Xenu

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In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (pronounced "ZEE-noo") or Xemu is the name of an evil Galactic ruler, the antagonist in events said to have taken place 75,000,000 years ago.

OT III ("Operating Thetan Level Three"), an upper-level Scientology course, describes the "Wall of Fire", also known as "Incident II", which is set 75 million years ago and centers on Xenu bringing billions of Galactic citizens to Earth, killing them and effectively imprisoning their immortal souls. Their souls, or Thetans, remained on Earth and clumped together in clusters, which are stuck to the bodies of all living humans (as Body Thetans). Scientology doctrine states they are the source of many of mankind's problems and that a person can be freed from their influence by auditing. (See Scientology beliefs and practices.)

OT III is part of Scientology's secret teachings to advanced members, and the Church of Scientology avoids making mention of it in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain its confidentiality, including legal action. However, much information has leaked to the public about Xenu-related teachings.

L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, also expanded the Xenu story into a film script, Revolt in the Stars.

Versions of the tale

Hubbard wrote OT III in late 1966 and early 1967 in North Africa. He was on his way to Las Palmas to join the Enchanter, the first Sea Org vessel. (Miller, ch. 16, p. 266) In a letter of the time to his wife, he said that he was drinking a great deal of rum and taking stimulants and depressants ("I'm drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys") to assist his research. (Corydon, pp58-59, 332-333.) His assistant at the time, Virginia Downsborough, said that he "was existing almost totally on a diet of drugs." (Atack, part 4, ch. 1)

The volcano on the cover of Dianetics refers to the volcanoes mentioned in the Xenu story.

OT III was alluded to in Ron's Journal 67 (a tape Hubbard recorded on 20 September, 1967 to be sent to all members of the Church). Hubbard claimed to be "the first one that ever did live through any attempt" to map a precise route through "the Wall of Fire." It is expanded upon in the confidential Class VIII "Assists" lecture (3 October, 1968).

Hubbard also wrote a film script, Revolt in the Stars, which is an extended version of the story of OT III, and states Xenu's full name to be Xenu Etrawl. It has not been officially published, although the treatment was put around Hollywood in the early 1980s. Copies have leaked, and Scientology critic Grady Ward has published a summary. [1]

Roland Rashleigh-Berry, an ex-Scientologist, wrote a "Xenu leaflet" that summarizes the story of OT III. The leaflet includes part of the first page of OT III in Hubbard's handwriting, mentioning Xenu.

Hubbard is reported to have ordered that Scientology books be reissued with covers based on images from OT III [2]. The volcanoes in the tale of Xenu are conjectured to explain the volcano on the cover of current editions of Dianetics.

"Xenu" or "Xemu"

The only known example of Xenu's name in Hubbard's handwriting, from the OT III manuscript.

The name has been spelled both as Xenu and Xemu. The OT III documents are handwritten by Hubbard, but his indistinct handwriting makes either interpretation possible, particularly as the use of the name on the first page of OT III is the only known example of the name in Hubbard's handwriting. In the "Assists" lecture Hubbard speaks of "Xenu, ahhh, could be spelled X-E-M-U" and clearly says "Xemu" several times on the recording (Touretzky). Revolt In The Stars uses Xenu exclusively. Touretzky says that "ex-Scientologists I've personally spoken with say 'Xenu' is the more commonly used form."

Secrecy and exposure of OT III

Although the official policy of the Church of Scientology is to keep the story of Xenu secret, details of the Xenu writings have been revealed to the general public over the years. OT III first emerged in a court case brought against the Church by Lawrence A. Wollersheim and was synopsised in the Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1985.

OT levels I-VII were later brought as exhibits attached to a declaration by Steven Fishman on 9 April, 1993 as part of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz. The text of this declaration and its exhibits were released onto the Internet in August 1995 and are known collectively as the Fishman Affidavit, which was a subject of great controversy and legal battles for several years.

The Church's attempts to maintain confidentiality concerning Xenu are tremendously controversial, particularly given its high price (the 1997 members' price for OT III alone was US$19,500 [3]). Internet critics of Scientology commonly use the tale of Xenu to criticise and mock the Church. They claim the Xenu story as evidence that Scientology is a scam and a confidence trick. Operation Clambake, the most popular critical Web site concerning Scientology, uses the Internet domain name xenu.net.

In its public statements, the Church of Scientology has been notably reluctant to admit the existence of writings on Xenu. In the relatively few instances in which it has acknowledged them, the Church has stated that the origin story of Xenu is a religious writing that can be seen as the equivalent of the Old Testament, in which miraculous events are described that are unlikely to have occurred in real life, and that it assumes true meaning only after years of study. They complain of critics using it to paint the religion as a science fiction fantasy. (Observer, Sun 16 May 2004)

Summary of the tale of Xenu

Note: Scientologist confidential doctrine follows. The OT III materials contain the warning that going through ("running") the Wall of Fire without proper preparation and supervision is likely to cause death by pneumonia or other means.

Some 75 million years ago, Xenu was the ruler of all planets in this part of the galaxy, including Earth, which was then known as Teegeeack. The 76 planets he controlled were overpopulated, each having on average 178 billion people.

The tyrant Xenu devised a plot to eliminate the excess population from his dominions. With the assistance of "renegades", he defeated the populace and the "Loyal Officers", a force for good that was opposed to Xenu. Then, with the assistance of psychiatrists, he summoned billions of people to paralyse them with injections of alcohol and glycol, under the pretense that they were being called for "income tax inspections." The kidnapped populace was loaded into space planes for transport to the site of extermination, Teegeeack (Earth). Hubbard's notes add the detail that the planes resembled DC-8s, "except the DC8 had fans, propellers on it and the space plane didn't." (Assists)

When the planes had reached Teegeeack, the paralysed people were stacked around the bases of volcanoes across the planet. Hydrogen bombs were lowered into the volcanoes, and all were detonated simultaneously. Only a few survived.

Then, using "electronic beams", Xenu trapped the hundreds of billions of souls of those who perished. The captured souls were taken to a form of cinema, where they were forced for 36 days to watch a disturbing sequence of 3D motion pictures, which included God, the Devil and Christ and all world religions, in a process called implanting. "His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. was placed in the implants." (OT III manuscript)

In addition to implanting new beliefs in the souls, the films had the effect of loosening their sense of identity. When the souls left the cinema, they started to cluster together in groups of a few thousand, having lost the ability to differentiate between each other. Each cluster of souls gathered into one of the few remaining bodies that survived the explosion. These became what are known as Body Thetans.

The Loyal Officers finally overthrew Xenu and locked him away in a mountain in the Pyrenees. Xenu was imprisoned by a force-field powered by an eternal battery, and is still alive today.

The story of Xenu is called Incident II. OT III also mentions Incident I, an earlier incident from four quadrillion years ago, which is claimed to be the implant offering the gateway to this universe. The unsuspecting Thetan was subjected to a loud snapping noise followed by a flood of luminescence, then saw a chariot followed by a trumpeting cherub. After a loud set of snaps, the Thetan was overwhelmed by darkness.

References

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