Veda
Well-known member
From the book, The Knee of Listening.
The 1971 edition, in chapter 12: The search for release from the mind: Scientology, discusses Scientology at length.
If you search for the book you'll probably only see a list of editions beginning with 1972, or 1973, which briefly mention Scientology, and later editions which omit any mention of Scientology.
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 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 particularly "cleared" of the force of that experience and all kind 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...
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 felt 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 out of fear and very little wisdom. To be sure, the evidence of 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 spiritual 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 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 my resistance to the internal operation of Shakti and began to recover my earlier state of awareness. The phenomena 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.
Jones gradually descended into abusive cult leader mode over a few years.
Jones left behind a small and fiercely dedicated personality cult that protects his image. They seem to have purged this chapter from the Internet.
After Scientology, Jones went from being a good natured "God man," to be a bad tempered, sex crazed, carnival sideshow "God man."
If someone has a (paper) copy of the orignal book, that is probably the only way to ensure that the content is complete and unedited.
Interesting observations. Too bad he went nuts.
Oh well.
The 1971 edition, in chapter 12: The search for release from the mind: Scientology, discusses Scientology at length.
If you search for the book you'll probably only see a list of editions beginning with 1972, or 1973, which briefly mention Scientology, and later editions which omit any mention of Scientology.
________________________________________Begin quote__________________________________________
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 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 particularly "cleared" of the force of that experience and all kind 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...
___________________________________________Temporary end of quote__________________________________________
This is where the "beezone.com" quote ends due to copyright limitations. If I recall correctly, Jones wrote some positive things about the lower grades, and then went on to discuss the Clearing and OT levels:
_________________________________________Quote continued____________________________________________
This is where the "beezone.com" quote ends due to copyright limitations. If I recall correctly, Jones wrote some positive things about the lower grades, and then went on to discuss the Clearing and OT levels:
_________________________________________Quote continued____________________________________________
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 felt 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 out of fear and very little wisdom. To be sure, the evidence of 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 spiritual 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 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 my resistance to the internal operation of Shakti and began to recover my earlier state of awareness. The phenomena 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.
____________________________________________End of quote__________________________________________
Above is a pretty good chunk of the orignal chapter.
Jones gradually descended into abusive cult leader mode over a few years.
Jones left behind a small and fiercely dedicated personality cult that protects his image. They seem to have purged this chapter from the Internet.
After Scientology, Jones went from being a good natured "God man," to be a bad tempered, sex crazed, carnival sideshow "God man."
If someone has a (paper) copy of the orignal book, that is probably the only way to ensure that the content is complete and unedited.
Interesting observations. Too bad he went nuts.
Oh well.
Maher Baba, an earlier God man, was more fun at parties.
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