Tag Church of Scientology

Vietnam and the brewing storm of free speech

Geir Isene 34 Comments

Recently I had the pleasure to meet with the leader of the main opposition party in Vietnam, Mr. Do Diem of the Viet Tan. He gave a talk to a small Vietnamese group living in Norway, and with the help of an inspiring person, Lap Huynh, I was invited to the event.

DoDiem

Through reading up on the country of Vietnam and with the help of Lap and Mr. Do, I can share some of the similarities I can see with a subject well known to most of my readers; The Church of Scientology.

Mike Rinder has compared the Church of Scientology (CoS) to North Korea. While the two can certainly be compared, the CoS compares much better to Vietnam. Here is why:

  • Both the CoS and Vietnam looks nice on the outside. The CoS looks posh, has Tom Cruise, John Travolta, glamorous buildings and nice, welcoming people. Vietnam is a wonderful tourist destination with gorgeous nature, great healthy food and nice welcoming people.
  • Both have a One Party Rule without tolerance for dissidents or free speech.
  • Both have severe punishments for those who dare stepping out of line.
  • Disconnection from people with opposing views is rampant in both.
  • Both have a growing insurgence and the people in power tries desperately to squash dissidents with similar tactics.
  • Both are heading for a free speech revolution where the ruling powers will face a meltdown.

Looking good on the outside, rotten on the inside and heading for a revolution.

The question for both is not whether it will be a revolution, but whether it will be violent.

I strongly support free speech and I will lend my support to the opposition in Vietnam.

1984: Looking to partner up with a US publisher

Geir Isene 13 Comments

After really good responses from readers in the Norwegian market, my publisher (Humanist Forlag) is looking for a US publiser as a partner to release my book to the English speaking market.

1984

This is the only book on Scientology written by a person who has done all the secret levels, and who reveals them all. The book gives an inside account on how it is to be a public Scientologist, about my gains in Scientology, the challenges, weirdness, mysteries and crap.

There are plenty of books that is looking at Scientology from the outside. And lots of books written by former executives within the Church of Scientology. This book tells a story from the ranks of the public Scientologists – a 25-year journey from the bottom of The Bridge to Total Freedom and all the way to the highest secret level, OT 8. This could have been your story, or your brother’s or sister’s, or a friend’s.

People should know what they enter into when they walk through the doors of the church. The book is balanced and throughly relates both the good and the bad in the controversial religion. The information in this book deserves to be open and accessible to all English readers. An English version would spell the end of the secrecy and mystery surrounding the greatest cash cows for the church.

There has already been hundreds of people asking me to get the book out in English. And so I put this out here to see if readers might have interesting connections that could lead to an English version being published in the near future. Feel free to spread the word.

From a talk on my book and my 25 years in Scientology

From a talk on my book and my 25 years in Scientology

Book: 1984

Geir Isene 45 Comments

1984Today the book, “Nittenåttifire” (ISBN 9788282820592) became available for sale:

Link to the publisher

The main media coverage:

The main book release event will be held on Wednesday 18:00 the 18th (UTC+2, daylight savings) at Litteraturhuset in Oslo, Norway.

Video: Me on Scientology

Geir Isene 36 Comments

Here’s the full video of the interview J. Swift did with me this summer at Karen De La Carriere’s. It covers many aspects of Scientology. Although some parts have been released earlier, such as the part where I talked about how the church tried to manipulate Google, the full video covers many more aspects of Scientology. Feel free to leave comments also on my YouTube channel.

Update: David St Lawrence has an extensive analysis of the interview.

What’s brewing?

Geir Isene 16 Comments

coffee As I sit here in Café Rousso in Spetses, Greece, sipping a double espresso with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, I thought I should write a short post on what’s in the pipeline.

Wednesday the 18th is the big day with the release of my book. But before that, there will be a 4 page article in the biggest Norwegian magazine (Se & Hør) featuring Anette’s story, our relationship and the release of my book. The magazine will be out on Tuesday.

Shortly before that, on Monday I will release the full interview that I did at Karen’s. J. Swift did a great job as an interviewer, asking very pertinent questions. Until now, parts of the interview have been released in shorter videos over at Karen’s Youtube channel. The full 54 minutes of video covers pretty well my currents views on Scientology, the church and its future.

Stay tuned.

greece_panorama

My Scientology book release (September 18th)

Geir Isene 175 Comments

The date is set. The venue is booked. Noise will be made.

1984

Yes, the book is in Norwegian (for now).

English translation of the title: “Nineteen eightyfour. My way into Scientology’s inner secrets – and out again.”

If you are in Oslo on the 18th of September, you are welcome to join the party (including OSA – The Church of Scientology’s intelligence and dirty tricks arm).

Links:
The book release facebook event
The event at Litteraturhuset
My book at the publisher’s page
(Use Google translate as needed)

Anette

Geir Isene 4 Comments

Now that Anette is headline news in both online and printed media, I thought I could serve the media hunger by adding a bit from an insider’s view.

I already did a blog post titled “Amazing person: Anette Iren Johansen“. At that time, we had been a couple for only a few weeks. After another several months, my understanding and love for this amazing girl has deepened considerably.

anette-iren-johansen

She’s a geek in a blonde wrapping. Being a student of chemistry and other natural sciences at the University of Oslo, she recently inspired me to take up a subject there as well. Today I attended the second lecture in Observational Astronomy. Since we are planning to start with astrophotography soon, and since I want to add a spectroscope to my telescope, this course should prove inspirational.

Anette is a multi-talented girl with skills ranging from a performing musician to chemist. Since the Church of Scientology managed to side track her from her university studies, she is now wrapping up the geek education she was coerced to leave many years ago.

Anette is always focusing on helping others, even to the detriment of herself – something the Church of Scientology knew to exploit viciously… as they so often do. But the girl has balls, taking on the church in several different ways. I bet she’s moving up on their harassment list pretty fast.

Most of all, Anette is fun to be with. Light and playful and a great “bonus mother” for my three boys. Although she experienced heavy suppression from her time in the church and an abusive relationship, she is on a path of recovery and life is brighter every day. It’s an honor to be able to help her in this progress.

If you haven’t yet visited her blog, you should. She’s an amazing photographer, and she’s got some interesting stories to tell – not just about her audition to be Tom Cruise’s next wife.

Hubbard on “power”

Geir Isene 392 Comments

From a technical bulleting dated 10 August 1982 titled, “OT maxims”, we find:

THE POWER (defined as light-year kilo-tons per microsecond) OF A THETAN IS MEASURED BY NOTHING ELSE THAN THE DISTANCE (defined as spherical spatial length) AROUND HIM IN HIS ENVIRONMENT THAT HE CAN CONTROL.

Now this is one of those quotes that people in the church read, clear every word of and even make a demonstration using colored clay figures, and then end up not understanding what it means. I know I did.

So I have a challenge for you. Try making sense of the above quote and let me know what you end up with.