# Xenu
## English
### Alternative forms

* Xemu

### Etymology

From the works of L. Ron Hubbard, of unknown origin. Richard Abanes notes that a Journey into Mystery science fiction comic story featuring an alien warlord titled “Xemnu the Titan” (1961) was reprinted in 1967, the year that Hubbard composed the Xenu narrative.

### Proper noun

Xenu
* (Scientology) An extraterrestrial galactic leader said to have transported aliens to Earth 75 million years ago and murdered them with hydrogen bombs at sites of volcanoes, turning them into thetans.
** 1968, L. Ron Hubbard, OT III: Wall of Fire‎‎, archived from the original on 12 January 2013:He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanoes (Incident 2) and then the Pacific area ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic Area ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged." His name was Xenu. He used renegades.Various misleading data by means of circuits etc. were placed in the implants.
** 1985 November 23, Robert Welkos, Joel Sappell, “Scientologists Win Major Court Victory Over Defectors, Documents”, in Los Angeles Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on July 12, 2020:The documents Scott took are a refinement of Hubbard’s account of Xemu, assertedly an evil tyrant who planted the seeds of aberrant behavior in people 75 million years ago. ¶ According to documents obtained previously by The Times in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hubbard contends that Xemu trapped people in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol and deposited them in 10 volcanoes. Xemu then dropped nuclear bombs on the volcanoes, according to Hubbard, destroying the people but freeing their spirits, which clustered together and were brainwashed by Xemu.
** 1986, Stewart Lamont, Religion Inc.: The Church of Scientology‎, London: Harrap, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 50:Seventy-five million years ago there was a galactic confederation consisting of seventy-six planets which had an over-population problem. The head of the confederation was named Xenu and he resolved that he would entice the entire population of the confederacy to Earth (called Teegeeach) and blow them up. […] Contacting the BTs is done telepathically and they are then guided back down the time-track to the moment seventy-five million years ago when Xenu vaporized them, which is known as Incident 2.
** 2006 March 24, Alessandra Stanley, “A 'South Park' Character's Return Becomes an Opportunity for Revenge”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-03-14, Television‎:"Trapped" made merciless fun of Mr. Cruise and Scientology, but stuck mostly to the church's actual beliefs, including such notions as frozen aliens and a Lord Xenu who ruled a galactic federation of planets.
** 2007, Una McGovern, Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained‎, Chambers, →ISBN, page 607:At the heart of Scientology’s belief system is the story of a galactic dictator called Xenu who, 76 million years ago, imprisoned the billions of people of the 75 planets of the Galactic Federation in volcanoes on Earth and dropped H-bombs on them. This traumatic event separated the thetans from their bodies. These deeply troubled thetans attach themselves in their millions to humans today; and are responsible for illness, perversion and many of the other problems of the human race. Advanced levels of auditing can help Scientologists to rid themselves of these ‘body thetans’.
** 2008, Michael Streeter, Behind Closed Doors: The Power and Influence of Secret Societies, New Holland Publishers, page 219:That incident, the story of Xenu, is an extremely important incident theologically, because it explains why everyone is infested with body thetans here on earth. It is a serious event considered to have happened.
** 2011, Janet Reitman, Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion, Houghton Mifflin, page 100:More than a few Scientologists read the Xenu story as “a bizarre science fiction story,” as one former member described it. But fearing they'd be denounced for doubting Hubbard's teachings—to do so would be a thought crime — they held their tongue.
** 2011, Hugh B. Urban, The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion, Princeton University Press, page 103:A more elaborate version of the Xenu/Xemu story appears in a lecture attributed to Hubbard from September 1968, also now widely available online.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Xenu.

#### See also

* Teegeeack

### References

* ↑ Abanes, Richard (2009) Religions of the Stars: What Hollywood Believes and How It Affects You, Bethany House, →ISBN, chapter 4, note 87

### Further reading

* Brinkema, Leonie (1996 October 4) “Memorandum Opinion on Religious Technology Center's And Arnaldo Lerma's Motions For Summary Judgment”, in Religious Technology Center v. Lerma‎, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
* Kent, Stephen A. (1999 December) “The Creation of 'Religious' Scientology”, in Religious Studies and Theology‎, volume 18, number 2, archived from the original on 8 February 2005, pages 97-126
* Xenu on Wikiquote.Wikiquote