BARD@MIT-XX.ARPA (09/22/85)
From: Bard Bloom <BARD@MIT-XX.ARPA> RJS, discussing Scientology: > Postings on scientology are wholly appropriate to the science > fiction net, as anyone aware of both that religions history and the > history of sf is aware. Fact: scientology was created by a > ... [Several facts follow] Where does one discover these things? Everything I know about Scientology is by hearsay. Bard -------
tom@utcsri.UUCP (Tom Nadas) (09/25/85)
In article <3731@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> BARD@MIT-XX.ARPA writes: >From: Bard Bloom <BARD@MIT-XX.ARPA> > >RJS, discussing Scientology: >> Postings on scientology are wholly appropriate to the science >> fiction net, as anyone aware of both that religions history and the >> history of sf is aware. Fact: scientology was created by a >> ... [Several facts follow] > >Where does one discover these things? Everything I know about Scientology >is by hearsay. > >Bard >------- One can learn much of scientology's roots by reading John W. Campbell's editorials from _Astounding_ (now _Analog_) of the late 1930s. Nicholls' _Science_Fiction_Encylopedia_ (Doubleday) has a lengthy, surprisingly broad-minded entry on Scientology and of course an entry on pulpmeister Hubbard. What follows is a brief excerpt of a published interview I did with Donald Kingsbury (Author of _Courtship_Rite). An Interview with DONALD KINGSBURY Conducted by Robert J. Sawyer From the May 1984 issue of SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW SAWYER: You were once involved in Scientology. Or would you prefer not to talk about that? KINGSBURY: Oh, I have no trouble handling the Scientologists. Dianetics, you know, was first presented in _Astounding_. I sent away for the book, actually receiving it before its official publication date, and read it in one sitting. I thought, "that's a very interesting psychotherapy technique; I'll try it out on my girlfriend." I went over to her place, had her lie down on the couch, and closed the living-room door. In the middle of the session, her mother broke in. She thought -- well, you know what she thought: we were doing something indecent. I later married that girl, though. I spent one week of our honeymoon learning Dianetics from L. Ron Hubbard; the other week we went to Martha's Vineyard. I began to have reservations about the scientology organization. I was going to start a group in Montreal, but I found Hubbard very, very, very difficult to work with. I always knew I didn't agree with him on a lot of things. He was impossible to work with if you didn't agree with him and in that way he created scads of heretics. SAWYER: You were untimately excommunicated. KINSBURY: I taught my mathematics course at McGill in the same way they taught Scientology: as workshops, a very fast, very effective method. I wrote a report on the application and sent a copy to Hubbard. He sent me back a letter saying I had plagerized his learning theories. Hubbard built a great apparatus to deal with enemies. In order to have something for the apparatus to do, he goes out and creates enemies. He has a hard time with able people. When he gets able people around him, he excommunicates them. *** RJS