the _alf blog

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Needed in the Philippines to Help in the Wake of Typhoon Durian

2006-12-06T17:32:00.000-08:00

Super Typhoon Durian, now over Vietnam

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are urgently needed to join the relief effort in the Philippines.

Volunteer Ministers from Taiwan, Japan and Australia are traveling to the Philippines to help the people of the region recover from the devastating typhoon that ravaged the area leaving as many as 1,000 presumed dead and 40,000 homeless; and Scientology churches from around the world are assembling teams to join them.

On Thursday the 30th of November, the Philippines was struck by the typhoon. Landslides and floods have caused most of the deaths and destruction resulting in the President of the Philippines declaring a state of national calamity.

The most urgent relief needed at this point is the providing of food and supplies, particularly for those left homeless or in shelters.

The International Volunteer Ministers Coordinator has put out a call for volunteers and donations to help in the disaster relief effort.

The Scientology Mission of Manila is the headquarters for the Volunteer Ministers relief effort. From there volunteers will be dispatched to the disaster areas — 11 provinces in all throughout the area southeast of Manila.

With the need to respond with as many personnel as possible, the Volunteer Ministers Coordinator has specified that anyone who wants to help will be given disaster relief training and is welcome to join the teams.

To learn how you can participate in the Scientology Disaster Relief effort or to donate funds to help with the airfare and support of these volunteers on the ground, contact the Volunteer Ministers Coordinator or your local Scientology church or mission.

Contact information:
vm@volunteerministers.org
800.435.7498(US &Canada)
323-960-1949 (International callers)

North Korea

2006-12-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

It's interesting to read the CIA fact book page on North Korea. It ends off by says that they agreed to disarm - ah well, I guess North Korean political leaders are much more trustworthy the political leaders of certain other countries...

The Lone Star State Hosts the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Cavalcade

2006-11-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Western US Cavalcade set up its big yellow tent at the Texas State Fair in Dallas.

Dallas not only has the largest state fair in the United States, rivaling Disneyland for the number of rides and variety of entertainment it offers, but for 24 days this year it also hosted the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Western US Cavalcade.

Little did the fun-loving Texans know when they arrived, that inside the big yellow tent were real solutions to help them feel as extroverted and full of life all year round as they felt at their favorite fair.

The nearly 10,000 people who toured learned about the effective solutions available from the technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

But that’s exactly what the nearly 10,000 people who toured the tent learned this October.

And that’s the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Cavalcade Texas style!

Scientology Resource Page

2006-11-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a Scientology resource page that some might find interesting.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour Providing Teachers in India with Effective Tools

2006-11-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

The world over, teachers enter their profession to help create the future of society by providing children with the tools they need to succeed in life. Perhaps no profession is in greater need of the technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

Teachers at a primary school in India attend a seminar in study technology, developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

In the course of researching how to educate people to effectively apply Scientology principles, Mr. Hubbard came face to face with the fact that there was no technology of study — obviously so with declining literacy in schools despite billions being poured into raising the quality of education.

Mr. Hubbard isolated key factors that prevent a person from being able to assimilate information and use it, a vital factor in education in a technological age.

And the study technology LRH developed to overcome this is part of the skills of a Volunteer Minister. In surveying the leaders of the countries they visit, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tours find this subject to be one service that nearly every city or town recognizes as important.

And so it was with this seminar given recently to teachers at a primary school in Delhi, India. When educators learn the simple tools covered in the chapter of TheScientology Handbook called "The Technology of Study" and the booklet by the same title which is now published in Hindi and Bengali, the recognition of the value of this is immediate.

Having isolated the most basic barriers to study, Mr. Hubbard provided simple tools any student can learn to then be able to learn any subject.

As covered in The Scientology Handbook:

"Consider this for a moment: In all your schooling, did anyone ever teach you how to study something?

"Today, people are graduating school unable to read or write at a level adequate to hold a job or deal with life. It is a huge problem. It is not that subjects cannot be learned; what isn't taught is how to learn. It is the missing step in all education.

"L. Ron Hubbard filled this gaping hole by supplying the first and only technology of how to study. He discovered the laws on which learning is based and developed workable methods for anyone to apply. He called this subject 'Study Technology.'

"This technology provides an understanding of the basics of learning and supplies exact ways to overcome all the pitfalls one can encounter during study."

Danish Scientologist Documents the Work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in a Book called After the Tsunami - Part III

2006-11-09T17:46:00.000-08:00

What motivates volunteers to travel thousands of miles during times of disaster, to live under the same desperate conditions as those they seek to help?

Jennifer Bird, a young woman from London traveled to India where she helped the victims of the 2004 tsunami.

The After the Tsunami web site sheds light on this, with its story about Jennifer Bird, a young woman who left her home in London to travel to post-tsunami India, where the December 2004 tsunami left over 10,000 dead, more than 5000 missing, and nearly 3 million personally affected by the disaster.

"Every day for the last month has been amazing!" Jennifer begins. "I still take a step back and look at what the team and I are actually doing and achieving here in India. We are helping hundreds of people daily with what L. Ron Hubbard developed and seeing the results instantly, how fantastic is that! Any other self-help technology or any technology for that matter usually takes 'time' and you only see the results after a long sluggish process.

"Then, of course, there are the results that we don't get to see when the person has gone home after receiving a Scientology Assist* that blew them away. They might then give their mother or sister an Assist which will then blow them away! I am completely dumbstruck and in awe of the effect we are creating here, it is almost so great that I find it hard to comprehend."

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, their disaster relief work and the training they offer, based on the Scientology Handbook, visit www.volunteerministers.org.

* Assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard. They operate on the principle that one tends to withdraw mentally or spiritually from an injured area. Only by restoring communication with this area can one bring the spiritual element into healing, thereby greatly speeding the healing process. Assists are used to alleviate stress and orient a confused or distraught individual to his environment.

Danish Scientologist Documents the Work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in a Book called After the Tsunami - Part II

2006-11-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

Through his travels to South East Asia to document the Scientology Disaster Relief Team in December 2004, Danish Scientologist Thorsten Overgaard created a record of a pivotal moment in the history of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program.

The tsunami relief effort was not only the largest mobilization of Scientology Volunteer Ministers to that date, it was also the most diverse. And it served as the inspiration for Volunteer Ministers from around the world from that point forward to join the relief efforts for such disasters as Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, the Pakistan Earthquake of 2005 and the Java earthquake in 2006.

Overgaard's web site features the story of Robbie Scandrett, a stage and television actor from London, whose desire to help brought him to India in the wake of the tsunami.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Robbie Scandrett

Scandrett, who spent 4 weeks in the disaster zone, describes an incident of helping an 11-year-old girl who was suffering from acute trauma. The young girl's mother asked for his help, explaining to him through the interpreter that her daughter had not slept since the tsunami, tormented by the sound of the giant waves that she could still hear, and terrified of the sea.

He describes how by giving the girl a Scientology assist,* he helped her come through the pain of the incident and leave the ordeal behind her.

"Suddenly she looked me dead in the eyes.I asked how she was doing. Her response was that she no longer felt any fear of the sea -- she felt stronger and had lost the pain in her back. She wandered off into the crowd that had gathered around us during the assist and I never saw her again. The moment was over in flash [but] will stick in my memory for decades to come. A truly beautiful moment in my life."

To watch a slide show of the events, order Overgaard's book or get a copy of his free ebook go to www.afterthetsunami.org

*Assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard. They operate on the principle that one tends to withdraw mentally or spiritually from an injured area. Only by restoring communication with this area can one bring the spiritual element into healing, thereby greatly speeding the healing process. Assists are used to alleviate stress, or to orient a confused or distraught individual to his present environment.

Danish Scientologist Documents the Work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in a Book called "After The Tsunami" - Part I

2006-11-06T17:05:00.000-08:00

'After The Tsunami,' by Danish Scientologist Thorsten Overgaard is not just a beautiful book, it is a journey - one made by hundreds of Scientologist from around the world to help the people of South East Asia recover from one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history

After The Tsunami, by Danish Scientologist Thorsten Overgaard is not just a beautiful book, it is a journey - one made by hundreds of Scientologists from around the world to help the people of South East Asia recover from one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

Featured on the web site, Overgaard's odyssey is described in the following terms:

"Danish photographer and feature writer, Thorsten Overgaard, traveled 12,000 miles throughout South East Asia after the tsunami, a virtual fly-on-the-wall, documenting the day-to-day lives of the Scientology Tsunami Relief Team Volunteers. After The Tsunami presents in detail a behind-the-scenes look at relief work when everyday western people - from a real estate agent from Germany to a student from Los Angeles - leave behind families, studies, careers and businesses to help strangers in crisis, whom they only know from media reports.

"It is a heartwarming story of the spiritual bonds between religions, ordinary western world people engaged in dangerous but important work that will change their lives forever, and daily miracles. It is a story in pictures that is in sharp contrast to the seemingly endless pictures of overwhelming devastation that played again and again on televised newscasts and on the front pages of the world for weeks and months.

Danish photographer and feature writer, Thorsten Overgaard, traveled 12,000 miles throughout South East Asia after the tsunami, a virtual fly-on-the-wall, documenting the day-to-day lives of the Scientology Tsunami Relief Team Volunteers

"It is a story that brings hope to the world and shows how ordinary people can make a difference - that something can be done about it."

The web site describes the devastation the volunteers confronted when they arrived in the area:

"When the tsunami crashed into the coast of Sri Lanka on the morning of December 26th [2004], over 30,000 people were killed and 1 million people became homeless in one stroke. Despite the unprecedented death and destruction along the coastal areas, a major portion of Sri Lanka's critical infrastructure remained intact, allowing government and rescue workers to head off further catastrophe from widespread starvation and disease."

Overgaard describes what motivated him to interrupt a thriving career and travel to the disaster zone, taking on this project.

"'The wrong thing to do is nothing.'

"That is a quote from L. Ron Hubbard that resonates as a profound truth for me and how I think and how I work.

"My two biggest regrets in this life were (and are) that I didn't drive to Berlin the night the Berlin Wall fell and that I didn't go to New York after September 11. In both cases I had a strong urge to go, but something in me said, "be sensible."

"We all carry an urge in us to reach out and do something as well as a voice urging us to be sensible and behave as if everything wrong is somebody else's problem.

"In the instance of the tsunami in South East Asia my urge to reach out and help conquered all my fears of strange diseases, pictures in my mind of dead bodies floating in a sea of chaos and a generally low knowledge about Asia and the people living there."

In the following days we will feature photographs and stories from Mr. Overgaard's book, available as an ebook, which can be ordered free of charge at eBook@afterthetsunami.org.

Resources:
- Volunteer Ministers Official Site
- http://www.afterthetsunami.org

Volunteer Ministers - They Bad Enough Fo' Me

2006-10-30T23:01:00.000-08:00

Just a quote post about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Check out this page: http://www.volunteerministers.org/aboutpgm/relief/index.html

Intense - these guys were on the ground at 9/11, amidst the wreckage with the fire fighters and other rescue workers - that's enough to gain my respect. But it also looks like they have also been at all kinds of other sites, such as hurricane Katrina, and the London subway bombings.

Dianetics in Kazakhstan

2006-10-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Pretty wild, they got Dianetics out in the middle of Kazakhstan. They're all over the place.

http://www.scientologytoday.org/press/610241421181_scn-local.html

2006-10-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

Just noticed today that there is a new www.volunteerministers.org site. Looks cool.

Some of the photos are phenomenal; of shots after 9/11, the Tsnami, an others, where the Scientology Volunteer Ministers helped with the rescue efforts.

After the Tsunami

2006-10-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

Just heard about an excellent site that promotes a documentary that was done of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in South East Asia in the wake of the tsunami, pushing forward the disaster relief effort.

From it's promotional blurbage:

"Danish photographer and feature writer Thorsten Overgaard traveled 12,000 miles throughout South East Asia after the tsunami, a virtual fly-on-the-wall, documenting the day-to-day lives of the Scientology Tsunami Relief Team Volunteers. "After The Tsunami" presents in detail a behind-the-scenes look at relief work when everyday western people - from the a real estate agent from Germany to a student from Los Angeles - leave behind families, studies, careers and businesses to help strangers in crisis, whom they only know from media reports.

"It is a heartwarming story of the spiritual bonds between religions, ordinary western world people engaged in dangerous but important work that will change their lives forever and daily miracles. It is a story in pictures that is in a sharp contrast to the seemingly endless pictures of overwhelming devastation that played again and again on televised newscasts and on the front pages of the world for weeks and months.

"It is a story that brings hope to the world and shows how ordinary people can make a difference - that something can be done about it."

Check it out: www.afterthetsunami.org

2006-10-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Looks like they just did a big number on the Church of Scientology in London:

http://www.scientologytoday.org/press/610222259261_scn-int.html
http://www.scientology-london.org/

Guinness World Records Awarded to L. Ron Hubbard

2006-10-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

An interesting tidbit on ScientologyToday.org:

Guinness World Records recently acknowledged L. Ron Hubbard as the world's most published author with 1084 works - exceeding the record held by Brazilian author Jose Carlos Ryoki with 1,058.

Guinness also officially verified that Hubbard exceeded his own previous record as the world's most translated author when his works were published in six more languages raising the record from 65 to 71.

2006-10-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, here we go again (today's headline news on cnn.com):

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The United States believes North Korea attempted to detonate a nuclear device and that "something went wrong," a U.S. government official told CNN Tuesday.

The official confirmed North Korea informed the Chinese government prior to the test that it would be a 4 kiloton nuclear device.

The official added that the unexpectedly small blast, of a half kiloton or less, indicated "something went wrong."

Nuclear tests in 1998 by India and Pakistan were about 24 to 50 times as powerful - or in the 15 kiloton range, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

The United States still cannot say for sure the underground detonation was a nuclear blast; the working assumption is that it was, but not very successful, the official said. (Dud or deception? Read the full story)

Another U.S. official said it is possible North Korea may attempt a second test, but cautioned there has been no evidence of any preparations at another test site.

"I would not say we expect it," the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly, "but it would not be a total surprise."

Russia's Defense Minister said Tuesday that his agency has estimated the power of the explosion at between 5 and 15 kilotons.

But the U.S. intelligence community is sticking by an estimate that the blast was approximately a half kiloton, or even less, although it's possible the hardened tunnel in which the test took place could have "muffled" the seismic waves, an official told CNN.

Article on Mars Probe

2006-10-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is an internet article on Mars and the probe that is crawling the surface.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1543944,00.html

Youth for Human Rights PSAs

2006-10-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) recent produced 30 different public service announcements which visually describe, each one, a point of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Interestingly enough, most people have never heard of the document (I think there was a survey that was done that showed had it at less than 2 or 3 %). With a 1948 date on it, it (like the UN itself) was created in the wake of WWII, and clearly defines those human rights with which we are all endowed - regardless of race, color, creed or any other factor.

The whole concept of the PSAs seems like a good one, since most people don't have the time or interest to sit down and read such a document - but watching a 30 second ad that makes the people communicates it much more effectively.

Maybe this will help wake people up to the human rights violations that occur around the world each day. Afterall, historically speaking the thing that prevents tyranny and injustice from occurring is enough people who understand the problems involved banding together and making enough ruckus to stop it.

2006-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

I was checking out the news on the ScientologyToday.org web site that they added in a new section (or I never noticed it before) which lists out different Scientology organizations.

It mentions on these pages that there will be news comming. Interesting - I know there is a lot of good news happening with Scientology around the world, so it would be good to be able to see more of it on the web.

This site in general is pretty cool, because it gives the down-to-earth view of what Scientology does around the worl.d What with so much happening in the news regarding Scientology, with all the press coverage of high profile Scientologists like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and the leader of the Church, David Miscavige, one can lose sight of what it's average parishioners are doing. This site seems to give a pretty good snapshot, with news on a regular basis.

2006-09-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

Over the past several years, the Church of Scientology has gotten pretty serious about it's Volunteer Minister activities.

I think this is a pretty cool program, and aside from being a heart-felt effort to help people survive better and make it through desparate times, it also looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

These guys go all over the place. Fiji, Taiwan, Hawaii, every major city in the U.S. you can think of - they're all over.

Best of luck to them.

Interview with a Scientologist: Tom Cruise has attained a level in Scientology known as "Operating Thetan". What does that mean?

2006-09-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: Tom Cruise has attained a level in Scientology known as "Operating Thetan". What does that mean?

Scientologist: Operating Thetan is a spiritual state of being above Clear. Thetan refers to the spiritual being, and operating means here “able to operate without dependency on things.” An Operating Thetan (OT) is able to control matter, energy, space and time rather than being controlled by these things. As a result, an OT is able to be at cause over life.

Basic levels of Scientology help a person deal with his personal relationships and day-to-day problems, to free his attention to address higher aspects of existence. At the level of Operating Thetan, one deals with his own immortality as a spiritual being.

Like any other spiritual level in Scientology, the state of OT is attained by proceeding through a series of gradient steps, each one slightly more advanced than the last. The precise sequence is firmly established and variations from that sequence are unproductive. Thus, it would be fruitless to try to move somebody onto the OT levels before he is ready for them. One may as well demand that a baby run before first learning to crawl and learning to walk. Similarly, in Scientology individuals can only receive the benefits of the counseling that brings one to OT after completion of more basic steps.

At the level of OT, Scientologists study the very advanced materials of L. Ron Hubbard’s researches. According to those who have achieved OT, the spiritual benefits obtained are beyond words.

Interview with a Scientologist: I've heard Scientology called a "secret society" - is that true?

2006-09-04T00:16:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: I've heard Scientology called a "secret society" - is that true?

Scientologist: Well, let's see, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million members, thousands of organizations all over the world, and a bunch of tables setup down near Times Square in New York where they give stress tests all day long, telling people about Dianetics and how it can help them, opening discussing their experiences and how lives can be improved - I'd have to say that it is definitely not a "secret society". In fact, the church is really more "unsecret" than it has ever been. And I can assure, secrecy has never been an objective of the Church, never will be.

Interviewer: Okay, good point.

Scientologist: The Church even published a 1,000-page book entitled What is Scientology?, an encyclopedic reference book that explains everything one might want to know about the Church. Another reference work, primarily for scholars, is Scientology: Theology and Practice of a Contemporary Religion. The Church also holds open house events and tours regularly, and many of our churches open their facilities free of charge for use by community and civic groups.

There is nothing mysterious about Scientology or its members and practices. The Church’s leaders are in close touch with the membership and they hold events throughout the year which are attended by tens of thousands.

Scientologists are actively involved in their communities, visible and effective.

The Church has found that those who allege the Church is secret are almost always those who never bothered to try and communicate or find out anything, in which case they would have discovered Scientologists to actually be more outgoing with information than adherents of other faiths.

Interview with a Scientologist: What about black people, does the church have back members?

2006-09-04T00:10:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: What about black people, does the church have back members?

Scientologist: Definitely. By the Creed of the Church, “All men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights.” Thus, there are no limitations placed on who may participate in Scientology services.

There are Scientologists of all races, colors and ethnic backgrounds among the Church’s parishioners and staff.

For example, there are Scientology churches or Dianetics organizations in Ghana, Zaire, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, among other countries and black Scientologists are applying Scientology technology in their communities wherever possible.

L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology is used in many countries to help students and teachers alike. In South Africa, these programs have helped over two million underprivileged black Africans to improve their ability to study, well before their fate became a popular cause and the walls of apartheid came down.

Many churches of Scientology maintain a Department of Ethnic Affairs specifically to interact and work with minorities. One example of this is a literacy project in Compton, California, which with the Church’s effort, successfully turned drug abusers and gang members into responsible members of the community. The program has won endorsements from both community leaders and educators.

Interview with a Scientologist: Okay, and Criminon?

2006-09-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: Okay, and Criminon?

Scientologist: Criminon, meaning “no crime,” is a volunteer criminal rehabilitation program which utilizes technologies developed by L. Ron Hubbard to help convicts recover pride and self-esteem.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Criminon grew out of the Narconon prison programs. By the 1980s, with increased drug usage in all sectors of society, the Narconon program shifted its emphasis to community-based activities. At that point, Criminon expanded into correctional facilities.

Criminon provides inmates with the knowledge and skills to change their lives and become productive members of society.

Interviewer: How big is this program? How many people are on it?

Scientologist: Criminon operates in over 750 prisons, assisting some 4,000 inmates weekly, with remarkable results.

A southern California municipal judge alone has sentenced more than five hundred misdemeanor offenders to Criminon instead of jail. In his words, “The efficacy of Criminon has surpassed even our most optimistic expectations.”

Among those who have completed the Criminon program, compliance to conditions of probation—including restitution, fine payment and community service—approximates 90 percent. Recidivism dropped to 1 percent, remarkable when compared to the 80 percent recidivism rate which plagues the general prison population.

Interview with a Scientologist: What is Narconon? Isn't that part of the Church's anti-drug push?

2006-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: What is Narconon? Isn't that part of the Church's anti-drug push?

Scientologist: Narconon is a highly effective drug-free withdrawal, detoxification and rehabilitation program which utilizes techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard to give drug and alcohol abusers back control of their lives. Meaning “non-narcosis” or “no drugs,” Narconon started as a grassroots movement in the mid-1960s when a prisoner in the Arizona State Penitentiary solved his own drug problem using the principles expounded in one of L. Ron Hubbard’s books. He then used what he learned to help solve drug-related problems of many of his fellow inmates.

Narconon conducts broad public education campaigns to alert the general public, especially school children, to the dangers of drug use and abuse.

Courts refer individuals guilty of drug-related offenses to Narconon instead of jailing them.

Interviewer: So Narconon must be pretty workable then?

Scientologist: Absolutely. One medical doctor who has served as consultant on drug abuse to many sports organizations including the National Football League and now administers a system of 30 neighborhood medical and substance abuse clinics, wrote of Narconon, “Perhaps only a physician like myself can truly appreciate Narconon’s willingness to treat the hardcore addict. Narconon takes people no one else will. If you come to my clinics and I couldn’t help you I don’t have anywhere else to send you except Narconon.”

The Narconon drug rehabilitation program operates 50 centers in 21 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand. Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States.

More than a quarter-million drug-free lives have been achieved through L. Ron Hubbard’s technology. In addition, an estimated one million people worldwide have availed themselves of Narconon’s drug education services, including more than 115,000 school children in 1997 alone.

Interview with a Scientologist: What's this I hear about Scientology and reincarnation, or "past lives"?

2006-09-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Interviewer: What's this I hear about Scientology and reincarnation, or "past lives"?

Scientologist: Reincarnation is a definite system that is not part of Scientology.

But, it is a fact, proven conclusively in countless thousands of cases, that unless one begins to handle aberrations built up in past lives, he doesn’t progress.

The common definition of reincarnation has been altered from its original meaning. The word has come to mean “to be born again in different life forms” whereas its actual definition is “to be born again into the flesh of another body.” Scientology ascribes to this latter, original definition of reincarnation. That is to say, yes, one has lived many previous lives, and will live again.

Today in Scientology, many people have certainty that they have lived lives prior to their current one. These are referred to as past lives, not reincarnation. Past lives is not a dogma in Scientology, but generally Scientologists, during their auditing, experience a past life and then know for themselves that they have lived before. Afterall, there is really no better conviction than you recalling something from your own memory.

Interviewer: So you're saying that Scientologists, in the course of their auditing, are able to recall experiences from before this life.

Scientologist: It definitely does happen. That's not to say that all auditing deals with is past lives - not by far. But, as I'm sure you can understand, if you spend a good amount of time recalling things as part of Scientology auditing, using exact procedures that were developed and tested and proven time and time again - if there were such a thing as past lives, and they could be remembered, sooner or later you'd run into it. Well, that's exactly what happens.

Also, to believe one had a physical or other existence prior to the identity of the current body is not a new concept. There are many religions that believe this. Moreover, it's actually quite an exciting concept.

In Scientology, one is given the tools to handle the upsets and aberrations from past lives that adversely affect one in present time, thus freeing one to live a much happier life.