New Zealand Cults, Sects, Religions, Christian Organisations, and other groups.

Groups List: X

X

X ex Twitter. Social media and networking website. Some fans claim it is a news site, but this is incorrect, especially considering that some news organisations (such as Australia's ABC) have recently closed their X ex Twitter accounts. On 13 October 2023 New Zealand's Stuff announced it will no longer post on X ex Twitter except stories of urgent public interest such as health and safety emergencies, and even added a rare editor's note to the article:

Twitter, formerly X, has been plagued by misinformation for some time - with false claims about Covid-19, the Covid-19 vaccine and the 2020 US election gaining significant amplification.

...

Editor’s note: We’re increasingly concerned by the misinformation and bad behaviour happening over on X (Twitter). So we’ve left that cesspit to focus on stories and connections that make things better for Kiwis. If you can relate to that mission, please contribute to Stuff today.

With the removal in September 2023 of the ability to report tweets for misinformation, X ex Twitter is even less a news site than it ever was, and is rated Caution as a result. Misinformation and disinformation on the site is rife and X ex Twitter should NOT be relied on as a primary information source. For example, The Guardian reported in September 2023 that X ex Twitter "was found to have the highest ratio of disinformation posts of all large social media platforms" and separately reported that Elon Musk had ditched X ex Twitter's election disinformation team (with 70 elections worldwide in the next year), and in another Guardian article in October 2023 "The EU has issued a warning to Elon Musk over the alleged disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel, including fake news and “repurposed old images”, on X, which was formerly known as Twitter."

Update 11 January 2025: Upon review, the deliberate action taken to remove the ability to report tweets for misinformation is taking specific targeted action to deliberately hide how untrustworthy much of the information on X ex Twitter is. This is willful deception. Elon Musk is deliberately making X ex Twitter a platform where false claims, misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are widely spread without hindrance. This is harmful to X ex Twitter users. Rating updated from Caution to Danger.

Xena. Title character in a New Zealand made TV show (with a cult following), played by New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless. Not to be confused with Xenu.

Xenu. Until the Internet made this name widely known, it was the highly secret name of an intergalactic overlord in the "theology" of the Scientology cult. Hubbard seemed a little unclear about the name, and in lectures sometimes referred to "Xemu." For more information about Xenu, read the Xenu leaflet (PDF, 196kB). It "tells the story of Xenu that is found at the secret advanced level known as OT III after the hapless person who has been sucked into the cult has spent about five years within it and has perhaps parted with [US]$50,000 or more." For background details on the Xenu leaflet visit Operation Clambake's Xenu leaflet page. A brief summary:

The Xenu leaflet tells in some detail the story the big secret that is in the OT III level. It tells of the alien galactic ruler Xenu who was in charge of Earth and 75 other planets in this part of the galaxy some 75 million years ago and how he cured overpopulation by paralysing the people of the other planets, flying them to Earth in DC-8 space planes, arranging them round a volcano to murder them with H bombs. Not done with that the souls of these murdered people were gathered up and boxed, taken to cinemas and shown films for several days. The end result being that the souls clustered together and now inhabit people in their thousands. And of course they must be removed at huge expense.

New Zealand Scientology's head PR guy Mike Ferriss has said (in written communication) the above summary:

"is not true and I believe it is a nieve [sic] mockery based upon someone's idea of what Scientologists may expect to find during their passage through the levels of Scientology. I have done those levels and I can assure you I have not seen the material you have cited here. The beliefs of Scientology are available for anyone to look at ..."

And indeed they are – if you're willing to look around. The OT III manual (which the above is a summary of) is available on the Internet. It clearly contains the above information. I quote:

The head of the galactic federation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) ... He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principle volcanoes ... His name was Xenu ... 75,000,000 years ago on this planet ...

And so on – utter garbage, really. The New Zealand Cult List declares that yes, the summary above is an accurate summary of OT III. (The Xenu leaflet is a fair bit longer than the above summary of the leaflet, and quite frankly is much better written than Hubbard's version.)

Furthermore, Warren McShane, President of the Religious Technology Center, has testified in court that all Xenu and body thetan information contained in OT III was never secret. For example:

COURT: What did he [Hubbard] say?
McSHANE: Well, Mr. Hubbard explained that there was a great catastrophe that occurred 75 million years ago that left this planet a desert and that he had found the way out to undo that. The fact that he even said that not to worry, that the people who caused that great catastrophe were no longer around. And that he had discovered a way to unravel the harmful effects that were done at that time period.
COURT: That has always been broad knowledge?
McSHANE: Of course.
COURT: Has that information ever been confidential that you have just recounted?
McSHANE: No.

...

COURT: Now, I recited some of the story of Xemu [aka Xenu] and the body Thetans from memory of newspaper articles in my opening statements. Is it your testimony that none of that is part of the trade secret that you are seeking to protect here?
McSHANE: When you referred to Xemu 75 million years ago, the volcanoes, that's not the trade secret.
COURT: And body of Thetans and so forth?
McSHANE: Right.

However, this is problematic since it apparently means Mike Ferriss was either lying or very confused when he said the above, and when he separately claimed to not know what Xenu was, although we thank him for requiring us to research this further. (On the subject of lying, Scientology's Fair Game policy makes interesting reading.)

Also of some interest might be Xenu Illustrated for Children (broken link).