Berlingske Tidende, November 10, 1996:

(Page 1)

Scientology In Holy War On The Internet

Scriptures so sacred that only the inner-most circle of the Scientology sect are allowed to see them are now freely available on the world-wide internet. This has thrown Scientology into an ever increasing number of legal battles with computer freaks who believe that the true nature of the sect must be shown in the name of freedom of speech.


BY HANS JØRGEN NIELSEN
AND CHRISTIAN KJÆR

    It is not every day that a genesis text creates a disturbance. But in recent weeks a holy war has been going on on the internet. As a part of a battle between Scientology and a bunch of computer users yet another direct line was created on the internet to a collection of secret documents.

    The sect's holiest papers are so secret that only the inner-most circle of members has access to them. But a small group of people are now threatening this monopoly held until now by the sect's top leaders. Consequently a significant part of the sect's economical foundation is threatened.

    The small group of people that Scientology is up against uses modern technology as its primary weapon. The critics are both disappointed ex-scientologists and people who fighting in the name of democracy. "It is a fight for freedom of speech. I am shaken by the fact that such an ideology kan keep on cheating innocent people because no-one publicly dares to tell what Scientology stands for. Availablity of information is a prerequisite for freedom to choose" says the last vendor of the scriptures, Andreas Heldal-Lund, an IT-manager of a Stavanger [Norwegian city] company.

    On the internet one copy of the sacred scriptures is enough to inform the whole world of the true nature of the sect. Here one can obtain insigts that Scientologists claim to be dangerous for the unprepared. People who are not "clear" can die reading the texts, the sect claims. Scientology have sued the computer people all over the world in order to stop the distribution of the disputed documents. But every time they close one hole two new ones appear.

    Berlingske Tidende has acquired possession of the secret texts in a legal manner. They paint a cryptic image of the movement which was founded by the former science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. The founder of the world-wide business gives direction on how the members kan be taught to control physical events - for example the curing of deceases - on will power alone.

    At the same time a genesis text describing how human souls from "The Galactical Federation" in the beginning of time was caught in electrical nets by the space dictator Xenu who later froze the souls in blocks of ice and deported them to Earth.

    Low-level Scientologists have until now had to pay several hundred thousand crowns [six Danish crowns is about one US dollar] in order to see the sacred scriptures. But thanks to the ever growning group of critics this is no longer necessary.

    Users of the internet are not the only ones who have declared war on Scientology. In Germany the sects is seriously threatened by plans of denying members civil servant jobs.


(Berlingske Thema, page 2)

Scientology Sect in Troubled Waters

Explosive Scriptures

The top leadership of Scientology is at war over the sacred scriptures of the sect. The world-wide sects deepest messages - which the movement earns millions keeping secret - are on their way out in the public domain. Berlingske Tidende has seen the explosive scriptures with the secret genesis text and directions telling members how to control physical events by will power alone. It about the space dictator Xenu who in the beginning om time caught human souls in electrical nets, froze them in blocks of ice, and deported them to Earth. But it is also about money, power, freedom of speech, and attempts at censuring.


    Break-ins, seizures of computers, searches, and detectives who from discreet Volvos spy on private homes.

    These are elements in the war going on around the international Scientology sect.

    The current battle ground is Sweden. Last year it was The Netherlands. And before that the fight was fought in the USA. But now Scientology is fighting an uneven battle on Swedish grounds against a critic who by the use of modern technology and Swedish Public Government Laws [corresponding to the US Freedom of Information Act, but constitutionally founded] are on his way to out-manoeuvering the sect. What started as small cracks in the concrete is threatening the doom the entire building: the trade secrets want to get out.

    Scientology's American front-figure, Warren McShane, went to Sweden together with a top lawyer in order to fight the battle against a computer nerd who turned out to know more than how to surf cyberspace.

    The Net-surfer, Zenon Panoussis, caught the wrath of the Scientology Church a few weeks ago. He published the sect's holiest scriptures.

    Scientology makes a living off selling spiritual courses at high prices.

Quick Little Test

    Any passer-by can be invited from the street into a Scientology center where a quick little test lies ready for them. This is entirely free. Two hundred personal questions about experiencing mood changes, ability to communicate, and about will - and ability - to fulfill one's own ideas. The answers are instantly transformed into a curve that shows where the biggest personal gains can be achieved. Many people turn out to have the same weakness: the ability to communicate could be better. But there is help to get. Scientology has an introductionary course explicitly aimed at inproving communication skills.

    For a few thousand crowns you can buy the first course. If you are satisfied another slightly more expensive course can be bought. And one more.

    Suddenlig you are on the first step of "The Bridge to Total Freedom", a 39-level sequence leading in the end to divine insights, the ability to let the soul leave the body, memories from earlier lives, space travel, and super-human knowledge.

    The Bridge's steps must be taken one by one. Every time it costs money. Each course costs thousands of crowns and it gets more expensive the further into th Bridge. At the same time members are expected to give donations to the organization as well as working voluntarily and unpaid for a lot of time too.

    Those who work their ways forward and upward this way will at some point get access to the "holy" scriptures, which are just as sacred to the [??? "inviede"] as they are dangerous for the [??? "uinviede"]. Before the low-level members reach that level they will have put several hundred thousand crowns into the organization. And the members are not even allowed to peek at this source of divine insights before he is ready to it ("clear").

    It was exactly these sacred and secret texts that the Swedish net-surfer put onto the Internet where millions of normal computer users all over the world could read page after page stamped "confidential" and "limited distribution".

The Free Spirits

    One the Net passerbys could now read the sect's genesis text and read about how free spirits, "Thetans", have lived in the universe for 4,000,000,000,000,000 year, which is considerably more than astronomers' 10-20 billion [of the 10^9 kind] years.

    75 million years ago the catastrophe happend. The space dictator the alien Xenu, deported happy and harmonic human beings from the "Galactical Federation" - consisting of 76 planets whose suns all are visible from the Earth.

    The sect's founder, L. Ron Hubbard - who was a science-fiction author before he became a religious leader - explains further than the humans beings were caught in electrical nets. Frozen in ice blocks they were transported to Teegeeack as the Earth was known as at that time. After six years of fierce fighting, Xenu - who at the same time set of hydrogen bombs at some of Earth's vulcanos - was caught in an "electronic mountain trap" where he remains until the present day.

    While human beings in the galactical form consisted of pure spirit, "Thetan", on Teegeeack they were forced to acquire a body, today known as the human body. The body one can free oneself from again. The cure goes through the personal, spiritual experience which the courses of "The Bridge to Total Freedom" lead to. Human beings who have passed the program become Operating Thetans, humans who can act indepenently of their bodies and who by will power alone can make physical events happen, for example cure deceases, physical as well as psycological.

    When the Swede Zenon Passed put this genesis text and other sacred texts onto the Net his acts were risky in more than one way.

    He risked being sued for first-degree murder on the Internet's readers. Because, according to the author the texts, when read by the unprepared, can lead to pnemonia or even ... death. But nobody dropped dead at their computers and there were no law suits.

Copyright

    On the other hand the sect immediately sued Panoussis for infringement of copyright. The material has never been published. Scientology - or rather The Religious Technology Center, a kind of mother organization - held the copyrights. Scientology would lose money if the "secret" texts got spread, they claimed.

    With a court order the sect let his apartment search. The computer's memory - the hard disk - was taken away from the apartment together with stacks of paper. But they forgot to search the back yard where Panoussis had hidden another copy of the sacred texts.

    The sects now sued the Swede for infringing their copyrights.

    In court Panoussis filed the sacred scriptures as proof material. The public has access to such material in Sweden. At the same time he annouced on the Internet that anyone interested could contact the court in Stockholm and ask for the appendices to case number T 7-866-96. It took the sect a week to stop that trafic and to convince the court that the appendices should be sealed for copyright reasons.

    The Swede's next move was to send the sacred documents to the Swedish Parliament, The Riksdag. Apart from informing the members of The Riksdag the purpose was - again - to use the Swedish laws actively. Sweden has a Public Goverment Law much more powerful than the Danish. Any citizen has the right to see The Riksdag member's post. Again Panoussis used the Internet to announce the new opportunity.

    This time he didn't send Scientology's genesis text. He only submitted 203 other secret pagers which the - probably - slightly confused clerk at The Riksdag has to find a suitable journal number for.

    As opposed to the genesis texts which - in fragments and for short whiles - have been seen out of the sect's bank boxes, the members of the parliament how had papers which had never before been accessible outside the sect's walls.

    But the documents disappeared before anyone interested could read them. Somebody smuggled the papers out of The Riksdag's library. Gone were 203 pages which are more vital for Scientology than the genesis text.

    The crime - it is believed to be the first time ever that "removal of incoming mail" has happened in The Riksdag - has not yet been solved.

The Riksdag Under Surveillance

    Panoussis submitted another copy to The Riksdag. One the same day a neighbour told him that he had observed that two men held the building under surveillance from a parked car. He urged The Riksdag to "copy extensively and immediately". Again the pages were put i the reading room which is open to the public.

    The Scientologists' reaction was to order a group [of members] to guard the sect's deepest secret. Since the beginning of October there has been a systematically planned queue of Scientologists making sure that no un-trained eyes got access to the 203 holy pages.

    Last Thursday non-Scientologists who would like to see the deep secrets refused to accept it any more. After an argument one of The Riksdag's librarians confiscated the documents. To avoid similar embarrassing incidents in the future, it was decided to place the documents in two reading rooms. In one the Scientologists can guard their sacred writings, while the other is free for other interested.

    The extra reading room is not the only problem the Scientology leaders are faced with right now. The problem is that the Swedish Public Government Law not only can be used by citizens in Stockholm. Anyone who is not able to present himself/herself at The Riksdag have the same rights as the locals.

    Upon payment anyone can - fully legally - get a copy of the members of the Riksdag's mail. For only 460 Swedish crowns anyone can now study the matetial who used to cost several hundred thousand crowns just to cast an eye on.

    Berlingske Tidende has studied a copy of the collection of text. But it is hardly possible to give a complete description of what exactly these texts are about.

Psychotherapy

    Maybe it has to do with the fact that the Scientology sect aside from being a religion is everything else. In the beginning Scientology was not even a religion mere sort-of a further development of Freud's Psychotherapy. That the founder L. Ron Hubbard later convinced himself that he had created a religion is - say critics - easily explained: in the USA where it all started Churches do not pay taxes.

    The Psychotherapeutical element has never been given up men the founder later cast his attention to many other things. Now, Scientology is a method to success in business, it is an education system for children, and it is a narco rehabilitation program.

    What The Riksdag received turns out to be a kind of top secret manuals to be used when Scientologists are to be elevated to the highests levels of conscience evolving into Operating Thetans.

    The texts are a sort of educational material describing what the educator must do in order to free the Thetan inside the student. It is difficult to decide whether the final step across "The Bridge to Total Freedom" is a religion, a kind of psychotherapy, a mixture of religion and therapy, or something completely different.

    The documents describe how certain "Body Thetans" has specialised themselves to hide i hospitalised humans where they - the the doctors' great surprise - lead to dead at times when the doctors believe that the patient was improving.

    We experience how the student at some point in the process must make himself/herself used to his/her transparent body surrounded by empty space from a distance. [Sorry; this makes no sense in the original either.]

    Then we learn, that the student by removing the "Body Thetans" are to be encouraged to look inside, behind, or on the other side of bones, organs, and edges.

    In another part one can learn that telepathy is possible, and that it is not inprobable that if two humans - in good physical shape - focus their thoughts at the same thing, then it will lead to an energy-explosion. The energy-explosion's size and shape is described in the complicated manual. The energy-explosion is not very big, it says, about half a meter in all dimensions - perhaps a little less in the height.

    To ensure the authenticity of the documents Berlinske Tidende contacted Scientology in Copenhagen. This is where the sect's European headquarters are located - four interconnected boundings with a glass covered patio as its natural center. The buildings - which have the looks of the headquarters of a major public company - were renovated last year when Scientologists from all over the world came to Denmark to help.

    The friendly smiling French-Canadian Scientologist Gaetane Asselin leads the way to the conference room where the French Odile Reveillere is waiting. Reveillere is an Operating Thetan at level five.

    The papers from The Riksdag are put on the table.

    While Asselin keeps her distance - she is still far from the level allowing insight into the papers - the Operating Thetan proclaims with a straigt face that the papers "look real" even if it is impossible to tell.

Originates from Theft

    "The documents originates from a theft as this very headquarters back in 1983. Back then the theives were convicted and went to prison. Put they sent the papers to others and since then there has been attempts to publicise them" says Odile Reveillere.

    She expplains that the sacred papers must remain secret because them will appear commical in a world which does not have the ability to understand in how the papers should be understood.

    That Reveillere means it becomes clear when she is asked to hand back the papers. It looks like it hurts.

    "We have been in contact with our lawyers today and we have to admit that it is not illegal them you have the copies" says Reveillere while explaining that Scientology gladly will pay Berlinske Tidende to leave the copies and while stressing that Scientology will come down hard on anyone who copies, distributes, cites, or uses the papers in any other way. The papers did eventually end up in the right hands again.

    Exactly 24 hours later Asselin and Reveillere present themselves uninvited at the editor's office. While referring to a whole stack of papers they explain how often Scientology wins law suits agsinst anyone who just cites the secret papers. The demand to the Editor to hand over the papers which naturally is refused. Shortly thereafter the first letter from Scientology's lawyers arrives.

    At the same the the Operating Thetan hands over a small package of papers. From telefaxes dating back to 1987, verdicts, English translations of Swedish court files, kopies of letters, and communication from the Bailiff it says that the net-surfer, Zenon Panoussis, has a very bad character and that he owes a lot of money in back taxes.

    "The Scientologists use a method known as "dead agenting". The method is to try to get around trouble by throwing mud at their enemies" says Zenon Panoussis who recently was sued by Scientology.

    Odile Reveillere says that The Riksdag lets itself be let by a "criminal who has nothing else to do".

    "I don't understand what game he is playing and I find it difficult to see what he expects to gain from it. In my mind he is an evil man who just happens to have cast himself at Scientology, and we will of course not just let that pass" says Odile Reveillere.

    It really is quite arbitrary that Panoussis put himself up against Scientology. As opposed to many other critics he is not himself an ex-Scientologist. He initially joined the fight in irritation over the sect's continuing attempts on censuring the Internet.

    "I started in solidarity with other users of the net but quickly grew a distaste of the sect and its methods. I have come to hate the sect so badly that my interest in hurting Scientology today is bigger than my interest in defending freedom of speech" says Zenon Panoussis.

    In the USA lawsuit after law suit is filed, and when a Dutch journalist last spring threw some of the texts onto the Net he was also sued. Immediately other net users took over. It does not take many minutes to put even the holiest texts thousand of places on the Net.

    Under the headling "Gorillas" Panoussis has now put two pictures on the Net together with name, CPR-number [equivalent to a social security number], private address, and car licence numbers. The two private detectives who had him under surveillance are not forgotten.

    "One of them has been identified as a Swedish Scientologist by ex-Scientologist" says Zenon Panoussis.

Working on a Solution

    In Scientology's headquarters they are working full time on finding a solution to the "computer anachist's (...) perverse manipulation of the Swedish people's consitutionally guaranteed right to government papers" as the sect itself comments in an uncoming issue of the sect's magazine "Frihed" [= Freedom].

    "It cannot be tolerated that the Parliament not only allows but participates in a serious violation of Swedish and international law" writes the sect which believes that Sweden can become a new international haven for industrial espionage.

    Meanwhile The Riksdag's copying machines run round the clock.

    The problem of the Internet has not been solved finally either. The Operating Thetan Odile Reveillere stresses that there is no access to the divide texts on the Net.

    "We keep the Internet under surveillance and when we discover infringement of our rights we file a suit which we win every time. The texts are not available," she says.

    But she is wrong. Those with access to the Net can get access to both the story about the dictator Xenu and how Operating Thetans are educated. While the sect has won a minor victory on the Swedish part of the Internet a Norwegian took over Thursday. he now shows the top-secret Scientology documents on the Net. The material can be found at the net addresses:

http://home.sol.no/heldal/CoS
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/fishman/ot3.html
http://www.wineasy.se/weesp/nycos.htm


Scientology Sect i New Troubles

Rough Against Rough

Several German politicians demand that a close eye be kept on Scientology and possibly a ban. Scientology is described by experts as a "totalitarian" disposed organization striving to undermine democracy. Scientology has countered by accusing German authorities of persecuting the sect's members in the same ways as jews were under Nazism.

BONN

    It all started this summer when the youth fraction of the conservative CDU party demonstrated in front of movie theaters

[There is much, much more but it is not yet available.]

© Copyright 1996 Berlingske Tidende.
(Hasty translation: Morten Welinder, terra@diku.dk.)


Last modified 19 Nov 1996 by Daniel Deimert (d1dd@dtek.chalmers.se)