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Don Muna is most known for his role as Vicente Flores in the Muna Bros. directorial debut, Shiro's Head. Don has over a decade of professional experience in multi-media production, including song writing, music production, cinematography, and video editing. And just like his big brother Kel, Don is also an independent producer, writer and director, but above all considers himself to be a true advocate of the arts.

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Dianetics - Made in Guam?

January 26th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Dianetics is defined as a set of ideas and practices regarding the relationship between the spirit, mind and body. I know this might be a little far fetched, but I’ve been thinking about it for so long I needed to get it off my chest. Anyways, did you know that the author and creator of Dianetics and The Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard lived on Guam during his mid-teens?

My point is, I believe people are most inspired and influenced during their teenage years… I know I was. So do you think that maybe ol’ Lafayette was inspired by our simple lifestyle and unbreakable religious faith which served as the basis to his self help book, Dianetics which later was developed into Scientology? It’s well known that Hubbard traveled the world to study men of all walks of life… rich, poor, Asian or Islander, but only to find out the obvious… no matter where you go, we’re all the damn same!

Second to survival, mankind’s next most powerful and yet most basic instincts are our personal beliefs and our need to grow towards what we believe in. So, my theory is that Hubbard traveled the world and didn’t learn much.. but what he did learn brought him back to basics… that all men are equal and no matter who he met, each person believed in something and each man’s struggle was manifested by their beliefs. So Layfayette the writer, simply took the most universal theme known to man and made it his masterpiece. Then cha-ching! Over 20 million sold!

Heres a quote from the man himself, I think this helps support my theory:

“I have gone through the world studying man in order to understand him and he, not my adventures in doing so is the important thing.” — L. Ron Hubbard

Like I said far fetched, but you never know. :)

There Are 28 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Jayton Okada on 26 January 2009:

    Dianetics is reading material at Univeristy of Guam, I can’t recall which class exactly, all I know is that its at the UOG Bookstore and is being used for a course..
    Hmm.

    L. Ron has some good material, and it quite the intellectual.
    But I believe Scientology is a cult, and should be closed…
    Sure they do some good things in the world, but scores and scores of people, most infamously the “Anons”, have called out Scientology on it’s faults.

    Then again, every religion has its bad side, and to say to get rid of Scientology… to some people is similar to saying… remove Christianity!

    Oh well, as long as they don’t take a page out of John Jones’s book…
    Don’t forget to smell your grape juice before drinking it kids!

  2. Comment by Kel Muna on 27 January 2009:

    The ways of L.Ron Hubbard and Dianetics/Scientology always had me curious. It’s a trip to see that he chilled on Guam. I wonder what he learned from the locals. Are there any Scientologists on Guam?

    Anyways, check out this fun/funny short film (approx. 48min.) about writer/director/comedian, etc. Hardeep Singh Kohli on his quest to find God/enlightenment through Scientology auditing. It’s called “The Beginner’s Guide to L.Ron Hubbard”

  3. Comment by Jayton Okada on 27 January 2009:

    Thanks Kel.
    I’m not to sure if there are any Scientologists on Guam, but when the “Friends of L. Ron Hubbard” group came to the island last year to show an art exhibit of 1920s era Guam… there were protests against the group. While some in the group weren’t Scientologists, the group does have and is run and funded by Scientologists.

  4. Comment by trench on 27 January 2009:

    Pretty interesting Kel. I’ve never read the material however. I wish I could say most of my inspiration came during my teen years, but I was totally influenced in the wrong way!

  5. Comment by Jayton Okada on 27 January 2009:

    Guam Histor trivia for rock n roll fans:
    Did you know that Jim Morrison, the late great singer from the band “The Doors”, spent his adolescent years on island? His father was Navy Admiral George Stephen Morrison. He was commander of the Naval forces in the Marianas during the Vietnam war era.

    I wonder how Jim Morrison’s years on Guam were and how that may have tied into his song writing, behavior, and untimely death?

    “You know the day destroys the night… night divides the day,
    Tried to run, tried to hide, break on through to the other side!”

  6. Comment by Charissa on 28 January 2009:

    Cool! Didn’t know that Jay. I love Jim Morrisons song writing. Thanks for that FYI, now im gonna goggle for lyrics from his music. BTW, working on getting that harddrive to download the video footage of the interviews. Thanks for your help.

  7. Comment by Don Muna on 28 January 2009:

    Here’s a funny one Jayton… I doubt you know ‘em but have you heard of the 90’s R&B group named Soul for Real? Anyways, back when I was a young buck like you, the word on the streets was they stayed in Santa Rita for like three months with some friends they made at their show. I heard because the group didn’t get paid nor did they receive their return flight tickets… The show promoter was staying on Guam at the time…. Pierre Crockwell. He owes some money! LOL.

  8. Comment by Decrepit on 28 January 2009:

    lol, Soul for Real

    no one’s heard from those guys in like 10 years

    “My love do you ever dream of candy coated rain drops” hahaha

    Anyways, I think it’s safe to that most people mos def are influenced greatly in their teen years. Heck, I know I was.

  9. Comment by Peter J. Santos a.k.a. Chamoruboy on 28 January 2009:

    I went to their concert and they only performed for around 12 minutes because they found out that they were only going to get paid a fraction of the promised amount.

    Now about staying on Guam for 3 months, I’m not so sure that is what happened, maybe 3 days. I was living in Santa Rita at the time and I don’t recall them being in the village. Something like that would have been known to everyone in the village.

  10. Comment by Kel Muna on 28 January 2009:

    That would’ve been cool to see Soul for Real kicking back in a Guam house, eating SPAM and rice while watching the local news. ;) I bet if they did that, they would have never left.

    someone told me that Nicolas Cage was on Guam for about a day or two. I heard that he was traveling in a private jet. Does anyone know if that’s true?

  11. Comment by Peter J. Santos a.k.a. Chamoruboy on 28 January 2009:

    That’s true, I was working at Hilton and he, as well as many other Hollywood stars came through on stop-overs. I was moonlighting there on security while I was working at GPD and the visiting celebrities were close hold information if they were only passing through. I picked up Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the airport on her way back to the mainland from Japan.

  12. Comment by Kel Muna on 28 January 2009:

    Cool! I wonder if it had anything to do with the movie “The Grudge” (an adapted Japanese flick)? Was she nice? Who else from your days at Hilton stopped by Guam?

  13. Comment by Don Muna on 28 January 2009:

    Holy cow! Peter, you picked up Sara Michelle Gellar? The TV Buffy? or the movie Buffy? If it was the TV Buffy then you da man! I also heard that Steven Seagal was kicking back on Guam too! Darn… why don’t these celebs come and kick back at barbecue or something? :)

  14. Comment by Peter J. Santos a.k.a. Chamoruboy on 28 January 2009:

    Here’s a funny story about “Buffy.” Of course all the Front Desk knows who’s coming in so when I went to the airport, she was taking long to come out. When she came out and I greeted her, someone on the radio said “Hey Pete, is Buffy there yet? Is she as hot in person?” Well, I got embarrased and the drive to the hotel was a little awkward. But she was pleasant.

  15. Comment by Kel Muna on 28 January 2009:

    LOL! That’s classic!

  16. Comment by Chris T. on 31 January 2009:

    LOL! I saw Carmen Electra getting off the plane when she flew in for that movie the gov. funded. I forget the name! I worked at continental and went up to the jetway as the passengers were getting off……And I saw airforce one when they flew into Guam..Pretty sweet…..

  17. Comment by Peter J. Santos a.k.a. Chamoruboy on 1 February 2009:

    Speaking of Air Force One, that was when Clinton was here. I was in the motorcycle escort. Does anyone remember when A.J. Balajadia got in trouble for videotaping when he should have been standing guard? Well I was videotaping during our several stops but no one got on me about it?

    Anyways, here’s a funny story about the Late Tom Cruz (Highway Patrol Division). There was a Kuam reporter, I can’t remember his name, dark and kind of husky. Anyways he was wearing his press badge. Tom went up to him and pressed on it. He then asked the reporter “What the hell? Nothing happened when I pressed you. Isn’t something supposed to happen when I press? Your badge says “press” so something should happen when I press you!”

  18. Comment by trench on 1 February 2009:

    Hey I attended that Soul for Real concert! I remember Pierre too.

  19. Comment by Peter J. Santos a.k.a. Chamoruboy on 2 February 2009:

    I remember who the report was now. Jay Pascua.

  20. Comment by 671czar on 3 February 2009:

    I read some of his diary of when LRON hubbard was on Guam. interesting take on the Taotaomona.
    I was good friends with Pierre. dont know what happened there. remember tho. I really wanted to see BONE Thugs on Guam. =) My girl and I had dinner at Kings with Kino and Derrick of Big Mountain then kicked it with them in their room at Hilton one night back in 96. Im sure you know what went on in there. lol they were paranoid.
    on the Steven Segal sighting.. probably in the mid 90’s, I was serving mass for a wedding at Ordot Church(yes i was an altarboy), the wedding photagrapher looked EXACTLY like Steven Segal. spoke with him, he said he was his cousin. showed me his I.D. and it said Segal. cant remember the first name tho.

  21. Comment by Prof. Tom on 4 February 2009:

    Enjoy the Guamology blog. I hate to burst the bubble on Jayton Okada’s posting (27 Jan.), but Jim Morrison died in 1971, and his dad wasn’t assigned to Guam until 1974 or so. I met with his dad several times when I was editor of the Pacific Dateline then. One topic of conversation always off-limits was his son. They had disowned each other in the 60s. Jim spent his youth in Florida and California. Graduated from UCLA film school!

    Best,
    Tom

  22. Comment by Jayton Okada on 4 February 2009:

    Thanks for the clarification Prof. Tom!
    Well I’m still a big fan of The Door’s,
    but not big on their history however :P
    We all get our trivia misconstrued now and then. :)

  23. Comment by 671czar on 7 February 2009:

    why were they protesting them? didnt they come to bring some photos for the museum?

  24. Comment by Jayton Okada on 7 February 2009:

    Trench,
    many scientology events have protests.
    Look them up on Google news or even youtube.

    There’s always gonna be groups critical of other organizations.
    The “Friends of L. Ron Hubbard” did bring photos to exhibit of Guam c.1920,
    but because of the close ties of the organization to the Church or Scientology, various UOG and high school students decided to protest. I can’t remember if it weent through or not, but when I spoke to the organizers of the protest, they had more than 30 people to participate. A paltry number sure, but most of the residents of Guam either don’t care or don’t know what Scientology is other than a religion that John Travolta and Tom Cruise are members of.

    The protesters wanted to protest against the possibility that the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard would come to Guam to try to spread Scientology.

    Either way, I don’t believe Scientology will ever have a major effect on Guam society, simple because Catholicism and Christianity are the biggest religious players.

    I personally view Scientology as a cult that should be shut-down.
    As long as Tom Cruise doesn’t start selling Nike sneakers, worshiping comets and asteroids, or drinking funky grape punch… then I don’t really bother with the Church of Scientology.

    Many people however continue to protest and seek for the end of the Church of Scientology.
    There’s well documented cases of former Scientology members leading protests.
    Many of Scientology’s practices are unorthodox, unusual, and more often are on the thin line between within the law and breaking it.

    There’s many sites on-line, and many articles on major media outlets which call out the darker side of Scientology.

  25. Comment by Ted Jones on 28 March 2009:

    I was stationed on Guam from 1972 until 1976. Played tennis with Adm Morrison. He was not stationed on Guam until 1972 the Doors were basically broken up by then. Jim Morrison grew up in Florida, San Diego, and Alexandria Va. Sorry. Not to say that Guam was not a very inspirational place to live. I loved it there and had a Rock Band called Motion. One of the best bands on the Island was “Friends”. Any one remember them? Still check out the sites of Guam via the internet. Still one of the most beautiful places on earth. Ted

  26. Comment by Decrepit on 28 March 2009:

    If anyone cares, the guys from Tesla stayed and played here for a little while before they became famous!

    :P

  27. Comment by Jayton Okada on 28 March 2009:

    Yeah Frazier (decrepit)
    I was actually telling that to director Alex Munoz thru email the other day.
    At the time they were known as the City Boys before moving to the west coast and officially becoming Tesla.

    Tony Evangelista, aka Mr. Nixon, a cornerstone of classic rock on Guam, used to jam with them with his band The Madagascar Event.

    Nixon is now with the alt/punk band The Flying Dutchmen and they’re playing their second show at Asan Sunset Grill tonight at 9:30 at the old War in the Pacific Museum in Asan.

  28. Comment by jet on 13 October 2009:

    Hey Jayton, Tesla’s Name while on Guam was City kidd.
    They opened The Mad Mel’s Music store in Dededo, which is now Paradise Fitness.

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