Estimated reading time: 17 minute(s)
by Jesse Muhammad (Originally Posted 4/20/11)
I didn’t know much about Scientology beyond hearing rumors that certain Hollywood celebrities practiced it. Those celebrities included Tom Cruise and Will Smith. I didn’t care to read up on it because I didn’t see or know how beneficial it could be.
Last spring, my interest in it was heightened when the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan convened a meeting in Chicago for the student laboring officials of the Nation Islam.
I wasn’t in attendance but Minister Farrakhan was said to have shared with attendees something he found while visiting California that could assist us in our Mission. Something that would help us heal from the many things that were done to us in the past that still haunt us and impede us from being the best we can be.
That thing was/is Dianetics, founded by L. Ron Hubbard.
It leaked out and some became rattled, confused and even upset by the fact that Minister Farrakhan would bring to his body of followers a teaching from a White man.
I have been a student under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan for sixteen years now, and he has yet to lead me astray. Whenever he has brought something to us it has always been of great benefit to us as individuals, our families, our entire NOI membership, our people and humanity. I had no doubt he had seen something valuable in Dianetics and I was eager to find out what it was!
That summer, Minister Farrakhan started sending groups of student officials to the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles. A few of them were from Houston and I was personally hearing their testimonies about what they were learning ,seeing, feeling and experiencing as a result of the rigorous study regime and Dianetics auditing process.
In August he called for another conference in Rosemont, Illinois centered on the NOI’s new relationship with the Church of Scientology. This time I was blessed to be among the over 800 invited to experience it for ourselves. Before going we were required to read the book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health†by L. Ron Hubbard.
I was intrigued and impressed by what I read in that book plus, I read other pamphlets regarding the teaching methodologies they use in the field of education.
I started Googling the Church of Scientology on the Internet and I saw numerous vicious attacks against them. That in no ways bothered me because as a member of the Nation of Islam, I’m used to that. It didn’t bother me either that this was coming from a White man. Everything I learned in life thus far has not come solely from Black people.
There is a hadith (saying) from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) I read that says we should seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave and in another instance the Prophet is recorded as saying that we should seek knowledge even if one has to go as far as China. However, if I went to China to get some beneficial knowledge that doesn’t mean I would return as a Chinese man. I just would have gained some new knowledge.
I wasn’t planning to leave the Nation of Islam and become a follower or worshipper of L. Ron Hubbard nor was I trying to become a “deep†scientologist. Rather, I was eager to learn something of value that may assist me in my development as a student in the classroom of Allah (God). I have read many books written by people with a mental “filtering system†in place that I may extract that which is of value.
When I arrived at the conference Minister Farrakhan called in Rosemont, I was like a curious child wondering what was in store. We watched numerous introductory videos about Dianetics and in particular about the process called auditing.
Auditing means to listen and compute. It helps us return to painful experiences or memories that are deeply planted in our minds that we may have pretended do not exist in our lives.
L. Ron Hubbard calls them “engrams.†Jesus called them “demons†that needed to be exercised out of the human being. We all have them. I know I do.
At the conference, all 800 plus participants selected a twin or partner to co-audit with. I am a witness that auditing works. My twin helped me to return to some very painful memories from my childhood that I had not faced or dealt with ever. I am not embarrassed to say I shed hard tears during my sessions but I also felt the charge, effect and weight of that incident being lifted off of me! Then I was blessed to do and witness the same thing happen for my partner as I followed the auditing procedure with him. It was joyous and painful at the same time.
Minister Farrakhan saw this as a tool we can use to better equip ourselves to become qualified saviors in the liberation of our people in the midst of this dying world.
So when he said he wanted 1,000 members of the NOI to become certified auditors by February at our annual 2011 Saviours’ Day convention, I was determined to be in that number. I desired to be a better man and I embraced this as another supplemental tool that will only add to what I am receiving in the divine Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad through Minister Farrakhan.
A core of us embarked on the challenging regime at Muhammad Mosque No. 45 in Houston as others across the country did the same thing.
After three weeks of reading books, parsing words, sketching drawings, listening to a ton of audio messages by L. Ron Hubbard, completing a swarm of essays, and passing auditing drills, I finished. Honestly at times I became extremely frustrated and mentally fatigued but the determination and encouragement of others helped me through the process.
On February 25, I was among the nearly 500 Muslims who graduated as a Certified Hubbard Dianetics Auditor. Minister Farrakhan shook every one of our hands.
I haven’t agreed with everything I have read and heard but overall my experience with Scientology has been wonderful thus far. I am eager to continue to be audited to relieve my mind of the weight of other engrams and also to audit others to help them do the same. I am eager to learn more. I have now begun the “Science of Survival†course and will work to achieve permanent certification.
During his Saviours’ Day address, Minister Farrakhan said, “Auditors listen and when they listen and not talk, they help you to come up with that which would relieve you of your own pain by bringing you back to it, causing you to face it, confront it, handle it, that you may be freed from it.â€
I am a witness.
What are your thoughts of L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology and Dianetics?
