Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to questions if they contained copyrighted materials. After a very short while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg Churilov" cultist was ejected from askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.

Subject: what's up with this clamstuff?
Answered by: honorarykid
Asked By: Anonymous

Anonymous asked this question on 5/6/2000:

I found this newsgroup called alt.religion.scientology. A lot of critics refer to scientologists as 'clams.'

What's up with that?

honorarykid gave this response on 5/7/2000:

Yes, the term "clam" is used by some critics as an epithet for "Scientologist."

Where the term came from is a long story.

Hubbard wrote a bizarre book called "History of Man" in which he made all sorts of kooky claims.

One of the claims was that his work in Dianetics and Scientology had validated the theories of Charles Darwin.

But that didn't really jibe to well with his already existing upper-level, space alien, Xenu-implant cosmology. So Hubbard invented a new term, the "genetic entity." So, now a human being IS a Thetan, HAS a body, HAS a mind, and HAS a genetic entity.

This genetic entity carries engrams (negative mental pictures) picked up all along the evolutionary track. One of those engrams goes back to when we were actually clams, the bivalve type (yes, Hubbard actually said that mankind's genetic entities had evolved through a shellfish stage).

According to Hubbard, as clams, we picked up engrams due to pain from opening and closing our hinged "shells." Hubbard said when this pain engram is remembered ("restimulated") in humans, our temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ, or jaw joint) hurts.

Hubbard also said ones clam engrams could be stirred up and restimulated by seeing ssomeone opening and closing their hand, in the fashion of a clam shell opening and closing, or when hearing a snapping sound, the sound our clam engrams fearfully remember from the days when our shell snapped closed to avoid predators.

IMO, Hubbard was a genuine kook of the first order.

It was these clam stories and beliefs that provided the impetus for some critics to start calling members of Scientology "clams" as an epithet.

Anyway, the belief in this clam theory of Hubbard's is, like the Xenu myth, probably pretty rare in Scientology. Most Scientologists just don't know about it. Scientologists are told that Hubbard's "History of Man" is an upper-level book, and so they avoid buying it until they are already well-conditioned and indoctrinated into the OT levels. And as I've said before, a small percentage of Scientologists are actually at the OT levels.

Scientology promises to help eliminate clam engrams. First they'll indoctrinate to the point where one might believe this kookiness (paying for the priviledge all the while), and then they'll audit out those nasty engrams (paying some more). Later on, one is told that they mocked up the whole thing (paying yet more), and later still, they're told about Xenu and Body Thetans being the real cause of your pains and pf course, more paying and more auditing is needed to remove those as well.

Anonymous rated this answer a 5.

Wow, that's really whackier than I ever imagined!

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

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