Playing While we Trim the Tree



Testing out the new quick post function on the WordPress Android app, with a photo of my son playing in the chapel of the DC Church of Scientology.

Blogs I’m Reading: Scientology in St. Louis

For the last several hundred years (or perhaps longer) the activity of putting together a new church for the town has been a very rich community affair, drawing together the skills, efforts and energies of the parishioners in the community, and of neighboring communities. 

In that tradition, Scientology communities around the world have been quite intensely engaged in the construction of new premises to better suit and service their communities.  Scientologists refer to this new breed of church as an “Ideal Organization”, in reference to an essay L. Ron Hubbard wrote entitled, “The Ideal Org” – the substance of which is more finely detailed in this post on Ideal Churches of Scientology.

 

But one such project that I’ve been following with great interest is that of the Church of Scientology of St. Louis.  

 

The Executive Director of the St. Louis Church has a blog which is filled with interesting anecdotes as they happen, as well as some truly intriguing articles – like this one on the topic of Guy Fawkes day.

Definitely worth a read!

My 9/11 Story

There is something I can always get into a colourful discussion with, with just about anyone — especially other Scientologists, which is the curious question of, “Where were you on September 11th, 2001?”

Now that it’s  10 years after these disasters happened in DC and New York, I figured I’d revisit this.  Unfortunately for those who were there, it’s generally known to the world as “the day the Twin Towers went down”.  The Pentagon is generally a totally forgotten piece to the story, and I’ve come across many people (especially amongst friends on the West Coast) that didn’t even know the Pentagon got hit.

But when I look back on it, I don’t look back at 9/11 as a time of sheer horror – but instead as a time when my friends and I really had a personal re-awakening, and a honing of purpose with respect to helping others – and not just focusing in on looking out for ourselves.

My own September 11th story has a bit of color to it.

In 2001, I was with the Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. – amongst other things working in the area of personnel as well as on various promotional tasks.  I lived in Falls Church, Virginia, and rode my mountain bike in to the Church’s location in Dupont Circle, DC each day.  Anyone who knows DC traffic knows that it can be significantly faster to take a bike than a car sometimes, especially when the Pentagon is in full swing.   I’d ride in each day partially on the road, and until the Pentagon Annex, and then would take the bike path down the hill, past the old Pentagon helipad, and then across the Memorial Bridge.

In any case, a few days before, on the 8th of September or so, I went up to the Church’s New York City regional office for some training.   I was staying in a friend’s house in midtown Manhattan, and was all set to leave on the morning of Tuesday, September 11th when all of the sudden I was rustled out of bed by my friend.

“DUDE, GET UP!  The World Trade Center just exploded!”

We  raced up to his roof to see the plume of smoke coming from the first tower.  Being on 43rd St, we couldn’t hear a thing, but could definitely see the smoke.   Not knowing what in the sam hell was happening, we raced down to catch the news, just in time to see the 2nd plane hit the other tower.  The rest unfolded like the rest of the world saw it, and both towers came down.  Again, up on 43rd st, we could see it occur, but couldn’t hear it at all — so to us it was just like some terrible, awful movie.

Of course, being Scientologists, our first impulse was to go do something about it, so we raced outside to get down to the Church management building, so we could get organized.

The people outside were in a total daze.  It was really terrible to behold.  Like the entirety of New York had all just stumbled out of the same bad movie, in a complete disbelief of what had just happened.

Not too much later, the Church had started to organize up teams that were going to go down and start getting in there and pitching — something that has now become the stuff of legend.  I was definitely urged to stay and get down there, but unfortunately most people in New York had already also forgotten that my home city had just been hit as well.

I unfortunately could not get out of Manhattan until Tuesday the 12th at about 6pm, as the entire island was entirely locked-down.  The night of Tuesday, September 11th was one of the most surreal I have ever experienced.  A walk to Times Square allowed me a view of something I will never see again this lifetime:  a Vanilla-Sky-like view, where I could look all the way up and down Broadway, and there was not one single car on the road.  Not one.  It was a ghost town.  The only thing open was McDonalds, and some hearty individuals were there sharing their stories and their friendship.  It was a very, very different crowd than I’ve ever seen, especially in New York.

I got a 6pm train out of Penn Station the next day, stopping about 8 times on the way to DC so that the K9 search teams could go through the train cars looking for terrorists.   I finally arrived back to DC that night, to see the horror that became of the Pentagon.

In addition to punching a hole through what the hard workers there had just spent years renovating, the bastard terrorists had just skidded across the same bike path I took to the Church every day — and had happened to blast through it at exactly the same time as I used to ride past it.   So, I guess it was good that I happened to be in NYC at the time, or I would have found myself blasted into the side wall of the Pentagon, along with my bike.

But members of our Church worked hard to get folks in the area back on their feet following the disaster.    I spent my next several months helping the Church build its corps of Volunteer Ministers, and then went on to do many more things to promote the cause of Scientology Volunteer Ministers world over.   I spent days and nights getting volunteers to help in the aftermath of disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunamis, as well as the more recent Haiti disaster.

For me, 9/11 was a wake-up call.  It was extremely in-my-face demonstration that all was not right in the world.  Obviously the answer to such things is not in fighting, in invading, or in creating a homeland-security-police-state terror patrol to constantly remind people that the terrorists are out-t’getcha.  The answer is to dig out at the roots of the problem of what ails the individual, and make each person better and more able to take responsibility for their environment.

I don’t think I’ve gone a single week since then without applying myself toward helping my fellow man.   What was your 9/11 experience?

Preserving the Authenticity of my Religion

I personally have quite a bit of respect for all great religions of the world.  I think that by and large, their founders and original proponents were quite enlightened, and had some fairly star-high goals for man – both in terms of morality and enhancing mankind’s ability to interact with one another, as well as high goals for mankind’s inherent spirituality.

Hear-say or Heresy?

There’s been an impediment that (I would say) every religion has had to deal with, however, and that is with respect to the communication and preservation of their exact religious beliefs, scriptures and teachings.  In the earlier days of man, the primary way that beliefs and customs could be passed on generation to generation was in song, in the spoken word, and in some cases – someone was bright enough to write down what it was that they heard into book form.

Unfortunately there is often a wide variance between what the founder of a religion actually said, and what the individual who hears it all verbally takes away from such an experience.

Every religion has this issue to one degree or another.  From the Bhagavad-Gita to the King James edition of the bible, so many enlightened texts have relied in whole or in part on the interpretation of another (or of committees & parliamentary bodies) on what the founder originally taught.

Now please understand, I mean positively no disrespect to any enlightened text which forms the scripture of any religion.  In all cases, having such beliefs written at all has uplifted hundreds of generations, and that can’t be discounted.

Case in Point

My reason for writing this, is I recently finished a study of the Dianetics Professional Course lectures at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.

The Dianetics Professional Course lectures were originally known for some decades as a book called “Notes on the Lectures” – a compiled book, taken from the notes of students who were there in the fall of 1950, listening to L. Ron Hubbard give the lecture.  It was assumed for some years that the original taped recordings of the lectures were lost, so this verbal transcription – amounting to what the students understood from the lectures as they were given – were all that remained.

Then, just a few years ago, the original tapes of the lectures were located.  However, due to the fact that the tapes had been sitting in suboptimum storage for over 50 years, it was assumed that they were not going to able to be reproduced for public listening.  However, after a massive effort by Golden Era Productions, the tapes were in fact able to be restored so that all could listen to them.

A fantastic video to watch which gives the details of how much care was put into such, is available to watch on the Scientology website:

Now, I’ve had the opportunity to read the previously-issued Notes on the Lectures book nearly-back-to-back with the actual lectures that Mr. Hubbard gave, and the result is pretty horrifying.  There are some portions of the book where you can fairly well understand which lecture it is that the student note-takers were talking about, as it seemed they were tracking with the lecture.

In other places, though – especially with some of the diagrams they came up with, it seems like they either missed the point entirely, or were making up their own vision of what Mr. Hubbard was talking about.

The actual lectures give the first, best, and most amazing view of the relationship of the properties of affinity, reality (agreement) and communication, and how they relate to a person’s mental health. It’s really quite an amazing study – even if someone studying it wasn’t planning on giving someone a Dianetics session.  I’ll write more of what I got from it on my Scientology parenting site.

But my painful realization, in this case, was not only how wildly off-base the Notes on the Lectures book had been, but it gave me such a respect for entities like Religious Technology Center, and the Chairman of the Board RTC, Mr. David Miscavige, who have as their mission preserving the purity of the Scientology religion.

It made me wonder – how much of what we know of today’s world religions is actually how the founder or spiritual leader taught or said?  How much of it was faithfully passed on with fidelity, and how much was either altered completely or made up whole cloth?  That much, we’ll unfortunately never know.

Featured on the Patheos Blog about Scientology

Patheos Blog on Scientology

I’ve been recently asked to add some guest posts on the Scientology section of the quite excellent Patheos Internet community.  I’d long admired the work of the site, as the folks who run the site seem genuinely interested in fostering an environment where one can learn about the religious beliefs of others whilst offering respect and understanding of what others believe.

Most of what I’ve been posting has appeared elsewhere in some form on my Scientology Parenting site (like the one pictured above on Communication as it relates to parenting), so I’m happy to be able to help.  I definitely count among my friends, folks from all manner of different religious (and non-religious) backgrounds, so I think the goal of the site is a worthy one to support.

Scientology Church & Activities in DC on Flickr

Scientology Church & Activities in DC, a set on Flickr.

I was actually originally just posting this to test out Flickr’s new set-sharing feature, where you can directly share a whole Flickr set on WordPress with one button-press. Quite brilliant, I think.

This is my catch-all set of various activities I’ve had in & around the Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.

Via Flickr:
Photos & Video of the new Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC, as well as associated activities in & around the new Church.

Google Questions Answered on Scientology – Episode #1

As this is a personal site with a rather varied set of topics related to Scientology, I get some interesting results in terms of search terms people use to arrive at my site.  Some of them are understandable, others – well, not so much.   But I figured it might be of interest to give a bit more info for some of this week’s top search terms, just to make sure future searchers find what they’re looking for:

“what do scientologists say about earthquakes”

An interesting Google search indeed.  Not sure what “Scientologists say” except for that they happen, and when they do, some tragic results can ensue.  Obviously it’s incumbent upon the science community to be able to better predict them, but in terms of handling the results, Scientologists have been extremely active.  The Scientology Volunteer Ministers blog has info on what our teams are currently doing in Japan as a result of the recent tsunami, and the Scientology VM site has more info on what our volunteers have done in the wake of other disasters. 

“scientology ybor grand opening youtube”

Photos of the Grand Opening of the new Ybor Square Church of Scientology in Tampa are here, and I think the video you’re after of the Grand Opening is right here:

 

“becoming a member of the scientology church”

Well, that’s a fairly easy one.  If you were Googling this because you were wondering why someone might be a Scientologist, I did a fairly detailed write up here.  If you were wondering on what’s involved with being a Scientologist, well, it’s easy enough to just check out some of the free courses in Scientology that are available on-line, apply it and see if it works for you.   If you have any questions, just ask.

 

“difference between ias and able scientology”

The IAS is the International Association of Scientologists – the official membership association of the Scientology religion.  The purpose of the IAS is: “To unite, advance, support and protect the Scientology religion and Scientologists in all parts of the world, so as to achieve the aims of Scientology as originated by L. Ron Hubbard.”  I wrote more on the IAS here, and you can find out more about the programs that the IAS supports in a nutshell on this video.

ABLE is the Association for Better Living and Education.  In a nutshell, ABLE has the purpose of reversing the social decay that threatens our societies by resolving the worst problems that plague man today — drugs, crime, illiteracy and immorality.  While supported by the actions of many Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike, ABLE is a secular (non-religious) activity, and uses the technologies of L. Ron Hubbard to forward four major areas:

• Narconon International
• Criminon International
• Applied Scholastics International
• The Way to Happiness Foundation International.

You can find out more about each of these areas on their site.  Hope that answers the question!

 

“i’m a scientologist how do i raise my children”

I have a site dedicated to that question.    Let me know if there’s a question on parenting which is not answered on that site, and I’ll take it up!

“church of scientology staff”

There were about 6 different permutations of that search term in the last week.  You can see my take on being on staff in a Scientology organization here.   I know of at least one person who’s now on staff after reading this, so that’s a good thing.  Let me know if you have any questions about being on staff and I’ll answer them. 

“scientology reviews”

Interesting – quite a few searches this week for “Scientology Reviews”.  Well, I’ll certainly give you my review of Scientology.

 

–

Curious to see what the next week turns up in searches!

Why I am Proud to Support the International Association of Scientologists

“What is the IAS?”

There’s a question I get asked quite often when I’m wearing my shirts that state I’m a member of the International Association of Scientologists, one I’m bound to get asked all the more often now that my family are all Patrons of the Association.

“What’s that?”

One fellow that I did web engineering with saw me wearing a shirt with a torch on it that said, “Crusader” and said, “Crusader – I think I’ve heard of those guys.”  – thinking it was a vendor we worked with.

No, folks, I proudly sport those shirts because I’m a contributing member of the International Association of Scientologists – something I’m extremely proud of.

The IAS is the official membership organization of the Scientology religion, being made up of individual Scientologists who truly want to change conditions on this planet for the better.  The purpose of the International Association of Scientologists is:

To unite, advance, support and protect the Scientology religion and Scientologists in all parts of the world, so as to achieve the aims of Scientology as originated by L. Ron Hubbard.

Now, in practical terms, here’s what IAS members do, and what the IAS as a whole accomplishes, which I’m very much a supporter of:

The Volunteer Minister Program:

Scientology Volunteer Ministers

One program that the IAS supports that I’ve been intimately involved in is the Scientology Volunteer Minister program.  I’ve worked personally to get volunteers out to disaster sites like after the earthquakes in Haiti, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Chinese earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina, and others.   Volunteer Ministers are known for their ability to calm down & bring order to disorderly surroundings, and to also thereby work hand in hand with disaster response forces to clean up these major disaster sites.  But also, those same principles that make Scientology Volunteer Ministers effective in major upheavals also make them effective in smaller disasters – like kids with bonked heads, parents with upsets, or children needing to study better.  It’s such an effective program that gets such excellent results, that I love supporting it.

Reflecting on Being a Scientology Church Staff Member

Taken in my office at the Founding Church of Scientology, shortly after I started on staff.

The amazing surge of life & activity in and around the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C. these days has inspired me to write a bit on my time as a Scientology staff member, one of the most amazing periods of my life which I’ll cherish forever.

In an absolutely futile attempt to encapsulate the experience in a few words, I’ll say this: My time as a Scientology staff member was easily the most fun, the most challenging, rewarding, and the most life-changing experience I’ve ever undertaken. And I say that with no qualifiers, and no exceptions.

That obviously begs the question of “why”.  That, unfortunately takes a bit longer to express, but if you’ll bear with me, I’ll attempt to articulate.

Prior to my being on staff, I had a life which (I say now in retrospective) was a bit flat and purposeless.  I had gotten a string of excellent IT jobs that made great money, and had no problem, really, acquiring any car, computer, vacation, or other worldly item I wanted.  However, my activities were unpleasantly self-oriented, and I knew that.  There’s only so much gratification one can get from helping oneself, and oneself only.

Once one has a great car, a nice house, all the computer equipment one could ask for, and a body in good health, one sort of realizes that there’s got to be a bigger game – and a cooler one too that doesn’t just involve oneself.

My then-fiancee, now wife of 11 years, at the Scientology New Year's party 2000.

I then started dating a girl (now my wife of 11 years) who was a staff member at the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, DC.  After weeks of observing her and the fun she was having as a staff member, I decided to take a break from computer networking and take up a position on staff at the Church.

I honestly had no idea the number of changes that would make in me, all of them changes for the better.

To sum up a few points:

• I was able to make a real difference in an organization providing honest, effective help to others. I couldn’t begin to count up the vast numbers of saved marriages, saved careers, happier families, smarter kids, more effective businessmen, and empowered individuals that I personally witnessed when on staff in DC.   Week in and week out, there was just person after person, helped individually with whatever it was that was most ruining their life.The work I personally did was mainly with personnel, seeing to it that there were people there to do the work, that they knew their jobs, that they were happy at it, and could be effective at it.  Made it all the more fun when areas of the organization I helped establish then went on to create products like those mentioned above.
  

  Helping out my dad, also staff at the Founding Church, grooving him in on one of his organizational duties.

• It was immensely challenging. I had done things before which I felt were challenging, but nothing compared to this.  The job I walked into required I learn how to do virtually every job in the organization, and to understand in detail how each part of the Church contributes to the whole.  As such, it wasn’t until I stepped on staff that I really started to get an idea of my own limitations and how far I could really push myself – how fast could I learn, how fast could I adapt to something new, how effective could I be, etc.I think any staff member knows exactly what I’m talking about, and anyone who hasn’t yet tried it just plain won’t know until you do.
• Oh, my good lord, is it just the most FUN group to work with. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun it is to work with a positive, energetic-beyond-comprehension, gung-ho group of folks who each of them came on board to work with the Church for the right reasons – to make the planet a better place one individual at a time.

Founding Church of Scientology Staff - Circa December 1999

It’s that last part I’m reminded of constantly now that I get to rub elbows with the Church Staff here on a regular basis.  They are the most caring, fantastic, outrageous, amazing people I’ve ever known, people that I am just utterly proud to say are my friends.

Live Performance of L. Ron Hubbard’s Short: “One Was Stubborn”

Saturday night, we had the good fortune of having a tour come to town from Author Services – the organization that acts as the literary agent for L. Ron Hubbard’s works.   

In the Chapel of the Founding Church of Scientology, we got not only a briefing about what Author Services has been doing – what with the release of the incredible Stories From a Golden Age books & audiobooks, and the incomparable Writers of the Future Competition, but we also got treated to a live performance of the sci-fi short story entitled “One Was Stubborn” by L. Ron Hubbard.

 

As a first primer, in case you didn’t know, L. Ron Hubbard was one of the most prolific authors during the golden age of the pulps, an era during the 1930’s and 1940’s where instead of television, people turned to reading gripping short stories of all sorts as their common form of entertainment.

L. Ron Hubbard wrote in literally every genre – westerns, adventure, sci-fi, even romance.   This site has an excellent video presentation on such.

Author Services has recently released the full cache of L. Ron Hubbard’s short stories – both as quite excellent illustrated books, but also as high-quality audiobooks.  It’s the audiobooks that I, personally, have been most fond of – as they’re all told by  not a single voice, but by multiple actors and replete with outstanding sound effects.   You can get a sample of some of them, including the one we saw live. 

The story centers around a fellow named Old Shellback (above), who allegedly is the most stubborn old codger in the entire universe.  When a charismatic (yet slimy) religious leader dubbed “the Messiah” comes along to try to convince everyone that the world exists only by mutual agreement and calls for its end, objects start to disappear.

The story goes from there – one that I found quite entertaining, but even more so due to the excellent performance we were treated to.