This is what Scientology is for me (rebuttal)
Editor's Note:
This article was submitted as a rebuttal to my own Scientology page and is published here in the interest of freedom of speech. For further details on how this article came to be published on an otherwise "critical" site, kindly refer to the original page.
I am a Scientologist. I came across the site of Mr. Joe Larabell. Joe's experience in Scientology is different to mine. He left the Church in its earlier years, 1979. I joined the Church in 1986. Thus what we recall of our experiences is different.
There are some points of which I agree with Mr. Larabell. I especially agree that people can get awfully emotional about subjects which involve belief. It does not matter if a person is a Scientologist, a Catholic, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Muslem, a Shintoist or any other religion, or ex-religion. People can get awfully passionate about what they believe in.
Scientology is a body of knowledge developed by its founder Mr. L. Ron Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard taught that while he may have developed Scientology, he credits great thinkers before him which provided great ideas. Such great philosophers would include Buddha for example, who developed a philosophy that perhaps in its original form, was very close to Scientology. And before that, the Veda, which according to Mr. Hubbard, is Scientology's "earliest known ancestor". The Dharma, is also referred to by Mr. Hubbard, meaning knowingness. But while Mr. Hubbard does credit others where it is relevant, and there are modern writers amongst those he also credits, no earlier person has ever come close to totally freeing man. And Total Freedom is what Scientology offers, and it was developed by Mr. L. Ron Hubbard.
Today Scientology, like most organizations with similar worthwhile goals for man, has evolved, grown and matured. There are now hundreds of missions and Churches around the world, and thousands of small groups. In my own organization in Tokyo we have 200 staff, and many staff outside of Tokyo. Those who have done services in Scientology in Tokyo alone number over 20,000.
Mr. Larabell says that there is a text that states to stamp out all non-Scientology ways of thinking. There is no such text. However, in Scientology, we are taught to solve Scientology problems with Scientology philosophy. Yet in writing this I must also add in all humility Mr. Hubbard clearly wrote the following, "Scientology is a workable system. This does not mean it is the best possible system or a perfect system. Remember and use that definition. Scientology is a workable system."
Mr. Larabell says that he worked inside the organization. I am not sure how long that was for, but likely it was only for a relatively short time. On the other hand I have been employed by the Church since 1989. I have never experienced what Joe Larabell has claimed about the Church, and I have been employed in Australia, Japan and Asia, the USA, and Europe. I have found that Scientology has helped people, and helped me.
Mr. Larabell worked for an organization known as the Guardian's Office. It was not run by the founder Mr. Hubbard. It was run by others. That organization was, in its final days, found to be running not on the policies written by the founder, but rather, it was being run on policies developed by others. That of course raises the question, were the people in that organization really Scientologists? They were not following the policies of the founder. They were not practicing Scientology. Needless to say the Church eventually closed down the Guardians Office. But this was some years before I came into Scientology.
Thus I need to point out that Mr. Joe Larabell possibly has his own memory of experiences trapped in an organization that ceases to exist today. His memory of that organization ended for him in 1979, and the organization itself ceased altogether a few years later.
Mr. Larabell states that most of the current Church leadership is young. While we have many young leaders, I am 47 years old, and the Executive Director of the Tokyo Organization is older than I am. And, some of our top international executives are older than this. But youth is there too, giving both a young side with mature leadership. Also there are many leaders within our church that have successfully completed university education and many more who had prestigious careers before joining the Church. For example I let go of a very lucrative construction management career to become a Church staff member. The point I make here is that Church leadership is professional hands.
Mr. Larabell draws attention to what I might term a schism that occurred in Scientology at around the time of the founder's death. Such schisms are not unusual in religion at such a time. Those who pick the wrong or losing side of any schism can have grievances. Some may even exaggerate those grievances. And this may be true for Scientology back then too. While I can understand the upset of those people who left, they have to realize themselves that they were the ones who made their decisions to leave. Further more, should they wish, the door into Scientology is always open for them to return. The door to Scientology is never fully closed on anyone. That would be unfair.
But today the leadership of Scientology has helped the Church chart a course on a very stable footing. Scientology has been expanding dramatically. In Los Angeles alone over 10,000 members attend Scientology events. There are almost a thousand prisons using Scientology criminal rehabilitation technology around the world. Mr. L. Ron Hubbard's educational books are now approved for school use in California. There are drug rehabilitation centers in six continents that use Mr. Hubbard's technology. There are now around 20,000 Scientology staff and 8 million Scientologists world wide.
World expansion is what today's leadership is about. The book Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health, is now published in 52 languages. In Russia alone there are over forty missions, the largest of which has hundreds of staff. The whole of Eastern Europe is booming for Scientology too. In Japan the Tokyo organization has hundreds of staff and there are 21 City Offices outside of Tokyo. In the rest of Asia, there are many offices and missions in India, Nepal, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and more. Scientology is growing fast. I know because I have personally been to many of these places pushing that expansion.
As to the state of the founder, which Mr. Larabell questions, I have met several people who had worked with him. They all agree that Mr. Hubbard was a brilliant genius. He worked vigorously for the purpose of bettering mankind. What other man has worked out a way for enabling the intelligent, and even the no so intelligent, to become more able, to have higher IQs, and to survive better in today's world? Mr. Hubbard's works have now been honed and polished to put back together marriages, increase the survival of groups, better the treatment and education of children, and to further one's own survival along that route to immortality. This is the work of a brilliant humanitarian. No other organization can really do all that.
As to the workability of auditing, it works. This is my experience and the experience of many others. I know of no other route to Total Freedom. For this I am indebted to Mr. Hubbard. And as to the upper level materials, I have done the real OT3. And I have successfully completed grades above that. These grades work like nothing I can explain on this page.
Scientology enables a person to recall their past as a spiritual being, be it this life or earlier. In the past are times and instances that hold us back and prevent us from being who we really feel we should be, and times which prevent us from attaining our true potential. But with the application of Scientology a being can achieve find this past and eradicate those mental and spiritual blocks. For example, I used to run a construction business. I could only successfully run a building site consisting of 17 people. Any more than seemed to present too many problems. Then I started doing Scientology. The construction sites I could control got bigger and bigger. People were happy on my sites. There were no industrial problems, no accidents, no real problems. Tradesmen and contractors alike made money. Soon I was managing projects with 200 people. My own IQ after doing Scientology had gone up 35 points. My own income went up 500%. At 32 years old I even bought a Rolls Royce car to drive to work. But after a while just having these great abilities for myself was not enough. Money did not seem to be that important any more. I was attracted to the idea of allowing others to achieve what I had Thus I chose to be a Church staff member and bring the miraculous gains of Scientology to others.
Joe mentions the Lisa McPherson case. She died of an undiagnosed air embolism. This was unfortunate. She was involved in a car accident, sent to a hospital to get checked out, but the hospital said that she was fine. With this advice she went about her business at the Flag Service Organization in Florida, where she later died. In the USA 50,000 people die of air embolism each year. In Lisa's case it was tragic but not mysterious.
And, as to that organization called CAN. There are many people of many faiths working in it. When people telephone CAN now about a religion that they know nothing about, those same people get referred to professional religious scholars who know about the religion concerned. These are not Scientologists they are being referred to. Those inquiring are being referred to professionals who know about the religion concerned. This provides a good service for the community. The old CAN was simply a religious hate group that served no useful purpose for the community.
In summary, yes, there are critics of Scientology. Many of them left the organization at the time Joe Larabell did, or a bit later. Some critics have been caught up in upset generated others. All I can say for those who left, is that this was their choice. But the door into Scientology is never fully closed on them. But in saying this I should point out the sources of such criticisms are actually likely to be anti social type actions that the person has done in the past, not what has been done to him or her. And these actions are not necessarily easy for a person to confront again. For many it is simply easier to stay critical than to actually look at what one did in the past that caused him or her to become that way. This is a technical fact of the mind and spirit well known in Scientology.
Like any religion, people can leave Scientology. And if they chose to leave, they should get on with their own lives, and let myself and others expand Scientology. I do not particularly want to have to pay a lot of attention to critics. Perhaps such voices are like yapping dogs barking at a fire engine as it races past to put out a fire.
Like most people, I do not like my beliefs ridiculed. But I do respect another person's point of view. I also respect intelligent conversation. But when that point of view or discussion becomes so loud that my own survival as a spiritual being is threatened, then it might be time for me to pay just some attention to those yapping dogs. So my request is to those dogs is to find another vehicle to bark at, and let myself and others put out the fire. And, if they cannot do that, then join us. And if they cannot join us, then be silent.
Nick Broadhurst