                      The Gods of Eden by William Bramley
                             Reviewed by Jim Keith

    The Gods of Eden, authored by William Bramley, is one of the
more popular and talked-about recent books on UFOs and
conspiracy.  It's all over the place, and spoken of favorably by
a lot of people who should know better.  What has not been talked
about is that there is a hidden purpose to the book, and that is
to disseminate Church of Scientology concepts to the UFO field. 
It's not that Bramley glancingly touches upon material also
covered in Scientology; he uses the bullhorn for basic,
elementary Scientology principles without mentioning their
source, and does it again and again in the pages of the book.  I
probably wouldn't even mention the matter except for the wide
agreement which the book has engendered (even Milton William
Cooper references the book like it was UFO gospel) --and people
should know what they're agreeing with.

    The Scientology message begins with the overall theme of the
book: we are controlled, even "farmed" by extraterrestrials of
evil intent.  This concept has been put forward by a number of
writers starting with Charles Fort, but Bramley's other
theorizing makes plain where he got the idea: from L. Ron
Hubbard, in such non-introductory Scientology texts as History of
Man, Creation of Human Ability, and his taped Philadelphia
Doctorate Course lectures.  Hubbard specifically warned about
passing this "advanced" (read science fiction-y) material on to
the non-indoctrinated, and so Bramley carefully doesn't cite
these or any of the other Scientology materials dealing with what
Hubbard termed "space opera", i.e. tales of past life experiences
with civilizations in advance of current Earth levels, except for
a citation of the fairly homogenized Have You Lived Before This
Life?  By being tight-lipped about the wilder Scientology stuff,
Bramley hews to the party line in this instance, as he does with
his other covert treatments of Scientology doctrine throughout
the book.

    Chapter 2, "Orientation," pgs. 7-9, gets the ball rolling
with a dissertation about the spiritual, as opposed to animal,
nature of mankind.  I won't argue the truth of this matter, but
it is straight Scientology "orientation," one of the basic
premises of the "religion."  (Having spent 13 years in the
organization, partly at an executive level, I can state that
Scientology is less a religion than a very clever mind control
operation, so clever in fact, that I think that Hubbard might
have fallen for his own creation).  

    In Chapter 6, pg. 74, Bramley discusses the existence of a
mystical "Brotherhood" "engaged in a pragmatic program of
spiritual education."   Echoing Scientology PR terms he
apparently identifies "the original uncorrupted Brotherhood" of
ancient times with Scientology, or at least with the purposes of
Scientology.  It is "scientific, not mystical or ceremonial,"
which is precisely the claim that Hubbard made, hence the name of
his group, and it was "...a considerable body of accurate
spiritual data, but it had not succeeded in developing a complete
route to spiritual freedom..."  This is more Scientology jargon,
as can be easily determined by reading any of the books pushing
the subject or taking a look at the Scientology "grade chart"
defining the various steps of counselling, claimed as the "road
to spiritual freedom."

    The same goes for Bramley's statement, again on page 74, that
"Brotherhood teachings were arranged as a step-by-step process
[ala the Scientology grade chart].  A student was required to
satisfactorily complete one level of instruction before
proceeding to the next one...  This style of instruction was
designed to ensure that a student did not prematurely atttempt
difficult spiritual feats or become overwhelmed by advanced level
information..."  Again, this is straight Scientologese, but this
time related to Hubbard's theories on study and the application
of the "gradient" approach, i.e. easy before hard.  This also
provides a justification why everything but the introductory
levels are secret: they would "overwhelm" someone who hadn't done
all the preliminary Scientology counselling, and paid all the
preliminary and considerable fees.  How much does Scientology go
for these days?  Last I looked, which was about 10 years ago, it
was something like three hundred dollars an hour for most of the
counselling.  This is why a goodly percentage of Scientologists
choose the lockstep of virtually unpaid staff work: staff is
promised free counselling, although in my experience they rarely
get much of it.

    Another point is taken from Hubbard's theories of study on
page 76, where Bramley states, "With a word substituted here and
a sentence omitted there, the semantic precision needed to
communicate an exact scientific principle will be lost."  Again,
Bramley is virtually quoting Hubbard, particularly in the policy
letter titled "Keeping Scientology Working", which rails on about
people who change the materials of Scientology.  Scientology
makes a big deal about alteration of Hubbard's written materials
by one jot or tittle.

    Chapter 7, page 96 Bramley briefly touches upon "third
parties" involved in wars and other conflicts.  Hubbard insisted
in his "third party law", covered in the book Introduction to
Scientology Ethics, that third parties were always behind the
scene in altercations.

    In Chapter 9, page 108 Bramley chats about past lives, and
shows that he again buys the Hubbard scenario in detail, with
post-death disembodied spirits looking around for pregnant women
to pick up new bodies.

    Chapter 10, page 119 mentions the Buddhist legend of the
coming avatar Mettaya, who would create "a religion that would
bring about full spiritual liberation for all mankind...  Mettaya
would simply be an individual with the knowledge and ability to
get the job done."  More covert references to Scientology and
Hubbard, provable by reading one of the three Hubbard books
referenced in the endnotes of Bramley's book. This is Hubbard's
Hymn of Asia, in which he claimed he was Mettaya come to deliver
the planet.  The text was originally supposed to be delivered at
a Buddhist convention in the 1950s, no doubt in an effort to
convert Asia wholesale to Scientology.  Apparently the Buddhists
got wind of Hubbard's plan, since the address was never given.

    On page 220, Chapter 19, Bramley states, "A properly-done
confessional can have a highly beneficial effect on an
individual..."  Bramley expands on the concept on pages 224-225
of the same chapter.  Properly-done?  Perhaps with an E-Meter? 
Bramley couldn't be talking about the elements of Scientology
processing, which Hubbard started calling a "confessional" when
Dianetics turned into Scientology and incorporated as a religion,
could he?  On page 225 he talks about improper confessions,
terming them "quickie salvation," echoing the terminology
employed in Scientology for abbreviated Scientology processing:
"quickie grades."

    Chapter 34, "Robo-Sapiens," is a rehash of Hubbard's take on
the evils of psychiatry and psychiatric drugging.  This was one
of the things that Hubbard was right about, but don't get me
wrong: Hubbard was right about a lot of things.  This is the glue
that sticks one so damnably well into the operation, that a lot
of it works pretty well, and that a lot of Hubbard's insights
were profound.  And when you feel you have even a tentative
handle on Truth with promises of a hell of a lot more to come
(namely, the Advanced Levels), you're willing to ignore the
absolute enslavement that you have to submit to in thought, word,
and deed.

    I could go on listing sneaky Scientology references in
Bramley -- there are no shortage -- but frankly I'm bored with
combing through the book.  As an ex-Scientologist more than
familiar with the ingroup cant, I can tell you that Bramley is,
without a doubt, a Scientologist who is trying to sell the
Hubbard line throughout.

    Gods of Eden is not that bad of a book, as UFO/conspiracy
books go.  A lot of his history is pretty shaky and dependent
upon funky sources like AMORC, but I know the problems of sorting
out truth and fiction amongst conflicting reports on what's been
did and what's been hid.  On this account, Bramley did a decent
job.  Knowing the references that Bramley is utilizing, however,
the originality of his cosmic conception pales.  Bramley, like
most other true believers, mouths the Scientology party line like
a "Robo-sapians," but then, if you've known any Scientologists,
you'll find that they all do.  Hell, I did for the 13 years I was
a Scientologist, until I finally saw through the scam behind the
space opera.  Not to suggest that Bramley's intentions aren't
honorable when he, like every other Scientologist in the world,
attempts to get "raw meat" -- i.e. the unprocessed in Scientology
-- to surrender their personal judgement and philosophy to the
"pro-survival" doctrines of L. Ron Hubbard intended to recover
the "spiritual being's" "total freedom."  Everyone knows what the
road to Hell is paved with.  It may even be that Bramley won't
deny what I have said, that his book is riddled with hidden
Scientologese.  The point is that he doesn't admit it in the
book, and like the evil extraterrestrial custodians he blames in
the book, he engages in some pretty sneaky mind control himself.

Jim Keith is the editor of Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas
and Hidden History, available from Feral House, and Casebook on
Alternative 3: UFOs, Secret Societies, and World Control,
available from IllumiNet Press.  1-800-680-INET.



