Scientology in society

Found this article on The New Statesman. It's by Ken Eckersley, a founding Scientologist who's been active in the religion just about since the start.

What I liked best is he expressed exactly how I feel about what we do in society, and why I volunteer my time on our social betterment programs.

Because the fundamentals upon which Scientology rests embrace all aspects of life, certain key principles can be broadly employed to better any condition. Scientologists use these principles in their daily lives, and I have found that their usage alone can often make the difference between success and failure.

One of these principles provides a means to separately view the components of life so that its many activities, often confused, can assume a new clarity. L. Ron Hubbard discovered that the basic drive behind all of life is “Survive!” This dynamic urge can be subdivided into eight parts so that each one can be more easily inspected and understood. These parts are called the eight dynamics, and by understanding each of them and their relationship, one to the other, a person is able to increase his or her survival on all of them.

What I found was that these dynamics describe one’s drive to survive for self, family, groups, mankind, all life, the physical universe, the spiritual universe and the Infinite or Supreme Being, and I have personally used Scientology to enhance my survival in all of these spheres.

My parents and other family have helped me in numerous ways and I have been able to return that help. For example, in his twenties, my brother was able to rid himself of 19 years of asthma through Dianetics procedures. My first wife, after several years of non-conception, was diagnosed as totally incapable of bearing children, yet later gave birth to our two beautiful girls as a direct result of Scientology spiritual counselling.'As to groups, without membership of the C of E church choir, my Boy Scout Troop, the Air Cadets, my teachers and fellow pupils in the various schools I attended and without my colleagues in the companies in which I worked - I could never have achieved my present 80 years of enjoyment of life, and my good health and high level of activity in the community. Over that period I have regularly studied Scientology, and still do every week. Without this, I know my life to date could never have been as full or as satisfying to both myself and others, and might also have been much shorter.

Then there is the broader group we call Mankind. My Scientology beliefs guide me in contributing in numerous ways to other people. I voluntarily help to run a Narconon drug rehabilitation and prevention education charity, with a high success rate in helping our students achieve complete abstinence for life. I also work with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights; the Volunteer Ministers community help group; the Foundation for a Drug Free Europe in Brussels; Criminon the criminal rehabilitation programme; and with The Way To Happiness Foundation distributing a common sense guide to better living. I also support my wife in her work with Applied Scholastics the revolutionary teaching system which is today helping so many of our youth to escape illiteracy. Groups all utilising the work of L. Ron Hubbard.

Without all this, I could never be as fulfilled as I am. You have only to see the light of comprehension in the eyes of a child or a young offender; you have only to witness the relief of an individual who is now off heroin and holding down a job, or the relief of one who has just escaped physical or emotional pain - to know the value of Mr Hubbard’s work.

^{"You may have been taught that the mind is a very difficult thing to know about. This is the first principle of Scientology: It is possible to know about the mind, the spirit and life."—L. Ron Hubbard}

A Chapter a Day Keeps the Blues Away?

I've been taking time every day to real LRH books (books by L. Ron Hubbard).

You can take the time to read the directions of how to use some new gadget, IPod, how to upload your videos on a site, how to take digital pictures. But what if it was just as simple, even easier, to read a manual about you -- about how you tick, why you sometimes do irrational things, why people can be really hard to be around, why that last relationship didn't work out quite as well as you thought it would....

That and a lot more is what you get from reading Scientology books.

I have to say it's quite brilliant what David Miscavige has done with the release of all the basic Scientology and Dianetics books and lectures. (David Miscavige is the one who announced the new release of all these books and lectures last month).

To really understand Scientology you have to read and understand these books and listen to these lectures. They are the record of Ron's research and they are what lets you in on everything he learned about how people tick. It's still such an exciting route to read about, even though I've been a Scientologist for many years.

Mr. Miscavige described what it took to get these lectures and books out in 16 languages (15 plus English). We're talking man hours like you wouldn't believe!

So, I'm on Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health. And what a ride this is!

Frankly I'd forgotten what a great book it is, and this version (it has a really extensive glossary making it so easy to understand) is just gorgeous. But it's what's inside that really makes it special.

I would recommend this book to ANYONE.


^{"You may have been taught that the mind is a very difficult thing to know about. This is the first principle of Scientology: It is possible to know about the mind, the spirit and life."—L. Ron Hubbard}

Sex and AIDS — Life and Death

It’s a pretty sorry state when we can be encouraged that “only” 29% of the pregnant women on one's country are HIV positive. But that’s the news today out of South Africa.

How many Americans could confront walking down a street in Johannesburg today, knowing that 3 out of every 10 pregnant women we see are living under a death sentence and passing it on to their unborn children.

As reported in 2005 almost half of the 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa lost their parents to AIDS.

The people of the African continent, living under the thread to AIDS have the lowest life expectancy on Earth.

Obviously, sexual abstinence is the most effective preventative measure for sexually transmitted HIV, but what will it take to shift sexual mores to such a degree that we can make a dent in the problem?

Last month a new set of video clips that are public service announcements were released at an international Scientology event in Clearwater Florida by David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center. (Mr. Miscavige is the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion).

These video clips illustrate the 21 precepts of The Way to Happiness, which is a common sense moral code, not restricted to any one religious belief, written by L. Ron Hubbard.

One of these clips illustrates the precept “Don’t be promiscuous.”

The video itself is a very funny representation of the personal backlash one can experience from violating this precept. It doesn't get into the question of sexually transmitted disease, but rather into the painful repercussions when the person you cheated on finds out. But its humor could be the very thing to use this as the opener for educating youth on sexual faithfulness being the most effective personal answer and social remedy for the AIDS pandemic.

This is not an advocacy against other campaigns to reduce the spread of AIDS through distribution of condoms. Whatever it takes to save lives, we need to do it. But this is one method that's foolproof, and it's easy for anyone to participate and spread the word.

Here's the video clip. It's less than a minute. Take the time to enjoy it. Then copy it onto your blog and spread the word.

Click here to view other Public Service Announcements

It is ironic that L. Ron Hubbard wrote The Way To Happiness in 1981, the year that the first cases of this new disease were reported, and a full year before scientists had given it a name. In this book, Mr. Hubbard wrote: “Unfaithfulness on the part of a sexual partner can heavily reduce one’s survival,“ and he goes on to say, “For a very brief period, it was said that sexual diseases were all under control. This is not now the case, if it ever was. Incurable strains of such diseases now exist,” and “The urge of the moment can become the sorrow of a lifetime.”

If this one precept were really implemented, we could cut back the spread of HIV/AIDS enormously in one generation.

Definition of Scientology

According to the Scientology web site The word Scientology literally means "the study of truth." It comes from the Latin word "scio" meaning "knowing in the fullest sense of the word" and the Greek word "logos" meaning "study of."

The definition goes on to say:

Scientology is the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life. The religion comprises a body of knowledge extending from certain fundamental truths. Prime among these:

When I was first learning about Scientology what appealed to me most was the fact I could read what L. Ron Hubbard wrote, try it for myself and see if it worked or not. And the fact was, it did. Every time. And I was gaining the kind of understanding of myself as a spiritual being that I really needed. That was enough for me!

Years later, it's still the best! Works whenever you use it.