Scientologists: What Is True?

He who controls the information, controls the thought.
-Unknown

What is true is what is true for you.
-L. Ron Hubbard

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
-Sir Winston Churchill

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
-George Orwell

L. Ron Hubbard has said that one of the reprehensible control techniques of a Suppressive Person was to tell you "it's all bad over there!" to get you to stop looking outside of their control. That message: "Bad, dangerous, evil!" stops your reach and keeps you from confronting and perceiving. If you hear that message, recognize that someone is trying to control you.

Unfortunately, that is the message the Church of Scientology enforces on its members. "Newspapers, magazines and other media are under the control of Suppressives!" "Reporters are bad." "The Internet is bad and very dangerous."

And what are the only "safe" information channels for Scientologists, according to the church?

• Church of Scientology briefings,
• Church of Scientology web sites,
• Church of Scientology publications and
• Church of Scientology events.

That's it.

So what excuse does the Church of Scientology give for being so restrictive on what Scientologists can see and read?

First, Scientologists are told that reading or viewing anything from outside the Scientology bubble will upset them. They are told that if a Scientologist gets upset, they would lose all their gains from Scientology and would get sick.

So, according to the church, Scientology makes people weaker! Non-Scientologists learn to handle the upsets and confusion of life, and get on living, but (the church wants you to believe) a Scientologist's gains can be undone at any time, with just a bit of "bad news". Do you buy that one?

Secondly, and more importantly, Scientologists are told that certain words will harm them. Scientologists are told that the Scientology confidential materials will cause you harm, and could even kill you. And, what is really scary is that the confidential materials have been disclosed. Confidential information is "all over the Internet".

And yet...

No one has died. No one has even reported any ill effects from reading these materials. The materials have now been read by millions, and nothing bad has happened to anyone as a result.

Which is true? Will the confidential materials kill anyone who reads them, or are they harmless? On the one hand, Ron, who worked out these high levels claimed they were deadly, and had almost killed him. On the other hand, millions of readers are unharmed. Which is most likely true?

It may be hard for Scientologists to come to terms with this, but the confidential materials are proven, in the real world, to be completely harmless.

[I]f anything I tell you, or have ever told you, is discovered to differ from the individual observation...then it isn't true! It doesn't matter whether I said it was true or not!
-L. Ron Hubbard Scientology & Effective Knowledge.

The Internet, therefore, is not deadly-dangerous to Scientologists, or anyone else. Scientologists can, safely, look around. Likewise, newspapers, magazines and other media are also not deadly-dangerous to Scientologists.

Scientologists: It is OK to look around. Really.

But why would a Scientologist want to look outside the safe, Scientology bubble? After all, it's all bad news, lies and attacks, isn't it?

First, the answer is: No, it isn't all bad news, lies and attacks. But that isn't the reason to look.

The reason why is simply: You need to know.

When you're talking with friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers, you need to know.

When you're sending money to the Church of Scientology, or volunteering your time, or disseminating Scientology, you need to know.

When you're evaluating what you hear, what you observe, what you decide, you need to know.

You can't stick your head in the sand and hope that someone, somewhere is watching out for you and everything you care about. You need to know.

And it is safe to look.

Yes, you may discover things that upset you. So? Would you rather know the truth, or would you prefer to continue "happily" living a lie? Besides, if you know the truth, you can handle any problems. That's the way to handle an upset.

But where can a Scientologist turn for more information? I would like to suggest a place you can find a lot of information and verify it for yourself.

My recommendation for Scientologists who want to start finding out the truth is to go to Wikipedia:Scientology.

There is a good reason I think that this is a great starting point. First, it has been fought over for a long time. The Church of Scientology, and the critics of Scientology have been back and forth on all the Scientology-related items. Finally, these pages were locked down. Additions and changes need to be discussed and worked out. No one is allowed to just put down opinion, rumor or false information. Citations are required.

The result is quite readable for a Scientologist. Since just about every statement is backed up with some pretty reliable citations, it is easy to go to and check the source material. You may stay within Wikipedia and peruse many Scientology-related subjects, or use links referenced by Wikipedia to explore other sites.

For in-depth investigation, you will undoubtedly want to explore other sites, but, like I said, the Wikipedia coverage of Scientology is a fairly well-balanced starting point.

That's my advice. You do need to know what the truth really is. You need to look. It's ultimately up to you to determine for yourself what is true.
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