In 1996 or 7 when I was catching up on the news about Scientology, I searched the New York Times index in my local library for "Scientology". Scientology was mentioned only in "clean the parks"-type articles. I went back for years and that was all I could find. Had news coverage changed so much since Time magazines "The Cult of Greed and Power"?
Finally, I found something that looked different from the other articles in the New York Times index. Scientology had sued to stop a book from being distributed in the USA. The name of the book was Bare-Faced Messiah. That was the book I wanted to find. And I did. Its Preface starts out with:
The Revelation of Ron
It was a scene that could have been ripped from the yellowing pages of the pulp science fiction that L. Ron Hubbard wrote in the Thirties . . .
A strangely alien group of young people who believe they are immortal set up a secret base in an abandoned health spa in the desert in southern California. Fearful of outsiders, they suspect they have been discovered by the FBI. In a panic, they begin to destroy any documents that might incriminate their leader. Is is essential they protect him, for they believe he alone can save the world.
Searching through the top floor of a derelict hotel, one of the number discovers a stack of battered cardboard boxes and begins pulling out faded photographs, dog-eared manuscripts, diaries written in a childish scrawl and school reports. There are twenty-one boxes in all, each stuffed with memorabilia, even baby clothes.
The young man rummaging through the boxes is ecstatic. He is certain he has made a discovery of profound significance, for all the material documents the early life of his leader. St last, he thinks, it will be possible to refute all the lies spread by their enemies. At last it will be possible to prove to the world, beyond doubt, that his leader really is a genius and miracle worker . . .
That man was Gerry Armstrong.
As I read the book, the glimmerings of a realization I was to communicate earlier this year in Moscow started forming. Scientology is the science of thinking the same way L. Ron Hubbard thought. Therefore, practicing Scientology to learn how it works is the equivalent of injecting yourself with a virus to see what effect it will have upon you. If you want to study Scientology, you'll be far safer studying the life of L. Ron Hubbard, as contained in the Bare-Faced Messiah, than you will injecting your mind with an alien way of thinking.
Therefore, I believe we owe a debt of gratitude to Gerry for his courage to come forth and communicate his knowledge, thus helping us understand Scientology without having to practice it first. However, I don't believe that Scientology is grateful that Gerry did this, as his life has not exactly been a bowl of cherries since then. But once again, Gerry has had the courage to communicate his knowledge of what his dealings with Scientology have been since he went 100 percent exterior to it. Once again, it involved leaving the country he was in.
Attain everything promised by Scientology (remain exterior to Scientology, improve your ability to communicate about Scientology, etc.) without having to inject your mind with an alien mental technology. Visit http://www.gerryarmstrong.org
Joe Cisar
Support peaceful, mutual agreement. Don't practice the Press and Public Relations Policies of Layfayette Ronald Hubbard http://www.xenu.net/archive/thesis/cisar-home.html http://cisar.org