Safer Planet

Despite the fascination with security today in government, all of the agencies, bureaucracies, police and military forces in the world are only a bandaid. The real answer to security is to bring up the level of the populace to a higher level of education and understanding. Broadly, the security anywhere on this planet is closely tied to the level of the individuals who live and work in that area.

Scientology provides a route to sharp improvement. It not only provides a route to greater understanding for the individual, it also gives that individual a way to help others improve their lives and the world around them.

My favorite center for studying Scientology is in Hollywood: Celebrity Centre International. They have a new web site. Check it out.

To read an interesting article on the Church of Scientology mission network, check out the sixth link down on this site, called "SMI : Scientology International Missions, an Immutable Model of Technological Missionary Activity"

It's fascinating reading from a person with an outside view of the Church of Scientology.

Scientology is bigger news every day; but there has been little attempt in the press to explore what Scientology really is. The press really isn’t trying to educate anybody. They’re interested in “infotainment”. They can sell papers without doing any real research, simply by positioning Scientology as something mysterious. The result of course is that for most people it is mysterious.

In fact it is one of the most vital forces in the world for making a Safer Planet. A good basic description of the religion (by a non-Scientologist) is on the U.S. Navy’s Chaplain Page.

One of the best links pages is on the CESNUR site (Center for Studies on New Religions).

If you want to know why I am so enthusiastic about Scientology as a force for good in the world, check out their Volunteer Minister activities. They have been there in force in every major international disaster, including Ground Zero after 9/11, Katrina, the Southeast Asian Tsunamis, Fires in California, and the London Subway bombing.

To find out more about the subject (from someone other than a sensationalist entertainment reporter) check out the downloadable brochures at http://www.scientologyreligion.org

When Clara Barton started the Red Cross during the American Civil War, she probably had no idea how big it would get in the years to come, and how important it would be to those who needed help in the wars and disasters that were to follow. Other volunteer organizations have been similarly helpful, including the Salvation Army.

But both of these organizations have been eclipsed by the new kid on the block -- the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, over 60,000 people have trained as volunteer ministers and helped more than four million people.

David (Dave) Miscavige -- Article in the St. Petersburg Times

This article came out a few years ago but I only ran into it recently.

I really admire Mr. David Miscavige. As a Scientologist I am very greatful to him for everything he has done to create a better world and to expand the Scientology religious movement.

I've been a social activist all my life and have always thought we could do something to improve life, but it's only since being a Scientologists that I have had real tools to be able to do so.

Anyway, here's the part of the article I thought was really cool:

Miscavige recalls meeting the founder in 1977. Hubbard, then 66, wore a straw cowboy hat, slacks, a short-sleeved shirt and boots. He was leaving a dining room when the teenager from Clearwater introduced himself. “Oh I know who you are,” he remembers Hubbard saying. “Welcome aboard.”

As most Scientologists do, Miscavige often refers to Hubbard by his initials, LRH. He says Hubbard called him by the nickname “Misc” (pronounced Misk).

“I never thought LRH was looking at me as: Oh, Dave is 17 years old or 18 years old,” Miscavige said. “It was just Dave, person to person. Spiritual being to spiritual being, so to speak.”

Miscavige, a photography bug, quickly grasped filmmaking concepts such as camera angles and continuity, said Norman Starkey, who was on the camera crew and now is a high-ranking Scientologist. “He was always thinking ahead, thinking of the future, predicting it and taking action.”

Hubbard appointed Miscavige camera chief and considered him his best friend, Starkey said. And in the mornings, when the film crew gathered for work, “David Miscavige was always the first person whose hand he’d shake.”

Tom Cruise is more than a movie star. He works tirelessly for causes he believes in. He has a wide range of interests and spends a lot of time supporting them.

Tom was diagnosed with dyslexia as a kid, but found it wasn't true, but was rather an inability to confront written material -- he didn't know how to study. He solved the problem with the study technology of L. Ron Hubbard. Since then he has worked for Applied Scholastics, the organization that oversees the delivery of Hubbard's Study Technology to the public.

Tom also supports a drug-free environment, and works for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organization dedicated to the reduction or elimination of the use of drugs as a chemical straitjacket for school children. Tom sees the psychology/psychiatry-based educational system as harm in the name of help.

Diane Watson, U.S. Representative from California, has always been a stalwart in the fight for individual rights and personal freedom. There is a great article in the latest Freedom Magazine about her efforts to eradicate slavery in Los Angeles and the U.S. It is estimated there are 10,000 imported Asian women enslaved in prostitution in Los Angeles alone.

When she was a California State Senator (before she was elected to the U.S. Congress) Watson was instrumental in pushing through effective legislation in that state to stop sexual abuse by psychiatrists and other therapists. While Florida is going through its soul-searching now, with some 24,000 newly discovered cases of sexual abuse by therapists, California has long been operating under the principle that “professional therapy never includes sex.” Since 1990, the California Department of Consumer Affairs has published and distributed a booklet by that name. The most recent edition, published in 2002, includes a special acknowledgment to Watson for her groundbreaking work.

One takes one's friends where one finds them. And Diane Watson is a friend to Americans who believe in personal freedom and liberty.