‘Going Clear’ – Aliens, Volcanos and Xenu
One of the most controversial documentaries to come out this year is HBO’s Going Clear. It’s an in-depth breakdown of Scientology and how they manage to squeeze money out of their members with the promise of a better life as long as you can front the thousands of dollars to have that better life.
I have my own personal account of Scientology: When I was 14, my favorite actor was Tom Cruise, and I heard his religion was Scientology. I thought, “Cool, a religion based on science!” So I went online and filled in the 250 question quiz and put in my information. Then they called…and they called… and they called. Sometimes even 5 times a day. I looked into the organization and realized I had made a terrible mistake.
Going Clear documents former members explaining their experiences about how they thought Scientology was amazing at first, but then it slowly turned into a nightmare. They make you feel better, and first start asking you about what makes you sad, what your secrets are, and pretending to be psychologists. The reality is that they use the false promise of “joy” to get you in, but if you want to get out, that’s where the fear and intimidation tactics come in.
The film goes over the history of L. Ron Hubbard and how he created the religion and was a science fiction writer. He figured that starting a religion was the best way to make money, so he created this space opera tale of complete absurdity to base the religion on, but no one will know the full story until you reach a certain “Operating Thetan” level — which I’ll go into later . A Thetan is a ghost of a dead alien that inhabits your body and causes you pain and depression. Scientology aims to remove these. I’m not kidding. Here’s the story:
Once upon a time, 75 million years ago, there was an alien galactic ruler named Xenu. Xenu was in charge of all the planets in this part of the galaxy, including Earth, which in those days was called Teegeeack.
Xenu had a problem. All 76 planets of the Galactic Confederation he controlled were overpopulated. Each planet had on average 178 billion people. He wanted to get rid of this overpopulation, and he had a plan.
With the help of renegades, Xenu defeated his opponents, the good people and their Loyal Officers. Then with the help of psychiatrists and the media he persuaded billions of people to come in for income tax audits. They were instead injected in the lungs with alcohol and glycol to paralyze them. Then they were put into spaceships that looked exactly like DC-8 airplanes, except they had rocket engines instead of propellers.
These space planes then flew to planet Earth where the hundreds of billions of paralyzed people were stacked around the bases of volcanoes. H-bombs were lowered into the volcanoes, and Xenu detonated all the H-bombs at once, killing everyone.
The story doesn’t end there though. Since everyone has a soul, Xenu had to make sure the souls would not come back and seek vengeance. So while the hundreds of billions of souls were being blown around by the nuclear winds, he used special traps that caught them in electronic beams that were sticky like flypaper. Force fields then packaged the souls into “clusters.” This all took place in Hawaii and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.
Xenu had these soul clusters packed into boxes and taken to some huge cinemas to brainwash, or hypnotically “implant” them. They were forced to spend 36 days watching 3D motion pictures of traumatic, horrific things like torture, dissection, and crucifixion. They were subject to sexual perversion, motion sickness, auto accidents, and other horrors. They were also shown false pictures and told they were God, Christ, and Satan, all as part of Xenu’s plan to render them helpless and prevent their return.
After the implanting, the soul clusters remained stuck together in groups of a few thousand, as the implanting had confused their sense of individual identity. There were only a few living bodies left on Earth, and the clusters inhabited these bodies like parasitic demons.
As for Xenu, the Loyal Officers finally overthrew him and imprisoned him in a mountain top on Earth. He is kept there by a force field powered by an eternal battery, and is still alive today.
And so today everyone on Earth is possessed by clusters of souls called “body thetans.” And if you are to become spiritually free, you must exorcise all the body thetans inhabiting you, and pay many thousands of dollars to do so. And the only reason people believe in God and Christ is because they were in the implant film their body thetans saw 75 million years ago. (Via)
Do you think that if you walked in on day one thinking about becoming a Scientologist and having this told to you in a seminar you’d sign up? I’d hope not. Other religions grab you when you’re a kid/when your parents make you wake up on Sunday. This one is when you’re an adult (mostly).
Oh, and if you think I’m kidding about the “blowing up nukes in a volcano with aliens around it.” Hubbard even put the volcano on his anti-psychiatry book Dianetics.
Before learning about the galactic alien Xenu that committed a holocaust —
— you had to pay level to become “CLEAR.” You start as an OT I (Operating Thetan level 1), and the longer you stay and the longer you pay, you go up levels:
OT I
“This Solo-audited level is the first step a Clear takes toward full OT abilities, and that first step is a fresh causative OT viewpoint of the MEST universe and other beings.”The cost to ‘upgrade’ to this level is $2,750.
OT II
“By confronting hidden areas of one’s existence on the whole track [that is, by confronting past incarnations], vast amounts of energy and attention are released. Those on this Solo-audited level experience a resurgence of self-determinism and native ability. OT II unlocks the aberrative factors on the whole track that have allowed the thetan to lose his innate freedom and ability and one achieves the ability to confront the whole track.” The cost to ‘upgrade’ to this level is $5,225.
OT III: The Wall of Fire
“This Solo-audited level goes through what is called the “Wall of Fire” that surrounds a previously impenetrable whole track mystery. What prevents a being from being himself? This level answers that question. Once complete, a being is free of the whole track overwhelm that has trapped him. Here he confronts and eradicates the fourth dynamic engram that has plagued this universe for millennia.” The cost to ‘upgrade’ to this level is $8,910.Church dogma regards OT III as a dangerous process which can lead to pneumonia, to lack of sleep or even to death if not run correctly. In Church of Scientology of California v. Kaufman, it was noted that the defendant had been required to sign a waiver to the effect that “the Scientology Organization, its branches and members, and L. Ron Hubbard are not responsible for anything that might happen to my body or mind on OT III”.
OT IV: OT Drug Rundown
“This level handles the hidden problems and stops in a being’s universe caused by the effects of drugs and poisons on the whole track. This is the final polish that rids one of any last vestige of the effects of drugs on the spirit. Ministered at Advanced Organizations or Flag. Approximately 12½ to 25 hours.”
OT V: New Era Dianetics for OTs
“The Second Wall of Fire consists of 26 separate rundowns and has been described as dealing with “living lightning, the very stuff of life itself.” This level addresses the last aspects of one’s case that can prevent him from achieving total freedom on all dynamics. An audited level ministered at Advanced Organizations or Flag. Approximately 50 hours.”
OT VI: Hubbard Solo New Era Dianetics for OTs (Solo NOTs) Auditing Course
“The training one receives before starting to solo audit on New OT VII is so powerful that it actually constitutes an entire OT level. On Solo NOTs one is dealing with complexities intended to crush one’s true power and abilities as a thetan. Solo NOTs auditors acquire a wide range of auditing skills to handle the vast phenomena that can occur on OT VIII. Approximately 3–4 weeks with the new Solo Auditor Course done.”
OT VII: Hubbard Solo New Era Dianetics for OTs Auditing
“On New OT VII one solo audits at home daily. This is a lengthy level, requiring a considerable amount of time to complete. It is the final pre-OT level, and culminates in attainment of the state of CAUSE OVER LIFE.”
OT VIII: Truth Revealed
“This Solo-audited level addresses the primary cause of amnesia on the whole track and lets one see the truth of his own existence. This is the first actual OT level and brings about a resurgence of power and native abilities for the being himself. This may be done at the Flag Ship Service Organization.”
This film displays how crazy and diabolical the creator of this cult was. He would be standing around gullible Scientologists clearing his gigantic boat. They would be doing slave labor and cling to every word he uttered.
One executive was made to mop up the bathroom floor with his tongue. Another was put into a bucket and pummeled by some of the women and called a lesbian. – Going Clear on the torture in “The Hole”
Former celebrities, of whom I didn’t even know were ever Scientologists, gave their stories in explicit detail. Some of the most famous people in the world were and still are Scientologists. Jason Beghe (NBC’s Chicago P.D.) is one former member that absolutely floored me, and when he speaks about being in Scientology, you can feel his rage that he let himself get pulled in so easily.
Another famous former Scientologist is Paul Haggis. I saw him in the film and thought “No way.” Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash, Casino Royale) finally read the Space Doctrine, thought it was a test, but realized it wasn’t and thought, “And we have these lost souls all over us, and we have to get rid of them. And I’m going… WHAT….THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”
In an uncut interview, this is Tom Cruise talking about Scientology. Its nonsensical, scary, and downright disturbing how he laughs like a madman for no CLEAR reason.
The film goes on to give you the later history, which includes David Miscavige — who is as equally as money hungry as Hubbard. His wife, Michele Miscavige, has been missing for years, but no big deal.
There’s a moment of the film where something is noticeably wrong that Travolta sees, but does nothing about it. Why?
An auditor learns to keep notes contemporaneously as he is doing a session, about every detail of a person’s life, back to birth and beyond. If you do the whole program, you end up with up to a file cabinet full of pre-clear folders of notations about your life, your thoughts and the considerations of your life. It’s the most intimate details. You’re always encouraged, you’re always threatened to disclose more and more and more. And all of it’s recorded. All of this material that is represented to you to be held sacrosanct — in fact, any information that might do harm to the organization gets unclassified automatically and gets reported to another branch of the church that deals with “ethics. – Going Clear
Blackmail. They have everything on you, so if you want to leave, you can, but they will try their best to ruin your life based on information they obtained during sessions. What’s scary is not just the ability to lure people into an organization that wants to fleece people out of their savings under the veil of hope, it’s that it separates family members because they’re a “Suppressive Person.” Daughters are cutting ties with their Mothers because of this. Fathers and sons. Friends being lost to an organization that preys on people looking for answers, but instead get false hope and intimidation. Going Clear shows you this in the most saddening and brutal fashion.
I won’t spoil anything you didn’t already know that has been shown on South Park, local and national news features, and by just walking by a Scientology desk at the mall and being harassed. So, if you have the chance to watch how a cult can be started and can lure thousands of people into it, I recommend watching Going Clear on HBO right now.
Rating: A
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com