Mark Allen Soderstrom

These aren’t the Droids you’re looking for, 2008
Attaché case, baking soda, caffeine, cocaine, cotton,
Dianetics, ink, lactose, paper, plastic, tape.

13” x 18” x 13”
 

 

According to the teachings of Scientology the Galactic Confederacy’s alien ruler, Xenu, brought billions of his people to Earth in space crafts 75 million years ago. He stacked these ships around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. These disembodied souls (called body thetans) now roam the world attaching themselves to living people, causing what we perceive as physical and psychological illness. Through the guidance of Scientology, people can learn to neutralize these ill effects.

 

Editions of Dianetics published after 1967 were illustrated on the cover with an image of an erupting volcano. According to Scientology’s staff at the time, the symbolism of Xenu’s genocide would be so powerful that if one were to simply hold one up in a bookstore, the manager would be uncontrollably moved to order large quantities of the publication.

In his book L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?, Bent Corydon sites L. Ron Hubbard as claiming further that if this book were to be seen in someone’s luggage while going thru customs, that they would simply be passed on thru without question.

 

Historically coinciding with the first publications of this edition was the burgeoning cocaine trade from Central and South America thru Florida where Hubbard lived and worked around this time. According to the accounts of Hubbard’s son, Ronald DeWolf, and many others close to his father, L. Ron Hubbard was in possession of, and using, massive quantities of narcotics during this time as well. 

 

From the perspective of Scientology’s beliefs, it could have been extraordinarily advantageous for Hubbard to simply ship and store his narcotics in tandem with the publication, thereby assuring himself protection from drug enforcement entanglements.