[0]	Scientology and The Left-Hand Path

The Left-hand Path is the path of black magic, better known as Satanism or Setianism.  Scientology has never overtly positioned themselves as a magical, let alone black magic system; disclosing this information would severely limit membership in a Christian-dominated culture.  Scientology is now stepping up their proselytizing efforts in the Orient.  Because they do not promote their doctrine honestly, those of eastern faiths are just as open to Scientology’s treachery as Christians have been in the west.

Hubbard was good at obfuscating his sources; no lay member of Scientology is given any indication whatsoever that Scientology is anything but the inspiration and genius of its “humanitarian” founder. 

A current Scientology web site, www.bonafide-scientology.org, makes lengthy arguments about why they should be called a religion.  However, none of the authors of the papers presented analyze Scientology’s secret doctrine, or admit to having access to them for the preparation of their papers.

Scientology can however be analyzed against Left-hand/Right-hand criteria.  For this, I am liberally assisted by Lords of the Left-Hand Path by Stephen E. Flowers, PhD, and former Grand Master of The Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set.[1] Flowers’ book is both scholarly and decidedly pro Left-hand Path.  In making my comparison, I wished to eliminate possible bias in the criteria itself. 

The analysis of Scientology presents several challenges: Hubbard grossly misrepresented his professional qualifications and pre-Scientology history.  Scientology doctrine has been “sanitized” by Hubbard’s successors—there are significant discrepancies in current editions of Hubbard’s early written and taped material, which now omit clues that point to his actual “philosophy” and intent.  Further, Hubbard carefully trained his administrators and public officials to provide “acceptable truths” in presenting Scientology, which “truths” satisfy all but the most carefully discriminating inquirer. [2]

The very simplicity of the current analysis “cuts to the chase” on answering the fundamental question, “How does the soul relate to or interact with the objective universe or the universe as a whole?”

Deification of The Self

Flowers gives two major criteria for being considered “a true Lord of the Left-hand Path.”  The first of these is “Deification of the Self.”

“This first criterion will be seen to have four distinct elements:

1) Self-deification—attainment of an enlightened (or awakened), independently existing intellect and its relative immortality.

Scientology uses the term “thetan” [5] to describe the individual as an immortal being or god.  Hubbard promised a state called  Operating Thetan [6] which is attainable only by going through a series of grades in Scientology’s “Bridge to Total Freedom.”  The thetan supposedly entered the physical universe as an all-powerful entity, and over trillions of years degraded himself to the point where he now finds himself trapped in a human body, playing human games.  Scientology corrects all that and rehabilitates the individual to his native god-state.

2) Individualism—the enlightened intellect is that of a given individual, not a collective body.

Scientology doctrine states specifically that man is not ultimately part of “the All,” or a Unity.

On the other hand, Scientology’s solution for the rehabilitation of the individual is entirely that of replicating Hubbard’s own doctrine and views into the conscious and unconscious minds of its members.  Scientology training and auditing replaces all previous thought patterns, religious ideas and worldview.  There is never any higher authority for Scientologists than Hubbard’s own doctrine.  Scientologists are given authority for being “source” of their own lives only to the degree that their thought patterns, life decisions, and activities match Hubbard’s policies and align with Scientology’s ethics codes.

Hubbard taught that Scientologists do not make it on their own, outside of the parameters of Scientology’s closed control system. 

This policy reveals that Hubbard never directed Scientologists to follow their own left hand path—his intention was that Scientologists fall under his own left hand path.

Scientology’s ethics system and confessional procedure are the main tools with which all individuation is removed and a uniformity of thought pattern is achieved throughout the organization. 

Scientology holds up their confessional procedure against the practices of other religions such as Catholicism.  One critical difference between confessionals in Christianity and confessionals in Scientology is the issue of forgiveness.  Catholics are forgiven by God, and the person experiences the restoration of his relationship with God.  At the end of Scientology confessionals, the auditor gives the confessor the following proclamation:

Scientology confessionals restore the hive mentality that Hubbard intended for members of his organization.

3) Initiation –the enlightenment and strength of essence necessary for the desired state of evolution of self are attained by means of stages created by the will of the magician, not because he or she was "divine" to begin with.

Scientology does not match the Initiation criterion in the literal sense.  Hubbard taught that the thetan (viewed separately from any physical consideration) is, without Scientology on a devolutionary cycle, not an evolutionary one; Scientology “reverses the dwindling spiral of existence.”   This, however, is not “the Fall” as viewed in the Right-hand path.  The thetan is the ultimate source and creator of the physical universe—he simply did not understand his own creation.  Scientology promotes their Bridge to appear as though it is the equivalent of the Right-hand  “Grace,” whereby man can recover his divinity.

Hubbard explains, however, that as a composite of thetan-plus-body, man has been on a learning (evolutionary) curve.  This experience has taken place over many aeons and almost countless past lives.  Mishaps have occurred in the process of learning to apply physical universe force; these cause unconscious incidents to collect in the reactive mind, a mind that no other religion, science or philosophy has been able to conquer until Dianetics and Scientology.[10]  The reactive mind has gradually reduced the thetan’s native power and ability; it is the unwanted byproduct of the thetan’s history in the physical.  Hubbard taught Scientology is the necessary evolutionary step whereby the thetan’s original power is recovered, through the elimination of the reactive mind.  The knowledge gained through this process makes the overall physical experience an evolutionary one therefore—by reaching the top of the Bridge, thetans recover their native power and are also in possession of the knowledge necessary to ensure they never get trapped again in the physical.

Scientologists go up Hubbard’s Bridge on their own steam—the estimated cost of the Bridge through the level of OT 8 (Truth Revealed ) is in a range that exceeds $200,000.00.  This however is only a rough estimate, due to price fluctuations, individually tailored auditing programs, and so forth.  No one has reached the top of the Bridge to date--the most advanced levels have not been released to the public.  Regardless, the will of Scientologists, with respect to their evolution, largely manifests in their ability to pay for the Bridge, and in their contributions toward the expansion of Scientology as an organization. 

Hubbard taught that an individual has an overall dynamic urge to survive, which dynamic is broken down to eight sub-divisions, called simply “dynamics.”  These dynamics are urges to survive as: 1) self, 2) sex and family, 3) groups, 4) mankind, 5) plant and animal life—all living things, 6) Matter, energy, space and time, or “MEST,” 7) the spirit realm and 8) God or Infinity.

Scientologists learn that they will not go fully free unless they take care of all their dynamics.  This of course includes the mankind dynamic, and is the motivation for Scientologists to disseminate Scientology.  Advanced organizations of Scientology closely monitor the financial and dissemination “contributions” of their members as criteria by which eligibility for advanced levels are determined. See also: The Dynamics: Stolen Masonry. 

4) Magic—practitioners of the left-hand path see themselves as using their own wills in a rationally intuited system or spiritual technology designed to cause the universe around them to conform to their self-willed patterns.

Scientology differentiates the “will” in terms of determinism.  One can be “other-determined,” by which is meant he is the unwitting effect of his reactive mind or of others’ intentions. [11]  One can be “self-determined,” [12] which means that he can control himself and his immediate environment, not including the determinism of others.  At the level of Clear, one is “self-determined.”  Optimally, however, the person is “pan-determined,” [13] which involves the capacity for him to control the outcome of everything in his area.  An “operating thetan” is pan-determined. 

Hubbard’s “pan-determinism” simply extends the individual’s right to control the will of others in his vicinity.  Although Hubbard does not overtly define the word “Pan” in the Satanic sense, it may be appropriate to consider it in this light.  Hubbard jokingly (?) announced his title of “Prince of Darkness” in PDC Lecture 1 on 1 December 1952.  The Scientology training system creates psychological “Hubbard replicas.”   The accepted interpretation of Hubbard’s “pan-determinism”, however, is that as one becomes more “OT”, he can responsibly apply ethics to his dynamics, which ultimately includes everything and everyone.  Hubbard provides for this in OT Maxims:

Hubbard closely associated “will” with his philosophical triangle of “Knowledge-Responsibility-Control.”  The KRC triangle is Hubbard’s answer to Aleister Crowley’s Law of Thelema (Will):  “Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole of the Law.”  As with the Rosicrucian philosophical triangle, raising one corner of the triangle raises the other two corners.  Therefore, as one’s knowledge is increased, his responsibility and his ability to control is raised. As one’s ability to control is increased, so too does his knowledge and responsibility increase.  And as one increases his responsibility, his control and knowledge factors increase.  For a further discussion on KRC, see Scientology and the KRC Triangle.

Antinomianism

The second of the two main criteria given by Flowers in determining whether the path is a Left-hand path is Antinomianism. 

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Antinomianism as follows:

 Flower further explains how antinomianism applies to the Left-hand path:

Hubbard plainly considered his ethics and justice system to be superior to the laws of the land.  He admonished his members to literally apply Scientology ethics and justice in society: 

“The enturbulence of the society around us is fantastic. There is no just civil law left, really. It is that lawless and disorderly condition in the society about us which makes it hard for us to work. Shortly we will be even more powerful. That power must not be lawless or we will have anarchy and dismay, enough to stop our growth. [17]

Scientology’s internal ethics and justice system contains various regulations with respect to secular courts.  The “high crimes” selected below highlight the controls Scientology places on its members with respect to the secular legal system:

Hubbard places murder and arson in the same category of offenses listed above.

David Miscavige as the Chairman of the Board of The Religious Technology Center is responsible for monitoring and controlling all violations of the above crimes.  All major Scientology periodicals now include a page that lists these and other such “matters of RTC concern.”  The RTC instructs Scientologists to report these and other matters to the RTC.

Scientology’s own criminal activities are well documented on current critic web sites; a few links are referenced at the end of this document.[19]  One of the more notorious efforts was “Operation Snow White”—Scientology’s international conspiracy to infiltrate government agencies all over the world.  Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue, and ten other conspirators, were consequently convicted, fined and given lengthy prison sentences in October 1979.[20]

The IRS was among the government agencies infiltrated during “Snow White.” Less than a decade after the conspiracy trial, the IRS granted Scientology tax-exempt status. [21] Links between that tax exemption and Snow White have been established and can be read at the site referenced. [22]

Scientology now promotes in their member magazines that the IRS will help them go up the Bridge. 

Scientology is well known for its aggressive litigiousness; their lawsuits are largely directed against their critics.  This activity specifically accords with Hubbard’s policy against critics—he states in no uncertain terms that a critic to Scientology is, without exception, a criminal.  The following three quotes are excerpted from a Hubbard bulletin called “Critics of Scientology”:

There are many websites on the Internet that document Scientology’s criminal and inhumane activites.[25]   Scientology hopes to “ruin utterly” the growing number of its critics.  

The above rhetoric is a good summary of how Scientology justifies its stance against critics.  Scientologists believe that mankind’s hope for betterment is the sole domain of Scientology.  This conviction powers Scientologists’ aggressive ongoing efforts against its critics.

Scientology’s ad hoc law enforcement effort seeks to expose the “crimes” of its critics at http://www.bigotwatch.net/ .  Anonymous operatives from Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs post to alt.religion.scientology and refer to this site in some of their postings. 

Summary

What passes for spiritual attainment in Scientology is simply the replacement of the Scientologist’s natural critical faculties and sense of morality with a replica of Hubbard’s own psychological condition.

For its members, Scientology does not qualify as a valid left-hand path.  Their members are lied to about the true sources of Scientology doctrine and about the qualifications and true background of its founder.  Scientology uses psychological mind control that has as a crucially important feature: the delusion that its members are there of their own free will.  They are not.

A left-hand path designation can only be assigned to those members in Scientology who are fully cognizant of Hubbard’s sources and true intent.  Scientology’s upper management is cognizant of the exact left-hand path that Hubbard left for them—it cannot be other than this.  It is only these small few that can legitimately claim to be following a left-hand path.  God help them.

[0] Image modified from line drawing in Modern Management Technology Defined © 1976 L. Ron Hubbard

[1] Flowers, Stephen E., Lords of the Left-Hand Path © 1997 Stephen E. Flowers
See also The Temple of Set site for their description of the Left Hand Path

[2] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCO PL 13 August 1970 The Missing Ingredient © 1983 L. Ron Hubbard

[27] Hubbard, L. Ron, HCOB 5 November 1967 Critics of Scientology © 1989 L. Ron Hubbard Library