How did you learn of Xenu?

Reading the story of Cheryl S. on xenu.net reminded me of the first time I learned the contents of OT III, the tale of the evil galactic emperor Xenu who banished his outcasts to Teegeack to be blown up in volcanoes and become spiritual pollution for the current inhabitants of this planet.

The year was 1985, and the attorneys for Lawrence Wollersheim wanted to submit OT III as evidence in litigation, a move that would also make the materials public. This panicked the Church, which called hundreds of its members to the courthouse to stand in line at the court clerk's office and pay $12 each for copies of OT III, and hopefully prevent anyone else from doing so.

While the faithful stood in line, Church attorneys argued inside the courtroom for the materials to remain sealed. They won, shutting down the public OT III sale after a few hours. But not before the LA Times obtained a copy.

At that time, I had some big ARC breaks with the Church, and was having doubts about much of the tech. But at one time I had believed that premature exposure to the OT III materals would cause severe illness or death.

I knew that a Moment of Truth was approaching. If OT III was real, I would turn on the news and see people on stretchers being carried from One Times Square.

But the story was published. In classic foot-bullet style, the spectacle of hundreds of Scientologists lining up at the courthouse to prevent secrets from being revealed was covered as a news story itself. In fact, most of the story was about the case, the controversy of the confidential materials, and the efforts to prevent their release. But in the last two paragraphs of the article...

At this point I decided that if the story had made it this far without any mention of LA Times news reporters dropping dead, then nothing bad would happen to me either. As so for the first time I learned what the Wall of Fire actually referred to.

And the fact that nothing bad happened to anyone who read it meant that claims of the materials' power were greatly exaggerated, just like so much else in Scientology.

So where were you when you first learned of Xenu? And what was your reaction? Did you read it in the LA Times in 1985, like I did? Did you read it on the Internet? Maybe you even took the OT III course while in Scientology. Was it what you expected? Did it have any effect on you, positive or negative?

Mike de Wolf

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