Falun Gong, Forcible Deprogramming, and China

Quite a long time ago (I believe it was 2001), I wrote a page about the Chinese government apparently being in bed with forcible deprogrammers to adopt/adapt their method to their own brand of indoctrination.

Now I receive the following e-mail:

I enjoyed your website and I have noted some of the same issues regarding the Chinese cooperation with "international anti-cult networks". Besides the wholesale adoption of the ACM material by the Chinese, I am perplexed by the new reeducation system being so dramatically different from the Chinese norm of reeducation camps. Do you know of specific instances of ACM consulting for the Chinese government? Or other consulting by westerners?

I did not follow the issue since then, and nothing came up at my conscious level during all this time. If anybody has information on that subject, kindly post it here.

PS - I also blogged recently about a similar instance I came about regarding Saudi Arabia. However, in that particular case, the participants still have what seems to be a reasonable level of choice as to whether they want to engage in such discussion or not. That makes the whole difference, and in fact, in such a context, I do think the approach is a good idea. It of course would definitely be a bad idea and a gross human right abuse if it was imposed through force, as seemed to be the case in China when I created the page seven years ago.

Louanne

Louanne is a Scientologists who does answer people's questions. The work he does is quite remarkable, and if all Scientologists would be like him, it may not be the kind of controversy it is today. Although...

Anyway, I believe this blog is his too, but, contrary to his other blog where he confronts questions, and to his web page, this one is linked through the Scientology Blogosphere, probably because the content is acceptable for broad publication within the Scientology network.

I must say that I never really took the time to start reading Louanne's blog or page in details, so my assessment is a superficial one. I don't even know if he is a he or if he is a she (is that proper English?). Nevertheless, the simple fact that a Scientologist opens himself to open debate and tackles with the many anti-Scientology myths is worth to be noted.

PS - There was another Scientologist (among others) doing that before, albeit not quite at this level. His name was Mike but I don't seem able to find his page right now. Here is an ARS post that quotes from his web site. He tackles with anti-Scientology myth #326 - gulp!

Jenna Elfman on Scientology

From nydailynews.com :

"It answered all the questions about the mind I'd been looking for and never found. I read 'Dianetics' and thought, 'That makes sense.'"

Stories from the Golden Age

The CoS is making quite a push for Hubbard's pre-Scientology Science-Fiction stories of late.

See also this blog, and the fact that they had an L. Ron Hubbard Stories from the Golden Age float at the recent annual Hollywood Santa Parade 2008.

PS - I find it remarkable that LRH significantly went into the science-fiction genre, departing somewhat from his more down-to-earth adventures he wrote previously, after his 1938 out-of-body experience where all the secrets of the universe were supposedly revealed to him. Maybe it's just coincidental circumstances but still.

This should be clear from this list.

Also, from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs2-3.htm

"Writer A.E. van Vogt, an important figure in the early Dianetic movement, has said that Hubbard claimed his heart had stopped for six minutes during an operation, in 1938. Excalibur was the result of the revelation Hubbard had during this near death experience. Armstrong has said it was a dental extraction under nitrous oxide. Hubbard told his literary agent that a "smorgasbord" of knowledge had been laid out before him. ... In 1938, Hubbard became a science fiction writer, claiming he was "summoned" by the publishing firm of Street & Smith to write for Astounding Science Fiction. Hubbard protested that he wrote about people, not machines, and was told that this was precisely what was needed. ... Hubbard joined editor John Campbell's circle of friends, and became a major contributor to the reshaping of science fiction which Campbell brought about. ... Hubbard's interest in the occult continued, and for six months in 1940 he belonged to the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC)."

Other interesting related links:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/l-ron-hubbard/
http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/frenschkowski.html#H1
http://www.wiseoldgoat.com/papers-scientology/hubbard_fiction_of_lrh.html

Will Smith Donates $122,500 to the Church of Scientology

From foxnews.com :

Just-released tax returns for movie star Will Smith’s charitable foundation show he and wife, Jada, gave $1.3 million in donations last year to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups.

Smith’s biggest single contribution was, as usual, Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the born-again Christian based organization run by Reverend James Robinson a whopping $250,000. [...]

He also gave a combined $122,500 to the Church of Scientology, broken into these donations: $67,500 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxication Fund, $50,000 to the group’s Celebrity Center in Hollywood and $5,000 to ABLE, another Scientology offshoot.

Scientology Is Not Entertaining

"I'm here to entertain people. That's who I am and what I want to do. I've been a Scientologist for 25 years but I think there is a time and a place for it because things can get misunderstood and twisted," said Cruise in the Today Show.

Les Grossman is Sumner Redstone?

gawker.com claims that the hilarious Les Grossman character in Tropic Thunder is "a carefully-constructed, well-received impersonation of Redstone".

PS - seems that no matter what Cruise does, Gawker is not prepared to call him anything else than "creepy and crazy" unless he quits and denounces Scientology as a scam.