Hi all, I've been out of the loop for a bit. Anyone have some feedback you can give about this recent email I received? Or can point me in the direction of where to get some unbiased, truthful information on the situation in France? I'd appreciate it.

I'm currently a "fence-sitter" tired of seeing so many friends on OT7 audit, audit, audit and spend thousands(!) of dollars each year while seemingly spinning their wheels with no end in sight. Four to five years on the latest "version" of OT7 with nary a completion?? Quite frankly, not much in noticable benefits or results either.

After 30+ years are my eyes opening? Have I been that friggin' blind and convinced that this was the *only* way? Have I been that arrogant?

Just after finally asking myself this question, I would have to say, "yes." I'm about ready to leap off the fence, I believe. I've had too many lies fed to me and was soooooo willing to believe them.

There's some inherently valuable and workable self-help data interwoven within the subject that is useful, though not particularly unique to scientology alone. But it ends there. There is nothing else beyond that except for what people choose to *believe* - when those truly familiar with the subject know that you aren't supposed to "believe"

or "have faith" yet that is all there is left for you beyond what I call the basic self-help material. It is written throughout thte subject that it is an absolute workable scientific technology and not a belief system. But, the "upper fridge" is all about belief and faith really, with absolutely no scientific or otherwise proven basis in fact.

Shoot, I've been in Travis' and Shillington's and other's shoes, thinking that our method and cause really was making headway against psychs, drugs and all the ills of mankind. But, if you step outside the box for just a minute, you realize that, well, maybe not.

And if you really are opposed to psychs, drugs, etc., (I still am due to the quackery and lack of solutions in the name of authority within the ranks of that subject) perhaps there are a lot of other similarly interested groups and individuals that you can join with and support that don't have other hidden agendas. Maybe others attack the problems with more realistic and heartfelt means. And do it not because someone told you to, but because of your own personally held first-hand experiences and beliefs.

Then you can keep your own personal causes intact, while not being bound to such theories of conspiracy and other lies that are fed to one on the "party line" of our particular church. What if it wasn't all true there? Is that even possible? It wasn't for me for over thirty years, until I remembered my own personal integrity (fueled by learning certain documented truths about our illustrious founder and the church itself, not to mention the laughable posture of current upper management, and pure lack of real, permanent results on the upper end of "the fridge" for hundreds of friends). Sounds harsh coming from someone who alone has probably gotten more people on the fridge than any large group of combined sceintology posters here, and who has worked in about every sector of the organization. But, I think that this realization is hitting more and more of us as we mature and see the actual end results or lack of them. It's more responsible to say something and act, than to just sit there and do nothing.

Get this ... they must not realize this is actually a bad thing, but Flag registrars are trying to raise some money (for their building renovations I think) by giving some special "perks" to people who pay $50,000 now. They are saying that, in surveying public, the number one thing that people want is better service at Flag. So, if you pay the $50,000 you will get special treatment and good service there as a reward. Am I the only one that sees that this is a *huge* outpoint?!

The supposed "mecca" of technical service for the church has its own parishioners saying that they want better service. I could say more, but you get the point.

(scientologists: do you really, honestly believe that psychs are after scientology because of it's potential threat? or because of "siberia alaska" or similar tales? have you personally checked the documents yourself or done any investigation beyond just listen to what someone tells you? believe me, its refreshing. the truth indeed shall set you free. but, first comes the willingness to look. "pan-determined" isn't defined as pan-determined completely and only from one side ... really, truly look from *both* sides.)

One other thing while I'm at it. Mr. Hubbard said (paraphrasing), "you get what you put your attention on." Well, in 1940 Florence Scovel Shinn wrote, "You attract the things you give a great deal of thought to." (Note that Ms. Shinn, in 1925 said that "life is a game" and more in a book she wrote entitled "The Game of Life and How to Play It." How about "man is basically good!" You can also find her writing about "be interested, not interesting." It is always mind-boggling to me to continue to find that more of what Mr. Hubbard calls his basic "tech"

was out there already as written by someone else in the self-help, spiritualist field, prior to his writing it. Not just Bhudda and Freud. It's just that these others didn't try to make it a religion and charge large sums of money for it.

Sounds stupid, but all I had to do was be willing to look now to realize these things. At least Hubbard was the first to bring some of these common self-help principles into my own awareness at the time.

Just leave me alone about the rest of the invented "upper fridge" he tried to add that "guarantees total freedom." It's probably safe to say that we have no more higher rate of people totally free than any other movement. Now there's a statistic to track! LOL!

Back to my point .... if one of the primary focuses of attention in scientology is on money (and make no doubt about it - from the upper execs all the way down to your average beginning parishioner), and ways to make more money, then could it be said that the subject is inherently set up to aim more at material things in reality and away from the spiritual nature of life. No matter what is said, this is the very undercurrent that threads throughout the day to day activities and words of most within the subject. Pretty soon you have people walking around thinking money, money, money, and, oh yeah by the way, spiritual freedom ummmmm that's what all the money is for. Nuff said!

I sincerely hope that Tory is for real as far as making the move out of the church. It just makes so much sense that eventually people on the upper OT levels would catch on that they are basically going nowhere, except further in debt. (Heck, people on "the fridge" live and die no differently than anyone in any other belief system, religion, scientific system, etc. That's just too easy to observe. Some might argue that in fact many are more stressed out due to the constant pressure for stats, stats, stats - even though those stats don't really add up to immortality or better-than-anyone-else survival generally.)

Back to Tory, it's just my wish that she isn't a plant or some other concoction dreamed up by management. Isn't it a sad state of affairs for a so-called religious organization to not be trusted in the least and you have to relate clandestine weird stuff to a church in the first place. Sorry Tory ... many of us are still very jaded and untrustful as a result of past history - I am not one to judge you personally.

Boy, I had some things to say and get off my chest I guess. Nothing revelatory here -- I just had to have a chance to pour out some thoughts somewhere that it could be heard. I only wanted to ask about the following email. Thanks for listening. I feel better! LOL!

Below is the email, if you have any info to enlighten me on it would be appreciated. The Baptists (of Clinton and Gore)?

Thanks, Alfred E. Noumenon "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

------------------------------------------------------------ August 13, 2000 From: Joava M. Good, Executive Director
Foundation for Religious Tolerance RE: "Call to Arms" from President Heber Jentzsch In our entire history, very few "Calls to Arms" have been issued. I am sending you one of these just issued by President Heber Jentzsch.

The Church of Scientology, your Church, is leading the fight for religious liberty in Europe. You need to be there. Failing that, you need to sponsor someone who can go.

To answer this Call to Arms:

1) Read this Call very carefully 2) Fax or email it to every Scientologist you know.

3) Call 323-xxx-xxxx for additional information or to make arrangements to answer The Call to Arms and join your fellow Freedom Fighters there.

On October 23, we join the Ambassadors of Peace in Paris where we will show the French Government and the world what we think of the French restrictions on religious liberty.

If you absolutely cannot go, you can sponsor someone. Call 323-xxx-xxxx, 818-xxx-xxxx, or fax at 323-xxx-xxxx or you can reach us via email at xxxxxxx@relaypoint.net. Check out our website for updated information now. www.religioustolerance.net Sincerely, Joava M. Good Executive Director A Call to Arms!

European Religious Freedom Events 2000 by Reverend Heber Jentzsch President Church of Scientology Fifty-five years ago American soldiers returned victorious from Europe, having driven the Germans from the occupied countries.

The proud country of France had become a theater of war and had fallen in six weeks. The British had been forced to evacuate Dunkirk.

The prospects for freedom in Europe were grim. But four years later American troops crossed the Channel. They drove inland from the beaches of Normandy and liberated France.

Today France is under siege again. Not from armies, but from a cadre of SPs who are seeking to turn back the clock and once again snuff out the light of Freedom.

This attack on religion is taking place in a country with 14,000 psychiatrists and one of the highest rates of involuntary commitment in Europe. In Paris alone, psychiatrists commit more people to institutions involuntarily than in the entire United Kingdom.

Consumption of psychotropics in France is highest in the world.

Seeking to divert attention from the suicides, drugs and criminality they have created, the SPs have blacklisted 173 religions-including Baptists (the religion of the U.S. President and Vice President), Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and Scientologists.

The next phase of their plan is to destroy those religions completely. On June 22, the French National Assembly passed a suppressive bill that seeks to "dissolve" undesirable "sects." Only 18 members of Parliament were present in the Assembly when this legislation was rushed through.

The bill comes before the French Senate later this year. It is so extreme that French Catholic and Protestant leaders have condemned it.

France is once again a battlefield!

Therefore, we are calling all Scientologists to arms to turn back this tide of oppression and restore religious freedom to France.

On September 20, the Torch of Freedom will be lit once again, outside the European Parliament in Brussels. The 2000 Torch of Freedom Marathon will then begin.

A team of dedicated Scientologists, Ambassadors of Peace, will cross into France. They will carry the Torch and its message of truth over thousands of kilometers of French soil. Every day they will meet with government, community, human rights and religious leaders. They will alert them to the dangerous legislation brewing and urge their commitment to publicly condemn it in the name of a free France.

On October 23, directly following the IAS event at Saint Hill,they will arrive in Paris. A huge March and Rally will take place.

Thousands of Scientologists and others representing an impressive array of religious denominations will converge in the city in a demonstration of solidarity, announcing to the government that they will not tolerate a new inquisition.

The next day a Religious Hate Crimes Tribunal will be held. Targets of religious discrimination will testify before a panel of expert scholars and religious leaders to expose the key perpetrators creating a climate of hate against religion in France.

You have a responsibility to be there. Take a stand for religious freedom. Participate in the weekend of events, starting with the IAS event on Friday October 20, and ending with the Paris Religious Unity March and Rally on Monday October 23.

Americans! We must again rekindle that flame of freedom in a nation that over two centuries ago helped forge our freedom.

And when the roll call is heard in another time and place, you will be able to respond: "I was there! I answered the Call to Arms. And we changed the tide that day in the streets of Paris and helped restore freedom to the heart of France."

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