Xenu
The Church of Scientology accepts that intelligent life exists throughout the universe and has for millions of years. Xenu, a galactic overlord, features prominently in their mythology. Xenu's actions have direct influence on how humanity on Earth has developed. However, this information is available only to Scientologists of considerable rank inline with their acceptance of revealing the truth is stages as followers are properly prepared.
Mythology of Xenu
75,00,000 years ago, Xenu headed the Galactic Federation, which was an organization of 76 planets that had already existed for 20,000,000 years. The planets were suffering a tremendous problem with overpopulation. Xenu's draconian solution to the matter was to gather large numbers of people, kill them, freeze their thetans (souls), and transport the frozen thetans to Earth, which they called Teegeeack. The thetans were left in the vicinity of volcanoes, which were, in turn, destroyed in a series of nuclear explosions.
Members of the galactic Federation eventually rebelled against Xenu, fighting him for six years before he was finally captured and imprisoned on a planet that today is barren desert. Within the "mountain trap" on this unnamed world, Xenu still lives.
How The Story of Xenu Influences Scientology Belief
The thetans who were captured and exploded on Earth are the origin of body thetans. Each human has his or her own thetan, which Scientologists purify through auditing until the practitioner reaches a state of Clear. While a Clear's own thetan is now free of destructive engrams, his physical form is still inhabited by body thetans: clusters of these ancient, executed thetans.
Clears work with the body thetans through a system similar to auditing, assisting the body thetans to get past their own traumas, at which point they leave the Clear's body. All body thetans have to be so processed before a Clear can reach the state of Operating Thetan, wherein one's thetan is completely free of external limitations and can fully express it's true potential, including operation outside of a physical body.
Public Acknowledgement Or Denial of Xenu
Scientologists are not made aware of Xenu until they have reached a stage known as OT-III. Those who have not reached this rank frequently actively avoid any materials that refer to Xenu, considering it improper and even dangerous to read them. Those who have reached the rank of OT-III often publicly deny the existence of the Xenu myth, although this might be more understandable in the light of the idea that such knowledge is dangerous to the unprepared.
The Church of Scientology has, however, effectively admitted to the mythology for many years. The Church actively pursues legal action against those who attempt to publish Xenu-related materials via copyright law. In order to claim copyright on a piece of material, however, one has to admit that the material does, in fact, exist and that they are the author of it.
What's the Deal with the OT3 Materials?
Disclaimer: The OT3 materials are copyrighted by the Church of Scientology. We know that. In fact, we're really, really, really sick of hearing about just how copyrighted they are. This page does not contain links to the actual OT3 materials, and does not contain any copyrighted material except that which is protected by the Fair Use clause. What you'll find here is a synopsis of the OT3 basics in our own words, and a short discussion of how we feel about them.
If you're dying to read the OT3 materials exactly as they were written, search for them online. There are plenty of places you can read them word for word. You can even read them in L. Ron Hubbard's handwriting if it pleases you. To the Google mobile with you!
If there are any Scientology words in here you don't get, take a look at the Simple Scientology Glossary on this site.
Anyway, on with the show.
What ARE the 'OT3 materials'?
OT3 is one of major auditing steps in Scientology. Scientologists sometimes call it "The Wall of Fire". All auditing up the point of OT3 is pretty laid-back, without too much weirdness. Even OTI and OTII are fairly boring as far as content goes. It takes years for a Scientologist to reach OT3.
When they finally do get to the point where they are ready to do OT3, they actually have to be invited to do the level. And before they're allowed to look at the OT3 materials, they have to sign a waiver stating that they will never reveal the secrets of OT3 to anyone, and that they will not hold the CoS responsible for any emotional damage that may result from reading them. When they've finally jumped through all these hoops, they are led into a locked room and given a folder to read, which is said to contain some of the innermost secrets of Scientology. The contents of that folder are called the OT3 materials.
What do the OT3 materials say?
This may be really difficult for lower-level Scientologists to believe, but here goes: In the OT3 materials basically say that 75 million years ago, an evil being named Xenu decided to solve a population problem on his galactic colony by exiling a bunch of people to Earth. Xenu then did a ton of horrible things to these people, like drugging them, placing their bodies around a volcano, and blowing them up with H-bombs.
But that really only took care of the physical problem - Xenu didn't just want the bodies gone, he wanted to make sure the 'thetans' (spirits / souls) of those people didn't come back and reincarnate on his colony. So when the souls started leaving the bodies, he captured the souls and forced them into a huge implant station that was kind of like a movie theatre. There, he made them watch movies that 'implanted' them with false pictures of Christ, and other historical events that Hubbard says didn't actually happen.
The souls were so screwed up from this implanting that they roamed aimlessly around Earth for millions of years. When human beings started evolving, the thetans started entering their bodies and inhabiting them, and thus these thetans are called 'body thetans'. And body thetans, says Hubbard, are the source of all human misery.
But that's just the theory portion of OT3. The practical portion of OT3 involves getting rid of these body thetans. The PC uses the Emeter to locate body thetans that are stuck to his body, and talk to them, auditing them until they blow (go away).
All subsequent OT levels after OT3 also deal with body thetans.
Bullshit.
No, seriously. We've seen the evidence.
But if that's true, why do ALL Scientologists deny that that's what's on OT3?
To be honest, we're not totally sure why upper-level Scientologists insist on publicly denying the fact that the OT materials have anything to do with Xenu. I mean, c'mon guys. The cat is so totally out of the bag. I mean, the cat has been out of the bag so long that if you asked the cat about the bag, the cat would be like, "Oh, the BAG? That was forever ago." And then the cat would roll its eyes and go back to being out of the bag. There are copies of the materials floating around in L. Ron Hubbard's own handwriting, and let me tell ya, the guy had very distinctive handwriting.
But ESK believes the real reason for the denials is probably nothing more than severe group pressure. No Scientologist wants to be the first one to come out and say, "Yup. Xenu's in there. Body thetans too. Deal with it." Most likely because they'd be bringing all the wrath of hell down on themselves from CoS higher-ups, and they'd be declared on the spot and thrown out.
They can't tell lower-level Scientologists what's in OT3 - that's a high crime, punishable by expulsion. And it'd be kind of weird to tell non-Scientologists one thing and tell Scientologists another, so the secrecy puts them in a bit of a pickle. They are essentially forced to lie.
Lower level Scientologists who have not yet reached OT3, however, deny it because they really, truly, factually, honestly, utterly don't know. They've probably never even heard of Xenu or body thetans, or if they *have*, the only people they've ever heard about it from were non-Scientologists. Even if they are repeatedly told by strangers and non-Scientologists that Xenu is at the core of OT3, they think, "Well, that can't be true. I've been in Scientology for years, and I've never heard mention of any 'Xenu'. This guy's not even a Scientologist - what does he know?"
Most lower-level Scientologists find reference to Xenu and aliens ridiculous, and they immediately think of it as obvious fallacy.
So what you end up with here is an entire society of people who will deny to the death that the OT3 materials contain any reference to Xenu - the higher-ups because they don't want to get in trouble, and the lower-downs because they really don't know about it.
Why are the materials so secret within the church?
Well, there's the Scientologist answer to that question and the skeptical answer to that question. The Scientologist answer is that if you're not spiritually ready to read the materials, and you look at them anyway, you could die, or at the very least, ruin your case (make yourself unable to have further Scientology auditing).
The skeptical answer is that if Scientology let people read those materials before they're fully indoctrinated into the church's ideology, they'll leave.
How can anyone fall for that? Are these people all idiots?
No, they're not idiots. They're not idiots at all. A lot of OTs are really intelligent individuals. Please realize that by the time anyone is allowed to look at the OT3 materials, they've spent several years of their life in Scientology, and have spent tens of thousands of dollars on the CoS. Their friends and sometimes family are mostly, if not all, Scientologists. Everyone around them - people they love and trust - are often talking about how amazing the materials are, how life-changing they are, how brilliant it all is (without actually saying what's in the materials, of course). That kind of environment can make anyone believe anything.
Not to mention the fact that if they reject the materials as false, they'll be thrown out and separated from friends, family and loved ones.
The point has also been made that the OT3 materials aren't any "weirder" than any other religion. We'll leave the decision on that one up to you.
So that's why critics and the media make fun of Scientology?
Well, yeah. You gotta admit, it's kinda funny.
But personally, we at ESK think that making fun of Xenu all the time is really missing the point. If Scientologists want to believe in Xenu, they're welcome to do so. What really ought to be criticized are the practices of Scientology management, such as physical abuse in the Sea Org, denial of basic medical services, disconnection, and other issues of malfeasance.
At this point although very informed about the Xenu story I still was confused as to how people cold believe such a myth. I tried to find accounts from ex-members who had reached the OT3 level, and came across a website explaining why people are susceptible to accepting the Xenu story.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/07/scientology_xenu_whole_track.php
Moreover, while browsing the comments at the bottom I a personal opinion from an ex-member of the cult.
Moreover, I also conducted research into independently released information and documents that is currently available about Xenu.
This PDF. leaflet provides independently released information about the story of Xenu and its relation to Scientology. The document has been designed very simply, with a focus put on the body copy. I want to create a a similar document in the form of a book, this enables me to disseminate the information across a number of pages, leaving space for inforgaphics and illustrations. Moreover, this document is available for download, I had never though of distributing information this way before. Therefore, I will consider making the PDF. version of my outcome available online, to further distribute the information.
Copyright
I covered the 'Fair game' policy in my initial research, it states that anybody who is seen as a 'threat' to the Church can be, for example 'destroyed' or 'sued'. I think that the information could be seen as a threat to the church as it disseminated information which is supposed to be 'secret'. Therefore, before producing my outcome I need to research into the copyright laws surrounding Scientology.
Copyright laws were designed to protect the public, as all laws are. They were created "in the public interest". In the case of copyright laws it was deemed that the arts could benefit by giving financial protection to those people who create works of art and so encourage others to do the same. Copyright laws have since been extended to cover many other fields of human endeavour and creativity. However, the basic principle behind it remains the same.
Within the copyright laws there are certain "permitted acts" whereby infringements can justifiably be made despite the wishes of the author or creator. One of these is in the field of education. Suppose a great playwright were to write a play that resulted in the turning point in the history of the arts in that country, and that the playwright for some reason refused all and sundry to publish their work. Would the copyright laws act to ensure that the wishes of the playwright were respected so that their work could never be studied and appreciated? No it would not! This is not in the spirit of the copyright laws. Places of education would be free to study their work. Copyright laws are there to help make these works available to the public and for the benefit of the public, not to suppress them.
How do copyright laws apply in the field of Scientology? Well there has always been the provision for quoting from a published work for the purposes of review or criticism. But what of unpublished works and works published under restrictive conditions? How may a critic quote from a work that has never been published in order to give a fair criticism of the content? It could be argued that the critic would have to reproduce a substantial part of the work in order to make their critical point. Maybe all of it. In any case, if it were an unpublished work with no intention of publication then why should it enjoy the protection of copyright law - a law that is there to encourage the publishing of works? Also if a work were published under restrictive conditions, perhaps because the work were not freely available at a fair or sensible price, then the same argument might apply.
In the case of the secret teachings of Scientology, the Church of Scientology might argue that withholding the information is "in the public interest" in that the teachings can only be revealed to those who have reached the stage of spiritual evolution where they can be appreciated. And in being the custodians of these materials and in the event that many more people would become Scientologists in the future and the same comment about spiritual development would apply then it could be argued that copyright law entitled them to permanently withhold the information since this would therefore be in the public interest. Indeed, they have used this argument in court.
The Church of Scientology is using copyright laws to withhold information from the public. Are they doing this for honest or dishonest reasons? In the case of doubt there is one way to find out. That is to publish their material. Not extracts but in some cases its entirety so there can be no argument about quoting out of context or misinterpreting what was written.
http://www.xenu.net/copyright.html
Despite this, there are countless documents have been released that educate people about the story Xenu , both printed and online. I decided to research further into the copyright laws.
I then found this news report about how links had been removed from Xenu.net that The Church of Scientology believed breached the copyright laws.
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-865936.html
I used this site to collect a lot of my research, which means that the information which seriously violated the copyright beliefs has already been removed. Therefore, the information on 'Xenu' and the 'galactic federation' seem to be safe from the copyright laws. Furthermore, the information that I collected for my outcome has been collected from sources around the web, already published and available to the public, I am simply redistributing information which has already been published and exists free from copyright-infringement.
Information Refinement
- 75,00,000 years ago, Xenu was leader of the Galactic Federation.
- The Galactic Federation was an organization of 76 planets.
- The group of planets had already existed for 20,000,000 years.
- The planets were suffering a tremendous problem with overpopulation.
- Xenu's solution was to gather large numbers of people, kill them.
- Then freeze their thetans (souls), and transport the frozen thetans to Earth, which they called Teegeeack.
- The thetans were dropped into volcanoes.
- Then the volcanos were destroyed by a series of nuclear explosions.
Book Research.
Large type and negative space make for a striking magazine spread.
The experimental type compositions are eye-catching and therefore evoke more attention from the audience.
[column width="48%" padding="3%"]△
Gertrude Contemporary – Still Vast Reserves
Disciplines Publication
Year 2010
Gertrude Contemporary – Still Vast Reserves
Disciplines Publication
Year 2010
This publication utilizes a stylish hard protective cover. I want to produce protective packaging for my book, something similar to this could be considered.
[column width="48%" padding="3%"]△
Derek Henderson – Mercy Mercer
Disciplines Monograph
Year 2010
Derek Henderson – Mercy Mercer
Disciplines Monograph
Year 2010
http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/fabio-ongarato-design/
This type has been composed across two pages, the negative space around the typography focuses the audiences attention on the type. Placing type like this would be a challenge as the type would be printed on different pages and have to line up.
[column width="48%" padding="3%"]△
Dale Frank – So Far The Art of Dale Frank 2005 –1980
Disciplines Book
Year 2008
http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/fabio-ongarato-design/
This page shows a nice balance of type and image.
These books use a card band to hold them shut, adding a new element to the front cover.
Modernist styled layout looks clean and minimal. Moreover, the spread also shows a choice of typefaces as they mix well on the page.
Josep Román Barri
Simple striking cover.
Simple striking cover.
This spread shows a good use of minimalist design. There is a nice visual balance between the two pages elements.
rosarioflorio
This book uses a clever method used to close the cover and hold it shut.
This book cover uses a limited use of colour and only a few visual elements to create a striking design.
Double page typographic spread, something I could consider for my publication.
The packaging for this book is made from tissue paper, due to its properties it is slightly opaque hides the detail of the cover. As the story of Xenu is a secret I want to experiment with creating some outer packaging for the book that hides the content.
Here the cover has been cut to cleverly show the illustration underneath. This hides the whole picture, making the audience interact with the product as they are inquisitive to see the complete illustration.
Handbound books have a certain quality that commercially produced books can never acheve. I want to handbound my book.
The cover for this publication is also relatively transparent, reflecting the theme of the book 'Emptiness' .
The book utilizes a cconcertina fold.
Card has been placed over the original front cover, leaving the spine exposed. This strengthens the cover resulting in better protection for the pages.
There is a strong minimalist theme running throughout the book, this is achieved through the limited, pale colour scheme and limited use of illustration and block text. I want to produce my book in a similar fashion.
This book uses an elasticated band to keep the publication closed.
Book Binding Research
I want to produce my publication by hand, therefore I stared researching into hand-binding books. I have experimented with making books by hand before, and own a book called 'Making handmade books' I will use this book to collect research on possible ways I could produce my publication.
This is a simple yet effective way of binding the publication, the stitching technique isn't too complicated making production easy. I will consider this technique when binding my publication.
Above is a more complicated method of binding. It utilizes a complicated production method as the stich used to bind the pages is more complex.
Packaging Research.
[column width="48%" padding="3%"]△
Kerry Phelan Design Office
Disciplines K.P.D.O. Identity
Year 2010
[column width="48%" padding="3%"]△
Hassell
Disciplines Branding
Year 2008
http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/fabio-ongarato-design/
James Kape | Work: James Kape Portfolio
http://designspiration.net/image/161609007998/
Askul Garbage bag
Cadbury Milk & White Chocolates
Peter & Wendy - Book Packaging
Beck - 8 bit
Moreover, I also collected research from a book called 'The Designer's Packaging bible'.
In this design the outer spine has been removed to reveal the inner hand bound spine. This is relevant to my book as I am also hand binding my publication. The inner spine could be revealed to represent the books function of revealing the secrets of Xenu.
I have chosen to feature this design because of the aesthetically engaging band.
This design is relevant to my translucent cover idea.
Another possibility I hadn't considered was inspired by the design shown above. I could extend the length of the cover, so that it folds all the way around the publication.
This design reminded me of the solar system. Starts and planets are directly relevant to my topic of space lord 'Xenu'. Therefore, I could adapt similar packaging to suit my publication.
Finally, I also looked at this design, it uses a hard outer cover which the book simply slides into. The cover provides protection as well as being visually engaging.
Logo Research
Moreover,
I want to produce a logo for my book to be used on the cover, amongst other
places. The logo needs to communicate a significant part of the Xeun story,
although the logo may not instantly communicate what the books contents are, it
will set the theme so the audience have some idea to the books context. Before I
started researching into existing logos I highlighted the important parts of
the story I wanted to portray with my logo.
- Alien/spaceship
- Earth/planet
- Volcano
Alien
Classic alien symbolism
This image shows a simple full body alien design. When creating variations of my own I want to focus on the head of the alien.
Classic alien head shape
Illustrated logo, showing an alien holding the earth. One common theme I have noticed is the eyes, when illustrated aliens are often portrayed with large eyes.
Spaceship
(add spaceship research)
Earth
(add spaceship research)
Volcano
Photograph taken of a live volcano.
Volcano road sign, a simplistic design similar to what I want to achieve.
Another road sign, this one has slightly more detail than the last.
Another example of volcano symbolism.
Super simplistic deisgn amost takes the design back to basic shapes.
This volcano looks slightly like a mountain due to the lack of smoke and lava, these are vital elements in communicating what the symbol represents.
More volcano symbolism.
I really like this design, it shows a volcano erupting in the sea. It looks like it has been lino cut and hand printed.
This design uses negative space to portray the volcano. The design is simple, effective and clever.
This is a more illustrative verison showing a volcano with human features. I want to produce something much simpler than, less of an illustration and more of a symbol.
Page Layouts
Additionally,
I want to produce the pages of my book in a visually engaging way that evokes
interest from the audience, this will keep the audience interested in the
information being presented. A restraint of the brief is that our information
must be presented in the form of inforgraphics, I will need to consider how I will
present these as I want each page to have a balance of negative space and
visual media. Below is research into page layouts, I have chosen work that
shows balance as well as experimental layouts, as I want my book to have similar features.
This design mixes typography with infographics. The page is well balanced with a good mixture of text and image.
http://pinterest.com/pin/72479875224160718/
http://pinterest.com/pin/118078821452056527/
http://pinterest.com/pin/482237072569282500/
http://pinterest.com/pin/189995678001315158/
This double page spread uses purely type to communicate information and data. I want to experiment with creating a page similar to this.
http://pinterest.com/pin/142215300703342067/
Infographics
Moreover,
a constraint of the brief states that we have to present our information and
data in the form of inforgraphics. Therefore, I collected a body of research
into different ways data can be visually presented.
Askul Garbage bag
Cadbury Milk & White Chocolates
Peter & Wendy - Book Packaging
Beck - 8 bit
Moreover, I also collected research from a book called 'The Designer's Packaging bible'.
In this design the outer spine has been removed to reveal the inner hand bound spine. This is relevant to my book as I am also hand binding my publication. The inner spine could be revealed to represent the books function of revealing the secrets of Xenu.
I have chosen to feature this design because of the aesthetically engaging band.
This design is relevant to my translucent cover idea.
Another possibility I hadn't considered was inspired by the design shown above. I could extend the length of the cover, so that it folds all the way around the publication.
This design reminded me of the solar system. Starts and planets are directly relevant to my topic of space lord 'Xenu'. Therefore, I could adapt similar packaging to suit my publication.
Finally, I also looked at this design, it uses a hard outer cover which the book simply slides into. The cover provides protection as well as being visually engaging.
Logo Research
Moreover,
I want to produce a logo for my book to be used on the cover, amongst other
places. The logo needs to communicate a significant part of the Xeun story,
although the logo may not instantly communicate what the books contents are, it
will set the theme so the audience have some idea to the books context. Before I
started researching into existing logos I highlighted the important parts of
the story I wanted to portray with my logo.
- Alien/spaceship
- Earth/planet
- Volcano
Classic alien symbolism
This image shows a simple full body alien design. When creating variations of my own I want to focus on the head of the alien.
Classic alien head shape
Illustrated logo, showing an alien holding the earth. One common theme I have noticed is the eyes, when illustrated aliens are often portrayed with large eyes.
(add spaceship research)
Earth
(add spaceship research)
Volcano
Photograph taken of a live volcano.
Volcano road sign, a simplistic design similar to what I want to achieve.
Another road sign, this one has slightly more detail than the last.
Another example of volcano symbolism.
Super simplistic deisgn amost takes the design back to basic shapes.
This volcano looks slightly like a mountain due to the lack of smoke and lava, these are vital elements in communicating what the symbol represents.
More volcano symbolism.
I really like this design, it shows a volcano erupting in the sea. It looks like it has been lino cut and hand printed.
This design uses negative space to portray the volcano. The design is simple, effective and clever.
This is a more illustrative verison showing a volcano with human features. I want to produce something much simpler than, less of an illustration and more of a symbol.
Page Layouts
Additionally,
I want to produce the pages of my book in a visually engaging way that evokes
interest from the audience, this will keep the audience interested in the
information being presented. A restraint of the brief is that our information
must be presented in the form of inforgraphics, I will need to consider how I will
present these as I want each page to have a balance of negative space and
visual media. Below is research into page layouts, I have chosen work that
shows balance as well as experimental layouts, as I want my book to have similar features.
This design mixes typography with infographics. The page is well balanced with a good mixture of text and image.
http://pinterest.com/pin/72479875224160718/
http://pinterest.com/pin/118078821452056527/
http://pinterest.com/pin/482237072569282500/
http://pinterest.com/pin/189995678001315158/
This double page spread uses purely type to communicate information and data. I want to experiment with creating a page similar to this.
http://pinterest.com/pin/142215300703342067/
http://pinterest.com/pin/118078821452056527/
http://pinterest.com/pin/482237072569282500/
http://pinterest.com/pin/189995678001315158/
This double page spread uses purely type to communicate information and data. I want to experiment with creating a page similar to this.
http://pinterest.com/pin/142215300703342067/
Infographics
Moreover,
a constraint of the brief states that we have to present our information and
data in the form of inforgraphics. Therefore, I collected a body of research
into different ways data can be visually presented.
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