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(The ARSCC does not exist) |
[Background] |
Go to Operation Clambake |
Background |
During the past few years, the amount of information
about and exposure of the Church of Scientology (CoS), its practices, and
teachings, has increased rapidly, both on the Internet and in the media.
On the Internet, much attention has been given to the CoS's attempts to
censor the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (or just
a.r.s. for short) by attempting to remove it from the Usenet
hierarchy (January 1995), and by launching a massive spam attack there in
1996. Also, their nasty habit of ferociously attacking and trying to shut
down web pages set up by critics has not gone unnoticed. In fact, the CoS
can be said to have declared a "war" against the Net and individuals
daring to speak up against it. A historical introduction to this "war"
between the CoS and the Internet can be found here.
Of course, one must not forget the CoS's practice of harassing their critics and ex-members, which in fact is a part of their "scriptures" (these "scriptures" being the writings of the late pulp science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard). Several critics have had their houses raided by the CoS and their army of lawyers, among others Dennis Erlich, Arnaldo Lerma, and Swedish Zenon Panoussis. The CoS does this in order to harass their critics, ex-members, and ex-members still believing in and practicing the teachings of Hubbard outside the CoS (so-called squirrels). In fact, it is their official policy; Hubbard told them to do it. Additionally, the CoS does not hesitate to use their huge amount of lawyers to launch lots of lawsuits in order to silence ex-members and critics. Hubbard knew that lawsuits can be very effective for this purpose, so he made sure to put in down in writing in one of his scriptures: "The purpose of the [law]suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, [...] If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."(L. Ron Hubbard: "The Scientologist: A Manual on the Dissemination of Material", 1955). For the above reasons (and for many others, which will soon become evident if you read on), I feel that Scientology is a dangerous cult whose lies, theories and practices should be exposed. These web pages are my contribution. |
Online essays and books about Scientology |
Many books, essays, and reviews critical of
Scientology, Dianetics, and the claims of its founder, L. Ron
Hubbard, have been written. A few of them are archived here, and are
recommended reading if you want to get more in-depth information about
Dianetics, Scientology, and L. Ron Hubbard. For a short introduction,
read the article What is
Scientology? by Roland Rashleigh-Berry.
|
Web resources |
Resources maintained by criticsThere are quite a lot of web sites and pages run by critics of Scientology, too many to list here. But here are a few of the most important ones:
Official Scientology web sitesFor balance, and because I want you to make up your own mind about Dianetics, Scientology, and L. Ron Hubbard, you should visit the official web sites of the Church of Scientology (note that these pages are very graphics-intensive, so you might want to switch off automatic image loading before entering them): Note the total absence of references to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, and also how they avoid linking to sites outside their complete control (Yes, they do have a very few links, but you'd have to search a while to find them. The links they do offer to the outside have been chosen very selectively, and you will find that they invariably point to completely harmless locations).And for the record: Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard are just a few of the registered trademarks of the CoS. For a comprehensive list of their trademarks, have a look here. Don't you find it a bit strange that a "religion" have registered such a huge amount of trademarks? |
Personal encounters with Scientology |
The dangers of getting involved in ScientologySome of the dangers in getting involved with Scientology can be illustrated by the following sad stories. These stories would probably not have reached the public unless critics of Scientology had shouted out about them.
Pickets against ScientologyThe number of pickets, big and small, have increased heavily in a very short time. Here is some information about pickets that have been held around the world.
Encounters of the more humouristic kindPersonally, my first direct encounter with the CoS and with Scientologists in general, was during my visit to the Chicago Org, where I got my way cool L. Ron Hubbard mousepad! This later inspired me to devise the ClamBust Game. |
Examples of CoS propaganda |
I have collected a few posters and leaflets from the CoS and its front organizations. Some of the material I have scanned in, and presented here, with comments. |
The CoS in Norway |
The only Norwegian Scientology org is located in Oslo. You can find its address here. Pictures of the Oslo org can be found here. |
Please send comments, problem reports, ideas for improvements/additions, etc. to www@xenu.phys.uit.no