I’ve no idea how this lot got permission to hog a large chunk of public pavement area outside Brixton tube on Saturday, but someone had clearly let the Scientologists set up shop in SW9.
Passers-by were invited to have a free ‘Stress Test,’ which involved hanging on to two tubes of metal while the dial of what’s called an ‘E-Meter’ flickered around.
Results from the machine – basically a modified ohmmeter using technology dating back to 1833 – can lead the ‘auditor’ to diagnose people as needing treatment, which comes in the shape of – you guessed it – paid courses at the nearest Scientology centre.
According to the Telegraph’s Max Pemberton, “Scientologists believe depression is best alleviated by removing the sufferer’s covering of tiny disembodied souls of aliens dispersed by the Galactic Federation leader Xenu.”
Scientific American goes further in their investigation entitled, “The Real Science Behind Scientology“:
If Scientology is not a science, is it even a religion? Well, it does have its own creation myth. Around 75 million years ago Xenu, the ruler of a Galactic Confederation of 76 planets, transported billions of his charges in spaceships similar to DC-8 jets to a planet called Teegeeack (Earth).
There they were placed near volcanoes and killed by exploding hydrogen bombs, after which their “thetans” (souls) remained to inhabit the bodies of future earthlings, causing humans today great spiritual harm and unhappiness that can be remedied through special techniques involving an Electropsychometer (E-meter) in a process called auditing.
So now you know.
The feckers stole my site
But why were my stress levels rising? Well, back in 2001, Narconon, a Scientology front group lifted the design of the old urban75 site without credit or permission.
A host of sites set up for Narconon’s (ahem) ‘drug rehabilitation, drug education and drug prevention programs’ had simply grabbed my entire design, right down to the introduction text, and just changed the images and words around.
The Guardian reported on the case at the time:
Parts of the pages in question – published by Narconon, a drug treatment programme in the US – were, Slocombe says, a close match to earlier designs on Urban 75. The look and feel were confusingly similar. Certain graphics were identical. Sections of code – including, Slocombe points out, JavaScript for a pop-up window not used on the Narconon pages – were almost identical.
Even phrases were remarkably similar, Slocombe says. A Google search on the Urban 75 catchphrase – We are entirely non-profit, no banners, no tie-ins, no ads – returned only Narconon, Urban 75 and sites linking to Urban 75.
Despite being caught with their pants down, Narconon refused to apologise for lifting my work, and as publicity grew, they swiftly started changing the sites around while denying all knowledge of the original work.
Unfortunately for them, their sites were already independently archived online at web.archive.org – as were the earlier urban75 designs – and they can all still be viewed to this day.
Read more about this – and see some side by side comparisons here:
Narconon and urban75 Witness the ultimate homage.
Related posts:
Anti-Scientology protest in central London, 23rd July 2011
Last remaining Brixton Prime Shop unit awaits its new owners – but will it be another phone shop?
Urban Art Fair 2012 enjoys some sunshine, Brixton, London 15th July 2012
The Guardian bigs up urban75
Queueing for horsemeat on Coldharbour Lane, Brixton at the Horse Flesh shop
Brixton freeze continues – town centre photos
Christmas lights around Brixton town centre, December 2012
‘Shop Is Cloze Today’, Brixton
They’ve done this before in Brixton – outside Body Shop (either last year or the year before).
Pity I didn’t know about this latest attempt at proselytising – I was at a lecture by John Sweeney on Sunday (24th Feb) at Conway Hall. Mr Sweeney became notorious as the BBC Panorama reporter who blew a gasket when being hassled by Scientologists whilst making a Panorama exposé about the “Church”.
On Sunday he gave an entertaining lecture, partly promoting his book “The Church of Fear”. I bought one, and mentioned to John Sweeney about Scientolgists in Brixton previously.
His book is a racy bit of reportage – graphic rather than academic and published privately, although available on Amazon. No mainstream British publisher was tempted to risk litigation with the Church of Scientology, courtesy of Messrs Carter Ruck, John Sweeney said.
imitation is the highest form of flattery! still thats damned cheeky, i guess their holy comicbook commandments left out “Thou shall not steal…”
It is not just the Scientologists that have set up shop in Brixton. We have seen the rise of Christian fundamentalists in Lambeth with churches springing up everywhere in this borough. Churches that have now set up in 3 places on Brixton Hill, the church opposite Brixton Electric, on Acre Lane next to Veranda/Electric Social. They have their supporters in the local council noise team who are also, surprise surprise, Christians. No wonder the venues are being targeted by these people. Disgraceful.