Archive-name: scientology/users/welcome
Last-modified: 1995/2/7 Version: 1.7 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- W e l c o m e ! ...to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup. This article (posted every week) is one of several that will be posted periodically. The list of other periodically posted articles includes: A Scientology Catechism (Parts 1, 2 and 3) [Every two weeks] The Codes and Creeds of Scientology [Every two weeks] Scientology Users FAQ [Every two weeks] List of Books and Tapes on Scientology [Every two weeks] International List of Scientology Organizations (Parts 1, 2, and 3) [Every three weeks] In addition to these periodically posted articles, there is an FTP site which contains a great deal of information on Scientology, Dianetics, and L. Ron Hubbard. It is located at FTP.PCNET.COM in the directory: /users/brianw (If you are new to the Internet and are not familiar with how to FTP, see the instructions for FTPing at the end of this file.) The files available via anonymous FTP at the FTP.PCNET.COM site include: /00INDEX Descriptions of the following files. /WELCOME A "Welcome to the FTP Site" message. /cchr/ Citizens Commission on Human Rights files. /dianetics/medical-opinion Medical Opinions of Dianetics. /lrh/lrh-faq Biography of L. Ron Hubbard. /lrh_essays/ Essays on life by L. Ron Hubbard. /misc/ Miscellaneous files related to Scientology, including Scientology's responses to critics. /purif/ Scientific studies of Purification Rundown. /scientology/books-tapes-faq Books/Tapes on Scientology (same as above). /scientology/catechism A Scientology Catechism (same as above). /scientology/codes-faq Scientology Codes and Creeds (same as above). /scientology/orgs List of Scientology Orgs. (same as above). /scientology/scn-helps-quake "Volunteer Minister's Corps" newsletter; 1/94. /scientology/users-faq Scientology Users FAQ (same as above). /successes/ Successes from Scientologists. /wis/ The "What is Scientology?" book. (Most chaps.) /wise/wise-bbs World Inst. of Scientology Enterprises BBS There currently is no charter for the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, and it is unmoderated. An Internet mailing list (e-mail discussion group) for Scientologists has been established. For more information and/or to subscribe, send a message to: STUS@PSSI.COM ------- But what exactly is Scientology? What is its philosophy? What are its aims? The above files will begin to answer these questions for you, but below, I've included two essays -- "My Philosophy" and "The Aims of Scientology" -- writ- ten in 1965 by the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. (Note: Grateful ackowledgement is made to the L. Ron Hubbard Library for permission to re- produce selections from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Philosophy by L. Ron Hubbard [1965] The subject of philosophy is very ancient. The word means: "The love, study or pursuit of wisdom, or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical." All we know of science or of religion comes from philosophy. It lies behind and above all other knowledge we have or use. For long regarded as a subject reserved for halls of learning and the intellectual, the subject, to a remarkable degree, has been denied the man in the street. Surrounded by protective coatings of impenetrable scholarliness, philosophy has been reserved to the privileged few. The first principle of my own philosophy is that wisdom is meant for anyone who wishes to reach for it. It is the servant of the commoner and king alike and should never be regarded with awe. Selfish scholars seldom forgive anyone who seeks to break down the walls of mystery and let the people in. Will Durant, the modern American philosopher, was relegated to the scrap heap by his fellow scholars when he wrote a popular book on the subject, _The Outline of Philosophy_. Thus brickbats come the way of any who seek to bring wisdom to the people over the objections of the "inner circle." The second principle of my own philosophy is that it must be capable of being applied. Learning locked in mildewed books is of little use to anyone therefore of no value unless it can be used. The third principle is that any philosophic knowledge is only valuable if it is true or if it works. These three principles are so strange to the field of philosophy, that I have given my philosophy a name: Scientology. This means only "knowing how to know." A philosophy can only be a *route* to knowledge. It cannot be crammed down one's throat. If one has a route, he can then find what is true for him. And that is Scientology. Know thyself...and the truth shall set you free. Therefore, in Scientology, we are not concerned with individual actions or differences. We are only concerned with how to show man how he can set himself free. This, of course, is not very popular with those who depend upon the slavery of others for their living or power. But it happens to be the only way I have found that really improves an individual's life. Suppression and oppression are the basic causes of depression. If you relieve those a person can lift his head, become well, become happy with life. And though it may be unpopular with the slave master, it is very popular with the people. Common man likes to be happy and well. He likes to be able to understand things, and he knows that his route to freedom lies through knowledge. Therefore, for 15 years I have had mankind knocking on my door. It has not mattered where I have lived or how remote, since I first published a book on the subject my life has no longer been my own. I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself of the shadows which darken his days. These shadows look so thick to him and weigh him down so that when he finds they *are* shadows and that he can see through them, walk through them and be again in the sun, he is enormously delighted. And I am afraid I am just as delighted as he is. I have seen much human misery. As a very young man I wandered through Asia and saw the agony and misery of overpopulated and underdeveloped lands. I have seen people uncaring and stepping over dying men in the streets. I have seen children less than rags and bones. And amongst this poverty and degradation I found holy places where wisdom was great, but where it was carefully hidden and given out only as superstition. Later, in Western universities, I saw man obsessed with materiality and with all his cunning; I saw him hide what little wisdom he really had in forbidding halls and make it inaccessible to the common and less favored man. I have been through a terrible war and saw its terror and pain uneased by a single word of decency and humanity. I have led no cloistered life and hold in contempt the wise man who has not *lived* and the scholar who will not share. There have been many wiser men than I, but few have travelled as much road. I have seen life from the top down and the bottom up. I know how it looks both ways. And I know there *is* wisdom and that there is hope. Blinded with injured optic nerves, and lame with physical injuries to hip and back at the end of World War II, I faced an almost nonexistent future. My service record states: "This officer has no neurotic or psychotic tendencies of any kind whatsoever," but it also states "permanently disabled physically." And so there came a further blow...I was abandoned by family and friends as a supposedly hopeless cripple and a probable burden upon them for the rest of my days. I yet worked my way back to fitness and strength in less than two years, using only what I knew and could determine about man and his relationship to the universe. I had no one to help me; what I had to know I had to find out. And it's quite a trick studying when you cannot see. I became used to being told it was all impossible, that there was no way, no hope. Yet I came to see again and walk again, and I built an entirely new life. It is a happy life, a busy one and I hope a useful one. My only moments of sadness are those which come when bigoted men tell others all is bad and there is no route anywhere, no hope anywhere, nothing but sadness and sameness and desolation, and that every effort to help others is false. I know it is not true. So my own philosophy is that one should share what wisdom he has, one should help others to help themselves, and one should keep going despite heavy weather for there is always a calm ahead. One should also ignore catcalls from the selfish intellectual who cries: "Don't expose the mystery. Keep it all for ourselves. The people cannot understand." But as I have never seen wisdom do any good kept to oneself, and as I like to see others happy, and as I find the vast majority of the people can and *do* understand, I will keep on writing and working and teaching so long as I exist. For I know no man who has any monopoly upon the wisdom of this universe. It belongs to those who *can* use it to help themselves and others. If things were a little better known and understood, we would all lead happier lives. And there is a way to know them and there is a way to freedom. The old must give way to the new, falsehood must become exposed by truth, and truth, though fought, always in the end prevails. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Aims of Scientology by L. Ron Hubbard [1965] A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology. First announced to an enturbulated world fifteen years ago, these aims are well within the grasp of our technology. Nonpolitical in nature, Scientology welcomes any individual of any creed, race or nation. We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher states of being for the individual and for society. We are achieving our aims. After endless millennia of ignorance about himself, his mind and the universe, a breakthrough has been made for man. Other efforts man has made have been surpassed. The combined truths of fifty thousand years of thinking men, distilled and amplified by new discoveries about man, have made for this success. We welcome you to Scientology. We only expect of you your help in achieving our aims and helping others. We expect you to be helped. Scientology is the most vital movement on Earth today. In a turbulent world, the job is not easy. But then, if it were, we would not have to be doing it. We respect man and believe he is worthy of help. We respect you and believe you, too, can help. Scientology does not owe its help. We have done nothing to cause us to propitiate. Had we done so, we would not now be bright enough to do what we are doing. Man suspects all offers of help. He has often been betrayed, his confidence shattered. Too frequently he has given his trust and been betrayed. We may err, for we build a world with broken straws. But we will never betray your faith in us so long as you are one of us. The sun never sets on Scientology. And may a new day dawn for you, for those you love and for man. Our aims are simple, if great. And we will succeed, and are succeeding at each new revolution of the Earth. Your help is acceptable to us. Our help is yours. ----------------------------< End of Essays >--------------------------------- ------------------------------< How to FTP >--------------------------------- FTP is a method of transferring files from one place on the Internet, to another place. The usual use of FTP is called "anonymous FTP" in which one site holds software, documents, programs, etc. and people at other sites on the Internet login as "anonymous" to copy those files to their own account. Following are the steps that you can use to FTP to the FTP.PCNET.COM site, and download the files listed above to your account: 1. At your system prompt, type: FTP FTP.PCNET.COM (If you are working from a menu, choose the FTP choice, and enter FTP.PCNET.COM when it asks for the FTP address. If you are not sure if you have access to FTP, ask your system administrator.) 2. At the FTP.PCNET.COM> prompt, type: login anonymous 3. At the Password: prompt, type in your e-mail address. (It will not show up on the screen.) 4. You should then get the message: <Guest login ok, access restrictions apply followed by the FTP.PCNET.COM> prompt again. Type: cd /users/brianw 5. This will put you into our directory. You can type: dir to get a listing of files and directories. Lines that begin with "d" are director- ies, and lines that begin with the dash ("-"), are files. 6. To download a file, type: get filename1 filename2 (where 'filename1' is the name of the file you are downloading, and 'filename2' is name you'd like the file called in your account.) For example, the command: "get 00INDEX index.txt" would download the "00INDEX" file into your account and call it "index.txt". [Note: For 'filename1', be sure to use the same case letters as appear in the directory in step 5.] 7. To change into a directory, you can type: cd dirname (where 'dirname' is the name of the directory you are changing into). Once into the new directory, follow steps 5 and 6 again to get a listing of and to download files. 8. To back out of a directory, use: cd .. 9. To exit from FTP, type: quit NOTE: All of the files in the /pub/users/brianw directory are ASCII, and are not compressed. They can be read by any standard word processor or text editor. ----------------------------------< End >------------------------------------ For more information, send e-mail to : scninfo@pcnet.com ============================================================================== "Dianetics," "Hubbard," and "Scientology," are trademarks and service marks owned by the Religious Technology Center and are used with its permission. "Scientologist" is a collective membership mark designating members of the affiliated churches and missions of Scientology. ============================================================================== User Contributions:Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic:
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— L. Ron Hubbard