Ramblings from one who lives here. It's not necessarily about Florida.
Monday, April 09, 2012
CORE SCIENTOLOGY SCRIPTURE RELEASED IN CHINESE FOR THE FIRST TIME
The Church of Scientology announced the milestone completion and release of the Chinese translation of core Scientology Scripture. The accomplishment marks the first time all of the fundamental works of Founder L. Ron Hubbard, comprising 18 books and 284 recorded lectures, have been accessible to the world’s Chinese speaking population. The announcement was made by Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, to more than 6,500 Scientologists attending the annual celebration of Mr. Hubbard’s birthday in Clearwater, Florida.
The Chinese translation of these religious materials is part of ongoing preparations for the opening of the first major Church of Scientology in Taiwan, scheduled for fall 2012. The 109,000-square-foot Church, currently under final construction, stands in Kaohsiung and will serve as Asian headquarters for the religion. The new Church is necessitated by the meteoric growth of Scientology in Taiwan. The first Scientology Mission opened in Taichung in 1989. Today there are 17 Missions across the country: in the central region, including Taichung, Chang-Hua and Feng-Yuan; in the northern cities of Da-An, Dong-Chi, Taipei and Tao-Yuan; and to the south in Yung-Kang, Ping-Tung and Kaohsiung.
The Church of Scientology’s translation program, served by more than 1,000 translators across 50 nations, represents the Church’s continuing commitment to bring the entire body of L. Ron Hubbard’s works to all. To date, this massive undertaking has included the restoration and release of more than 2,000 recorded lectures on compact disc and better than 1,000 articles accompanying those lectures—and all in addition to Mr. Hubbard’s seminal Dianetics and Scientology books. In combination, these works present the day-to-day record of Mr. Hubbard’s path of discovery and development, from his initial breakthroughs on the mind to the codification and rehabilitation of the human spirit. The release of this body of materials, in January 2010, represented the conclusion of a 25-year program to recover, restore and preserve the complete Scripture of the religion. The program was initiated by Mr. Hubbard in 1984 and was guided to completion by Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center.
The Chinese translation brings the number of languages core Scientology Scripture are now available to 17: English, Danish, Dutch, German, Greek, Castilian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish. Additionally, Mr. Hubbard’s beginning books on Dianetics and Scientology are now published in 50 languages.
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The Scientology religion was founded by author and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has today expanded to more than 10,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 167 countries.
For more information on Founder L. Ron Hubbard, visit LRonHubbard.org
The celebration marking Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s hundredth birthday (March 13, 1911) began Saturday evening, March 12, with a momentous Centennial Event including a two-hour biographical presentation of the Founder’s life. It was attended by more than 6,000 in Clearwater, Florida.
The following day, Sunday, March 13, thousands of Scientologists next gathered for a Grand Opening ceremony to dedicate the Church of Scientology of Tampa in its new home, the landmark Ybor Square. The new Tampa Church was made necessary by a fourfold growth in Tampa’s Scientology congregation over the past decade.
Wade Henry—Juggler Extraordinaire Delights and Uplifts the Crowd
Scientologist Wade Henry’s jovial nature and love of people inspired his unique career. His profile is one of 200 "Meet a Scientologist" videos on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.
Wade Henry may look like an ordinary guy, but appearances can be deceiving. True, he’s up early for a quick bite to eat and off to work like the rest of us. But "work" is juggling chain saws or eating fire while riding a 12-foot unicycle.
In his "Meet a Scientologist" video at www.Scientology.org, Henry demonstrates some of the tools of his trade.
Fresh out of college with a business degree in 1995, Henry, now 38, decided to tour the world before settling down. He certainly toured, but chances are he’ll never settle down.
Halfway around the planet from his native Toronto when he ran out of money in Sydney, Australia, he created an act he could perform on the streets for tips. But natural entertainer that he is, he enjoyed the "work" so much, he has made it his lifelong career.
It was also in Sydney that Henry found Scientology, picking up and reading a copy of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
"I had questions about our spiritual nature," says Henry. "Reading books by L. Ron Hubbard, it was clear he not only had answers but also a practical technology that works."
Returning home to Toronto, Henry continued with his Scientology studies. At the Church of Scientology of Toronto, he met and married wife Helen, a single mother of five, and instantly became the patriarch of a large and happy family that has grown to include a son-in-law and two grandchildren.
Now living in Clearwater, Florida, the couple manage his business, The Wade Henry Show. They have used administrative technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard to evolve it from street entertainment to a thriving career with Henry performing nearly 600 shows a year, mostly at festivals and fairs with the occasional corporate event.
"As a performer, Scientology has helped me communicate and develop rapport with my audiences," Henry says.
It has also helped him concentrate.
"I cannot be juggling a chain saw in front of hundreds of people and have my mind wandering into problems that I have back at home or things that happened last week," he says. "I need to be in the here and now and Scientology has helped me do that."
Henry loves entertaining, and the best part of it is the people.
"What I like about being a performing artist is going into communities and uplifting people," Henry says. "I get them away from the television sets and extricated from the virtual world and I deliver shows that bring them up and make them feel more alive."
And being alive is what it’s all about.
"Being a Scientologist is an adventure," says Henry, "and I'm an adventurer. So I love being a Scientologist."
The popular "Meet a Scientologist" profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.
A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.
JOHN TRAVOLTA OPENSCHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY MISSION IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN OCALA, FLORIDA
On Sunday, May 29, Scientologists, friends and neighbors filled 1stAvenue, joining actor and Ocala resident John Travolta and Ocala Mayor Randy Ewers at the dedication and grand opening ceremonies of the Church of Scientology Mission of Ocala, Florida.>>
Meet a Scientologist: What is the Value of a Single Life?
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA • January 25, 2011
Melissa Wattman lives a life of miracles—those she experienced herself and those she creates in the lives of others. Her profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.
Melissa Wattman was not expected to see her ninth birthday. Diagnosed with leukemia, she regained the will to live through Scientology, and recovered.
Having experienced such a miracle herself, it is not surprising that when Melissa turned 16 she decided to become a Scientology auditor. An auditor is a Scientology spiritual counselor, from Latin audire, “to hear or listen.”
“When I looked at how much help I’d received and how much it bettered my life, I wanted to give back,” says Wattman. “People suffer. They experience the death of someone they love, or someone betrays them or they fail. Without Dianetics and Scientology auditing these personal tragedies continue to affect them the rest of their lives and if the pain is less acute, it is only because they have become numb. As a Scientology auditor I can restore joy and happiness to their lives.”
In becoming a Scientology auditor in 1992, Wattman, 34, followed in the tradition of her mother Abby who established and directs a counseling group in Clearwater, Florida. Over the past 19 years, Melissa has helped more than 100 people with the auditing skills she has learned.
“I have salvaged marriages and helped people overcome drug addiction. And as a Scientology auditor, I know that whether I help them right away or it takes a little while, it always works,” she says.
One woman came to Wattman devastated. Her brother had been kidnapped and murdered by terrorists, and the woman only learned of it when she saw it on TV news.
“After just a half-hour session, she was calm, looked years younger, and experienced enormous relief. Nothing can bring her brother back,” says Wattman, “but the trauma and shock are gone. She can cherish his memory without suffering, and has been able to move on.”
“Auditing others gets you in tune with people,” she says. “When you make one person happy it causes a ripple effect—that person reaches out to help others. I see auditing as a personal expression of a love of mankind.”
Church premises increased from 5.6 million square feet in 2004 to over 11.5 million by the end of the decade, with one million square feet of renovations completed in 2009 and over a quarter of a million square feet now under construction in Tel Aviv, Twin Cities, Melbourne and Sydney.
Mr. David Miscavige is the driving force of a movement now spanning the globe with Ideal Churches of Scientology. He set the direction for the acquisition, design and planning of new Churches and in consequence, the horizons of Scientology are filled with scores of new Churches in the making for the second decade of the century.
"While the history of Scientology has seen many attempts to make all of L. Ron Hubbard’s works available in as many languages as possible, complete success has always been elusive. Whether limitations of sound restoration technology to salvage 50-year-old tapes of Mr. Hubbard’s lectures or actual missing originals, the hurdles were significant. Thus it was that Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center (RTC), dedicatedly pursued a program he had originally initiated under Mr. Hubbard’s direction, and so finally brought about the salvation of the Scripture of the Scientology religion."
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.— ScientologyFounder, L. Ron Hubbard
Tampa, Florida: World's First Ideal Church of Scientology
Tampa Scientologists and guests celebrated a watershed achievement in Scientology history when they dedicated the new Church of Scientology of Tampa on March 29, 2003. On that day, Tampa became the world’s first Ideal Church of Scientology, ushering in a new breed of Church capable of providing services to both parishioners and the community at large at at an unprecedented level.
Carrying out strategic planning directed by Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center, Mr. David Miscavige, Tampa Bay Scientologists joined forces to create this ideal Church of Scientology and attain the goal set years earlier by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. Staff and parishioners accomplished the target less than one year after the building was acquired and so made the historic Andres Diaz Building in West Tampa their new home.
Three times the size of the previous Church, the four-story structure comprises numerous spiritual counseling rooms, two course rooms seating 200 students and a Chapel for Sunday services and other Scientology ceremonies.
Flag (the Flag Service Organization) is a religious retreat located in Clearwater, Florida. It serves as the spiritual headquarters and Mecca for Scientologists planetwide. Flag is the largest Church of Scientology in the world. Flag represents the hub of the greater Scientology worldwide community as a dynamic, multilingual organization. Flag not only ministers the most advanced levels of training available anywhere, but all advanced levels of auditing up to New OT VII.
The title “Flag” follows from the fact that from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, the highest ecclesiastical organizations were located at sea aboard a flotilla of ships. The 330-foot motor vessel Apollo served as Mr. Hubbard’s home. Accordingly, it was then the most senior Scientology Church. It was known as the “Flagship” of the flotilla and called “Flag” for short.
At that time, special advanced auditing and training services were ministered only aboard Flag. However, as more and more Scientologists wished to participate in these services, the lack of sufficient space required a move to land. In 1975, the Flag Service Organization established itself in Clearwater, Florida, where it occupied the historic twelve-story city landmark Fort Harrison Hotel. Since then, Flag has continued to expand. Today it also occupies the Sandcastle which ministers advanced auditing, the Coachman Building which serves as a training center for thousands of Scientologists and many other supporting facilities.
Given Flag’s growing international congregation, the last several years has seen continual construction to provide still more facilities for its parishioners. On January 1, 2008, the fully renovated 172,000-square-foot Oak Cove opened, providing both accommodations for visiting Scientologists and space for ministering Flag religious services.
On March 14, 2009, the ribbon was cut on the eleven-month, million-man-hour restoration of the 267,000-square-foot Fort Harrison. Providing accommodations and restaurants for Scientologists while receiving religious services, the historic property is also open to the public for charity events, tours and open houses.
Immediately following the Fort Harrison rededication, the final construction phase began on the 377,000-square-foot Flag Mecca building. When completed, the 22 separate course rooms will seat 1,800 parishioners, while the 300 Church counseling rooms will service 1,200 more every day.
Since its founding, Flag has expanded to more than 40 buildings totaling more than 2 million square feet, servicing an average of 2,700 Scientologists a week in all major languages.
Flag is also a hub of Scientology within its own community, sponsoring a variety of outreach activities to help those in need. Visiting Scientology artists and performers regularly hold public exhibitions and concerts to which local residents are always invited.
Flag is the spiritual Mecca of the Scientology religion. Although it concentrates on ministering the most advanced spiritual levels of Scientology, its services span the entirety of the Bridge. Every Scientologist aspires to come to Flag. And sooner or later, everyone does.
If you’ve ever felt there was something holding you back in life, ruining your plans and stopping you from being who you want to be, you were right.
The fact is, there is a single source of all your problems, stress, unhappiness and self-doubt. It’s called the reactive mind - the hidden part of your mind that stores all painful experiences, then uses them against you.
With Dianetics you will learn the exact procedures to eradicate the source of your unreasonable fears, stress and insecurity.
It’s time to get rid of your reactive mind—and with Dianetics you can.
At the two-day Hubbard Dianetics Seminar:
You’ll meet people like yourself—those who are ready to tackle what is holding them back in life—and learn how to apply the techniques of Dianetics.
With lots of demonstrations and a film detailing every aspect of Dianetics theory and procedure, you’ll know exactly how it’s done.
You’ll have the assistance of trained Dianetics specialists every step of the way.
Find out how easy it is to locate and handle the source of your stress, anxiety and worry—and get rid of it.
If you are from Clearwater or spend any time there you know the One-Stop Shop downtown. You can buy ANYTHING there (well, nearly) and the guy who runs it is famous for his sense of humor and being a really cool guy.
Well, if you were wondering where he disappeared to earlier this year, this story should clear that up for you!
Paris Morfopoulos (far left) with other Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti
Clearwater, Florida—Paris Morfopoulos, best known to Downtown Clearwater visitors as the calm but cheerful owner of the One Stoppe Shoppe, just returned from a tour of duty as a Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti.
A Volunteer Minister is defined by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard as “…a person who on a strictly volunteer basis helps out his fellow man by providing simple, basic counseling to people he meets to assist them in overcoming difficulties they may be having in life.” Volunteer Ministers are trained in basic Scientology techniques through the Scientology Handbook.
This is Paris’ second trip to the earthquake-damaged country. “I can tell you that there is a lot of enthusiasm and activity in helping to rebuild the shattered country and lives of the Haitian people,” he said. “The physical infrastructure is still in shambles and the rubble seems to be largely still where it was when I was last there in February. But many, many people are pitching in and the work is going forward.”
Paris was impressed most with the spirit of the Haitian people, who despite living in makeshift tents—some as rudimentary as a bed sheet held up by four poles—greeted him and his fellow volunteers with a friendly smile.
“We were welcomed everywhere and even spent over an hour with one of Haiti’s most prominent lawyers. He was very grateful for our assistance since the earthquake. He told us ‘After the quake, there was no hope left in Haiti. But then the Volunteer Ministers came and there was hope!’”
In the last few months since the earthquake, many thousands of people have been trained in basic Scientology techniques so they can assist their fellow Haitians. Over 300,000 people have been helped through the Volunteer Minister program in Haiti.
“We still have Russian Volunteer Ministers actively helping at the General Hospital every day,” said Paris, who also met Volunteer Ministers from Hungary, Mexico and France.
While in Haiti, Paris also visited the Future of Haiti Orphanage, which is providing a safe environment, a stable home and a good education to 150 children who would otherwise still be roaming the streets of Port-au-Prince after their previous orphanages collapsed in the quake.
“I visited with Michela Schneider, the director of the orphanage, and the children,” said Paris. “I was very touched by their friendliness and affection. I brought a backpack full of gifts for one child, a beautiful ten-year-old girl with the very appropriate name ‘Lovely’. It made her very, very happy and she wrote a very touching letter that I brought back with me to give to her sponsor, Ericka Miranda.”
Paris encourages people to find out more about the orphanage at their website, www.thefutureofhaiti.org
As a closing note, Paris wanted readers to know that though Haiti has disappeared from the evening news, there is still much to be done in that country.
“If you would like to help, either financially or by going there and giving these people a hand, contact the Volunteer Ministers at vm@volunteerministers.org and let them know. They will help you get there. It is tough and there is much that is unpleasant to confront, but it is truly rewarding and you will fall in love with the people of Haiti.
St. Petersburg, FL—More than 1,200 Tampa Bay residents of all ages walked quarter-mile laps around Straub Park in St. Petersburg Saturday, March 6, to raise human rights awareness. Ms. Linda Drazkowski, Founder and President of the Human Rights Group Inc., Scientologist, mother of two and Clearwater resident, created the Human Rights Walkathon four years ago, and has chaired it every year since. The fourth annual Human Rights Walkathon, produced by the Human Rights Group in partnership with Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope, featured performances by hip hop artist MC Lyte, recording artist David Pomeranz, and the Dundu Dole Urban Ballet. Speakers included Mrs. Anna Rodriguez, founder of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking; Mr. James Evans, founder of the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope; Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, founder of the World Literacy Crusade; and Dustin McGahee, president of Youth for Human Rights Florida.
The day before the walkathon, an article in the Fort Meyers, Florida, News-Press pointed out the vital role education plays in protecting human rights. A 15-year-old Guatemalan girl living less than 150 miles south of St. Petersburg, in Immokalee, might still be enslaved and forced into sex, pornography and field labor today had it not been for the alertness of a Florida woman who suspected she was the victim of human trafficking and reported it to authorities.
Some 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. “People who know and understand human rights will not only stand up for their own rights but also for the rights of others,” said Drazkowski.
To raise awareness of this and other crucial human rights issues, the Human Rights Group uses educational booklets, DVDs and an educators’ guide created by Youth For Human Rights International in collaboration with the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International.
For more information on these programs and materials, visit United for Human Rights at www.humanrights.com.
The story about the Golden Age of Knowledge came from AP in Clearwater!
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- More than 1,000 unreleased recordings of lectures by L. Ron Hubbard and reams of corresponding writings have been unveiled in the culmination of a 25-year project to locate, restore and transcribe lost pieces of the Scientology founder's work.
Though sure to be derided by the church's many critics, its followers say the materials amount to an opportunity to deepen understanding of the religion and to release the last known unpublished Hubbard works dealing with Scientology and Dianetics.
"It would be like discovering that Buddha, unbeknownst to anybody, had sat down and wrote down the entirety of his discoveries and it could be verified that he wrote it," said Tommy Davis, the church's top spokesman.
The new materials were announced in a New Year's celebration at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles that was broadcast to churches around the world last week and include 1,020 lectures and hundreds of corresponding booklets from courses and other sessions with Scientology ministers from 1953 to 1961. They include discussions of how Hubbard arrived at the principles of Dianetics and his research on everything from decision-making to personal responsibility.
They were recovered through a painstaking hunt that led members to find tapes and papers in a basement in Wichita, Kan., a storage trailer in Phoenix, and a garage in Oakland, Calif., among other places. Some of the materials were believed to have been lost.
"We've been able to restore lectures we literally never thought would be heard again," Davis said.>>
The release marks the third and final batch of Hubbard works to be distributed as part of the decades-long project initiated by Hubbard himself but carried out after his 1986 death by the church's current leader, David Miscavige. Releases in 2005 and 2007 included updated versions of 18 basic Scientology books to correct transcriptional errors, as well as hundreds of other lectures given by Hubbard.
The Bigotry Behind the St. Petersburg Times' Facade of Responsible Journalism
In recent years, the S.P. Times has worked hard to present a more honest and credible image to the public, attempting to shed its reputation for biased reporting. The newspaper’s recent “special” report exposed the facade: At its core, the S.P. Times has not changed. It is an organization that twists the news to incite hatred against Scientologists and stops at nothing to paint a false picture of the Scientology religion and the Church.
Recounting its long record of bigotry toward the Church of Scientology, its members, staff and leaders is unnecessary. That is something with which most Tampa Bay residents are all too familiar, including thousands of non-Scientologists appalled at the Times’ attempts to unfairly stigmatize Scientologists who are their friends.
But if the Times has not changed, the articles in this magazine detailing Scientology’s explosive expansion in both Clearwater and around the world show how Scientology has continued to grow. As the Church has gained greater local prominence, thousands of Scientologists have contributed to improving their community through charities and civic groups.
Scientologists work alongside friends and neighbors on civic and cultural boards, in sports and arts societies and in numerous social partnerships. The newly restored Fort Harrison regularly hosts functions for other charitable organizations; public are welcomed for tours and Church staff work hard to invite questions and provide an open response. Juxtaposed with the day-to-day reality of friends, neighbors and workmates who are Scientologists, the hysteria of the Times’ stereotypes has become self-evident.
A full and objective review of the recent allegations the Times presented to the Church from four ex-Scientologists evidences both the lack of credibility and sinister motives of these sources—people who will say anything to attack their former faith.
The same false allegations have been posted on the “grassy knoll” of the Internet by avowed Scientologist-haters for years.
Even though first-person accounts from dozens of eyewitnesses demolished the fabrications presented by the Times’ sources, reporters Joe Childs and Tom Tobin refused to hear from those eyewitnesses.
The Church provided an unprecedented amount of documented evidence and detailed accounts proving the sources had lied.
The Church also provided detailed evidence regarding the motives of these four apostates to lie about the religion and its leader: delusionary ideas of “taking over” the Church, resentment over their removal from posts and money.
In the most offensive gesture of all, the S.P. Times refused to accept an offer of an in-person interview with Mr. David Miscavige, the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.
The interview would have been his first in 11 years and only the third in his 25-year career as the Church’s leader. Despite purporting to seek this interview, to which Mr. Miscavige had immediately agreed, the newspaper abandoned its facade of objectivity, cancelled the interview and rushed to print. The Times reporters and their bosses knew the scheduled interview with Mr. Miscavige was absolutely essential under fundamental journalistic standards and ethics. When they turned their backs on that interview, the reporters made a conscious decision to turn their backs on the truth. After all, they knew a response would further annihilate the credibility of their sources, rendering their false story fatal.
The Church offered the reporters full and unfettered access to the Church and all facilities. Tobin and Childs refused to accept the offer. The Times decided this information “wasn’t relevant” to their story, that somehow an interview with the Church’s ecclesiastical leader was unnecessary even for a three-part series on the man.
So, in response to the Times exhibition of unprovoked malice and shredding of the truth, Freedom presents the real story of both the Church … and the so-called journalism practiced by the S.P. Times.
David Miscavige presents: Freewinds Maiden Voyage 2008!
20 years! The cruise ship Freewinds went service 20 years ago as a special Church of Scientology organization. To celebrate this occasion four celebration events have been held on board. The celebrations presented by the Church's ecclesiastical leader David Miscavige are being shown all around the world throughout July and August 2008.
