Space opera in Scientology scripture

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard used the science fiction term space opera to describe what he said were actual extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in past lives. Upon Hubbard's death in 1986, the Church of Scientology announced that he had discarded his physical body and was now "on a planet a galaxy away."^[1]

It is a basic belief of Scientology that a human being is actually an immortal spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is presently trapped on planet Earth in a "meat body." The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives antedating the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Descriptions of space opera incidents are seen as nonfiction in the beliefs of Scientology; they appeared in the online Glossary for Dianetics and Scientology, although they were later removed from it.^[2]

Hubbard said that the modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events that took place millions of years ago. These events include the story of Xenu, the ruler of the Galactic Confederacy who brought billions of frozen people to Earth 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs, creating swarms of disembodied alien souls known as Body Thetans. Xenu is only one element of Scientologist beliefs in alien civilizations. Such doctrines have existed in Scientology virtually since its beginning:^[3] In the 1950s Hubbard wrote and lectured about civilizations such as Helatrobus, Espinol and Arslychus, and in the 1960s he introduced Xenu's Galactic Confederacy. He described repeated instances of their using brainwashing implants on hapless beings. He also spoke of alien invasions of Earth, such as that carried out around 6235 BCE by the Fifth Invader Force, who were "very strange insect-like creature[s] with unthinkably horrible hands."^[4]

Scientology and science fiction

Members of the Church of Scientology often will publicly deny the existence of specific space opera doctrines, or attempt to minimize their importance.^[5] However, Scientology has graduated levels through which one can progress. Those who remain at relatively 'low' levels in the church are unaware of much of the space opera doctrines, which mostly begin at Operating Thetan level three, or "OT III."^[6] Because the secret information imparted to members is to be kept secret from others who have not attained that level, the member must publicly deny its existence when asked. OT III recipients must sign a waiver promising never to reveal its secrets before they are given the manila envelope containing the Xenu knowledge. It is knowledge so dangerous, members are told, that anyone learning this material before he or she is ready could die.^[7]

Members of the Church of Scientology have objected to Scientology being painted as a science fiction fantasy.^[8] Space opera is defined in the Official Scientology and Dianetics Glossary as:

"of or relating to time periods … millions of years ago which concerned activities in this and other galaxies. Space opera has space travel, spaceships, spacemen, intergalactic travel, wars, conflicts, other beings, civilizations and societies, and other planets and galaxies. It is not fiction and concerns actual incidents and things that occurred on the [whole] track [in the past]."^[2]

David Miscavige,^[9] the Church's leader since 1986, and other prominent Scientologists have publicly denied the importance of space opera incidents to the religion. This response, however, follows Hubbard's previous dictum to keep such matter minimized publicly. According to a 1990 article in the Los Angeles Times:

Hubbard realized that his accounts of past lives, implants and extraterrestrial creatures might sound suspect to outsiders. So he counseled his disciples to keep mum. "Don't start walking around and telling people about space opera because they're not going to believe you," he said, "and they're going to say, 'Well, that's just Hubbard.'"^[10]

Particularly during its early years, Scientology had links with science fiction. Hubbard was originally a pulp science fiction and adventure story writer; his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was first publicised through John W. Campbell's magazine Astounding Science Fiction and Hubbard recruited followers from the science fiction milieu. Hubbard returned to science fiction in the 1980s with his books Battlefield Earth and the ten-volume Mission Earth series.^{[citation needed]}

Science-fictional references can be found in Hubbard's Scientology-related works. Scientologists could find themselves living in "robot bodies" in past lives, being killed by "zap guns," living aboard spaceships or flying "space wagons" capable of traveling "a trillion light years per day."^[11] Scientology magazines even now are often illustrated with pictures of spaceships and exploding stars, and Scientology books published during the 1960s and 1970s depicted science fiction scenes on their dustjackets.^{[citation needed]}

Hubbard later dramatized the story of Xenu as a film script, Revolt in the Stars, in 1977, but failed to find a studio willing to buy the work. His novels Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth are not directly related to Scientology, but critics have noted a similarity between themes of these later novels and Scientology doctrine, particularly "the very strong opposition against 20th century psychology and psychiatry, which is seen as a major source of evil."^[12]

Rather than Scientology being based on science fiction, however, Hubbard argued that science fiction was actually an unconscious recollection of real past lives that could be uncovered in detail through Scientology auditing:

[Y]ou say, well, this is science fiction. No. No, no. No. The only part of science fiction they are, is the mistakes the science fiction writers have made while writing about their own past. ("The Helatrobus Implants")

Scientology's view of the universe

Scientology doctrine holds that the human spirit is manifested as what it terms thetan, a spiritual being roughly corresponding to religious and philosophical conceptions of the soul, which is immortal and theoretically immensely powerful, but is currently imprisoned in mortal human bodies and unable to reach its full potential. Thetans are credited with having created the universe trillions of years ago and with having the potential for "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time": the ability to operate free of the encumbrances of the material universe.^{[citation needed]}

However, over the "trillennia", thetans have been repeatedly subjected to the depredations of beings in the material or "MEST" universe. In the ongoing conflict between "theta" (good) and "entheta" (bad), material beings have captured, tortured and brainwashed thetans to make them more tractable. Xenu's galactic genocide was the most famous example of such methods but was not by any means the only such incident related in Scientology doctrine.^{[citation needed]}

According to Hubbard, there have been other such incidents, and alien involvement in Earth's affairs is still ongoing. The result is that thetans today are severely "aberrated" by billions of years of mistreatment in past lives, causing mental and physical problems such as illness, insanity and war. The only way to resolve this is said to be through Scientology's "auditing" or counselling methods. During Scientology auditing sessions, the Scientologist confronts and handles a series of past lives and key incidents which they may have experienced.^{[citation needed]}

Hubbard described key incidents on the "whole track" ("the moment to moment record of a person’s existence in this universe in picture and impression form")^[13] in his writings and lectures. He also gave details of alien civilizations, their roles and their histories — most of which seem to have involved the mass brainwashing of thetans with "implants" (false memories).

Scientologists and space opera

Some aspects of Scientology space opera are revealed only in higher-level Scientology courses. For instance, the story of Xenu is part of the Operating Thetan level III course, which requires an extensive (and expensive) preparatory series of courses. Only high-level Scientologists are given access to such "Advanced Technology" materials. This has not always been the case, as the Church of Scientology was initially quite open about its beliefs in space opera. Some "advanced" material was withdrawn from public circulation from the late 1960s onwards (although old copies can still be found in some public library collections, due to the Church's energetic policy of book donations).^{[citation needed]}

Much Scientology space opera is nonetheless still accessible to ordinary Scientologists and in materials which are readily available to the general public. The Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary (ISBN 0-88404-037-2) contains definitions for extraterrestrial civilizations and brainwashing incidents, and L. Ron Hubbard's publicly available works contain extensive references to space opera. Within Scientology, internal magazines often publicize aspects of space opera to entry-level "preclear" Scientologists. For instance, International Scientology News issue 3 contains an advertisement for volume 10 of Hubbard's Research and Discovery Series (ISBN 0-88404-218-9), which says in part:

Your mind is completely UNPREPARED for what is about to HAPPEN to your REALITY ...

Volume 10: The Infinite Potential of Theta is unsurpassed: Nowhere will you find more knowledge about the mysterious ENTITIES, also known as theta bodies, those inhabitants of every human being that talk to him, and lead him astray. Nowhere are you likely to find more concentrated data about the BETWEEN LIVES AREAS and LRH's eye-popping discovery of BODIES IN PAWN.

Do YOU have a body in pawn?

Read Volume 10, for once you know ALL about it, you won't have to worry about nightmares, inexplicable somatics, disturbing visio images of cylindrical tanks, bodies floating in green fluid ...

(International Scientology News issue 3, 1997; formatting as per original)

It is not clear to what degree the typical Scientologist personally shares the official belief in space opera, though the above advertisement features in an entry-level publication. The views of individual Scientologists were recorded in the 1960 book Have You Lived Before This Life? (ISBN 0-88404-958-2). It describes past life episodes as recounted by 43 Scientologists undergoing Scientology auditing during a conference in London in 1958.^[14] The participants in the conference reported having lived past lives including the following:

• A past life as a robot working in a factory in space, which had gold animals hanging around it which "appeared solid but periodically imploded or exploded". It ground up discs to make small animals, which were then "inflated after blowing up through a totem and a cat devil" before being sent to other planets. A planet blew up, and the robot was blamed. He was drugged and forced to work the grinder.^[15]
• A past life "55 quintillion years ago" in which the being had to do outside repairs on a space ship. He suffered radiation burns and fell off, plunging into an ocean on the planet below. A manta ray killed him and he in turn inhabited the manta ray.^[15]
• A past life as a trouble-making free being on Mars "469,476,600 years ago". He tried to inhabit a "doll body", but he was captured and beaten up. The being was zapped with a ray gun by a Martian bishop in front of a congregation chanting "God is Love", before being run over by a large car and a steamroller. He was then frozen in an ice cube and dropped on Planet ZX 432, where he took another robot body and zapped and killed another robot. He took off in a flying saucer, and died when it exploded.^[15]
• A past life in which a being went to a planet where the forces of good were fighting evil black magic forces. After 74,000 years of battle, implants and hallucinations, he lost the fight, and joined the black magic side. He went to another planet on a space ship, where he was "deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl."^[15]
• Being transformed into an intergalactic walrus which perished after falling out of a flying saucer.
• Being "a very happy being who ... strayed to the planet Nostra" 23,064,000,000 years ago.^[15]

Non-Scientologists and space opera

Non-Scientologists have, on the whole, not reacted with much sympathy to Scientology space opera. Hubbard said that the power of past life implants was such that non-Scientologists would involuntarily react to depictions of space opera incidents. In the wake of Hubbard's revelation of Xenu's act of mass murder, images from the Xenu story and the related implants were used to attempt to improve Scientology's recruitment efforts.

The current paperback cover of Dianetics:The Modern Science of Mental Health, featuring the volcano motif. This book is the standard first book sold to the public to introduce them to Scientology.

Hubbard is reported to have ordered that Scientology books be reissued with covers based on images from OT III.^[16] The 1968 and subsequent reprints of Dianetics have had covers depicting an exploding volcano, alluding to the volcanoes in the Xenu story — "Man responds to an exploding volcano" (Hubbard, "Assists"). Other cover images may reference Xenu as well: the cover of the 1972 edition of Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science shows pictures of uniformed men in white helmets carrying boxes in and out of a spaceship, which may refer to the transportation of Xenu's victims. These images were supposed to have a lasting impact on non-Scientologists:

A special 'Book Mission' was sent out to promote these books, now empowered and made irresistible by the addition of these overwhelming symbols or images. Organization staff were assured that if they simply held up one of the books, revealing its cover, that any bookstore owner would immediately order crateloads of them. A customs officer, seeing any of the book covers in one's luggage, would immediately pass one on through.
(Corydon)

Since the 1980s, the volcano has also been depicted in television commercials advertising Dianetics.^[17]

Of the 18 new 2007 editions, only Dianetics and Introduction to Scientology Ethics have kept their implant-related covers.^{[citation needed]}

Scientology's chronology of the universe

• 70 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion (70 septemvigintillion) years ago (7×10⁸⁵ years): The Story of Creation Implants
• 5.9 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion years to 40.7 trillion trillion trillion trillion years ago (5.9×10⁶⁰–4.07×10⁴⁹ years): The Glade Implants are implanted.^{[citation needed]}
• 40.7 trillion trillion trillion trillion years to about 83 trillion trillion trillion years ago (4.07×10⁴⁹–8.3×10³⁶ years): The Bear Goals are implanted.^{[citation needed]}
• 110,000 trillion trillion years ago or earlier to 390 trillion trillion years ago (1.1×10²⁹–3.9×10²⁶ years): The Invisible Picture Goals implants are implanted by an unknown alien race
• 390 trillion trillion years ago to 370 trillion trillion years ago (3.9×10²⁶–3.7×10²⁶ years): The Black Thetan Goals are implanted
• 4 quadrillion years ago (4×10¹⁵ years): Thetans enter the present universe and experience Incident I
• 382 trillion years ago to 52 trillion years ago (3.82×10¹⁴–5.2×10¹³ years): The Helatrobus Implants are implanted
• 83 trillion trillion trillion to 319 trillion years ago years ago (8.3×10³⁶–3.19×10¹⁴ years): The Gorilla Goals Implants
• 315 trillion years ago to 216 trillion years ago (3.15×10¹⁴–2.16×10¹⁴ years): The Aircraft Door Goals are implanted
• 80 trillion years ago (8×10¹³ years): The Galactic Confederacy is established
• 52 trillion years ago (5.2×10¹³ years): The Helatrobus government is established
• 44 trillion years ago (4.4×10¹³ years, "43,891,832,611,177 years, 344 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes and 40 seconds from 10:02½ PM Daylight Greenwich Time May 9, 1963"): The Heaven Implants are given, presumably by Helatrobus
• 38 trillion years ago (3.8×10¹³ years): Helatrobus falls or is destroyed
• 75 million years ago (7.5×10⁷ years): Xenu commits his famous genocide and brainwashes his victims with the R6 Implants
• 50 million years ago (5×10⁷ years): The Body Builder Incident
• 200,000 years ago (2×10⁵ years): The Marcab Confederacy is established
• "Hundreds of years ago to hundreds of thousands of years ago":- The Marcab Invasion Force implants thetans with the Train Goals
• Circa 6235 BCE: The Fifth Invader Force invades the Solar System but is defeated by the Fourth Invader Force
• AD 1150: The Espinol abandon our Solar System

Alien civilizations

Hubbard said that the following alien civilizations existed or still exist:

Arslychus

Arslychus (pronounced "ars-LYE-cus") was an ancient civilization located in space, rather than on a planet, as this was at a time when "nobody had invented planets yet." Hubbard described it as being notorious for its mind-numbingly tedious jobs, putting thetans to work for "ten thousand lives in Arslychus, on the average", spent doing nothing better than polishing bricks.

The civilization was ultimately destroyed when "one of these slaves suddenly got the big idea of mass" and Arslychus "broke to pieces and scattered around in that particular part of the sky as being of too great a mass to sustain itself". This was: "about the point where you got the law of gravity coming in strongly. And after that the law of gravity began to affect itself on the universe more and more and more and more and you started to get all kinds of suns and planets and the most fantastic array of things."^[18]

An artist's concept of the Polaris trinary star system, which Hubbard stated is home to a planet called "Coltice", one of many formerly ruled by Xenu's Galactic Confederacy.

Coltice

In 1968, Hubbard gave details on Xenu's "R6 implants", which took place on a planet called Coltice. Coltice, according to Hubbard, orbits the star Polaris. Hubbard did not specify whether this means the largest, Polaris A (commonly known as the "North Star") or the two smaller Polaris stars, Ab and B, in its trinary system. Coltice is said by Hubbard to be a member of the Galactic Confederacy. As with other Galactic Confederacy planets, the people of Coltice's civilization looked much like Earth circa 1950-1960. Hubbard also spoke of a group on Coltice called the "Loyal Officers", who sought to protect the planet from Xenu even though it was they who had elected him to power in the first place.^[19]

Espinol

Espinol is a lesser but still existent alien civilization, said by Hubbard to have lasted "something on the order of a few hundred thousand years." ("The ITSA Line") It used to control Earth's Solar System, which was "Sun 12" of the "Espinol United Stars" (formal name: "Espinol United Stars, or the Espinol United Moons, Planets, and Asteroids: This Quarter of the Universe is Ours"). The Espinols abandoned the Solar System in AD 1150, "when a group on Mars was finally abolished and vanished", and since then have used the system as a dumping ground for convicts.^[20]

Galactic Confederacy

Main article: Galactic Confederacy

The Galactic Confederacy was the political unit formerly ruled by the tyrant Xenu. It ruled a broad swath of the galaxy, and lasted for "eighty trillion years".^[21] 75 million years ago, at the time of Xenu's mass murder, the Galactic Confederacy comprised 26 stars and 76 planets, including Earth (then called Teegeeack). ("Assists") Modern civilization closely resembles that of the Galactic Confederacy 75 million years ago because of an unconscious re-enactment of Xenu's "R6 implants".

The Church of Scientology consciously models itself on aspects of the Galactic Confederacy. The Sea Org, an elite grouping within the Church of Scientology, has a laurel wreath logo said by Hubbard to be based on the symbol of the "Loyal Officers", an anti-Xenu faction within the Galactic Confederacy. Each of the leaves on the laurel wreath is said to represent one of the Galactic Confederacy's stars. According to the Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, "the Sea Org symbol, adopted and used as the symbol of a Galactic Confederacy far back in the history of this sector, derives much of its power and authority from that association."

Helatrobus

Main article: Helatrobus

Helatrobus was a now-extinct "interplanetary nation" which was only a "little pipsqueak government, didn't amount to very much." It was distinguished by "gold crosses on their planes, like the American Red Cross or something of the sort."^[22] Despite their outwardly friendly aspect, the Helatrobans were responsible for a particularly vicious set of implants, the "Heaven Implants", which were given some 43 trillion years ago. They were also responsible for implanting the Gorilla Goals.

Invader Forces

The Himalayas, said by Hubbard to be the site of the defeat of the Third Battalion of the Fifth Invader Force, circa 6235 BCE.

According to Hubbard, the Solar System has been occupied repeatedly — and sometimes concurrently — by multiple Invader Forces. They were discussed in detail in a 1952 lecture, "The Role of Earth", in which Hubbard described the conflict between the Fourth Invader Force (already occupying the Solar System) and the Fifth Invader Force (which invaded without knowing that the Fourth Invader Force was already in residence).

The Fifth Invader Force renamed the Solar System as "Space Station 33" but "without suspecting that the Fourth Invader Force had been there for God knows how many skillion years, had been sitting down, and they have their installations up on Mars, and they have a tremendous, screened operation". The result was a major clash between the two Invader Forces some 8,200 years ago in the Himalayas, when the Third Battalion of the Fifth Invader Force landed about 72 miles (116 km) northwest of the Khyber Pass and attempted to set up an implant station. The battalion was captured, taken to the Fourth Invaders' complex on Mars, brainwashed and stuck into human bodies. As for the remainder,

the Fifth Invader Force, out of its own protection, took over Venus – oh, relatively in modern times – took over Venus and tried to stabilize the Venusian[s]. If you called a Fifth Invader, though, a Venusian, he would probably shoot you out of hand, because it would be a horrible insult. They merely monitor the government of Venus, and they leave Mars strictly alone.
("The Role of Earth")

Many present-day thetans are said to have been former members of the Fifth Invader Force and can be distinguished by the fact that they believe themselves to be "a very strange insectlike creature with unthinkably horrible hands." (Scientology 8-8008)

The Invader Forces are still said to be controlling "installations in Mongolia … installations in the Pyrenees here on Earth, and there are installations down in the Mountains of the Moon in Africa which pick up, very often, people on death." (sic)

Marcab Confederacy

Main article: Marcab Confederacy

The Marcab Confederacy is said by Hubbard to be one of the most powerful galactic civilizations still active.

The capital of the Confederacy is "one of the tail stars of the Big Dipper", probably Alkaid, a star 108 light years distant from Earth. The Marcabians used to rule Earth at some point in the past but lost control of it due to "losses in war and other things". Hubbard stated that the Marcab Confederacy was now using Earth as a "prison planet."

According to author Russell Miller, Hubbard liked to reminisce to his followers about "how he was a race-car driver in the Marcab civilization". One of the people who accompanied him aboard his private fleet in the late 1960s described Hubbard's stories of life with the Marcabians:

LRH said he was a race driver called the Green Dragon who set a speed record before he was killed in an accident. He came back in another lifetime as the Red Devil and beat his own record, then came back and did it again as the Blue Streak. Finally he realized all he was doing was breaking his own records and it was no game any more.
(Miller, p.280)

Maw Confederation

The Maw Confederation are from "the Sixty-third Galaxy," says Hubbard in Aberration and The Sixth Dynamic, and they practiced "total psychiatric control" by pushing people's faces into supercooled sheets of glass. Hubbard claims this so-called "method of brainwashing" was developed about five billion years ago by a "whole-track psychiatrist." (Hubbard, Aberration and The Sixth Dynamic, catalog #5611C13 15ACC-22)

Targs

In his lecture Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes Hubbard spoke of "entheta beings" called Targs that were coming to Earth "right now" (1952), being dumped off by "flying saucers." When asked by his wife Mary Sue Hubbard where the name came from, he replied "That's common in a lot of theta languages. It means slave. Entheta slave." (Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes, April 1952)

Teegeeack

The Earth, says Hubbard, was originally called "Teegeeack" 75 million years ago, by its indigenous population of beings. During this time, it was ruled by Xenu, along with 75 other planets. Hubbard claims the Teegeeack people suffered overpopulation, by about 178 billion people. While most of the OT III material focuses on Xenu, very few details are given about this race of beings who inhabited Earth/Teegeeack 75 million years ago. As with other Galactic Confederacy planets, Hubbard does note that they wore "clothes which looked very remarkably like the clothes they wear this very minute. And the cars they drove looked exactly the same and the trains they ran looked the same and the boats they had looked the same. Circa 1950, 1960." (Assists)

Venusians

The planet Venus, where Hubbard says we temporarily go when we die, in Thetan form, to an alien "landing station".

When a person dies—or, in Scientology terms, when a thetan abandons their physical body—they go to a "landing station" on the planet Venus, where the thetan is re-implanted and told lies about its past life and its next life. The Venusians take the thetan, "capsule" it, and send it back to Earth to be dumped into the ocean off the coast of California. Says Hubbard, "If you can get out of that, and through that, and wander around through the cities and find some girl who looks like she is going to get married or have a baby or something like that, you're all set. And if you can find the maternity ward to a hospital or something, you're OK. And you just eventually just pick up a baby." To avoid these inconveniences, Hubbard advised Scientologists to refuse to go to Venus after their death.^[23][24]

In Between Lives Implants (SHSBC #317, 1963), Hubbard claims to have been on the surface of the planet Venus and nearly run over by a Venusian train. He also ridicules the notion that Venus' "methane atmosphere" makes it unlivable. In fact, Venus has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.^[25]

Other alien civilizations

Hubbard mentions other alien civilizations in his writings, although the descriptions are often incomplete. These include:

• The Galactic Fleet. It's not clear whether this group is related to the Galactic Confederacy. In The Time Track, Hubbard lectured about an implant station that was destroyed "38,932,690,862,933 years ago by the 79th wing of the 43rd Battle Squadron of the Galactic Fleet." (Hubbard, The Time Track, SHSBC-265, May 16, 1963)
• The Three-and-a-half Invaders. (Hubbard, The Story of a Static)
• The Psi Galaxy. (Hubbard, The Story of a Static)
• Galaxy 18. (Hubbard, Philadelphia Doctorate Course)
• Galaxy 82. (Hubbard, The Story of a Static)
• "The next galaxy over". In Between Lives Implants, Hubbard notes, "Well, I know this: that onto this planet there's a great deal of dumping that has gone on. Stuff from the nearby galaxy - not this galaxy but from the next galaxy over and so forth, is going on here. I know they take political prisoners and guys who they don't want around." The closest galaxy to ours is currently said to be the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, although this was discovered in 1994 after Hubbard's death. At the time of the Between Lives Implants lecture (1963), the closest galaxy to us was thought to have been the Large Magellanic Cloud.^[26]
• Eighth Invader Corps. Volney Mathison, after undergoing Scientology auditing from Hubbard personally, was found to be an inventor of a "Facsimile One" ray machine "developed in the T-8 Galaxy 42 trillion years ago," and then in another life "20 trillion, two and one-eighth years later", he and the Eighth Invader Corps used this same weapon "to take over an entire system of planets in the Arcturus Area." It's unclear whether the Eighth Invader Corps is related to the similarly named "Invader Forces."^[27]
• Aliens in ancient Egypt. Hubbard maintained that ancient Egypt was "a battleground between two space groups" who infiltrated humanity and become integral to Egyptian culture. (What is Knowable to the PC, 1961) In Responsibility and the State of OT, he claimed that the biblical Moses had a "disintegrator pistol", and also said:

"Ancient Egypt, if you care to look it up on the track, was a combination of Earth and space opera all mixed up as one. As the high Pharaoh stands on the side of the pyramid and blesses the multitude, he has to be careful that his cloak doesn't blow aside and reveal his ray gun."

Theta universe vs. our MEST universe

Additionally, Hubbard spoke of an entirely alternate parallel universe to ours, one he called the Theta Universe. Thetans are of the Theta Universe, and the entire purpose of Theta Universe is, in Hubbard's words, "the conquest, change, and ordering of MEST" (our physical universe) (Science of Survival, pg. 99) A thetan who has been "rehabilitated" back to its natural state in the Theta Universe is called a Cleared Theta Clear, who has "no need of bodies or even the MEST universe" and can "create his own universe".^[28]

Key incidents

Main article: Incident (Scientology)

In his writings and lectures, Hubbard describes key Incidents said to have occurred to thetans during the past few trillion years. Generally speaking, these followed a consistent pattern. A hostile alien civilization would capture free thetans and brainwash them with implants designed to confuse them or otherwise render them more amenable to control.

Usually, instances of implantation are termed Incidents, while the subject of the implants are often termed Goals, but this is not a set-in-stone rule. Not all Incidents deal with implants; some are simply unusual events that have traumatized thetans over the millennia.

This trauma is said to linger for trillions of years and causes unresolved psychological problems in the present day. According to Hubbard, only Scientology methods can resolve the burdens left by such traumas.

Important space opera Incidents described by Hubbard include the Aircraft Door Goals, the Bear Goals, the "Before Earth" and "Before MEST" incidents, the Black Thetan Goals, the Body Builder Incidents, Bodies in Pawn, the Bubble Gum Incident, the Coffee Grinder, the Gorilla Goals, the Heaven Implants, Helatrobus Implants, the Ice Cube Incident, the Jack-in-the-Box, the Obscene Dog Incident, among others.

See also

Scientology portal

• Operating Thetan
• Thetan
• Xenu

Notes

1. ^ "The Making of L. Ron Hubbard," Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1990, pg. A40
2. ^ ^{a b} Glossary for Dianetics and Scientology at the Wayback Machine (archived February 2, 2007)
3. ^ "Remember Venus?". Time. 1952-12-22. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889564,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-28. 
4. ^ Scientology 8-8008 - L. Ron Hubbard
5. ^ Scientology: L. Ron Hubbard's "space opera" material
6. ^ Operation Clambake Presents: OT Levels
7. ^ Janet Reitman Inside Scientology Rolling Stone, Issue 995. March 9, 2006.
8. ^ Doward, Jamie (May 16, 2004). "Lure of the celebrity sect". The Guardian (London). http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1217884,00.html. Retrieved May 23, 2010. 
9. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
10. ^ "The Making of L. Ron Hubbard," Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1990, pg. A36
11. ^ Hubbard, SHSBC 266, The Helatrobus Implants, 1963
12. ^ Frenschkowski, Marco (July 1999). "L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology: An annotated bibliographical survey of primary and selected secondary literature". Marburg Journal of Religion 4 (1). http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/frenschkowski.html. Retrieved 2006-07-11. 
13. ^ scientology.org
14. ^ More on Have You Lived Before This Life by L. Ron Hubbard - The L. Ron Hubbard Bookstore
15. ^ ^{a b c d e} Hubbard, L. Ron (October 1977) [1950]. Have You Lived Before This Life? (1977 ed.). Los Angeles, California: Church of Scientology of California Publications Organization. ISBN 0-88404-055-0. 
16. ^ Hubbard and the Occult
17. ^ [2]
18. ^ Hubbard, Philadelphia Doctorate Course', December 1, 1952
19. ^ Hubbard, Assists, Class VIII Course, October 3, 1968
20. ^ Hubbard, The Free Being, SHSBC-281, July 9, 1963
21. ^ Hubbard, SHSBC 297, The ITSA Line
22. ^ Hubbard, SHSBC 268, State of OT
23. ^ "The Making of L. Ron Hubbard", Los Angeles Times, Sunday, June 24, 1990, pg. A36.
24. ^ Cempa, Joe; "Petrolia's New Neighbors," North Coast Journal, June 1991.
25. ^ The Worlds of David Darling
26. ^ NASA
27. ^ Mathison, Volney G. (December 1954). "Galaxy T-8 Patrol Blocks Death Ray". The Aberree 1 (8): p.5. http://www.aberree.com/v01/n08p05.html. Retrieved 2008-03-20. 
28. ^ Hubbard, Scientology 8-8008, pg 114 (1st ed), pg. 151 (1990 ed.)

References

Books Jon Atack, A Piece Of Blue Sky (Kensington Publishing Corporation, New York, 1990; ISBN 0-8184-0499-X) Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr., L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah Or Madman? (Lyle Stuart, New Jersey, 1987; ISBN 0-8184-0444-2) L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man, 1954 L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary (current edition, Bridge Publications, 1995; ISBN 0-88404-037-2) L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology 8-8008 (current edition, Bridge Publications, 1989; ISBN 0-88404-429-7) Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story Of L. Ron Hubbard [3] (Henry Holt, New York, 1988; ISBN 1-55013-027-7) Christopher Partridge, UFO Religions (Routledge, 2003; ISBN 0-415-26324-7)

HCO Bulletins "Heaven", HCOB May 11, 1963 (no longer published by the Church of Scientology) "Routine 3N: Line Plots", HCOB July 14, 1963 "Routine 3N - The Train GPMs - The Marcab Between Lives Implants", HCOB August 24, 1963

Lectures by Hubbard "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes," April 1952 "Technique 88 and the Whole Track Part I," June 26, 1952 "The Role of Earth", November 1952 Philadelphia Doctorate Course (PDC), December 1, 1952 "History and development of processes: question and answer period," December 17, 1954 "Create and Confront", January 3, 1960 "E-Meter Actions, Errors in Auditing," June 12, 1961 "The Helatrobus Implants," May 21, 1963 "State of OT," May 23, 1963 "The Free Being," July 9, 1963 "Auditing Comm Cycles," August 6, 1963 "The ITSA Line," August 21, 1963 "Org Board and Livingness," April 6, 1965 "Assists" lecture. October 3, 1968, #10 in the Class VIII series. (Audio extracts - [4])

Other references Church of Scientology, International Scientology News #3 (1997) Lure of the celebrity sect (Jamie Doward, The Observer, Sun May 16, 2004) Marco Frenschkowski: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, Marburg Journal of Religion, Volume 4, No. 1 (July 1999) Hubbard, "The Story of a Static," Professional Auditor's Bulletin February 1, 1957