The Apostate - Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology

Lawrence Wright

21 February 2011

• Tommy Davis - the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International.
• Church of Scientology mission - Transform individual lives and the world; a civilization without insanity, criminals, and war--where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights.
• Scientology postulates that everyone is a Thetan--an immortal spirtual being that lives through countless lifetimes.
• ARC trinity - Affinity, Reality, and Communication. Affinity means the emotional response that partners have to one another; reality is the common agreement. Together, these contribute to the flow of communication. The three parts together equal understanding. Raising or lowering any one affects all three.
• Clear - comes from Dianetics; A person who becomes clear is adaptable to and able to change his environment.
• E-Meter--kind of like a polygraph; measures electric changes in a body based on a persons answers to the auditors questions. Once the E-meter jumped, the auditor would focus on this topic until the subject was free of the emotional consequences of the troubling experience. The goal is to uncover and neutralize the emotional memories that are plaguing one's behavior.
• An operating Thetan is one who can handle things without having to use a body or physical means
• Dianetics tries to identify the source of self-destructive behavior. The reactive mind, a kind of data bank that is filled with traumatic memories called engrams. The object of Dianetics is to drain one of all these engrams and to leave the person "Clear".
• History - A major cause of Mankind's problems began 75 million years ago. The planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of 90 planets under the leadership of the Despot, Xenu. The chief problem was overpopulation. Surplus beings were taken to volcanoes on Earth. These volcanoes were bombed, destroying the people, but freeing the spirits, called Thetans---which attached to one another in clusters. Over time, these spirits were implanted with the seeds of aberrant behavior. When people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep on perpetuating themselves.
• A core concept in Scientology is that something isn't true unless you find it true in your own life.
• Hubbard recognized that if you want to inspire a culture towards peace an harmony, you need to respect and help the artist to prosper and flourish.