the mythical “body thetans” as the outside influence on members mental condition is a clear cut admission that all Scientologists are VICTIMS. In other words scientologists are at the bottom of Hubbards “emotional tone scale”. As victims they are perfect suckers and are easily controlled by the Scientology organizations. That explains how scientologists are manipulated once they buy into Hubbard’s “road to total slavery”. I spent over a thousand hours auditing body thetans. End result? Acute clinical depression.
For those who completely acquiesce to the cults control they turn into Sciebots; inhuman soulless automatons. Scientology creates mental illness, it does not eradicate it. As Hubbard admits, OT III can drive one insane.
More precisely the church of Scientology coupled with OT III will certainly drive you crazy.
Bad idea to tell an electrician that they can’t have the power.