Aimee Howarth brings you an interview with The Yorker directors on the final day of the advent articles
Aimee Howarth speaks to YUSU's sabbatical officers about their Christmas Day routine for day 17 of the advent calendar
For the final time this term, Vicky Morris updates you on this weeks film news
50 years after the publication of 'James and the Giant Peach', the works of Roald Dahl continue to celebrate success.
Scientology was invented in the 1950s, when a science fiction writer from Iowa named Lafayette Ron Hubbard (commonly known as “L. Ron”), laid down a set of ideas and practices for self-improvement in his book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”.
Fifty years later, the Church of Scientology (CoS), based on the teachings of L. Ron, claims over ten million members worldwide (although the actual number is reportedly much lower), with celebrity followers including Tom Cruise, John Travolta and even Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.
However, the inner workings of the CoS are shrouded in secrecy, requiring significant financial contributions from members to progress up to the higher levels. The Yorker sent 'John' and 'Jane' undercover to unearth the obscurity behind the beliefs of Scientology. Here is Jane's story:
Not wishing to draw attention to myself, I tagged along to my friend, John's appointment. He had previously been handed an Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), the 200 question 'personality test' - the standard of modern recruitment to the CoS. He had randomly answered the questions that on most personality tests, should produce an average mark.
We were welcomed in by a lady in her early forties, who certainly looked pleased to see us, but without the air of desperation that is sometimes apparent in more established religions whose numbers are dwindling. She offered us something to drink, and for a split second I remembered hearing about cults who drug their members, and unable to shake the thought, I politely declined.
John was told to provide his name and full address so that the test could be marked, even though we were to be given the results later on in the session. The test was rushed away out of sight for processing and she took the opportunity to ask us why we were there. We were keen to find out how they would act with someone open-minded and genuinely interested, so we tried our hardest to behave with enthusiasm.
She told us that Scientology is a ‘philosophy’ more than a religion, and you can still hold other religious beliefs whilst being a Scientologist. The woman was very vague about the specific beliefs, preferring to emphasise that they believe there is ‘something more than all this’, and promoting their charitable work in the community, like their drugs education programme for teenagers, disaster relief efforts, and work promoting human rights. Whilst this seemed like very worthwhile work on the surface, I couldn't escape the slightly uncomfortable sensation that I felt.
The words “PSYCHIATRY: An Industry of DEATH” screamed up at me in red ink from the page.
As the next pamphlet was passed to us, I realised why. The words “PSYCHIATRY: An Industry of DEATH” screamed up at me in red ink from the page. Within, psychiatrists were portrayed as Nazis and were blamed for the school shootings in America, simply because the people who committed the shootings were on psychiatric medication.
It criticised procedures such as frontal lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy, which have not been widely used since the 1970s. In all honesty, the brochure made me feel slightly sick. All the while, the woman talked calmly about how it is an ‘observed fact’ that psychiatry is ‘pretend help’.
Fortunately, before my blood pressure rose any higher, the results of the test were back. After studying the papers for a long enough time for us to shift awkwardly, she asked John what he saw as his weakness. It seemed as if she was searching for clues from him, to get her teeth into an issue and discuss what the results showed.
I cannot begin to convey the peculiar nature of these results. The questionnaire had a yes/no/maybe answer format to questions that are reminiscent of the personality tests in magazines like a woman’s magazine. To get a 'perfect' score on the Scientology test, you would need to be an outrageous liar, or a saint.
Questions included: “Do you resent the efforts of others to tell you what to do?”, “Have you any particular hate or fear?”, and “Do you often feel upset about the state of war victims and political refugees?”. These are marked against a scheme which has set 'correct' answers. Incidentally, the correct answers to those questions are no, no and no.
The graph looked so amateurish and biased I could barely keep my composure. In all categories except one, John supposedly required urgent attention. Inadequate, unacceptable – he sounded like an outcast of society. The nice lady suddenly turned into a schoolteacher, lambasting him for not accepting responsibility for his mistakes, calling him ‘quite cold-blooded and heartless’, reading off the sheet and deciding he could do with some help to make me, his ‘girlfriend’, stay with him another week.
For some reason though, we were not given the hard sell. We weren't told prices or encouraged to sign up to courses. However, we were directed to the series of 18 books written by L. Ron on the subject.
This encounter was not typical of such visits. Selling courses (starting price around £50) normally becomes the main focus of the first few meetings, after which the prices rise steeply into the hundreds, even thousands of pounds.
From this account, you may not consider Scientology to be dangerous to the average student, and I may agree with you. But for those with low self esteem, or who are dissatisfied with their faith, it is easy to see how Scientology might present a convincing argument to join. The more sinister aspects of this organisation, easily found by an internet engine search, cannot be ignored.
Accusations of spying, alien invasions, and even murders are what you find if you delve deep enough. But one session at the Hull Road centre was deep enough for me.
I heard that scientology gives you acne.
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