Space opera in Scientology doctrine
Encyclopedia
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."
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.
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 Thetan
s. Xenu is only one element of Scientologist beliefs in alien civilizations. Such doctrines have existed in Scientology virtually since its beginning: 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."
level three, or "OT III." 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.
Members of the Church of Scientology have objected to Scientology being painted as a science fiction
fantasy. Space opera is defined in the Official Scientology and Dianetics Glossary as:
David Miscavige
, 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:
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.
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." 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.
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."
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
:
, 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.
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.
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.
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") 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).
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).
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:
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. The participants in the conference reported having lived past lives including the following:
Hubbard is reported to have ordered that Scientology books be reissued with covers based on images from OT III. 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:
Since the 1980s, the volcano has also been depicted in television commercials advertising Dianetics.
Of the 18 new 2007 editions, only Dianetics and Introduction to Scientology Ethics have kept their implant-related covers.
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."
. 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.
. It ruled a broad swath of the galaxy, and lasted for "eighty trillion years". 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."
or something of the sort." 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.
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,
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
)
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:
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)
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.
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.
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".
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.
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
founder L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
used the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
term space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
to describe what he said were actual extraterrestrial civilizations
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
and alien interventions in past lives. Upon Hubbard's death in 1986, the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
announced that he had discarded his physical body and was now "on a planet a galaxy away."
It is a basic belief of Scientology that a human being is actually an immortal spiritual being, termed a thetan
Thetan
In Scientology, the concept of thetan is similar to the concept of spirit or soul found in other belief systems. The term is derived from the Greek letter theta, which in Scientology represents "the source of life, or life itself." In Scientology it is believed that it is the Thetan, not the...
, that is presently trapped on planet Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
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
Incident (Scientology)
L. Ron Hubbard used the term Incident in a specific context for auditing in Scientology and Dianetics: the description of space opera events in our Universe's distant past, involving alien interventions in our past lives...
are seen as nonfiction in the beliefs of Scientology
Scientology beliefs and practices
Scientology is defined as a set of beliefs written by founder L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology describes itself as the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others, and all of life...
; they appeared in the online Glossary for Dianetics and Scientology, although they were later removed from it.
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
Xenu
Xenu ,also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs...
, 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 Thetan
Body thetan
In Scientology, a thetan is the term corresponding to one's "spirit", and a Body Thetan is another thetan who is 'stuck' in, on or near a human "meat body" because of activities of an ancient Space opera figure named Xenu of the Galactic Confederacy. All human bodies were said by L...
s. Xenu is only one element of Scientologist beliefs in alien civilizations. Such doctrines have existed in Scientology virtually since its beginning: In the 1950s Hubbard wrote and lectured about civilizations such as Helatrobus
Helatrobus
According to Church of Scientology doctrine, Helatrobus was an "interplanetary nation", now extinct, which existed trillions of years ago.-Government:In his State of OT lecture, Scientology founder L...
, Espinol and Arslychus, and in the 1960s he introduced Xenu's Galactic Confederacy. He described repeated instances of their using brainwashing implants
Implant (Scientology)
In Scientology, an implant is similar to an engram, in that it is believed to condition the mind in a certain way. The difference is that an implant is done deliberately and with evil intent. It is similar to Thought insertion...
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."
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. 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 ThetanOperating Thetan
In Scientology, the state of Operating Thetan is a spiritual state above Clear. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, defined it as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time ". According to religious scholar J...
level three, or "OT III." 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.
Members of the Church of Scientology have objected to Scientology being painted as a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
fantasy. 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]."
David Miscavige
David Miscavige
David Miscavige is the leader of the Church of Scientology and affiliated organizations. His title is Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center , a corporation that controls the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. Miscavige was an assistant to Hubbard while a...
, 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.'"
Particularly during its early years, Scientology had links with science fiction. Hubbard was originally a pulp
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
science fiction and adventure story writer; his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is a book by L. Ron Hubbard which sets out self-improvement techniques he developed, called Dianetics. The book is also one of the canonical texts of Scientology. It is colloquially referred to as Book One...
was first publicised through John W. Campbell
John W. Campbell
John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
'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
Battlefield Earth (novel)
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 1982 science fiction novel written by the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz....
and the ten-volume Mission Earth
Mission Earth (novel)
Mission Earth is a ten-volume science fiction novel series by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Hubbard died three months after the publication of volume 1, the rest of the book being published posthumously....
series.
Science-fictional references can be found in Hubbard's Scientology-related works. Scientologists could find themselves living in "robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
bodies" in past lives, being killed by "zap guns
Raygun
Rayguns are a type of fictional directed-energy weapon. They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, etc. They are a well-known feature of science fiction; for such stories they typically have the general function of guns...
," living aboard spaceships or flying "space wagons" capable of traveling "a trillion light years per day." 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.
Hubbard later dramatized the story of Xenu as a film script, Revolt in the Stars
Revolt in the Stars
Revolt in the Stars is a science fiction film screenplay written by Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1977. It tells the space opera story of how an evil galactic dictator Xenu massacres many of his subjects by transporting them to Earth and killing them with atomic...
, in 1977, but failed to find a studio willing to buy the work. His novels Battlefield Earth
Battlefield Earth (novel)
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 1982 science fiction novel written by the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. He composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz....
and Mission Earth
Mission Earth
Mission Earth may refer to:*Mission Earth , novel published as a series broken into ten volumes, written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard...
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."
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
Auditing (Scientology)
Auditing was developed by L. Ron Hubbard, and is described by the Church of Scientology as "spiritual counseling which is the central practice of Dianetics and Scientology".-Description:...
:
- [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 thetanThetan
In Scientology, the concept of thetan is similar to the concept of spirit or soul found in other belief systems. The term is derived from the Greek letter theta, which in Scientology represents "the source of life, or life itself." In Scientology it is believed that it is the Thetan, not the...
, 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.
However, over the "trillennia", thetans have been repeatedly subjected to the depredations of beings in the material or "MEST
MEST (Scientology)
MEST is an acronym used in Scientology and coined by author L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard used the first letters of the words matter, energy, space and time, the component parts of the physical universe. The term MEST is frequently used in writings and lectures by Scientology founder L...
" 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.
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.
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") 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
Implant (Scientology)
In Scientology, an implant is similar to an engram, in that it is believed to condition the mind in a certain way. The difference is that an implant is done deliberately and with evil intent. It is similar to Thought insertion...
" (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 ThetanOperating Thetan
In Scientology, the state of Operating Thetan is a spiritual state above Clear. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, defined it as "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time ". According to religious scholar J...
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).
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
Clear (Scientology)
Clear in Dianetics and Scientology is one of two levels a practitioner can achieve on the way to personal salvation. A state of Clear is reached when a person becomes free of the influence of engrams, unwanted emotions or painful traumas not readily available to the conscious mind...
" 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 somaticSomaticThe term somatic means 'of the body',, relating to the body. In medicine, somatic illness is bodily, not mental, illness. The term is often used in biology to refer to the cells of the body in contrast to the germ line cells which usually give rise to the gametes...
s, disturbing visio images of cylindrical tanks, bodies floating in green fluid ...
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. 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.
- 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.
- A past life as a trouble-making free being on MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
"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 saucerFlying saucerA flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
, and died when it exploded. - 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."
- 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.
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.Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science
Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science by L. Ron Hubbard is the original article published in Astounding Science Fiction published to immediately precede the release of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health that introduced Dianetics...
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.
Of the 18 new 2007 editions, only Dianetics and Introduction to Scientology Ethics have kept their implant-related covers.
Scientology's chronology of the universe
- 70 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillionNames of large numbersThis article lists and discusses the usage and derivation of names of large numbers, together with their possible extensions.The following table lists those names of large numbers which are found in many English dictionaries and thus have a special claim to being "real words"...
(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.
- 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.
- 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): XenuXenuXenu ,also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs...
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 SystemSolar SystemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
but is defeated by the Fourth Invader Force - AD 1150: The Espinol abandon our Solar System
Arslychus
Arslychus 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."
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 PolarisPolaris
Polaris |Alpha]] Ursae Minoris, commonly North Star or Pole Star, also Lodestar) is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole, making it the current northern pole star....
. 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.
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.Galactic Confederacy
The Galactic Confederacy was the political unit formerly ruled by the tyrant XenuXenu
Xenu ,also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs...
. It ruled a broad swath of the galaxy, and lasted for "eighty trillion years". 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
Sea Org
The Sea Organization or Sea Org is an association of Scientologists established in 1968 by L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer and founder of Scientology. Its members are found in the central management organizations of the Church of Scientology as well as in individual churches...
, 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
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 CrossAmerican Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
or something of the sort." 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 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
Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....
and attempted to set up an implant station. The battalion was captured, taken to the Fourth Invaders' complex on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, brainwashed and stuck into human bodies. As for the remainder,
the Fifth Invader Force, out of its own protection, took over VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
– 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
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
… installations in the Pyrenees here on Earth, and there are installations down in the Mountains of the Moon
Mountains of the Moon
Mountains of the Moon can refer to:* List of mountains on the Moon, mountains on Luna* Mountains of the Moon , a mountain range in Africa that is the source of the Nile River* Mountains of the Moon , a 1990 film...
in Africa which pick up, very often, people on death." (sic
Sic
Sic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
)
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
Big Dipper
The Plough, also known as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi , is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial...
", 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
Russell Miller
Russell Miller is an award-winning British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.-L. Ron Hubbard biography:...
, 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 HubbardMary Sue Hubbard
Mary Sue Hubbard was the third wife of L. Ron Hubbard, from 1952 to his death in 1986, and was a leading figure in Scientology for much of her life...
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
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
, where the thetan is re-implanted
Implant (Scientology)
In Scientology, an implant is similar to an engram, in that it is believed to condition the mind in a certain way. The difference is that an implant is done deliberately and with evil intent. It is similar to Thought insertion...
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.
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.
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 GalaxySagittarius Dwarf Elliptical GalaxyThe Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy is an elliptical loop-shaped satellite galaxy of the Milky Way Galaxy. It consists of four globular clusters, the main cluster being discovered in 1994...
, 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 CloudLarge Magellanic CloudThe Large Magellanic Cloud is a nearby irregular galaxy, and is a satellite of the Milky Way. At a distance of slightly less than 50 kiloparsecs , the LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way, with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy lying closer to the center...
. - Eighth Invader Corps. Volney MathisonVolney MathisonVolney G. Mathison was an American chiropractor, writer, and inventor of the E-meter.-Family:In 1935, Mathison was married to Jean Darrell, a music librarian for NBC. She died in November 1964.-Writer:...
, 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." - Aliens in ancient Egypt. Hubbard maintained that ancient EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
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 MosesMosesMoses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
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".
Key incidents
In his writings and lectures, Hubbard describes key IncidentsIncident (Scientology)
L. Ron Hubbard used the term Incident in a specific context for auditing in Scientology and Dianetics: the description of space opera events in our Universe's distant past, involving alien interventions in our past lives...
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
Helatrobus
According to Church of Scientology doctrine, Helatrobus was an "interplanetary nation", now extinct, which existed trillions of years ago.-Government:In his State of OT lecture, Scientology founder L...
Implants, the Ice Cube Incident, the Jack-in-the-Box, the Obscene Dog Incident, among others.