Bubba Free John on Scientology
Zinj
most, although, hardly less exploitive or abusive.
I hadn't realized that part of his own 'spiritual path' to the 'Godhead' was
over Scientology, but, it makes sense, and even explains some of his own
descent into solipsist narcissism.
from: http://www.beezone.com/WaterNarcisuss/scientology.html
=============================================================
Chapter 12 of the original Knee of Listening
copyright Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj)
The Search for Release From the Mind: Scientology
Baba had all but told me to abandon my work with Rudi. For my own part, that
whole motivation had already passed. I felt no need to condemn Rudi, and the
Ashram gossip that opposed him seemed only a manifestation of particular
Indian predilections for certain ways of life. I needed very much to be free
of Rudi but I was certain that his way was appropriate for him and anyone
else who felt a genuine urge in the direction he could lead them.
Even so, the path of life had simply emerged as a totally different matter. I
was convinced that the way of effort was simply a further manifestation of
life lived as a problem, a motivated search. Yet, the mind and the whole
habitual pattern of life appeared to me to be a source of difficulty, which
in fact prevented the continuous assumption of life on a radically free
basis.
Baba's way was peculiarly tied to Indian notions and methods. *Although he
suggested these to me, he did not seek to enforce any kind of method in my
case. It all seemed a suggestive communication that should lead me to my own
truth. He even told me that I would eventually teach the ways of spiritual
life, in perhaps a year or more. But he did not tell me what to teach. I took
his teaching and my experience on the broadest level, to be freely and
meaningfully adapted to my own case.
Thus, when the old problems began to arise, and I saw no immediate way to use
the specific methods Baba described or even to enforce the vision of my
particular experience, I felt moved to find a solution to the dilemma by any
means available to me. The history of my own development led me to be open to
any form of solution, whether or not it involved the specific means or
mentality of yoga.
While I was established in this mood, Julio Delatorre, an old friend from my
days at Stanford, came to dinner. He was animatedly involved in an
organization called Scientology, which was headed and exclusively developed
by a man named L. Ron Hubbard.
After I had worn out the conversation about my years of yoga and my
experiences in India, my friend became more enthusiastically involved in
describing his experiences in Scientology. I began instead to listen to him.
Scientology made use of a peculiar technique called "auditing." A trained
person sat with you and, by careful use of a pattern of direct questioning,
sought to remove the force which certain key experiences in your past had on
your daily life. My friend had experienced great benefits from this method,
and he had even been led to re?experience his birth, the violence of which he
felt had determined a kind of nervous and aloof quality in him all his life.
Now he felt peculiarly "cleared" of the force of that experience and all
kinds of other reactions that he had retained as unconscious controls on his
behavior.
Scientology sought by these means to relieve a person from the machinery of
memory and unconscious reactivity so that he could eventually attain a state
called "clear." In the state of "clear" the reactive or unconscious mind was
supposed to be entirely eliminated as a force.
The more I listened the more this method seemed perfectly suited to what I
now considered to be the essential problem of life. I knew that our essential
nature, the Self or Divine Consciousness or Soul, was not something that
needed to be created or recovered by effort. It was always already the case.
But we are usually identified with an unconscious pattern of mentality that
enforces a life of seeking and trouble and prevents a direct awareness of our
true state. If a man could only reduce the power of this subliminal mechanism
he would stand free, in his original nature.
I determined to investigate Scientology for myself. The next day I went to
the Scientology organization, near 34th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.
The atmosphere of the place was one of constant activity. It was filled
mainly with young people, who seemed very open and communicative. I was
constantly greeted with what later became known as the "Scientology stare."
The people approached me with a wide smile and fixed on me with their eyes,
with the same sense of necessity that Rudi had demonstrated whenever he shook
my hand.
I was shown around the organization by one of its enthusiastic members, named
Sal Lucania, who would later become a close friend. He kept insisting on how
I had finally come "home." I saw an impressive array of books, an expanse of
highly organized departments, and a huge classroom where many people sat with
headphones listening to tapes. Some sat in groups on opposite sides of a long
table. They stared at one another or made efforts to distract one another
into laughter. I was shown a young girl, about ten years old, who was the
"world's youngest auditor." And another young man who was having difficulty
staring at his partner without breaking up. He would have to do this very
well before he could qualify as an auditor.
The place had all of that strange air of an ingrown organization, but there
was a certain freedom and freshness to the place that was a nice change from
my cloistering in seminaries and yoga. I was taken to a "registrar," whose
charge, very obviously, was to get me to buy as much auditing as she could.
We discussed the process, and it continued to interest me. She said that
results were guaranteed or 1, by contract, would be free to get a refund
within a reasonable period. If I paid somewhere between a thousand and twelve
hundred dollars I could get all of my auditing and training up to grade IV
release," the highest grade offered in New York. To get the higher grades
toward "clear" you had to go to England. And there were also higher levels
called "O.T." ("operating thetan"), now being given in Spain, that brought a
person who was already "clear" up to the state where he could leave his
physical body at will and perform certain higher functions in the environment
without having to inhabit the body.
It was all presented as a revolutionary new tool for spiritual advancement,
one that had been planned scientifically and found to be 100% effective in
all cases. It seemed to be an absolutely irresistible opportunity. Another
young man came and demonstrated to me the basic apparatus of auditing. The
auditor not only used the questions appropriate to each grade of "release."
He used an instrument called an E?meter, a device patterned after the
Wheatstone Bridge, which indicates changes in body resistance. These changes
could be interpreted by a trained auditor as he watched the moving needle on
his meter. By these reactions he could determine what areas of questioning
were vital, or, by a peculiar manifestation called a "floating needle," he
could tell that a state of "release" had been attained in a particular area.
The "grades" themselves were patterns of questioning that moved in a gradient
of depth up the scale of difficulties that the individual could confront.
Thus, by a scientifically graduated approach to the clear state, a person
would never pass "over his head" or by?pass problems that would prevent his
higher and stable realization.
The whole matter seemed to be highly sophisticated, and the people I met
seemed so firmly convinced of its effectiveness in their case, that I was
persuaded to buy some auditing The price was quite high, but I considered
that it would be worth it if the process worked. If I paid the full price I
would not only get the total amount of auditing but also the training
necessary to reproduce these same states in others. This seemed a valuable
addition to me. I thought perhaps this would be an opportunity for a career
in actual and effective spiritual work. Perhaps it was in Scientology that
Baba saw I was to become a teacher.
I immediately set about finding some way to get enough money for auditing. I
sold my library, took my savings, and got a small loan from Pan American.
Within a day or two I appeared for my auditing. Six days later I was a "grade
IV release."
My experience of auditing did not produce any radical changes in my
awareness. It was largely a recollection and reassessment of memories,
thoughts and bits of certainty that I had already recovered, less formally
but also more exhaustively, in my years of writing. It produced no remarkable
or sudden knowledge such as I had experienced in college or seminary. But
neither did it contradict anything I knew as a result of my own experiments.
The auditing I experienced at this level dealt mainly with memories and
reactions of a clinical nature. It was the same body of experience that one
might bring to a psychiatrist or any other socially?oriented therapy. Even
so, it verified my previous estimations of my life. I did not gain any new
advantage in self?knowledge, except that I did have the opportunity to
communicate what I knew and what I had suffered. This had a certain value. It
had a socializing effect. Just as my work with Rudi drew me out of solitude
to the world of present experience, the Scientology processes drew me even
further out of the cloister of yoga and effort. I thought that auditing had a
certain logic and value that could be useful to others in the same way my
private researches had served me. Perhaps as an "auditor" I could act as a
medium for the communication of self?knowledge in others. Perhaps the upper
levels of "clearing" and O.T." would indeed provide sources of transformation
in my own case that would penetrate the untouched barriers of my mind. The
world of Scientology was attractive, youthful and public. The value it held
most dear was communication. It was a form of society, and this seemed
important. To be present with others was a healing opportunity. Thus, I
decided to leave Pan American and go to work for Scientology.
I convinced Nina to get auditing too, and within a few weeks we had both
become working members of the Scientology staff. At about that time I
received a letter from Baba.? It was a long letter with lots of poetic maxims
on yoga and Self realization, and there were some practical indications on
how to meditate. I sat down with Nina to discuss our relation to these
things, when suddenly I felt the space of the room expand in a curious way,
and I felt Baba's actual Presence. The Shakti moved up my back and produced
that peculiar bliss in the mind, and I sat for a long time enjoying his
Presence, waiting for some kind of message or advice.
After a while the experience subsided. Nina and I both had felt it. But it
seemed to us both that it was not an experience radically opposed to our use
of Scientology. I felt that it only demonstrated a reality that I would hope
to attain in a more stable form as a result of the process called
"clearing." I didn't feel at the time that meditation or the attitude of yoga
was necessarily useful in permanently removing the obstacles of the mind that
now seemed to me to be the point of my practical investigation. We decided to
continue in Scientology until it should outlive its usefulness or prove to be
a detriment to real knowledge. We were told that Scientology demanded the
radical abandonment of other practices as long as auditing was being used.
Thus, we had already abandoned our usual practice of meditation meditation
The methods of Scientology seemed to reproduce the same condition of openness
and well-being, and I could in any case make use of the knowledge gained by
spiritual practice over the years even without the practice of meditation.
I also broke off with Rudi at this time. At one point in my auditing I was
led to consider my relation to him, and it was causing me difficulty. I was
sent to the "Ethics Officer," who was supposed to help a person relieve
himself of influences that tended to suppress his awareness or his freedom.
It was determined that Rudi functioned in this way in my case. It was true
that I had begun to feel that relationship? as a burden, and he seemed to
have no sympathy with the point of view that had begun to guide me since
seminary. He would certainly not approve of my work in Scientology, and this
itself would require a break between us.
Thus, I agreed to write a "disconnect letter" to Rudi. It was a letter in
which I ungratefully severed my connection to him and said I would make no
further effort to communicate with him. The form and motive for the letter
were not really my own. It was a traditional Scientology practice at that
time. However, I felt greatly relieved to be so easily free of a relationship
I didn't otherwise know how to end. Rudi's reaction to the letter was as you
may imagine, and it would be two and one half years before we would be on
speaking terms again. But with this letter I brought another phase of my life
to a summary end.
Nina and I worked for the Scientology organization for more than a year.
During that time we became painfully familiar with the fanatical politics of
that organization and suffered a great deal of humiliation by its seemingly
endless internal purges. But these politics will not be my subject here. I am
only interested in detailing my experience there as an extension of my life?
long search for spiritual or conscious transformation.
I was determined to take advantage of the processes of "clearing" and "O.T."
I became willing to exercise extreme patience and even self effacement in
order not to lose the opportunity. Thus, I passed through the constant
internal warfare and personal chaos we created at that time while doing
everything I could to prevent my being removed from the organization and so
lose the opportunity to go further. As an auditor I encountered serious
problems. An auditor is supposed to be able to let his "pre?clear" or
auditing subject be completely free to communicate and so enjoy the benefits
of the auditing process. I was very willing to have it be this way, but the
experience of Shakti that had been generated in me by years of yoga had
produced a profound expression of that Force in me that also affected others.
In auditing sessions people would have experiences of Shakti and become
distracted by my presence. The need to maintain direct contact with the
person with the eyes or simply one's concentrated presence made it impossible
for me to remove the effects of the Shakti in my auditing sessions. I finally
had to tell one of my superiors what it was that was taking place, and he was
quite insistent that I manage somehow to empty myself of this Force. He
thought it must be some kind of suppressive use of energy that would trap
people and fix them in bodily consciousness.
Thus, I had to try very hard to draw myself out of the consciousness of
Shakti. Obviously, I was in a very unusual position, and even to talk about
it seems a little unreal, but it was for me a very practical difficulty. I
knew I had to eliminate this effect from my auditing work or else suffer
possible expulsion.
By the time I had nearly mastered the ability to empty myself of this
experience, the opportunity arose for me to go on to prepare for the Clearing
and O.T. levels. Thus, in March of 1969, 1 returned to California. The
organization had since created a headquarters in Los Angeles for the upper
levels of training and for the operation of its higher political organization
called the "Sea Org." It was a focal point for Ron Hubbard's secret political
and auditing work, and even today he controls it from a fleet of ships at
sea. He is a former science fiction writer, and the pattern of his
organization as well as the pattern of philosophy and interpretations of
human history that inform the higher levels of Scientology auditing, bear all
the marks of a great work of the imagination.
Early in my indoctrination into Scientology I heard public lectures that
described the things that were to be dealt with in the upper levels of
auditing. Those processes work under the assumption that the human mind is
not primarily bound to the separate experiences of the present life or even
of many previous lives. Rather, what is really at work to trap us in the mind
are a series of terrible betrayals far in the past in which we were subject
to "implantation." These implants were akin to the methods used to "brain
wash" people who are politically dangerous, particularly in Russia and other
closed societies. In the distant past, when we were part of a large
confederacy of galaxies and planets and operated on a very miraculous, super?
human level, even without physical bodies, we were supposed to have been
trapped by various politically motivated groups and subjected to
implantation. These implants usually made use of electronic instruments and
every kind of scientific hocus pocus to program the mind and remove certain
of our higher abilities. Thus, we have, over millennia, degenerated into our
present condition of mere humanity in constant mystery. A person who is Clear
and O.T. is supposed to be entirely free of the mind and its implantation's,
and so able to move about freely as a spiritual entity outside a body.
When I went to California I was only tentatively aware of this basic
philosophy of implantation. I had been attracted to the work on other
grounds. For me, "clearing" was a matter of dealing with the fundamental
mechanisms of the mind and not at last with its contents. If some considered
those contents to be on a level with science fiction, that was theirs to
Pursue. I was interested in the mind as a present mechanism. I was not
Particularly interested in its contents except as they arose in my own case
and needed to be handled for the sake of my own clearing. But when I came to
do the upper levels I found that the whole affair was inseparable from these
assumptions about the politics of the universe. I had in my own experience
quite a different awareness of cosmic reality. I had reached to dimensions of
the mind and cosmos that were quite apart from anything as paltry as some
kind of electronic hoax. And I knew very well that no experience, however
devastating, in fact acts as a radical deterrent to the realization of higher
consciousness. I had passed into those realms myself and witnessed the
genuine mechanisms of ultimate reality. And there was no sign in all of that,
or in the whole history of spiritual literature, of there being a fundamental
structure of mind, created by historical implantation, that in fact was the
primary source of unrealized existence.
Of course, there is an infinite history of cosmic events in which we all
share, but the detailed analysis of them could never amount to a fundamental
liberation. The structure that actually prevented real consciousness and
growth was not the historical deposits in the mind but the unconsciousness of
our true nature, of the Divine or real Presence of ultimate reality, and the
present tendency to operate on the basis of limited awareness rather than a
conscious relationship to higher reality.
Thus, I had sought the clearing processes as a means of dealing with and even
eliminating the present, ongoing structure of the mind. If this could be
perceived and controlled, it made no difference what it contained as memory.
But when I actually performed the Clearing and O.T. levels I found that they
continued to deal only with the content of the mind. And that content was
continually identified with the peculiar cosmic politics favored by Ron
Hubbard. Thus, I found that these levels never dealt with the fundamental
problem of the mind itself, prior to any content. In fact, they only led
people deeper and deeper into a fanciful, paranoiac dilemma in which they
were indoctrinated into the mentality of a cosmic political holocaust.
The people with whom I worked were chronically seeking release and
"exteriorization" from the contents of the mind and from the physical body.
This was itself a motivation grown out of fear and very little wisdom. To be
sure, the evidence for exteriorization is conclusive, as it appears in works
such as those of Jung. But nowhere in spiritual literature is it offered as
the goal of life. Neither is it declared to be a necessary event in every
case, prior to perfect knowledge.
In Scientology, however, exteriorization is the object of constant seeking.
It is the sign of a period in cosmic history when spiritual beings had great
powers and mobile freedom in the physical universe. Thus, it is pursued quite
apart from any kind of higher wisdom. Exteriorization and various powers are
sought for their own sake. Even the phenomenon supposed to be attained at
"O.T. 8," the highest stage of Scientology auditing promoted at present, is
called "total power."
I had taken up Scientology for reasons of my own and allowed myself to
discover in it parallels to my own motives and experience. Thus, I had failed
to recognize the precise nature of the study itself. It was only on the upper
levels, when the activity of auditing had degenerated into exercises of pure
nonsense, that I realized what I had in fact led myself into. While I was
busy doing the O.T. levels I dropped all of my resistance to the internal
operation of the Shakti and began to recover my earlier state of awareness.
The phenomenon of exteriorization was not unfamiliar to me, but its
importance was quite different from that in which it was conceived in
Scientology. For me, it was only one of the possible phenomena encountered in
the growth of real consciousness. I attached no necessity or radical
importance to it, nor to any other kind of "power."
I saw that Scientology was actually a political entity created along the
lines of a fanciful interpretation of history. Its goals were political, not
spiritual. Thus, its leading concern was power, not wisdom or realization.
The "clearing" level was only another manipulation of mental images, and not
at all a radical approach to the mind. It pointed to the O.T. levels and the
creation of a certain mentality whose effects were political. In most cases
those levels did not even momentarily produce such phenomena as true
exteriorization. It simply indoctrinated people into the mentality of power
and paranoid cosmic politics. Even where the phenomenon of exteriorization is
sought intentionally, there are many levels on which it can be produced. In
spiritual literature it is sought as an entrance into the subtler planes of
reality. But in Scientology it was always promoted as a way out of the
physical body but into the physical universe.
After my experience of the "upper levels" of Scientology auditing I realized
clearly that it did not deal with matters that were fundamentally important
to me. I returned to New York with the intention to separate myself
altogether from the Scientology organization. The whole experience had even
served to separate Nina and me. We had become chronically unwilling and
unable to understand and create our relationship. We seemed to become
obstacles to one another's freedom. We became "released" and "exterior" to
one another.
Thus, I returned to New York much the same as I had been year before. The
year of Scientology seemed to have been vacant space in time, a moment turned
aside from the current of my life. I was ready to begin again. There were no
games to be played, nothing to be sought. I saw again the fundamental
relatedness that is in all things and which is the source of real love.
Chapter 13: The Return to India and the Problem of Spiritual Consciousness
(this was omitted from the published version)
In May of 1969 1 had definitely decided to separate myself from Scientology.
From then until August I was devoted to the understanding of the problem of
the mind rather than to its solution. But this was also a period of expanded
experience in the Shakti, the manifesting energy that proceeds from the
highest reality or Divine Consciousness.
During the exercise of the Scientology O.T. ("operating thetan") processes I
gave up all effort to suppress that Force in me. One evening, while I was
still in California, it rushed again into the form of my being with
tremendous power, so that it seemed I was no longer even remotely concerned
with the petty contaminations of the mind. I was suddenly returned to an
experience of my Self-nature and a sublime recognition of the Divinity of
even the physical world. I lived entirely in this consciousness, making no
effort at all to maintain or create it. The O.T. levels ceased to involve
matters of importance to me. I passed through them quickly and returned to
New York.
In the weeks that followed I became aware of a new dimension of the activity
of Shakti. Not only was my own state expanded in its Presence, but the people
who were closest to me began to experience the effects of Shakti through
contact with me. My wife Nina, Patricia Morley, a girl whom we had met in
Scientology and who had come to live with us, and Sal Lucania, now a former
Scientologist and my business partner, were particularly affected with these
experiences. And there were a few others who seemed drawn by this Presence
that had begun to operate through me.
At first I merely talked to them about my understanding of real spiritual
life, and they began to discover parallels to this understanding in their own
experiences and doubts. Then they began to have uncommon experiences of a
Presence that affected them separately and in different ways while they were
otherwise apart from me. These experiences took the form of visions, or the
sensation of a real but invisible Presence, or the sense of being sublimed
and surrounded in a form of energy and fulness that quieted and clarified the
mind. They would ask me about these experiences and, before long, I found
myself having to function as a teacher and an instrument for the Shakti.
My own state was so profoundly drawn into that Consciousness that I found no
difficulty in speaking to them and making recommendations that seemed wholly
intelligent and even inspired. At times I even experienced visual
communications of a psychic nature. I would see auras of light about the
person, or see his thoughts appearing in my mind, or intuitively perceive
certain images in his forehead or his body. I would also become directly
aware of the Shakti as it passed through these people or was expressed in
them, and I could easily trace the currents of energy and see where they
became concentrated, halted or obstructed at the various vital points or
"chakras." On more than one occasion saw Baba appear and initiate a person
with the Shakti by touch, and I could see a blue light appear and surround
the person's body.
=======================================================
Zinj
--
Scientology: The Science of Believing Anything You Like
This is the 'Tech' This is the Session.
sherr...@gmail.com
In a large room of the Ann Arbor Senior Center, yoga class is under
way. A dozen men and women, age 55 to "you don't really need to know,
do you?", kneel on rows of soft mats, stretching their legs and ankles.
Donna Pointer, the 69-year-old instructor, is at the front of the room,
encouraging them to stretch a little more deeply. "Flexibility in your
ankles is something you need if you want to be able to walk on your
own," she says.
The students bring a range of ability and experience to the class. Some
have been doing yoga for 20 years or more. Others are former athletes
wanting to stay limber and active. A few are coming back from strokes,
surgery or arthritis. One woman says, "I ignored my body for 62 years;
it's mad at me." But, says Pointer, they're all alike in one important
way.
"At this age," she says, "to retain independence is the name of the
game."
In recent years, yoga's popularity has taken off much as running did in
the 1970s. Given the glam veneer now attached to yoga, seniors might
well wonder if it's right for them.
For complete detail:-
http://medical-health-care-information.com/health-news/5-18health1.htm
Muldoon
> As gurus go, Franklin Jones, (AKA Bubba Free John) is more interesting than
> most, although, hardly less exploitive or abusive.
>
> I hadn't realized that part of his own 'spiritual path' to the 'Godhead' was
> over Scientology, but, it makes sense, and even explains some of his own
> descent into solipsist narcissism.
>
> from: http://www.beezone.com/WaterNarcisuss/scientology.html
> =============================================================
Franklin Jones - Yes, he was into Scientology for a while.
I'm not sure, but has this chapter been deleted from latter editions of
the 'Knee of Listening'?
Jones was tolerable in his early days, and sometimes insightful, before
his own uncontrollable majestic divinity took him over, and he became
surrounded by bliss-groupies.
Have snipped some of this, for emphasis.
>
> Chapter 12 of the original Knee of Listening
> copyright Franklin Jones (Adi Da Samraj)
>
> The Search for Release From the Mind: Scientology
>
-snip-
> Early in my indoctrination into Scientology I heard public lectures that
> described the things that were to be dealt with in the upper levels of
> auditing. Those processes work under the assumption that the human mind is
> not primarily bound to the separate experiences of the present life or even
> of many previous lives. Rather, what is really at work to trap us in the mind
> are a series of terrible betrayals far in the past in which we were subject
> to "implantation." These implants were akin to the methods used to "brain
> wash" people who are politically dangerous, particularly in Russia and other
> closed societies. In the distant past, when we were part of a large
> confederacy of galaxies and planets and operated on a very miraculous, super-
> human level, even without physical bodies, we were supposed to have been
> trapped by various politically motivated groups and subjected to
> implantation. These implants usually made use of electronic instruments and
> every kind of scientific hocus pocus to program the mind and remove certain
> of our higher abilities. Thus, we have, over millennia, degenerated into our
> present condition of mere humanity in constant mystery. A person who is Clear
> and O.T. is supposed to be entirely free of the mind and its implantation's,
> and so able to move about freely as a spiritual entity outside a body.
>
> When I went to California I was only tentatively aware of this basic
> philosophy of implantation. I had been attracted to the work on other
> grounds. For me, "clearing" was a matter of dealing with the fundamental
> mechanisms of the mind and not at last with its contents. If some considered
> those contents to be on a level with science fiction, that was theirs to
> Pursue. I was interested in the mind as a present mechanism. I was not
> Particularly interested in its contents except as they arose in my own case
> and needed to be handled for the sake of my own clearing. __But when I came to
> do the upper levels I found that the whole affair was inseparable from these
> assumptions about the politics of the universe.__ I had in my own experience
> quite a different awareness of cosmic reality. I had reached to dimensions of
> the mind and cosmos that were quite apart from anything as paltry as some
> kind of electronic hoax. And I knew very well that no experience, however
> devastating, in fact acts as a radical deterrent to the realization of higher
> consciousness. I had passed into those realms myself and witnessed the
> genuine mechanisms of ultimate reality. And there was no sign in all of that,
> or in the whole history of spiritual literature, of there being a fundamental
> structure of mind, created by historical implantation, that in fact was the
> primary source of unrealized existence.
>
> Of course, there is an infinite history of cosmic events in which we all
> share, but the detailed analysis of them could never amount to a fundamental
> liberation. The structure that actually prevented real consciousness and
> growth was not the historical deposits in the mind but the unconsciousness of
> our true nature, of the Divine or real Presence of ultimate reality, and the
> present tendency to operate on the basis of limited awareness rather than a
> conscious relationship to higher reality.
>
> Thus, I had sought the clearing processes as a means of dealing with and even
> eliminating the present, ongoing structure of the mind. If this could be
> perceived and controlled, it made no difference what it contained as memory.
> But when I actually performed the Clearing and O.T. levels I found that they
> continued to deal only with the content of the mind. And that content was
> continually identified with the peculiar cosmic politics favored by Ron
> Hubbard. __Thus, I found that these levels never dealt with the fundamental
> problem of the mind itself, prior to any content. In fact, they only led
> people deeper and deeper into a fanciful, paranoiac dilemma in which they
> were indoctrinated into the mentality of a cosmic political holocaust.__
>
> The people with whom I worked were chronically seeking release and
> "exteriorization" from the contents of the mind and from the physical body.
> This was itself a motivation grown out of fear and very little wisdom. To be
> sure, the evidence for exteriorization is conclusive, as it appears in works
> such as those of Jung. But nowhere in spiritual literature is it offered as
> the goal of life. Neither is it declared to be a necessary event in every
> case, prior to perfect knowledge.
>
> __In Scientology, however, exteriorization is the object of constant seeking.
> It is the sign of a period in cosmic history when spiritual beings had great
> powers and mobile freedom in the physical universe. Thus, it is pursued quite
> apart from any kind of higher wisdom. Exteriorization and various powers are
> sought for their own sake. Even the phenomenon supposed to be attained at
> "O.T. 8," the highest stage of Scientology auditing promoted at present, is
> called "total power."__
>
-snip-
>
> I saw that __Scientology was actually a political entity__ created along the
> lines of a fanciful interpretation of history. Its goals were political, not
> spiritual. Thus, its leading concern was power, not wisdom or realization.
> The "clearing" level was only another manipulation of mental images, and not
> at all a radical approach to the mind. It pointed to the O.T. levels and the
> creation of a certain mentality whose effects were political. In most cases
> those levels did not even momentarily produce such phenomena as true
> exteriorization. __It simply indoctrinated people into the mentality of power
> and paranoid cosmic politics.__ Even where the phenomenon of exteriorization is
> sought intentionally, there are many levels on which it can be produced. In
> spiritual literature it is sought as an entrance into the subtler planes of
> reality. But in Scientology it was always promoted as a way out of the
> physical body but into the physical universe.
>
-snip-
Ed
Muldoon wrote:
>
> Zinj wrote:
> > As gurus go, Franklin Jones, (AKA Bubba Free John) is more interesting than
> > most, although, hardly less exploitive or abusive.
> >
> > I hadn't realized that part of his own 'spiritual path' to the 'Godhead' was
> > over Scientology, but, it makes sense, and even explains some of his own
> > descent into solipsist narcissism.
> >
> > from: http://www.beezone.com/WaterNarcisuss/scientology.html
> > =============================================================
>
> Franklin Jones - Yes, he was into Scientology for a while.
He was the auditor for my quickie grades in late 1968.
> I'm not sure, but has this chapter been deleted from latter editions of
> the 'Knee of Listening'?
>
> Jones was tolerable in his early days, and sometimes insightful, before
> his own uncontrollable majestic divinity took him over, and he became
> surrounded by bliss-groupies.
I remember looking at one of his books, and the devotee who
was the editor always referred to Jones/Bubba with capitalized "He"
and "His".
Ed
Muldoon
Interesting to hear that he was your auditor. Wouldn't mind knowing
more about what that was like.
I never met him, but did look through his extensive (early 1970s) G.O.
file. He was regarded as a "blown staff member" and a "squirrel," and
as kind of an embarrassment for the New York Org. One thing they
definitely didn't want was another New York Org alumnus becoming a
guru. They were quite sensitive about it.
Around this same time, I had a friend who was doing post graduate
studies at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and he and his wife
decided to explore Scientology by spending the summer taking the "Hard
TRs Course" (1971). For my very unusual friend, the experience was just
another adventure in exploring altered states of consciousness. He
found it interesting. At the end of the course, when it became time to
attest, he jokingly wrote in his "success story" that he was "now going
to become the leader of his own religion." (Or words to that effect.)
I could hear - from some distance away - the "examiner" shouting at
him, as he sat there holding the e-meter cans, "You're insane!"
As you can imagine, he exited the Org fairly quickly, but was happy
with his latest adventure in consciousness exploration.
As with most people who benefited from this sort of brief encounter
with Scientology, he and his wife were both resilient people, and -
most importantly - they had nothing further to do with the Cult.
Back to the issue of Franklin Jones: His views in this posting were
expressed during his transitional period, after leaving Scientology,
but before he became a God-man, spent time sitting on a bolder wearing
only a jock strap, and being surrounded by God-energy-emanation
junkies.
I think his comments, made during this brief interval, demonstrate
amazing insight.
Ed
This was before he got into being a guru. He was just a guy,
somewhat businesslike, not very friendly, and I didn't like his looks.
We got all the way through Grade 3 in about 20 minutes, getting F/Ns
on definitions and not running any processes. On Grade 4, I expected
to do the same and get out quick because we had a 4-5 hour drive home.
But I didn't get an F/N on the definitions, so he started asking a
listing question "What do you use to make others wrong?" I think. This
dragged on and on for about an hour and I knew I had to get the needle
floating somehow to get out of there, so I did it by thinking of how I
was already a grade 4 (actually clear) which did the trick.
Ed
Muldoon
Yes, this was the era of emphasis on the "floating needle" alone, as
the "end of any action up to clear," which, I think, began with the
HCOB 'Release Goofs' of 2 August 1965. And five months after the
issuing of the infamous 'Fair Game Law', most didn't want to piss off
"Source," soon to become the "Commodore."
Once "Clear" was approached, then the really important action was to
begin: running out the R6 bank, which was, so the idea went, the real
problem in the first place.
And by 1968, the R6 Bank had stretched out to include the newly
released "OT 3."
Muldoon
Zinj, do you plan to post this material to a.c.t.?
Zinj
@dslextreme.com says...
<snip>
> Zinj, do you plan to post this material to a.c.t.?
No. But then, it's not *my* material :)
And, I have to admit, I don't realy care about 'rescuing' clams.
My intent is to take their cult away from them.
I have high respect for the Scientology mindfuck; it's the only part of 'The
Tech' that works.
Zinj
--
Scientology: Come for the placebo; stay for the mind fuck.
Muldoon
I try to have compassion for clams; they may not have brains, but they
can still weep.
Muldoon
Recently posted commentaries by a 1970ish William S. Burroughs, and
now, a late 1960ish Franklin Jones have produced little reaction on
either a.r.s. or on a.c.t.
Both individuals are strange - to say the least - but they had some
noteworthy things to say on this even stranger topic of Scientology.
One point that, I think, needs to be made, is that the subject is not
entirely silly, or crazy, or demented. The more sensible parts (mostly
"window dressing") need to be recognized, as it is these parts that
often draw a person in, and hold them in until Hubbard's darker methods
can be applied.
There are many other factors of course, but "truth" and "common sense"
are amongst those things that are used in Scientology as lead-ins, so
as to, ultimately, trap.
Recognizing this helps inoculate the unsuspecting from being sucked
into Hubbard's enlightenment-coated black hole.
Muldoon
Alex wrote:
> In article <1148167046.3...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,
>
> And his opinion is important to you?
>
> The value of Franklin Jones' opinion should rapidly deteriorate
> proportionally to the reading one has done on him and his beliefs.
>
> Any google search of him comes up with sexual perversion as its topic. I
> am no prude, but women are not things to be used, as was his custom.
>
> yuck.
>
> alex
The comments were from the late 1960s, before he went into his
egotistical Guru trip.
They are insightful, whether you or I like it or not.
I don't condone any of his behavior since he became a cult leader. I've
no use for cult leaders, as you have probably noticed. However, ideas
stand apart, even in the case of L. Ron Hubbard. Would you like to
discuss what he has done to women - and girls?
As far as I know, the matter to which you refer involved group nudity;
I also am not interested in your knee-jerk attempt to "dead agent" what
you perceive as a "squirrel."
You have the moral stature of a Mafia errand boy.
The focus re. these late 1960s comments are the ideas expressed. IDEAS.
Keith Henson
wrote:
snip
>
>Recently posted commentaries by a 1970ish William S. Burroughs, and
>now, a late 1960ish Franklin Jones have produced little reaction on
>either a.r.s. or on a.c.t.
>
>Both individuals are strange - to say the least - but they had some
>noteworthy things to say on this even stranger topic of Scientology.
>
>One point that, I think, needs to be made, is that the subject is not
>entirely silly, or crazy, or demented. The more sensible parts (mostly
>"window dressing") need to be recognized, as it is these parts that
>often draw a person in, and hold them in until Hubbard's darker methods
>can be applied.
>
>There are many other factors of course, but "truth" and "common sense"
>are amongst those things that are used in Scientology as lead-ins, so
>as to, ultimately, trap.
>
>Recognizing this helps inoculate the unsuspecting from being sucked
>into Hubbard's enlightenment-coated black hole.
There is an even darker way to look at cults and their leaders.
Cults are infectious parasites, mind worms, memes of the worst sort.
The leaders suffer from the "guru trap" can can't be considered sane.
Cult memes take advantages of psychological traits that were shaped in
the stone age that promoted "reproductive success" in our ancestors.
Details in my sex, drugs and cults paper. Easy to find with Google.
Keith Henson