It’s SaTerraDay…
Seminar: Another of Scientology’s MUs
MU stands for “misunderstood word.” And according to L. Ron Hubbard is one of the primary causes for man’s fall from grace. I’m pretty sure that way back when, the two words “view” and “point” were not understood by the majority of budding young thetans first visiting this universe.
Another of Scientology’s biggest MUs is the word “seminar.” Per Dictionary.com, seminar is defined as “a small group of students, as in a university, engaged in advanced study and original research under a member of the faculty and meeting regularly to exchange information and hold discussions.” The word’s origin stems from Latin, meaning “seed plot,” or “breeding ground, plant nursery.” Just as nurseries grow new plants with soil, nutrients, and water, seminars grow and nurture new ideas by the interchange of research, information, and discourse. Learning of this nature has no place in the world of Scientology.
The only part of the definition with which the church vaguely obeys is that of keeping the group small. These days, every Scientology group is small.
If it Looks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck…It’s not a Dog
Scientology seminars are not seminars. Scientology seminars are glorified promotional events whose sole purpose is to get attendees to pay for advanced services at AO, Flag, or the Freewinds.
LRH’s tech and policy cannot be discussed or scrutinized. New discoveries or theories are forbidden from being introduced. There can be no interchange of new ideas. There can be no debate. Opinions from outside the bubble of Scientology are just that: opinions—unproven and not to be trusted. Conversations about improving any aspect of Scientology therapy is heresy. Tech and policy cannot be altered or improved upon as it’s already been deemed completely workable.
Per LRH and KSW—Keeping Scientology Working—true seminars cannot exist with regards to Scientology because the church already has all the “correct technology.” They “know the technology;” they “know it is correct;” they’re “teaching correctly the correct technology;” and are “applying” it correctly.
The very idea that Scientologists can engage in “advanced study and original research” is absurd. “Exchanging information and holding discussions” between parishioners is a fantasy. In the world of Scientology, actions such as these are “high crimes.” End of discussion.
Goals, Purposes, Plans…
Going up the Bridge isn’t cheap and thus all the Scientology “seminars” I attended had one common theme: they all had to do with some aspect of making money. Many of their advertised titles used various guises, such as “saving the planet,” “reaching your goals,” and “achieving your purposes in life” to appear less avaricious. In recent years, “making an idle org a reality” has become popular.
Seminars always include a piece of LRH tech or policy that if applied “standardly” will increase one’s income. Classic sources of material include anything from the voluminous Management Series—especially the Finance Series. How to create and use an Admin Scale is a favorite seminar topic. Postulates, Goals, Purposes, and Intention are four more catch words habitually used to promote Scientology seminars.
Cha Ching!
Rarely do Scientology speakers travel alone. At most of the seminars I attended, registrars waited in the back of the room to sign people up and collect money for whatever the speaker was pitching. Outside of the church, this practice is referred to as “back of the room sales.” Within the church, it’s known as standard policy.
Scientologists have devised assorted ways of avoiding these regs. Many sit in the back and leave early when no one is looking. Others rush out the moment the seminar ends, citing one excuse or another. One of our favorites was having to relieve the babysitter.
Last Words
Just as “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” a Scientology fundraising event by any other name is still a Scientology fundraising event—and smells just the same. It’s not a conference; it’s not a forum; it’s not a discussion group; and it’s certainly not a seminar.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
WHERE’S THE “SAFEST CITY” ARTICLE??
It will be along in a few days. Accidentally hit “Publish” instead of “Save Draft” — all it consists of right now is a title…
Whoops 🙂
Hi I am looking for someone i can talk to about how scientology aided to the separation of my parents and my father stayed a member from 1967 to 2019 when he past away and i have met quit a few elderly people that are still involved and they live on pitance.
Yes, scientology definitions: Seminar = Give us your money. Briefing = Give us your money. Event = Give us your money.
Everything = Give us your money.
I would not have a problem just walking out of a seminar, regardless of the reges barring my way. I would not make an excuse…so I struggle, as a never-in, with this self-imposed imprisonment belief about the right to leave without feeling the guilt of just saying NO. My natural “flight or fight” response would kick in. Boggles the mind but I’m not brainwashed so, there you go.
“…fight or flight response…” Yes! I must have a strong one because at a cult event I could sit very docilely for hours but if I saw the exits barred with people standing, arms crossed, in front of them, oooh, my For F response would kick in!
I totally agree. I have never been stopped walking brazenly out. One of the best was a seminar called and the entire ‘field’ was duped into attending. The ED cockily got up, glibly apologised and announced it was actually a fundraiser. I stayed for his speech, then got up with my family and walked out. A senior int exec who happened to be there touting for Flag literally grabbed me by the shoulder and yelled at me in front of everyone how I could insult management in this manner. I shrugged him off and continued out. They literally have no hold on you – I don’t know why so many people adopt this effect viewpoint that they can’t leave. You can!
You’re right, dr mac. There is literally no hold. I think I allowed myself to be a prisoner” unquestioningly, reactively out of a reflexive reaction, i.,e my life long conditioning, how I was brought up in what we are pleased to call “polite” society. One does not become physical or violent. Manners, politeness, etc. Meanwhile, THEY were not being polite! THEY were rude! Grabbing someone’s arm is actually assault. Barring the door and refusing to move so that someone can leave is, if I’m not mistaken, kidnapping!
” Barring the door and refusing to move so that someone can leave is, if I’m not mistaken, kidnapping!”
Actually – that covers two “unlawful” things at the same time….. one IS kidnapping, while the other is also……
false imprisonment.
Terra – hello old friend! Haha! Is your patently obvious misunderstood on how to clear words a trap to get me commenting back here again? Have you missed me? Without further ado and re-introductions we will use www. dictionary.com as you suggest (I do personally as well) and we see, lo and behold, definition 5 which states “any meeting for exchanging information and holding discussions”. Seems to fit quite nicely, even to Scientology seminars. I suggest you get someone to Method 9 you savagely on the HCOB which tells you how to clear words – you obviously forgot the little bit about finding the definition that applies!
Now as to your theory about no one being able to question anything, if one visits a Microsoft seminar I don’t think Bill Gates is going to let you tell him that the fundamental Windows interface should be replaced with the old DOS interface, or something else like Unix, is he? And even Bill wants you to spend your bucks on more Microsoft products, does he not?
Now really Terra, what were your old course supervisors doing letting you go past all these misunderstood words when you were studying? I bet it was those small common words that flummoxed you eh? And don’t tell me – Wnyski was your old course sup?
As I have said time and time again I have no argument with people pointing out the actual faults in the current Church (donations etc.), but when you start making things up and twisting things in order to be able to write something which is essentially drivel, based on your own misunderstandings, well… people still in the Church would read this and see the obvious and embarrassing error of your ways.
(Don’t panic Mike – I won’t respond to the avalanches of entheta that my comment will no doubt provoke.)
you call discussion entheta, LOL
Hubbard never allowed discussion, he called it entheta, are you being a silly fool?
Foolproof … I enjoy reading different takes and points of view . Keep contributing! (Just so many times I can be told about Satan and the occult before that becomes REAL old).
Foolproof! What’s life without hyperbole, drivel, and a few MUs? As for all those MUs I went past while on course, I take full responsibility. All those suppressed yawns were 100% my own. My Sups had nothing to do with my subterfuge and ineptitude.
And since I’m no longer a card-carrying Scientologist, I get to pick and choose whichever definitions I want to apply and not be constricted by LRH’s “student hat” rules anymore.
As for my “theory about no one being able to question anything,” I wish it’d only been that: a theory, and not policy written in stone. Come on Fool, even you know that to question LRH within the bubble is tantamount to killing babies.
And by the way, Hell for me would be an eternity of being “savagely” word cleared, Method 9. Hell squared: being savaged word cleared, Method 9, on an HCOB.
We may not agree on all things, but I love your sense of humor.
Whoops. Meant to say “savagely” instead of “savaged.” Then again…Method 9 word clearing always did feel a bit like being savaged.
Foolproof, you are absolutely correct in comparing scientology to Microsoft. Scientology, too, is a business. You have just said it in your own words. So therefore it should be taxed as such.
Thank you, as a scientologist, for proving that the tax exempt status of scientology should be removed. Well done.
I have said it a hundred times before, and I’ll say it again. The best enemies of scientology are the scientologists themselves.
Fool Proof – read up on how cults use “loaded language”. Using any of the Scientologese seriously will keep you trapped in the “cult personality”….which is all you get when you do Scientology. Do some research, use lots of clay and for Xenu’s sake….clear your words…..LOL
Foolproof! Another Internet Day at the insane asylum I see. Well, welcome back to the blog nonetheless.
FP – “I bet it was those small common words that flummoxed you eh?” No it was probably the “semi-colons” and thank goodness DM cleared all that up.
FP, I go to events like Microsoft seminars, and can tell you that your fundamental premise is wrong – hard questions about business strategies and products do get asked.
It’s interesting to see how you incorrectly imagined parts of the world that you know nothing about working a certain way, and then created a false scenario that reinforced your (incorrect) worldview. Technically, that’s a variation of the “strawman” argument – one of many crucial pieces of traditional logic that Hubbard never addressed in his voluminous writings such as the Data Series, which actually focus more on indoctrination into his imagined worldview than on real thinking an analysis. The compromise of scientologists’ critical faculties, and their diminished capacity to deal with reality and actual real-world facts, is scary, and also sad.
Mike I will reply to this one only and state to Peacemaker that I have been to more Microsoft seminars than one could shake a stick at, so my supposed “incorrectly imagined parts of the world” are, as per usual, the incorrect imaginations of what someone else assumes me to be imagining!
Seems to me the FBI was embarrassed when they were warned about that young mass murderer in Florida but they failed to intervene before he shot all those poor kids. Oh, how I long for the day when the FBI atones for that failure by slapping the cuffs on Tiny Davey Boy and leading him off to serve a Life Sentence in a Penitentiary. If any FBI people are reading this, I beg of you to get a search warrant and open the doors to one of Tiny Dave’s Gulags like “The Hole” where people are imprisoned for trivial stupid things and Please. Please. Please. Free those poor wretches and allow them to tell their stories of how they have been abused by Tiny Dave and his dupes. It would be an excellent step towards redeeming the image of the FBI. Wouldn’t you like to lead that charge and see the FBI once again become truly heroic?
I know this post is off-topic and that I have made this point before. But I just can’t see how it can be made too often. Please, Mr. and Ms. FBI, won’t you help all the American citizens who are being held against their will by Tiny Dave? A search warrant and an interview with some of the people who have been lucky enough to escape the horror of CO$ should be just about all you need to do that. Please? I’m begging you. This scam is nowhere near as powerful as it used to be. There is no longer any need to fear them. CO$ is now ripe for the fall. Ripe to be plucked and destroyed. All you need to do is revoke their ridiculous tax exempt status.
Skyler, they’re not being held “against their will”. If they would VOICE their desire to leave, if they would VOICE that this was the case, the FBI COULD do something. In fact, if they would VOICE their desire to leave the cult would HAVE to let them leave, legally, or be liable for kidnapping charges. Mike, or someone, correct me please if I’m wrong.
You are NOT wrong Aqua. Every person that DECIDED to leave has left the CoS. the BEST evidence for this is that two of the most dangerous (to DM) people were allowed to leave the church (Mike & Marty). If DM had REALLY wanted to imprison them he could have EASILY.
Thanks, Wynski.
Are you shitting me? Mike was imprisoned. The reason he wasn’t put back in the Hole is that he left too publicly. And only after Davey miscalculated the degree to which his will had been broken and sent him out on a “handling”.
No Ketniss I am not. Mike could have left the hole IF he really wanted to. Sorry, but a fact. You MUST engage logic circuits to understand. IF DM could REALLY keep people do you think he’d let his own family members leave to then go to the media?
ALL a person has to say is, “I am going to the FBI if you don’t let me go.” Bu, bye!
THINK!
It’s very difficult to be certain they are acting under their Free Will. Since they know that if they were to VOICE they were being held against their will, they would never again see their families or any of their friends. They know that if they leave, they would have zero resources with which to cope with their new lives.
I’m truly amazed at the courage that so many people have displayed when despite all of that, they decide to leave anyway. Truly Amazing. IMO, those people are some of the most heroic people on this planet.
I would love to be part of a group that would help people who blow with some resources to get started in their new lives. The biggest problem with that is there is essentially no way to let these people know how to contact such a group. What would happen if we were to hire an airplane to drop leaflets on all the know RPF locations telling people there is somewhere they can get help if they decide to blow?
Skyler, the FBI did what is was lawfully able to do. As he wasn’t committing an interstate crime (nor a Federal crime) they turned it over the constitutionally responsible law enforcement agency to handle. The Miami PD (a very corrupt PD) did nothing.
YOU have much to learn about our constitution and laws.
I’m certain you are correct about the US laws. I am not a US citizen after all.
But, I have to maintain the position that someone who has been subjected to Mind Control is not really acting under their own free will. I’m quite sure the people who decided to drink that poison Kool Aid in Jonestown may have believed they were acting under their own Free Will. But I believe that after being brain washed, they were not committing suicide under their free will.
Skyler, I hear you, but the thing is, if someone in a religious compound says, flat out, “I want to be here. I am here entirely of my own volition”, and, barring any signs of physical abuse, e.g. bruises, broken limbs, starvation, etc., what is law enforcement supposed to do? They’re not psychiatrists. It may well be Stockholm Syndrome they’re observing. But if someone is giving every indication of wanting to be where they are and there are no laws being broken that are observed, they have to be taken at face value.
This is why Lawrence Wright used the title “The Prison of BELIEF” (emphasis mine). No actual prison exists. The Still Ins make their own prison out of what they BELIEVE. Once they realize, “Hey! I can LEAVE, there IS no more prison. The cult has to release them. I’m talking about the Sea Org members now. As soon as they say, “I’m leaving”, legally, the cult cannot keep them. They can follow them and try to (verbally) threaten them in various ways or harass or guilt them into staying or coming back but they can’t physically keep them from leaving.
Remember that old saying, “Sticks and stones can hurt my bones, but words can never harm me”?
Well, legally, “words” are the only weapons the cult has against a Sea Org member who says, “I’m outta here”.. That girl or guy can just ignore and walk away.
You make an excellent argument. I will need to consider that. Thanks very much.
Skyler, the people in Jones town mostly did NOT want to drink the cool aid. They were forced at gun point.
You need to spend more time in study and less posting on blogs.
mostly?
most·ly
ˈmōs(t)lē/
adverb
as regards the greater part or number.
After considerable thought, I have decided you are probably right in that I do need to do some more reading and studying.
However, I believe that everyone who posts in this blog likely shares the same goal – which is to see the end of this cult. Consequently, I would have hoped you might have chosen a wiser response – e.g. to have suggested some specific reading or other materials for me to study instead of just telling people who may not be as knowledgeable as yourself to “go away and not post”. I understand my posts may have antagonized you. Still, I’m disappointed your response was to tell me to “go away”. I don’t think that response is at all constructive. Nonetheless, I think I will take a break from this blog – or at least reduce the number of my posts.
I see you enjoy calling LRH disparaging names. I enjoy doing that too. But in order to help put an end to this cult, it’s going to take something more than just name calling and more than just reading and study. After a time, I would guess DM likely just laughs at people if all they can do is call him silly names.
well OT has a new definition now: Outa There.
So nice to be OT, isn’t it?
Thanks for this. I’ll mentally use this with a smile henceforth.
Bullseye with this one Terra. Money, money, money – trumps everything in Scientology, especially sanity!
Yep! Sanity is a causality in Scientology. But, if insanity is what you want, Scientology is there to help you. Just leave your mind with the cult.
Skyler: “Was ‘MW’ already taken?” Laughing out loud over breakfast!
I don’t get it.
Howdy Surfer, I’m not sure if you’re joking or not. I wish I could send you a private message. I don’t want to look any dumber than I may already appear.
I’m dumber than you are.
Dear OSD & Skyler,
Were the two of you in that move “Dumb & Dumber”……nnnaaaaahhhh. Both of you are caring & kind & loving individuals who deeply care about their fellow man & woman. So nice to have “met” so many lovely people on Mike’s blog…..their stories touch my heart & at times chill me to the core of my being with what they’ve endured
All of these “hype words” nothing new….the media uses the same scenario…it is annoying to me when “celeb couples” are tagged by the media with these idiotic couples names like “Brangelina” etc, it’s as if they don’t have separate identities…..
I remember the TV Series “The Odd Couple”…..where Felix Unger left Oscar Madison a note……he signed it with his initials….F.U. now THAT was funny!
Scientology has a crashing MU on “help” and “church” and “human rights”
The entire subject is poisoned with half truths and LIES
Dump your books and lectures
It is toxic waste
TC, very cogent article today. Boy have I been to a lot of Scn “seminars”. And they are always about “body’s in the shop”.
You always shed light on some aspect of the cult that us old clams never thought about. You should compile all your articles into a book and call it “The Survival Guide To Decompressing From Scientology”.
Thanks again for your many insightful articles.
Thanks BK. I have no plans for a book but I love your title!
Terra, a book would be great – you could just make each entry into a short chapter. No need to edit anything. And you now have a title!
TC, maybe in the future you will compile all your articles for the still unwashed thetans to use to decompress. I really appreciate you continuing to write articles.
I hope to meet you some day soon.
BK, I love how you brought up “bodies in the shop.” For the never-ins reading, this is a legit statistic. It is counted and tracked on a graph. Posted on a wall with other useless graphs. Graphs that take hours to track the stats for, to take down and mark with ruler in hand and then put back up on the wall. The area with all the graphed stats is called to OIC. Org Information Center.
I was really impressed the first time I saw the wall of graphs. I had just joined staff part-time and as part of my training, Staff Statuses they were called, I had to get a tour of the building and see where everything was located. Perhaps so I wouldn’t need to ask someone where something was, because that would be “dev’t” or Developed Traffic, translated, adding uselessly used time to someone’s life.
Personally I like giving directions and helping people. But in the cherch that sort of thing is discouraged. Because it “pulls you off lines,” or “Cuts across traffic,” or “is irresponsible use of your valuable time,” or is, “not your post.” Or other, “you are so important” or rather “your post (job) is so vital that it is an overt to get distracted from sorting the F’s in the Central File dungeon.”
I didn’t notice “Bodies in the Shop,” that first overwhelmed and starry eyed time I gazed at the OIC. But I saw it later and asked about it. I got some mumbled non-answer that I somehow knew not to push. Then I heard about our need for more “raw meat” and heard people I knew being referred to as “that guy” and “he’s a prospect” and other dehumanizing terms.
I left staff. And had to pay my free-loader debt for the Staff Status courses I took. Unbelievably I stayed.
The other part of your comment I love BK is your book idea. Nice title too. Thanks to you mentioning, bodies in the shop, I just decompressed from that hidden icky datum. It is now happily unstuck.
CNC, glad what I wrote helped. I’m still decompressing after 5 years. Sorry for the delay in answering just saw your response in my junk file.
It’s so funny even $cientologist$ know in their heart of hearts they are being taken financially yet placidly go along devising alt-tactics to avoid financial ruin at the hands of the diminutive Ms. Cabbage and not seeing their overall folly. Like how citizens in communist countries work their workaround the system.
“Silicon Valley is going to make the clearing of NorCal possible apparently. The other ideal orgs (SFO D, SFO Fdn, Steven’s Creek, Los Gatos and Sacramento) haven’t made a dent — but”
I think that a part of the post has accidentally been cut.
Sorry. Fixed. That is part of tomorrow’s post!
Well I just got a call from LA asking for my son who has not lived here for over five years. She wanted me to let him know that the Idle mORGue event will be held at 1080 Linda Vista Ave, Mountain View, at 12 noon sharp, he needs to be there.
Then she said “What about you?” I said “I’m a declared Ess Pee so you probably don’t want me there.”
………………. silence …………..yyyyyyeeesss. OK. Bye.
Yo Dave,
Say hi to Yer culties for me. Sorry I couldn’t make it!
I love it when you can cause silence, newcomer!
“What about you?” I’m a declared Ess Pee. I wish I could have listened in.
“Sorry I couldn’t make it”…LOL, and somebody get those files updated for Xenu’s sake!
Gone are the days of seminars about Scientology basics by people like Yvonne Jentzsch (Gillham) and Peter Gillham who’s only intention was to help people.
Janis, I remember. And those events were packed!
It USED to be fun. But, that was a long time ago…
Not your fault OSD – but to say “it used to be fun”…
You had fun while behind the curtain… L Ron the CON Hubbard was fleecing and betraying you all with lies so big you would never, ever suspect him….
Well… At least you had fun OSD
For new public who are fleeced beyond belief
And trusting souls who join the Sea MORGUE….and Staff
It was not ever FUN
Especially for me – a born-in whose life was shattered because Scientology Kept Scamming and Deceiving.
I’m so sorry for what you went through, CG. Scientology is definitely a toxic, militant cult. But, they are shrinking rapidly. For that I say, Woo Hoo!
Hey, I had a LOT of fun on staff back in the day, a wild ride. Not all activities are wholly ONE experience for EVERYONE. Individuals will have different experiences AND view even the same experiences differently as well.
In the bio Truman by McCullough, I learned that Truman REALLY had a great time fighting in France in WW1! Go figure. Different strokes …
I think what you say is important. I could talk for hours about the fun and “wins” I had on and off staff, decades worth. Not one bit matters, it was all based upon knowing and purposeful lies by Hubbard. I truly wanted to help and be helped. If not for this cult I could have spent those 40 years maybe actually achieving a real and true result. I’ll never know, I was conned by a liar and a coward.
I DON’T CARE about any fun I had or any good thing I may have done for anyone. If I had known it was bullshit I WOULDN’T HAVE PARTICIPATED FOR ONE SECOND.
I wasn’t given a choice. We were lied to and the lies continue to grow.
People are free to participate, I’d just like them to be informed.
SFN, I think that what’s typical is that the further away you get, the more you will question whether you really had all that much “fun” or all that many “wins” anyway, or of they weren’t at least partly an illusion reinforced by the group environment. The next question, is whether they weren’t things that would have happened in your life anyway, that Scientology’s indoctrination led you to attribute to Hubbard and the orgs.
I wish you the best on your journey.
This is a huge subject for discussion, so for brevity I sum it up – wins and fun matter not, ‘‘twas a pack of lies and a stolen life.
I think it’s important to realize that any bit of perceived wins, benefit, fun, etc is dangerous. It’s this shit that lured us in and trapped us.
The leg hold trap begins with the first agreement of some “common sense useful bit of tech written in pretty prose”.
How much he “stole from others”, how much is nonsense, how much is viciously mentally damaging – these to me belong in the second chapter. Chapter one is the ocean of lies and the mechanisms of mind control.
I thought the army was fun once… then I thought Scio stuff was fun… now… well, remembering fun, is fun!
I couldn’t agree more.
Yes I remember. We all had hope, we had discovered the way to change the world…
Until you realize it’s ALL make believe.
Puff the magic dragon would disagree with you.
Is he still around?
Tgt 2 I believe.
Those days are long gone and never to return. From here on down, the screws will be ever tightening on the remaining few. Should be a real fun time for all concerned.
The next economic down cycle will expose the still-innies to financial ruin $cientology style……… if they are not there already.
Janis: I used to love Peter’s talks at my local mission back in the late seventies. You’re so right. They were all about the tech and helping people. I still have a couple of his books.
Thanks for another great article Terra. As you say, “Scientologists have devised assorted ways of avoiding these regs.”
First off, the best way to avoid these regs is to not be there in the first place. Failing that (for us slow learners), this is where I always exercised my ‘OT’ abilities. It is basically the same ‘tech’ that is used to find an empty parking space in a crowded parking lot, only in reverse. First you have to be very aware of your surroundings. You sort of have to watch everyone at the same time. As the flow of people moves towards the exits, carefully time your movements so that a few of the people ahead of you are snagged by a reg. The more regs there are the more challenging this maneuver is, but that is what ‘OT’ is all about now isn’t it? I always made it through the exits without being caught. Once through the exit, keep moving. Don’t stop until you are in a safe place. At that moment resolve never to attend one of these “seminars” again. I was a slow learner because of my own ‘MUs’ regarding seminars, but at least I never got caught at the exits. And, I can still easily find a parking space.
This ‘OT’ technique sort of reminds me of surviving a hike in bear country. You don’t really need any special precautions or defensive equipment like bear spray, firearms, bells, etc. You just need to be able to run faster than your hiking companions.
I hope this helps all of the lurkers, under-the-radar, sideliner, fence sitter, kool-aid sipping, last one out the door, bitter ender types out there sneaking a look at this blog. Remember, you have to be ‘OT’ to go ‘OT’. It worked for me, it will work for you too.
Ms. B: You are truly OT! I’m surprised one your escapades hasn’t been published in AOLA’s Advance Magazine.
Hey, Terra! I can levitate my hand & my foot! I am SO OT!
Old Surfer Dude: But can you levitate both at the same time! Now that’s real cause over matter, energy, space, and time.
Shhhhhhhhh! Don’t let my secret out!
“You just need to be able to run faster than your hiking companions.” Laughter! That one caught me off guard. In a sense this saying might apply. “If you’re not leading the pack you’re always looking at the same scenery.”* Best to stay “in front of things” during a bear encounter.
*maybe taught at scn seminars but I never attended one
If one were to total all of L. Wrong Hubtard’s “MU’s”, it would comprise a dictionary sized tome in and of itself.
And if you started to read it, you’d soon fall into a deep sleep.
What page? What book? The world’s gone blank… ahhhhhhhhhh
Ok. Calm down, old friend. Just close your eyes and repeat: There’s no place like home. You’ll be just fine.
🙂
It’s a bitch when the fuse blows hey? Thank you for your kind words.
Which would mean that you have an MU, thus you need to go get a dictionary, clear the MU, and, in the case of this book, you would find yourself in a humongous word clearing chain.
Sounds to me like Scientology creates the ideal form of the simple mind. Hubbard only allowed his own filter to select the basic principles. An “ideal org” would thus try to restrict discussion, debate and reason. This is a dangerous religion. In my seventeen years, I always considered that Hubbard was offering suggestions, a principle I learned in my early Jesuit training. Placing Scientology in the spectrum of all religions, it is ironic that in the end I was saved by Jesuits
George: I have an old family friend who taught at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. I’m not sure it’s a strictly Jesuit school but I always admired their emphasis on creating a solid foundation for learning through philosophy and the classics.
Hi Terra Cognita,
I graduated from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1968. Heavy emphasis on Philosophy and Classics. You needed Greek to get through. I did major papers on the anti-Christ. When OT VIII on the Freewinds hit me, I was prepared. I’m not familiar with Moraga.
St. Mary’s is an institution of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Jean-Baptiste De La Salle, sometimes known as the Lasallian Brothers. Nowadays almost all of the staff, and for the first time the college president, are lay people.
jesuits, yes, this is my alma mater. And what happened to the much metta stuff?
No need to use it. Even in Buddhism, we can see what we are dealing with. There is a great difference between meditation and participation in society. How could I do a deal to support the family if I allowed myself to be taken advantage of? There is also a big difference in the code for monks and lay people. To be blunt, I spent ten years acting as Public Relations in a Buddhist Vihara. Out of every 1000 people who came to visit, the stats were as follows:
950 curious and satisfied on one visit.
25 Interested enough to take a second step
25 Destructive people
“MU” stands for “Misunderstood Word”? Was “MW” already taken? Or was the person who chose this abbreviation schooled only in a CO$ School?
I don’t believe people who are members of CO$ are stupid. In fact, most started out wanting to do some good but was then co-opted by cult’s mind control to take over their thinking and their bank accounts (and often the bank accounts of their older relatives). It just confirms to me that most of them never learned much about reading, writing or arithmetic and almost nothing about spelling.
Many of the Clampires acronyms burn my brain and MU is one of them. Why not ‘MUW’? Are they afraid that the class will sound like bovines?
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Speaking of MU, this is from *Buddhism – A Way of Life and Thought* by Nancy Wilson Ross:
“How can there be a mentally worked out answer to such riddles as ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ or ‘What was your original face before your parents were born?’ or ‘Has a dog Buddha Nature?’ There cannot be. The Master Joshu gave as his reply to the latter question the single word Mu. Mu became and has remained a classic Zen conundrum.”
P.S. If anyone is interested in getting an overview of Buddhism I highly recommend Ross’s book. It’s now available in paperback reprint from Amazon and booksellers.
Skyler,
Yes. MW was taken by Hubbard soon after DMSMH was published. It was a technical term for the verbiage used by Hubbard in said book. It was first noted in a letter to his transcriber and proofreader. Even then he liked them anachronisims. It means: Mumble Waffle.
Nuff said?