Scientology and Legends of Dune
Posted: 17 Feb 2008 21:51
Dunecon 2007 Panel White Paper Part 1 of 5
The Philosophical and Spiritual Foundations of the New Canon of Dune
Spice Planet-Dune-Arrackis-Rakis-Arruckus
There is no question that Herbert did for science fiction what Tolkien did for fantasy. He was a giant of science fiction. His Dune series of books set numerous sales records and helped bring the genre out of the realm of space opera[1] and into the hallowed halls of literature.
Though fans believed they had bid a sad farewell to the sand planet of Arrakis upon Herbert's death in 1986, Kevin J. Anderson has assumed writing the Nebula and Hugo award-winning series with the help of Herbert's son Brian.
Publishers Weekly, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, "The kind of intricate plotting and philosophical musings that would make the elder Herbert proud,"
Publishers Weekly, Dune: The Machine Crusade, "Dune fans will enjoy the sweeping philosophical power that surfaces, invoking the senior Herbert's remarkable vision."
The purpose of this paper is to examine the philosophical foundations of the Legends of Dune written by Kevin J Anderson.
Due to the lack of time and space, we don't intend to delve into the elaborate plotting of the new books, nor explore the direct influence of such diverse works as Star Wars, Terminator, Battlestar Galatica, and even the Transformers, which has recently been made into a cinematic production.
Rather, we want to go to the heart of the theme of these new books and shed light on the one source that in the darkness of space binds them all.
Scientology...
You may recall that Kevin J Anderson is famous for setting the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Single Author Signing." What he usually avoids mentioning is that the book signing was for a book co-authored with none other than L Ron Hubbard titled Ai! Pedrito . The original story, according to the foreword, is based on Hubbard's involvement in U.S. intelligence operations, particularly in Latin America, and was expanded into a novel by Kevin J Anderson.
One reviewer wrote, "as you'd expect from both Hubbard and Anderson, the pacing is brisk and the action plentiful." By the way, the full title of the book is Ai! Pedrito, When Inteligence Goes Bad. The success of the book signing and the initial rapid rise on the best-sellers list is said to be due to the mobilization of church members, cited as a common tactic whenever a book under Hubbard's name is published.
Something else you may also recall is that Kevin J Anderson often makes references to the Writers of the Future science fiction contest every year. Again, what he avoids mentioning is that the complete title of the event is the L Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest, established by L Ron Hubbard in 1983 and still funded and run by the Church of Scientology. In fact, listed as the author with L Ron Hubbard on Volume IX of L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future is again none other than Kevin J Schwartz Anderson. The third author listed on the same book is Octavia Butler as in "Octavia Butler" of Legends of Dune. Quark of fate? Quentin as in "Quentin Butler" is also the name of L Ron Hubbard's son...
Part 2 of 5
You may also be surprised to learn the extent Scientology is linked with science fiction.
The founder L Ron Hubbard originally was a pulp science fiction writer, and in fact, his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was first publicised through John W. Campell's Astounding Science Fiction, the same editor and magazine that serialized the original Dune book. Even now Scientology magazines are often illustrated with pictures of spaceships and exploding stars, and some scientology books published during the 1960's and 1970's depicted science fiction scenes on their dustjackets.
The basic belief of Scientology is that a human being is actually an immortal spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is presently trapped on planet Earth in a "meat body". The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives antedating the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. L Ron Hubbard used the science fiction term space opera to describe these incidents which are seen as nonfiction in the beliefs of Scientology and considered scripture. Otherwords, modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is actually an unconscious recollection of real past lives that can be uncovered in detail through Scientology auditing.
.
A brief sampling of the more than thousands of such collected stories or incidents through Scientology auditing does reveal a disturbingly common theme, that members lived past lives in robot bodies.
"A past life as a robot working in a factory in space, a planet blew up and the robot was blamed."
"A member went to another planet on a space ship, where he was deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl.
(Erasmus "...reverting from his guise as a kindly old woman to the more familiar appearance of a robot," SOD, page 19).
"A member in the body of a robot was frozen in an ice cube and trapped on a planet."
(Erasmus served as a synchronized robot under Omnius before he fell into an ice crevice where he was trapped for twenty years and had only the ability to think, BUT, page 314).
Other frequent elements found in collected incidents include bodies floating in green or blue fluid in cylinderical tanks.
However, the most widely know and documented incident resulting from auditing sessions was the story of the Overlord Xenu, sometimes also referred to as Xemu the Titan, who pursued the galactic genocide of billions of his subjects by detonating thermonuclear bombs on Earth after being deposed from power with the help of his renegades. This incident which dramatizes Scientology's advance level of teachings was made into a screenplay by L Ron Hubbard and later expanded into a novel titled Revolt in the Stars.
"Xenu strikes and knocks her sprawling into the corner. Xenu calls Doctor Stug to "robotize her," and "Depersonalize her with neurosurgery...she might be even more fun."
Starting to sound familiar?
Another core belief of Scientology regarding thetans or spiritual beings is they have the potential for "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time," the ability to operate free of the encumberances of the material universe. In fact, initiates are encourage to believe their mental powers were unlimited ultimately discarding their "meat" or "physical body" taking an evolutionary step towards a new species or superman.
(Norma Cenva, "...to Norma, the human body was no more than an organic receptacle...she began to recreate her body, creating matter out of nothingness...anything, absolutely anything, seemed possible to her now...the embryonic superbeing Norma Cenva took control...")
The discarding of the "meat body" was a phrase aft repeated by the titans and cymeks as well in the Legends of Dune.
Another famous novel by L Ron Hubbard made into a movie with the help of John Travolta is Battlefield Earth, which was initially titled Man, The Endangered Species, was not marketed as directly related to the Church of Scientology at the time, but considered to contain many strong elements of Scientology doctrine. The few remaining pockets of humanity were enslaved by the Psychlos, who kept humans or man-animals, otherwords hrethgir, to help strip the planet of it's minerals ultimately ending with a slave revolt and the detonation of thermonuclear bombs. The book received many good reviews, such as by Kevin J Anderson who said, "Battlefield Earth is like a 12-hour Indiana Jones marathon. Non-stop and fast paced. Every chapter has a big-bang-up adventure."
Publishers Weekly said about the novel, "This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance..."
The Philosophical and Spiritual Foundations of the New Canon of Dune
Spice Planet-Dune-Arrackis-Rakis-Arruckus
There is no question that Herbert did for science fiction what Tolkien did for fantasy. He was a giant of science fiction. His Dune series of books set numerous sales records and helped bring the genre out of the realm of space opera[1] and into the hallowed halls of literature.
Though fans believed they had bid a sad farewell to the sand planet of Arrakis upon Herbert's death in 1986, Kevin J. Anderson has assumed writing the Nebula and Hugo award-winning series with the help of Herbert's son Brian.
Publishers Weekly, Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, "The kind of intricate plotting and philosophical musings that would make the elder Herbert proud,"
Publishers Weekly, Dune: The Machine Crusade, "Dune fans will enjoy the sweeping philosophical power that surfaces, invoking the senior Herbert's remarkable vision."
The purpose of this paper is to examine the philosophical foundations of the Legends of Dune written by Kevin J Anderson.
Due to the lack of time and space, we don't intend to delve into the elaborate plotting of the new books, nor explore the direct influence of such diverse works as Star Wars, Terminator, Battlestar Galatica, and even the Transformers, which has recently been made into a cinematic production.
Rather, we want to go to the heart of the theme of these new books and shed light on the one source that in the darkness of space binds them all.
Scientology...
You may recall that Kevin J Anderson is famous for setting the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Single Author Signing." What he usually avoids mentioning is that the book signing was for a book co-authored with none other than L Ron Hubbard titled Ai! Pedrito . The original story, according to the foreword, is based on Hubbard's involvement in U.S. intelligence operations, particularly in Latin America, and was expanded into a novel by Kevin J Anderson.
One reviewer wrote, "as you'd expect from both Hubbard and Anderson, the pacing is brisk and the action plentiful." By the way, the full title of the book is Ai! Pedrito, When Inteligence Goes Bad. The success of the book signing and the initial rapid rise on the best-sellers list is said to be due to the mobilization of church members, cited as a common tactic whenever a book under Hubbard's name is published.
Something else you may also recall is that Kevin J Anderson often makes references to the Writers of the Future science fiction contest every year. Again, what he avoids mentioning is that the complete title of the event is the L Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future Contest, established by L Ron Hubbard in 1983 and still funded and run by the Church of Scientology. In fact, listed as the author with L Ron Hubbard on Volume IX of L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future is again none other than Kevin J Schwartz Anderson. The third author listed on the same book is Octavia Butler as in "Octavia Butler" of Legends of Dune. Quark of fate? Quentin as in "Quentin Butler" is also the name of L Ron Hubbard's son...
Part 2 of 5
You may also be surprised to learn the extent Scientology is linked with science fiction.
The founder L Ron Hubbard originally was a pulp science fiction writer, and in fact, his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was first publicised through John W. Campell's Astounding Science Fiction, the same editor and magazine that serialized the original Dune book. Even now Scientology magazines are often illustrated with pictures of spaceships and exploding stars, and some scientology books published during the 1960's and 1970's depicted science fiction scenes on their dustjackets.
The basic belief of Scientology is that a human being is actually an immortal spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is presently trapped on planet Earth in a "meat body". The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives antedating the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. L Ron Hubbard used the science fiction term space opera to describe these incidents which are seen as nonfiction in the beliefs of Scientology and considered scripture. Otherwords, modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is actually an unconscious recollection of real past lives that can be uncovered in detail through Scientology auditing.
.
A brief sampling of the more than thousands of such collected stories or incidents through Scientology auditing does reveal a disturbingly common theme, that members lived past lives in robot bodies.
"A past life as a robot working in a factory in space, a planet blew up and the robot was blamed."
"A member went to another planet on a space ship, where he was deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl.
(Erasmus "...reverting from his guise as a kindly old woman to the more familiar appearance of a robot," SOD, page 19).
"A member in the body of a robot was frozen in an ice cube and trapped on a planet."
(Erasmus served as a synchronized robot under Omnius before he fell into an ice crevice where he was trapped for twenty years and had only the ability to think, BUT, page 314).
Other frequent elements found in collected incidents include bodies floating in green or blue fluid in cylinderical tanks.
However, the most widely know and documented incident resulting from auditing sessions was the story of the Overlord Xenu, sometimes also referred to as Xemu the Titan, who pursued the galactic genocide of billions of his subjects by detonating thermonuclear bombs on Earth after being deposed from power with the help of his renegades. This incident which dramatizes Scientology's advance level of teachings was made into a screenplay by L Ron Hubbard and later expanded into a novel titled Revolt in the Stars.
"Xenu strikes and knocks her sprawling into the corner. Xenu calls Doctor Stug to "robotize her," and "Depersonalize her with neurosurgery...she might be even more fun."
Starting to sound familiar?
Another core belief of Scientology regarding thetans or spiritual beings is they have the potential for "knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time," the ability to operate free of the encumberances of the material universe. In fact, initiates are encourage to believe their mental powers were unlimited ultimately discarding their "meat" or "physical body" taking an evolutionary step towards a new species or superman.
(Norma Cenva, "...to Norma, the human body was no more than an organic receptacle...she began to recreate her body, creating matter out of nothingness...anything, absolutely anything, seemed possible to her now...the embryonic superbeing Norma Cenva took control...")
The discarding of the "meat body" was a phrase aft repeated by the titans and cymeks as well in the Legends of Dune.
Another famous novel by L Ron Hubbard made into a movie with the help of John Travolta is Battlefield Earth, which was initially titled Man, The Endangered Species, was not marketed as directly related to the Church of Scientology at the time, but considered to contain many strong elements of Scientology doctrine. The few remaining pockets of humanity were enslaved by the Psychlos, who kept humans or man-animals, otherwords hrethgir, to help strip the planet of it's minerals ultimately ending with a slave revolt and the detonation of thermonuclear bombs. The book received many good reviews, such as by Kevin J Anderson who said, "Battlefield Earth is like a 12-hour Indiana Jones marathon. Non-stop and fast paced. Every chapter has a big-bang-up adventure."
Publishers Weekly said about the novel, "This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance..."