The 'hidden' Scientology-Story in 'Battlefield Earth'!
"This movie has nothing to do with Scientology!"
The 'Psychlos' are the 'Psychologists' according to L.Ron Hubbard.
You will hear this quote over and over again from the 'BE' filmakers.
But it's not really difficult to find the 'hidden' Scientology-Story in this movie!
The Psychologists/Psychiatrists were one of the first, who found out that Elron's 'Science' book 'Dianetics' was nothing else than a hoax. Later the pseudo-science 'Dianetics' became the cult 'Scientology'. Hubbard followers was told that every attack against him or Scientology is a conspiracy from the Psychiatrists.
You will also hear words like 'Rat-Brains' in this movie.
In this case you must understand that Scientology compares Psychiatrists with RATS like on the cover from Freedom Magazine (1995, Vol. 27, Issue 6). You need Adobe Acrobat for it!
The title of this story: "The Psychiatric Subversion of Justice"!
[snap]"The villain? Psychiatrists who have infiltrated the courts..."[snap]
Here are three excerpts about Co$ context in 'BE' from the Washington Post, Roland Rasleigh-Berry and Lianna Skywalker:
From the Washington Post (Nov.28, 1999):
[snap]
He turned to writing what he called "pure science fiction." But it's not difficult to see connections between his fiction and his religious teachings.For those who pay enough to achieve its top levels (as Travolta has), Scientology offers a secret cosmology centered on intergalactic travel, space battles and encounters with aliens. Traditional faiths may embrace visions of Heaven and Hell, redeemers and miracles, but Hubbard says all those were merely "implanted" in humans by extraterrestrials eons ago.
Since the early '50s, the founder's sacred writings have focused on his belief that Earthlings are the pawns of aliens. Hubbard taught that the psychiatric establishment--which always looked askance at his theories--was not just a present-day evil, but a timeless one. In a distant galaxy, alien "psychs" devised implants that would ultimately wreck the spiritual progress of human beings, he said. The psychs and their "blackened souls," he preached, were to blame for all crime, violence and sin. "They destroyed every great civilization to date and are hard at work on this one."
In "Battlefield Earth," Hubbard writes that the ruthless Psychlo race was the tool of a medical cult that implanted metallic capsules in Psychlo babies' skulls so they grow up to become sadists. He writes that these "mental doctors"--called "catrists"--made up the "real, hidden government."
Psychlo ... catrist? It doesn't take a degree in semiotics to make the connection. [snap]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Roland Rasleigh-Berry:
Here in this novel from the latter years of his life we have the ludicrously named hero "Johnny Goodboy Tyler" opposing the "Psychlos" - a barely disguised renaming of L. Ron Hubbard's pet hate in the real world (of which he barely had a grasp), "Psyches", his collective name for "psychiatrists". He hated psychiatrists for never wasting their time with his crackpot pseudo-science of the mind, Dianetics, later to become the religion "Scientology".-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Lianna Skywalker: "Battlefield Earth"
All these things are fairly obvious to the casual observer, however. The real fun comes when one analyzes this book from a Scientology critic's standpoint. Given what we know about L. Ron Hubbard's personal beliefs and prejudices, Battlefield Earth becomes less of a chore to read and more of a hilarious exercise in "find the hidden Scientology".
The most readily apparent of these "hidden" references is the very name of the evil master race: Psychlo. Hubbard's deep distrust and hatred of psychiatrists and psychologists ("psychs", in Scientology shorthand) manifests itself in his deep revulsion for these creatures. They are governed solely by the desire for profit and the love of cruelty. The comparison becomes even funnier when we find that the Psychlos' lives and minds are ruled over by a medical cult of "catrists". Gosh, that L. Ron is subtle... Psychlo catrists -- get it? Get it? The catrists put implants with fuses in beings' heads to control them, rather like the Scientology fears of psychoactive drugs, electroshock, and lobotomies. As one elderly Psychlo says after his implants are removed, "From the moment the catrists began to gain power, the race started to go bad." The moral here practically screams to be noticed.
I've already mentioned Hubbard's caricatures of Earthly races; his bigotry shows up again in his description of an extinct race that was once subject to the Psychlos. These beings were very studious and obsequious, weak and effeminate; they show up on the learning machines the Psychlos use on the humans. Their species name? Chinko. Given Hubbard's famous quotes about the Chinese in his diaries -- "the trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here" -- it's not hard to see what he's saying. He also disparages organized government and judicial systems throughout the entire book, much in the tradition of Robert Heinlein. The journalistic profession comes in for a beating when a dirty, diseased Tolnep reporter comes on the scene -- he's the most respected in his profession because his stories are the least accurate and the most sensational.
Some less vicious Scientology philosophy also shows up in limited amounts. Jonnie learns while studying teleportation that the universe is composed of matter, energy, space, and time -- the quartet of MEST familiar to any Scientologist. And, after Jonnie gets his skull cracked by a Psychlo, he has an amazingly quick recovery -- because he "thinks" himself well. Wouldn't you know that Jonnie, among all his other wonderful attributes, is also a natural clear.
Only one question remains now: should you read this book? My answer is a most emphatic no. It took me a full week to read, but I'm a fast reader; you'd be better off waiting until the movie so you can throw popcorn boxes at the screen whenever Travolta shows up in his big purple alien makeup. This book was a complete waste of time for me; fortunately it provided some laughs. I've come to the conclusion that you read an L. Ron Hubbard work for the same reason that you watch a cheap horror movie from the fifties or sixties; not for story values but for schlock value. Battlefield Earth has this virtue, if nothing else.
© 2000 Copyright by Don Flubbard
