...Zeus or Xenu? Does the evil trapped within these meat-prisons come from the auras of ancient Thetans or the ashes of ancient Titans? Depends on who you ask....
Director Paul Haggis is the latest celebrity Scientologist to come out and renounce the church, which always gets me to thinkin' how much Mysto-Gnosto-sci-fi there is in Hubbard's theology. This is particulary striking in the Church's secret original sin theology, that only 'super clears' or 'Level 9s' or whomever once heard.
First, the Thetans and Xenu, the ancient astronautic overlord:
Insanely-awesome sculpture
Now the ancient myth that found its way into the pagan Gnostic sects, which don't get as much press as the Christian ones do:
Xenu was supposed to have gathered up all the overpopulation in this sector of the galaxy, brought them to Earth and then exterminated them using hydrogen bombs.
The souls of these murdered people are then supposed to infest the body of everyone. They are called "body thetans". On the advanced levels of Scientology a person "audits out" these body thetans telepathically by getting them to re-experience their being exterminated by hydrogen bombs.
So people on these levels assume all their bad thoughts and faulty memories are due to these body thetans infesting every part of their body and influencing them mentally.
Insanely-awesome sculpture 'The Rites of Dionysus' from The Eden Project
A variant from of Greek mythology given in Orphic theology, known from Neoplatonist sources, told an alternative version of the Titan myth, which also involves the separation of body parts but suggests a dual nature for human beings. In this variant, it is said that the young god Dionysos was dismembered, cooked, and eaten by the Titans, acts for which Zeus subsequently punished them by destroying them with a thunderbolt.
Human beings were then created out of the ashes of the Titans; this suggests that, as part of our identity as humans, we have not only a tendency towards violent criminal acts, from the Titans, but also something good, from the parts of Dionysos they had consumed before their own destruction. Dionysos himself was reborn from the one remaining part of his body, the heart, which the goddess Athena preserved.
...which in turned influenced the creation of original sin doctrine. Plus ça change, kids, plus c'est la même chose.The Orphic literature influenced many Bacchic mystery groups in antiquity; initiates seem to have regarded the body as a ‘prison’, and believed that they must liberate the divine ‘Dionysiac’ part of humanity from the evil ‘Titanic’ part.- Answers.com
I once thought the L-Rons would eventually take over Hollywood, but now I have my doubts. What it reminds me of than anything else is Christian Science, which too once had a big celebrity following. Whether or not there will still be movie stars as we understand them is an open question, and I don't see the L-Rons bagging any big game other than Hancock lately.
SYNC LOG UPDATE: Wow, this is timely.
YAHOOCCULT UPDATE: So is this.