Says Mediabistro this morning:
Scientologists Distribute Anti-Cooper Magazine Outside CNN
Anderson Cooper has really done it now.
The Church of Scientology has gotten aggressive with its campaign in the wake of Cooper’s week-long “Scientology: A History of Violence,” which aired at the end of March. While that was some time ago, a few months is apparently the amount of time it takes to create the very unusual 95-page glossy publication Freedom magazine handed out on the street Monday morning in front of the CNN offices in Manhattan. The majority of it’s content has been posted online here for a little while now.
Freedom, “published by the Church of Scientology since 1968,” devotes the entire issue — and accompanying 30 minute DVD — to a attempted takedown of the CNN anchor, the “AC360” crew, and the interview subjects featured in the series. (Please do yourself a favor and check out Cooper’s “statement” at 11:30 in this incredible video.)
As noted in their video, the Church of Scientology now owns its own printing facilities to manufacture publications like these. And Cooper is not the only journalist to be targeted by the group. In 2009, Freedom went “inside the St. Petersburg Times” and in 2007 “exposed” the BBC program “Panorama.”
Interesting too: A Brief Chronology Of Monumental Disasters
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Scientology Myths Forum 
I wouldn’t be comfortable, knowing that things that I may have shared at one time would be stored and used against me. These are things that the group, apparently, didn’t find to be a problem when they found out, but suddenly it’s a huge issue, when it’s convenient as an attack tool. I wonder how many people have stayed “in” solely for the reason that they see what happens to those that exercise their free speech?
I’m sincerely curious-
Does it make you at all uncomfortable to know that you have ALREADY shared thoughts, feelings and ideas that, should you ever feel you had the need (“need”, as you already have the constitutional right) to speak critically against management, would be used against you, publicly and mockingly? That your former friends would so willingly use your own feelings against you, should you speak against the public figures or policies of Scientology?
Darn, spellcheck got me.
SuperDrive = supressive
Naw, I’m just messing. You’re a delight.
Can you find anywhere public where “freedom” mag would have gotten that information? Or do you think that he told it to one or more fellow scientologists, in any setting, not knowing he would be publicly mocked for it later?
Besides, I thought only a SuperDrive person would invalidate someones gains?
Pat…
You’re mean.
That is all.
@ Comment by Bigdaddy on August 6, 2010 4:36 pm
“Well, since he never did make those claims publicly, I think we all know where “freedom” mag got that information…”
Did you read all the reports on him in the ethics files? Nope, yer just trolling now, bd.
Pat
Well, since he never did make those claims publicly, I think we all know where “freedom” mag got that information…
And I still don’t see where Steve Hall claims he is Siddharta Gautama or Jesus Christ.
The whole point of my comment was to show you how hypocritical freedom magazine is.
In Scientology language i would call the style of freedom magazine “downtone”, “1.1 on the tone scale”, “invalidative” and “entheta”.
Oh, you asked where. I believe my email was rather clear, just follow the link that I provided.
Did I say, anywhere, that he did?
I point out only that lrh wrote a poem that could quite easily be construed as a claim, the editors of the book made comments that could be comatose as supporting that claim, and a website dedicated to lrh referenced an award that claimed him to be so.
That’s all, one has to judge fir themselves. Difference is that the “yes” side has indications that it is true, the “no” side has only a belief. Do what you Want with it.
@ Comment by Anon on August 5, 2010 8:39 pm
”
Could you explain why lronhubbard (dot) org brags of an award that he received calling him “the incarnation of the Buddhist saint, matteya”?
It’s in his biography on that site.”
Where exactly?
I still don’t see where he claims he is Mettaya.
Pat
Pat
”
Could you explain why lronhubbard (dot) org brags of an award that he received calling him “the incarnation of the Buddhist saint, matteya”?
It’s in his biography on that site.”
^this too
“Even the book as such says something similar: “This moving hymn was written for a Buddhist Convention in about 1955 or ‘56, coincident with the celebrations in the Buddhist world of the 2,500th year of the Buddhist era.”
– L”
Yeah well, i didn’t want to bring this up, because it wasn’t written by Hubbard himself, but since you brought it up first, i would like to remark that the introduction of the book also explicitly mentions the mettayya prophecy:
“IV. THE PROPHECY OF METTEYA
But Siddhartha Gautama did not regard himself as an end point. He looked upon his
work as incomplete and prophesized that at a later time a successor would arise to complete his
work.
The most specific wording of this prediction in Buddhist literature states that 2,500
years after Buddha a red-haired or golden-haired man would arise in the West to complete the
job Buddha began.
In Buddhist literature his name is known as Metteya (or Metteyya with two y’s) in
Pali2, or Maitreya in Sanskrit.3”
and furthermore
“Thus, we find these are the most salient details of the Metteya legend.
1. He shall appear in the West.
2. He shall appear at a time when religion shall be waning, when the world is imperiled
and convulsed in turmoil.
3. He will have golden hair or red hair.
4. He will complete the work of Gautama Buddha and bring in a new golden age of
man by making possible the attainment of spiritual freedom by all beings.
5. Although the date of his advent is variously forecast, the nearest date places it
2,500 years after Gautama Buddha – or roughly 1950 (the date of Gautama’s own
life being somewhat of an estimate itself).”
So you don’t think that this is suggesting that L. Ron Hubbard was this Mettayya, who completed Buddha’s work with Scientology in any way, right Louanne?
The editors just incidentally mention that the mettayya will have RED hair (like Hubbard) and the he will come roughly in 1950 (the year when Hubbard published Dianetics).
lol
And by the way Buddhism and Scientology are very different and in many respects direct opposites of each other.
… Except…
Could you explain why lronhubbard (dot) org brags of an award that he received calling him “the incarnation of the Buddhist saint, matteya”?
It’s in his biography on that site.
Duh. That was my point, louanne. But you must agree that you don’t know what he meant, either, do you?
bd, big yawn.
Your argument works for the opposite opinion too. “Neither I, nor you, nor anyone, knows what Hubbard was thinking when he wrote it, so one can’t simply dismiss” that he had nothing else in mind than to write a thank-you note for the Buddhist principles that helped him form the body of Scientology philosophy.
– L
No, he doesn’t. It’s a poem, for Heavens sake or whatever you believe in, written as a thank you for the Buddhist community in the 1950s, that has held Buddha’s principles alive for over 2,500 years. The Hymn of Asia (book) was not published until 1974. If it where such a big deal you would find it all over Scientology but you will not. Scientology has its roots in Buddhist traditions and as L. Ron Hubbard put it, is “its first cousin”.
Even the book as such says something similar: “This moving hymn was written for a Buddhist Convention in about 1955 or ‘56, coincident with the celebrations in the Buddhist world of the 2,500th year of the Buddhist era.”
– L
“I come to bring you
all that Lord Buddha
would have you know
of life, Earth and Man”
“Even your own prophesies
Centuries old
said i would appear
in the western world
i appeared.
”
“Am I Mettayya?
I have spoken to you.
You will study soon.
Meanwhile.
Good bye.
”
“Everywhere you are
I can be addressed
But in our temples best
address me and you address
Lord Buddha
And you then address
Mettayya”
So, you think that he doesn’t want to suggest that he is mettayya with this poem?
Then what do you think the poem is really about?
Actually, someone posted in in 2006, according to the edit logs. Neither I, nor you, nor anyone, knows what Hubbard was thinking when he wrote it, so one can’t simply dismiss it.
“Comment by Anon on August 5, 2010 11:11 am
The wiki article even mentions Hubbard as one of the “self-proclaimed Maitreyas”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya”
Nonsense.
Did you just add that to the “unfailing” Wikipedia so you can bullshit about it?
– L
The wiki article even mentions Hubbard as one of the “self-proclaimed Maitreyas”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya
Naw, harassing someone at their workplace and publishing magazines dedicate to them is a great way to show someone how stable you are… Right?
I think what’s most funny about this whole thing is that Scientologists themselves are showing CNN and Cooper who the real whackos are.
Pretty much seals it for who was telling the truth during the interviews.
“Your whole disagreement is based on the fact that you don’t consider that you are an immortal being whose experiences have spanned many lifetimes?”
I know anon can answer for himself, but I have to ask… awhuhuah? Where did he use this as the basis for any argument?
“How could 10,000 years of eastern religions be wrong and a few critics be right?”
millennia of beliefs tell us this, that’s true. millennia of beliefs also tell us that there are spirits in the trees. Or that there are no spirits whatsoever. Or that there’s only one spirit. Or that there’s many. Or that all diseases are caused by demons or black magic. Or that when you die you become a ghost. Or you’re born again. Or you’re not born again. Are they all right, simply because people have believed it for a long time? Heck, not too long ago, we believed that you needed to be “bled” in order to be well, is that true simply because other people believed it long ago?
This concept didn’t originate with Scientology.
No, Hubbard took the idea from other belief systems, as he did with many of the other concepts, to include study tech and the concept of the bridge.
“Only problem: In November 2003, the alleged assailant was 10,000 miles away.””
The real question is why you accept that to be true without any proof or correlation whatsoever. Do you believe it solely because FM said so, or do you have some information that we do not?
And information is plentiful! There would be countless ways to independently verify his whereabouts, but it’s only scientologists that can corroborate his story. Please tell me, if I were accused of something, and the only people that could back up my story were fellow critics, would you believe them?
The question for me would be what evidence there really is that the alleged assailant (David Miscavige) was 10,000 miles away.
Freedom magazine doesn’t provide any evidence for that claim and it does not tell what evidence was given to Cooper to substantiate the claim.
If he really was 10,000 miles away at an ideal org opening or some other event at that exact time that the incident allegedly happened, then there must have been impartial witnesses, who saw him there.
If there had been impartial witnesses, who could confirm that Miscavige was 10,000 miles away, because they saw him, then i would believe him.
But there aren’t any impartial witnesses. There are only the people, who are working close to Miscavige and it is possible, that Miscavige is exerting so much pressure on them, that they lie for him.
Big Daddy and Anon,
Documented:
“And when it came to the actual broadcast—hammering home the point that Hall was there for corroboration and corroboration only—his sole action was to parrot the allegations of the others with a mandatory tale of abuse from November 2003.
Only problem: In November 2003, the alleged assailant was 10,000 miles away.”
What I see here is that because the Freedom Mag is a Scientology publication that you should refute it and accept the other side automatically. If that isn’t true, then show me where you’ve accepted that possibly some of the AC360 “episodes” we’re unfounded or slanted and actual evidence to the contrary refused or ignored.
Pat
I didn’t say that i disagree with that. I just pointed out, that Freedom magazine seems to disagree with it, because they ridicule Steve Hall’s belief, which seems disingenuous and hypocritical, since many Scientologists, such as yourself, believe similar things.
@Comment by Anon on July 13, 2010 10:07 am
Oh dear.
Your whole disagreement is based on the fact that you don’t consider that you are an immortal being whose experiences have spanned many lifetimes?
How could 10,000 years of eastern religions be wrong and a few critics be right?
This concept didn’t originate with Scientology.
Also, you should listen to Hymn of Asia. Not once does LRH claim to be Buddha. It’s a poem that was musicalized. You really should get 1st hand knowledge before you hold something up to ridicule. It makes you seem stupid when you do that and I don’t think you are stupid. Just too lazy and unwilling to look for yourself and base your data on other’s opinion rather than your own observations. That’s a sheeple thing, isn’t it?
Pat
Actually, Hawkins seems quite lucid and well-adjusted in this 2009 interview:
While they only aluded to the dozens of other former scientologists that had come forward, they did share some interesting bits of information that supported Hawkins’ position, such as the police report from when Headley tried to escape intbase, and sheriff deputies had to provide him an escort
Interesting also that the only “dirt” you could come up with regarding Jeff Hawkins, is that he participated in one or two peaceful protests together with Anonymous against Cos abuses, yet he corroborates everything that Mark Rathbun says about Miscaviges abusive actions.
You really should dig deeper, there must be some hidden crimes, that you haven’t found yet. He can’t just be PTS to Mark Rathbun or Anonymous, because he has spoken out BEFORE Anonymous and before Mark Rathbun came onto the scene.
So what’s up with Jeff Hawkins?
Oh, I didn’t catch that before. That changes things.
Doing a google search for
“steve hall” “Gautama Siddhartha”
Comes up with exactly 4 references: two of them are freedom mag, one is from one of Luanne’s blogs, and one is from XenuTv discussing this very same thing.
The very first result for
“steve hall” “Jesus Christ”
is freedom mag again, and the rest do not have Hall making this claim (they’re unrelated)
Same with
“steve hall” “Tintoretto”
None of the terms are related (they’re just on the same page), with the exception of xenutv and that old reliable, freedom mag.
For all of Louanne’s claims, there is nowhere- on none of his websites, in no blog, nowhere that I can find where he publicly makes these claims.
So, the question is, how did freeedom mag learn this information, if he never made the claim publicly? I would suspect- heck, I’d bet anything- that he revealed this at some point, and his WIN is now being invalidated and used against him by people that he once trusted.
In fact it isn’t even clear, whether he really believes this or if Freedom Magazine just pulled this one out of their asses. Of course they don’t provide any sources or proof as usual.
My guess is that they just pulled it out of his PC folder per order of “COB”.
“The scurrility here is that he tries to sell this to others. Why does he bother?”
Where and how exactly does he try to sell this to others? He doesn’t mention it on any of his websites afaik.
I’m sure it’s not a problem, but what did you change?
“Actually, it’s Freedom Magazine promoting the newest issue of the mag.”
…outside of the workplace of the very same man that they dedicated an entire issue to attacking? Yeah, that is pretty shocking.
“I don’t know, there must be some crazy thing behind this.”
Is that so very far from what Hubbard claimed, as anon indicated?
PS: I corrected your statement. Hope you don’t mind.
” Comment by Anon on July 13, 2010 10:07 am
http://www.freedommag.org/special-reports/cnn/steve-hall-the-man-who-tells-it-straight-from-the-straitjacket.html
“But for the truly incisive character sketch, the one that explains why Cooper’s own introduction was kept to an absolute minimum, Steve Hall himself would like us to know he was previously:
A) Gautama Siddhartha
B) Jesus Christ
C) The Italian Renaissance painter, Tintoretto
D) And prior to all the above, he additionally co-created the universe with God.”
Yeah that’s ridiculous and someone who makes such crazy claims shouldn’t be believed, right?”
He can think what he wants but has to understand that this might not exactly be agreeable for the majority of the population. You know, the Vatican won’t pay him commission for co-creating the universe. The scurrility here is that he tries to sell this to others. Why does he bother? I don’t know, there must be some crazy thing behind this.
– L
Actually, it’s Freedom Magazine promoting the newest issue of the mag.
How shocking!
– L
Medianistro posted an interesting update today. They’re clearly not impressed with the group, as you can tell even in louannes copypasta:
Scientologists Take Anti-Anderson Cooper Fight to Google
WEDNESDAY JUL 14, 2010
Yesterday, TVNewser reported on the 95 page (!!) magazine the Church of Scientology distributed outside of CNN headquarters attacking Anderson Cooper.
Well, now it looks like the scientologists are taking their fight to Google.
The church has purchased ads though Google’s AdWords service. Any user that searches Google for “Anderson Cooper,” “Anderson Cooper CNN,” “AC360” and “Anderson Cooper Scientology” among other queries is greeted with the ad pictured above.
Clicking on it takes you the Church’s website attacking Cooper.
No one ever said the Church of Scientology isn’t web-savvy…
//end of article//
So they’re spending money- money given to them by the average scientologist, by the way- to take out ads attacking the man, they’re assaulting his workplace, they’re digging into his background to discredit him, they’re publicly mocking him personally, and even louannes own post tells us they’re being “aggressive” and working on a “takedown” of the man. Personally.
He’s just lucky there’s no such thing as fair game!
I do have to admit, though, the personal attacks on the video are just hilarious!
And more proof of how Scientology really operates. Proof is in the pudding.
Thankfully there are far fewer than in the 90’s.
Wow, it just really hit me.
So Cooper said some things that Scientology didn’t like. Maybe we was spot on. Maybe he was off base. What’s striking is that, in response, Scientology dedicated a large sum of money and countless hours to “digging up dirt” on him, mocking him, attacking his character rather than the issues, and then went so far as to print up a 95 page hate filled rant and hand it out outside of his workplace?
Thank God there’s no more fair game, right? Or else he’d be in SERIOUS trouble!!
dear God, are they still attacking Cooper?
http://www.freedommag.org/special-reports/cnn/steve-hall-the-man-who-tells-it-straight-from-the-straitjacket.html
“But for the truly incisive character sketch, the one that explains why Cooper’s own introduction was kept to an absolute minimum, Steve Hall himself would like us to know he was previously:
A) Gautama Siddhartha
B) Jesus Christ
C) The Italian Renaissance painter, Tintoretto
D) And prior to all the above, he additionally co-created the universe with God.”
Yeah that’s ridiculous and someone who makes such crazy claims shouldn’t be believed, right?
Per some anti-Scientologists L. Ron Hubbard would like us to know that
A) He was the second coming of Buddha as he claimed in his “hymn of Asia”
B) That there was no Jesus Christ and the entirety of roman catholicism is an implant as he said in the lecture “Assists” for Class VIII auditors
and that furthermore there are many preclears anyway who believe they were Jesus Christ in a past live.
C) That Thetans created the MEST universe
Scientologists believe that they are thetans, so they created the MEST universe
D) That he was a race car driver 19,000 years ago in the alien “marcab” civilization as he claimed in the lecture “state of man congress” #8
E) That there are implant stations on the Venus, which he has personally seen , “Between Lives Implants”, SHSBC #317. 23 July 1963
F) That an alien fleet of spaceships called “the fourth invader force” has its installations up on Mars , “Role of Earth”, 30 October 1952
etc. etc.
Don’t throw with stones if you are living in a glass house.