'Club Asteria' contains elements of 'Scientology'

Shyam 

For a while, a private correspondent of mine has been wondering whether Andrea Lucas might be a closet 'Scientologist'. She certainly behaves like the instigator of 'Scientology,'  L. Ron Hubbard, in that her narcissistic fantasies are on a grandiose scale, but they always contain grains of truth.

In his many books and lectures, L. Ron Hubbard steadfastly pretended to have been a lone world-traveler as a child, a much-decorated war hero and US intelligence agent who was qualified in many different fields of human endeavour, from nuclear physics, mathematics and rocket science: to psychology, religion, politics, economics and philosophy. Hubbard, in fact, ran away from school and visited the Far-East with his parents as a boy (his father was in the US Navy). He was later thrown out of University in Washington D.C. and became a struggling-author of formulaic comic-book stories who, after spending WWII in the US Naval Reserve as a malingering coward, transformed into a multi-millionaire by peddling initiation into a crackpot 'self-betterment' pseudo-science which he first called 'Dianetics' then 'Scientology.' In brief, Hubbard pretended that he had discovered a secret knowledge which (for a price) could help anyone to become healthy, wealthy and happy. Eventually he revealed to his core-followers that he was a superhuman saviour who had been tasked to clear Planet Earth of invisible, evil, extra-terrestrial creatures which secretly inhabit the minds and bodies of all inferior human beings (i.e. persons who have not transformed into superior beings after paying to become high-level 'Scientology' initiates), and which are an obstruction to our obtaining true knowledge which leads to everlasting health, wealth and happiness. This self-gratifying, and self-righteous, fantasy of anEnlightened Master Race fighting to stamp out ignorance, disease, poverty and evil, has been used for 6 decades by deeply-deluded 'Scientologists' to justify a whole raft of ongoing, major, racketeering activities; but mainly fraud. 

According to Andrea Lucas: 

In the late 1960s, she began to study accountancy at night school in Toronto whilst working during the day for Price Waterhouse (the major international accountancy group). Then (apparently without having obtained any qualifications) she was suddenly given the job of head of Price Waterhouse's  Puerto Rico office.  Whilst doing this, she found the time finally to obtain a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and American professional licences in accountancy (CPC) and management (CMC). After being transferred to Washington D.C., she suddenly landed the job of Director of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank in 1979. She then visited 90 different countries 'providing portfolio supervision to IFC investments.' She chose to leave the World Bank to earn a 'PMA from Harvard Business School' which she used to start her own company. For the next 15 years she traveled the world 'building an organization that provided expertise in infrastructure and industrial project development to the governments of dozens of developing nations and to countless private industrial enterprises.' During this time, she lived in China and Austria. After returning to the USA to retire, she experienced a life-changing event which turned her into a mentor, author and self-betterment guru. 

Andrea Lucas has recently awarded herself the Hubbard-like task of clearing Planet Earth of poverty. On her own Website, as part of this noble effort, she pontificates about many strange things which appear to have been taken from elementary 'Scientology' material http://www.andrealucas.com/aboutus.htm . 

e.g. According to Andrea Lucas: 

'It is said that impressions are formed while a child is in its mother's womb. The thoughts, actions and work by the mother during the pregnancy manifests on the child's psyche. After birth, under normal circumstances the child's immediate circle is the family comprising parents and siblings. Childhood is the time when the brain simply mops up whatever that could be felt or sampled using their sensory organs, broadly categorized as sounds, colors and shapes, fragrances or smells, tastes and temperature.' 

'A traumatic experience impacts a person. If the trauma was ongoing, the effects are usually more severe; but even one experience can create immeasurable damage. Whether your childhood trauma was a matter of witnessing a horrible event, or, as occurs even more often, being on the receiving-end of physical, sexual, or extreme emotional abuse, you have probably already experienced plenty of consequences from it. Are you ready to put the past in the past - and finally be free of its effects?' 

In reality, Andrea Lucas is merely a middle-aged accountant who, in 1979, went to work as a middle manager in the accountancy Dept. of the IFC at the World Bank; a job which she left in 1986 after attending a 3 week (pay-to-enter) program for middle managers at the Harvard Business School. Since that time, I can find absolutely no trace of Andrea Lucas having created or run any form of corporate structure which acted as a major advisor to the governments of dozens of emerging economies or to countless private industrial enterprises.  

Currently, the real person, Andrea Lucas, is using her ambiguous, made-up title of 'former Director of the World Bank,' to perpetrate a pernicious 'business opportunity'fraud on a global scale. 

At this stage, it is difficult to say whether she should be sent to prison or to a secure psychiatric hospital.

David Brear (copyright 2011)