Scientology and The Left-Hand Path The Left-hand Path is the path of Black Magick, better known as Satanism or Setianism. Scientology has never overtly positioned themselves as a magical, let alone black magic system; disclosing this information would severely limit membership in a Christian-dominated culture. Scientology is now stepping up their proselytizing efforts in the Orient. Because Scientology does not promote their doctrine honestly and because Scientology employs mind control techniques to obtain their membership, those of eastern faiths are just as open to Scientology's treachery as Christians have been in the west.

Hubbard was good at obfuscating his sources; no lay member of Scientology is given any indication whatsoever that Scientology is anything but the inspiration and genius of its "humanitarian" founder.

A current Scientology web site, www.bonafide-scientology.org, makes lengthy arguments about why they should be called a religion. However, none of the authors of the papers presented analyze Scientology's secret doctrine, or admit to having access to them for the preparation of their papers.

Scientology can however be analyzed against Left-hand/Right-hand criteria.

For this, I am liberally assisted by Lords of the Left-Hand Path by Stephen E. Flowers, PhD, and former Grand Master of The Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set.[i] Flowers' book is both scholarly and decidedly pro Left-hand Path. In making my comparison, I wished to eliminate possible bias in the criteria itself.

The analysis of Scientology presents several challenges: Hubbard grossly misrepresented his professional qualifications and pre-Scientology history.

Scientology doctrine has been "sanitized" by Hubbard's successors-there are significant discrepancies in current editions of Hubbard's early written and taped material, which now omit clues that point to his actual "philosophy"

and intent. Further, Hubbard carefully trained his administrators and public officials to provide "acceptable truths" in presenting Scientology, which "truths" satisfy all but the most carefully discriminating inquirer.

[ii] The very simplicity of the current analysis "cuts to the chase" on answering the fundamental question, "How does the soul relate to or interact with the objective universe or the universe as a whole?"

"The right-hand path answers this question simply by saying that the subjective universe must harmonize itself with the laws of the objective universe-be that envisioned as God or nature. Humanity is to seek knowledge of the law, and then apply itself to submitting to that law in order to gain ultimate union with the objective universe, with God, or nature. The right-hand path is the path of union with universal reality (God or Nature).

When this union is completed the individual self will be annihilated, the individual will become one with the divine or natural cosmic order. In this state the ego is destroyed as "heaven" is entered or a nirvanic existence/non-existence is "attained." This is clearly the goal of all orthodox Judaic/Christian/Islamic or Buddhistic sects.

The left-hand path considers the position of humanity as it is; it takes into account the manifest and deep-seated desire of each human being to be a free, empowered, independent actor within his or her world. The pleasure and pain made possible by independent existence are seen as something to be embraced and as the most reasonable signs of the highest, most noble destiny possible for humans to attain-a kind of independent existence on a level usually thought of as divine." [iii] Flowers gives two major criteria for being considered "a true Lord of the Left-hand Path." The first of these is "Deification of the Self."

"This first criterion will be seen to have four distinct elements:

1) Self-deification-attainment of an enlightened (or awakened), independently existing intellect and its relative immortality.

2) Individualism-the enlightened intellect is that of a given individual, not a collective body 3) Initiation-the enlightenment and strength of essence necessary for the desired state of evolution of self are attained by means of stages created by the will of the magician, not because he or she was "divine" to begin with.

4) Magic- practitioners of the left-hand path see themselves as using their own wills in a rationally intuited system or spiritual technology designed to cause the universe around them to conform to their self-willed patterns.

" [iv] Self-deification-attainment of an enlightened (or awakened), independently existing intellect and its relative immortality.

Scientology uses the term "thetan" [v] to describe the individual as an immortal being or god. Hubbard promised a state called "Operating Thetan"

[vi] which is attainable only by going through a series of grades in Scientology's "Bridge to Total Freedom." The thetan supposedly entered the physical universe as an all-powerful entity, and over trillions of years degraded himself to the point where he now finds himself trapped in a human body, playing human games. Scientology corrects all that and rehabilitates the individual to his native god-state.

2) Individualism-the enlightened intellect is that of a given individual, not a collective body.

Scientology doctrine states specifically that man is not ultimately part of "the All," or a Unity.

".One of the control mechanisms which has been used on thetans is that when they rise in potential they are led to believe themselves one with the universe. This is distinctly untrue. Thetans are individuals. They do not, as they rise up the scale, merge with other individualities. They have the power of becoming anything they wish while still retaining their own individuality. They are first and foremost themselves. There is evidently no Nirvana. It is the feeling that one will merge and lose his own individuality that restrains the thetan from attempting to remedy his lot.

His merging with the rest of the universe would be his becoming matter.

This is the ultimate in cohesiveness and the ultimate in affinity, and is at the lowest point of the Tone Scale. One declines into a brotherhood with the universe. When he goes up scale, he becomes more and more an individual capable of creating and maintaining his own universe. In this wise (leading people to believe they had no individuality above that of MEST [*]) the MEST universe cut out all competition." [vii] [*] MEST: Matter, energy, space and time, or the physical universe.

On the other hand, Scientology's solution for the rehabilitation of the individual is entirely that of replicating Hubbard's own doctrine and views into the conscious and unconscious minds of its members. Scientology training and auditing replaces all previous thought patterns, religious ideas and worldview. There is never any higher authority for Scientologists than Hubbard's own doctrine. Scientologists are given authority for being "source" of their own lives only to the degree that their thought patterns, life decisions, and activities match Hubbard's policies and align with Scientology's ethics codes.

Hubbard taught that Scientologists do not make it on their own, outside of the parameters of Scientology's closed control system.

"[.] The trouble with O.T.s in the past has only been lack of cooperation and a commonly agreed upon objective. Without these O.T.s eventually fall prey again to smaller beings with bigger organization skill. O.T. is an unstable state only when O.T.s are not cooperating with O.T.s but each going his own way in the strong but fatuous belief he can single-handedly survive.

The proof is, O.T.s have not survived as O.T.s whenever this super-individuation collided with the super organization of weaker beings.

The answer is to remain organized, with mutual assistance and integrity and not lose touch with or responsibility for all levels of life forms and societies. This means that programmes for such agreement must be offered.

[.]" --L. Ron Hubbard (Handwritten HCOPL of 25 June AD 13 [AD 13 means 13 years "After Dianetics", or 1963] This policy reveals that Hubbard never intended for Scientologists to follow a left hand path-his intention was that Scientologists operate only within the parameters that he himself determined for them.

Scientology's ethics system and confessional procedure are the main tools with which all individuation is removed and a uniformity of thought pattern is achieved throughout the organization.

Scientology holds up their confessional procedure against the practices of other religions such as Catholicism. One critical difference between confessionals in Christianity and confessionals in Scientology is the issue of forgiveness. Catholics are forgiven by God, and the person experiences the restoration of his relationship with God. At the end of Scientology confessionals, the auditor gives the confessor the following proclamation:

"By the power invested in me, any overts and withholds you have fully and truthfully told me are forgiven by Scientologists." (Overts are transgressions or sins. Withholds are sins that have been withheld.) [viii] Scientology confessionals restore the hive mentality that Hubbard intended for members of his organization.

3) Initiation -the enlightenment and strength of essence necessary for the desired state of evolution of self are attained by means of stages created by the will of the magician, not because he or she was "divine" to begin with.

Scientology does not match the Initiation criterion in the literal sense.

Hubbard taught that the thetan (viewed separately from any physical consideration) is, without Scientology on a devolutionary cycle, not an evolutionary one; Scientology "reverses the dwindling spiral of existence."

This, however, is not "the Fall" as viewed in the Right-hand path. The thetan is the ultimate source and creator of the physical universe-he simply did not understand his own creation. Hubbard's Bridge appears as the equivalent of the Right-hand "Grace," whereby man can recover his divinity.

"THETA-MEST THEORY, I. a theory generated by myself in the fall of 1950 as an effort to explain (just a theory) the phenomena of an analyzer working in one direction and a reactive mind working in quite another, the reactive mind being interesting, and the analyzer being interested. (5410CM06) 2. the idea is that life is a no-substance thing, up against a physical universe which is a substance thing. Here is nothingness up against a somethingness interacting where the nothingness or the no-substance thing is actually giving orders to and handling the all substance thing, the physical universe. (UPC 3 5406CM--) 3. the idea that there was a universe and that there was thought-theta without wave-length, without mass, without time, without position in space: this was life. And that was impinged upon something else called the physical universe, which was a mechanical entity which did things in a peculiar way, and these two things together, theta-mest interacting, gave us life forms. (PXL, p. 140) " [ix] Hubbard explains, however, that as a composite of thetan-plus-body, man has been on a learning (evolutionary) curve. This experience has taken place over many aeons and almost countless past lives. Mishaps have occurred in the process of learning to apply physical universe force; these cause unconscious incidents to collect in the reactive mind, a mind that no other religion, science or philosophy has been able to conquer until Dianetics and Scientology.[x] The reactive mind has gradually reduced the thetan's native power and ability; it is the unwanted byproduct of the thetan's history in the physical. Hubbard taught Scientology is the necessary evolutionary step whereby the thetan's original power is recovered, through the elimination of the reactive mind. The knowledge gained through this process makes the overall physical experience an evolutionary one therefore-by reaching the top of the Bridge, thetans recover their native power and are also in possession of the knowledge necessary to ensure they never get trapped again in the physical.

Scientologists go up Hubbard's Bridge on their own steam-the estimated cost of the Bridge through the level of OT 8 (Truth Revealed) is in a range that exceeds $200,000.00. This however is only a rough estimate, due to price fluctuations, individually tailored auditing programs, and other variables.

No one has reached the top of the Bridge to date--the most advanced levels have not been released to the public. Regardless, the will of Scientologists, with respect to their evolution, largely manifests in their ability to pay for the Bridge, and in their contributions toward the expansion of Scientology as an organization.

Hubbard taught that an individual has an overall dynamic urge to survive, which dynamic is broken down to eight sub-divisions, called simply "dynamics." These dynamics are urges to survive as: 1) self, 2) sex and family, 3) groups, 4) mankind, 5) plant and animal life-all living things, 6) Matter, energy, space and time, or "MEST," 7) the spirit realm and 8) God or Infinity.

Scientologists learn that they will not go fully free unless they take care of all their dynamics. This of course includes the mankind dynamic, and is the motivation for Scientologists to disseminate Scientology. Advanced organizations of Scientology closely monitor the financial and dissemination "contributions" of their members as criteria by which eligibility for advanced levels are determined.

4) Magic-practitioners of the left-hand path see themselves as using their own wills in a rationally intuited system or spiritual technology designed to cause the universe around them to conform to their self-willed patterns.

Scientology differentiates the "will" in terms of determinism. One can be "other-determined," by which is meant he is the unwitting effect of his reactive mind or of others' intentions. [xi] One can be "self-determined,"

[xii] which means that he can control himself and his immediate environment, not including the determinism of others. At the level of Clear, one is "self-determined." Optimally, however, the person is "pan-determined,"

[xiii] which involves the capacity for him to control the outcome of everything in his area. An "operating thetan" is pan-determined.

Hubbard's "pan-determinism" simply extends the individual's right to control the will of others in his vicinity. Although Hubbard does not overtly define the word "Pan" in the Satanic sense, it may be appropriate to consider it in this light. Hubbard jokingly (?) announced his title of "Prince of Darkness" in PDC Lecture 1 on 1 December 1952. The Scientology training system creates psychological "Hubbard replicas." The accepted interpretation of Hubbard's "pan-determinism", however, is that as one becomes more "OT", he can responsibly apply ethics to his dynamics, which ultimately includes everything and everyone. Hubbard provides for this in OT Maxims:

".THE POWER {defined as light-year kilotons per microsecond) OF A THETAN IS MEASURED BY NOTHING ELSE THAN THE DISTANCE {defined as spherical spatial length) AROUND HIM IN HIS ENVIRONMENT THAT HE CAN CONTROL." [xiv] Hubbard closely associated "will" with his philosophical triangle of "Knowledge-Responsibility-Control." The KRC triangle is Hubbard's answer to Aleister Crowley's Law of Thelema (Will): "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole of the Law." As with the Rosicrucian philosophical triangle, raising one corner of the triangle raises the other two corners. Therefore, as one' s knowledge is increased, his responsibility and his ability to control is raised. As one's ability to control is increased, so too does his knowledge and responsibility increase. And as one increases his responsibility, his control and knowledge factors increase. (For a further discussion on KRC, see earlier post called "Scientology and the KRC Triangle.")

The second of the two main criteria given by Flowers in determining whether the path is a Left-hand path is Antinomianism.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Antinomianism as follows:

1.. Theology. The doctrine or belief that the Gospel frees Christians from required obedience to any law, whether scriptural, civil, or moral, and that salvation is attained solely through faith and the gift of divine grace.

2.. The belief that moral laws are relative in meaning and application as opposed to fixed or universal."[xv] Flower further explains how antinomianism applies to the Left-hand path:

".Literally antinomianism implies something "against the law." But the practitioner of the left-hand path is not a criminal in the usual sense. He or she is bound to break the cosmic laws of nature and to break the conventional social laws imposed by ignorance and intolerance. But in so doing the left-hand path practitioner seeks a "higher law" of reality founded on knowledge and power. Although beyond good and evil, this path requires the most rigorous of ethical standards. These standards are based on understanding and not on blind obedience to external authorities." [xvi] Hubbard plainly considered his ethics and justice system to be superior to the laws of the land. He admonished his members to literally apply Scientology ethics and justice in society:

"The enturbulence of the society around us is fantastic. There is no just civil law left, really. It is that lawless and disorderly condition in the society about us which makes it hard for us to work. Shortly we will be even more powerful. That power must not be lawless or we will have anarchy and dismay, enough to stop our growth. [xvii] Scientology's internal ethics and justice system contains various regulations with respect to secular courts. The "high crimes" selected below highlight the controls Scientology places on its members with respect to the secular legal system:

".

Testifying or giving data against Scientology falsely or in generalities or without personal knowledge of the matters to which one testifies. [.] Acts calculated to misuse, invalidate or alter-is legally or in any other way the trademarks and service marks of Dianetics and Scientology. [.] Knowingly giving testimony which is false, a generality or not based on personal knowledge to imperil a Scientologist. [.] Public disavowal of Scientology or Scientologists in good standing with Scientology organizations.

Public statements against Scientology or Scientologists but not to Committees of Evidence duly convened. [Committee of Evidence: Scientology's fact-finding committee-a justice measure.] Proposing, advising or voting for legislation or ordinances, rules or laws directed toward the suppression of Scientology. [.] Testifying hostilely before state or public inquiries into Scientology to suppress it.

Reporting or threatening to report Scientology or Scientologists to civil authorities in an effort to suppress Scientology or Scientologists from practicing or receiving Scientology.

Bringing civil suit against any Scientology organization or Scientologist, including the nonpayment of bills or failure to refund, without first calling the matter to the attention of the International Justice Chief and receiving a reply. [.] Failure to handle or disavow and disconnect from a person demonstrably guilty of suppressive acts. [.] Delivering up the person of a Scientologist without justifiable defense or lawful protest to the demands of civil or criminal law." [xviii] Hubbard places murder and arson appear in the same category of offenses listed above.

David Miscavige as the Chairman of the Board of The Religious Technology Center is responsible for monitoring and controlling all violations of the above designated high crimes. All major Scientology periodicals now include a page that lists these and other such "matters of RTC concern." The RTC instructs Scientologists to report these and other matters to the RTC.

Scientology's own criminal activities are well documented on current critic web sites; a few links are referenced at the end of this document.[xix] One of the more notorious efforts was "Operation Snow White"-Scientology's international conspiracy to infiltrate government agencies all over the world. Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue, and ten other conspirators, were consequently convicted, fined and given lengthy prison sentences in October 1979.[xx]
The IRS was among the government agencies infiltrated during "Snow White."

Less than a decade after the conspiracy trial, the IRS granted Scientology tax-exempt status. [xxi] Links between that tax exemption and Snow White have been established and can be read at the site referenced. [xxii]
Scientology now promotes in their member magazines that the IRS will help them go up the Bridge.
"Make your tax deductible donations before December 31 and Uncle Sam will help you go up the Bridge in the coming year. Instead of paying taxes on all your income, you can take deductions for most of your Scientology auditing and training service donations (up to half of your adjusted gross income) because they qualify as charitable contributions under US tax laws.

In some parts of the country combined federal and state income tax can reach as high as 50% of your taxable income. At that rate, for every dollar you donate to your Bridge, you may reduce your income tax accordingly. And so, donating to your Church can result in CONSIDERABLE tax savings. (Note:

Consult your tax advisor to determine your exact tax benefits.)" [xxiii]
Scientology is well known for its aggressive litigiousness; their lawsuits are largely directed against their critics. This activity specifically accords with Hubbard's policy against critics-he states in no uncertain terms that a critic to Scientology is, without exception, a criminal. The following three quotes are excerpted from a Hubbard bulletin called "Critics of Scientology":

"[.] We do not treat the sick or the insane. We break no laws. We do more good in any ten minutes of this planet's time than the combined efforts of all social ministries on Earth to better mankind. Stated that way, however, it looks pretty hopeless and even dangerous to be a Scientologist.

Except it is totally hopeless and fatal not to be a Scientologist." [xxiv]
There are many websites on the Internet that document Scientology's criminal and inhumane activities.[xxv] Scientology hopes to "ruin utterly" the growing number of its critics.

"Those who are not Scientologists are left in complete ignorance of the motives of the dishonest. And they have no chance of personal immortality.

It is as simple as that. It is better to be endangered but with a chance than to be condemned utterly and without one. Those who criticize one for being a Scientologist or make snide remarks cannot stand a personal survey of past actions or motive. This happens to be a fortunate fact for us. The criminal abhors daylight. And we are the daylight.

Now, get this as a technical fact, not a hopeful idea. Every time we have investigated the background of a critic of Scientology, we have found crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. We do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts. Over and over we prove this." [xxvi] The above rhetoric is a good summary of how Scientology justifies its stance against critics. Scientologists believe that mankind's hope for betterment is the sole domain of Scientology. This conviction powers Scientologists' aggressive ongoing efforts against its critics.

"We are not a law enforcement agency. BUT we will become interested in the crimes of people who seek to stop us. If you oppose Scientology we promptly look up-and will find and expose-your crimes. If you leave us alone we will leave you alone."

It's very simple. Even a fool can grasp that.

And don't underrate our ability to carry it out.

If you, the criticized, are savage enough and insistent enough in your demand for the crime, you'll get the text, meter or no meter.

Never discuss Scientology with the critic. Just discuss his or her crimes, known and unknown. And act completely confident that those crimes exist.

Because they do. " [xxvii]

Their members are lied to about the true sources of Scientology doctrine and about the qualifications and true background of its founder. Scientology uses psychological mind control that has as a crucially important feature:

the delusion that its members are there of their own free will. They are not.
A left-hand path designation can only be assigned to those members in Scientology who are fully cognizant of Hubbard's sources and true intent.

Scientology's upper management is cognizant of the exact left-hand path that Hubbard left for them-it cannot be other than this. It is only these small few that can legitimately claim to be following a left-hand path. God help them.

----
[i] Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left-Hand Path © 1997 Stephen E.

Flowers [ii] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCO PL 13 August 1970 The Missing Ingredient © 1983 L.

Ron Hubbard [iii] Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left-Hand Path (Page 2) © 1997 Stephen E. Flowers [iv] Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left-Hand Path (Page 4) © 1997 Stephen E. Flowers [v] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard Online definition: http://www.scientology.org/gloss.htm#thetan

[vi] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard Online definition: http://www.scientology.org/gloss.htm#ot [vii] Hubbard, L. Ron, Scientology 8-8008 (Page 47, 48) © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library [viii] Hubbard, L. Ron HCO B 10 November 1978RA Proclamation Power to Forgive © 1991 L. Ron Hubbard Library [ix] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard [x] Hubbard, L. Ron, Scientology 8-8008 © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xi] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard [xii] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard [xiii] Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard [xiv] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCOB 10 August 1982 OT Maxims © 1991 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xv] The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2001 [xvi] Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left-Hand Path © 1997 Stephen E.

Flowers [xvii] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCO PL 27 March 1965 © 1986 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xviii] Hubbard, L. Ron, Introduction to Scientology Ethics © 1998 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xix](Operation Snow White) http://www.entheta.net/entheta/go/ops/go732/go732.html (Official Papers on Scientology) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/audit/ofpapers.html (Scientology's Intelligence Program to Infiltrate the World Federation of Mental Health) http://www.entheta.net/entheta/go/ops/go121569.html (Various documents relating to Scientology's Secret Service) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/go/index.htm (Archive of Scientology Litigation) http://www.lisatrust.net/legal.htm (Links to various Scientology-related litigation and resources) http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/dianetics.html [xx] http://www.geocities.com/xenu2000/ [xxi] http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/irs-snow.html [xxii] http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/irs-snow.html [xxiii] Source #132 © 2000 CSFSO [xxiv] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCOB 5 November 1967 Critics of Scientology © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xxv] A good starting point is http://www.lisatrust.net/index.html [xxvi] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCOB 5 November 1967 Critics of Scientology © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library [xxvii] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCOB 5 November 1967 Critics of Scientology © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library

© 2001 by Caroline Letkeman Posted under Fair Use and in the Interest of the Public

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