“IT IS HUBBARD, AFTER ALL, WHOSE WORDS MISCAVIGE will heed as he tries to improve Scientology's standing in Clearwater and around the world. Ten of them are inscribed on his boardroom wall: 'Ideas and not battles mark the forward progress of mankind.'”
With these words, S.P. Times reporter Tom Tobin closed his October 25, 1998, profile of David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center, the Church body responsible for safeguarding the purity of the Scientology religion.
Scientology volunteers work with Benin humanitarian group to improve the quality of care for orphans in the City of Djougou
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour, which travels throughout western Africa offering seminars, courses and one-on-one help for people throughout the region, has provided training to orphanage administrators in the city of Djougou, teaching effective solutions to the challenges they face in improving the quality of care in their facilities.
An estimated 340,000 Benin youth are orphans, with no anticipated decrease in the short term. In the first half of this decade the number of AIDS orphans—children who have lost either one or both parents to AIDS—in Benin more than doubled, from an estimated 23,000 in the year 2000 to some 62,000 in 2005, and the prediction is that this will only continue to escalate. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Agency for International Development have predicted that by the end of the decade, 20 million children in Africa will lose one or both parents to AIDS.
To effectively address issues related to parentless children, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers partnered with a non-profit group responsible for 28 orphanages in the City of Djougou. The Volunteer Ministers delivered “The Raising of Children” seminar for orphanage administrators, presenting procedures and practices, developed by humanitarian and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, that can be applied to improve the quality of care of children in these institutions.
The orphan care initiative is just one in Benin, an emerging nation whose Gross Domestic Product ranks 159 of 177 nations. The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour offers seminars and workshops free of charge to any non-profit group or government agency on increasing efficiency, improving communication skills and organizing to increase production.
Scientology volunteers also trained nurses at a local clinic to use Scientology Assists, techniques that provide relief and speed recovery from emotional or physical trauma. They also gave a drug education seminar to a local youth group and a workshop to a women’s association on how to resolve conflicts and save marriages.
In addition to seminars in community locations, the volunteer ministers provided small-group training and one-on-one counseling at their big yellow tent, where visitors could select from 19 courses ranging from “Assists for Illnesses and Injuries” to “Tools for the Workplace.” These free courses are also available online at the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.
Restoring L. Ron Hubbard Lectures
In the 1950s, L. Ron Hubbard delivered hundreds of lectures to Dianeticists and Scientologists, each expanding on some aspect of the corresponding book. Although recorded, many of these lectures had never been broadly available due to lack of reproduction facilities in the Church's formative years. An earlier project had scoured the cities where the lectures were delivered—Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Wichita, London, Melbourne, Johannesburg—and rounded up all known original recordings. But mass reproduction was still hindered by the poor quality of many of the originals or by their deterioration over the years. Factually, despite various restoration attempts through the years, many of the lectures had never been heard since the day they were delivered.
By the turn of the 21st century, however, computer and digital technology had advanced dramatically, and the painstaking work was begun anew—this time with result. But even then, to achieve the quality befitting the content, the Church continually pushed boundaries of existing audio technology and thereby established the world's most sophisticated sound restoration studios. Tens of thousands of hours later, the project had successfully restored hundreds of hours of previously missing, distorted or inaudible recordings. The net result was the recovery of an enormous body of Scientology Scripture for today and forever.
This monumental undertaking in research, verification, editorial and audio was directed at every step by Mr. Miscavige. From this came the most dramatic achievement in the Church's history: recovery of the very foundations of the Scientology religion. Eighteen books by L. Ron Hubbard, perfect in every detail; the corresponding lecture series for each book, 280 lectures in all, produced inhouse on CD; each lecture series including verified transcripts and supplemental references; and each book and lecture series containing a massive glossary, defining words as Mr. Hubbard used them to ensure understanding by any listener. And to cap it all, every book and lecture was reproduced and released in the world's 15 major languages.
And that is why this is truly a Golden Age of Knowledge for every Scientologist.
As Mr. Miscavige summed it up: "And just in case you missed it—we are not speaking of 'corrected' manuscripts. Not 'newly verified' manuscripts. And definitely not just 'repackaged.' What we are speaking of is 100 percent unadulterated SOURCE."
To know that they are receiving the actual material from the source of the Scientology religion, L. Ron Hubbard, is the primary goal of every Scientologist. And Mr. Miscavige made it possible.
The Basics Create Demand for Dianetics and Scientology
The release of the basic books and lectures means that every Scientologist can now study the foundation of the Scientology religion easily, rapidly and in chronological sequence, thereby gaining an unprecedented understanding of the religion and its application to life. Tens of thousands of Scientologists have done just that.
As but one measure of its impact, in the 50 years prior to the release of The Basics, a total of 39 million copies of L. Ron Hubbard's written and spoken works on Dianetics and Scientology were in circulation. Since release—that is, in the last two years alone—more than 60 million L. Ron Hubbard books and lectures are in the hands of readers.
With all of those materials available in 15 languages, and the most basic of them in 50 languages, the total number of Dianetics and Scientology translations over the last decade is 10 times the previous five decades. In recognition of just that, the Guinness Book of Records has acknowledged L. Ron Hubbard as the world's most translated author.
But, of course, the real significance of the basic Dianetics and Scientology materials can only be measured in terms of people's lives. Whether to better one's ability to get along with others, mend a broken marriage, acquire artistic skill or improve job performance through increased competence—not to mention the attainment of total spiritual freedom—the books and lectures of Scientology contain principles that millions have applied to achieve their goals.
Since release of the Dianetics and Scientology Basic Books and Lectures in 2007, Scientologists have flooded into their churches in greater numbers than ever. Demand for the materials has grown exponentially and, as parishioners have progressed through those books and lectures, the numbers of new people coming in to find out about Scientology have likewise grown. Indeed, the Scientology religion is now enjoying its greatest expansion era in history, with public demand for L. Ron Hubbard books and lectures escalating across more than 200 nations, 150 cultures and in some 50 languages.
Meeting that demand required facilities to provide books and lectures in any language, any quantity, with adequate speed and economy—no matter if 500 copies of a title in Swahili for Uganda or 1 million in English. No conventional printing house would serve—not with a 2,500-lecture library times 50 languages. Time frames could never be met and printing costs for a relatively small number of books for new pioneer areas would prove entirely prohibitive.
A new publishing strategy was needed and, under the direction of Mr. Miscavige, that strategy was developed and put in place in early 2007—even prior to release of The Basics.
Mr. Miscavige directed that all books and lecture CDs be produced inhouse, the entire line from inception to distribution: printing, foiling, embossing, laminating, CD replication, packaging and shipping. Housed in massive new headquarters, the Church’s publishing arms are now the world’s largest all-digital, print-on-demand facilities. Their precision operation is visited regularly by industry leaders as a model of innovation and efficiency.
Bridge Publications manufactures all Dianetics and Scientology books, lectures and course packs for the Americas, Asia and the rest of the world, except Europe and the United Kingdom which are under the purview of New Era Publications in Copenhagen, Denmark. In combination, Bridge and New Era can print 500,000 books and 925,000 compact discs a week. Annually, that amounts to 26 million books and 48 million CDs.
Add in paperbacks and course packs, and the printed pages placed end to end would extend to the moon and back.
With digital printing and print-on-demand, production has soared and keeps pace with the demand. Eighty million L. Ron Hubbard books and lectures have been distributed in the past five years alone, more than in the previous 50 years—and 60 million in just the past two years.
Moreover, with all Mr. Hubbard’s religious works now available to anyone the world over, what has ensued is no less than a renaissance for the Scientology religion.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers, Nick and Erin, traveled to Kolkata, India in an effort to make a difference.
Every year, 26 million children reach school age in India. With this, the problem of education in a severely overcrowded school system becomes even more unmanageable. Despite increased school enrollment, some estimate that as many as 50% of India’s children do not attend school. That’s more than 150 million kids.
Time to bring out the Volunteer Ministers! As Church of Scientology leader, David Miscavige, described the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program: “The final word, as regards our front-line work bringing our help wherever and whenever needed is our corps of Scientology Volunteer Ministers — on call, 24 hours a day in scores of nations.”
“Slumdog Millionaire opened our eyes to the horrible conditions in India. We decided to go there and volunteer in the slums and we funded it ourselves,” said Erin.
“We thought if we could bring help there to some of the children who had no formal education and no real hope in life, at least that would be doing something about it,” said Nick.
While in India, Nick and Erin documented their work in the slums to communicate an accurate view of living conditions in India. “We wanted to let people back home know what it’s REALLY like living here, and through raising awareness get more help to the people here, especially the children,” reflected Nick.
These two young Scientology Volunteer Ministers helped teach English and mathematics to the slum children. They used study technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard to helping the kids improve their learning.
“Mr. Hubbard discovered that the first barrier to study is not having the real thing there that you are studying about. The real things or the object that you study are called mass,” said Erin “So, for example, we made sure the kids had things they could actually count with, 5 little wooden blocks lets say that represented the number 5, so they didn’t have to do it all in their heads. They liked that!”
“Conditions here are the worst of the worst,” they wrote to their friends. “It’s been just a continual amazement to both of us that there have been such magical moments, and bright smiling faces in amongst everything else. With all that’s going on in the world it can be very easy to get wrapped up in one’s own problems,” they continued. “The truth is that there are so many people in need of help and with far worse conditions than most can possible imagine. We decided to turn our efforts toward others for a few months and make a difference.”
For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org or the Scientology Video Channel.
