I just bought the unofficial Tom Cruise biography which is not being sold in England because of an ongoing lawsuit. It gives me a good insight of the current structures of Scientology and how Scientology is treating its stars. The current CEO David Miscavige is described as a ranging dwarf who beats people up and drives nascar races against his close friend Tom Cruise. Much more interesting then Tom Cruises life are the people who surround him and treat him as a kind of king. In the book Scientology is described as an organisation that empties your wallet and fills up your ego. The feeling of being an Über-human and to have a superior knowledge of what will happen to us after our death is a core element of the cult to keep its members at it.
'He was a sharp guy,' said Ford, 'very stimulating and fascinating to be around. He was interested in a lot of things and was pretty well informed. When he talked about the things he'd done, sometimes I would think he was feeding me a line, but then you'd find out that it had actually happened. He told me once that when he was gliding a guy wire had snapped and smoothed off the ends of his fingers, leaving them very sensitive. I'm pretty sure that happened. When we went to see Stagecoach - the original one with John Wayne - he told me he'd worked on the script. I looked for his name on the credits, but didn't see it, although I didn't necessarily disbelieve him. It's possible he exaggerated his exploits a little, but he was a writer and did have a very fertile imagination. Certainly he got into a lot of things. Around 1937, Interview with R.M Ford
In a letter to Brigadier General Walter G. Kilner, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps, H. Latane Lewis II unexpectedly promoted Ron to the rank of 'Captain', perhaps to enhance his case: 'When you asked me last week to procure advice on the problem of bringing a more agreeable and adventurous type of young man into the Air Corps, I did not know I would be fortunate enough to receive a call today from Captain L. Ron Hubbard, the bearer.
'Captain Hubbard, whom you know as a writer and lecturer, is probably the best man to consult on this subject due to his many connections. He has offered to deliver his views in person.
'As a member of the Explorers Club he has occasion to address thousands of young men in various institutions concerning his sea adventures and his various expeditions. Though he only pursued soaring and power flight long enough to emass [sic] story information, he is still much respected in soaring societies for the skill and daring which brought him two records. He often speaks at Harvard . . .'[11]
Nothing came of Ron's offer to deliver his views in person, possibly because the Brigadier General discovered L. Ron Hubbard was not a Captain, not a member of the Explorers Club, not a lecturer, held no flying records and had never addressed Harvard. During World War II
'He was a large-jawed, red-haired, big and expansive fellow who surprised me,' Asimov recalled. 'His heroes tended to be frightened little men who rose to meet emergencies, and somehow I had expected Hubbard to be the same. "You don't look at all like your stories," I said. "Why? How are my stories?" he asked. "Oh they're great," I said enthusiastically and all present laughed while I blushed and tried to explain that if the stories were great and he was not like his stories, I didn't mean he was not great.[13] Meeting with Isaac Asimov
'He was a mixture of Adolf Hitler, Charlie Chaplin and Baron Munchausen. In short, he was a con man.'
writes former high ranked Scientology member Gerry Armstrong. In 1980 he had the idea to research material for a biography of L. Ron Hubbard. At this time Hubbard already lived in a state of mind where he wasn't able to differentiate between reality and the fiction he wrote. So he gave his approval for Armstrong to go through 6 cabinets full of documents about the leader of Scientology. After discovering the lies that were spreaded about Hubbards persona he decided to write a report to so called "messangers", people who have direct acces to Hubbard.
In the spring of 1982, Gerald Armstrong was accused of eighteen different 'crimes' and 'high crimes' against the Church of Scientology, including theft, false pretences and promulgating false information about the church and its founder. He was declared to be a 'suppressive person' and 'fair game', which meant he could be 'tricked, cheated, lied to, sued or destroyed' by his former friends in Scientology. L Ron Hubbard biography
I ordered a DVD called "This is your life - The Ultimate Collection" Since you can't buy it over here in germany it will take a bit longer before it gets here from Amazon.com. I hope to gain good knowledge of the show, its different elements and styles.
By collecting quotes and videos of Hubbard (and also including scientology's view) I will try to develop my character profile for the fictional cult leader out of it.
Hubbard was a broke Science Fiction Writer before he started with Scientology
You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion. Response to a question from the audience during a meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association on (7 November 1948)
After the successful establishment of Scientology Hubbard started distorting the facts around his persona. How Hubbard is seen by the church nowadays is well explained in this video excerpt out of an official orientation video from scientology:
Hubbard is presented to the viewer as a man of many talents. A wise All Arounder who was a specialist in a lot of different professions. If I'm able to trust the various sources from the net then Hubbard was not much more then a science fiction writer and an "average rated" navy officer in World War II before he founded his religion. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benzedrine often helps a case run. The Intensive Processing Procedure" (1950); "Run a case" = administer Dianetics or Scientology procedures to someone.
It is hard to say if Hubbard was a drug addict but at least it is a known fact that Hubbard didn't hesitate to try out new substances also for the purpose of mind control. Here is a little excerpt out of an interview with L. Ron Hubbard Jr. that he gave in 1983 to the Penthouse Magazine. L. Ron Hubbard Jr (known as Ron DeWolfe) left the church in the beginning of the 60's
Penthouse: What kind of drugs did he generally use?
Hubbard: At various times, just about everything, because he was quite a hypocondriac. Cocaine, peyote, amphetamines, barbiturates. It would be shorter to list what he didn't take.
Penthouse: Did he encourage you to do drugs?
Hubbard: Well, he used them with me. He was a real night person. We used to sit around all night, sit around his office or home, get loaded up, and talk. He had a pretty liquid tongue. He loved to talk. And of course, in the fifties, he decided that I was the heir apparent, so he wanted to teach me everything he knew. He started me out by mixing phenobarbital into my bubble gum, when I was ten years old. This was to induce deeper trances in order to practice the black magic and to get an avenue to power.
To promote Scientology Hubbard was using public attention for a certain topic. With the foundation of Scientology in the beginning of the 1950's Hubbard was using the fear of an atomic attack:
Scientology is the only specific (cure) for radiation (atomic bomb) burns. Professional Auditor's Bulletin 82
This video is one of the best known ephemeral films and illustrates pretty well the fear of an atomic attack.
Another thing people got frightened about were the mind control experiments that korean scientists were trying out on american soldiers in the korean war (see The Manchurian Candidate)
ON CONTROL AND LYING
THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them. When you find an individual is lying to you, you know that the individual is trying to control you. One way or another this individual is trying to control you. That is the mechanism of control. This individual is lying to you because he is trying to control you - because if they give you enough misinformation they will pull you down the tone scale so that they can control you. Conversely, if you see an impulse on the part of a human being to control you, you know very well that that human being is lying to you. Not "is going to", but "is" lying to you.
This excerpt of the television show "This is your life" presented by Ralph Edwards is a good example of the style I want to use for my own version of it. It features an old friend being shown on screen, an explanation about what Jesse L. Lasky was doing during the 40's and an old friend Jesse hears first before he comes on stage.
I came up with the idea of using "This is your life" after remembering a short skit from the sesame street which I have seen in my childhood days. It's called "Here is your life" where Guy Smiley is showing objects like old sneakers, a loaf of bread or in this case eggs their past life.
Hubbard constantly directs members attention to his own false claims of being able to create the exalted states of clear and OT, with intent, thumping his own chest about his greatness so loudly that none might hear anyone question him..
The concept of inducing your theory into the minds of people by forbidding any questioning seems to be another core technique of a cult.
The interest for my project derives from my research I have done in the field of propaganda and religious cults already. During my first stay in San Francisco I bought a book simply called Propaganda. It was written by Edward Bernays in 1928 and for all its years it is still kind of a "bible" to people in the Public Relations business. Bernays is a nephew of Siegmund Freud and he is also referred to as the father of P.R. It is said that Propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels kept a copy of this book in his shelves and that he learned a lot about the techniques on how to control a mass from Bernays. What strikes me most about Bernays's book is his ability to explain complex techniques by having simple examples for his theories. Here is a little excerpt from his book:
It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction. Suppose the old type of salesmanship, acting for a meat packer, was seeking to increase the sale of bacon. It would reiterate innumerable times in full-page advertisements: "Eat more bacon. Eat bacon because it is cheap, because it is good, because it gives you reserve energy." The newer salesmanship, understanding the group structure of society and the principles of mass psychology, would first ask: "Who is it that influences the eating habits of the public?" The answer, obviously, is: "The physicians." The new salesman will then suggest to physicians to say publicly that it is wholesome to eat bacon. He knows as a mathematical certainty, that large numbers of persons will follow the advice of their doctors, because he understands the psychological relation of dependence of men upon their physicians.
taken from this page where you can read the whole book online
Bernays writes that a mere reiteration could result in a conviction. This simple conclusion represents for me a core element of a cult phenomenon. Not only cults work by repeating their message repetitively and letting their devoted followers repeat the main doctrines but all major religion work in a similar way. The other important aspect in this excerpt is the use of people with authority to spread your message. Scientology for example uses their celebrities like Tom Cruise or John Travolta to advertise for Scientology. Bernays book gave me a good insight about the structure of propaganda and more specifically about Public Relations. I find a lot of parrallels between the work of a P.R. agency and the way Scientology communicates through modern media. For my futher research I will probably mention Bernays book a few more times.
When I first saw this video two years ago it made me think. At this time I didn't know much about cults and after I saw it my interest for this phenomenon grew rapidly. It is very well researched and explains in a very direct and blatant way the function and danger of a cult. It's also pretty funny in a way...
I will start with a brief overview of what I have thought about so far. My initial idea was to start research about different cults and religious groups (if you can even seperate these two things from each other). When I feel confident enough with this topic I will write the script. The film is supposed to be an animation film with a maximum length of 5 minutes. The main concept is to show how a cult is been born and how a cult leader convinces people to follow him. To illustrate this I will create a television show based on the 1950's success show "This is your life". An either existing cult leader or a fictitious character will be placed into this show and will be "confronted" with his vita.
Okay, so here it is: The blog that should help me get my thoughts sorted through and function as a kind of diary to help me structuring (and show others) the process of how I develop my ideas into a film. I chose the title after thinking about what my project will be about. You can translate it with "god on stage". The reason why I chose latin for the title is simple: it sounds much more sophisticated then it would sound in english or german :) Also, Suggesto (Inf: suggestum) already sounds a bit like suggestion so it is already a hint on what my project is all about. Oh, and I write in english so everybody will be able to read my texts.
