L Ron Hubbard plagiarized Scientology?

Evidence that L. Rob Hubbard plagiarised Scientology from a 1934 German book called "Scientologie." The text seems to map to various hoo-haw from the cult's official doctrine, too. Link (Thanks, Marilyn!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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abernie

I have been wondering is Kirstie Alley’s new diet program (she recently parted ways with Jenny Craig) will contain some tenets from Scientology. Maybe they are trying to expand the power base?
andyhavens

Or you can find 1 of 43 copies the book at a library near you:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2518944&referer=brief_results
MINIONSWEB

You are soooo going to be on Tom Cruise’ sh!tlist.
All your Religion are belong to us!
certron

According to this document http://www.aci.net/Kalliste/Jpar14.htm the name was changed from Dianetics (a cross between Diana and cybernetics) to Scientology for tax reasons.

That, and I get to tie into a previous BoingBoing post about Jack Parsons :-)
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/11/book-review-strange-.html
and again more recently, comment #8: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/19/paranoia-magazine-in.html

Sometimes, I love the Internet.
Agent 86

@joel

so, boing-boing is just a series of pipes?

Does anyone know what Co$’s official party line is on this subject?
AlsoAnon

Please, Tom, take our offer.

aa
Takuan

@9
Stories like that – which I have heard elsewhere -
are the reason I do everything I can to destroy this evil cult. I have been asked in the past why I am so hostile to $cientology, because “after all, who are they hurting?” This is a prime example of who they hurt. Decent societies protect their weakest members. Decent humans do not cross over to the other side of the road. (that’s a Samaritan reference , xtians take note)

I agree; boycott Tom Cruise. He helps evil.

Oh and you made a little typo there; that’s “FUCK
$cientology”, “Fuch” is something else.
Antinous

Wow. I didn’t know that anyone else loathes Mr. Cruise as much as me. It figures that it’s you. I’ve had it in for him for years, since I saw him interviewed on a talk show. He was telling a story, the gist of which was that they parked the Rolls on the yacht and it went overboard, isn’t that hilaaarious. I, and from the sound of it, the audience were all thinking, “You could feed an whole African country for the money that you waste and laugh about.” I’m not too thrilled about that closet thing, either.
moonracer23

just a post test since I’ve never been able to post on here with my account.
Andy Nonymous

you can read the original german text at google books:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2knknf
cinemajay

So, if CoS has been suing the pants off of people for “copyright infringement” all these years when one of their secrets gets out–then all of the judgements in those cases should be overturned–since they were themselves infringing on copyright.

Yes?
NikFromNYC

KILL FOR A THRILL
Anonymous

Scientology = evil cult
nanuq

“So, if CoS has been suing the pants off of people for “copyright infringement” all these years when one of their secrets gets out–then all of the judgements in those cases should be overturned–since they were themselves infringing on copyright”

It’s the COS. They could always claim that the earlier book is ripping off Hubbard’s work from an earlier incarnation.

If the estate of Alfred Korzybski hasn’t been able to sue for Hubbard’s plagiarism of Dianetics, nobody else has a chance.
Jeff

I don’t think there’s anything inherently worse about Scientology than any other weirdo cult. It’s just that the US has nice tax laws that cults can take advantage of–as would any good capitalist. There’s a sucker born every minute. And it’s not like people can’t make up their own minds.
jdw242b

@EarthBornIcarus:

I have a friend that has a partial library of the red and green books plus all of Hubbards blue lecture tapes, and several comm course books.
He didn’t require me to study the texts, but to work for him I had to do the comm course, and everything associated with it, and our conversations usually ended up on the topic of being on course.
I’m not unhappy with the results of the comm course, however, some of the higher level texts are so sci-fi that they bend out of reason into just plain crazy. The whole Xenu thing doesn’t jibe with me on a beingness level.

I do believe the basic idea of Scientology can help people, if you remove the cultish over the shoulder, big brother, you gotta do this or else, over bearing-ness they put upon pre clears. If it were totally voluntary, anyone could benefit from it.

Let us all remember that Hubbard did say that Religion is where the money is at.
jdw242b

one last thing:

Operation Clambake
SlyBevel

I’m not convinced that the doctrines of Scientology came from this. And “Scientologia” would be a pretty standard term in near-middle English. I’d need to see some textual parallels to really dig this groove.
Merlin Silk

This is so funny, there Mr. Hubbard plagiarizes Mr. Nordenholze’s ideas and now Mr. Miscarriage (uhh, Miscavige, I keep making this mistake!) is rewriting his works to his own interpretation.

Currently he still says that is all done in Hubbard’s spirit and these are now the books as Hubbard wanted them. How can all these Scientologists believe that Hubbard never checked his own books and noticed that there was something wrong with them? How come there has to come a Mr. Miscarriage (see, I did that again!) twenty years after his death and finally put it right?

I am sure that this is only transitional, that eventually it will be revealed that Mr. Miscarriage (damn, again!) was an adviser to Hubbard in an earlier incarnation, maybe even Nordenholz???) and that it’s actually his books – and THAT’S why he knows so exactly what Hubbard really meant when he wrote something rather different.

This Miscavige (now I got it right!) version of the scientology scripture is actually a very interesting subject. I had heard that there are missions out and about more or less confiscating old version of those books and selling the ‘correct’ version. But read the story at http://www.DelphiParents.com about an ex Scio who had his son in the Scio-cadre school Delphi Academy from which he was expelled when his father’s SP-ness came out. For me one of the wildest things was at the end, where actually a mission of three clean-cut scientology missionaries come to his house to sell him the Miscarriage version of all the scientology book for a measly 3k$ – sell it to an SP, who’s son they had just kicked out of school!
WOW – these masters of Ethics and personal integrity!
EarthBornIcarus

This is amusing. I escaped from a scient(horror)ology-off shoot group started by one of Hubbards “clears”. I had access to some very disturbing videotape of Hubbard, and it still shocks and amazes me that people are so easily caught by the bizarre sci-fi tale that he uses to lure people “up the levels” to 0t3 etc. I guess they have done a good job hiding the crazy last bits, until the poor dupe is so brain-washed already that he/she can accept just about anything.

What is really sad is that all that extreme effort and energy could have been used to create a truly good idea for helping people get “clear” about life when they are confused.

Go, little psychopathic narcissists, go.
tanner

really? no comments?
censor

for epic win, digg this!
Mr. Gunn

Before everyone gets all excited, read the comments on the forum. They’re saying that there’s a list of things he plagiarized from, but this probably wasn’t it.
LadyD

I can’t confirm what I am about to write. However I was told by a woman years ago, that she knew for afact that Scientology was created one drunken night when LRON and some of his scifi writer friends started discussing “If science fiction had a religion what would it be like.”

Interesting thought,huh. Maybe some of you have heard this,maybe not.

I am always fasinated by anything how easy it is for people to follow.
Wonder how many Scientologist are in key gov’t posotions.
arttoys

I thought it was L. Ron Hubbard.
Songe

Give the guy some credit.
arkizzle

#1 I tried posting almost the exact same comment on this for about 1/2 an hour on and off..

I’ve gotten a persistent “server dropped connection” on the ‘dynamic.boingboing.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi’ page for certain topics over the last week or so..

So, everyone who made any sort of clever comment on ANY thread over the last week.. I thought of it first! ;p
arkizzle

#3

Also from the forum comments:

“” The English-language term “Scientology” originated neither with Hubbard nor Nordenholz, but with philologist Allen Upward, who coined the term in 1907 to ridicule pseudoscientific theories. “”
Jeff

Going through Boing Boing posting withdrawl….need to post now…

So, how come it’s taken so long for someone to clue into this example of Creative unCommons plagerism…?
Sensoz

Nice, Boingboing linking to Enturbulation. Our revolution is getting recognition!
Anonymous

My dear Wormwood;
Regarding your Scientology assignment, here is all you need to know – use it wisely.

The only thing wrong with Scientology is Scientology (the church organization) and Ron’s own violation of the auditor’s code (which he authored) on the OT-II and OT-III levels by giving people “canned material” to run.
The processes of OT-II & OT-III (minus the evaluative materials) are quite legitimate; the Xenu story came from LRH’s case dub-in during auditing sessions he did while under the influence of “pinks and blues” coupled with quarts of rum.

When you understand all this, nothing more needs to be said.

Your Affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape
notime4

Hubbard SUXS. I knew an old lady who gave away everything to SScientology and ended up cleaning toilets on the cult’s yacht (probably have many yachts now). She was a innocent enough person – perhaps a little naive and certainly at first caught up in the heady race to go “Clear”. When she was too old to do anymore work and she had no money left, no one cared that she fled the cult. She ended up living in subsidized housing and on her old-age pension. She lost her house and all material comforts – but I think the saddest part was she lost her kids b/c they wouldn’t become part of the cult and they both died before her. (she was a friend of family member, which is why I know the bones of this story, I’m sure there is even more pathetic, sad details I don’t know).

Someone said Cruise is the most powerful person in Hollywood right now. He controls a studio and has at his disposal what amounts to a small fascist state. BOYCOTT ALL CRUISE RELATED FILMS. Only the lack of money-making projects will bring him down. If people think SScientology won’t be using Hollywood to promote their agenda – then they deserve to end up cleaning Cruise’s toilets. FUCH Scientology.
andyhavens

Or you can find 1 of 43 copies the book at a library near you:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2518944&referer=brief_results
BarbJacome

This story is typical of the stupid stories which anti-Scientologists try to sell to people who donâ€™t know any better. Even a beginning Scientologist who had read one Scientology book could see what Nordenholz wrote in 1934 is nothing like the workable, immediately applicable philosophy L. Ron Hubbard wrote in Scientology. This nonsense will only work to dupe non-Scientologists. Who, if they prefer to think for themselves, will read a book by L. Ron Hubbard and decide on their own.
Or at least look at http://www.scientology.org.
Barbara Jacome, Manhattan
arbitraryaardvark

What’s the copyright status of the 1934 german book? Public domain? Any copyleft translations out there?
Joel Johnson

Hey guys, we had some comment issues earlier that were causing stuff to get caught in the pipe. Should be working better now. (Obviously, since you can see comments!) Sorry about that!
BarbJacome

This story is typical of the stupid stories which anti-Scientologists try to sell to people who donâ€™t know any better. Even a beginning Scientologist who had read one Scientology book could see what Nordenholz wrote in 1934 is nothing like the workable, immediately applicable philosophy L. Ron Hubbard wrote in Scientology. This nonsense will only work to dupe non-Scientologists. Who, if they prefer to think for themselves, will read a book by L. Ron Hubbard and decide on their own.
Barbara Jacome, Manhattan