A galactic overlord killing off millions of people sounds like something one would see in a 1950s science fiction movie, but the doctrine is attributed to a religion.

75 million years ago, a galactic dictator named Lord Xenu faced an overpopulation problem in his quadrant of the galaxy. His solution would cause humanity millennia of pain and suffering in an endless cycle when he transported several trillion innocent Thetans to Earth and destroyed their bodies. The Thetans were inhabitants over which Lord Xenu held sway.

The above paragraph sounds like it could have been lifted off of the pages of a science fiction novel, but Lord Xenu is a controversial doctrine attributed to the Church of Scientology. Finding unbiased information about Scientology is nearly impossible, and the Church of Scientology denies the existence of the Lord Xenu doctrine.

A Disclaimer about Lord Xenu

Because the Church of Scientology denies the existence of the Lord Xenu doctrine, the only sources that contained information about Lord Xenu and what he did are biased against Scientology. Sources neutral to Scientology are rare. The information presented in this article should be treated with skepticism and be viewed much the same way a disinterested party would view the research of a UFOlogist.

What Lord Xenu Did

The Lord Xenu doctrine states that the galactic overlord issued a tax demand to try to remove the excess population from these worlds. People on the worlds under Lord Xenu's control who could not pay their taxes were rounded up, drugged, given false memories and transported into earth in space craft that looked like DC-8s with rocket engines.

South Park fans who have watched the Scientology episode featuring the religion will know the above story. Fans of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's creation also know that he placed the souls around volcanoes and then proceed to drop hydrogen bombs on the planet.

Scientology and Lord Xenu

Operation Clambake and the Stop Scientology websites state that the Lord Xenu doctrine is part of the practice of Scientology and a member will not learn about the crimes of the galactic overlord until paying the Church of Scientology several hundred thousand dollars.

Because a controversial religion attracts a lot of misinformation, usually from people inside the faith and people opposed to it, it may not be possible for those who find the doctrine interesting but otherwise unbelievable to determine if Lord Xenu is a part of the beliefs of the Church of Scientology or just a conspiracy theory that is interesting because it is imaginative.

Sources:

Operation Clambake

Stop Scientology