Understanding Scientology

     by Margery Wakefield

        with chapters by Robert Kaufman and Bob Penny

1. 
   From Dianetics to Scientology -- The Evolution of a Cult

2.  
   L. Ron Hubbard -- Messiah? Or Madman?

3. 
   The Propaganda of Scientology -- "Playing for Blood..."

4. 
   TRs the Hard Way -- "Flunk for Blinking! Start!"

5. 
   Dianetics -- May You Never Be the Same Again

6. 
   Grade 0 to Clear -- The Yellow Brick Road to Total Freedom

7. 
   OT -- Through the Wall of Fire and Beyond

8. 
   The Language of Scientology -- ARC, SPs, PTPs and BTs

9.  
   The Sea Org -- "For the Next Billion Years..."

10. 
    Religion Inc. -- The Selling of Scientology

11. 
    Ethics -- The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of Dynamics

12. 
    OSA (Office of Special Affairs) -- The Secret CIA of Scientology

13. 
    Not So Clear in Clearwater -- Scientology Takes Over a Town

14. 
    Brainwashing and Thought Control in Scientology -- The Road to Rondroid

15. 
    The Plight of Parents -- Some Suggestions for Families

Transcribed, edited, and converted to HTML by Dean Benjamin <drb@cs.cmu.edu>.
This manuscript was first published in 1991 by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens,
a now-defunct organization founded by Margery Wakefield.

Preface

My mood quickly changed as I approached my small apartment and found the door wide open.

"That's impossible," I thought. "I always lock the door when I leave." Having one's life threatened periodically tends to make one less careless about details like locking the door.

The apartment was clearly empty, so I looked about for evidence of a burglary. I was puzzled. The living room, the kitchen, the bathroom -- everything seemed in place. Everything was just as I had left it a few hours earlier.

Then I walked into the bedroom. I froze in horror.

On the far wall, by the bed, a dark red liquid had been splashed against the wall and was still dripping slowly toward the floor.

It was blood.

The message was clear.

One thought formed in my mind, pushing out all others.

"Scientology," I thought. It had to be.

For twelve years I had lived in the strange and bizarre world of Scientology. And when, at the end of the twelve years I began to question some of their practices, I was summarily "offloaded" or ex-communicated from the cult. It would seem that the nightmare had ended.

But in fact, the nightmare had just begun.

A year and a half after being expelled from Scientology, I began to realize what had happened to me -- that for twelve years I had been hypnotized and brainwashed without my knowledge or consent. I decided to sue the cult. It was then that I learned the truth behind behind the smiling faces of Scientology.

I contacted a lawyer who was known to oppose Scientology and told him that I wanted to sue. I made plans to travel to see him two days later.

The next day, as I was packing for the trip, I heard a knock at my door. I opened the door to find three Scientologists from "Flag", the organizational headquarters of Scientology located in Clearwater, Florida -- three thousand miles away.

Somehow they knew about my call to the lawyer.

I was taken to a motel a few miles away, and for three days I was "worked on" psychologically by the Scientologists.

I was to withdraw my lawsuit, they explained, or "something could happen to me."

"You mean you would kill me?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"It would just be a smart thing to do," they answered.

After arguing and resisting for three days, I finally gave in and signed their agreement, promising not to sue. I wanted to live. Finally, they left.

After four months, I contacted another lawyer and told him what had happened. "Come to Florida," he advised me. "You can still sue them. The document you signed isn't valid." I moved to Florida, and filed a civil lawsuit against the Church of Scientology.

The threats started almost immediately. Scientologists in uniform would come to my apartment and stand in the yard making threats against me. When they found out that I worked in a nearby mall, they intercepted me as I left work, again threatening me if I didn't drop the lawsuit. They would call my boss, asking when I would be leaving work and which exit I would be using.

I received phone cans in the middle of the night. Sometimes they would mention the names of my nieces and nephews. Shortly afterward, the same relatives would start receiving mail from Scientology. Again, the message was clear.

In the morning, I would find flat tires on my car, or deep scratches on the car doors. I still receive the phone calls, ten years later.

I called the police. "There's nothing we can do," they told me. "No crime has been committed."

No crime.

I felt like I had been raped. First by my experiences inside the cult. Now by my experiences outside the cult.

But psychological rape is not a crime. A terror campaign against a person by a satanic cult is not a crime.

I had entered Scientology at the age of eighteen a shy and emotionally disturbed teenager, a psychological survivor of a painfully dysfunctional family. I had little confidence or self-esteem.

Within months, I was transformed into an aggressive and radical Scientologist. As a result of daily hypnotic rituals and the unending barrage of propaganda from "bulletins" and tapes, I was completely indoctrinated and fiercely dedicated to the group.

During the next twelve years, I traveled to six cities spreading the gospel of Scientology, working in various Scientology centers at various jobs.

I did volunteer work for the Guardian's Office, the notorious CIA-like branch of the "church" which dealt with such things as espionage, agents, infiltration, covers, plants, intelligence, and covert activities.

It was as a "G.O." volunteer that I once sat in on a meeting in which the murders of two defectors were planned. I understood that these murders were justified on the basis of the Scientology credo: "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics." In other words, the ends justify the means.

I was given written policies -- fully illustrated -- on how to break and enter into buildings. At one point, while working for Scientology in Washington, D.C., I was required to break into the nearby headquarters of the American Psychiatric Association and steal financial and membership records. Which I did.

I was coached to perjure myself in a lawsuit involving a Florida judge, and although I never did appear in court, I was fully prepared to implicate the judge in sexual misconduct in order to serve the "church."

After just a few months of a systematic program of hypnosis and indoctrination, I was operating entirely on a stimulus response basis. I would have followed any command I was given. Including murder. Or suicide.

I was not alone in this.

Another ex-Scientologist writes:

 

Shortly after I returned home, Jonestown occurred, and that did it for me. I realized that if at any point LRH (L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology) had handed me a glass of poison and told me to drink it, I would have, with no questions asked and no second thoughts.

-- affidavit of an ex-Scientologist

What is interesting to me is the reaction that parents have when they find out their children are in Scientology.

Each week, I receive phone calls from parents from all over the country. I send them information. They begin to read. They call me with questions. And then I see the growing horror as they begin to realize what has really happened to them.

Someone has taken their children, transformed them into unthinking and belligerent strangers, and filled them with bizarre ideas which defy any approach through logic or reason.

"That's because," I explain to the parent, "your child is in a trance state. Hypnotized. He can't think."

"Don't try to reason with them," I tell the parent. "It doesn't work."

Gradually the parents begin to understand. Their child has been kidnapped, psychologically, by a cult. And there's nothing they can do about it.

"But this is America," parents tell me. "This can't happen in America."

"Why doesn't the government do something about it?"

I want to help them. I tell them I will send them information. I give them whatever advice I can. "Write to them. See if you can get them back home for a visit. Tell them over and over that you love them."

But I am frustrated because deep in my heart I know there is not much I can do to help them. The one way possible to get someone out of a cult like Scientology -- deprogramming -- is illegal. Because it is considered kidnapping. The fact that the child has already been kidnapped -- psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally -- doesn't enter in. Legally.

I notice a pattern in the parents' calls. At first they call frequently, voices frightened and hysterical. But then, as they begin to comprehend the reality of the situation, the calls become less and less frequent. They are paralyzed by a legal system lacking precedents in the grey area of mind control.

I try to be optimistic. "Never give up hope," I tell them. "A miracle can always happen. It did for my parents. Maybe it will for you. Just don't give up."

It has taken me ten years to be able to write this book. I knew all along that I had to write it. If you explore a strange country, and you find it to be a very dangerous place, and you happen to be one of the few to return from that country alive, it become a moral necessity to warn others of the danger.

As trite as it may sound, if I can prevent even one other person, especially a young person, from having to live through the nightmare of Scientology -- then I will feel satisfied.

Villa Appel, in Cults of America, writes:

Human beings need order. They need a framework that can account for and explain experience.

We are all vulnerable. And vulnerability is the exact opportunity exploited by all the cults, especially Scientology.

The antidote is information. Education. And exposure. It is the purpose of this book to shine a small light into the dark and secret world of Scientology.

Chapter 1

From Dianetics to Scientology
-- The Evolution of a Cult

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the curious and controversial cult of Scientology, and author of swashbuckling tales of mystery and adventure, could very well have stepped larger than life from the pages of one of his own stories. Flamboyant, charismatic, Messiah to thousands of adulating followers, Hubbard lived by no rules but his own. In an age of anxiety, he offered to those in his thrall the comforting certainty of simple solutions to the problems of life. Yet, as weaver of the complex web of Scientology, he managed to ensnare not only others, but also himself.

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard began his life as the center of attention in a large and lively extended family in Helena, Montana, which included his doting grandparents and several adoring maternal aunts. His father, Harry Ross Hubbard, after a brief and unsuccessful business career, was caught up in the surge of patriotism which affected many young men following the declaration of war in 1917 between the United States and Germany. He enlisted in the Navy. When the war ended, he reenlisted as a career Navy officer. Ron's mother, May Waterbury Hubbard, was a dutiful Navy wife who was to inherit the impossible task of bridging the gap between a military father who lived life by the rules, and his brilliant and unpredictable son to whom rules were anathema.

As a child, according to his aunts, Ron Hubbard was already possessed of a fecund imagination, making up games and stories for the amusement of the invariably attentive adults in his world. From the beginning, he possessed a capacity for fantasy which he was to carry with him throughout his life. As a schoolboy, to escape the reality of dreary algebraic equations and dry facts of history, he would fill the pages of his school notebooks with pages and pages of swashbuckling tales of heroic adventurers in exotic and distant lands.

In later years, he created a resume for himself, transforming his most pathetic liabilities into assets of heroic proportions -- as if the boundary between fantasy and reality had become blurred even to himself. Yet, ironically, no fantasy life he created for himself could ever match the colorful and improbable reality that he actually lived.

"I am possessed," he once told a friend, "of an insatiable lust for power and money." In his greed, he would siphon the energy and assets from the lives of thousands of followers whom he came to regard with a sneering contempt. Although he created the vast and complex world of Scientology, in which his followers could lose themselves for years, he did not want to be identified with his marks.

By the early thirties, Hubbard acquired a wife and two small children. To the horror of his conservative parents, he flunked out of college and had no acceptable skills with which to support his young family. Money was a constant and wearying problem. He soon discovered that the colorful adventures he had been creating for years in his notebooks were actually salable to the popular pulp fiction magazines of that era. He started slowly, but it was soon obvious that he possessed a prolific talent in writing for these magazines, named for the inferior wood pulp paper stock on which they were printed.

His work habits were somewhat eccentric. He was a phenomenally fast writer, and would work all night to produce story after story, retiring at dawn to sleep until early afternoon. However, no matter how prolific his output, he could never seem to make enough money to support his profligate spending habits.

By the mid-forties, his literary output was beginning to decline. He was well known and respected as a writer of adventure stories, science fiction and westerns. But he soon realized the limits of his vocation, that he was not going to achieve power and money by writing penny-a-word pulp adventures. The way to make money, he began to remark to his friends, is to start a religion. He once addressed a group of science fiction writers in New Jersey with the words, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be to start his own religion."

In 1949, Hubbard dropped out of sight. Rumors said he was working on something new, a book on psychology. In January of 1950, a mysterious ad appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, a pulp magazine edited by his friend, John Campbell, promising:

... an article on the science of the mind, of human thought. It is a totally new science, called Dianetics, and it does precisely what a science of thought should do. Its power is almost unbelievable; following the sharply defined basic laws Dianetics sets forth, physical ills such as ulcers, asthma and arthritis can be cured, as can all other psychosomatic ills.... (1)

Hubbard began experimenting with his new "science" on his friends. He would have them lie on a couch, close their eyes, and follow his commands to remember certain painful memories, particularly memories of prenatal experiences in the womb. To his surprise, Campbell found himself cured of chronic sinusitis. He began to tell others about this remarkable new science and a small group began to form which became the nucleus for a new organization, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

In May, 1950, the promised article on Dianetics was published in Astounding Science Fiction, outlining the basics of this new science. Shortly afterward, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was released and soon became a best seller.

Hubbard was not modest in his claims for Dianetics. "The creation of Dianetics," the book began, "is a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the arch. The hidden source of all psychosomatic ills and human aberration has been discovered and skills have been developed for their invariable cure." (2)

Dianetics is an adventure. It is an exploration into terra incognito, the human mind, that vast and hitherto unknown realm half an inch back of our foreheads. You are beginning an adventure. Treat it as an adventure. And may you never be the same again. (3)

Early in the book, Hubbard introduced what he called the "clear."

Dianetically, the optimum individual is called the "clear." One will hear much of that word, both as a noun and a verb, in this volume, so it is well to spend time here at the outset setting forth exactly what can be called a clear, the goal of Dianetic therapy.

A clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any self-generated diseases referred to as psychosomatic ills. These tests confirm the clear to be entirely without such ills or aberrations. (4)

The state of Clear, Hubbard promised, was a state of mind never before achieved by man. In fact, upon achieving Clear, a person would progress from the state of Homo Sapiens to the new and advanced state of "Homo Novis."

Dianetic therapy, called "auditing" (to listen), turned out to be an amalgam of Freudian analysis, in which a reclining patient is encouraged to recall past traumatic experiences; abreactive therapy, in which past events are reexperienced by the patient with their accompanying emotion; General Semantics of Korzybski, in which a person learns to differentiate between subconscious experiences; and the psychoanalytic theory of Nandor Fodor, in which the influence of prenatal experiences is explored.

Dianetic theory is basically simple. According to Hubbard, all the events of our lives are stored in the mind as "mental image pictures," or memories. But they are stored, or "filed," in "chains" by similar content. So a person might have a "headache chain," or a "pain in the right ankle chain," etc.

By directing the patient, called the "preclear" in Dianetics (one who is not yet "Clear"), to recall and reexperience the traumatic memories on each chain, the potential of the "somatic" of that chain to "key-in" or become restimulated in the present can be erased. The memory then becomes refiled from the subconscious or "reactive mind" of Dianetics to the conscious, or "analytical mind."

The success of the "auditing session" will depend on the ability of the "auditor" (the person leading the session) to maintain control over the preclear and his memories.

The complete file of all the memories of an individual going back in time is called the "time track." Hubbard claimed that when a person was audited to the point that all his subconscious, "reactive" memories were refiled in the "analytical" memory banks, then he would achieve the state of Clear and would never again suffer the effects of his reactive mind. The reactive mind in Dianetics is also referred to as the "bank."

The theory is that if a person is complaining of a somatic in the present (i.e., a headache), then an earlier memory of an experience in which there was an actual injury to the head is "in restimulation." By getting the "preclear" to recall all headaches progressively earlier in time until the "basic" (earliest) memory on the headache chain is reached, theoretically the headache should vanish.

That in essence is Dianetic therapy.

At the time when the only option for people suffering from painful psychosomatic symptoms was costly and time-consuming psychoanalysis, the idea of an inexpensive and easy to administer lay psychotherapy caught on quickly.

Within weeks, the nascent Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation was deluged with letters and phone calls about the new "science" of Dianetics. Letters were coming in at the rate of 1000 per week. By the end of the year, over 150,000 copies of the Dianetics book had been sold. In a glowing article in the New York Times, a reviewer stated dramatically that "history has become a race between Dianetics and catastrophe," (5) echoing an idea often stated by Hubbard.

By August, there were more than 100 students enrolled for the one month Dianetic auditing course taught at the Foundation by Hubbard. The cost for the training: $500. In addition, one could receive personal auditing, or counseling, at the Foundation for the fee of $25 per hour.

Money was pouring into the Foundation. However, because of the extravagant spending habits of Hubbard, it seemed to be disappearing just as quickly. Because of the lack of any formalized accounting or administrative procedures in the Foundation, much of the money went straight into Hubbard's pockets. In the first year, it was estimated by one staff member that the Foundation had taken in as much as $90,000, of which only about $20,000 was accounted for. (6)

By December of 1950, five new Foundations were established in Chicago, Honolulu, New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles. As many as 500 small and independent Dianetic counseling groups had sprung up all over the country.

Hubbard had promised that the state of "Clear" was attainable to anyone who successfully completed enough Dianetic auditing to eradicate the troublesome "reactive mind." In August of 1950, Hubbard organized a rally at the famed Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, at which he promised to reveal to his enthusiastic followers the world's very first Clear.

There was an air of hushed excitement in the packed auditorium. Hubbard, the consummate showman, first demonstrated some Dianetic techniques to the audience, saving his surprise revelation until the end of the program.

Finally, a shy and obviously nervous young woman appeared with Hubbard on stage and was introduced as the world's first Clear. She could, Hubbard claimed, remember every moment of her life.

The audience began to ask her questions. What did you have for breakfast on October 3, 1942? What's on page 122 of the Dianetics book? Embarrassingly, she didn't know. At one point, when Hubbard had his back turned to her, she was asked what color tie he had on. She couldn't answer. A physics major in school, she was asked to name some simple physics formulae but was unable to remember them.

There were disgusted catcalls from the audience. One by one, people started to leave. The evening was a disaster. Yet, amazingly, money continued to pour into the Hubbard organizations. The Shrine Auditorium debacle did little to stem the tidal wave of interest in this supposed new science of the mind.

Toward the end of the year, however, the initial enthusiasm over Dianetics was beginning to ebb. The American Psychological Association published a report critical of Dianetics, stating that there was a need for more testing, that Dianetics lacked empirical evidence.

The flow of money into the Foundations tapered off as the novelty of Dianetics began to subside. Several early associates of Hubbard in New Jersey resigned after encounters with the darker side of Hubbard's personality -- a very definite tendency toward paranoia, which would in time sabotage almost every significant relationship in his life.

Hubbard's personal problems also began to interfere with the Dianetics movement. Hubbard, while still married to his first wife, bigamously married another woman. This produced a public and embarrassing divorce scandal which was carried in newspapers across the country.

Hubbard was spending money faster than the Foundations could make it. Funding his grandiose schemes and unrealistic ideas was bankrupting his organizations despite the best efforts of several dedicated followers to save them.

Also, Hubbard was encouraging the exploration of past lives in auditing. This, and the lack of the promised scientific testing and validation of Dianetics, alienated many of the professionals who were involved in the early Dianetics movement.

As the members of the original Foundation in New Jersey began to defect, including John Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction and Hubbard's first supporter and benefactor, Hubbard's reaction was swift. He denounced each of the defectors as Communists to the F.B.I., a dangerous action given the climate of McCarthyism at the time.

In the spring of 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in New Jersey was sued by the New Jersey Medical Association for teaching medicine without a license. With the resignations of Campbell and most of the other charter members of the Foundation, the New Jersey Foundation soon declared bankruptcy.

Hubbard produced a second book, called Science of Survival, but the book in its first printing sold only a disappointing 1250 copies. After his meteoric rise the year before, Hubbard was now facing personal and public ruin, having squandered his fortune from the early success of Dianetics and having no other prospects in sight. Salvation came in the form of a knight in shining armor from Wichita, Kansas. A self-made millionaire named Don Purcell, who was an early convert to Dianetics, invited Hubbard to Wichita with the promise of salvaging the beleaguered Dianetic empire.

And so, the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation was reborn in Wichita. Success remained elusive, however, as only a trickle of students made their way to Wichita to sign up for Dianetics training and Hubbard's lectures.

The honeymoon between Hubbard and Purcell proved to be short-lived. Hubbard was spending money faster than Purcell could provide it. Purcell had not anticipated the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts which he had legally acquired from the now defunct earlier foundations. And the conservative Purcell was also disturbed by Hubbard's blossoming interest in past lives.

In February of 1952, the Wichita Foundation was forced to file for bankruptcy. A nasty battle ensued between Hubbard and Purcell. Hubbard sued Purcell for reneging on his contract to assume the debts of the earlier foundations. Then Purcell, realizing that Hubbard had made off with the mailing lists and other property of the Wichita Foundation, obtained a restraining order requiring Hubbard to return the foundation property. The feud between the two men continued for many months.

Hubbard opened the Hubbard College on the other side of Wichita. It remained open for only six weeks, but long enough for Hubbard to organize a convention which, although scantly attended, provided Hubbard with a forum from which to announce a completely new development.

This new development was called "Scientology," from the Latin word "scio" (knowing) and the Greek word "logos" (to study). Scientology, the study of knowledge, would now replace the study and practice of Dianetics -- since Don Purcell now owned all the Dianetics copyrights. As Dianetics concerned the body, Hubbard explained, Scientology addressed the soul, renamed the "thetan" in Scientology. Through Scientology, he claimed, a person could attain previously unattainable levels of spiritual awareness.

Shortly after making this announcement to a small group of devotees in Wichita, Hubbard, having secured divorces from his previous two wives, married for the third and final time to Mary Sue Whipp, a young student who had come from Texas to study at the Wichita Foundation.

Hubbard and Mary Sue packed their bags and headed to Phoenix. There, like the namesake symbol of the city, the fledgling science of Scientology would arise from the ashes of Dianetics and soar to success.

The Hubbard Association of Scientology in Phoenix became the new world headquarters for Hubbard and for Scientology. In his lectures and his writing, Hubbard began to expound the principles of this new "science." He introduced a new cosmology and a new direction for auditing.

The thetan, according to Hubbard, has been around for a long time. In the beginning, thetans together created this universe. However, over the eons, they devolved into a degraded state, becoming the effect of the very universe which they created. In his current debilitated state as a thetan, man is unaware of his actual identity as an immortal thetan.

This process of deterioration has also been expedited by a process called "implanting" in which thetans are subjected to high voltage laser beams used to program them for various purposes. These implants are carried out in various locations in the universe and within our own solar system. According to Hubbard, each of us, when we die, is subconsciously programmed to return to the nearest implant station in space where our memories of the life we just lived are electronically zapped away, and where we will be programmed for our next life. Then we are sent back to earth to "pick up a new body" in an endless cycle of rebirth that has been going on for trillions of years.

Through Scientology auditing, the electronic "charge" resulting from the implants can be removed, supposedly restoring the person to levels of ability not achieved "in this sector of the universe" for millions of years. As the electronic charge is removed, the restored thetan, called an "operating thetan" or "OT" in Scientology, will theoretically regain many lost abilities that he had in his "native state," such as extrasensory perception, telepathy, telekinesis, as well as full control of his present body.

As an "OT," a person through Scientology auditing should regain the ability to "exteriorize" at will from his body, becoming able to travel to any location in the universe and to control the body from a distance.

Hubbard also introduced at the same time a curious gadget which he called the "E-meter," short for electropsychometer. This small boxlike instrument is actually a galvanic skin response monitor which registers changes in skin conductivity caused, according to Scientology, by emotional upset. The face of the E-meter contains a dial on which a needle registers "rises" and "falls" of emotional "charge." Various knobs alter the sensitivity of the needle reactions. To the box are connected two leads attached to small soup or juice cans which the preclear holds in his hands.

The E-meter helps the "auditor" probe the preclear's subconscious mind, looking for areas of emotional charge to be explored in auditing.

Scientologists believe that auditing, with the help of the E-meter, entirely confirms the existence of past lives. They believe that through Scientology auditing, immortality can be achieved by modern man. These were the promises made by Hubbard in his new "science."

During this time, Hubbard introduced a policy of tithing in which ten percent of each Scientology organization's weekly gross income would be paid directly to Hubbard. Although Hubbard told Scientologists in a bulletin called "What Your Fees Buy" that he made no money from Scientology, this was a blatant lie. During the later years of the organization, as much as a million dollars a week was being channeled directly into Hubbard's personal accounts.

Hubbard produced another book during this period called What to Audit, later renamed The History of Man, which one author judged (correctly) as "possibly the most absurd book ever written." (7)

In this book, Hubbard traced the history of the thetan, which he claimed had come to earth only 35,000 years earlier. The book begins:

"This is a cold-blooded and factual account of your last sixty-trillion years," and states that through this knowledge, "the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner."

During those sixty-trillion years we passed through stages called the Jack in the Box, the Halver, Facsimile One, the Joiner, the Ice Cube, the Emanator, and the Between Lives implants. All of these implants could, of course, be nullified through Scientology auditing.

According to Hubbard's son, this book was written while Hubbard was on drugs. That is the only explanation which makes any sense.

In the fall of 1952, Hubbard and his wife journeyed to London, England, where one month later Hubbard's first child by his third wife was born, a daughter named Diana. Hubbard wanted to oversee the new organization of Scientology in London and bring it firmly under his control.

When he returned to the United States, Hubbard stopped in Philadelphia to give a series of lectures, packaged and still sold in Scientology as the "Philadelphia Doctorate Course." Hubbard was by now offering both a Bachelors and a Doctors degree in Scientology.

Hubbard, desiring a degree himself, arranged with Sequoia University, a diploma mill in California that was shut down by the California Department of Education in 1958, to receive an honorary Ph.D., and he proudly displayed this credential after his name for some time. Years later, when it became public that his degree was phony, Hubbard issued an official policy renouncing the degree.

In 1952, Hubbard published another new book, called Scientology 8-8008. In the title, the first eight is a symbol for infinity. The next two digits, 80, symbolize the power of the physical universe reduced to zero; and the final 08 symbolizes the power of the personal universe of the person taken from zero to infinity. In other words, Hubbard is saying that through Scientology techniques, a person can eventually become a god.

Examples of some of these miraculous procedures include the following commands:

"Be three feet back of your head."

"Whatever you are looking at, copy it one at a time, many, many times. Then locate a nothingness and copy it many, many times."

"Locate the two upper back comers of the room, hold on to them and don't think."

"Now find a place where you are not."

"What would it be all right for you to look at here in this room?"

"Now find something it is safe to look at outside this room."

"Be near Earth."

"Be near the Moon."

"Be near the Sun."

"Be near the Earth."

"Be near Mars."

"Be at the center of Mars."

and so on.

It was during these lectures in Philadelphia that Hubbard first mentioned the name of Aleister Crowley, an infamous satanist in England during the first half of the century, referred to by Hubbard as "my very good friend."

Crowley was, in fact, Hubbard's mentor, and remained so throughout his life. It was from Crowley's works that Hubbard found the inspiration for much of the bizarre material on the secret "upper levels," or "OT levels," of Scientology.

One day, while lecturing in Philadelphia, U.S. marshals arrived on the scene and arrested Hubbard for the theft of $9000 from the Wichita Foundation. Amazingly, this was the only occasion that Hubbard spent time in jail, although he was relentlessly pursued by various government agencies for the rest of his years.

Perhaps his arrest warned Hubbard of problems to come, because it was at this time that he began to make noises to friends in Philadelphia that he might transform Scientology into a church -- for legal protection and for tax purposes. He knew that as a church his organization would be afforded protections that otherwise would not exist.

Accordingly, in December of 1953, Hubbard incorporated the Church of Scientology, and the Church of American Science. A year later the Church of Scientology of California was incorporated as a subsidiary of the Church of American Science.

In its Articles of Incorporation, the Church of American Science sounded vaguely like a Christian church. Included in the purposes listed in its original charter are:

To train and indoctrinate ministers and brothers and sisters in the principles and teachings of the Church of American Science.

To prepare them and ordain them to carry forward the work of the Church of American Science, and to conduct churches and minister to and conduct congregations.

To resolve the travail and difficulties of members of congregations, as they may appertain to the spirit.

To conduct seminaries and instruction groups. (8)

And listed in the Creed of this church are:

That God works within Man his wonders to perform.

That Man is his own soul, basically free and immortal, but deluded by the flesh.

That Man has a god-given right to his own life.

That Man has a God-given right to his own beliefs.

That a civilization is lost when God and the spirit are forgotten by its leaders and its people. (9)

The beginning of 1954 saw the birth of the first actual Scientology "church," the Church of Scientology of California, as well as the birth of Hubbard's second child by Mary Sue, a son named Quentin. A second church was soon formed in Auckland, New Zealand.

Hubbard registered the umbrella organization, the Hubbard Association of Scientology International, to oversee all of his new "churches."

Now that he had churches, he needed "ministers," so Hubbard created the Scientology minister's course, on which the Scientologists learned to perform the "sacred ceremonies" of Scientology, including a wedding, a christening, and a funeral.

The christening ceremony, as an example, goes as follows:

"Here we go." (To the child:) "How are you? All right. Now your name is _________. You got that? Good. There you are. Did that upset you? Now, do you realize that you're a member of the HASI? Pretty good, huh?"

The child is introduced to his parents and godparents and the ceremony concludes: "Now you're suitably christened. Don't worry about it, it could be worse. OK. Thank you very much They'll treat you all right." (10)

In 1955, the "Founding Church of Scientology" in Washington, D.C. became the new world headquarters of Scientology.

In 1956, in Washington, D.C., Hubbard held the "Anti-Radiation Congress," at which he revealed that Scientologists could become radiation-proof by taking niacin tablets which he was marketing under the name Dianezene. Shortly after the congress, the F.D.A. arrived on the scene and seized 21,000 illegal tablets. This was just the beginning of Hubbard's trouble with the F.D.A.

By July of 1957, more than one hundred Scientology organizations existed in the United States, and they were flourishing.

In 1958, Scientology's tax exempt status was denied. The Washington, D.C. church appealed to the U.S. Court of Claims, which upheld the original decision, ruling that Hubbard and his wife were profiting beyond "reasonable remuneration" from Scientology. Hubbard was at that time receiving a ten percent tithe from all the organizations worldwide and he had also received a $108,000 gift from the church. Mary Sue was also receiving money from the church.

Hubbard's paranoia was greatly exacerbated by these encounters with government agencies. He began to issue policies railing against the "enemies" of Scientology, stating that the only way to deal with them was to attack even harder.

If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.... Don't ever defend, always attack. Don't ever do nothing. Unexpected attacks in the rear of the enemy's front ranks work best. (11)

Hubbard had been spending more and more time in Europe, and in the spring of 1959, he surprised his American followers with the purchase of a large Georgian manor in East Grinstead, England, which was to become the new international headquarters of Scientology.

To hide the fact that his new home, named St. Hill, was the seat of a world wide management and control center for Scientology, Hubbard made it known locally that he was conducting important horticultural experiments in the greenhouse of his new estate. He claimed that by bombarding plants with radiation, he could greatly increase their yields. He also pioneered the auditing of tomatoes, by hooking the plants up to the E-meter and then claiming that they registered pain on the meter when he pinched off a leaf.

These experiments attracted quite a bit of press, and a photograph of Hubbard looking balefully at one of his mutant tomatoes actually made its way into Newsweek magazine.

In an effort to generate good public relations with the locals in East Grinstead, Hubbard ran unopposed for the position of Road Safety Organizer for the town. He initially attacked this post with enthusiasm, delivering lectures on road safety to the natives of the town. Soon, however, he resigned this position, giving as a reason his busy schedule.

In the spring of 1961, Hubbard created on paper the Department of Official Affairs, a precursor of the notorious Guardian's Office of Scientology, Hubbard's private intelligence agency.

In March of 1961, Hubbard created the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, a comprehensive training course for auditors on which students had to listen to as many as 600 tape recorded lectures, each 60 or 90 minutes long, of Hubbard droning on about some esoteric aspect of auditing.

Soon throngs of students from the United States and other countries were arriving at St. Hill for the highly regarded privilege of studying directly under "Ron," who presided as "Lord of the Manor."

The Hubbard family, which had expanded by now to include two more children, lived in style at St. Hill. They had a personal staff of seven, including a butler for "Ron," and a nurse and tutor for the children. The butler would serve Hubbard his accustomed drink, Coca-Cola, on a silver tray.

At St. Hill, Hubbard instituted the practice in all Scientology organizations of "security checking" -- interrogations carried out on the E-meter. The "sec checks" probed for any and all incriminating information about the person's past and current life. The dossier so compiled on every person in Scientology was forwarded to St. Hill where it was filed to be used at a later time against the person should he decide to defect from the organization.

In 1962, Hubbard sent a letter to President Kennedy, magnanimously offering the services of Scientology auditors to audit the astronauts in the space program. Auditing, Hubbard claimed, could greatly increase reaction times and other abilities critical to the astronauts. Hubbard was deflated when he received no reply to his letter.

On January 4, 1963, the F.D.A. carried out a surprise raid on the Scientology organization in Washington, D.C., carrying off nearly three tons of equipment and Scientology literature.

The F.D.A. subsequently brought a Federal case against Scientology for illegally using the E-meter as a medical instrument. As a result of this case, the Scientologists were forced to label the E-meters with a disclaimer stating that they were not to be used to diagnose or treat illness, but were to be used only for religious counseling.

Scientology's legal problems were only beginning, however. Later in 1963, the government in Victoria, Australia, initiated a Board of Inquiry into Scientology as a result of complaints by people claiming they had been defrauded.

The Board of Inquiry was carried out by one man, Kevin Anderson, a member of the Victorian Parliament. After a two-year investigation, he published his findings in a report rabidly critical of Scientology. In this report, Anderson stated:

Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often mentally ill. (12)

As for Hubbard, Anderson stated that his sanity was to be "... gravely doubted. His writing, abounding in self-glorification and grandiosity, replete with histrionics and hysterical, incontinent outbursts, was the product of a person of unsound mind. His teachings about thetans and past lives were nonsensical; he had a persecution complex; he had a great fear of matters associated with women and a prurient and compulsive urge to write in the most disgusting and derogatory way on such subjects as abortions, intercourse, rape, sadism, perversion and abandonment. His propensity for neologisms was commonplace in the schizophrenic and his compulsion to invent increasingly bizarre theories and experiences was strongly indicative of paranoid schizophrenia with delusions of grandeur. Symptoms", Anderson added, "common to dictators." (13)

Anderson concluded his report by stating that

Scientology is a delusional belief system, based on fiction and fallacies and propagated by falsehood and deception.... What it really is however, is the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy. (14)

As a result of the Anderson Report, the Victoria Parliament passed the Psychological Practices Act, banning the practice and teaching of Scientology in that province.

The Scientologists responded by simply changing the name of the Victoria church to "Church of the New Faith," in which they continued to teach and practice Scientology.

In 1966, possibly taking a cue from the Victoria Inquiry, Health Minister Kenneth Robinson of the English House of Commons was asked to begin an inquiry into Scientology.

Hubbard responded to these attacks by creating a new branch of the organization, the Public Investigation Section, staffed by private investigators who would compile dossiers on each of the "enemies" of Scientology. One of the investigators was given the task of investigating and compiling a dossier on every psychiatrist in England.

The Public Investigation Section soon evolved into the Guardian's Office of Scientology, a private intelligence organization designed to "deal with any threats to Scientology." Mary Sue Hubbard was appointed Controller for the "G.O."

Meanwhile Hubbard had been spending his time refining the "tech" and the organizational structure of Scientology. A system of "ethics" was established as a form of social control within Scientology. The lower level auditing was standardized into a series of hierarchical "grades" of auditing through which each preclear would progress on the road to "clear."

In 1966, the "world's first Clear" was announced for the second time, this time without a public demonstration of his powers. John McMaster, a benign and much-loved disciple of Hubbard's, received this distinction, much to his own surprise. After becoming "the world's first clear," he served for a time as Hubbard's personal ambassador to Scientologists around the globe, until eventually he, too, ran afoul of Hubbard's temper and was reduced to the lowest rank in Scientology. He later left Scientology and spoke scathingly of the man he had served so faithfully.

In 1966, Hubbard journeyed to Rhodesia, having "discovered" in auditing that in one of his past lives he had lived as Cecil Rhodes, the British financier and administrator of that country. Hubbard had for some time been looking for a more accommodating country in which to establish the world headquarters of Scientology, and it was perhaps with this in mind that he made his journey to Rhodesia.

Arriving in Rhodesia, Hubbard set out to conquer the hearts and minds of those in power, socializing with all the right people, and speaking on public television in order to ingratiate himself with the natives of Rhodesia. In the end, however, what he accomplished was to completely alienate Rhodesian officials with his opinionated views on Rhodesian politics. He soon was expelled from the country.

If Hubbard's ego was temporarily deflated by this enforced exile, it was restored when he arrived back in England where he was welcomed by hundreds of jubilant and cheering Scientologists at the airport.

In 1966, Hubbard wrote a policy stating that he was resigning his position of President and Executive Director of Scientology, probably for legal reasons. However, evidence and witnesses to the contrary prove that Hubbard remained in direct control of his church and its bank accounts for many years to come.

Back in England, Hubbard was soon feeling the heat. Scientology had become a subject for debate in the British Parliament. There had been a recent scandal in East Grinstead in which a young girl, a Scientologist with a prior history of schizophrenia, was discovered by police wandering in the streets in the middle of the night in an incoherent condition.

The police began to interrogate Scientologists as they arrived at St. Hill. Eventually, the British succeeded in using the Aliens Act to keep Scientologists out of the country, an action easily circumvented by the Scientologists who would simply list other reasons for their visit to the country.

In spite of all the problems, business was booming at St. Hill. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the adverse publicity received during this time, income was increasing exponentially. Meanwhile, Hubbard, sensing the increasingly hostile climate in England, conceived a daring plan.

Toward the end of 1966, the Hubbard Explorational Company Limited was registered in London. At the same time, a select group of core Scientologists arrived at St. Hill to begin training on a secret project, known as the "Sea Project." Hubbard quietly purchased two ships, a small schooner named the Enchanter, and a larger 414-ton trawler named the Avon River. Crews of Scientologists were assigned to the ships and spent long, hard hours scrubbing and refitting them, as well as completing basic training in seamanship.

Hubbard said his goodbyes at St. Hill and flew to north Africa where he planned to rendezvous with the ships. While waiting for the ships to arrive, he purchased a third ship, a 3280-ton cattle ferry called the Royal Scotsman. The ship was hurriedly registered in Sierra Leone to bypass British regulations which prevented the ship from sailing.

By now the Sea Project, soon renamed the "Sea Organization," or "Sea Org" as it is known today, was starting to take form. The Sea Org members were dressed in naval-looking uniforms and drilled in the basic points of seamanship in anticipation of going to sea.

It was a daring plan. In order to escape the regulation of troublesome bureaucracies, and the investigations and inquiries of unfriendly governments, Hubbard simply withdrew to the one place where he could be free to govern Scientology without outside interference -- -the sea.

Miraculously, after a few frightening near disasters during their first trial runs at sea, the novice Scientology crews actually survived the vagaries of the Mediterranean and managed to successfully pilot even the unwieldy Royal Scotsman from one Mediterranean port to another.

Hubbard sent for his family from St. Hill and moved with them aboard the Royal Scotsman, which became known as the Flagship, or "Flag," of the fleet. Hubbard began to release the secret "upper levels" of Scientology, known as the "OT" levels, and students soon began arriving at the ship to train on these levels. Much of the ship was converted to classrooms and auditing rooms to accommodate the students. Students considered it a great honor and opportunity to train so close to "Source" (Hubbard).

Hubbard's disposition on the ship, was, as always, mercurial. According to those who were there, at times he could be jovial and charming, loving to sit and regale his followers with tales of his exploits on other planets and in other galaxies. At other times he became a bellowing monster, exploding in rage at the "incompetent and stupid" people around him who were plotting to "destroy him."

In one of his bursts of temper, he originated the bizarre practice of "overboarding," which served as punishment for those unlucky enough to have crossed him in some way on the ship. Early each morning the students were ordered to line up on the deck of the ship while a list of names was read of all who had in some way failed on the previous day, either through technical errors in their auditing or in the performance of their shipboard duties.

When the names were read, each person called would be thrown overboard into the cold waters anywhere from fifteen to forty feet below. This was an understandably traumatic experience for the unfortunates to whom this punishment was administered, particularly as no one was exempted from overboarding by virtue of age (young or old) or lack of the ability to swim. This punishment was part of the elaborate system of "ethics" established earlier by Hubbard throughout Scientology.

Another form of "ethics" that was common on board the ship was the imprisonment of offending Sea Org members, and even children, in the filthy and dangerous chain lockers in the bowels of the ship. In one case a four year old boy was cast into the locker as punishment for eating some telex tape.

Ethics punishments were also carried out in the Scientology organizations on land in similarly degrading and cruel ways. Dunking in freezing water, having one's head dunked in a toilet being flushed and being locked in closets for extended periods of time were punishments which on land substituted for the shipboard practice of overboarding.

The security and anonymity which Hubbard had hoped to achieve at sea eluded him, however, as the strange goings on aboard the ship succeeded in antagonizing officials in the local ports. The daily practice of overboarding, carried out in full view of the locals on shore, accompanied by the fact that a large percentage of the ships' crews were female, fueled a dangerous rumor circulating throughout the area that the Scientology ships were in fact CIA ships.

While docked in the port of Corfu, Greece, Hubbard felt that at last he had found a stable port for his ships. He proceeded as usual to ingratiate himself with the local authorities by expansive promises to bring prosperity to the area by building hotels, roads, factories, golf courses, and even a University of Philosophy on the island. He orchestrated a lavish and public "renaming ceremony" to which the local authorities were invited and in which the ships were renamed the Diana, the Athena and the Apollo as a demonstration of Hubbard's affinity for things Greek.

Unfortunately, the British consul on the island, being tipped off by his government as to the true nature of the "mystery ships," and perhaps fearing a Scientology takeover of the island, informed the local authorities. Hubbard and his ships were given twenty-four hours to leave Greece.

On land, the Scientology organizations were also encountering stormy weather. In England, the Scientology Prohibition Act was passed, barring foreigners from entering the country to study or practice Scientology. In Rhodesia, a ban on importing Scientology material was passed. In Perth, Australia, the local Scientology organization was raided by the police. New inquiries were undertaken in New Zealand and in South Africa.

The popular John McMaster resigned from Scientology, and in the United States it was revealed that Charles Manson had studied and practiced Scientology before inciting his followers to commit their savage murders in Los Angeles. Also in the United States, the I.R.S. began to look into Scientology.

The Sea Org, meanwhile, had hastily relocated to the port of Tangier, in Morocco, and the Scientologists once again embarked on a campaign to win over the locals. Hubbard had renewed hopes of finding a home port for Scientology. The Scientologists offered their services to the army and to the secret police, demonstrating the E-meter and its applicability in ferreting out traitors and secret agents. However, the faction of the government to which they had made their overtures carried out an unsuccessful coup attempt and as a result were all executed. The Scientologists were lucky to escape without incident.

Word reached Hubbard that Scientology was about to be indicted in France and that the French officials were going to seek Hubbard's extradition for prosecution in their fraud case against the church. Hubbard fled to New York, where he hid out in a small apartment in Queens for nine months with a few of his loyal Sea Org members until the crisis passed.

Nine months later, although he was indicted in absentia in France for fraud, it was deemed safe for him to return to the ship. Shortly afterward, Hubbard suffered a motorcycle accident on Tenerife in the Canary Islands in which he broke an arm and several ribs. Never a good patient, during the weeks of his convalescence Hubbard was in an unusually foul mood even for him. During one of his black moods, he conceived of a new punishment as part of the Scientology "ethics" system: the Rehabilitation Project Force, or "RPF."

The RPF was in effect a prison, and it was an idea quickly put into practice at most of the major Scientology organizations around the world. The RPF has since become the dread of every Scientology staff member.

As a disciplinary measure within Scientology, any staff member falling into disfavor for any reason could be assigned to the RPF. Conditions in the RPF are severe. The offending staff members usually cannot bathe, must wear distinctive uniforms or else a grey rag tied around their arm, cannot speak unless spoken to, and are shunned by the rest of the group. They receive minimal sleep, live in inhumane conditions, and are sometimes fed food left over from the plates of the regular staff members.

On the ship, anyone crossing Hubbard was subject to immediate demotion to the RPF. At one point, Hubbard established what was called the RPF's RPF for those unfortunate inhabitants of the regular RPF who were insufficiently broken in will and in need of further "rehabilitation."

As Hubbard grew increasingly paranoid, he collected around himself a group of youngsters, mostly female, who were the children of veteran Sea Org members. This group was named the Commodore's Messenger Organization, or "CMO." They were trained to deliver messages on the ship. When given an order by Hubbard, they were trained to run to the recipient of the order and deliver the order in the exact tone of voice and volume used by Hubbard. They soon developed into a powerful and feared group aboard the ship.

In many ways, these young Scientologists perfectly suited Hubbard's needs. Many of them knew little of life outside Scientology. They were impressionable and malleable. They were trained to become young clones of Hubbard, fanatic and ruthless. They were unquestioningly devoted to Hubbard, and competed among themselves to find new ways to please him.

They also served as personal attendants to Hubbard, waking him in the morning, laying out his clothes, helping him dress, smearing his face with creams, waiting on him, following him about the ship and even carrying ashtrays to catch the falling ashes from his cigarettes.

No leader ever had a more devoted retinue of servants than did Hubbard with his CMO. And it was a two way street. As Hubbard became increasingly paranoid through his later years, he grew to trust no one except the children of the CMO, who were eventually to inherit the church.

Rumors continued to circulate throughout the Mediterranean that the Scientology ships were running drugs, working for the CIA, or engaged in white slave traffic. As a result it grew more and more dangerous for the ships to dock. The tensions peaked in the Portuguese port of Funchal on the island of Madeira when an angry mob pelted the Apollo with rocks and bottles, injuring several Scientologists in the melee. Hubbard ordered the ship to sail due west. The staff realized excitedly that they were headed back to America, which many of them had not seen for years. The Apollo was just an hour from the port of Charleston, South Carolina when a frantic radio signal was received from shore warning of impending danger. A welcoming party comprised of Immigration officials, the D.E.A., U.S. Customs, the F.B.I., the Coast Guard and several U.S. Marshals were waiting for them on shore, ready to arrest Hubbard.

Alerted in time, Hubbard ordered the ship to sail to the Bahamas. For a year the ship sailed an elusive course throughout the Caribbean, staying at one island port after another. In 1975, while docked in Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles, Hubbard suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to a local hospital. He spent several weeks in the Curacao Hilton being nursed to health by his faithful disciples.

Soon, however, just as it had in the Mediterranean, the ship with its strange crew began to arouse suspicion in the ports of the Caribbean and Hubbard knew that his quest for safety at sea had come to an end.

Hubbard sent scouts ahead to find property for sale on the coast of Florida. They reported back with the discovery of a large hotel for sale in Clearwater, Florida, which was quickly purchased for 2.3 million dollars in cash under the phony name of the United Churches of Florida. The Sea Org moved into their new headquarters, and Hubbard was settled in a suite of apartments in a nearby town.

It was not long until some of the Clearwater natives, curious about the army of secretive, uniformed young people inhabiting the "religious retreat" in the old Fort Harrison Hotel, began to investigate. A resourceful newspaper reporter was the first one to make the connection to Scientology. As the "church" continued to buy up more and more property in the small tourist town of Clearwater, tensions arose between the citizens and the Scientologists. In spite of efforts by the Scientologists to conquer the hearts of the Clearwater natives with a succession of carefully orchestrated public relations campaigns, these tensions continue to exist today.

On another front, Hubbard had long been preoccupied with the problem of discovering what information existed about his organization in the files of government agencies. Because it would take a relatively long time to gain access to these files under the Freedom of Information Act, Hubbard conceived a plan to get this information in a more direct way. He called this plan "Operation Snow White," not because of the fairy tale character of the same name, but because he considered that once the government files were "cleaned" of the damaging information about Scientology, they would be "snow white."

Within the Guardian's Office of Scientology, the branch of the organization which routinely trained "operatives" and "agents" to carry out various covert operations for the church, plans were laid to infiltrate a select list of government agencies.

In the mid-70s, a G.O. (Guardian's Office) staff member named Gerald Wolfe secured a job as a typist for the I.R.S. Using his official ID badge, he and another G.O. staff member named Michael Meisner carried out a number of successful burglaries of a dozen different I.R.S. and Department of Justice offices, managing to illicitly photocopy and steal tens of thousands of government documents.

The break-ins continued with impunity for more than eighteen months. In June of 1976, a suspicious guard alerted the F.B.I., and the two men were stopped on one of their missions and questioned about their activities. Shortly afterward, Gerald Wolfe was arrested, and a warrant was put out for the arrest of Michael Meisner.

Although the Guardian's Office quickly put into effect an elaborate plan to protect Scientology from being implicated in these burglaries, their efforts were sabotaged when Meisner, who was being kept prisoner by the church, managed to escape and turned state's evidence for the F.B.I.

On July 7, 1977, 134 F.B.I. agents carried out surprise raids on the headquarters of Scientology in both Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. They seized over 48,000 documents and subsequently indicted eleven top G.O. agents including Mary Sue Hubbard, who, as Controller of the G.O., was ultimately responsible for its criminal activities.

Hubbard, learning of the raids, immediately fled into hiding in Nevada, leaving his wife to take the rap for crimes he had originated.

On the 26th of October in 1979, U.S. District Judge Charles Richey sentenced nine of the eleven Guardian's Office officials to prison, including Hubbard's wife, who served one year of a five year sentence before being paroled.

After the arrests, Hubbard distanced himself from his wife, seeing her for the last time in 1979.

Hubbard directed the Sea Organization to purchase several properties in remote locations in southern California, where Hubbard would spend the rest of his days hiding from the world and from the "enemies" he believed to be constantly in his pursuit.

He took a cadre of young people from the CMO with him into the desert near Palm Springs. At one point he assembled a movie studio on one of the desert properties and endeavored to produce movies for the enlightenment of the general population. Most of the movies were lurid documentaries about the savagery of psychiatrists and other "enemies."

Hubbard had been plagued by poor health for many years. In September of 1978 he suffered a severe pulmonary embolism from which he nearly died. Yet he survived to live for another eight years.

When his whereabouts were compromised by a defecting Sea Org member, Hubbard was forced to flee once more to an even more remote location. For the last five years of his life, he remained in hiding on a large ranch in Creston, California, where he lived quietly with three of his most loyal CMO aides.

In a massive reorganization within the church in the early 1980s, and with the silent support of Hubbard, the children of the CMO, who had by now grown into young adults, began to exert their authority over the rest of the Scientology organization. The "old guard" upper echelon executives within Scientology were removed from power in a internal "purge" by the CMO.

The network of independent "missions," lower level Scientology organizations offering introductory services and supplying the more advanced organizations with customers, were taken over, "nationalized" by the CMO. The mission holders were forced to turn over all their assets to the "new guard," or risk being expelled from the organization entirely.

In 1976, Hubbard's oldest son, Quentin, committed suicide. His oldest daughter has defected from the cult. His two youngest children are reportedly still in the organization. His wife has been in seclusion since her release from prison in 1980.

On January 19, 1986, Hubbard issued his last communication to the organization, in which he promoted himself from "Commodore" to "Admiral."

On January 24, 1986, Hubbard died at his remote ranch in Creston, California, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Although an autopsy was not performed, his fingerprints were matched with those on file with the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice.

Three days later it was announced to assembled Scientologists in Los Angeles that L. Ron Hubbard had:

... moved on to his next level of research, a level beyond the imagination and in a state exterior to the body. The body he had used to facilitate his existence in this universe had ceased to be useful and in fact had become an impediment to the work he now must do outside its confines.

His followers were told, and fully believe that:

L. Ron Hubbard used this lifetime and body we knew to accomplish what no man has ever accomplished -- he unlocked the mysteries of life and gave Scientologists the tools to free themselves and their fellow man.... (15)

Today, some 40,000 dedicated Scientologists in this country and a total of 100,000 worldwide carry on the "vital" work of Scientology which they believe will free mankind.

Notes

1. Atack, p. 148
2. Miller, p. 155
3. Hubbard, Dianetics, p. 1
4. Ibid, p. 12
5. Miller, p. 161
6. Ibid, p. 116
7. Ibid, p. 204
8. Original Articles of Incorporation, Church of American Science
9. Creed of the Church of American Science
10. Miller, p. 228
11. Ibid, p. 241
12. Ibid, p. 252
13. Ibid, p. 252
14. Ibid, p. 253
15. Ibid, p. 375

Chapter 2

L. Ron Hubbard
-- Messiah? Or Madman?

To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was larger than life. The biographies of Hubbard given within the cult portray the metamorphosis of this legendary man in stages from youthful prodigy, to teenager adventurer, to brave war hero, to the long-suffering messiah who gave his life for all. It would seem only logical that a man of the extraordinary accomplishments boasted of by Hubbard would have had an equally extraordinary life.

Unfortunately, while the legendary accomplishments of this cult guru might have made interesting fodder for one of his swashbuckling adventure novels, the true facts of his life reveal quite another picture. As with the Wizard of Oz, once the curtain was drawn, the fearsome wizard was just an ordinary man. So it was with Hubbard.

The official biography states:

L. Ron Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska, on the 13th of March, 1911. His father was Commander Harry Ross Hubbard of the United States Navy. His mother was Dora May Hubbard.... (1)

So far, everything is true.

Because his father was away at sea, the biography continues:

Ron spent his early childhood years on his grandfather's large cattle ranch in Montana, said to cover a quarter of the state. It was on this ranch that he learned to read and write by the time he was three and a half years old. (2)

The truth is that Hubbard's grandfather was a small town veterinarian who did not own a cattle ranch in Montana. After Hubbard and his parents relocated to Helena, Montana, where his father was hired to manage a local theater, the grandparents soon followed, bought a house on Fifth Avenue, and the grandfather opened the Capital City Coal Company.

In another biography, Hubbard boasted that his great-grandfather, I. C. DeWolfe, was a distinguished sea captain. It is not known whether the grandfather was a sea captain; however, it is known that I. C. were the initials of his great-grandmother, not his great-grandfather.

The story continues:

L. Ron Hubbard found the life of a young rancher very enjoyable. Long days were spent riding, breaking broncos, hunting coyote and taking his first steps as an explorer. For it was in Montana that he had his first encounter with the Blackfoot Indians. He became a blood brother of the Blackfoot.... When he was ten years old, he rejoined his family.... (3)

Although these events may have existed in the imagination of a young boy in Montana, that is the only place where they did, in fact, exist.

Young Ron Hubbard lived with his parents in a small apartment on Rodney Street in Helena, and he attended the local kindergarten. His grandparents and his lively maternal aunts lived nearby. When he was six years old, his father enlisted in the Navy after the start of World War I. For the next few years, Ron and his mother followed Harry to a series of port cities where he was stationed.

By the time he was twelve years old, young Ron Hubbard had read a large number of the world's greatest classics -- and his interest in philosophy and religion was born. Ron Hubbard had the distinction of being the only boy in the country to secure an Eagle Scout badge at the age of twelve years. In Washington, D.C., he had also become a close friend of President Coolidge's son, Calvin Jr., whose early death accelerated L. Ron Hubbard's interest in the mind and spirit of man. (4)

Although Hubbard did receive an Eagle Scout badge at the age of thirteen, the Boy Scouts of America keeps only an alphabetical listing of Eagle Scouts, with no record of their ages. Hubbard was chosen, during his thirteenth year, to go with forty other scouts to shake the hand of President Coolidge, who was being given an honor by the Scouts. It is not known whether he did become friends with the President's son.

"The following years, from 1925 to 1929, saw the young Mr. Hubbard, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, as a budding and enthusiastic world traveler and adventurer. His father was sent to the Far East and, having the financial support of his wealthy grandfather, L. Ron Hubbard spent these years journeying through Asia." (5)

"He was up and down the China coast several times in his teens from Ching Wong Tow to Hong Kong and inland to Peking and Manchuria.

"In China he met an old magician whose ancestors had served in the court of Kublai Khan and a Hindu who could hypnotize cats. In the high hills of Tibet he lived with bandits who accepted him because of his honest interest in them and their way of life.

"In the remote reaches of western Manchuria he made friends with the ruling warlords by demonstrating his horsemanship. On an island in the South Pacific, the fearless boy calmed the natives by exploring a cave that was supposed to be haunted and showing them that the rumbling sound from within was nothing more sinister than an underground river. Deep in the jungles of Polynesia he discovered an ancient burial ground steeped in the tradition of heroic warriors and kings...." (6)

Heady adventures for a teenager!

The truth, however, is a bit more believable. At the age of thirteen, the Hubbards had moved to Bremerton, Washington, where young Ron was an eighth grader at Union High School. Hubbard enjoyed activities such as hiking and camping at the nearby Boy Scout campground.

Two years later, when Ron was a sophomore at Queen Anne High School, his father was unexpectedly posted to Guam. It was decided that while his mother would join her husband in Guam for the two-year posting, Ron would go to live with his grandparents and aunts in Helena and finish high school.

However, to mollify Ron, the father suggested that he spend part of the summer with them in Guam before returning to school. So in May of 1927, Ron and his mother sailed to Guam on the steamship President Madison, with stops in Honolulu, Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Manila. Mother and son arrived in Guam in June, and Ron spent the month teaching English to native children who were apparently spellbound by his thatch of red hair.

In July, the young Hubbard sailed back home, and was registered by September as a junior at Helena High School, where he joined the editorial staff of the school newspaper as the jokes editor.

In the spring of his junior year, however, Hubbard suddenly disappeared from both home and school. There was a rumor that he had a fight with a teacher and didn't want to face being expelled from the school. He went first to visit an aunt and uncle in nearby Seattle, then caught a train to San Diego to catch a ship bound for Guam. Although he couldn't sail without permission from his father, his father obligingly cabled the needed permission. Young Ron was bound once more for Guam.

In Guam, his mother tutored him to prepare him for college. In October of 1928, Ron went with his parents for a ten-day vacation to China, where Ron was unimpressed by the Chinese, writing in his journal:

They smell of all the baths they didn't take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here. (7)

In his journals, young Ron was already writing adventure stories, interspersing his more mundane studies in history and geometry with adventures stories, most often in exotic, Oriental settings.

To his father's disappointment, Ron failed the entrance exam for the Annapolis Naval Academy. Determined to get his son into the Academy, Harry enrolled Ron at the Swavely Preparatory School in Manassas, Virginia, in a special program for prospective Annapolis candidates. Inevitably, however, Ron was denied admission to the Academy because of bad eyesight.

Next, Ron was enrolled in the Woodward School for Boys in Washington, D.C. as a substitute for taking the College Entrance Examination. In September of 1930, Ron was admitted to George Washington University School of Engineering with a major in civil engineering.

If ever there was a match made not to be, it was that between young Hubbard and the School of Engineering. Bored by studies in calculus, chemistry and German, Ron immersed himself in starting a gliding club on the GWU campus. Ignoring his studies, he spent every possible minute at the nearby air field and was soon licensed as a Commercial Glider Pilot.

Predictably, and to his parents' distress, Ron's grades for the first semester ranged from an A in Physical Education, to a C in Mechanical Engineering, a D in chemistry, and Fs in German and calculus, earning him a D average, and placing him on scholastic probation.

Undaunted, Ron continued to write his stories, and in January of 1932, had his first professional article published in a flying magazine, the Sportsman Pilot.

During the summer of 1932, Ron organized the "Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition," renting a four-masted schooner and planning a voyage with fifty other students to sixteen Caribbean ports of call at which they would make adventure movies.

However, the trip did not turn out as planned. A storm at sea drove the sailing ship off course and they ended up in Bermuda instead of Martinique. After leaving Bermuda, the fresh water leaked out of the tanks, morale on the ship was at an ebb, and when the ship did finally reach Martinique, most of the disgruntled crew abandoned the ship for home. The ship's owners, realizing that their fee was at risk, ordered the ship back to Baltimore where the trip had begun.

Although Ron was later to claim the trip as a great success, citing among its scientific accomplishments that rare specimens of flora and fauna were gathered for the University of Michigan, that underwater films were taken for the U.S. Hydrographic Office, and that photographs of the trip were purchased by the New York Times, subsequent investigation has proven that none of these things were true.

Ron returned to Washington, D.C. to receive his grades for the previous semester which were: a B in English, Ds in calculus, electrical and magnetic physics, and Fs in molecular and atomic physics. Realizing he was fighting a losing battle, he informed his parents that he would not be returning to college.

His father's solution to his son's educational failure was to send him on a trip to Puerto Rico, where the Red Cross was looking for volunteers. Ron used the trip to search for gold in the Puerto Rican countryside, working briefly as a field representative for a company called West Indies Minerals.

In spite of his failure at school, Hubbard later frequently boasted that he had been a student in the first course in atomic physics in the country and that he had received an honorary Ph.D. -- which he renounced much later when it was discovered and made public that the bogus degree had been purchased from from a diploma mill in California.

The official biography of Hubbard continues:

His first action on leaving college was to blow off steam by leading an expedition into Central America. In the next few years he headed three, all of them undertaken to study savage peoples and cultures to provide fodder for his articles and stories. Between 1933 and 1941 he visited many barbaric cultures and yet found time to write seven million words of published fact and fiction. (8)

Although there is no evidence that Hubbard made any trips to Central America, there is evidence that when he arrived back in Washington, D.C. from Puerto Rico, he married Mary Louise Grubb, nicknamed "Polly," and began his career as a struggling writer.

In 1933, he sold four articles, receiving less than a hundred dollars for all, the rate of pay for pulp fiction writers at the time being a penny a word.

In 1934, his first child was born, a son named L. Ron Jr., and to keep pace with the rising expenses of a young family man, Hubbard began to produce fiction at a prolific rate, often writing a story a day. His writing habits were unique. He would frequently write all night long, retiring at dawn and sleeping until the early afternoon.

Soon, this labor began to pay off, as more and more of his fictions were published, and Hubbard began to acquire a reputation among adventure writers. In 1935, his output included ten pulp novels, three novelettes, twelve short stories, and three non-fiction articles. The titles of his stories included: "The Phantom Patrol," "Destiny's Drum," "Man-Killers of the Air," "Hostage to Death," and "Hell's Legionnaires." (9)

Another child arrived in 1936, a daughter, Catherine. Hubbard moved his small family to Bremerton, Washington, where his parents had settled, and where Ron and Polly bought a small house. Hubbard spent the next few years shuttling between Bremerton and New York City, where he made frequent trips to fraternize with fellow adventure writers. In gatherings with other writers, Hubbard was invariably the center of attention, entertaining the others present with his yarns and tall tales.

In 1938, John Campbell, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine, persuaded Ron to try his hand at science fiction. The result was successful and Hubbard's stories in this genre began to appear regularly, alongside his regular adventure stories and westerns.

During this same year, there is a curious story about Hubbard. He apparently began to tell friends that he had written an important book, called Excalibur, which he claimed would have a greater impact on people than the Bible. He seemed quite excited about this book. He told his wife that it would earn him a place in history. Yet, strangely, no one ever saw the book.

Hubbard claimed that the first six people who read the book were so overwhelmed by its contents that they went out of their minds. He claimed that the inspiration for the book came from an out of the body experience he had under nitrous oxide while at the dentist. To prevent any more casualties, he claimed to have the book safely hidden. Although Hubbard would mention this book from time to time, its existence has never been proven.

In 1939 and 1940, Hubbard continued to write, producing several famous stories such as "Fear," "Typewriter in the Sky," and "Final Blackout." His stories are still known and read by science fiction fans throughout the country, to whom the name L. Ron Hubbard is associated with science fiction and not with a controversial cult.

In 1941, as the United States was drawn into the Second World War, Hubbard was determined to get into the Navy. When a friend of his who was a Senator obligingly gave him some official stationery, Hubbard composed his own letter of recommendation for the military.

This will introduce one of the most brilliant men I have ever known: Captain L. Ron Hubbard.

He writes under six names in a diversity of fields from political economy to action fiction and if he would make at least one of his pen names public he would have little difficulty entering anywhere. He has published many millions of words and some fourteen movies.

In exploration he has honorably carried the flag of the Explorers Club and has extended geographical and mineralogical knowledge. He is well known in many parts of the world and has considerable influence in the Caribbean and Alaska.

As a key figure in writing organizations he has considerable political worth and in the Northwest he is a powerful influence.

I have known him for many years and have found him discreet, loyal, honest and without peer in the art of getting things done swiftly.

If Captain Hubbard requests help, be assured that it will benefit others more than himself.

For courage and ability I cannot too strongly recommend him. (10)

In July of 1941, L. Ron Hubbard entered the Navy as Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Hubbard's stories of his naval career serve as an example of his most outrageous fiction writing. The official (Scientology) account of Hubbard's naval career reads:

Commissioned before the war in 1941, by the US Navy, Hubbard was ordered to the Philippines at the outbreak of war in the U.S. and was flown home in the late spring of 1942 in the Secretary of the Navy's private plane as the first U.S. returned casualty from the Far East.

He served in the South Pacific, and in 1942 was relieved by fifteen officers of rank and was rushed home to take part in the 1942 battle against German submarines as Commanding Officer of a corvette serving in the north Atlantic. In 1943 he was made Commodore of Corvette Squadrons, and in 1944 he worked with amphibious forces. After serving in all five theaters of World War II and receiving twenty-one medals and palms, in 1944 he was severely wounded and was taken crippled and blinded to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. (11)

Another "official" biography continues:

Crippled and blinded at the end of the war, he resumed his studies of philosophy and by his discoveries recovered so fully that he was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty. It is a matter of medical record that he has twice been pronounced dead and that in 1950 he was given a perfect score on mental and physical fitness reports.

The truth about Hubbard's war career, although quite different, is no less interesting.

Hubbard's first job in the Navy was a desk job in public relations. His job was to write stories featuring the American serviceman for various national publications. However, this did not fit with the image that Hubbard had of himself as war hero, so he soon requested, and was awarded a transfer to Navy Intelligence.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and war was officially declared.

On December 18th of 1941, Hubbard was posted as an Intelligence Officer to the Philippines. In Brisbane, Australia, while waiting for a ship to Manila, Hubbard managed to so antagonize his superior officers that he was sent home, with an entry in his record stating that, "This officer is not satisfactory for independent duty assignment. He is garrulous and tries to give impressions of his importance. He also seems to think he has unusual ability in most lines. These characteristics indicate that he will require close supervision for satisfactory performance of any intelligence duty." The report also added that Hubbard had become "the source of much trouble." (12)

Hubbard was then sent to San Francisco and given a posting in the Office of the Cable Censor, another desk job. Two months later, bored with his duties as Cable Censor, Hubbard requested sea duty and was made the Commanding Officer of the USS YP-422, a converted Navy gunboat. Hubbard went to Neponset, Massachusetts, where the gunboat was being refitted, but he was relieved of command before the boat sailed because of difficulty that he had with the Commandant of the Navy Yard. Again a report was filed in his service record, stating that he was "not temperamentally fitted for independent command." (13)

Anticipating another desk job, Hubbard's spirits rose when he found that he was being sent to the Submarine Chaser Training Center in Miami, Florida.

After the completion of his studies in Miami, and a ten day anti-submarine warfare course in Key West, Florida, Hubbard was once again entrusted by the Navy with the command of a 280-ton sub-chaser, the USS PC-815.

In May of 1943, Hubbard sailed his ship out of the Navy shipyard in Portland, Oregon. The ship was to sail from Portland to San Diego on her first shakedown cruise.

Just off the coast of Oregon, Hubbard and his crew made a surprise discovery of two enemy submarines in the coastal waters, right in the middle of a busy shipping lane. Six depth charges were fired at the enemy subs. Joined by another sub-chaser, seven more charges were fired. Soon a US Coast Guard ship came to the rescue to replenish the depleted supply of depth charges aboard Hubbard's ship. The PC-815 continued to attack, delivering all twenty seven depth charges, the crew on deck anxiously scanning the water for signs of the destroyed enemy subs surfacing on the water.

The PC-815 was ordered to return to shore, where an investigation was called into this unusual battle, and because of the proximity of the enemy submarines to the Oregon coast.

The conclusion of the investigating body was that there were no enemy submarines in the area patrolled by Hubbard's ship, but that there were known magnetic deposits in that area. The conclusion reached was that Hubbard and his crew had just fought a two-day battle with a suboceanic magnetic deposit. Hubbard, as expected, took some good-natured ribbing from other officers for his "battle with a magnetic deposit," but he was not relieved of his command.

In May of 1943, he sailed his ship to San Diego with no misadventures, but while moored off the coast of San Diego, his ship strayed into Mexican territorial waters and Hubbard ordered a test firing of the ship's guns directly at the nearby Coronados Islands.

An official complaint was lodged by the Mexican government and a Board of Investigation was held, as a result of which Hubbard was once again relieved of his duties and transferred elsewhere.

In a fitness report covering Hubbard's Navy career to this point, he was evaluated as "below average" and the following notation was placed in his record:

Consider this officer lacking in the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation. He acts without forethought as to probable results. He is believed to have been sincere in his efforts to make his ship efficient and ready. Not considered qualified for command or promotion at this time. Recommend duty on a large vessel where he can be properly supervised. (14)

After this, Hubbard spent three months in the naval hospital in San Diego, complaining of a variety of ailments ranging from an ulcer to malaria and back pains. In a letter to his family, he reported that he had thrown an unexploded shell from his ship and it exploded in mid-air, injuring him.

In October of 1943, Hubbard was assigned to take a six-week course at the Naval Small Craft Training Center at Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. He was subsequently made Navigating Officer of the USS Algol.

In January, he made this depressed entry in his personal journal:

My salvation is to let this roll over me, to write, write and write some more. To hammer keys until I am finger worn to the second joint and then to hammer keys some more. To pile up copy, stack up stories, roll the wordage and generally conduct my life along the one line of success I have ever had. (15)

As the Algol prepared to go into battle in the Pacific Theater, Hubbard applied for transfer to the School of Military Government at Princeton University. And although this transfer was approved, in a strange incident which occurred just before the Algol sailed to the Pacific, Hubbard discovered a homemade gasoline bomb in a coke bottle amidst the cargo being loaded on the ship. There was an investigation into this curious incident, but the results of the investigation were not recorded. However, that evening, Hubbard was relieved of duty and sent to Princeton, where he completed a four-month training course.

In September of 1945, Hubbard was transferred to Monterey, California for further training. He reported in sick with a suspected ulcer, and was hospitalized at Oak Knoll Military Hospital in Oakland, California, where he remained until December 5th, 1945, when he was discharged from the Navy.

Contrary to his own report of receiving twenty-one war medals, he received four routine medals which were awarded to all servicemen serving in this war.

As soon as he was released from the Navy, Hubbard, again having no immediate financial prospects, began a series of requests to the Navy to award him a disability pension for injuries and ailments he claimed he sustained during the war. Among the complaints he listed in his claim were a sprained knee, an ulcer, conjunctivitis, arthritis and malaria.

He was eventually awarded a small partial disability rating, and his efforts to have his disability allowance increased continued for several years. In a pathetic letter to the Veteran's Administration dated October 15, 1947, Hubbard writes:

This is a request for treatment.

After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all.

I cannot leave school or what little work I am doing for hospitalization due to many obligations, but I feel I might be treated outside, possibly with success. I cannot, myself, afford such treatment.

Would you please help me?

Sincerely, L. Ron Hubbard (16)

After being discharged from the Navy in December of 1945, Hubbard did not head for home, where Polly and his children were still living in Bremerton, Washington. He instead headed directly for a house in Pasadena, California, which housed an interesting and eclectic assortment of people including one Jack Parsons, leader of a satanic organization called the Ordo Templis Orientis. That was the U.S. name for the organization headed in England by the infamous black magician, Aleister Crowley.

So began a new chapter in Hubbard's life, although in actuality it was but the continuation of an old chapter, begun, reportedly when young Hubbard went as a teenager to the Library of Congress with his mother, and there discovered a work written by Crowley.

Thereafter, he was fascinated by Crowley's "Magick," and Crowley became a mentor for Hubbard, a relationship that would last until Crowley's death in 1947. In one of his later lectures, Hubbard would refer to Crowley as "my good friend."

Crowley's most famous work was called The Book of the Law in which he expressed his philosophy of life: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." It is a philosophy Hubbard was to live by throughout his life.

Crowley wrote, in The Book of the Law:

We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of Kings: stamp down the wretched and the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world.

I am of the snake that giveth Knowledge and Delight, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs.... They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self.... Be strong, Oh man! Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture ... the kings of the earth shall be kings forever: the slaves shall serve.

Them that seek to entrap thee, to over throw thee, them attack without pity or quarter, and destroy them utterly.

I am unique and conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned and dead! Amen.

Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler! (17)

Perhaps this explains why, in Scientology, sympathy is considered to be a "low-toned" emotion. Scientologists learn in their training not to feel sympathy.

According to Ron (Hubbard) Jr., his father considered himself to be the one "who came after"; that he was Crowley's successor; that he had taken on the mantle of the "Great Beast." He told him that Scientology actually began on December the 1st, 1947. This was the day Aleister Crowley died. (18)

Following in Crowley's footsteps, Hubbard adopted some of the practices of the black magician, including the use of drugs and the use of affirmations.

According to Hubbard's son, his father regularly used illegal drugs including amphetamines, barbiturates and hallucinogens including cocaine, peyote and mescaline. (19)

Also, according to Hubbard, Jr., his father occasionally put phenobarbital in his son's bubble gum.

Among the many affirmations that Hubbard was known to have used was the following:

All men shall be my slaves! All women shall succumb to my charms! All mankind shall grovel at my feet and not know why! (20)

Hubbard and Parsons struck up an occult partnership, the result of which was a series of rituals they carried out with the objective of producing a "moonchild," an incarnation of "Babylon" in an unborn child. A woman in the house was chosen to be the mother of this satanic child.

During these rituals, which took place on the first three days of March 1946, Parsons was High Priest and had sexual intercourse with the girl, while Hubbard, who was present, acted as skryer, seer, or clairvoyant and described what was supposed to be happening on the astral plane. (21)

Later, Hubbard was to reveal some of his occult beliefs to his son in a conversation documented by L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.

"I've made the Magick really work," he (Hubbard, Sr.) says. "No more foolish rituals. I've stripped the Magick to basics -- access without liability."

"Sex by will," he says. "Love by will -- no caring and no sharing -- no feelings. None. Love reversed. Love isn't sex. Love is no good; puts you at effect. Sex is the route to power. Scarlet women! They are the secret to the doorway. Use and consume. Feast. Drink the power through them. Waste and discard them."

"Scarlet?" I (Hubbard, Jr.) ask.

"Yes, Scarlet: the blood of their bodies; the blood of their souls.

"Release your will from bondage. Bend their bodies; bend their minds; bend their wills; beat back the past. The present is all there is. No consequences and no guilt. Nothing is wrong in the present. The will is free -- totally free; no feelings; no effort; pure thought -- separated. The Will postulating the Will.

"Will, Sex, Love, Blood, Door, Power, Will. Logical.

"The Doorway of Plenty. The Great Door of the Great Beast." (22)

The final result of the relationship between Hubbard and Parsons was that Hubbard ran off with Parson's girlfriend, Sara Northrup, to Florida, where, with $20,000 of Parson's money, they bought several boats and were enjoying an easy life together at sea before Parsons caught up with them and obtained a restraining order to retrieve some of his assets.

On August 10, 1946, Hubbard and Sara were married in Washington, D.C., in spite of the fact that Hubbard was still married to Polly. Sara did not know about the existing marriage to Polly, or about Hubbard's two children.

Hubbard and Sara ended up living in a trailer in Port Orchard, Washington, just a few miles from Polly and the two children in Bremerton, whom he occasionally visited. A year and four months after marrying Sara, his divorce from his first wife was granted. In April of 1950, just before the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard became a father for the third time to Alexis, his daughter with Sara.

Unfortunately, the marriage to Sara was also fated to end in failure. Toward the end of their marriage, both Hubbard and Sara became involved in extra-marital affairs.

Sara left Hubbard early in 1951, accusing him of being "paranoid schizophrenic." Hubbard, perhaps having a legitimate worry in this regard, retaliated by first kidnapping Alexis from the Church of Scientology premises in Los Angeles, and then by kidnapping Sara and trying to have her declared insane in order to prevent her from doing same to him.

Sara Hubbard, in her divorce complaint, alleged that Hubbard had "repeatedly subjected her to systematic torture, including loss of sleep, beatings, and strangulations and scientific torture experiments." According to Sara, when Hubbard realized that a divorce was inevitable, he asked Sara to kill herself, fearing that a divorce would ruin his reputation.

She said that Hubbard kept her from sleeping for four days, then gave her sleeping pills, nearly killing her. And that once when he nearly strangled her, he ruptured the eustachian tube in her ear, permanently impairing her hearing.

There were other allegations as well, and the conclusion reached in the divorce complaint was that Hubbard was "hopelessly insane." (23)

Hubbard fled to Cuba with baby Alexis, who was then nearly a year old. Eventually, after moving to Wichita to establish the Wichita Foundation with financier Don Purcell, he reached a settlement with Sara in which he agreed to return Alexis to her if she would recant her accusations of him.

On June 12th of 1951, Sara traveled to Wichita to collect Alexis, signing a statement prepared by Hubbard, stating that the things she had said about him were untrue and that L. Ron Hubbard "is a fine and brilliant man." (24)

She caught a bus back to Los Angeles with baby Alexis. She never saw Hubbard again.

Hubbard, meanwhile, was carrying on an affair with a student from the Wichita Foundation, a dark and pretty young Texan named Mary Sue Whipp. In March of 1952, Hubbard married Mary Sue, who was two months pregnant at the time of the wedding. She was his third and final wife, by whom he eventually had four more children.

From reports of people who were close to the family, although Mary Sue was devoted to her children, Hubbard did not develop close relationships with any of his seven children. His only interest in them was in what they could do to advance his interests in Scientology. When he learned of his son, Quentin's, suicide in October of 1976, he was heard shouting at the top of his voice, "That stupid fucking kid! That stupid fucking kid! Look what he's done to me...." (25)

Descriptions of Hubbard in the early fifties portray a man of contrasts. He could be charming when he wanted to be, and at other times would explode in outbursts of temper.

According to one student:

Ron lectured every day. He was very impressive, dedicated and amusing. The man had tremendous charisma; you just wanted to hear every word he had to say and listen for any pearl of wisdom.... (26)

Another student says:

Hubbard had this incredible dynamism, a disarming, magnetic and overwhelming personality. I remember being at Saint Hill one evening and running into him and as we started to talk people gathered round. People had a wonderful feeling with him of being in the presence of a great man. (27)

Another student comments on Hubbard's unpredictability:

He (Hubbard) could be very thoughtful and kind one minute and quite hideous the next. We were auditing about fifty hours a week and I remember one afternoon a girl burst into tears when she was telling Ron about a particularly difficult case she had. He put his arm around her and said, "Jenny, anything we can do for this preclear is better than doing nothing. She needs help and a bit of attention and that is what you are giving her. Just keep on doing the same thing you're doing and you will resolve it in due course. You can't expect miracles overnight." That struck me as a very humane and comforting thing to say to her.... But then I have also seen him behave in a grotesque fashion. One afternoon during a lecture a woman in the audience was coughing rather badly and he walked to the front of the stage, red-faced and visibly angry, and shouted, "Get that woman out of this lecture hall!" She was one of his most fervent supporters and she was also desperately ill -- she died three weeks later of lung cancer. (28)

Another aspect of Hubbard's character was his paranoia, a trait clearly evident in a series of lengthy letters he wrote to the F.B.I., accusing most of the associates working with him of being Communists who were plotting to destroy him. At one point, he wrote to the F.B.I. accusing his wife, Sara, and her boyfriend of being Communists, a move with potentially dangerous consequences during that era of McCarthyism. Fortunately for the many people he named in these letters, the F.B.I. did not take Hubbard seriously, at one point making the notation "appears mental" in his file.

One of his girlfriends during his marriage to Sara wrote about him:

He didn't trust anyone and was highly paranoid. He thought the CIA had hit men after him. We'd be walking along the street and I would ask, "Why are you walking so fast?" He would look over his shoulder and say, "You don't know what it's like to be a target." No one was after him; it was all delusion. (29)

Once, on an airplane trip with one of his staff members, when the plane stopped for refueling, Hubbard "scurried across the passenger terminal and stood with his back pressed against a wall for the duration of the stop, explaining to his companion that there were people `out to get him'." (30) During the late fifties and early sixties, Hubbard's delusions seemed to become even more bizarre. In a bulletin written in February of 1957, called "The Story of a Static" (static being another Scientology term for the "thetan", or soul), Hubbard wrote:

Once upon a time there was a thetan, and he was a happy little thetan and the world was a simple thing. It was all very, very simple.

And then one day somebody told him he was simple.

And ever since that time he has been trying to prove that he is not.

And that is the history of the Universe, the Human Race, the Fifth Invaders, the Fourth Invaders, the 3-1/2 invaders, the people on Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Arcturus, the Marcab Galaxy, the Marcab System, and Psi Galaxy, Galaxy 82 -

I don't care where you look -- that's the story. (31)

In another bulletin dated May 11, 1963, Hubbard claimed he had twice visited heaven, 43 trillion and 42 trillion years earlier. Teaching his followers that heaven was just an implant station in space, he said that on the first visit he had found heaven "complete with gates, angels and plaster saints -- and electronic implantation equipment." On his second visit, a trillion years later, he says that he found changes in heaven.

The place is shabby. The vegetation is gone. The pillars are scruffy. The saints have vanished. So have the angels. A sign on one side (the left as you enter) says "this is Heaven." The right has a sign "Hell" with an arrow and inside the grounds one can see excavations like archaeological diggings with terraces that lead to "Hell." Plain wire fencing encloses the place.... (32)

In one of the tapes on the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, Hubbard claims to have been flying around space without his body, getting caught in the Van Allen Belt, and he relates this experience in great detail for his students. Later, in the Sea Org, a student on the ship relates this experience with Hubbard:

LRH (Hubbard) was on the ship and in a real jolly mood. He used to stay up late at night on the deck and talk to us into the wee hours about his whole track (past life) adventures, how he was a race-car driver in the Marcab civilization. The Marcab civilization existed millions of years ago on another planet; it was similar to planet earth in the fifties, only they had space travel.... (Hubbard) said he was a race driver called the Green Dragon who set a speed record before he was killed in an accident. He came back in another lifetime as the Red Devil and beat his own record, then came back and did it again as the Blue Streak.

People would stand around listening to these stories for hours, very overawed. At the time it seemed like a privilege and honor to share these things, to hear him talking about things that went on millions of years ago like it was yesterday. (33)

Hubbard should probably have been diagnosed as a manic-depressive with paranoid tendencies, according to several people who knew him well. Certainly he did have periods of deep depression from time to time, in which he lay in bed in a torpor, once telling one of his attendants that he wanted to die. (34)

"He developed phobias about dust and smells which were the cause of frequent explosive temper tantrums. He was always complaining that his clothes smelled of soap or he was being choked by dust that no one else could detect." On his trips between the ship and a rented villa in Las Palmas, "he would insist on stopping because there was dust in the air conditioning. He would get into such a rage that on occasions I thought he was going to tear the car apart." (35)

His temper tantrums were to increase with age. After a motorcycle accident in Tenerife in the Canary Islands in which he broke his arm and several ribs, he was in a particularly vile temper:

"He didn't get out of that red chair for three months," said Doreen Smith (one of his young aides in the Commodore's Messenger Organization). "He'd sleep for about forty-five minutes at a time, then be awake for hours, screaming and shouting. It was impossible to get him comfortable. None of us got any sleep. I was better with a cushion. Someone else was better with a footstool, someone else with cotton padding, so every time he woke up we all had to be in there, fussing around him while he was screaming at us that we were all `stupid fucking shitheads' ... he was out of control...." (36)

According to another aide, after the accident at Tenerife, conditions aboard the ship took a turn for the worse:

His actions definitely became more bizarre after the motorcycle accident. You could hear him throughout the ship screaming, shouting, ranting and raving day after day. He was always claiming that the cooks were trying to poison him and he began to smell odors everywhere. His clothes had to be washed in pure water thirteen times, using thirteen different buckets of clean water to rinse a shirt so he wouldn't smell detergent on it. (37)

His young messengers bore the brunt of his temper throughout his later years, although they continued to serve him with devotion.

According to one Sea Org member who later defected:

His messengers were there to cater to Hubbard's every need. The girls would stick cigarettes in his mouth and light them. They had to catch his cigarette ashes. If a drop of sweat was on his forehead, they had to wipe it off. Every word he said had to be written down by the girls. Whenever he appeared people would clap. If it was four in the morning, and nobody could see straight, people would clap. (38)

The girls in the Sea Org also served as his personal attendants.

When he woke up he would yell "Messenger" and two of us would go into his room straight away. He would usually be lying in his bunk in his underwear with one arm outstretched, waiting for us to pull him up to a sitting position. While one of us put a robe around his shoulders, the other one would give him a cigarette, a Kool non-filter, light it and stand ready with an ashtray. I would run into the bathroom to make sure his toothbrush, soap and razor were all laid out in a set fashion and I prepared his bath, checked the shampoo, towel and temperature of the water.

When he went into the bathroom we would lay out his clothes, powder his socks and shoes and fold everything ready to get him dressed. Everything had to be right because if it wasn't he would yell at us and we didn't want to upset him. The last thing we wanted to do was upset him. When he came out of the shower, he would be in his underwear. Two of us held his pants off the floor as he stepped into them. He didn't like the trouser legs to touch the floor, God forbid that should happen. We pulled up his pants and buckled his belt, although he zipped them. We put on his shirt, buttoned it up, put his Kools in his shirt pocket, tied his cravat and combed his hair. All this time he'd be standing there watching us run around him. Then we'd follow him out on to the deck carrying anything he might need -- cloak, hat, binoculars, ashtray, spare cigarettes, anything he could possibly think of wanting. We felt it was an honor and a privilege to do anything for him. (39)

Once asked what inspired him to form the CMO (Commodore's Messenger Organization):

He said it was an idea he had picked up from Nazi Germany. He said Hitler was a madman, but nevertheless a genius in his own right and the Nazi Youth was one of the smartest ideas he ever had. With young people you had a blank slate and you could write anything you wanted on it and it would be your writing. That was his idea, to take young people and mold them into little Hubbards. He said he had girls because women were more loyal than men. (40)

According to some of the messengers, Hubbard did not have sex with them. One of the messengers stated, "I think he got his thrills by just having us around." (41)

One reason for this is that Hubbard was reportedly impotent. "It is documented that Hubbard used huge amounts of testosterone, stilbestrol (a female sex hormone). Taking the sex hormones were his solution to an impotence problem." (42)

One woman with whom Hubbard did have a sexual encounter described a very strange experience. She was taken to a room in one of the Sea Org buildings in Los Angeles, and describes a man who fits the description of Hubbard:

Sitting on one of the chairs ... was a heavy set older man. He had reddish grey hair, slightly long in the back. He was wearing a white shirt, black pants, black tie, and black shoes, highly polished....

He didn't say a word and slowly got up, motioned me to follow him into the next room.

I found myself in a lavish bedroom....

Without a word he suddenly began to undress me.

I was repelled by him.

I did not want to sleep with him. Yet, I felt really chilled and cold to the bone at that moment.

I acutely sensed real fear and danger in the room. In an instant I realized the calculated power coming from this person. If I resisted I knew that my punishment would be extreme.

His eyes were so blank, no emotion, no interaction, nothing was there.

I made the decision not to resist no matter what happened. I realized it would be a bad mistake for me to do so. He seemed to be completely divorced from reality. He was so strange that I realized that if I provoked him he could be extremely dangerous.

I let him undress me without resisting.

I was totally unprepared for what happened next.

He lay on top of me.

As far as I can tell he had no erection. However, using his hand in some way he managed to get his penis inside me.

Then for the next hour he did absolutely nothing at all. I mean nothing!

After the first twenty-five minutes I became about as frightened as I have ever been in my life. I felt as if in some perverse way he was telling me that he hated me as a female. I then began to feel that my mind was being ripped away from me by force.

That was the worst of it all. I really felt he coveted an aspect of my personality and he wanted it. This was weird, total control on a level I could not fathom at the time. I had no idea what was happening.

After half an hour I really thought I was going crazy. I couldn't move my body from underneath him, and I could feel he still had no erection.

He wouldn't look at me, but instead kept his head averted to the side and just gazed into space.

I had to discipline myself to keep from screaming because I felt I was having a nervous breakdown. Then I got the terrible thought that he was dead. He was hardly breathing. Then I thought he would kill me too. My thoughts became very morbid.

After an hour he got up and walked out.

I just lay there for ten minutes. Then mechanically I got dressed. Instantly after that I began crying hysterically. I cried and cried and cried....

I didn't say a word to anyone. (43)

After Quentin's death in 1976, Hubbard seemed to change. Before his son's suicide, he had been in rare good spirits, working with his messengers to produce movies.

But after Quentin's death, "he reverted to the familiar bellowing, foul-mouthed tyrant, plagued by phobias, surrounded by fools and besieged by enemies." (44)

Hubbard was deteriorating in body as well as in mind and spirit. He is described by a messenger upon meeting him for the first time, in the desert in California during the late seventies:

The first night I was there I didn't talk to LRH (Hubbard) since he was busy, but I saw him. He had long reddish-grey hair down past his shoulders, rotting teeth and a really fat gut. He didn't look anything like his pictures. The next day I met him. He was doing exercises in the courtyard and called me over. I was nervous meeting him. I was really surprised that I didn't feel this "electric something or other" that I was told happens when you are around him. (45)

Another messenger working with him in the desert says, in describing her first meeting with Hubbard, that:

I was working in the wardrobe department when I heard a barrage of abuse from behind a screen: "You dirty goddam sons of bitches, you're so goddam stupid. Fuck you, cocksuckers..." It seemed to go on for several minutes. I said, "Who in the world is that?" They said it was the Boss -- we weren't allowed to use the name Hubbard for security reasons. "You mean the leader of the church speaks like that?" I asked. "Oh, yes," was the reply, "he doesn't believe in keeping anything back." (46)

But later, in hiding in Hemet, his mood once again seemed to improve.

In the evenings he would reminisce to a small, but always attentive, audience. He was a good storyteller and it was nice to listen to him. He told us once how he was Tamburlaine's wife and how he had wept when Tamburlaine was routed in his last great battle. Another time he was on a disabled spaceship that landed here before life began and realized the potential and brought seeds back from another planet to fertilize planet earth.... (47)

This young follower said that he recalled:

... sitting on the floor with a couple of messengers while (Hubbard) played hillbilly songs on his guitar and talked about the time he had earned his living as a troubadour in the Blue Mountains. "I think he made up the songs as he went along.... Afterward, everyone clapped." (48)

During his last five years, fearing discovery by federal officials, Hubbard went into even deeper seclusion, retiring with three trusted messengers to a secret ranch in Creston, California. In a final glimpse, one of his neighbors, a man named Robert Whaley, said Hubbard could be seen:

... pottering around in baggy blue pants and a yellow straw hat, taking photographs. He was overweight, and with his white hair and white beard, reminded Whaley of Kentucky Chicken's Colonel Sanders. Once Whaley walked across to (the ranch) to see if he could borrow a tool and surprised the old man in the stable. (Hubbard) was busy filing a piece of metal and was evidently not pleased to see his neighbor: he glared suspiciously at Whaley for a second, then scurried off into a workshop without a word, locking the door behind him. (49)

To his followers, Hubbard was the Messiah, and the reincarnation of Buddha. In a poem called "Hymn of Asia," he had told them:

Everywhere you are I can be addressed
But in your temples best
Address me and you address
Lord Buddha
Address Lord Buddha
And then you address Meitreya. (50)

On January 24th, 1986, Hubbard died at his ranch in Creston of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea.

On January 27th, his followers gathered at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles for a briefing by the new head of Scientology, Hubbard's protege, David Miscavige. Miscavige announced that Hubbard had gone on to "his next level of research," a level done in a state exterior to the body:

Thus, at 2000 hours, Friday 24 January 1986, L. Ron Hubbard discarded the body he had used in this lifetime for seventy-four years, ten months and eleven days. The body he had used to facilitate his existence in this universe had ceased to be useful and in fact had become an impediment to the work he now must do outside its confines. The being we knew as L. Ron Hubbard still exists. Although you may feel grief, understand that he did not, and does not now. He has simply moved on to his next step. (Hubbard) in fact used this lifetime and body we knew to accomplish what no man has ever accomplished -- he unlocked the mysteries of life and gave us the tools so we could free ourselves and our fellow men.... (51)

Hubbard left most of his immense fortune to the church of Scientology.

For his funeral service, Hubbard had written his own eulogy:

And so we send into the chain of all enduring time our heritage, our hope, our friend. Goodbye, Ron. Your people thank you for having lived. Earth is a better place for your having lived.... We thank you for coming to us. We do not contest your right to go away. Your debts are paid. This chapter of thy life is shut. Go now, dear Ron, and live once more in happier time and place. Thank you, Ron. And now here lift up your eyes and say to him, Goodbye. Goodbye, our dear, goodbye. We'll miss you, you know.... Come friends. He's all right. And he's gone. We have our work to do and he has his. He will be welcome there. To man. (52)

L. Ron Hubbard is gone, but he leaves behind the legacy of his church, with its 100,000 dedicated members, working fervently to carry his dream of a "cleared planet" and a "new and better civilization" to the rest of the world.

To study a man like Hubbard demands a study of the nature of evil itself. Hubbard was faithful to the credo of his mentor, Aleister Crowley, which was to "do as thou wilt." Hubbard lived by no laws but his own.

There is an interesting story that once one of Hubbard's associates told him, "It would be nice if we could be closer friends," to which Hubbard replied, "Yes it would be nice, but I can't have any friends." (53) Hubbard was a psychological vampire; people existed for him to exploit -- their time, energy and assets sucked out and used to his profit.

Hubbard scorned his followers, refusing to be called a "Scientologist," in much the same way that a Scientologist scorns the label of "wog," refusing to be identified with the lower life forms outside Scientology ("wog" being the Scientology designation for a non-Scientologist).

There are signs, however, that Hubbard, "Source," had in the end fallen victim to his own trap; in the later days of his life he continued to audit himself daily in search of the elusive freedom he had packaged and marketed so successfully to others.

Hubbard, undoubtedly a genius, was most human at certain points in his life when he was able to admit to his vulnerabilities. One such moment was his letter written in the Navy in which he lamented his tendency to fail at everything but his writing, "the one line of success I have ever had." (54)

Another instance was his 1947 letter to the Veteran's Administration begging for psychiatric help. "Would you please help me?" he ends this pathetic letter, a call for help which apparently went unanswered. One can only wonder what the outcome might have been had he received that help. It is possible that his thousands of victims might have been spared; it is even possible that his formidable genius, channeled in a more positive direction, might have resulted in some more laudable achievement in the field of the mind.

Hubbard is gone, but his church -- Scientology -- lives on as the externalization of Hubbard's paranoia. We have only too recently seen the effect that one madman can have on history and the lives of millions. In the end, the success or failure of Scientology will depend on the inhabitants of the "wog" world, and whether they are willing to trade their freedom and sensibilities for the elusive promises of Scientology.

Notes

1. Corydon, p. 219
2. Ibid, p. 219
3. Ibid, p. 219
4. Ibid, p. 220
5. Ibid, p. 220
6. Miller, p. 26
7. Ibid, p. 43
8. Ibid, p. 59
9. Ibid, p. 68
10. Ibid, p. 93
11. Ibid, p. 95
12. Ibid, p. 98
13. Ibid, p. 99
14. Ibid, p. 107
15. Ibid, p. 107
16. Plaintiff's exhibit #336
17. Corydon, p. 49
18. Ibid, p. 50
19. Ibid, p. 53
20. Ibid, p. 53
21. Ibid, p. 163
22. Ibid, p. 307
23. Ibid, p. 282
24. Ibid, p. 192
25. Miller, p. 344
26. Ibid, p. 159
27. Ibid, p. 252
28. Ibid, p. 224
29. Ibid, p. 166
30. Ibid, p. 244
31. Professional Auditor's Bulletin No. 105
32. Miller, p. 247-9
33. Ibid, p. 279
34. Ibid, p. 266
35. Ibid, p. 267
36. Ibid, p. 320
37. Ibid, p. 321
38. Corydon, p. 175
39. Miller, p. 322
40. Ibid, p. 323
41. Ibid, p. 323
42. Corydon, p. 288
43. Ibid, p. 126
44. Miller, p. 348
45. Ibid, p. 348
46. Ibid, p. 354
47. Ibid, p. 362
48. Ibid, p. 362
49. Ibid, p. 373
50. Corydon, p. 15
51. Miller, p. 375
52. from a tape of the funeral service
53. Miller, p. 218
54. Ibid, p. 108

Chapter 3

The Propaganda of Scientology
-- "Playing for Blood..."

Douglas Hyde, the author quoted above, was for twenty years a dedicated Communist and the news editor of the London edition of the Daily Worker, a Communist newspaper.

Becoming disillusioned with the inconsistencies which he saw between the stated ideology of the Communist Party and the translation of that ideology into actual practice, Hyde rejected the Party, resigned his job, and eventually became converted to the Catholic Church. In 1966, he delivered a series of lectures to a convocation of Catholic leaders from at least five continents, and the book Dedication and Leadership consists of the transcripts of those lectures.

In the very first lecture, Hyde states:

If you ask me what is the distinguishing mark of the Communist, what it is that Communists most outstandingly have in common, I would say ... that beyond any shadow of doubt it is their idealism, their zeal, dedication, devotion to their cause and willingness to sacrifice.... The vast majority of the Communists I have met anywhere conform to this pattern. (1)

This same quote is equally true if it is read with the word "Scientologist" substituted for the word "Communist." This is also true of the following paragraph from the same lecture:

Youth is a period of idealism. The Communists [Scientologists] attract young people by appealing directly to that idealism. Too often, others have failed either to appeal to it or to use it and they are the losers as a consequence. We have no cause to complain if, having neglected the idealism of youth, we see others come along, take it, use it and harness it to their cause -- and against our own. (2)

Nowhere is there a group of predominantly young people more idealistic, more dedicated, more fervently devoted to their cause than in Scientology. Scientologists give their all -- their time, their energy, their money and assets, and even their children -- to the cause, frequently living in a manner that would seem comfortably familiar to, for example, a first-century Christian.

The fanatic dedication of the Scientologist does not come about by accident. It is carefully and systematically inculcated by the propaganda of Scientology, to which both the novice and seasoned Scientologist are exposed on a daily basis. Essential, therefore, to understanding both Scientology and the Scientologist is an examination of the propaganda, contained in the millions of words of Hubbard on tape recordings and in printed "bulletins" listened to or read daily by the Scientologist.

A distinction is made here between the propaganda of Scientology and that of Dianetics. In Dianetics, the new convert is led to believe in cures for an endless array of physical maladies, from asthma to allergies to cancer, and even to believe that through Dianetic and Scientology auditing there will be an exemption from death itself. It is fabled that through auditing, the Scientologist of advanced age will be able to simply "drop the body" at will, and without pain.

But it is through the propaganda of Scientology, separate from the sub-"science" of Dianetics, that the true programming of the Scientologist takes place, and it takes place as follows.

Upon entry into Scientology, the initiate is given a packet of written materials consisting of a series of printed "bulletins" written by Hubbard and serving as an introduction into the sect.

One of the first bulletins read by the initiate is the one called The Aims of Scientology. This bulletin is important because it delivers the very first message to the newcomer, the message that Scientology is A Good Thing:

A civilization without insanity, without criminals, and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.

First announced to an enturbulated world fifteen years ago, these aims are well within the grasp of our technology.

Non-political in nature, Scientology welcomes any individual of any creed, race or nation.

We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher states of being for the individual and for Society.

We are achieving our aims.

After endless millennia of ignorance about himself, his mind and the Universe, a breakthrough has been made for Man.

Other efforts Man has made have been surpassed.

The combined truths of fifty Thousand years of thinking men, distilled and amplified by new discoveries about Man, have made for this success.

We welcome you to Scientology. We only expect of you your help in achieving our aims and helping others. We expect you to be helped.

Scientology is the most vital movement on Earth today.

In a turbulent world, the job is not easy. But then, if it were, we wouldn't have to be doing it.

We respect Man and believe he is worthy of help. We respect you and believe you, too, can help.

Scientology does not owe its help. We have done nothing to cause us to propitiate. Had we done so, we would not now be bright enough to do what we are doing.

Man suspects all offers of help. He has often been betrayed, his confidence shattered. Too frequently he has given his trust and been betrayed. We may err, for we build a world with broken straws. But we will never betray your faith in us so long as you are one of us.

The sun never sets on Scientology.

And may a new day dawn on you, for those you love and for Man.

Our aims are simple, if great.

And we will succeed, and are succeeding at each new revolution of the Earth.

Your help is acceptable to us.

Our help is yours.

-- L. Ron Hubbard Founder

Similarly, in the next bulletin the newcomer to Scientology will read, called My Philosophy, he or she receives the message that the Founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, is a Good and Wise Man:

The first principle of my own philosophy is that wisdom is meant for anyone who wishes to reach for it. It is the servant of the commoner and king alike and should never be regarded with awe....

The second principle of my own philosophy is that it must be capable of being applied....

The third principle is that any philosophic knowledge is only valuable or true if it works....

A philosophy can only be a route to knowledge. It cannot be crammed down one's throat. If one has a route, he can then find what is true for him. And that is Scientology.

Know Thyself ... and the truth shall set you free....

I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself of the shadows which darken his days....

I have seen much human misery. As a very young man I wandered through Asia and saw the agony and misery of overpopulated and underdeveloped lands. I have seen people uncaring and stepping over dying men in the streets. I have seen children less than rags and bones. And amongst this poverty and degradation I found holy places where wisdom was great, but where it was carefully hidden and given out only as superstition. Later, in Western universities, I saw Man obsessed with materiality and with all his cunning, I saw him hide what little wisdom he really had in forbidding halls and make it inaccessible to the common and less favored man. I have been through a terrible war and saw its terror and pain uneased by a single word of decency or humanity.

I have lived no cloistered life and hold in contempt the wise man who has not lived and the scholar who will not share.

There have been many wiser men than I, but few have traveled as much road.

I have seen life from the top down and the bottom up. I know how it looks both ways. And I know there is wisdom and that there is hope.

But I have never seen wisdom do any good kept to oneself, and as I like to see others happy, and as I find the vast majority of the people can and do understand, I will keep on writing and working and teaching so long as I exist.

For I know no man who has any monopoly upon the wisdom of this universe. It belongs to those who can use it to help themselves and others.

If things were a little better known and understood, we would all lead happier lives.

And there is a way to know them and there is a way to freedom.

The old must give way to the new, falsehood must become exposed by truth, and truth, though fought, always in the end prevails.

-- L. Ron Hubbard

In all of the propaganda of Scientology, four lessons predominate:

1. That there is a problem.
2. That there is a solution to the problem.
3. That the solution can only be found in Scientology.
4. What will happen if the problem is not solved.

The first problem posed by Hubbard is the imminent danger of nuclear war. And it is only Scientology that has the potential to thwart this danger:

 

We are the only people and the only organizations on Earth which have the technology and the ambition to attempt a clarification of situations which in other hands are considered entirely out of control, to wit, the atomic bomb and the decay and confusion of central governments.

-- from Purpose, by L. Ron Hubbard

The use or neglect of this material (Scientology) may well determine the use or neglect of the atomic bomb by Man.... In the same period in history, two of the most sweeping forces Man has known have come to fruition: a knowledge of himself and others with Scientology, and a means of destroying himself and all others by atomic fission. Which force wins depends in a large measure on your use of Scientology.

The mission of Scientology is not conquest -- it is civilization. It is a war upon stupidity, the stupidity which leads us to the Last War of All.

As your associates, their homes, their children, their possessions and all their future lie ending in a radioactive street, there won't be time to wish we'd worked harder, been less easily dissuaded from pressing our arguments....

There is not much Earth time in which to distribute this knowledge. This is the solution to our barbarism out of which we would lose all.... It is time Man grew up. This is what we have in mind. For there can be but weeping in the night where ignorance, factionalism, hatred and exploitation are served by the most ferocious and final weapon of all -- the H-bomb.

With man now equipped with weapons sufficient to destroy all mankind on Earth, the emergence of a new science capable of handling man is vital. Scientology is such a science.... With Scientology man can prevent insanity, criminality and war.... The primary race of Earth is not between one nation and another today. The only race that matters at this moment is the one being run between Scientology and the atomic bomb. The history of man, as has been said by well-known authorities, may well depend upon which one wins.

-- from Fundamentals of Thought, by L. Ron Hubbard

The second problem posed by Hubbard is that mankind is caught in a trap, and that he has been in this trap for millions of years during which he has been recycling back to earth through an endless series of lifetimes. It is only through Scientology auditing that he can escape this trap:

 

In fifty thousand years of history on this planet alone, Man never evolved a workable system. It is doubtful if, in foreseeable history, he will ever evolve another.

Man is caught in a huge and complex labyrinth. To get out of it requires that he follow the closely taped path of Scientology.

Scientology will take him out of the labyrinth. But only if he follows the exact markings in the tunnels.

It has taken me a third of a century in this lifetime to tape this route out.

-- from Safeguarding Technology, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

We're free men and women -- probably the last free men and women on Earth.... If we don't do a good job now we may never get another chance.

So we have an organization, we have a chance.

That's more than we had last time night's curtain began to fall on freedom.

An organization such as ours is our best chance to get the most done. So we're doing it!

-- from Your Post, by L. Ron Hubbard

Is there a way out?

Yes there is.

We have it in Scientology now. I have found it and charted it. I know exactly how to open the gate.

-- from Escape, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depends on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.

-- from Keeping Scientology Working, by L. Ron Hubbard

The Scientologist is trained to believe that the salvation of mankind can only be achieved by the "science" of Scientology. That Scientology supersedes any other mental health technology. And that there is no other hope:

 

In all the broad universe there is no other hope for man than ourselves.

-- from Ron's Journal 1967, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

Let us face the reality of this thing. The world confronts several crises. Man's inhumanity to Man is gaining monuments daily. The time to bring a chaos under control is before it is well begun. We're slightly late as it is. Brutally, there is no other organization on Earth that can slow these down. Factually there is no other know-how on Earth that can plumb the problems of Man. So if we don't want all of us to be sitting amongst the charred embers, we had better get busy.

-- from The Eighteenth A.C.C., by L. Ron Hubbard

 

We are the first group on earth that knew what they were talking about. All right, sail in. The world's ours. Own it.

-- from The World Is Ours, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

Auditors have since the first session of Scientology been the only individuals on this planet in this universe capable of freeing Man.

-- from Auditors, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

(Scientology) is the only valid and fully tested mental process which Man has.

-- from The Road Up, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

Scientology is a science of life. It is the first entirely Western effort to understand life. All earlier efforts came from Asia or Eastern Europe. And they failed.... Scientology is something new under the sun, but young as it is, it is still the only completely and thoroughly tested and validated science of existence.

-- from The Problems of Work, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

Scientology, in less than a decade, has become the world's primary study of Man and the mind and has today more offices and practitioners than all other Nineteenth Century practices combined. Thus we must learn to bury the past of mental healing and look forward to our better day, the day of Scientology and new hope, the day of help without threat or harm, the day of a new and better civilization, born with the birth of a better understanding of Man.

-- from What is Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard

Through their training, Scientologists learn that they are the true elite in this world, and that one cannot be a good Scientologist unless he or she is tough and dedicated.

 

We're the elite of Planet Earth,...

-- from Current Planning, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

When somebody enrolls [in Scientology], consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe -- never permit an "open-minded" approach. If they're going to quit let them quit fast. If they enrolled, they're aboard, and if they're aboard, they're here on the same terms as the rest of us -- win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half-minded about being Scientologists. The finest organizations in history have been tough, dedicated organizations... It's a tough universe. The social veneer makes it seem mild. But only the tigers survive -- and even they have a hard time. We'll survive because we are tough and are dedicated. When we do instruct somebody properly he becomes more and more tiger. When we instruct half-mindedly and are afraid to offend, scared to enforce, we don't make students into good Scientologists and that lets everybody down. When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare and she'll win and we'll all win. Humor her and we all die a little.

-- from Keeping Scientology Working, by L. Ron Hubbard

Douglas Hyde, Communist turned Catholic, lists as one of the primary reasons for the success of Communist teaching the fact that the subject is always presented in global terms. That there is a global battle going on with "suffering, sweating, toiling humanity" on one side and with the new Communist Man on the other.

Scientology is also presented to believers in global terms as "The Road to Total Freedom" and as "The Only Hope for Mankind." The goal of every Scientologist is nothing less than to "Clear the planet," to ensure the salvation of every person on earth through the attainment of the Scientology state of "Clear."

Salvation of mankind through Scientology is an endeavor of vital importance and with global implications.

 

We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH.

-- from Policy Letter of 7 Nov 1962 of L. Ron Hubbard

 

The purpose of the Field Staff Member [a Scientologist] is:

To help LRH [Hubbard] contact, handle, salvage and bring understanding to individuals and thus the peoples of Earth.

-- from Field Auditors, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

Now, without further discourse, let's get hot. This is Scientology -- the freedom for Man. Let it be known.

-- from The Public Divisions, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

The Valuable Final Products of a Scientologist are:

DISSEMINATED KNOWLEDGE

PURCHASED BOOKS

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

A CLEARED PLANET

-- from Org Board Division Six, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

The witch and the pot; the test tube and the scope; the cell and the club; the textbook and the lies -- Control! Control them or we die! Beat them or they win! Starve them or we shrink. We are afraid! afraid! afraid! -- they said in that old age we killed.

Freedom becks and we now laughing at their lies, went free.

Scientology -- The Road Sign Out.

We are the Free People. We LIVE! We're FREE!

-- from We Are the Free People, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

My purpose is to bring a barbarism out of the mud it thinks conceived it and to form here on Earth a civilization based on human understanding, not violence.

That's a big purpose. A broad field. A star-high goal.

But I think it's your purpose, too.

-- from How We Work on the Third Dynamic, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

We are the prime movers in this, the new age. Forget the old. Face up to what will come. And let the dead yesterdays bury the philosophy of Authority and Capital Gains and Communist psychology cults. We're no longer tied.

The eons march on.... Perhaps, this time, due to our efforts, a humanitarian world can exist. We, the Prophets of the Morrow, know the way.

-- from Scientology: The Philosophy of a New Age, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

There is no greater game in the Universe than Scientology, for it is the only game in which everybody wins.

-- from Contests and Prizes, by L. Ron Hubbard

 

We are the people who are ending the cycle of homo sapiens and starting the cycle of a good earth.

There is no barrier on our path except those we make ourselves.

Our ability belongs to all worlds everywhere.

-- from What Is Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard

The excerpts given in this chapter are only a small sampling of the propaganda to which a Scientologist is exposed on a daily basis. The fact that exposure to such propaganda comes immediately after one has done a series of hypnotic, mind-numbing drills known as "training routines" serves only to render the propaganda more deeply ingrained and more ferociously grasped by the Scientologist.

These beliefs, instilled into the mind of a Scientologist through endless hours of listening to the rambling tape recorded lectures of Hubbard or through the volumes of printed bulletins which are required reading on the many "courses" or classes in Scientology, soon take precedence over any prior system of beliefs.

Within a relatively short time, Scientology is able to produce a fully programmed, doctrine espousing, bulletin believing and fanatic Scientologist, whose mind is lost behind the steely trap of cult programming, impervious to the logic and pleadings of well-intentioned family or friends.

Is there such a thing as thought control? Is it really possible for a mind to be brought under the full control of another?

Ask any ex-Scientologist. Or a fugitive from any cult, for that matter.

They will tell you that the answer is, incontrovertibly, yes. Our minds are programmed from birth by parents, teachers, friends, books, movies, commercials on radio and television, etc. But nowhere are the results of programming more insidious than in a cult such as Scientology.

Parents desperate to "rescue" their child from the grasp of a mind-bending cult such as Scientology find themselves impotent in the face of a legal system without meaningful precedents in the grey area of mind control. It is illegal for them to kidnap their child in order to deprogram the twisted cult thinking. The fact that the child has already been kidnapped, mentally, by the cult is not, legally, a factor.

Psychological kidnapping is not a crime.

Perhaps the only remedy for those still in relative possession of their critical faculties is a warning:

Cherish your mind and guard it well. And beware the Hubbards of the world who seek to capture and harness your mind for their own predatory purposes.

But for thousands of young people in this country and others, it is already too late.

Notes

1. Hyde, p. 15
2. Hyde, p. 17

Chapter 4

TRs the Hard Way --
"Flunk for Blinking! Start!"

One of the questions frequently asked of ex-Scientologists, usually by well-meaning but uninformed friends, goes something like this: "How could a smart person like you get into something as bizarre as Scientology?" Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question. Involvement in Scientology comes about as a result of a complex interplay of several ill-defined and esoteric factors, such as mind control, thought reform and social conditioning.

The process of indoctrination in Scientology is both ingenious and subtle; the initiate, believing himself to be on "the Road to Total Freedom," is drawn further and further into the trap.

Yet a close examination of the "process" of Scientology reveals that there are within this carefully designed system of manipulation and control some characteristics common to all cults and other forms of mind control.

How does the mind control within Scientology work? Let us take a look....

Within Scientology, a new person walking through the front door for the first time is known as "raw meat." In other words, he is food for the sharks.

Usually a person comes into Scientology for one of three reasons: he has heard the testimony of a (Scientologist) friend or family member, he has read the Dianetics book and become intrigued by its global promises; or he has come in for a free personality test offered by many Scientology organizations as a means of attracting "raw meat."

Once inside the front door, the person may take the free personality test, see a movie or sit through an introductory lecture, but the end result of all three is the same. After the test, movie or lecture, the newcomer will be interviewed by a Scientology "Registrar," whose job it is to get the person registered (signed up and paid for) for his first "course" in Scientology. For most people, the first course and point of entry into Scientology is called the "Communication Course."

The way that the Registrar is trained to accomplish this task is very interesting. He knows that he must "find the ruin" of the newcomer seated across from him. The ruin can be anything from shyness and inability to communicate, to marital problems, to addiction to a substance (drugs, alcohol, food, cigarettes), to a chronic physical problem such as asthma, or even cancer.

The Registrar knows that once he has succeeded in finding this ruin, he has the magic ticket to getting the person into Scientology.

If the person has taken the personality test, finding the ruin is easy -- just take the lowest score on the test and indicate to the person that this is their ruin, then get their agreement that this item, whatever it is, is a problem in their life.

No matter what the ruin, the prescription is the same: the Communication Course. Through this course the person is told that he will learn to communicate better, become happier, more confident, more responsible, and more "able." Communication, the universal solvent, contains the key for overcoming any problem in life. It is not unusual, the Registrar confides, for people who have taken this course to double or even triple their income.

Promises are made, anything is said or done to get the person to sign up for the Communication Course.

There is a reason for this pressure, for the hard sell. It is because, as the Registrar well knows, once the person begins this seemingly innocuous introductory course, he will be well on his way to becoming a Scientologist.

The cost of the course is nominal in comparison with other Scientology courses. It might be fifty or a hundred dollars. The length of the course is approximately two weeks, depending on frequency of attendance.

What the new person does not know is that this introductory course is booby-trapped; it is a literal mind-control mine-field. It is designed to convert the newcomer to Scientology so smoothly that he or she won't even be aware of the process.

How does it work?

We'll take an imaginary person named Mary. Mary stopped by the local Scientology center after a friend at work told her what a difference Scientology had made in her marriage. She gave Mary a copy of the Dianetics book, which Mary did her best to read, although she found Hubbard's rambling writing style somewhat difficult to understand.

Mary sat through a lecture on Scientology which left her even more confused. The lecturer says that Scientology can be used to "handle" any problem in life, but how, Mary wonders, does it work?

After the lecture, Mary is introduced to the Scientology Registrar. During a long and friendly interview, in which she is asked about areas in her life she would like to see improved, Mary discloses to the Registrar that she and her husband are having marital problems.

Now the Registrar has the vital key -- Mary's "ruin." That one area in her life that Mary would pay almost any price to see improved, or "handled."

"What you need," the Registrar assures Mary, "is the Communication Course. This is what is going to help your marriage. On this course you will learn vital communication techniques that you can use to improve your relationship with your husband."

"Don't you agree," he asks her, "that by improving your communication skills, you would be able to improve the quality of your marriage?"

"Yes, I suppose so," Mary answers tentatively.

The Registrar, having been trained and drilled in hard-sell sales techniques, begins to move toward the "close." He gives examples of other people who have been helped in their marriages by the course. He may even call someone over to his desk to "double-team" with him in closing Mary for the course.

"What have you got to lose?" he reasons with her. "If at the end of the course you're not 100% satisfied that the course has helped you, we'll give you your money back." He smiles as he hands her a pen and the enrollment form.

So she signs.

"Wonderful," says the Registrar. "You're going to love the course. And I just can't wait to hear about your `wins'."

It is not so different from buying a used car. Scientology is probably the only church in the world in which the first meaningful transactions are with the Registrar and the Cashier.

Mary is immediately given a "Routing Form," a list of "terminals" or people she must see in order to get started on the course. One of the first people she must see is the Cashier. Mary will also be interviewed by the "Ethics Officer," the "Director of Processing," and various other people, all of whom will assure her that she has just made one of the best decisions of her life.

Finally, Mary arrives in the courseroom where she is introduced to the "Course Supervisor," who in many cases will be wearing a military-appearing uniform, similar to a naval uniform, with shoulder epaulets, gold braid trim and a lanyard around the neck.

The Supervisor hands Mary her "course pack," a bound collection of "bulletins," printed articles written by Hubbard to be read on the course. At the beginning of the course pack is a checksheet, listing every item to be completed on the course, with a space for the student to initial that each item has been completed. Each completed item is assigned a certain number of points.

Mary is given a seat on the course.

Feeling slightly disoriented and somewhat overwhelmed, Mary begins to look through her course pack.

The first few bulletins in the pack are of an introductory nature, welcoming the student to Scientology. The bulletins are printed in different colors of ink, some in red, some in green and some in black. There seems to be some logic behind this, but Mary isn't sure what it is.

Mary looks around the courseroom. This is certainly different from any class I have ever taken before, she thinks to herself. Mary is seated at a table with several other students. There is no talking at the table except for one student who is checking out another student on a bulletin. Everyone else at the table is studying silently.

There is no teacher on this course. The Course Supervisor walks quietly around the room, making notes on a clipboard, occasionally stopping to watch a particular student or to hand a "pink-sheet" to a student needing correction. There seems to be an almost military atmosphere in the room. No talking except for checkouts is allowed.

In one of the first bulletins, Mary reads a set of rules for students on the course, called Students' Guide to Acceptable Behavior. All students must be on time for course. Breaks must be strictly observed. No drugs or alcohol may be consumed within twenty four hours of the course. Students are not allowed to discuss their "case" (problems) with each other, and they are not avowed to "evaluate" for or "invalidate" each other.

On one wall a large, smiling picture of Hubbard looks out over the room. There is also a life-sized bronze bust of Hubbard near the entrance to the room.

In the back of the room, Mary observes students sitting in pairs, facing each other and staring silently into each other's eyes. Another pair of students are staring at each other in the same way, but one of the students is saying obscene things to the other. Mary feels uncomfortable about this, but she doesn't want to say anything because she is new on the course and she thinks that although some things in this class seem strange, she must make an effort to understand what is happening. Besides, it doesn't seem to be bothering anyone else.

Mary, like all of us at times, has a tendency to devalue her own perceptions and feelings in favor of the perceptions and feelings of others. She doesn't want to cause trouble or make a scene.

At 10:30pm (this is an evening course), the Supervisor calls out in a loud voice, "That's it. End of course. Gather up your materials and prepare for after-class muster."

There is a flurry of noise and activity as books are closed and the students in the back of the room pull their chairs up to the tables in the center of the room.

Mary is given a piece of graph paper and she is shown how to graph her "stats" (statistics) for the night. She adds up the points of all the items she has completed on the checksheet and marks the total on her graph.

Then the Supervisor asks the students to share their "wins." Various students volunteer to give their testimonies about what they have learned this night on the course.

The Supervisor announces that there is a new student on the course. She introduces Mary. Everyone claps as Mary blushes. Mary has never been applauded before for anything she has done. The Supervisor asks Mary to share her "wins" from her first night on the course.

"Well," Mary begins, "it's all very new to me. I hope I'm going to learn a lot here. It just seems different at first. But everyone has been very friendly, and I'm looking forward to learning what this is all about."

There is more applause. The student on Mary's right puts his hand on Mary's shoulder. "Welcome," he says approvingly, looking directly into her eyes and smiling.

On the way out of the building, several students stop Mary and tell her how glad they are that she is on the course. "You'll really like it," they assure her. "And this stuff really works, you'll see!"

In her car on the way home, Mary feels some stirring of hope as she thinks about her husband. Maybe this will help us, she thinks wistfully. Certainly nothing else has. As she thinks back over the events of the night, one thing seems to stick in her mind. Everyone in Scientology seems so friendly. And happy. They seemed genuinely happy. Maybe there is something to Scientology after all....

Mary has just taken her first step toward becoming a Scientologist.

As the newcomer to Scientology begins the Communication Course, he or she learns that in addition to the bulletins, the course consists of a series of drills, called "training routines," designed to train a person to "communicate better." What the person does not know, or even suspect, is that these drills are actually a sophisticated set of mind control processes designed to convert the newcomer into a confirmed Scientologist.

In the first training routine, called "TR-0" for Training Routine Zero, two students sit in chairs facing each other, knees almost touching, and they look into each other's eyes without blinking for a prolonged period of time. If either student blinks, moves, twitches, or has tearing of the eyes, etc., he or she will be flunked and told to restart the drill.

During TR-0, a student may hallucinate, and will almost certainly experience some sort of dissociation; however, the drill is continued until the student can effortlessly maintain an unblinking stare with his partner.

In the second training routine, called TR-0 "bullbaited," the students do TR-0 as in the first drill, but one of the two students must "bullbait" the other and "flatten his buttons." In other words, the student is to say or do anything at all to make the other student react, and then flunk the student for reacting. This drill is continued until each student can confront anything the partner says or does without reacting.

In doing TR-0 "bullbaited," students commonly use explicitly sexual material to provoke a reaction. This can include physically touching the student. Verbal abuse is also condoned in this drill, with the justification that such abuse occurs in life and in "auditing," and the student must be prepared to "handle" it.

Aha! Suddenly a hidden agenda has appeared on this course, and it is surprising that so few students on the Communication Course recognize it when it does occur.

The person coming into Scientology has been sold the Communication Course to solve problems in his life. Yet, the wording in the instructions for the TRs, or training routines, suddenly makes reference to the fact that the new student is doing these drills to become more effective as an "auditor" ("auditor" being the name for a Scientology counselor). For example, in the instructions for TR-0, Hubbard states:

To train student to confront a preclear (someone not yet a Clear) with auditing only or with nothing.

In other words, the student comes to accept the fact that one of the reasons for this course is to train him to be an "auditor." It is amazing that students on this course accept this subtle transition without question.

One analyst of the Communication Course, Ford Schwartz, wryly observes in an unpublished paper that the certificate for completing the Communication Course does not even mention the word "communication." The certificate for completing the Communication Course certifies the student as a "Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist", or "H.A.S." Whether he likes it or not, upon completing the Communication Course, the new student has become a Scientologist. Pretty slick!

In TR-1, the student is taught to give a command "newly and in a new unit of time," by picking phrases out of the book Alice in Wonderland and reading them to another student. Phrases such as:

"Would you please tell me why you are painting those roses?"

"Oh, please mind what you're doing!"

"Off with her head!"

"Curiouser and curiouser!"

"You shouldn't make jokes if it makes you so unhappy."

"Call the next witness!"

"Oh, you wicked, wicked little thing."

"Oh, you can't help that, we're all mad here!"

are used in this drill.

In TR-2, a student is trained to control the communication of the other person by the use of acknowledgements. So for each phrase read to him out of Alice, he will respond with a firm: "Thank you!" or "All right!" or "I got that!"

In the third and fourth drills, a person is trained to get an answer to a question asked despite all efforts of the other person to distract him. The questions used in these drills are: "Do fish swim?" and "Do birds fly?" The drill is not passed until the person doing the drill gets a satisfactory answer to his question. By the time this drill is passed, the student has learned to manipulate the communication of another person.

On one of the four "advanced TRs," the student learns to control the movements of another by shouting commands at him or her, such as:

"Walk over to that wall!" (Then when it is done:) "Thank you!"

"Touch that wall!" "Thank you!"

"Walk over to that chair!" "Thank you!"

"Touch that chair!" "Thank you!" Etc.

When the student has learned to control another person, then he learns to control objects as well. He is seated facing a chair with an ashtray on it, and he must shout commands at the ashtray with such intensity that the ashtray will rise up off the chair on its own. Of course it never does, but this does not deter the Scientologist from continuing to try! The commands used on the ashtray are:

"Stand up!" (The person doing the drill then raises the ashtray with his hands and shouts:) "Thank you!"

"Sit down on that chair!" (He lowers the ashtray to the chair.) "Thank you!"

"Stand up!" "Thank you!" Etc.

What do these drills have to do with communication? Perhaps not as much as they have to do with the subject of control -- specifically, learning to control and to be controlled by others.

In her book, Cults in America, Willa Appel outlines the three stages in any thought reform conversion process. First the person is isolated, physically and symbolically, from his past. Second, he is stripped of his identity through the mechanisms of humiliation and guilt. Third, the person is converted to a new identity and world view, the world view of the cult. (1)

This process is clearly evident in the Communication Course in Scientology, and this process exists in Scientology not by accident, but by careful design.

The process of isolation from the past is both subtle and overt. The propaganda of Scientology overtly degrades many of the institutions in which the recruit has previously placed his trust: family, friends, the government, educational institutions, and the established healing professions, to name a few.

Some of the ways in which this process of devaluation take place are more subtle, for example the use of the term "wog," a derogatory term used in Scientology to refer to all non-Scientologists. Through the use of this word, the new Scientologist soon comes to understand that he, by virtue of being in Scientology, is now superior to everyone not in Scientology,

Another technique used to separate the individual from his past is the renaming of everyday objects and experiences to new names unique to Scientology, and understood only by Scientologists. For example, "reality" becomes "agreement"; "love" is renamed "ARC"; the marital relationship is called the "second dynamic"; the soul becomes the "thetan"; an argument becomes an "ARC break"; a problem becomes a "PTP"; a secret becomes a "withhold"; even God is renamed the "eighth dynamic."

Before he has been in Scientology very long, the initiate has become versed in a language known only inside the cult, creating a very real barrier between himself and friends or family outside the cult. As he increasingly adopts the jargon of the cult, he can only be understood by other cult members.

For example, if a new Scientologist were to approach his college professor and tell him that the reason he doesn't have his homework done is that he had a "PTP because of a missed withhold on the second dynamic," chances are that he will get a blank stare from the professor. Yet every Scientologist understands what this means.

The second stage of cult conversion is the stripping away of the old identity, and this is accomplished in many ways in Scientology.

The depersonalization of the individual in Scientology begins the moment he first walks in the front door. The person learns from the beginning to doubt and disregard his own perceptions.

For example, what kind of church offers free personality tests to lure people in the front door? Why are hard-sell sales techniques used to market a class in communication? Why are the church members in uniform? Why are there so many odd new words? Why are people doing these bizarre drills? What is really going on here???

But instead of being allowed to question, the person is led to believe that all these things are a part of the status quo of the "church" and that they are to be accepted without question.

Even during the initial sales presentation, the person's normal thinking process is bypassed, as he is pressured into taking a course he knows very little about, except for the glowing promises made by the Registrar.

In his book, Deprogramming for Do-it-Yourselfers, R.K. Heller points out that "highly orchestrated sales presentations may have the same effect as chanting; a person cannot hear his own thoughts. Questioning is postponed; then the question, forgotten." (2)

The result of the sales presentation in Scientology is that the person becomes convinced that he has a problem, and that Scientology provides the only answer to his problem. Before he gets to the classroom, the student is subjected to a "routing form" in which he must submit to (be interviewed by) several authority figures in the organization before being allowed "on course" -- the gauntlet approach to education.

Once on the course, the person suddenly finds himself in a quasi-military situation, again within a "church," and this seems to be accepted by everyone as the normal course of affairs. Because of social conditioning, the person avoids asking an obvious or embarrassing question for fear of social rejection. This same social conditioning, the desire to please others and not question, together with carefully planned group reinforcement, provide incentive for the new person to gradually surrender his old identity and accept the new identity of "Scientologist."

When the new student is introduced, he or she is greeted with applause, decreasing the odds that he will raise any objections while on the course. To do so would be to bite the hand that feeds him.

In studying the Scientology materials, the new student quickly learns that to question any of the writings of Hubbard is expressly forbidden. Any disagreement with the contents of the materials of the course are considered to be a misunderstanding on the part of the student. He is advised to "look up his misunderstood word," to see what it was that he has not properly understood. Doubting the materials is not permitted, as "doubt" is a "lower condition," punishable within Scientology.

A student in Scientology is forbidden to ask questions, to think or to doubt.

The new person in Scientology is "love bombed," i.e., given much attention and approbation for simply being there. The honeymoon, however, is short-lived. The new Scientologist soon learns that continued love and acceptance is conditional upon his giving time or money on a continuing basis to the organization.

A student is not considered a "completion" on the Communication Course until he is ready and eager to sign up for the next course in Scientology. So the real result of the Communication Course is that the person has become a Scientologist (it says so on his certificate), and that he is motivated to continue further indoctrination in Scientology in the form of "his next course."

The conclusion, according to Ford Schwartz, is that the Communication Course of Scientology is a "manipulative, systematic process, an integral part of which is the conversion of new members. It is the subtlety with which the transformation takes place which makes it a threat to unsuspecting people."

And, as Schwartz describes, the new member is being subjected to a hidden agenda of which he is totally unaware:

• The person has come into Scientology with a normal life problem, and is induced to take a course in "communication" which will help him with this problem.

   

• He is subjected to a hard sell approach which plays upon his vulnerability; he is made a number of promises concerning this course and what it will do in his life.

   

• In his dealings with the church, he is immediately and thereafter placed in an inferior position and is thereby more susceptible to manipulation and control.

   

• He is subjected to high-stress drills which can produce dissociative states and hallucinations.

   

• His past educational experience and accomplishments are negated.

   

• Key words in his native language are redefined, creating shifts in understanding and manipulation of thought to conform to the paradigm of the cult.

   

• The hidden agenda of becoming a Scientologist is subtly introduced during the Communication Course.

Slowly and subconsciously, the student soon comes to identify him or herself with the group and with the new identity of being a Scientologist.

The student is no longer free to think, question or doubt.

What is remarkable is the smoothness with which the transition to the new paradigm of Scientology is made by most people who take this course. Social conditioning, learned behavior assimilated throughout life, becomes a liability in dealing with the sinister manipulation of a cult like Scientology. The student walks, unthinking, into the trap.

In the greatest redefinition of all, the new Scientologist, believing himself to be on the "Road to Total Freedom," is instead on the road to becoming a willing slave.

Notes

1. Appel, p. 77
2. Heller, p. 91

Chapter 5

Dianetics --
May You Never Be the Same Again

The book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is to Scientologists much the same as the Bible is to Christians: the indisputable word of God (Hubbard) which provides the rationale for belief and the basis for faith. Interestingly, just as there are many Christians who do not read the Bible, there are many Scientologists who either have not read Dianetics, or who have tried to read it and been put off by its style, which one writer calls "abstruse, rambling, repetitive, studded with confusing neologisms and littered with interminable footnotes." (1)

In spite of its style, however, the Dianetics book was a publisher's dream. Although the original printing of the book was a cautious 6,000 copies and initial sales were slow, by the end of 1950 sales had reached over 150,000 copies. The book sparked an avalanche of interest across the country in this new do-it-yourself psychotherapy.

Part of the success of the book had to do with the sweeping promises made by Hubbard throughout the book. Never one to be modest, Hubbard claimed that in Dianetics, "the hidden source of all psychosomatic ills and human aberration has been discovered and skills have been developed for their invariable cure."

He grandiloquently surveys the scope of Dianetics in the beginning of the book: "A science of mind is a goal which has engrossed thousands of generations of man. Armies, dynasties and whole civilizations have perished for the lack of it. Rome went to dust for the want of it. And down in the arsenal is an atom bomb, its hopeful nose full-armed in ignorance of it."

"No quest," he continues, "has been more relentlessly pursued or has been more violent. No primitive tribe, no matter how ignorant, has failed to recognize the problem as a problem, nor has it failed to bring forth at least an attempted formulation."

In Dianetics, he concluded, the answer has at last been found.

His promises of salvation were like manna from heaven for the thousands of souls who sought then, and still seek, relief from the vicissitudes of life. Like shipwreck survivors in a tossing sea, people by the thousands grasped desperately for the lifeline Hubbard was dangling from the passing rescue ship. The recently formed Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, was soon inundated with calls and letters requesting more information about the new "science."

The problem, according to Hubbard, was basically simple. The mind is actually like a computer. "The optimum brain," he writes in Evolution of a Science, a small book telling the story of his discovery of Dianetics, "should be able to recall any perception, even the trivial, asleep and awake from the beginning of life to death. It should think with such swiftness that vocal pondering would be utterly unable to keep pace with a thousandth part of one computation. And ... it should never be wrong." (2)

The mind, which in Dianetics theory is composed of what are called the "memory banks," "contains a complete color-video record of a person's whole life. Every perception observed in a lifetime is to be found in the (memory) banks. All the perceptions. In good order." (3)

The memories, he continues, "are filed by time. They have an age and emotional label, a state of physical being label, and a precise and exhaustive record of everything perceived by organic sensation, smell, taste, tactile, audio and visio perceptics plus the train of thought of the analyzer of that moment." (4)

But something must be wrong. Most of us cannot remember every memory, awake and asleep, of our lives. Why not?

There is, Hubbard explains, a villain in the piece, a villain known in Dianetics as the "reactive mind." The reactive mind is the dark side of the mind, similar in function to the subconscious mind of psychoanalysis.

The reactive mind thinks in identities. It is a stimulus-response mind. Its actions are exteriorly determined. It has no power of choice. It puts physical pain data forward in an effort to save the organism. So long as its mandates and commands are obeyed it withholds the physical pain. As soon as the organism starts to go against its commands, it inflicts the pain. (5)

The contents of the reactive mind are "engrams," and other memories which function as reminders of the engrams, called "locks."

An engram is an energy picture. It is made during a period of physical pain when the analyzer is out of circuit and the organism experiences something it conceives to be or which is contrary to survival. An engram is received only in the absence of the analytical power. (6)

The engram contains the memory of actual physical pain and unconsciousness, known in Dianetics as "anaten."

For example, suppose Johnny is playing with his sister Susie in the kitchen while Mommy is doing the laundry. It is raining outside. There is the sound of running water and the smell of bleach in the air.

Susie hits Johnny on the right side of his head with a toy, hard enough to cut his skin and knock him unconscious momentarily. The elements of an engram are present: pain and unconsciousness. The memory of this experience would be filed in Johnny's reactive mind as an engram.

Years later, the adult Johnny finds that every time it rains, he tends to get a headache, and it is always on the right side of his head. His mysterious headaches also occur whenever his wife does the laundry and he hears water running or smells the odor of bleach. Experiences which are similar in content to an original engram produce the same body responses as in the engram being "restimulated."

But through Dianetic auditing, Hubbard promises, Johnny can be taken back in time through earlier and earlier memories of headaches (the locks) to the original engram which holds the chain of memories in place in the mind. Once Johnny is able to recall the original memory of the time when he was hit in the head by Susie, then the engram is discharged and can no longer produce reactive effects in the present.

In this way, Hubbard promises that freedom from all psychosomatic problems can be achieved with Dianetic auditing. The person who, through auditing, discharges all the engrams from his reactive mind will achieve the state of "clear," in which he no longer has a reactive mind. Its contents have been refiled in the analytical mind and are available for conscious recall by the "clear."

Refile the reactive memories and the whole conscious lifetime of the individual springs into view, brilliant and clear, unmodified by the by-pass circuits which are madness. Reduce the reactive mind and the optimum mind for the individual comes into view. (7)

If Dianetics had sprung full-blown from the mind of Hubbard, and if Dianetics in practice yielded the stellar results promised for it, then Hubbard might have achieved legitimate fame.

The fact is that in Dianetics, Hubbard's genius was more for synthesis than for thesis. While in the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in 1945, Hubbard spent many hours in the medical library, doing research which would find its fruition in the publication of Dianetics five years later.

One man who has researched Hubbard's researches, Jeff Jacobsen, says that in creating Dianetics, Hubbard may have drawn from the works of at least seven well known researchers in the field of the mind, some of whose writings were published just prior to Hubbard's stay in Oak Knoll. This writer states that Hubbard drew from the work of two men, Drs. Sadger and Pailthorpe, who published in the Psychoanalytic Review in 1941, and who stressed the importance of prenatal memories in mental pathology. (8)

Other sources for Dianetics cited by Jacobsen include Freud's abreaction therapy, in which early memories are relived, thereby discharging their power in later life; Korzybski's General Semantics, in which a concept very similar to the reactive mind is explored; the book The Mneme by Simon, where the word "engram" was originally coined; and the science of Cybernetics, which was very popular at the time Hubbard was writing Dianetics.

Hubbard always claimed that a great deal of research and testing had gone into Dianetics:

The discoveries and developments which made the formulation of Dianetics possible occupied many years of exact research and careful testing. (9)

Discovered, computed, and organized by L. Ron Hubbard, mathematician and theoretical philosopher, DIANETICS has been under study for twenty-five years and in active formulation for the past eleven. (10)

By early 1950 over two hundred patients had been tested; of those two hundred people, two hundred cures had been obtained. Dianetics is a science because by following readily prescribed techniques, which can be specifically stated, based on definitely stated basic postulates, a specifically described result can be obtained in every case. (11)

Hubbard applied the first step of the scientific method: he stated his hypothesis. Unfortunately, he ignored the remaining steps of the scientific process. It was his promise of scientific testing that drew some of the early professionals into Hubbard's early circle.

Hubbard's failure to produce even a single empirical test for Dianetics was also the reason why many of these same professionals left Hubbard almost as quickly as they had come.

Jacobsen states, "Anyone can make as many outlandish claims as he wants, but the research must be accessible and reproducible to support those claims if he brandishes scientific validity." (12)

Dianetics, and Scientology for that matter, have yet to be subjected to empirical validation by the scientific method. And until they are, these "mental sciences" remain just another brand of snake oil.

As the practice of Dianetics evolved during the early 1950s, Hubbard began to introduce the concept of past lives into auditing with increasing frequency, another clue to his relationship with his mentor, Aleister Crowley, in whose occult circle the pursuit of past life memories was a frequent diversion.

The addition of the occult belief system in reincarnation surfaced publicly in Scientology in 1958, in another strange Hubbard book, Have You Lived Before This Life? In the Introduction to this book, Hubbard writes:

In the past the term reincarnation has mystified man. The definition has been corrupted. The word has been taken to mean to be born again in different life forms, whereas its actual definition is to be born again into the flesh or into another body. In order that there can be rebirth, something must enter in. This is the being, the person himself. It is YOU.

The existence of past lives is proven in Scientology.

The concept of reincarnation and Man's belief in the past and future continuum is as old as Man himself. It can be traced to the beginnings of thirty-one primitive cultures and has dominated almost every religion through history as a pivotal belief.

The Egyptians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jainists, Sikhists, Brahmans, Neo Platonists, Christians, Romans, Jews and Gnostics all believed in reincarnation and the rebirth cycle.

It was a fundamental belief in the Roman Catholic Church until 553 AD when a company of four monks held the Synod of Constantinople, (without the Pope present) and decided the belief could not exist. They condemned the teachings of reincarnation as heresy and it was at this time that references to it were expunged from the Bible.

Without reference to the subject as the written word, the belief fell to the mystics and spiritualists of the middle ages. These too, were defeated, but the belief persisted and again was rediscovered in the 19th century in the beginnings of psychology.

Freud and Jung acknowledged Man's belief in his own immortality and reincarnation. Their mistake was only in assigning this basic truth to imagination or fantasy.

Today in Scientology, the stigma of the subject has been erased and verification of the existence of past lives is fact.

To some these facts may come as a surprise. To others it may be as casual as looking at an old photo album. But to everyone it will be a unique and enlightening adventure into the past, all in the course of discovering a brighter future. (13)

The "remembering" of past lives in Dianetics has become tradition. In Dianetic auditing the student is coaxed to remember earlier and earlier experiences. He will know from other students that memory of past lives is expected. The expectation is enforced by a process called "Review auditing," in which the student reluctant or unable to "remember his past lives" is given special "remedies" to handle this obstacle. The fact that the Review auditing is even more expensive than regular auditing -- at several hundred dollars an hour -- provides incentive for the student to overcome his inability to "remember" as quickly as possible.

In Dianetic auditing, procedure is followed strictly by the book. A set of rote commands is used in this auditing, and they must be delivered exactly as written. The "items" to be "run" are various physical or psychosomatic problems that are located in an assessment done on the E-meter before the Dianetic auditing is begun. Examples of "somatics" that can be run in Dianetics are: a sharp pain in the forehead, pain in the stomach, a burning sensation in the eyes, feeling hot, an itching sensation on the skin, or a feeling of fear, sadness, anger, etc.

The commands used in Dianetics go something like this:

"Locate an incident containing `a sharp pain in the forehead'."

"When was it?"

"What is the duration of the incident?"

"Move to the beginning of the incident and tell me when you are there."

"What do you see?"

"Scan through to the end of the incident."

"Tell me what happened."

"Is there an earlier incident containing `a sharp pain in the forehead'?"

Etc.

An interesting example of "running past lives" is given in Hubbard's book, Have You Lived Before This Life?, and is reproduced here. The dialogue alternates between "Preclear" (person being audited) and the Auditor.

AUDITOR: Are you interested in running "pain in the left side?"

PRECLEAR: Yes.

AUDITOR: OK. Locate an incident of another causing you "pain in the left side."

PRECLEAR: Yes. Go to one.

AUDITOR: Good. When was it?

PRECLEAR: It was my accident two months ago.

AUDITOR: Good. Move to that incident.

PRECLEAR: OK.

AUDITOR: What is the duration of the incident?

PRECLEAR: Well, less than a minute.

AUDITOR: OK. Move to the beginning of the incident.

PRECLEAR: Uh huh. (eyes closed)

AUDITOR: What do you see?

PRECLEAR: A street and the inside of my car.

AUDITOR: All right. Move through the incident to a point "less than a minute" later.

PRECLEAR: (Preclear does this and then opens his eyes)

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: I started up when the light turned green then suddenly I heard brakes and it was like a big bump -- but really hard -- as the other car crashed into the side of my car. I smacked into the car door just as it buckled, then my car slid off to the right and came to a stop against a street lamp.

AUDITOR: OK. Move to the beginning of the incident. Tell me when you are there.

PRECLFAR: All right.

AUDITOR: OK. Scan through to the end of the incident.

PRECLEAR: (silent) OK.

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: I was starting into the intersection and I heard the screech of brakes. And then a smash as his car plowed into mine. The car door buckled just as I was slammed against it. Then my car skidded to the right and into a street lamp post. I was startled. I felt my side and it was all bloody. Then it started to hurt. I held my hand there to stop the bleeding. I thought I'd die.

AUDITOR: All right. Is there an earlier incident of another causing you "pain in the left side?"

PRECLEAR: Yes, there is.

AUDITOR: Good. When was it?

PRECLEAR: 1962 -- spring.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to that incident.

PRECLEAR: Uh huh.

AUDITOR: What is the duration of the incident?

PRECLEAR: About a week.

AUDITOR: OK. Move to the beginning of the incident.

PRECLEAR: OK. (eyes closed)

AUDITOR: What do you see?

PRECLEAR: The football field and stadium at my high school.

AUDITOR: All right. Move through the incident to a point "about a week" later.

PRECLEAR: (silently does this, then looks up)

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: I went out for the track team and after school we jogged around and around the field -- to get into shape. I got an excruciating pain in my side almost every day for two weeks.

AUDITOR: OK. Move to the beginning of the incident. Tell me when you are there.

PRECLEAR: I'm there.

AUDITOR: Good. Scan through to the end of the incident.

PRECLEAR: (silently does this) OK.

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: We ran around and around the field and the coach pushed us a little harder each day and each day the pain would turn on in my side. It hurt terribly.

AUDITOR: All right. Is there an earlier incident of another causing you "pain in the left side?"

PRECLEAR: Ummm ... (long pause) yes, I guess so.

AUDITOR: Good. When was it?

PRECLEAR: World War I, I think. It was 1917.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to that incident.

PRECLEAR: OK. I did it.

AUDITOR: Good. What is the duration of the incident?

PRECLEAR: 2 or 3 minutes -- It's pretty short.

AUDITOR: OK. Move to the beginning of the incident.

PRECLEAR: OK. (eyes closed)

AUDITOR: Fine. what do you see?

PRECLEAR: Well, I can see No Man's Land in the flashes of explosions and a soldier coming at me with a bayonet.

AUDITOR: Good. Move through the incident to a point "2 or 3 minutes" later.

PRECLEAR: (silent -- then opens his eyes)

AUDITOR: What happened?

PRECLEAR: I was up over the embankment out in front of the trenches and suddenly I saw a soldier coming at me with his bayonet. He stabbed me in the side with it.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to the beginning of the incident. Tell me when you are there.

PRECLEAR: Uh huh.

AUDITOR: Scan through to the end of the incident.

PRECLEAR: (does so, silently) Uh huh.

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: I was out in front of the trenches -- we were running forward. There were cannons firing and there were flashes from explosions now and then. I suddenly saw an enemy soldier. I called out to warn the men I was with. The soldier leapt at me with his bayonet and stabbed me in the side. It hurt a lot and I bled a lot. I was taken back to a field hospital behind the lines where I died a few days later.

AUDITOR: All right. Is there an earlier incident of another causing you "pain in the left side?"

PRECLEAR: Let me see ... yes, there is.

AUDITOR: Good. when was it?

PRECLEAR: Oh, it had to be... it was, 1823.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to that incident.

PRECLEAR: OK

AUDITOR: Good. What is the duration of the incident?

PRECLEAR: 5 minutes.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to the beginning of that incident.

PRECLEAR: All right. (eyes closed)

AUDITOR: What do you see?

PRECLEAR: A gate house, 2 horses, trees, a road.

AUDITOR: OK. Move through the incident to a point "5 minutes" later.

PRECLEAR: (silent -- then opens eyes)

AUDITOR: What happened?

PRECLEAR: I had ridden up the road towards a big estate. I'd stopped at the gate house and was just getting back onto my horse when he shied and threw me against another rider next to me. I hurt my side against his boot and stirrup. It was very painful and I had to be helped back onto my horse and I rode slowly on up the road.

AUDITOR: All right. Move to the beginning of the incident. Tell me when you are there.

PRECLEAR: Yes.

AUDITOR: Scan through to the end of the incident.

PRECLEAR: (silent) OK.

AUDITOR: Tell me what happened.

PRECLEAR: I had been riding fast to give my neighbor some news -- I was very upset -- I don't know what about though it seems like someone had died or was dying. I stopped to tell the gateman what had happened. I ran out to get on my horse and as I was mounting, the horse shied and threw me to the left. I landed against the boot and stirrup of a rider next to me, then fell to the ground. It knocked the wind out of me and hurt like the dickens. I was helped up onto my horse. (Preclear laughs) Well that's a relief -- I mean the pain's gone -- that's all there was to it -- I scared my horse. Oh! and that's why I hurt so much when I was running in school -- it was like riding the horse that day -- pushing him faster and faster. And then the pain would start. It was the same pain. No wonder. Well, that's the end of that. (Preclear grinning) (14)

A successful Dianetics session always ends with a "cognition" on the part of the Preclear, as well as what are called in Dianetics "very good indicators," meaning that the Preclear is smiling and looking good.

In Hubbard's writings about Dianetics, he claims to be able to cure almost every illness imaginable. For example, in the inner front flap of the original Dianetics book jacket:

Psychosomatic ills such as arthritis, migraine, ulcers, allergies, asthma, coronary difficulties (psychosomatic -- about one third of all heart trouble cases), tendonitis, bursitis, paralysis (hysterical), eye trouble (non-pathological), have all responded as intended by the therapist, without failure in any case.

The claims made for the "clear" in the Dianetics book are spectacular.

A clear can be tested for any and all psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions (all aberrations) and can be examined for any autogenic (self-generated) diseases referred to as psychosomatic ills. These tests confirm the clear to be entirely without such ills or aberrations. Additional tests of his intelligence indicate it to be high above the current norm. Observation of his activity demonstrates that he pursues existence with vigor and satisfaction. (15)

Hubbard harbored a special grudge against psychiatrists. In a policy letter on psychiatry, he states:

A full psychoanalysis covering five years cost a decade ago 9000 pounds (British sterling). Yet we furnish far more lasting a result for $500.... It costs about $75,000 to educate a psychiatrist who can obtain no good result. For $500 or less we can train a Hubbard Dianetic auditor who can run rings around any commie psychiatrist on the planet.... Any HAS (the lowest level Scientologist) knows more and can do more about the mind than any psychiatrist. (16)

Hubbard claimed that Dianetics could cure leukemia:

Leukemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukemia have been treated successfully by Dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase "It turns my blood to water." (17)

In A History of Man, Hubbard claims the ability to cure the ultimate disease -- cancer.

Mitosis is an incident. Cellular division, once or many times, is on common record. Mitosis answers the conditions for the other type of cancer -- malignant cell.

Cancer has been eradicated by auditing out conception and mitosis. (18)

The sad fact is that there have been many cases of people in Scientology seeking cures for cancer and other terminal conditions through Dianetic auditing, and sadly, ignoring more traditional medical help that might have prolonged their lives.

Hubbard claimed many times to have the answer to every type of psychosis and neurosis, announcing at one time that these cases could be handled in between eight to thirty-five hours of auditing.

Some of the most interesting Hubbard curiosa occur when he attempts to expound upon medical topics. One such example is outlined in a policy he wrote concerning arthritis:

Arthritis, then, is structurally a deposit of calcium, or other mineral, in an area which has been restricted by an old injury. The injury is held in suspension and in place in the area by restimulation of the environment which contains some of the factors present when that area was injured. It is a condition of such an injury, in order to be in suspension sufficiently to cause arthritis, that the sufferer himself must have administered a like injury to another person. (19)

And in another curious bulletin on eyesight and eyeglasses, Hubbard writes:

It is interesting to know that a thetan doesn't look through his eyeballs. He has two little gold discs, one in front of each eye lens. These are not the lenses of the eyes, but, as you might say, mocked-up energy. They are little gold discs that are superimposed over the eye and he looks through these. The eyeballs merely serve to locate these discs. (20)

By auditing the person on these discs, Hubbard claims to produce fantastic changes in eyesight. In the same bulletin, Hubbard explains astigmatism:

Astigmatism, a distortion of image, is only an anxiety to alter the image. You get an astigmatic condition when a person is trying to work it over into a substitute, if he possibly can. Here again it is a case of not enough -- he didn't have enough.

Is that clear?

Hubbard claimed that auditing could eliminate a person's vulnerability to radiation, and he claimed that Scientologists would, as a result, be the only persons to live through World War III. He first wrote:

As cosmic rays, gamma, x-rays, et al, apparently move through solids without encountering resistance, they then invalidate solids. This is a direct invalidation of the solidity of anything including a mock-up. Thus it tends to say a thing is not there -- thus that a creation has not been made....

Radiation, then, is the proof that a thing solid is not solid. This is an invalidation that one has created. Thus Radiation is seen to hit at all creativeness. Its irresponsibility factor is also this -- one cannot be responsible for things which are proven not to exist....

This also tells us that time began on an invalidation of solids....

In actual proof Procedure CCH [a Scientology auditing procedure] ... resolves Radiation. (21)

A year later he wrote:

I have been conducting a series of experiments, one of them almost fatal to myself, on the auditing of radiation burns. I have found that we can make an enormous effect upon radiation burns and can cure them in a milder form. That means we are the only agency, the only people on the face of the Earth who can cure the effect of atomic radiation. I expect to make further progress in this direction and the whole answer is not yet gained, for the whole answer would be to actually proof a body against radiation itself. (22)

Hubbard later "solved" this problem, claiming that a body could be "proofed against radiation" by taking megadoses of the vitamin niacin.

Hubbard's insights into the illnesses of human beings were also aided by his innovative work with plants. An example of this follows:

Recently I have been studying life sources and reactions in plants. I have gained data now which, on preliminary look, indicates that a plant becomes ill only pursuant to a series of shocks which make "it decide" it cannot survive. Only after that does it "cooperate" with a disease. Up to that time it cannot seem to get ill....

This bears itself out in human beings more obviously than in plants. Illness follows postulates to die. (23)

These are just a few examples of the writings of Hubbard re: the "science" of Dianetics, the "milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the arch...."

Other than being an adventure in fantasy for those so inclined, is there any harm to Dianetics? Yes, say two researchers who have looked into Scientology in some depth: Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman believe that "prolonged auditing can cause people to experience `increasingly realistic hallucinations' so that eventually the individual can no longer `distinguish between what he is experiencing and what he is only imagining'." (24) This, indeed, is the true danger of Dianetics.

Hubbard poses a final question for his followers:

Up there are the stars. Down in the arsenal is an atom bomb.

Which one is it going to be? (25)

The book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health can still be found on the shelves of most bookstores today, its yellow cover beckoning yet another person to pick it up and discover the "Road to Total Freedom."

Or could it be the road to nowhere?

Notes

1. Miller, p. 155
2. Hubbard, Evolution of a Science, p. 11
3. Ibid, p. 57
4. Ibid, p. 57
5. Ibid, p. 66
6. Ibid, p. 67
7. Ibid, p. 75
8. Jacobsen, p. 1-3
9. Hubbard, Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health, p. 1
10. Hubbard, from the original Dianetics bookjacket
11. Hubbard, Evolution of a Science, p. 95
12. Jacobsen, p. 4
13. Hubbard, Have You Lived Before This Life?, p. 1
14. Ibid, p. 19
15. Hubbard, Dianetics: Modern Science of Mental Health, p. 8
16. Hubbard bulletin, "Psychiatry"
17. Hubbard bulletin of May 1953, "The Old Man's Case Book"
18. Hubbard, A History of Man, p. 20
19. Hubbard bulletin of August 1952, "The Handling of Arthritis"
20. Hubbard, Professional Auditor's Bulletin no. 111, 1 May 1957, "Eyesight and Glasses"
21. Hubbard bulletin of 3 June 1957, "Explanation of Aberrative Character of Radiation"
22. Hubbard, Professional Auditor's Bulletin no. 74, "The Atomic Puzzle"
23. Hubbard, Policy letter of 7 July 1959, "Staff Auditing Requirements"
24. Rudin, p. 90
25. Hubbard, Evolution of a Science, p. 105

Chapter 6

Grade 0 to Clear --
The Yellow Brick Road to Total Freedom

Hanging on the wall of every Scientology organization around the world is a large chart, lettered in red ink, and boldly marked across the top: THE BRIDGE TO TOTAL FREEDOM. The chart lists the main courses available in Scientology, arranged in hierarchical sequence.

In the instructions at the bottom of the chart, Hubbard writes:

It is hard for Man in his present condition to even grasp that higher states of being exist. He had no literature about them, really, or any vocabulary for them.

Factually you've been traveling this universe a very long time without a map.

Now you've got one.

Below is a chart of the "processing levels" of Scientology. These are the levels through which a person will progress from first beginning in Scientology to achieving the celebrated state of "Clear."

The lowest level of auditing in Scientology consists of what are called the "objective processes." These are often programmed for a newcomer to Scientology after he has completed the introductory course. The stated purpose of these drills is "to get the preclear more in touch with his environment (reality)." The hypnotic content of these drills, however, could indicate that they were conceived to do just the opposite.

One of the most frequently used of the "objectives" is a process called "Opening Procedure by Duplication," or, more familiarly, "OP Pro by Dup." In this process the preclear is taken into a room in which two objects are placed, usually on a table, several feet away from each other, so that the preclear has to walk to get from one to the other.

The commands of this drill are:

"Go over to the book."

"Look at it."

"Pick it up."

"What is its color"

"What is its temperature?"

"What is its weight?"

"Put it down in exactly the same place."

"Go over to the ashtray."

"Look at it."

"Pick it up."

"What is its color?"

"What is its temperature?"

"What is its weight?"

"Put it down in exactly the same place."

"Go over to the book..."

Etc.

This drill may be done for several hours at a time, "until the preclear can do it without delay, without protest, without apathy, but with cheerfulness." (1)

Other examples of Objective processes include the commands:

"Spot some spots in your body," alternated with "Spot some spots in the room," and continued for at least an hour;

"Examine your chair," alternated with "Examine the floor," and continued for at least an hour;

"Where's your face," given continuously for at least an hour; and

"Start laughing," "Keep on laughing," "Laugh," and "Keep on laughing," given alternately for at least an hour. (2)

In another series of fifteen objective processes called the CCHs (abbreviation for the words control, communication and havingness, the last a Scientology word), a preclear is steered around the room for hours at a time with the commands:

"Look at that wall." "Thank you."

"Walk over to that wall." "Thank you."

"With the right hand, touch that wall." "Thank you."

"Turn around." "Thank you." (3)

In his book Creation of Human Ability, Hubbard acknowledges that some people might think these drills hypnotic. But in actuality, he states, these drills "run out" hypnosis. "(They) induce no trances. People who think so simply don't know much about hypnotism." (4)

In ARC Straightwire, the second level on "the Bridge," the emphasis is upon improving a person's ability to recall memories from the past. ARC is an acronym for "affinity," "reality," and "communication," which together equate to "understanding" in Scientology. The commands on this fairly innocuous level are:

"Recall something that was really real to you."

"Recall a time when you were in good communication with someone."

"Recall a time when you really liked someone."

"Recall a time you knew you understood someone." (5)

Dianetic auditing was originally prescribed in Scientology after a person had completed some "objectives" and ARC Straightwire, and before progressing onto the Grades. Currently, Dianetics is administered after a person has completed the grades.

Each Grade, from Zero to Four, isolates and addresses a different area of common life problems. On each grade there are hundreds of processes and commands, from which just a few examples will be given here.

On Grade Zero, the promised ability gained is an "ability to communicate freely to anyone on any subject." The commands: "What are you willing to talk to me about?" and "What would you like to tell me about that?" are given alternately and combined with other commands until the person has the promised revelation.

On Grade One, the focus is on problems, and the preclear will be asked questions like: "What problem could you confront?" and "What problem would you rather not confront?" until the person comes to realize that they "have the ability to recognize the source of problems and make them vanish."

On Grade Two, the preclear is grilled on questions such as:

"Tell me some things you think you should not have done to another;"

"Tell me what you've done to another that got you into trouble;"

"What have you done to another that you regret;" and

"What have you said to another that you wish you hadn't."

-- until he or she comes to realize that "I have attained relief from feelings of guilt or regret about past actions of mine, and do not feel I must keep secret anything that has happened."

On Grade Three, which addresses areas of past upset in life and the ability of the person to deal with change, the questions are:

"What do you want changed?"

"What do you want unchanged?"

The person is finished with this level when he feels he has "discovered through auditing the source of past upsets" and now understands and feels free of such upsets, and when he is able to face the future.

Grade Four deals with psychological strategies used by the person to make him right and others wrong. These are called "service facsimiles" in Scientology. The questions on this level are:

"In this lifetime what do you use to make others wrong?"

And then, for each answer given to that question, the following are asked:

"In this lifetime how would _________ make you right?"

"In this lifetime how would _________ make others wrong?"

"In this lifetime how would _________ help you escape domination?"

"In this lifetime how would _________ help you to dominate others?"

"In this lifetime how would _________ aid your survival?"

"In this lifetime how would _________ hinder the survival of others?"

When the person attests that he has been "released from fixed and destructive patterns of action and now feels free to do new things," he can go on to more advanced "processing" on the road to the state of "Clear" and above.

All levels above Grade Four are considered "confidential" within Scientology. The materials are carried about in locked briefcases chained to the preclear's arm with a dog leash. There is a great aura of secrecy and importance about these levels and the people who are on them.

On all lower levels in Scientology, the preclear is audited by another person, but on the secret upper levels he must audit himself, a skill acquired on the Solo Course which is a preparatory course for all upper levels.

On the Solo Course, Hubbard discloses the inner structure of the reactive mind. The core of the reactive mind, he explains, is called the "R6 bank." Surrounding it are the various engrams and locks which have been removed by earlier Dianetic and Grade auditing. The R6 bank is composed of what he calls "GPMs," or "Goals-Problems-Masses."

GPMs are electronic entities which the person has acquired through centuries of implanting. Each implant consists of electronic "charge" paired with verbal phrases which must be listed and audited in order to erase this part of the mind.

The "R6 bank" "has mass and weight and occupies a space roughly fifteen feet in front of the preclear," Hubbard reveals. And he continues, "When one stops to consider that none of this ever occurred to the psychiatrists, one wonders ... one wonders...." (6)

In order to audit on this grade, which is called Grade Six in Scientology, one asks oneself the following question while hooked up to the E-meter:

"What am I dramatizing?"

The person then marks down his answer, as well as its opposite on a list, then continues to ask himself the question until he can think of no more items. All the items must be in the form of nouns. So for example, a Grade Six list might look like this:

Girlness / Ungirlness

Smartness / Stupidness

Fatness / Thinness

Lateness / Earliness

Kindness / Meanness, etc.

It is widely believed that this level is dangerous, as you are dealing with the very core of the mind. It is, like the core of a nuclear reactor, "hot stuff." Hubbard stresses the danger of this level of auditing when he states in a bulletin, "Running a GPM badly can be quite deadly." (7)

The preclear is finished with this level "when he knows he is no longer dramatizing." The cost of this and the next level will be several thousand dollars.

The listing process on the Solo Course may go on for hundreds of hours, as the person maps out the phrases that he believes are contained in his reactive mind. The Scientologist on this level has by now a seriously endangered sense of reality. An example of this is a drill done on this level called TR 8-Q, a drill for Solo Auditor training.

In this drill the person is seated in a chair facing another chair on which an ashtray is placed. The drill is to train him or her to deliver thought into an object. He asks several questions of the ashtray, first verbally, then nonverbally, and then verbally but with nonverbal intention. The questions asked of the ashtray are:

"Are you an ashtray?"

"Are you made of glass?"

"Are you sitting there?"

"Are you a comer?" (asked of each comer of the ashtray) (8)

The voyage into unreality continues on the final course of the lower levels of Scientology, the Clearing Course. Attaining the level of Clear is a goal of every Scientologist, because, once Clear, he or she will be ready for the mysterious and exciting advanced levels of Scientology, called the OT levels (for "Operating Thetan"). On these levels the person will supposedly regain his long-lost powers of telepathy, telekinesis, etc., as well as the ability to travel at will outside his body, known in Scientology as "exteriorization."

On the Clearing Course, Hubbard gives the exact pattern of the core of the Reactive mind. It is:

Part A - The "7s"
Part B - The Basic End Words
Part C - The Confusion GPM
Part D - The Objects -- hollow
Part E - The Objects -- solid

Each set of these Parts A through E is called a "run," and there are ten runs to be completed in order to fully erase the reactive mind.

The preclear, seated at a table and hooked up to the E-meter, takes a series of prewritten lists by Hubbard and reads each item on the list to himself, watching the E-meter for "reads" (movement of the needle on the dial of the E-meter) as each item is read. He will continue each item until there are no more reactions on the E-meter.

Every so often he is given the instruction to "Spot the thetan," or "Spot the light," at which time he must look out in front of himself and "spot" a light in his "space."

Examples of the lists given in the "7's" are:

To be nobody - to be everybody
To be me - to be you
To be myself - to be others
To be an animal - to be animals
To be a body - to be bodies
To be matter - to be space
To be a spirit - to be spirits
To be a god - to be gods; then
To do nothing - to do everything
To do much - to do little
To do it all - to do not any
To do ambitiously - to do slightingly
To have nothing - to have everything
To have much - to have little
To have all - to have none
To have hugely - to have poorly
To stay everywhere - to stay nowhere
To stay here - to stay there
To stay near - to stay far
To stay up - to stay down
 

Why this particular procedure is called the "7s" is not known. In the next part of the Clearing process, the person is given another list of words by Hubbard which he must read off to himself while watching the E-meter for "reads." There are twenty-one items on this list:

The Now
The Past
The Future
The Time
The Space
The Motion
The Energy
The Masses
The Self
The Others
Life
Existence
Conditions
Effects
Pictures
Mind
Histories
Reaction
The Goal
Chaos
Universe

To do Part C of the Clearing process, the person will add the prefaces "Creating to destroy..." and "Destroying to create..." to each of the twenty-one items of Part B. Again the person will audit himself on these new items with the E-meter.

In the fourth and fifth parts of the Clearing process, the person is given pictures of a series of objects, which include triangles, circles, squares, ellipses, tetrahedrons, boxes, cubes, eggs, prisms, etc. The person must visualize these objects either coming at him or moving away from him in space while he marks down the reactions on the E-meter.

The person must first visualize one of each of the given objects in front of him, then two objects to each side of his face, then three objects to his front and sides, and then four objects on each side and front and back.

It is a testament to the efficacy of the hypnotic conditioning and mind control in Scientology that thousands of Scientologists have spent hundreds of hours on these drills, blindly obeying Hubbard and disregarding any inner instincts warning them that they are engaged in the pursuit of folly.

The Scientologist will spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in this auditing, until such time as he has completed the "ten runs" necessary to "clear" him, or until he feels that his bank (reactive mind) has "blown." At that point he is checked on the E-meter by an "Examiner" to verify that he has, indeed, "gone Clear."

Hubbard once wrote out a sample advertisement for the state of "Clear":

Today in Scientology organizations all over the world, Scientologists are sitting in small rooms, holding the two soup cans attached to their E-meter, and staring into space looking for the invisible objects which Hubbard has said are there.

Soon they will be "Clear."

And, if they have their way, so, one day, will you.

Notes

1. Hubbard, Creation of Human Ability, p. 47
2. Ibid, p. 269
3. Hubbard, bulletin on CCH's 1-15
4. Hubbard, Creation of Human Ability, p. 271
5. Hubbard bulletin, "0-IV Expanded Grade Processes - Triples -- ARC Straightwire"
6. Hubbard bulletin, "From the Inner Structure of the Mind", p. 2
7. Hubbard bulletin, "Solo Auditing and R6 EW", p. 5
8. Hubbard bulletin, "TR 84 Drill for Solo Auditor Training"

Chapter 7

OT -- Through the Wall of Fire and Beyond

An advertisement for the OT levels in a Scientology magazine shows a dove flying high above a NASA-like view of the earth. The ad reads:

As you progress in Scientology, you start moving up and out of the traps of this planet and this universe.

For the first time in man's long and black history, a being can find freedom and knowledge within one lifetime.

The key is to keep moving on The Bridge.

At the upper levels of Scientology, you'll learn the secrets of this sector of the universe, and the factors that have trapped beings for countless eons. Learn the technology that will make it impossible for you ever to be trapped again. (2)

The concept of "OT" is an important part of the cosmology of Scientology, as it is the promises made for the OT levels that motivate many of the members of Scientology to remain in the organization and work their way up "The Bridge."

The concept of "OT" is similar in many ways to that of the "Ubermensch," the term used by Hitler to signify the superior Aryan man, the superman. In Scientology cosmology, eons ago, at the beginning of this universe, we existed as thetans, but possessing the superior psychic powers which were native to us as thetans. Over the centuries, as we became involved in the physical universe (called the MEST universe by Scientologists, after the acronym for matter, energy, space and time -- the elements, according to Hubbard, of the physical universe), we gradually lost our superhuman abilities as we became involved with physical bodies, and were subjected to the crippling electronic incidents known in Scientology as "implants."

In the beginning, according to Scientology, thetans together created the physical universe, but as time went on they became trapped within their own creation. Over the ages, as they took on various physical forms, they gradually lost awareness of their identity as thetans. The superhuman gods of ages past deteriorated into the degraded mortals of the present.

Enter Scientology. For the first time in recorded history, Hubbard promised his followers, a way had been found to restore to human beings both the awareness of their true identity as thetans and the once-possessed superhuman abilities, known in Scientology as "OT abilities," OT being a Scientology acronym for "operating thetan."

It is, however, only after the reactive mind has been erased in the "Clear" that it is possible to rehabilitate the thetan, and to restore these ancient powers. This auditing takes place on the "OT levels," the mysterious and secret upper levels of Scientology.

The OT levels, and the "OTs" who are on them, are highly regarded by Scientologists still on the lower grades. The awe inspired by "OTs" in Scientology is somewhat like the respect given to PhDs in a university setting, but with an added aura of religious reverence.

On the OT levels, Hubbard promises, one learns the long lost secrets "of this sector of the universe," secrets of our past now available for the first time in millions of years. By understanding these secrets, and by doing the auditing on these upper levels, one can at last achieve freedom from the physical universe in which we have been trapped for so long.

The materials on these levels are a matter of extreme secrecy within Scientology. Over the years, the material from most of these levels has been made public, with the exception of the highest level to be released so far -- OT VIII. At present, this level is administered in a floating classroom aboard a Scientology ship sailing the Caribbean. Because of elaborate security measures taken on board this ship, the contents of this level remain a secret to those outside Scientology.

Below is a chart of the OT levels, the promises made for each level, and the price for each, quoted from a recent Scientology magazine.

The cost of enlightenment is not cheap in Scientology. The constant need for large sums of money in Scientology motivates many members to start their own businesses in an attempt to raise the funds needed to "go OT." Others may join the organization, committing themselves for the next billion years to the service of Scientology, in order to receive the free auditing given to staff members.

The route to immortality begins with OT I, a short level done soon after the person is Clear. This level consists of just one command. The Scientologist is instructed to go to a place where there are a lot of people, such as a park or a mall, and there to "Spot a person" repeatedly until a "cognition" occurs. At one time this level was offered for three hundred dollars; now the price has jumped by a factor of nine.

Once the person has the requisite cognition, which is usually some kind of awareness of himself "as a thetan" as separate from all other thetans, he is ready to progress to OT Level II.

On Level II, an idea is introduced that existed as early as the Dianetics book in 1950, but which now becomes central, and this is the idea of "entities." In Dianetics, Hubbard referred to the idea of "circuits," or "demon circuits," the existence of disparate entities attached to a person. This belief comes into its own on the OT levels. Although on the Clearing Course, the person has (theoretically) audited out his own reactive mind, on OT II he now has to deal with the reactive minds of those beings, or demons, attached to him. It is done in much the same way it was done on the Solo and Clearing courses.

On OT II, Hubbard gives a series of tables of "GPMs," or implants, which must now be audited. The first list is:

• Electrical GPM
• Tocky GPM
• Big Being GPM
• House GPM
• Psycho GPM
• Banky GPM
• Forerunner GPM
• The Arrow
• Double Rod
• Woman
• White Black Sphere
• Hot Cold
• Laughter-Calm
• Dance Mob
• Basic-Basic GPM
• Basic GPM
• The Command GPM
• Lower LP GPM
• LP GPM
• Body GPM
• Lower Bank, etc. (3)

The student is given an explanation for each of these "incidents." The instructions for auditing them is the same as on the Clearing Course. Each of these items is read aloud to oneself, and the E-meter reads marked down until the item no longer reads.

The explanation for the "Electrical GPM" states that "it has an electrical shock ... to convince a thetan he should think of himself as an electrical being." The date of this implant is given by Hubbard as "210,000,866th." Various commands are given to audit, including:

1. Create (shock)
2. Create no (shock)
3. Destroy (shock)
4. Destroy no (shock)
5. Love (shock)
6. Love no (shock), etc. (4)

The "Laughter-Calm" GPM, or implant, is described as having taken place 19,670 trillion years ago.

This takes place in a cave. It is 7-1/8ths of a second in duration. It has screams of laughter, very wild, and calm....

It is a pole with a split in it. Laughter comes from the rear half and calm from the front half simultaneously. Then they reverse. It gives one a sensation of total disagreement. The trick is to conceive of both at the same time. This tends to knock one out.... (5)

The "Dance Mob" GPM is given as occurring 18,992 trillion years ago.

The duration is 7/8ths of a second. There is a pole that pulls one in. One is caught on the pole. The actual incident is in connecting with this thing and trying to get off it.

The dancing comes after the actual incident, and consists of a mob dancing around one, chanting various things. In running this, get the phrases that are chanted.... (6)

The third OT level, OT III, known in Scientology as the "Wall of Fire," is the level to which Scientologists look forward most eagerly, for it is on this level that Hubbard promises they will at last learn the great secret of this sector of the universe. A great deal of mythology surrounds this level. According to Hubbard, it is this long lost secret that accounts for the current degraded condition of man. Once you know "the secret of OT III," Hubbard promises, you will then understand the world today and why it is the way it is.

Security is strictly enforced on this level. The OT III materials are kept in a locked room in the Advanced Organizations. When carried outside the organization they must always be kept in a locked briefcase, and the contents never revealed to anyone outside the organization, or even to anyone inside the organization not yet on this level.

However, the highly guarded secret materials on this level have been made public by several sources. We now know that "the great secret of this sector of the universe" as revealed to Scientology students is as follows:

The head of the Galactic Confederation (76 planets around larger stars visible from here) (founded 95,000,000 years ago, very space opera) solved overpopulation (250 billion or so per planet -- 178 billion on average) by mass implanting.

He caused people to be brought to Teegeeack (Earth) and put an H Bomb on the principal volcanos (incident 2) and then the Pacific ones were taken in boxes to Hawaii and the Atlantic ones to Las Palmas and there "packaged."

His name was Xenu. He used renegades. Various misleading data by means of circuits, etc., was placed in the implants.

When through with his crime, Loyal Officers (to the people) captured him after six years of battle and put him in an electronic mountain trap where he still is. "They" are gone. The place (Confed.) has since been a desert.

The length and brutality of it all was such that this Confederation never recovered. The implant is calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it. This liability has been dispensed with by my tech development.

One can free wheel through the implant and die unless it is approached as precisely outlined. The "free wheel" (auto running on and on) lasts too long, denies sleep, etc., and one dies....

In December '67 I knew somebody had to take the plunge. I did and emerged very knocked out but alive. Probably the only one ever to do so in 75,000,000 years. I have all the data now but only that given here is needful....

Good luck. (7)

In the subsequent OT III bulletins, Hubbard explains further. Millions of years ago, an evil dictator of the "Galactic Federation" decided to solve the overpopulation problem in his galaxy by rounding up people, freezing them, and shipping them to earth on space ships. They were deposited on two volcanos, one at Las Palmas and one in Hawaii. Then nuclear explosions were set off, blowing these frozen souls into the stratosphere where they were collected by "electronic ribbons" (force fields) and brought back to earth where they were packaged into "clusters."

After packaging they were subjected to implants, in which they were shown many different scenes on huge screens. Then they were released.

And so, according to Hubbard, the great secret of this sector of the universe is that each person on earth is not just a single person, but a collection (cluster) of hundreds of different entities.

This places all earlier auditing in Scientology into a different perspective. The real goal of auditing up to Clear has been to isolate the dominant entity (the "I") from the pack, and clear him first.

The entities attached to the person are called "body thetans" in Scientology. On OT III, the Scientologist learns how -- while connected to the E-meter -- to locate and contact these in visible entities, and to audit them through the nuclear explosion and implant that occurred 75,000,000 years ago. As a result, according to Hubbard, the entity becomes free to fly off and to live a life of its own.

To do this, the Scientologist, alone in a locked room and hooked up to the E-meter, telepathically locates an "entity" attached to some part of his body. He asks the entity (telepathically) which volcano he was taken to (Las Palmas or Hawaii?), while at the same time watching for "reads" on the E-meter.

He must telepathically audit the entity through "Incident Two," which includes the following sequence:

H-BOMB DROPPED ON VOLCANO
EXPLOSION
TERRIFIC WINDS
THETAN CARRIED OVER PEAK
ELECTRONIC RIBBON CAME UP
HE STUCK TO IT
IT WAS THEN PULLED DOWN AND HE WAS IMPLANTED WITH R6 (8)

If the entity does not "leave" after auditing him on Incident Two, then it is necessary to audit this entity on an earlier implant which occurred 4 quadrillion years ago, called "Incident One," and which consists of:

LOUD SNAP
WAVES OF LIGHT
CHARIOT COMES OUT, TURNS RIGHT AND LEFT
CHERUB COMES OUT
BLOWS HORN, COMES CLOSE
SHATTERING SERIES OF SNAPS
CHERUB FADES BACK (RETREATS)
BLACKNESS DUMPED ON THETAN (9)

Because Hubbard says that each person on earth has hundreds of body thetans, Scientologists can spend a hundred hours or more auditing on OT III. The result, in theory, of being freed from all one's body thetans is that one should be able to "exteriorize," or go out of one's body at will. Although many Scientologists claim this ability, there is in Scientology no objective test to determine if this ability has ever been achieved.

The purpose of the remaining OT levels is to reorient the "newly exteriorized thetan" with the physical universe, and through a series of drills, to help him regain his long lost powers.

On OT IV, the Scientologist practices "mocking up" (mentally recreating) implants and GPMs until he or she is "proofed against any possibility of being reimplanted" now that he/she has finished running implants on OT III. (10)

On OT V, the "thetan exterior" is "refamiliarized with the physical universe in order to increase his ability to communicate with the environment.... He learns to use his new abilities as a thetan with wisdom and judgment." OT V, subtitled "Cause Over MEST," consists of a series of drills, done while the person is lying down with eyes closed:

 

1. "Spot a spot in the room."
   "Spot a spot in your body."
   (These are done alternately, until a "cognition" is reached.)

    

2. "Spot a spot outside."
   "Spot a spot on the sun."

In other drills on this level:

The pre-OT is to pick out an object ahead of him and wrap an energy beam around it and himself and pull himself toward the object with shortening of the beam.

Notice what happens.

Locate an object, draw energy from it into you. Repeat at least ten times.

Notice a cloud and notice the space between you and it.

Notice the motion of the earth and your relationship to it.

Notice something about ten people. (11)

OT VI consists of more drills to "rehabilitate the thetan," including:

"Be three feet in back of your head. Whatever you are looking at, copy it a dozen times, put it into you. Find the two back comers of the room and hold onto them without thinking for two minutes."

"Find two corners of the planet Earth, hold onto them for two minutes."

"Find a place where you are not."

"Spot three spots in your body."

"Spot three spots in the room."

"Be in the following places: The room, the sky, the moon, the sun."

"Locate an animal. Postulate him moving from one spot to another. Observe him doing this."

"Find a man walking. Postulate his walking faster. Do this with 20 people."

"Find a person in a distant land. Notice the time of day. Notice the terrain. Notice the general environment. Smell the air. Locate a thought that is his. Locate a thought that is yours."

"Postulate anger, boredom, grief, cheerfulness and serenity in that order. This is continued until you are sure that you can create any emotion."

"Exteriorized, visit a friend who lives in another state. Greet him and flow affinity to him. Ask him to communicate to you by letter." (12)

OT VII has to do with "rehabilitating the intention of the thetan." On this level, the person practices psychically placing his "intention" into another person or object:

"Find some plants, trees, etc., and communicate to them individually until you know they received your communication."

"Go to a zoo or a place with many types of life and communicate with each of them until you know the communication is received and, if possible, returned."

"Go out to a park, train station or other busy area. Practice placing an intention into individuals until you can successfully and easily place an intention into or on a being and/or a body." (13)

Since no one outside of Scientology has seen the contents of OT VIII, one can only wonder at the contents of this secret level, the end result of which is to become completely "at cause" over the physical universe.

The OT levels have changed somewhat over time; however, there is more that is unchanged than changed.

Other than the time and money expended in pursuit of the ambiguous goals promised for each of these levels, is there any danger in these drills?

Yes, say several researchers.

In a study of the psychological effects of several different cults, psychologists Conway and Siegelman found that, "... hour for hour, Scientology's techniques may be more than twice as dangerous as those of any other major cult.... On the average, former Scientologists surveyed reported more than twice the combined negative effects of all other cult groups." Some of the negative effects observed among former Scientologists were: sexual dysfunction, violent outbursts, hallucinations and delusions, and suicidal or self-destructive tendencies. (14)

Dr. John Clark of Harvard University agrees, stating that, as with all cults, many former Scientologists have experienced severe mental breakdowns:

Even if members do leave the group, it may take months or even years for them to regain lost intellectual powers and their sense of well-being.... To me the latest casualties of these extended manipulations are nearly unbearable to contemplate. More tortured rejects are beginning to straggle home because they are useless to (Scientology) now. Some are simply chronically psychotic, while others ... cannot control the content of their minds enough to work out their life problems.... (15)

In the Lewis Carroll-like world of Scientology, and especially on the OT levels, a person might well wonder if he has gone "through the looking glass," so bizarre are these levels.

Why do people in Scientology go along with these levels?

"It's kind of like The Emperor's New Clothes," one former Scientologist explains.

Nobody wants to be the one who says the emperor has no clothes on.

But it's other things, too. You believe that Hubbard is right, that he is like God. You believe that if he says it's true, then it's true. And, too, because everything is so expensive, you just assume that it has value. After spending a few thousand dollars on Scientology, no one wants to admit that he's been had.... (16)

It is interesting that the goals of both Hitler and Hubbard were the same: to create a new race of supermen (and women) -- Hitler through genetic breeding, and Hubbard through auditing.

Two men, born of the same occult crucible, who have wrought untold destruction in the lives of those whose paths they happened to cross.

It is reported that Scientology has allocated a half million dollars in a special trust to ensure that the name of L. Ron Hubbard will live on forever.

Whether he will live on in fame, or in infamy, remains to be seen.

Notes

1. Corydon, p. 356
2. Scientology magazine: "It's Time to Improve Your Life; Your Guide to Scientology Services"
3. Hubbard, "OT Course Section Two", p. 2
4. Ibid, p. 3
5. Hubbard, "OT Course -- Part One", p. 23
6. Ibid, p. 23
7. Hubbard, "Operating Thetan Section Three", p. 1
8. Ibid, p. 24
9. Ibid, p. 24
10. Hubbard, "OT IV Solo"
11. Hubbard, "OT V -- Cause Over MEST"
12. Hubbard, "OT VI"
13. Hubbard, "OT VII Rundown"
14. Conway, Flo and Siegelman, Jim Information Disease: Have Cults Created a New Mental Illness?
15. Rudin, Marcia, The Cult Phenomenon: Fad or Fact?
16. Affidavit of an unnamed (by choice) ex member of Scientology

Chapter 8

The Language of Scientology --
ARC, SPs, PTPs and BTs

Two Scientologists meet on the street.

"How're you doing?" one asks the other.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I've been a bit out ruds because of a PTP with my second dynamic because of some bypassed charge having to do with my MEST at her apartment. When I moved in I gave her an R-factor and I thought we were in ARC about it, but lately she seems to have gone a bit PTS so I recommended she see the MAA at the AO to blow some charge and get her ethics in. He gave her a review to F/N and VGIs but she did a roller coaster, so I think there's an SP somewhere on her lines. I tried to audit her myself but she had a dirty needle and BIs and was acting really 1.1 so I finally sent her to Qual to spot the entheta on her lines. Other than that, everything's fine..."

There is not a Scientologist anywhere to whom this paragraph would not make perfect sense. Like a secret code, the language of Scientology helps members to identify and bond with each other, and creates an invisible but effective boundary between the cult and the world "outside."

There are many cults which use the loaded language described by Lifton -- the language of non-thought -- but there is probably no other cult in which the manipulation of the cult member through language is achieved as completely or with as much sophistication as in Scientology.

As anyone in the advertising world knows, if you want to control a person's behavior, you must first control their thought. Hubbard did this in Scientology through the prolific propaganda in written bulletins, tapes and films to which members are constantly exposed.

But a more subtle form of thought control was achieved by Hubbard through the creation of a new language -- "Scientologese" -- used and understood only within the cult.

How is thought restricted by the language in Scientology? In several ways. Many of the new words are formed by changing the part of speech of an existing word, usually from a verb or adjective into a noun. The nouns used in Scientology have black and white, concrete meanings; there are no shades of grey in the Scientology vocabulary.

Scientology makes extensive use of acronyms and abbreviations, but modifiers are almost nonexistent; one could probably exist for ten years in Scientology without ever using an adverb or adjective.

Most nouns in Scientology have only one meaning; gone are the variegated definitions and idiomatic uses of regular English nouns. Many of the terms in Scientology have come from the computer and engineering fields and have precise definitions which leave little to the imagination. When common English words are given a new meaning in Scientology, the older and multiple meanings have been dropped in favor of a single, concrete Scientology meaning.

Hubbard was fond of transforming verbs -- words of action -- into more static nouns. Examples:

"Assist" -- which means to help, becomes "an assist," one of the auditing processes of Scientology, e.g., "Would you like me to give you an assist?"

The verb "to be" is turned into a noun in the Scientology word "beingness." Similarly transformed are "doingness," "havingness," "knowingness," "rightness," "wrongness," "livingness," and "isness."

The "between lives implant," a noun, comes from the English verb "to implant."

The verb "to confront" becomes a noun, "confront," e.g., "Doing training routines will increase a person's confront."

The verb "to motivate" becomes a noun in "motivator," e.g., "Bill pulled in a motivator when he had his accident."

"To postulate" becomes a noun in the Scientology word "postulate," e.g., "I have a postulate that I will win the lottery."

Even the word "clear" in Scientology has been transformed into a noun from the adjective of the same name.

Other Scientology nouns deriving from English verbs and adjectives are: "basic," "fall," "rise," "secondary," "overt," "overrun," "randomity," "processing," "read," "release," "review," and "static."

As an example of how thought is restricted in these English-to-Scientologese transformations, the word "clear" in English had at least thirty different definitions: free of clouds, having no blemishes, free from guilt, passing without contact, making a profit, etc. Yet in Scientology the word "clear" has one very concrete meaning: a person who has completed the Clearing Course in Scientology.

Another example is the word "release," which in English has nine different definitions, including: to set free, to let loose, to release from an obligation, to be set free from pain, to permit to be issued, etc. But in Scientology, a "release" refers to one thing: someone who has completed one of the lower levels of Scientology auditing.

Acronyms and abbreviations are common in Scientology, again a way of abbreviating thought. Acronyms can be parts of the organization: the SO (Sea Organization), GO (Guardian's Office), AO (Advanced Organization), ASHO (American Saint Hill Organization), CMO (Commodore's Messenger Organization).

Or they can have to do with time, e.g., AD (after Dianetics), and BD (before Dianetics). Years in Scientology are numbered in relation to the year 1950 -- the year the Dianetics book was published; therefore 1992 becomes AD 42 in Scientology. The year 1940 becomes BD 10.

There are many acronyms that have to do with the "technical" processes of auditing, such as: VBIs (bad indicators), VGIs (very good indicators), C/S (case supervisor), F/N (floating needle), BPC (bypassed charge), TA (tone arm action), EP (end phenomena), TR (training routine), and S&D (search and discovery) -- to name a few.

Acronyms can refer to things you can be: SP (suppressive person), PTS (potential trouble source), OT (operating thetan), PC (preclear), and HAS (Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist).

Or they can refer to things you can have: PTP (present time problem), OW (overt and withhold), 2D (second dynamic), ARC (affinity, reality and communication), MEST (material things, from matter, energy, space and time).

An acronym can be something to read: an HCOB (Hubbard Communication Office Bulletin), or HCOPL (Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter).

It can be something you can do, as in "Q & A" (question and answer, or to question a command).

Or an acronym can be a person: CO (Commanding Officer), MAA (Master at Arms or Ethics Officer), D of T (Director of Training), D of P (Director of Processing), or "wog" ("worthy oriental gentleman," meaning anyone not a Scientologist).

Many of the words in Scientology are simply shortened, rendering thought even less necessary than it already was: "ack" (acknowledgement), "admin" (administration), "tech" (technical), "qual" (qualifications), "comm" (communication), "cog" (cognition), "inval" (invalidation), "eval" (evaluation), "org" (organization), "ruds" (rudiments), "R-factor" (reality factor), "sec" (security), "demo" (demonstration), "E-meter" (electropsychometer).

Of the many new words created by Hubbard in Scientology, the majority of them are composed of two words taken from regular English, but combined to create a new word in Scientology. Some of the completely new words can be traced to their English origins.

Examples of some of these new words, and their Scientology meanings, are:

"aberee" -- one who is aberrated

"anaten" -- a state of being unconscious to some degree

"anchor points" a person's boundaries in space

"alter-is" -- to consciously change something

"analytical mind" -- the conscious mind which, without the influence of the reactive mind, operates logically

"as-is" -- to make something disappear by staring at it for a long time

"awareness of awareness unit" -- another word for the person

"bad indicators" -- a person not smiling and not having a "floating needle" after a session

"between lives area" -- a word to describe the events that happen between the time a person dies and when he picks up his next body

"bypassed charge" emotions restimulated during auditing but not discharged

"case gain" -- progress made by an individual because of auditing

"case supervisor" -- the person who examines each session done by the auditor and programs the next session

"clay demo" -- a picture made in clay to demonstrate the learning of a theory

"comm course" -- the Communication Course of Scientology

"comm lag" -- a long hesitation in conversation

"comm line" -- the imaginary line between two people who are talking together

"covert hostility" a condition of masked anger

"cycle of action" -- defined by Hubbard as start, change, stop

"degraded being" -- a person in really bad shape

"destimulate" -- to calm down the reactive mind

"dirty needle" -- a certain motion of the needle on the E-meter which is ragged and erratic

"eighth dynamic" -- the Scientology term for God

"enmest" -- short for "enturbulated MEST," which means anything material which is in a disorganized state

"entheta" -- short for "enturbulated theta," and means a person or thing that is destructive and upset, usually referring to someone or something against Scientology

"enturbulate" -- to upset

"first dynamic" -- things having to do with the person himself

"floating needle" -- a needle on the E-meter that is lazily floating back and forth across the dial; this means that nothing in the reactive mind is activated at the moment

"genetic entity" -- the identity of the body containing a consciousness of evolution

"itsa" -- a person who in auditing is identifying something

"line charge" -- a prolonged spell of uncontrolled laughter

"mental image pictures" -- pictures in the mind; memories

"misemotion" -- any painful or unpleasant emotion

"missed withhold" -- something bad which a person did that someone else almost found out about

"not-is" -- to make something that exists into nothing

"obnosis" -- observation of the obvious

"operating thetan" -- a person minus the reactive mind who has the ability to control the physical universe

"overt motivator sequence" -- what happens when a person does something bad, then subconsciously causes something bad to happen to himself

"reach and withdraw" -- a principle in Scientology that something reached for tends to withdraw, and vice versa

"reactive mind" -- the subconscious mind which accounts for illogical behavior in humans according to Dianetic theory

"restimulate" -- to stir up the contents of the reactive mind

"second dynamic" -- having to do with love relationships, sex, and marriage

"stable datum" -- something known to be true that other facts can be based on

"terminal of comparable magnitude" -- something or someone equal in some quality to another

"theta" -- the life force, spirit or soul

"thetan" -- the person himself as a spiritual being or soul

"theta trap" -- any place which attracts people

"third dynamic" -- having to do with the group

"third party" -- the Scientology principal that in any conflict between two people there is a third person that is the real cause of the problem

"time track" -- the recorded history of a person's lives back to the beginning of time

"tone arm" -- one of the dials on the E-meter which shows how much "charge" has been erased in the session

"tone scale" -- a scale of emotions in Scientology

"two way comm" -- conversation between two people

"unmock" -- to destroy or make nothing of something

"upstat" -- someone who has high statistics; the opposite of "downstat"

"uptone" -- someone who is at a high emotional tone level; the opposite of "downtone"

"very good indicators" -- happens after an auditing session when the preclear is smiling and has a floating needle

These are just a few of the new words in Scientology.

The final category of language in Scientology has to do with words that are appropriated directly from English, but which are given new meanings within the framework of Scientology. Again, although the original word in English may have had a variety of meanings and shades of meaning, the new Scientology meanings will be unique and concrete.

The word "affinity" in English can refer to either a physical or an emotional closeness. In Scientology, "affinity" is used to replace the word "love," with its many connotations. The word "love" is not used in Scientology. "Affinity" means a willingness to be close to and share the same space with, or a liking for someone.

"Affinity" is also one of the components of the "ARC triangle," together with "reality" and "communication." The theory in Scientology is that if any one of the three corners of the triangle is increased (affinity, reality, or communication), the result will be greater "ARC," or understanding.

In English, the word "agreement" can have many meanings, such as the act of agreeing, an understanding, or a contract; in Scientology the word means the agreement of two or more people about reality, which is said to exist only when there is agreement that it exists.

In English, an auditor is one who goes over the books and finances of an organization; in Scientology the meaning is quite different. A Scientology auditor is one who delivers the processes of auditing to a preclear, the Scientology version of a counselor.

To a person outside of Scientology, the bank is the place one goes to for money; in Scientology, the word "bank" is a slang term for the reactive mind. It is commonly used as an adjective, meaning irrational or unpleasant, as: "The children are acting really banky today."

There used to be a sport in England, called "bullbaiting," in which several dogs would tease or attack a bull. Hubbard appropriated this term for a quite different purpose. "Bullbaiting" in Scientology refers to the Training Routine (drill) in which one person tries to provoke another to react while the person being provoked attempts to maintain a perfect, unblinking stare.

Before Scientology a "button" was something used to hold a shirt together; the word "button" in Scientology refers to any words or ideas which cause a person to react or which make him uncomfortable. For example, a short person might have a button on being short, a fat person a button on being fat. It is the purpose of the drill called "TR-0 Bullbaited" to locate and "flatten" a person's buttons.

A "case" may have meant many things before Scientology: a legal argument, a person being treated by a social worker, a container in which to carry something, or a full box of beers. But in Scientology, a "case" refers to one thing: a person's reactive mind which has been restimulated. A person undergoing Scientology auditing is frequently instructed "not to discuss your case with anyone."

A "chain" in English can be either a series of connected links, or a more symbolic series of connected circumstances or events, but in Scientology a "chain" has to do with a group of pictures in the reactive mind which have in common some physical characteristic, e.g., "Today we will audit your stomach pains chain."

"Charge" in English can have a variety of meanings: what one does with a credit card, to add an electrical current to, to ask as a price or fee, to attack or move forward, to entrust with the care of someone, to make an accusation, or the instruction or verdict by a jury. In Scientology, however, "charge" refers to the harmful energy or force stored in the reactive mind. Different people can have charge on different items or subjects, e.g., "He has a lot of charge on women."

"Ethics" is a complicated subject in the regular world. It is defined as: "the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment." But in Scientology, "ethics" refers to the disciplinary branch of the organization and to the policies of Hubbard which govern the activities of this branch. Most Scientologists have a certain amount of fear of "ethics." An example of its use would be: "If you don't get your stats (statistics) up, you will be sent to ethics."

The word "dynamic" is an example of an adjective turned into a noun. "Dynamic" in English is used as the opposite of "static," but "dynamic" in Scientology refers to the eight arbitrary divisions of life devised by Hubbard. For example, the first dynamic refers to the person himself; the second dynamic to the sexual relationship, marriage, and family; the third dynamic refers to the group, etc. Although this word can be used as a noun in English, the meaning is somewhat different.

The word "static" is also altered from adjective into noun in Scientology, where "static" refers to the thetan, or soul. The "static" in Scientology is defined as being without mass, without wavelength, without time and without position.

"Indicators" in Scientology refer to specific characteristics of the preclear during auditing: whether he is smiling, the color of his skin, whether he has good eye contact. In Scientology there can be good indicators (GIs), very good indicators (VGIs), bad indicators (BIs), or very bad indicators (VBIs).

A "process" in Scientology refers to a specific auditing action to be done on a preclear.

"Raw meat" in Scientology is not something that one might cook for dinner; rather, the term refers to the person coming in the front door who has never before had Scientology auditing, and who is a prospect for Scientology services.

The word "reality" undergoes an interesting transformation in Scientology: from a word meaning "that which is" in English, "reality" in Scientology comes to mean "that which is agreed upon." In other words, in Scientology, unless there is agreement that something exists, it does not exist. All reality, according to Scientology, has been created by agreement The physical universe exists only because at some point in the past, thetans agreed together that it existed. According to Scientology theory, as soon as thetans agree together that it no longer exists, then it will cease to exist.

A "lock" in English can be something which keeps a door from being opened; in Scientology, the word "lock" refers to a somewhat painful emotional experience, which does not, however, contain actual physical pain or unconsciousness.

A "terminal" to most people might mean the display component of a computer, or a Greyhound bus station; but to a Scientologist a "terminal" refers to a person at a particular spot or doing a particular job. The word can be loosely used to mean, simply, a person, e.g., "Go and give this letter to the appropriate terminal."

Other words that have a specific Scientology meaning are: "ally" -- someone who is not really your friend in Scientology; "circuit" -- in Scientology, this refers only to those in your head; "mass" -- mental entities having actual physical mass; "roller coaster" -- somebody whose emotional condition goes up and down.

"Rudiments" -- asking a person at the beginning of auditing if they have any ARC breaks (upsets), present time problems, or missed withholds. If so, then the person has "out-ruds" which must be corrected before auditing can begin.

"Session" -- refers to the precise period of time during which auditing takes place.

"Significance" -- the phrases embedded in the person's reactive mind as a result of implants; also the ideas learned in a course of study.

"Source" -- refers to Hubbard; the name by which he is most commonly known in Scientology.

"Sympathy" a negative trait in Scientology, where one is trained to not feel sympathy for anyone.

"Understanding" -- in Scientology consists of three things: affinity, reality and communication. Increasing any of these three results in increased understanding; conversely, lowering either of the three results in decreased understanding.

"Valence" -- is any identity that the person happens to be in at the time; a person can have many valences, e.g., "Whenever she is around her mother, she goes into the valence of her father."

One of the most difficult things about leaving Scientology is the problem of what to do about the language. Many ex-members report problems of thinking and even dreaming in "Scientologese" for months, and sometimes years, after physically leaving the cult.

This can also pose a problem for someone trying to counsel a recent defector from Scientology. Not knowing the language can put the counselor at a disadvantage, and prevent the counselee from feeling really understood. The same holds true for family members trying to communicate with someone newly out of Scientology -- because they don't speak or understand the language they are unable to reach the person they are trying so hard to help.

Manipulation of language is a very real and powerful tool in the hands of the cult leader. By controlling language, the cult leader can control the thoughts, and therefore the lives of those who have strayed into his fold.

Legally, there is nothing wrong with a man like Hubbard manipulating the thoughts and minds of others for the express purpose of exploiting them for his own profit. Mental rape is not a crime.

Scientology, Hubbard once claimed, is the only game in the universe where everybody wins.

The victims of Scientology know better.

Chapter 9

The Sea Org --
"For the Next Billion Years..."

On the Scientology "upper level" called OT III, the Scientologist learns the great secret of "this sector of the universe," which is that 75,000,000 years ago an evil dictator named Xenu, in an effort to solve the overpopulation problem in the galaxy, shot and froze thousands of thetans, shipped them to earth, and glued them together in massive nuclear explosions on volcanos in Hawaii and Las Palmas. Remember?

Actually there was more to the story. Xenu's brigade of soldiers were called the Loyal Officers. After Xenu had finished implanting all the frozen souls blown up on the two volcanos,

...the Loyal Officers revolted and captured Xenu. He was imprisoned in a mountain top on planet Earth (on the island of Madiera) and placed inside a wire cage with an eternal battery (where he remains today). In the battle between the Loyal Officers and Xenu's renegades, most of these planets were turned into billiard balls. Earth was a radioactive cinder, and became known as "The Evil Place."

That's why nobody ever comes here except renegades and criminals who are dumped here....

The entire concept of the Sea Org was said by Hubbard to be "a regathering of the Loyal Officers." This time he and his most trusted officers would not fail. They would "decontaminate" Earth, and later this entire sector of the Galaxy, from the devastation inflicted by Xenu and his renegades. (1)

The motto of the Sea Org (organization) is "We Come Back." Every Sea Org member believes in his heart that he or she is a member of an ancient organization which once before tried to save the earth, but failed.

They believe, as Hubbard has told them, that this is their last chance. If they fail now to rescue this planet from certain impending nuclear devastation, then it will be too late. The souls on this planet will be doomed for trillions of years into the future.

Sea Org members believe themselves to be "the cream of the cream of Scientology." In a bulletin called "The Sea Organization," Hubbard writes:

If almost any person in the Sea Organization were to appear in a Scientology group or Org he would be lionized, red-carpeted and Very-Important-Personed beyond belief.

For the Sea Organization is composed of the "aristocracy" of Scientology.

These people, alone and on their own are all stars in the sky of their areas.

It is like one of the old regiments of gentlemen where any private would be, in another but common regiment, a colonel...

The Sea Organization is composed of people who alone would excite great admiration but who together, well organized, can actually get the job done.

And although our lowest deck hand could be a "duke" only all of us together could get on with the job.

And that's how and why ... the Sea Organization came into being and why we are here....

Life in the Sea Org has never been easy. Members work hours that would seem impossible to an ordinary mortal. Pay is low, rewards are few, but there is the satisfaction of knowing that one is working for the salvation of souls and rescue of the planet.

"Stiff ethics" has always been the norm in the Sea Org. The practices of overboarding, security checks, confinement in chain lockers or bilge tanks served on the ships as ethics remedies to bring the recalcitrant or dissatisfied into line. There is no reason to believe that things are much different now.

Overboarding was begun by Hubbard after one of the Sea Org members on the Apollo mistakenly untied the wrong hawser, setting the huge ship adrift in a foreign harbor. That unfortunate person was immediately tossed over the side of the ship on Hubbard's order. From that time on, overboarding became a regular practice on the ship.

One witness describes this practice:

Students and crew were lined up on deck in the early hours every morning. They waited to hear whether they were on the day's list of miscreants. Those who knew they were would remove their shoes, jackets and wristwatches in anticipation. The drop was between fifteen and forty feet, depending upon which deck was used. Sometimes people were blindfolded first, and either their feet or hands loosely tied. Non-swimmers were tied to a rope. Being hurled such a distance, blindfolded and restrained, into cold sea water, must have been terrifying. Worst of all was the fear that you would hit the side of the ship as you fell, your flesh ripped open by the barnacles. Overboarding was a very traumatic experience. (2)

The chain locker was a small compartment at the bow of the ship where the excess chain attached to the anchor was wound up and stored. It was a cold, dark wet area frequently inhabited by rats. It was into this compartment that people would be lowered as a form of "ethics," or punishment. It was a dangerous form of punishment, since at any moment the chain could be released, and the person in the chain locker, if not careful, could be caught in the outgoing chain.

In several cases, children were put into the chain locker as punishment for misdeeds. In one case Hubbard ordered a five year old deaf mute girl into the chain locker "to cure her deafness." In another case a four year old boy was kept in the chain locker for two weeks because he ate some telex tape. His mother was told that he was actually a very old thetan in a young body, and should not be given sympathy because of his young body. (3) This is a common conception of children in Scientology.

Another form of "ethics" on the ship had the person:

... put into old rusty tanks, way below the ship, with filthy bilge water, no air, and hardly sitting height, for anything from twenty-four hours to a week, and getting their oxygen via tubes. They were kept awake, often for days on end. They ate from the communal food bucket with their blistered and filthy hands. They chipped away at rust unceasingly. The Ethics Officers were constantly checking outside to hear if the hammering continued. There were no bathroom facilities in the bilge tanks.... (4)

One report of life in the Sea Org on the ship comes from a teenager who joined Scientology with her parents in the 1970s. Her name is Tonja Burden and she was separated from her parents and placed in the Cadet Organization in Los Angeles:

(The Cadet Organization) consisted of two three-story buildings that housed approximately 400 children. The Cadet Organization was designed to teach children about Scientology. My duties were to care for, clean and feed the children. Myself and another girl my age were the two oldest children at the Cadet Organization.

The living conditions were squalid. Glass from broken windows lay strewn over the floors. Live electrical wires were exposed in areas where young children played. We received little food. On several occasions spoiled milk with maggots was served to children. The maggots were removed by hand before the milk was served. In addition to caring for the children, I cleaned the toilets daily.

Children were not allowed to live with their parents. Scientology permitted one visit every other week, and only for forty-five minutes during mealtime....

I saw the Apollo for the first time and was greatly disappointed by its dilapidated condition. Once aboard, I was given a berth in the women's dorm and placed in the Estates Project Force (EPF).

In the EPF, my day began at 6:00am. I scrubbed clothes from 6:00am until 12:00 noon without breakfast or any breaks. The clothes were scrubbed by hand in a bucket, and I was directed to rinse each article in 13 separate buckets. Then I hung the clothes on the deck to dry.

After a one-half hour lunch I was assigned to clean six cabins. Cabins had to meet white glove inspection. If the cabins were not cleaned to white-glove perfection, I had to run a lap around the boat before recleaning the room. My day would end at about 12:00 midnight.

On rainy days I ironed the clothes dry. This required ironing during the evening hours and into the morning hours. On many occasions I ironed through the night, finishing at 6:00am. I then started washing the next morning's clothing. On occasion I worked three or four days without sleeping. I fell asleep at the ironing board with a hot iron in my hand. My senior caught me sleeping and yanked my head off the board. She ordered me to run laps and assigned me a condition of "Doubt." A condition of Doubt required fifteen hours of amends work. This additional work had to be performed during my sleep or meal time.

While in the EPF I never heard from my parents, no phone calls or letters. Aboard the ship, I received a telex informing me that my father had been declared an SP (Suppressive Person). They said he was a spy within Scientology. I began crying and asked to leave, telling them I could convince my father to return to Scientology... but they would not permit me to leave. I was told to disconnect from my parents because they were SPs. Disconnection meant no more communication with my parents. They told me my parents would not make it in the world, but that I would make it in the world.... (5)

Tonja finally escaped from Scientology by stealing keys from a sleeping guard and crawling through an air duct to freedom.

One of the most infamous aspects of the Sea Org is the dreaded RPF, or "Rehabilitation Project Force," the prison or concentration camp of Scientology. Being sent to the RPF is the dread of every Sea Org member.

It was conceived by Hubbard during one of his low points at a time when he was recovering from a motorcycle accident and in a generally black mood.

It was not until early 1974 that blatant breaking of another person's will -- "break 'em down, build 'em back up" -- became full blown and implemented as official dogma: the Rehabilitation Project Force.

The RPF was essentially a slave labor prison project, where inmates ate scraps from the table after other crew had finished, and where they were not allowed to speak to any non-RPFers unless spoken to. Even then they were only to briefly answer, while addressing their betters always as "sir." RPFers were dressed in blue overalls and had to run wherever they went. (I shouldn't be describing this in the past tense. The RPF continues to this day, very much a part of the Church of Scientology.) (6)

Gerry Armstrong was a graduate of the RPF, and he writes:

There is no way to really describe the RPF experience, the hopelessness, the humiliation, the horror. It seemed to go on forever, the days all identical, no time to oneself, the same blue boiler suits like prison garb, day after day, the same questions in the same endless security checks.

Hubbard's purpose in creating the RPF, and running it as a prison with assignees considered criminals, was the breaking of people's wills, the total subjugation of anyone he considered exhibited "counter-intention" to his goals.

He achieved his purpose with me so well that I thanked him for the opportunity of doing the RPF, much like prisoners of war, who are broken emotionally and spiritually, through deprivation and mind control techniques, and thank their captors. (7)

Some of the rules in the RPF as given by one person who was in it are:

 

1. No walking. You had to run all the time.

    

2. You were not allowed to speak to anyone outside the RPF.

    

3. You were not allowed to originate any communication to anyone outside the RPF unless there was an emergency.

    

4. You were not allowed to go anywhere by yourself, unless authorized to do so. Even when going to the bathroom, someone had to go with you.

    

5. You had to call all RPF seniors "Sir." If there was some reason you had to talk to someone outside the RPF, you had to call them "Sir."

    

6. All letters you wrote had to be put in a stamped, unsealed envelope, then dropped in a box in the RPF room. The RPF Ethics Officer read all outgoing mail.

    

7. You are only allowed in RPF designated areas. You were not allowed to go anywhere else except during morning cleaning stations when you cleaned the rest of the (org).

    

8. You had to wear dark-blue boiler suits or dark blue shirts and pants.

    

9. You were not allowed "luxuries" such as music, watching TV, playing cards, perfume, radios, etc.

This same member talks about his/her state of mind while being audited in the RPF:

My Rock Slam handling (a type of auditing) I think was the point where my brain wasn't just falling apart, but it started to get fried. I was running out all of these evil purposes connected to the Rock Slams (a certain needle read on the E-meter), and I started spouting out and running out the weirdest things like, "to be somebody else," "to blow up a planet," "commit suicide," "to never grow up," "to kill myself," "to destroy bodies." The list was endless.

My brain was just getting fried on all of this. I mean I had to have been the most evil and craziest person that ever existed. I don't know how to describe what happened other than my brain was frying right up. I felt like I was in a daze half the time. I'd do things, sort of like watching myself doing them but not realizing I was doing it, as if it was somebody else, except that I know it was me.

I'd scream at my auditor, I'd throw down the cans to the E-meter that I was holding, I'd refuse to get auditing. I just created a real scene. So of course, I ended up in ethics, and had a "body guard" put on me.

This whole thing was a period of weeks, I think. But actually, in the state I was in, it could have been two days or it could have been two months.... (8)

Fortunately, this member was also able to escape and is no longer in Scientology.

Another ex-member describes the process of mind control in the RPF in which the will is gradually eroded and finally snaps:

Blind obedience violated everything I had ever valued. I had thought that Scientology was about independence and self-determinism, not blind obedience to authority, or so Hubbard had told us on his many tapes I had listened to when I was a student.

The RPF went against everything I had imagined Scientology to be and I couldn't even begin to reconcile the contradiction. Here I was, a prisoner and what had I been guilty of? I felt that there must be something very wrong with me to have gotten into such a mess.

I went through one hopeless day after another, cleaning the toilets, drenched in sweat and chlorine and at night trying to get something accomplished in my auditing program, always to no avail. One day, a Sea Org officer remarked to me that I was not even worth the $5 (RPFers only got half pay) and I agreed.

I started to feel like my sanity was slipping away, what little there was left of it. I can remember one day walking down the stairs to Lower Hold Number One and getting a sensation like I was going to totally disappear -- like I was going to experience a complete spiritual death. It's very difficult to describe. I felt like I was going to be completely annihilated.

One day I completely broke down. I went down into the lower hold where the RPF classroom was and sobbed uncontrollably. I cried like I had never cried before. It felt like I was never going to stop.

Later, when I finally managed to stop, I went above decks and just sat, looking out at the water. I thought about how much of my identity had been tied up in being a good auditor. I felt like I was nothing if I couldn't produce as a Scientologist. I just sat there and gazed out at the sea.

The next day my grief came back. I went through several days where I couldn't stop crying. I can remember one day scrubbing the floor of one of the bathrooms as hard as I could but no amount of scrubbing could cleanse me. I felt as if I were being raped. I was in a deep state of mourning for a loss I couldn't define.

Sometimes a person's emotions are way ahead of what can be thought or verbalized. This was the case with me at the time; my feelings were giving me signals, but I was unable to listen to them. In retrospect, I came to realize that on an emotional level I knew that Scientology was a sham. I had no words to describe my loss at the time and there was no one to help me see what was happening. All I knew was that I felt worse than I had ever felt in my life.

What I really needed was someone to jump start my mind so I could start thinking again and get in touch with what my feelings were trying to tell me, which was, "Scientology is a sham. Get out of there, now! You have been lied to and are now in a trap. This is what you gave up your education, your family and your friends for. The illusion is shattered. Now there is nothing left for you here in Scientology."

It was the biggest loss I had ever experienced in my life -- a loss of my innocence, a loss of trust and a loss of a dream that I thought had become a reality.

So I continued on the RPF, doing my labor and in tears most of the time.

I made one final attempt to assert myself. One day I was standing watch as Quartermaster, logging people on and off the ship. This was a duty that RPFers were often assigned to do. One day I had been on watch all morning and someone was supposed to relieve me so I could have lunch, but no one showed up. Finally, I went below decks to the aft lounge to see what happened to my relief person. A Sea Org officer was having lunch with some other RPFers and he refused to help me. I just exploded. My anger had very little to do with what was actually going on -- I just felt I had to make one last attempt to assert myself.

I said, "To hell with all of you, I'm going to have my lunch!" at which point the Sea Org officer said, "That's it! You're assigned to the RPF's RPF."

And so it came to pass that I was assigned to the RPF's RPF. I spent very long days down in the engine room, cleaning foul smelling muck out of the bilges and then painting them. I was assigned a Condition of Enemy and to get out of it I had to write up the formula, which was "Find out who you really are."

I wrote up the formula and submitted it to the Ethics Officer, but he wouldn't accept what I had written. I didn't know what he wanted me to write.

For days, I struggled to find the answer, as I was cleaning the bilges. At that point, I really didn't know. If I had known who I really was, I would have let them throw me out and gotten as far away from the ship and everyone aboard as I could.

Years later when I read Lifton's studies of the Communist Chinese, I realized that my struggle to write up the Condition of Enemy formula was very much like the struggle the prisoners must have gone through to write up confessions that were "sincere" enough to satisfy their captors. In both cases, it wasn't enough just to physically imprison the person; the person had to agree to and participate in their mental imprisonment as well, and if the statements written up weren't deemed as sincere, the person had to rewrite the statement until it satisfied the people in charge.

The Ethics Officer kept rejecting my formula. This went on for five days, which I spent down in the engine room. I wasn't allowed to communicate with anyone except for the Ethics Officer. Even if someone spoke to me, I wasn't allowed to respond.

One day, another Sea Org member broke the rules and spoke to me. I dutifully told him that he was not allowed to speak to me, nor I to him, but he told me not to worry about it. I'll never forget what he did for me that day, just by breaking the rules and talking to me. I don't exactly recall what he said, but he encouraged me to hang in there and helped me feel I could make it through this horrendous experience. He showed me compassion when I needed it the most.

I determined that I would hang onto what little sanity I had left. The way I did this was to shut off all my emotions. It was a matter of survival.

The next day, I finally wrote up my formula to the Ethics Officer's satisfaction and got out of the RPF's RPF. I had been broken after a long, hard struggle.

I was no longer angry; I was no longer sad; I was no longer happy; I felt nothing. I simply did as I was told.

At long last, I had learned the lesson of the RPF. (9)

It is fact that whenever someone becomes psychotic in Scientology, and this does happen with a not surprising regularity, the person is assigned to the RPF for "rehabilitation." The inhumane treatment of the mentally ill in Scientology is a matter that has never been addressed by any agency outside Scientology. This inhumanity is graphically described by a "survivor of Scientology" who writes about her last days in the organization:

My last week in the Sea Org was like a dream. One night I was told to go to the basement and stuff letters. I did this in a little room with no ventilation and moisture dripping down the walls.

There was never anyone around. I was left alone most of the time at night now. That was their mistake. It gave me time to think.

This night I started stuffing my 2,000 letters. The old innocent days of the Sea Org seemed very far away. The idealistic little girl who had come here in '74 with dreams of new-found powers and increased understanding had died...

Far above me the org hummed with activity. Every day someone else like me, gullible and hungry for answers, was being drawn into Scientology. Every day someone joined the Sea Org looking for security within the group, not knowing the total control of their personality they were handing over. Every day someone was sent to the RPF. These were my thoughts as I stood there.

Suddenly I flung the letters down. I needed to walk. Underneath the nine buildings were long tunnels that connected each building. Great steam pipes ran along the sides of the tunnels. It was like being in the engine room of a ship. The public didn't even know these tunnels existed.

I walked for miles, thinking.

I knew now that I was going to die. My body was completely emaciated, my mind had developed frightening blank periods when I could remember nothing at all. I had very few emotions I could feel any more. Things were breaking down.

I walked through tunnels I had never been in. Then I heard it. Inhuman screaming and ranting. It was coming from my right.

There were four doors and someone was pounding on one of them. I ran over and tried to open the door. It was locked. I yelled, "Are you all right?" I got more screams. Suddenly someone touched my shoulder.

I turned and looked at a man in clean overalls. "Hello," he said. "I'm the Ethics Officer for the RPF."

"What are you doing to her," I said.

"Oh, she's just blowing off some charge. When someone flips out on the RPF, we lock them up for a couple of hours. They calm down after awhile." He smiled.

I was stunned. "You lock them up in here?"

"Sure, you know the tech. The tech always works."

I looked at him. Totally triumphant, with Scientology tech on his side. I felt sick to my stomach; the corridor started spinning around me. So this was it. The final answer. Cold, calculated, step-by-step -- a progression to stamp out anyone who questioned, rebelled, criticized, disliked Scientology. Break them, all of us. You don't agree, you make a mistake, you are a staff member and you flip out. No mercy -- just Scientology tech. Pure Ron Hubbard, turned insane.

He was still looking at me.

"Sure," I said, "maybe she'll drop her body and pick up a new one. She'll get regged again and come back for another try. Death doesn't exist, does it? Suffering doesn't exist either. Only the tech sent from another galaxy."

"Wow," he said. "What OT level are you?"

"None you'd want to know about," I said. I turned and left him standing by the locked door. (10)

The purpose of the Sea Organization, according to the Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, is to "get ethics in on the planet and eventually the universe."

The possibility is truly frightening.

Notes

1. Corydon, p. 365-367
2. Atack, p. 187
3. Corydon, p. 25
4. Atack, p. 180
5. Tonja Burden affidavit
6. Corydon, p. 95
7. Ibid, p. 98
8. Affidavit of an unnamed (by choice) ex member of Scientology
9. Excerpt from My Nine Lives in Scientology by Monica Pignotti
10. Corydon, p. 130

Chapter 10

Religion Inc. --
The Selling of Scientology

During the 1930s, L. Ron Hubbard had acquired a formidable reputation as a writer of pulp fiction and science fiction. Fans looked forward to his swashbuckling tales each month, and they were rarely disappointed. Whether it was westerns, full of the drama and dust of the West, or adventures set in the exotic Orient, or eerie science fiction tales -- Hubbard seemed to have tapped into an inexhaustible supply of plots and characters. His fertile imagination, coupled with a prodigious writing talent, his capacity for an amazingly prolific verbal output, made him the envy of many of his fiction-writing peers.

Any lesser man would have been satisfied with the success that Hubbard had found as an adventure writer. But Hubbard was no ordinary man. Burning inside him was, as he once confided in an associate, "an insatiable lust for money and power." He had made remarks more than once to friends that he was considering starting his own religion. He told one friend that he had not decided whether to destroy the Catholic Church, or "merely start a new one." (1)

And the now famous quote which he made to a writer's conference, that it was silly to write for a penny a word, and that the real way to make a million dollars was to start your own religion.

Scientology is about money. In Governing Policy Hubbard wrote:

MAKE MONEY. MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MONEY.

Hubbard was probably one of the, if not the, most successful con men that ever lived. He was able to convince thousands of people to sell their homes, liquidate their assets, and give everything they had to him, in exchange for the questionable commodity of spiritual salvation for eternal lifetimes to come. And not only did they buy it, but they bought it fully believing they had made the best of the bargain.

A recent issue of Impact, a Scientology magazine, contains a revealing list of "Patrons of the Association," a list of 972 people who have donated money to the International Association of Scientologists. What is remarkable about this list is that of the 972 donors listed, 844 had donated more than $40,000, 99 had donated more than $100,000 and 29 had donated over $250,000 for a grand total of over 50 million dollars!

That kind of "giving" by parishioners might well be the envy of many other churches.

It has always been difficult for outsiders to ascertain certain information about Scientology, because of the secrecy of the organization about its financial and membership statistics, and the tendency of the organization to inflate or deflate those statistics to their advantage.

For example, as far back as 1978, Scientology claimed to have 5,437,000 members internationally. For the past ten years they have been claiming to have 6 million members around the globe. Yet in an internal church memo released this year, Scientologists were told that the membership of the church was twenty five thousand, and they were exhorted to work to increase that figure by a factor of four so that the church could have 100,000 members.

Conversely, the church has systematically underreported its income and assets; however, reports from defecting members have provided some clues as to Scientology's finances.

In the September 1981 issue of Reader's Digest it was reported that at that time Scientology was grossing $100 million a year, a figure substantiated by courtroom testimony a year later in which a recent defector from Scientology reported that the church was grossing 2 million dollars a week. It was also reported that the church in Clearwater alone was grossing a million dollars per week, and that the staff was put on a diet of rice and beans when this quota was not met.

The same court testimony produced the information that at least 100 million dollars had been illegally smuggled out of the country and stashed in various foreign accounts in Lichtenstein and Luxembourg. And Forbes magazine in 1986 reported the net worth of the church at that time as 400 million dollars.

Scientologists, especially those working as "staff," are constantly under pressure to increase the flow of funds into the organization. An example of this is what one writer has dubbed "the billion dollar caper."

In a taped briefing to his staff, Hubbard said: "MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT MONEY!" (2)

Scientology had long had a network of "missions," small Scientology organizations accessible to the public which offered beginning Scientology services. The owners of these missions were probably the only entrepreneurs in Scientology, and many of them did very well financially with the missions.

Until 1982, these missions were loosely organized by the Scientology Missions Office World Wide. But in 1982, Scientology, under its new leadership, and presumably masterminded by Hubbard, decided to "nationalize" these missions and milk the affluent owners of their assets.

It was announced to these mission holders that a new umbrella organization was being established, the Scientology Missions International. Many of the mission holders were required to buy a $35,000 "mission starters packet" even though their missions had been operating for years.

To add insult to injury, the mission holders were informed that their missions were to be visited by the "International Finance Police," who would be going over their finances -- a privilege for which the mission would be billed at the rate of $15,000 per day. The "International Finance Police" were organized by an "International Finance Dictator."

Through these and other acts of terrorism, a full scale purge took place throughout Scientology in which many of the long standing Scientologists were thrown out or forced out of the organization by the new management, the children who had grown up under Hubbard and who now ruthlessly seized power in the organization.

"I have never lied to you," Hubbard once assured his followers. And yet, in an article called What Your Donations Buy, he wrote benevolently:

I know that Dianetic and Scientology services should be free and I wish they were.

Personally I have tried to do my part in this. None of the researches of Dianetics and Scientology were ever actually paid for out of organizational fees. With my typewriter I paid for the research myself.

Independent of research costs, the 13-1/2 million dollars that churches owed me for services rendered, the usual author's royalties, lectures, loans, things paid out of my own pocket, I forgave and never collected.

So the donations you make for services do not go to me....

Hubbard then claimed that the money from Scientology was spent in "keeping the church alive and functioning and the environment safe."

So where did Hubbard get his money?

In the 1960s, Hubbard told a reporter from The Daily Mail in England that he had 7 million dollars in a Swiss bank, money he claimed, that he had inherited in oil lands in Montana.

Defectors from Scientology in the early 1980s portray quite a different picture. According to the Forbes magazine issue of October 27, 1986, in 1982 at least 40 million dollars had gone directly to Hubbard, channeled through various Scientology corporations.

One defector, Homer Schomer, says that in 1983, he was personally making out checks to Hubbard each week for a million dollars from Scientology funds. In other words, Hubbard was making 52 million dollars a year from Scientology. A dozen different corporations were set up to disguise these payments to Hubbard. According to one ex-member:

The problem was how were we going to get the money for Hubbard? He was not supposed to take the money personally. So separate corporations were set up. This is RRF, Religious Research Foundation. We used to call it Ralph. That was a code name.

Money would be put into Ralph, that would be accounts in Lichtenstein. This is a Liberian Corporation. And he would draw from it. So in other words all of this money actually made its way over to Ralph. It went through these various people and various organizations, and from Ralph, then it went right to Hubbard. (3)

Later, an even simpler means of channeling money to Hubbard was devised, which was for Hubbard to bill Scientology retroactively for his various services and research. For example, the church was billed 85 million dollars by Hubbard for the use of the E-meter, which he claimed to have developed.

If not already obvious, the mercenary nature of Scientology can be clearly seen in many of its policies and practices.

One example is a policy by Hubbard called How to Sell Scientology, which is an interesting title for the policy of a "church" In this policy he instructs his followers to talk about the brutalities of psychiatry, saying that "if you get real insistent, even oddly accusative of listener, even slightly angry on this point and stress it over and over, you should get some people willing to come to a (lecture)."

Another bulletin announces the "Overwhelming Public Popularity" campaign, in which a media blitz in the San Francisco area will "get the broad general public knowing about and wanting Scientology."

How many churches have a trained corps of salespersons working on a commission basis to provide a constant supply of paying public to the organization? How many churches offer "rebates" on the services purchased by parishioners?

In Scientology, salespersons called FSMs (Field Staff Members) are trained to recruit people for Scientology services. The FSMs earn a 10-15% commission on everyone they "select" for a Scientology service, depending on the type of service.

FSMs are drilled on the "dissemination drill," in which they learn to locate a person's "ruin." The dissemination drill is a four step drill, consisting of the steps: 1. contact; 2. handle; 3. salvage; and 4. bring to understanding.

The FSM contacts a potential recruit in any of a variety of ways, "handles" any objections the person might have about Scientology, then probes through conversation to discover the person's "ruin," the one thing in his life he will pay almost anything to overcome. Once the "ruin" is discovered, the person can be "brought to understanding" by being told: "Scientology handles that (problem)."

Once the new person is on the Communication Course, he will be shepherded onto subsequent courses by the FSM, who will receive commissions for everything his selectee does in Scientology.

FSMs go through an intensive training course, on which they are given tips on how to increase their commissions. They are trained in the use of "Come-on" dissemination, in which they learn to create some "mystery" to attract the new person into Scientology. They are taught to use books, primarily the Dianetics book, to lure people into Scientology. They learn a technique called the "casualty contact," in which they go as "ministers" into a hospital and recruit people to Scientology.

FSMs are taught that their purpose is to "help LRH (Hubbard) contact, handle, salvage and bring to understanding the individuals and thus the peoples of earth." (4)

For successful FSMs, there is even the "FSM of the Year Award," at which the FSM with the "highest statistics" for the year is awarded a silver cup.

When a new person begins a course in Scientology, he is told that if he doesn't like the course, he can get a full refund. What he is not told is to what lengths he will have to go to get the promised refund. A dissatisfied person applying for a refund in Scientology is first subjected to an extensive "routing form," requiring him to go around the organization and be interviewed by at least a dozen people as to the reason he is requesting a refund. Even after completing this tortuous procedure, there is no guarantee that he will ever receive his refund. He may find that letters and even repeated phone calls will go unanswered indefinitely, until he will finally require the services of an attorney to recover the promised refund.

Another Scientology policy is the "freeloader's bill." A person who signs on as "staff" in a Scientology organization by signing either a 2-1/2 year, five-year or billion-year contract of employment is technically entitled to free services (auditing or training). However, if the person becomes dissatisfied and decides to leave staff, he will immediately receive a "freeloader's bill," in which he will be billed for all services received as a staff member, but at full rates.

Since the charges for auditing range from $300 to $1000 per hour, this bill can be quite intimidating to the staff person, particularly since they are often threatened with expulsion from Scientology or a "lower condition" unless they pay the bill. Since most Scientologists believe that their spiritual survival for the "next endless trillions of years" is dependent on Scientology, the threat of being expelled or having their relationship with Scientology jeopardized is no small matter.

There is an even more ominous policy in Scientology having to do with defectors from the organization. The person in Scientology undergoing auditing is continually told that his auditing file is confidential. This is so he will feel comfortable divulging the most personal things to the auditor. Yet, unbeknownst to the person being audited, there is a policy in the organization, GO Order 121669, which explicitly orders the culling of confessional folders for information to use against people who are "security risks."

In one such case, a letter is written by a Scientologist to a member who is obviously disaffected, informing him that: "the review (of his folder) shows that you actually make more money than you report to the IRS and that you are skimming around $2500 off the top prior to reports," and threatening to make this information public should the person not come into line.

One judge who looked into Scientology called it: "the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy." (5)

Is Scientology a religion?

Or is it a business masquerading as a religion?

Let the reader judge for himself.

Notes

1. Miller, p. 144
2. Corydon, p. 200
3. Ibid, p. 199
4. Hubbard policy of 9 May 1965, "Field Auditors Become Staff"
5. Justice Andersen, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia

Chapter 11

Ethics -- The Greatest Good
for the Greatest Number of Dynamics

The systems of thought and mind control devised by Hubbard in Scientology were very good -- but not perfect. As in all organizations, there would inevitably be a few troublesome souls who would question, doubt, and generally resist the program. It was to deal with this troublesome remnant that Hubbard developed his system of "ethics," a system which would effectively close the loop of social control in Scientology.

Like being sent to the principal's office in grade school, the order "to go to ethics" strikes certain terror in the soul of a Scientologist. This is because the Ethics Officer holds the ultimate power in Scientology, the power to apply the dreaded label of "Suppressive Person" and to cast a member out of Scientology and into spiritual oblivion for millions of lifetimes to come. A Scientologist will do almost anything to stay out of trouble with Ethics.

"Ethics" is defined in Scientology as rationality toward the highest level of survival along the dynamics. But in Scientology, ethics has to do primarily with the group -- the group being Scientology. Anything that promotes Scientology or benefits Scientology is therefore defined as "ethical," whereas anything which is contra-survival for Scientology becomes, by definition, "unethical."

Similarly, there is a phrase frequently heard in Scientology, "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics," meaning that which is good for the group (Scientology) and for mankind is more important and takes precedence over that which is good for the individual. A dangerous philosophy.

The chart of "ethics conditions" in Scientology is as follows, in descending sequence:

• Power
• Power Change
• Affluence
• Normal Operation
• Emergency
• Danger
• Nonexistence
• Liability
• Doubt
• Enemy
• Treason
• Confusion

The theory in Scientology is that a person will always be in one of these conditions with regard to any area of life. So a person could be in a condition of Affluence at his job, a condition of Emergency in his marriage, a condition of Nonexistence in his finances, a condition of Normal Operation with his health, etc.

And for each of the conditions, Hubbard devised a formula which, if applied, is supposed to cause the person to progress to the next higher condition. That some of these formulas may not make much sense does not matter. Because Ron (Hubbard) has said this is what they are, they must be right. Right?

The formula for the condition of Confusion is, simply: FIND OUT WHERE YOU ARE.

Once that has been done, the person will move "up" to Treason, for which the formula is: FIND OUT THAT YOU ARE.

In Enemy, the formula is: FIND OUT WHO YOU REALLY ARE.

The formula for Doubt is a bit more complex.

When one cannot make up one's mind as to an individual, a group, organization or project a condition of Doubt exists. The formula is:

 

1. Inform oneself honestly of the actual intentions and activities of that individual, group, project or organization brushing aside all bias and rumor.

    

2. Examine the statistics of the individual, group, project or organization.

    

3. Decide on the basis of "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics" whether or not it should be attacked, harmed or suppressed or helped.

    

4. Evaluate oneself or one's own group, project or organization as to intentions and objectives.

    

5. Evaluate one's own or one's group, project or organization's statistics.

    

6. Join or remain in or befriend the one which progresses toward the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics and announce the fact publicly to both sides.

    

7. Do everything possible to improve the actions and statistics of the person, group, project or organization one has remained in or joined.

    

8. Suffer on up through the conditions in the new group if one has changed sides, or the conditions of the group one has remained in if wavering from it has lowered one's status.

Now "upgraded" by the Ethics Officer to a condition of Liability, the formula is:

 

1. Decide who are one's friends.

    

2. Deliver an effective blow to the enemies of the group one has been pretending to be part of despite personal danger.

    

3. Make up the damage one has done by personal contribution far beyond the ordinary demands of a group member.

    

4. Apply for re-entry to the group by asking the permission of each member of it to rejoin and rejoining only by majority permission, and if refused, repeating steps 2-4 until one is allowed to be a group member again.

When a person first begins a job in Scientology, he starts off in a condition of Non-existence, for which the formula is:

 

1. Find a comm (communication) line.

    

2. Make yourself known.

    

3. Discover what is needed and wanted.

    

4. Do, produce and/or present it.

In other words, find out what needs to be done and do it.

Having done that, one is now in a condition of Danger. This condition applies when an activity is in trouble. The formula is:

 

1. Bypass (ignore the junior in charge of the activity and handle it personally).

    

2. Handle the situation and any danger in it.

    

3. Assign the area where it had to be handled a danger condition.

    

4. Handle the personnel by ethics investigation.

    

5. Reorganize the activity so that the situation will not repeat.

    

6. Recommend any firm policy that will hereafter detect and/or prevent the condition from recurring.

When the person has gotten his activity out of danger, he or she is then in a condition of Emergency, for which the formula is:

 

1. Promote and produce.

    

2. Change your operating basis.

    

3. Economize.

    

4. Then prepare to deliver.

    

5. Stiffen discipline or stiffen ethics.

If the person has successfully applied the Emergency formula, the condition of Normal Operation now applies and its formula is:

 

1. Don't change anything.

    

2. Ethics are mild.

    

3. If a statistic betters, look it over carefully and find out what bettered it and then do that without abandoning what you were doing before.

    

4. Every time a statistic worsens slightly, quickly find out why and remedy it.

If things are going well and the formula for Normal Operation has been applied for a period of time, then the person could be said to be in a condition of Affluence, for which the formula is:

 

1. Economize. Be sure you don't buy anything with a future commitment to it.

    

2. Pay every bill.

    

3. Invest the remainder in service facilities, make it more possible to deliver.

    

4. Discover what caused the condition of affluence and strengthen it.

If things are going really well, the person may make a Power Change into another area of endeavor. If not, the person is in a condition of Power for which the only rule is: Don't Disconnect. Take ownership and responsibility for your connections.

These are the Ethics Conditions in Scientology and they are taken very seriously. Each week, each person working for the organization (i.e, "on staff") will turn in his or her "stats" to the Ethics Officer. The person will be assigned a condition by the Ethics Officer, and will be required to apply the appropriate formula for that condition to their job. In addition, the Ethics Officer can assign a person a condition in any area of his personal life, and the person must apply the appropriate formula and submit a written application to the Ethics Officer for "upgrading" to the next higher condition. For the Scientologist, the ethics conditions and their formulas is a way of life.

Another function of ethics in Scientology is the administration of "security checks" to members. Security checks, called "sec checks," are administered with the member on the E-meter, and in this case the E-meter is used as a lie detector.

The first sec check encountered by a member will be the Staff Questionairre which is given when the person first joins staff. Some of the items on this questionnaire are:

1. Name

2. Life history

3. How did you come into Scientology?

4. History in Scientology

5. Do you have any psychiatric institutional history?

7. Do you have a criminal record?

8. Do you have any crimes for which you could be arrested?

9. Do you have any physical disabilities or illnesses?

10. Do you have any record of insanity?

11. Are you connected to anyone who is antagonistic to Scientology or spiritual healing?

17. Have any of your family members threatened to sue or attack or embarrass Scientology?

26. What are the details of your 2D (second dynamic, or love life) history over the last year with names and dates.

27. Have you any homosexual or lesbian history -- when and with whom?

28. Drug history.

31. Are you here for any different purpose than you say?

Sec checks are a fact of life in Scientology. It must be remembered that should a member defect, their ethics folders with the written answers to these questions can be used, per Guardian's Order 121669, to blackmail or otherwise intimidate the defector.

One of the earliest sec checks was called the "Joburg," which was developed in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was a much feared security check for many years. Sample questions from this interrogation include the following:

Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever been in prison?
Have you ever embezzled money?
Have you ever been in jail?
Have you ever had anything to do with pornography?
Have you ever been a drug addict?
Do you have a police record?
Have you ever raped anyone?
Have you ever been involved in an abortion?
Have you ever committed adultery?
Have you ever practiced homosexuality?
Have you ever had intercourse with a member of your family?
Have you ever slept with a member of a race of another color?
Have you ever bombed anything?
Have you ever murdered anyone?
Have you ever been a Communist?
Have you ever been a newspaper reporter?
Have you ever ill-treated children?
Have you ever had anything to do with a baby farm?
Are you afraid of the police?
Have you ever done anything your mother would be ashamed to find out?
How do you feel about sex?
How do you feel about being controlled?

Later the contents of this security check were revised into "The Only Valid Security Check" which contains many of the same questions with the addition of several others such as:

Have you ever practiced cannibalism?
Have you ever peddled dope?
Have you practiced sex with animals?
Have you ever attempted suicide?
Do you collect sexual objects?
Have you ever practiced sex with children?
Have you ever practiced masturbation?
Have you ever killed or crippled animals for pleasure?
Have you ever had unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?
Are you upset about this security check?

As if this weren't enough, there is the lengthy "Whole Track Sec Check" designed to ferret out "overts" a person has committed during his thousands of past lives. Of the 346 questions on this form, a sample few are:

Have you ever enslaved a population?
Have you ever sacked a city?
Have you ever raped a child of either sex?
Have you ever bred bodies for degrading purposes?
Have you ever deliberately tortured someone?
Have you driven anyone insane?
Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?
Have you ever made a planet, or nation, radioactive?
Have you ever maimed or crippled other people's bodies?
Have you ever torn out someone's tongue?
Have you ever blinded anyone?
Have you ever punished another by cutting off some part of his body?
Have you ever smothered a baby?
Have you ever had sexual relations with an animal or a bird?
Have you ever castrated anyone?
Have you ever applied a hot iron to another person's body?
Have you ever beaten a child to death?
Have you ever eaten a human body?

Etc.

There is even a special security check for children from ages 6 to 12, who are asked questions like:

What has somebody told you not to tell?
Have you ever decided you didn't like some member of your family?
Have you ever pretended to be sick?
Have you ever bullied a smaller child?
Have you ever been mean to an animal, bird or fish?
Have you ever broken something belonging to someone else?
Have you ever done anything you were very much ashamed of?
Have you ever failed to finish your schoolwork on time?
Have you ever lied to a teacher?
Have you ever done anything to someone else's body that you shouldn't have?
Have you ever felt ashamed of your parents?
Have you ever lied to escape blame?
Have you ever told stories about someone behind their back?

Etc.

Similar to security checks is another assignment frequently meted out by the Ethics Officer, and that is the assignment to write up one's "OWs" (overts and withholds), which in Scientology means all the things one has ever done wrong (overts), and especially those which someone else almost found out about (withholds).

This will commonly be assigned to a person who is in the process of "working out of a condition of Enemy." The Ethics Officer is usually not satisfied until many pages of "OWs" have been produced by the properly repentant member. At one point in Scientology it was the practice to lock the member in a closet for two or more days while he wrote up his sins.

If a person in Scientology should become querulous, especially should he find fault with something written by Hubbard, or should he doubt some point of dogma, that person will be quickly isolated from the other students and dispatched to Ethics until his overts can be discovered and dealt with.

Anything authored by Hubbard ("Source") is assumed to be valid and true; therefore, anyone who has a disagreement with anything written by Hubbard must have personal overts which are causing him to find fault.

It is the job of the Ethics department of Scientology to assign the person the appropriate lower condition and have him write up his OWs until he has come to see the light and can be returned a more obedient and humble member of the group.

In the case of serious deviation from the norms of the group, there are more severe penalties which can be applied to provide the motivation for a member to more obediently conform. Some of these penalties have in the past included:

 

• a dirty grey rag tied to the left arm to indicate a condition of liability

   

• confinement to the premises of the organization

   

• suspension of pay and dismissal from post

   

• a black mark on the left cheek to indicate a condition of treason

   

• the person cannot be communicated with by anyone in the organization

   

• deprivation of sleep for up to 72 hours

   

• assignment of manual labor for up to 72 hours

In the case of persons who become actual enemies of the organization, the Ethics order of Fair Game can be applied, which means that these persons may be "deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed."

At one time Hubbard ordered the ultimate punishment for thirteen people who had defected as "enemies" from the organization. Hubbard ordered that "auditing process R2-45" be used on these people if they were seen by any Scientologist.

"R2-45" is a term understood by every Scientologist. When he first demonstrated it, it is fabled that Hubbard shot a Colt 45 revolver through the floor of the stage he was lecturing from. Routine #2-45 refers to the act of shooting someone in the head with a Colt 45 and is the execution procedure in Scientology. In defending themselves, Scientologists will say to outsiders that Hubbard meant this as a joke; however, in a document called Racket Exposed, Hubbard did in fact order thirteen people to be shot on sight.

Other aspects of the system of social control enforced by the ethics arm of the organization are "Knowledge Reports" and "Committees of Evidence."

Knowledge Reports were introduced by Hubbard in 1965, and the system of Knowledge Reports is not unlike the system used in a communist country in which everyone spies on everyone else.

In Scientology, if you see someone doing something "wrong," you are obligated to write up a Knowledge Report on that person to be sent to Ethics for "handling."

Hubbard justified this system in a policy letter called Knowledge Reports, in which he says:

To live at all, one has to exert some control over his equals as well as his juniors and (believe it or not) his superiors.

And get a REAL group in return that, collectively, can control the environment and prosper because its group members individually help control each other.

A person in the organization suspected of being a dreaded "suppressive person," will be called before the Scientology version of a jury trial, called a Committee of Evidence, or "Comm Ev" for short. A Comm Ev, however, will have little to do with justice, as the results have frequently been determined ahead of time, and the Comm Ev is itself just a formality through which the offending person can be officially declared "SP" and ousted from the organization.

A Suppressive Person in Scientology is defined as one who "actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts." A Suppressive is basically anyone who is an enemy of Scientology. It is hard to convey the terror that the words "suppressive person" arouse in a Scientologist. It means a person who is thoroughly evil beyond redemption, and whose soul is doomed for eternity.

Even being around an "SP" can be bad for one's health, spiritual and otherwise, and a person connected to an SP is known as a "PTS," or Potential Trouble Source.

When a person becomes ill, or is doing badly for any reason, it is assumed that the person is connected to an "SP." When a Scientologist becomes ill, an auditing action such as an "S and D" (Search and Discovery) might be ordered to discover the identity of the "SP" in the person's environment. Once the "SP" is located and disconnected from, according to Scientology theory, the person should recover. It is a strange brand of medicine.

It is always assumed that Scientology itself is good, and that those who are against Scientology are by nature evil. In an article called Why Some Fight Scientology, Hubbard wrote:

Scientology had no enemies until the word was out that it worked! Criminals, Communists, perverted religionists alike swarmed to support a "new fraud," a "hoax," a brand new way of extorting money from and enslaving Man. And then in 1950 they found that the new sciences worked with, to them, deadly accuracy. And with a shudder of terror they faced about and struck with every weapon possible. The press, the courts, shady women, insane inmates, politicians, tax bureaus, these and many more were used in a frantic effort to beat down what they had found to be honest, decent and accurate.

The unthinkable thought in Scientology is that something said by Hubbard is wrong. Doubt in Scientology is a "lower condition" to be punished. Scientology is a group in which there is no room for individuality, only conformity. And this extends to the act of thinking itself.

What was most frightening for most people about the novel 1984 by Orwell was that the one sacrosanct territory belonging to a man -- his thoughts -- had been violated, invaded by the "state." In the real world, we are only responsible for and have to fear the consequences of our actions; but in Orwell's world a man had to fear the consequences of his thoughts as well. Most of us would have to agree that living in a world in which we could be punished not only for what we did, but also for what we thought, would be a frightening world indeed.

Scientology comes very close to being this kind of world. As Hubbard once said, "The E-meter sees all, knows all, tells everything." With Scientology auditing, there is a constant invasion into the privacy of the thoughts of members.

In Scientology, the Road to Total Freedom, Hubbard has created a world frighteningly similar to the nightmarish world of Orwell's fantasy.

And in Scientology, it is the system of "ethics" which is Big Brother, constantly watching over all.

Chapter 12

OSA (Office of Special Affairs) --
The Secret CIA of Scientology

By the mid-1960s, Scientology was a religion under siege. In the U.S., the Church had been raided by the F.D.A. In England, Scientology was being investigated by Parliament and St. Hill students lived in danger of being deported. The Australian Inquiry was underway and there were tremors from South Africa. Hubbard had been deported from Rhodesia and was under constant F.B.I. surveillance at St. Hill.

Predisposed to paranoia, Hubbard was not one to remain on the defensive for long. "Don't ever defend, always attack," he wrote. "If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace...." (1)

Evidence of the war mentality promoted by Hubbard and highly contagious within Scientology is a policy written by Hubbard called The War, in which he announced:

You may not realize it ... but there is only one small group that has hammered Dianetics and Scientology for eighteen years. The press attacks, the public upsets you receive ... were generated by this one group. Last year we isolated a dozen men at the top. This year we found the organization these used and all its connections over the world.... (2)

Hubbard claimed that a group of twelve men associated with the World Bank had set up psychiatry and the mental health movement as a vehicle to undermine and destroy the West. And this twelve-man conspiracy was the real source of all opposition to Scientology.

In February of 1966, Lord Balniel of the English House of Commons called for an investigation into Scientology. Hubbard responded by setting up the Public Investigation Section at St. Hill for the purposes of "helping LRH (Hubbard) investigate public matters and individuals which seem to impede human liberty," and to "furnish intelligence." (3)

By the late 60s, the Public Investigation Section had evolved into the "Guardian's Office," a separate and unique agency within Scientology which became Hubbard's private intelligence bureau, a private CIA within the "Church."

Hubbard appointed his wife, Mary Sue, as "Comptroller" or head of the newly formed Guardian's Office, which was headquartered at St. Hill.

The Guardian's Office had six bureaus:

 

1. Legal, which handled litigation involving Scientology;

    

2. Public Relations, and media relations;

    

3. Information, including the controversial Overt and Covert Data Collection and Operations Sections;

    

4. Social Coordination, establishing the many Scientology "front organizations";

    

5. Service, for training G.O. staff members; and

    

6. Finance.

Branch One of the Information Bureau, called "B-1," was the real nerve center of the G.O., where files were maintained on all Scientologists, as well as on every perceived "enemy" of the organization.

Illegal as well as legal means of obtaining information were sanctioned. In a Scientology policy called Re: Intelligence, the following are given as possibilities for collecting data:

1. INFILTRATION
2. BRIBERY
3. BUYING INFORMATION
4. ROBBERY
5. BLACKMAIL

In discussing the criminal policies of the Guardian's Office, it is important to remember the frame of reference from which Scientologists operate and from which these policies were conceived.

From a Scientology perspective, the world is in great danger of nuclear extinction, and Scientology exists as the only deterrent to this terrible inevitability.

To a Scientologist, Scientology is the elite organization on this planet, superior to all other earth organizations. The Scientology system of ethics, based on the "greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics," is therefore superior to any system of "wog" law.

Transgressions of "wog" law necessary to further the ends of Scientology are sanctioned on the basis of the "greatest good." In this way, lying, stealing, burgling and a host of other crimes become justified as means to the end of saving mankind.

Shielded by this philosophy, Scientologists have, over the years, been involved in a staggering array of crimes most unbecoming to members of a church.

It is a fact that Scientologists, particularly members of the G.O., are trained to lie. In a policy called Intelligence Specialist Training Routine -- TR-L (which stands for Training Routine Lie), the student is trained "to outflow false data effectively."

In the drill, the student has to tell a lie, which is then challenged by a coach, who works with the student until the student becomes able to "lie facily."

The ability to lie convincingly is used by the Scientologist in a variety of situations, including the giving of courtroom testimony. A Scientologist feels no obligation to be truthful in a "wog" court, even under oath. Again, this is because the Scientologist is operating under a higher law, that of the "greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics."

Another Scientology policy contains a series of Drills used to train G.O. agents. The student has to choose the best of several alternative solutions:

A. General scene: person to restrain/remove Mr. Jones, employee in local government agency attacking the Org.

1. Order hundreds of dollars worth of liquor in Jones' name and have it delivered to his home to cause him trouble and make the liquor store owner dislike him.
2. Call up Jones' boss and accuse Jones of being a homosexual.
3. Send Jones' boss evidence of Jones accepting bribes on his job, with copies to police and local FBI.

B. General scene: a psychiatrist who has instigated attacks on the Org via police and press.

1. Expose his Nazi background to the press with evidence that he still attends local Nazi meetings.
2. Wake him up every night by calling him on the phone and threatening him.
3. Send a Field Staff Member in to be a patient of his for a year to disperse the psych during sessions.

C. General scene: a newspaper executive Clyde McDonald who's behind local attacks.

1. Poison him while he's asleep so he'll never start another attack.
2. Make known to the paper's owner that McDonald is responsible for the paper's decreasing advertising revenues.
3. Spread a rumor around to the paper's employees that McDonald is a Communist.
4. Put itching powder in McDonald's clothes so he'll scratch himself all day, thus preventing him from writing a story.

And, if these plans seem farfetched, an example of a Scientology "operation" actually carried out is the one against Paulette Cooper, who in 1971 wrote a book critical of Scientology.

In church documents labelled "Operation PC (Paulette Cooper) Freakout," various scenarios were listed. In one scenario, a Scientologist impersonating Cooper was to make threatening phone calls to an Arab consulate. Another plan was to mail a threatening letter to the same consulate, or to make a bomb threat against them.

In still another plot, a Scientologist impersonating Cooper would go to a laundromat and threaten to kill then-President Nixon or Henry Kissinger. Yet another plan was to get Paulette's fingerprints on a piece of paper, then type a bomb threat to Kissinger on the paper and mail it.

Something very similar to this was, in fact, carried out. G.O. agents succeeded in getting Paulette's fingerprints on some stationery, then used the stationery to make bomb threats against the Church. Cooper was indicted on three counts of making bomb threats, and faced fifteen years in jail before she cleared herself by taking a sodium pentothal test.

Cooper was completely exonerated only when the F.B.I., in their 1977 raid of the G.O. offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California, uncovered documents which detailed the church's plans to frame her.

Paulette Cooper's situation is not unique. Many people who have incurred the wrath of the Church of Scientology have found to what extent Scientologists are prepared to go in fighting "the enemy."

In one case, a woman found thousands of worms thrown at her front door. Defectors have been harassed by church agents spreading lies about them to employers or neighbors. Endless frivolous lawsuits have been launched. In one case, Boston attorney Michael Flynn narrowly avoided a crash when water was put in the gas tank of his private plane. This occurred at a time when he was representing several litigants against the "church."

The F.B.I. raids brought to light many of the written policies used to train G.O. members in criminal activities. One such policy is Security and Theft of Materials which contains the following quotes:

The first step in any breaking and entering job is casing. This consists of checking out the area to ascertain the possibilities for breaking into the premises....

Professionals at all times wear gloves during an operation. This prevents fingerprints being left behind by which the agents could be traced....

One trick used by professionals is ... a series of cover stories are mocked up (invented) to cover each stage of the operation in the event that the operation is blown at any point.

If you are picked up by the police, don't say anything more than you are required to by law, which is usually your name and address....

Additionally, any agent working on such operations would have nothing in his possession that connected him with the organization (Scientology)....

And so forth. An interesting policy letter for a church!

Another G.O. policy called The Strike, defines a strike as "the action of gathering information on a covert basis, performed by one or more agents." An example of a strike actually carried out by the church was breaking into the IRS offices in Washington, D.C. and photocopying all files related to Scientology.

A policy called Walk-ins gives more detailed instructions for breaking and entering. Instructions are given in this policy for various aspects of burglarizing an office building: how to break into a locked xerox machine, how to break into a locked door using a credit card, how to fashion a metal tool for breaking into a lock, how to use a strand of wire to break into a lock, how to break into a combination lock, etc.

This policy comes complete with illustrations.

In a policy called B & E's (breaking and entering), the writer comments that "some of our most successful collections actions fall into this category." A good G.O. agent is also trained to bug and debug telephones in the policy called Re: Debugging. This policy, also illustrated, gives techniques for bugging and debugging phones, describes the four common types of bugs used, and explains the difference between a "bug" and a "tap" and how to deal with each.

Most Scientologists are unaware that their supposedly confidential auditing files are forwarded to the G.O. where, should they defect from the organization, the folders will be systematically culled for information which can be used to intimidate or blackmail them.

Most Scientologists are unaware of G.O. policy #121669 called Programme: Intelligence: Internal Security, which states:

Operating Targets: To make full use of all files of the organization to affect your major target. These include personnel files, Ethics files, training files, processing files and requests for refunds....

The fact that a person's auditing or processing files may contain sensitive personal information given to an auditor under assurances of confidentiality is reflected in some of the reports generated by the G.O. from these folders.

In one such report, information gathered on a disaffected Scientologist includes:

While at the (Scientology org) she was promiscuous. She slept with four or five men during the course, two of them on the org premises. She has quite a record of promiscuity.... With three male preclears, she let them touch her genitals during sessions.... She has masturbated regularly since she was eight years old, mentions doing it once with coffee grounds and once had a puppy lick her....

Another such report includes the names of the person's children and the items:

Several self-induced abortions. Saw a psych due to alcoholism problems. Drug history: Librium, Valium, LSD, opium, heroin. Son is in jail, etc.

In 1973, Hubbard authored a plan for the G.O. called "Snow White," instructing the G.O. to gain access to all federal agencies to obtain their files on Scientology. The name of this operation derived from Hubbard's opinion that once these agencies had their files "cleaned," they would be "snow white."

Infiltrating, or "penetrating," these agencies was achieved by having a Scientology agent obtain employment at an agency, then use his credentials to gain access to desired materials in the agency's files.

A report called Compliance Report lists 136 such agencies targeted for penetration, prioritized by a star system, i.e., * low priority, ** higher priority, and *** highest priority. Some of the *** agencies listed in this report are: the AEC, the CIA, the FBI, the FTC, the FDA, the IRS, the NSA, the US Air Force, the US Army, the US Attorney General, the DEA, the US Coast Guard, the US Department of Justice, the US Department of Labor, the US Department of State, the US Department of Treasury, the US House of Representatives, the US Department of Immigration and Naturalization, the US Marshall's Office, the US Navy, the US Post Office, the US Selective Service, and the US Senate.

In this report, several agencies, such as the IRS, the DEA, the US Coast Guard, and the US Department of Labor are marked: "Done."

Another policy called Safe U.S. details plans to get agents into the US Attorney's offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, into the IRS Office of International Operations, into the headquarters of the AMA, and into various state and local district attorneys' offices.

In a policy concerning the World Federation of Mental Health called Compliance Report GO#121569, the writer states that: "everything possible was done to collect the data, everything from infiltrating to stealing to eavesdropping, etc."

The G.O. used a complex system of coding, especially in any written communications involving criminal or illegal activities. In policies such as The Correct Use of Codes and Re: Coding/Wording of Messages, G.O. staff members are instructed to code the following:

Incriminating, undercover activities and the like, such as violations of our status as a tax exempt non-profit organization; subversive activities; covert operations; and money deals that might provoke government tax offices....

Things that we want unknown as connected to the Church of Scientology, i.e., secret front groups;

Words that would dispute the fact that the Church of Scientology's motives are humanitarian, i.e., harass, eradicate, attack, destroy, annihilate, entrapment...

Admission to unpunished crimes and/or incriminating data;

Mentions or the ordering of a B & E (breaking and entering);

Implications of posing as a government agent;

Evidence of tapping phone lines or illegal taping of conversations;

Mentions of harassment;

Any evidence of bribery;

Wordings like "let's wipe him out";

Etc.

Another set of G.O. policies has to do with disposing of incriminating documents quickly should the org be raided by the FBI or other government agency.

One policy describes a system known in the G.O. as the "Red Box." This policy gives instructions for keeping all G.O. documents related to incriminating activities in a special folder or briefcase called the "red box" that can be quickly destroyed in case of a raid.

Another policy called Basic and Essential Security instructs the G.O. staff member to be able destroy all such incriminating material within 30-60 seconds. "Destruction by fire is usually most thorough and practical. Probably the easiest and least expensive method is to purchase a metal container, some lighter fluid and have matches on hand...."

Especially illuminating is the course checksheet for the "Information Full Hat," the course used to train G.O. agents. Included on this course are the following:

To read a book on brainwashing;

To be able to define the following words: Spy; Spying; Agent; Operative; Information; Intelligence; Espionage; Counter espionage; Counter intelligence; Fascism; Socialism; Communism; CIA; FBI; MI6; MI5; KGB; GRU.

To write an essay on: What could happen if Intelligence was not anonymous or elusive;

To read the following policy letters written by Hubbard:

"Terror Stalks"
"Communism and Scientology"
"The War"
"PDH" (Pain, Drugs, Hypnosis)
"Intelligence"
"The Art of Building a Cover"
"Covert Operations I"
"Covert Operations II"
"Black PR"
"Secret, Notes on SMERSH"
Etc.

Other books read on the course include: The Spy and His Master; KGB; CIA and the Cult of Intelligence; Psychological Warfare Against Nazi Germany; and The Art of War, by Sun Tzu.

A sample of the hundreds of drills on this course:

Demo a covert operation on an opponent which restrains him and the beneficial result.

Demo why it is important to know your public's hate and love buttons when running an operation on an enemy.

Write an essay on what you would do if while running operations on an opponent, the opponent begins to run a black propaganda campaign on you.

Write up an operation in which the agent carrying out the operation would need a pretty good cover.

Demo how knowing the enemy makes for a better operation than being ignorant of the enemy.

Also included on this checksheet is TR-L (training routine lie).

Again, an interesting course for a "church"!

Unquestionably the most spectacular "operations" carried out by G.O. agents were those connected to "Operation Snow White," in which scores of government offices were burglarized in an attempt to retrieve every government file on Scientology. These operations resulted in some 30,000 government documents being either copied or stolen. Unfortunately for the Scientologists, they also resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of eleven Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife.

Michael Meisner, as Assistant Guardian for the Bureau of Information, was chosen to supervise this operation.

He selected a G.O. staff member, Gerald Wolfe, to infiltrate the IRS in Washington, D.C. Wolfe, codenamed "Silver," was hired as a clerk typist with the I.R.S. in May of 1975.

From May of 1975 until June of 1976, Wolfe and Meisner, using Wolfe's ID card as well as five forged ID cards, burglarized offices of the IRS Chief Counsel, several IRS attorneys, the IRS Exemptions Office, the Tax Division of the U.S. Justice Department, the Deputy General of the U.S., the IRS Office of Intelligence Operations, the Department of Justice Information and Privacy Unit, and the Interpol Liaison Office.

Meisner and Wolfe were able to pull off their astonishingly successful burglaries for over a year, until a suspicious library clerk alerted the authorities. In June of 1976, Wolfe was caught by the FBI with one of the forged ID cards, for which he was arrested and prosecuted. Meisner managed to flee prosecution for a year, during which time he was held prisoner by the G.O., until he managed to escape and defected to the FBI.

A month after Meisner's defection, the FBI launched surprise raids against the G.O. offices in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, seizing thousands of documents, including most of those previously stolen from the government offices.

As a result of the evidence obtained in the raids, eleven G.O. officials were indicted, and nine of the eleven served prison sentences ranging from six months to five years.

Mary Sue Hubbard, as head of the G.O., was fined $10,000 and given a five year prison sentence for her part in the illegal operations. Although she pleaded for leniency, she was told by the judge:

We have a precious system of government in the United States.... For anyone to use those laws, or to seek under the guise of those laws, to destroy the very foundation of the government is totally wrong and cannot be condoned by any responsible citizen. (4)

Mary Sue Hubbard reported to Federal Correctional Institution in Lexington, Kentucky, where she served one year of her term before being released. Shortly after her release from prison, she was ousted from her position as head of the Guardian's Office by the new leadership of the church Her present whereabouts remain unknown.

The Guardian's Office was renamed the "Office of Special Affairs" by the new church leadership in the mid-1980s, in an effort to shed the tarnished image of the G.O. But, like the tiger unable to change its stripes, OSA is simply the old G.O. with a new name.

Strange activities for a church?

True, not every church comes with its own information and intelligence agency, illustrated instructions for burglary, espionage training, and its own corps of highly trained secret agents.

It is the siege mentality of Scientology, the idea of "us" against "them," that helps to maintain a high degree of unity within the cult.

The G.O. was formed to deal with the many real and perceived "enemies" of Scientology. This enemy mentality in Scientology was born from the paranoid lobes of Hubbard's mind.

And it is this mentality which makes the G.O., and now OSA, the danger that it is.

Notes

1. Miller, p. 241
2. Ibid, p. 219
3. Ibid, p. 254
4. Ibid, p. 364

Chapter 13

Not So Clear in Clearwater --
Scientology Takes Over a Town

By the autumn of 1975, Hubbard knew that the Sea Org's days at sea had come to an end. The ports of the Caribbean were proving just as unfriendly as those of the Mediterranean. The final straw came when the Apollo was ordered out of the port of Curacao by the Dutch Prime Minister, who referred to the Apollo as the "ship of fools."

It is also possible that Hubbard, still convalescing from his latest and most serious heart attack, was himself feeling the need for a more stable and permanent place to roost.

So, in October of 1975, the Sea Org came ashore. The crew was divided into groups and traveled as inconspicuously as possible, one group to New York, another to Washington, D.C. and a third group to Miami, where they established "Flag Relay Offices" in the existing orgs. A fourth group took up residence in a motel at Daytona Beach, Florida, while scouts were sent to locate a suitable property for a "Flag Land Base."

Hubbard, who traveled from the Bahamas with his aides bearing false passports and a million dollars in cash, was temporarily situated in another motel in Daytona, not far from his crew.

The scouts soon returned with good tidings: an ideal property had been found in Clearwater, a sleepy tourist town on the west coast of Florida.

The name "Clear"water would have a certain appeal to a Scientologist! A decision was soon made to buy the old Ft. Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater.

The owners of the hotel were approached by representatives of the Southern Land Development and Leasing Corporation, who said they represented United Churches of Florida who wished to buy the property.

The hotel was purchased for $2.3 million in cash, and a nearby bank building was also purchased for $550,000 in cash.

Reporters asking who was behind Southern Land Development and United Churches were told only that the purchases were made by a property investor who wished to remain anonymous. United Churches, they were told, was a non-profit organization dedicated to church unity, which would be sponsoring a series of Sunday morning radio broadcasts by local clergy.

The Sea Org began to occupy their new headquarters. Swarms of uniformed Scientologists were suddenly visible on the streets of downtown Clearwater as they moved between the two buildings with cleaning and painting supplies.

An uneasy suspicion was beginning to grow regarding the new tenants of the Ft. Harrison Hotel. Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares voiced the perplexity felt by many when he stated, "I am discomfited by the increasing visibility of security personnel, armed with billy clubs and mace, employed by the United Churches of Florida. I am unable to understand why this degree of security is required by a religious organization." (1)

Meanwhile, two reporters, Bette Orsini of the St. Petersburg Times and Mark Sableman of the Clearwater Sun were beginning to discover that "Southern Land Development" and "United Churches of Florida" didn't seem to exist. Nowhere was there a record of either organization.

Bette Orsini of the St. Petersburg Times was the first to make the connection to Scientology. But just as the paper was about to print the truth, a Scientology spokesman from Los Angeles, Arthur Maren, arrived in Clearwater and announced to the press that it was the controversial Church of Scientology which had purchased the buildings.

At first he denied that the hotel would become a Scientology center; he said that the hotel would be open to all churches for conferences and retreats. However, the next day he said that if Scientology failed to bring religious harmony to all religions, then the hotel would become a center for Scientologists. And a few days later he admitted that the center was to be used exclusively for Scientology training.

After telling the people of Clearwater that Scientologists were nice, friendly people who wanted to fit in with the community, Scientology launched lawsuits against Gabe Cazares and the St. Pete Times, both of whom responded with countersuits of their own against the "church."

Hubbard, meanwhile, was ensconced in a suite of apartments in the nearby town of Dunedin. But not for long. He engaged the services of a local tailor, who happened to be a science fiction fan. In the course of conversation, Hubbard revealed his identity. The tailor spread the news to his wife and friends, and before long a reporter showed up outside Hubbard's door. Panic stricken, Hubbard immediately fled the scene with two aides who drove him to safety in Washington, D.C.

The Ft. Harrison Hotel was being advertised as the "Mecca of Technical Perfection," and was becoming a place where well-to-do Scientologists from all over the world could come and receive the very best that Scientology had to offer.

The public preclears would fly in from Los Angeles, Zurich, Frankfurt or Mexico City. They would pay the huge fees, play backgammon, swim, sunbathe, listen to tapes by Hubbard, and be given special PR briefings by a smartly uniformed host or attractive PR girls....

Diners in the Hour Glass Restaurant, which is part of the Ft. Harrison Hotel, were, and are to this day, served by waiters with black suits, bow ties, and crisp white shirts. The talk would usually drift to the great wins each was having in his auditing. (2)

The Guardian's Office was also hard at work in Clearwater. Gabe Cazares, who had by now become an official enemy of the "church," was the subject of an extensive investigation referred to by the G.O. as "Operation Taco-Less."

The G.O. investigation of Cazares is of interest because it shows to what lengths Scientology will go in investigating anyone they perceive to be an "enemy."

In the write-up of this "operation," the major target was stated as:

To insure that all investigative leads and strings left unpulled on Mayor Cazares are followed up on to discover further data about him which when released will ruin his political career and remove/restrain him as an opponent of Scientology....

Some of the steps included in their investigation of Cazares were:

 

1. Compile a list of all clubs, associations, organizations, etc. which Gabe is or has been a member of or which he publicly supports. Obtain membership lists to these groups.

    

2. Compile a list of all the people who have written letters in the press in support of Cazares. Investigate any people who show up in both of these lists.

    

3. Conduct interviews under suitable guise with people at Bedford Air Force Base in Massachusetts to see what can be dug up about Cazares.

    

4. Obtain property records in El Paso to see which property is owned by Cazares or his wife. Interview the inhabitants of the house to see what can be learned about the Cazares.

    

5. Locate and investigate all of Cazares' relatives, including Arthur, Joseph and Edmond Cazares (brothers), and Cora P., Marjorie C. and Solidad A. (sisters). They should be investigated to find any scandal or criminal backgrounds they or their family may have.

    

6. Investigate any unknown property deals of Gabe or his wife.

    

7. Check the backgrounds of Gabe's parents in Mexico and the circumstances of their coming to this country.

    

8. Check the name of Gabe's first wife, when and where divorced and why.

    

9. Check grammar and high school records of Gabe.

    

10. Check all financial disclosure forms for the disbursement of his campaign funds. Check campaign contributors. Insure that he keeps within the letter of the law regarding contributions.

     

11. Obtain a copy of Gabe's military records.

     

12. Check political backgrounds and affiliations of all Cazares' campaign staff, looking for people with Commie or heavy leftist backgrounds, or with backgrounds which will discredit Cazares.

     

13. Obtain marriage records for the first marriage of Cazares' wife, and also the records of the divorce.

Apparently, the G.O. didn't come up with much as a result of this investigation, so they changed their tack. A plan was made to frame Cazares in a hit-and-run accident designed to ruin his political career, which it nearly did.

It was known that Cazares was to attend a Mayors' Conference in Washington, D.C. He was met at the airport by a young man posing as a reporter and his female friend. Both were Scientologists. The female, a G.O. agent named Sharon Thomas, volunteered to show Gabe the sights of the city, which Gabe gladly accepted.

As they were driving through Rock Creek Park, Sharon, who was driving, hit a pedestrian, who crumpled on the ground behind the car. The "pedestrian" was G.O. agent Michael Meisner, who, of course, was not seriously hurt. Sharon drove on without stopping to see if the "pedestrian" had been hurt.

Somehow this event was "leaked" to the press, and made its ways into the headlines in Clearwater, costing Cazares his election as a congressional candidate.

The G.O. had also drawn up plans to have someone in Mexico forge a document that Cazares had been married in Mexico twenty-five years earlier, making his current marriage bigamous. This "operation" was apparently never carried out.

The Guardian's Office did manage, however, to seriously disrupt Cazares' political career, and to make life quite miserable for him and for his wife for a number of years. Cazares' lawsuit against the church was settled out of court in the mid-1980s.

The G.O. was involved at this same time in a complex series of plans known as "Operation Goldmine," in which Scientology funds were to be spent in "taking over" the town of Clearwater.

In one part of this plan, called "Power Project 3: Normandy," the Major Target was given as:

To fully investigate the Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish our friends from our enemies and handle as needed.

Some of the steps in this plan were:

 

1. Locate all local medical societies, clinics, hospitals, etc. Gather the names of the main officials and directors of each. Fully investigate each one and recommend handling.

    

2. Locate all local intelligence agencies (e.g., police, intelligence, FBI office, etc.). Gather the names of the heads of each. Fully investigate each one. Recommend handling.

    

3. Locate all local PR firms. Gather the names of the main officials and directors of each. Fully investigate each one and recommend handling.

    

4. Locate all local drug firms. Gather the names of officials and directors and fully investigate each. Recommend handling.

    

5. For each government agency listed below do the following:

   a. Locate the heads or senior officials in charge.

   b. Investigate each one for enemy connections.

   c. Compile a full report on each one with time track (a consecutive history of their lives).

   d. To each report add your recommended handling of the person, i.e., "ops" (operation), penetration, keep an eye on him, or he's a potential ally, etc.

   Do this in full for the following agencies:

   • City Council
   • City Health Department
   • City Mental Hygiene Department
   • City Building and Safety Department
   • City Police Department
   • City Consumer Affairs Office
   • City Attorney or Prosecuting Attorney
   • County Commissioners
   • County Health Department
   • County Mental Health Department
   • County Building and Safety Dept
   • County Licensing Department
   • County Sheriff
   • County Attorney or Prosecutor
   • Florida State Attorney's local office
   • Board of Medical Examiners
   • Florida State Health Department
   • Florida State Mental Health Dept
   • Florida State Senators (local)
   • Florida State Representatives (local)
   • local U.S. Congressmen
   • local U.S. Senators

    

6. Locate all local media companies. Gather the names of officials and directors of each, fully investigate and recommend handling.

    

7. Locate all local psych groups (mental health groups, psychiatric societies, clinics, hospitals, etc.) Gather the names of the officials and directors of each, fully investigate and recommend handling.

    

8. Locate all local finance institutions (banks, investment houses, etc.) Gather the names of the heads of each, fully investigate and recommend handling.

Another part of "Operation Goldmine," called "Power Project 4: Tricycle" goes even further. The Major Target of Tricycle states:

To proof up ourselves against any potential threat by taking control of the key points in the Clearwater area.

Any obstacle or opposition ... that arises must be removed to the point of no further threat or barrier to obtaining the Major Target.

Some of the steps in this plan were:

 

1. List out all news media and the heads or proprietors of news media that are distributed or broadcast in the Clearwater area Work out a way to gain control or allegiance of each. (Note: Control can mean buying the media or controlling interest in it or it can mean holding a powerful position with the media).

    

2. Locate key political figures (ones who influence the area). Work out a way to get control or allegiance of each.

    

3. Locate the key financial influences in the community. Work out a way to gain control or allegiance of each.

    

4. Locate the people or groups peculiar to the Clearwater area which exert the greatest control/influence in the area (possible example: Board of Realtors). Work out a way to gain the control or allegiance of each.

    

5. Submit all plans to the G.O. for approval. Implement approved handlings when received.

Operations Normandy and Tricycle were just two parts of the Operation Goldmine master plan. It is probably safe to assume that there was much more to "Goldmine" than what is revealed here.

This is the systematic way in which the Guardian's Office in Scientology goes about taking over, or "neutralizing," a city such as Clearwater. The same strategy could be applied to any city, anywhere. By all appearances, "Operation Goldmine" has successfully achieved its objectives in Clearwater.

In the early 1980s, opposition to the presence of Scientology in Clearwater was loud and vocal. Frequent rallies were held at the City Hall behind the hotel, protest marches regularly circled the Ft. Harrison Hotel, lively discussions were aired daily in the Clearwater Sun newspaper, cars passing by the hotel and honking their horns created a real problem for Scientologists trying to audit in the quiet of their rooms.

Today, the situation is quite different. There is a sense of apathy among the residents of Clearwater. Many of the local businesses have closed down or relocated from the downtown area to the suburbs, giving Scientology a more complete occupation of downtown Clearwater, where they now own a large percentage of the land and buildings.

The newspaper most vocally opposed to Scientology has gone out of business. The articles printed by the surviving Clearwater Times are cautious and temperate, carefully avoiding anything provocative to the litigious Scientologists.

Scientologists hand out tickets for free personality tests on Clearwater beach. A number of Clearwater natives or their children have become involved in Scientology. The public relations campaign waged tirelessly by the church: that Scientology is against drugs, for the rights of the aged, pro-family -- any of the local "buttons" they can find -- has been successful.

The position of the community has slowly changed from that of angry defiance to a position of powerlessness and grudging acceptance.

A series of hearings on Scientology held in Clearwater in the early 1980s uncovered much interesting sociological information about the cult, but efforts to translate the findings of the hearings into meaningful action have been hampered by bureaucratic red tape and legal problems.

Many people in Clearwater sense something sinister about Scientology, but admit that they know little about the actual beliefs and practices of the cult. They remain puzzled and perplexed by the swarms of uncommunicative and uniformed young people inhabiting their town. It is as if their town has been invaded by aliens.

Clearwater remains today an occupied city, a city under siege.

And no one seems to know quite what to do about it.

Notes

1. Miller, p. 337
2. Corydon, p. 122

Chapter 14

Brainwashing and Thought Control in Scientology --
The Road to Rondroid

Most people think that brainwashing is something that only happens in Communist countries like Russia or North Korea. There is some validity to this belief, because brainwashing was developed in these countries where it was used for psychopolitical purposes.

Brainwashing is defined as "the process of causing a person to undergo a radical alteration of beliefs and attitudes.... The brainwashed person is conditioned by punishment for undesirable beliefs and rewarded for expressing desirable beliefs." (1)

Ex-cult members and their families are only too aware of the truth -- that brainwashing does exist in America. "An uncomfortable reality has at last come home to the American public: brainwashing, which once seemed exclusively a Communist technique, is here in America, and used by cults." (2)

Hundreds of former cult members testify this is so in court proceedings, public information hearings concerning the cults, magazine and newspaper interviews, and counseling sessions. Psychiatrists and other professionals who counsel former cultists confirm this...

These techniques include constant repetition of doctrine, application of intense peer pressure, manipulation of diet so that critical faculties are adversely affected, deprivation of sleep, lack of privacy and time for reflection, complete break with past life, reduction of outside stimulation and influences, the skillful use of ritual to heighten mystical experience, and the invention of new vocabulary and the manipulation of language to narrow down the range of experience and construct a new reality. (3)

Ronald Enroth describes what he calls the "seduction syndrome." Many of those inducted into a cult like Scientology come in searching for identity or for spiritual reality, and this is especially true of young people.

Coming to grips with one's identity has always been a part of adolescence in America, but today's youth face difficulties compounded by the massive cultural and social upheavals that characterize the contemporary world, especially during the last decade.... Despite the boom in entertainment and the pervasive impact of the mass media, youth often remain bored, unfulfilled and lonely.... The tendency to drift in and out of job, college and sexual relationships; uncertainty and anxiety regarding the future; discontent with economic and political structures -- all contribute to isolation and loneliness. (4)

Most cult members had previous experience in a traditional church or synagogue. However:

... cult seekers have found these conventional religious institutions to be lacking in spiritual depth and meaning, incapable of inspiring commitment and providing clear-cut answers, and often hypocritical in everyday life. (5)

In contrast, the cults provide black-and-white answers to the questions of life.

Cults not only provide firm answers to every question, but also make promises that appeal to those needing reassurance, confidence and affirmation. (6)

Many people come into a cult such as Scientology at a time in their life when they are undergoing unusual stress or crisis. An example of this is the first year college student, away from home for the first time.

Other precipitating life experiences that increase vulnerability include such things as a recent divorce of one's parents or similar serious problem in the home; the extended, critical illness of a family member; a breakup with a girlfriend or boyfriend; poor academic performance or failure; or unpleasant experiences with drugs or sex. When someone is feeling exceedingly anxious, uncertain, hurt, lonely, unloved, confused or guilty, that person is a prime prospect for those who come in the guise of religion offering a way out or peace of mind. (7)

And there are a small minority of people who are drawn to the cult because of chronic emotional problems often as a result of growing up in a dysfunctional home.

The lonely, the unstable, the vulnerable -- cult recruiters seem to have the ability to spot these people in a crowd. They seem to have a sixth sense for people who will make prime candidates for the cult.

Recruitment of the vulnerable is one element of Enroth's "seduction syndrome." Other elements include: intense group pressure and group activity, such as that experienced by the newcomer on the introductory course, the Communication Course of Scientology; sensory deprivation, a lack of proper nutrition and adequate sleep, also experienced by Scientologists, who may be fed a diet of rice and beans as a punishment for inadequate production; and a dramatic change in world view -- the adopting of beliefs radically different from those held before.

In another paradigm of brainwashing, Willa Appel describes a three stage conversion process, which is also applicable to the Scientologist.

In the first stage of the conversion, the recruit is isolated from his past life.

First the individual is isolated from his past life, cut off from his former position and occupation as well as those with whom he has emotional ties. (8)

In Scientology this is accomplished in several ways. In gradually adopting a new language, the recruit to Scientology is subtly separated from those in his past who no longer "speak his language." And the use of the term "wog," a derogatory term, to refer to all those outside Scientology, accomplishes the same end. Additionally, the student is pressured to spend every available minute "on course," instead of on frivolous pursuits outside Scientology which are termed "off-purpose."

In the second phase of conversion:

... the loss of name and identity is reinforced by inducing the novice, emotionally and intellectually, to surrender his past life. Humiliation and guilt are the basic tools in the psychological dismembering of the former self. (9)

In Scientology this phase is accomplished in two ways. First, through the practice of auditing, also called the "confessional," in which the Scientologist over a period of time divulges all the secrets of his entire lifetime. And second, through the "ethics" process of writing up one's "O/Ws" (overts and withholds), in which the person records every wrong deed, real or imagined, committed in this and in previous lifetimes. The Scientologist must produce these O/Ws until the Ethics Officer is satisfied that he is reduced to an acceptable level of contrition and humiliation.

In the third phase of Appel's conversion, "the convert assumes a new identity and a new world view." (10)

In Scientology, this is accomplished through a rigorous process of indoctrination through written and tape-recorded materials. The member's confidence in all previously trusted social institutions is ended, and replaced with the belief that salvation can come only through Scientology. The person's new sense of identity comes from his or her belonging to the cult as all other allegiances are severed.

A third paradigm of mind control, or brainwashing, comes from George Estabrooks in his writing about hypnotism, about which he was an expert. Estabrooks noticed that many of the elements of mob psychology used by cult leaders were very similar to techniques used by hypnotists. He states that these techniques were used by Hitler, they were also practiced by Hubbard.

Of these six essential points in the psychology of the mob, the first is: "(The cult leader) will strive for a restriction of the field of consciousness among the members of his mob (cult).... His ideas, and his ideas only, are to be considered by the mob (cult).... His followers hear only one line of thought, his line of thought." (11)

This will sound very familiar to a Scientologist. Scientologists are strictly forbidden against "mixing practices," from studying any other system of thought while in Scientology. Hubbard, as "Source," is regarded as ultimate authority and as infallible. Any confusion or disagreement with anything said or written by Hubbard is regarded as a misunderstanding, or "misunderstood word" on the part of the student.

The second point in mob psychology is that "the dictator will appeal to the emotions.... Moreover he will appeal to the baser emotions of fear, anger, hatred." (12)

In Scientology, there is an appeal to fear and to guilt. The ideology in Scientology is that we are caught in a trap, and that Scientology is the only way out of the trap. Fear is also maintained within the group by the office of "ethics" through which any doubts, disagreements, or failures within the group are punished. Members having serious disagreements or difficulties are threatened with expulsion and the label of "Suppressive Person," or eternal condemnation.

Third, "the mob (cult) leader will count on emotional contagion, an extremely important factor in all mob (cult) situations.... Emotions are far more contagious than the measles.... Humans tend to fit into the emotional pattern of a group." (13)

In Scientology, the prevailing emotion is a sense of urgency and of fear. Scientologists at work do not walk, they run. Everything is deadly serious and urgent. The world is at stake. Each small victory has added significance. Scientology is a group at war, and this mentality lends fervor, enthusiasm and a sense of danger to each activity.

Fourth, "We have the matter of social sanction. The individual feels justified in any action approved by the mob (cult) and its leaders...." (14)

Because Scientologists believe themselves to be fighting for the salvation of mankind, any acts -- even if they are illegal -- which will contribute to this purpose are sanctioned by reason of "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics."

The fifth element of mob psychology has to do with omnipotence, "the `I'm right, you're wrong' reaction, which we see in the fanatic. It never occurred to the Nazi, it does not occur to the Communist, that there are two sides to an argument." (15)

Scientology, to the Scientologist, is the only truth. This fact has caused enormous frustration for many family members trying to reason with the Scientologist in their family. The mind of the Scientologist is closed to any other possibility than Scientology. There is no other side to the argument.

Finally, there is the removal of inhibitions. "Anything goes if the party sanctions such activity." (16) Jonestown was a shocking example of this aspect of the cult mentality. Scientology is another potential Jonestown, except on a much wider scale.

Robert Lifton identifies eight features common to all forms of what he calls "ideological totalism," eight psychological themes common to an environment in which brainwashing is present:

1. Milieu control
2. Mystical manipulation
3. The demand for purity
4. The cult of confession
5. The sacred science
6. Loading the language
7. Doctrine over person, and
8. The dispensing of existence

Each of these features can be found in Scientology.

In milieu control, the cult controls both the environment and the communication of the cult member. Scientology is a very controlled environment. The existence of the department of Ethics provides the threat of punishment for all transgressions against cult norms. Even physical illness is considered the shortcoming of the person and evidence of the existence of "out-ethics."

Communication with those outside Scientology, "wogs," is manipulated to achieve the desired ends of the cult. The cult member's communication with family members, especially ones not favorable to the cult, is often dictated by the cult. Communication within the cult follows certain rules. "Upper level" students may not discuss the contents of these levels even with a spouse. All other Scientologists are forbidden to discuss their "case" or feelings with other Scientologists. Through the use of "knowledge reports," members critical of the organization may be reported by other members, as in a Communist state.

In "mystical manipulation," the group seeks to inspire in the member certain behaviors and feelings that seem to have originated magically from the environment. In Scientology, the member comes to think and believe just as Hubbard teaches, thinking that these thoughts and beliefs are the result of his own "cognitions," or coming to truth.

With the demand for purity:

...the experiential world is sharply divided into the pure and the impure, into the absolutely good and the absolutely evil. The good and pure are of course those ideas, feelings and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure. (17)

A good example of this in Scientology is the redefinition of the word "ethics," which comes to mean that which is good for, or benefits Scientology, while anyone against Scientology is an "enemy," or an "SP" (Suppressive Person). A "good" person is one who is most completely aligned with the goals and purposes of Scientology; an "evil" person is one who opposes the "greater good," or Scientology.

The cult of confession is carried out in Scientology through the many levels of auditing, or "confessionals," and through the periodic writing up of one's "O/Ws" (overts and withholds). This purging oneself of both actual and imagined crimes leads to the gradual act of self-surrender to the group. One learns to think only those thoughts sanctioned and acceptable to the group.

The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma, holding it out as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. (18)

This is what Lifton calls "sacred science."

Scientology to a Scientologist is absolute truth, and there is a certain comfort in this belief. Having black and white answers to the complex questions of life shields one from the insecurity and uncertainty of ambiguity, and this is one of the great attractions of Scientology for its members.

Hubbard, a persuasive and dynamic speaker, makes many claims about the scientific validity of his science, none of which have ever been subjected to the rigors of the scientific method, but which are accepted at face value by his trusting disciples.

The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliche ... [it is] the language of non-thought. (19)

Scientologists have their own dictionary. A conversation between two Scientologists might not make sense to a non-Scientologist. Lifton states:

The effect of the language of ideological totalism can be summed up in one word: constriction. He is, so to speak, linguistically deprived; and since language is so central to all human experience, his capacities for thinking and feeling are immensely narrowed. (20)

An example of this kind of constriction of thought is the phrase in Scientologese: "My 2-D and I are in ARC," which can be translated as: "The person I am romantically involved with, either as a lover or a spouse, and I have a great deal of love for each other, we share basically the same beliefs, we communicate well with each other, and there is a shared understanding between us which is very positive."

Other examples of loaded language are the words "reality," "ethics," and "suppressive," the latter containing a world of meaning for a Scientologist.

Lifton also describes the primacy of doctrine over person:

...the demand that character and identity be reshaped, not in accordance with one's special nature or potentialities, but rather to fit the rigid contours of the doctrinal mold. (21)

A Scientologist is never allowed to think about the "tech," or the "science" developed by Hubbard. To alter the "tech" in any way is denounced as "squirelling," for which crime one can be expelled from Scientology. Questioning the doctrine is forbidden. Doubts or questions are euphemistically relabelled as "M/Us", or misunderstood words on the part of the student.

The totalist environment draws a sharp line between those whose right to existence can be recognized, and those who possess no such right ... known as nonpeople. (22)

In Scientology there are two types of "nonpeople": "wogs" and "SPs." Wogs are those who have yet to become enlightened as to Scientology. "SPs" or suppressive persons have no right to exist and this is declared by Scientology's "Fair Game Law," which states that enemies of Scientology can be "sued, tricked, lied to or destroyed." This is the dispensing of existence within Scientology.

One of the phenomena common to many cults is the personality change in the cult member after conversion. This has been a frightening experience for many families. Sometimes the change comes about gradually, and in other cases it occurs in a single experience called "snapping" by one team of researchers. (23) The cult personality is radically different from the pre-cult personality.

There is evidence that this change is organic as well as psychological. Exposing a person to a radical change in environment and an overload of new and radically different information may actually cause a change in the neurotransmitters in the brain. The substances norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain have similar chemical composition as mescaline or LSD. When sensory flow to the brain becomes either severely restricted or suddenly overloaded, it can trigger a state of increased suggestibility or the symptoms of dissociation or hallucinations.

In Scientology, this can occur in the hypnotic practice of TR-0, or during the long hours on the Scientology courses.

Psychiatrist Dr. John Clark of Harvard University believes that the cults, including Scientology, are psychologically dangerous:

In cults, people are presented with stressful circumstances, especially huge loads of new information at times in their lives when they are vulnerable, and they dissociate. What the ... Scientologists and all the other dangerous cults do is maintain the dissociation. They keep the parts of the mind -- the connections inside the central nervous system -- divided in function, in action, and in their connection with the outer world. It's a way of controlling them, and the longer it goes on, the further apart all of this gets to be -- like the chronic schizophrenic. (24)

Did Hubbard really believe in Scientology, or was he just a calculating con man?

Estabrooks describes what he calls the "sincere dictator":

The dictator may be, generally is, a man of great personal courage. He plays along grimly till the last throw of the dice and meets his fate with his chin up. This may be because he is perfectly sincere. This sounds like a strange contradiction, but we must accept it. The dictator really believes that he is God's chosen instrument -- or society's chosen instrument, if he does not believe in God -- to lead his group, or possibly the entire world, into the promised land. The resulting picture is not pleasant and the individual who creates that picture is easily the most dangerous of all the mentally maladjusted. He has intelligence, conviction, drive, courage, and will be utterly unscrupulous -- a combination which calls for serious concern. (25)

Those who knew him will agree that this is a fair description of Hubbard.

One important clue to the motivations of Hubbard lies in a book he wrote in the mid 1950s called Brainwashing Manual. Although there were witnesses that Hubbard wrote this book, he attributed authorship to the infamous Russian politician Beria, then pretended to "discover" it.

Some of the passages from this book reveal much about Hubbard:

It is not enough for the State (Scientology) to have goals.

These goals, once put forward, depend for their completion upon the loyalty and obedience of the workers (Scientologists). These engaged for the most part in hard labors, have little time for idle speculation, which is good....

Hypnosis is induced by acute fear.... Belief is engendered by a certain amount of fear and terror from an authoritative level, and this will be followed by obedience.

The body is less able to resist a stimulus if it has insufficient food and is weary.... Refusal to let them sleep over many days, denying them adequate food, then brings about an optimum state for the receipt of a stimulus.

Degradation and conquest are companions.

By lowering the endurance of a person ... and by constant degradation and defamation, it is possible to induce, thus, a state of shock which will receive adequately any command given.

Any organization which has the spirit and courage to display inhumanity, savageness, brutality... will be obeyed. Such a use of force is, itself, the essential ingredient of greatness.

And:

In rearranging loyalties we must have command of their values. In the animal the first loyalty is to himself. This is destroyed by demonstrating errors in him ... the second loyalty is to his family unit.... This is destroyed by lessening the value of marriage, by making an easiness of divorce and by raising the children whenever possible by the State. The next loyalty is to his friends and local environment. This is destroyed by lowering his trust and bringing about reportings upon him allegedly by his fellows or the town or village authorities. The next loyalty is to the State (Church of Scientology) and this, for the purposes of Communism (Scientology) is the only loyalty which should exist.

And, finally:

The tenets of rugged individualism, personal determinism, self-will, imagination and personal creativeness are alike in the masses antipathetic to the good of the Greater State (Scientology). These willful and unaligned are no more than illnesses which will bring about disaffection, disunity, and at length the collapse of the group to which the individual is attached.

The constitution of man lends itself easily and thoroughly to certain and positive regulation from without of all of its functions, including those of thinkingness, obedience, and loyalty, and these things must be controlled if the Greater State (Scientology) is to ensue.

The end thoroughly justifies the means. (26)

Did Hubbard know what he was doing?

The answer is yes. Driven by greed, by his twin lusts for money and power, he willfully and knowingly destroyed the lives of the thousands naive enough to follow him.

L. Ron Hubbard -- pied piper of the soul....

Notes

1. Verdier, p. 11
2. Ibid, p. 13
3. Rudin, p. 16
4. Enroth, p. 150
5. Ibid, p. 153
6. Ibid, p. 153
7. Ibid, p. 154
8. Appel p. 77
9. Ibid, p. 77
10. Ibid, p. 77
11. Estabrooks, p. 216
12. Ibid, p. 216
13. Ibid, p. 217
14. Ibid, p. 218
15. Ibid, p. 219
16. Ibid, p. 220
17. Lifton, p. 423
18. Ibid, p. 427
19. Ibid, p. 429
20. Ibid, p. 430
21. Ibid, p. 431
22. Ibid, p. 433
23. Conway & Siegelman, p. 13
24. Appel, p. 134
25. Estabrooks, p. 223
26. Corydon, p. 107-9

Chapter 15

The Plight of Parents --
Some Suggestions for Families

I have often thought that the twelve years I spent in the Church of Scientology were a far worse ordeal for my parents than for me. For me, the problems came later, when I left the cult and was faced with reentry into the world I had abandoned twelve years earlier.

Losing a child must be the worst imaginable nightmare for any parent. The death or abduction of a child at any age can leave a parent with scars that never completely heal.

Losing a child to a cult can be equally traumatic for a parent; however, unlike the death of a child which can be mourned and resolved, having a child in a cult like Scientology presents the parent with a frustrating dilemma in the form of an unresolved and unresolvable loss. The child is gone -- perhaps for five years, perhaps for twelve, perhaps forever -- and the parent is left behind with the difficult task of reconciling feelings of both uncertainty and hope.

What I want to do in this chapter is provide a few tips for the parents of a Scientologist, written from the point of view of an ex-member. In other words, things that helped me or that I think would have helped me to escape from the cult.

In writing this chapter, I rely on the wisdom of others who are professionals or experts in the field of cult recovery, including: The Cult Awareness Network; The American Family Foundation in the book Cults: What Parents Should Know; Steve Hassan in his book Combatting Cult Mind Control; James and Marcia Rudin in their book Prison or Paradise; and R. K. Heller in the book Deprogramming for Do-It-Yourselfers.

The American Family Foundation gives a list of behaviors in a family member which may be indications that they are becoming involved in a destructive cult such as Scientology. For parents with a family member already in Scientology, many of the behaviors on this list will probably seem quite familiar.

 

1. Secretive behavior -- the person going out frequently but not wanting to say where he or she is going, or talking on the phone in a secretive manner, being vague about who is calling, etc.

    

2. Change in vocabulary or speech patterns -- especially important with this cult.

    

3. Emotional changes -- the once warm, loving and open family member who becomes cold and distant toward other family members.

    

4. Shift in friends and activities -- especially with new friends who also use unfamiliar vocabulary; spending long hours at night and on weekends at "the org" or "on course" is demanded of new Scientologists.

    

5. Rejection of secular goals -- the new Scientologist very quickly learns to shift his goals from secular activities (college, career, marriage, etc.) to goals within Scientology such as "going Clear or OT," "becoming a Class Eight auditor," etc.

    

6. Dubious financial activities -- Scientologists are under constant pressure to come up with more and more money. A warning sign would be a child asking to borrow large amounts of money, or trying to borrow money from a bank, or from relatives.

    

7. Disturbing sexual attitudes -- the person no longer dating or expressing an interest in marriage or family.

    

8. Abrupt marital decisions -- a child who abruptly severs a serious relationship with someone outside the cult and instead looks for a relationship within the cult.

    

9. Shifts in religious, philosophical or political views -- the student in Scientology learns from the beginning to discredit all forms of government, and all forms of traditional mental health, particularly psychiatrists. A sudden belief in past lives and a denigration of Christianity or other religions would be consistent with Scientology.

    

10. Extreme commitments -- such as the decision to sign a two and a half or five year contract to join "staff," or a billion year "Sea Org contract," which are the standard contracts for staff members in Scientology.

     

11. Unconventional lifestyle -- living communally and working long hours for a very small wage are typical within Scientology.

     

12. Changes in appearance -- Scientology staff members can appear somewhat unkempt because of the lack of money to buy adequate clothing and toiletries.

     

13. Vocational turnabouts -- the person will eventually abandon prior career plans in favor of a career as an "auditor" within Scientology (which has nothing to do with keeping books!) or deciding to join the Sea Org.

     

14. Indications of psychological distress -- overeating, oversleeping, outbursts of anger or depression may indicate increased psychological conflict.

     

15. Diminished academic performance -- the Scientologist still attending non-Scientology classes will probably lose interest in the secular classes as he or she spends more and more time on the cult courses, and will eventually drop out of school.

When a someone finds out that their family member is in Scientology, there are a number of common thoughts and feelings they might have, for example:

 

1. Guilt -- "What did we do wrong?" or, "It's all my fault."

    

2. Shame, embarrassment, self-consciousness -- "What will we tell the relatives?" or, "What will the neighbors think?"

    

3. Fear -- "What if we can't get him/her out?"

    

4. Accusations -- "It's all your fault," or, "If you hadn't been so/done X, this wouldn't be happening."

    

5. Bitterness toward life, God -- "God, why is this happening to me?"

    

6. Loneliness -- "I really miss her/him."

    

7. Sense of being burdened, overwhelmed -- "I just don't know what to do about all this."

    

8. Helplessness, incompetence -- "There isn't anything I can do about this."

    

9. Rejection, hurt -- "How could he/she have done this to me?"

    

10. Alarm -- "I am really worried about him/her."

Although many of these feelings are self-defeating, there are some very concrete things that a parent both can and should not do to maximize the chances of his or her child getting out of the cult. I have attempted to list these in order of priority:

 

• DON'T debate Scientology's ideology, methods or theology with the member in person, in letters or on the phone. Many parents, in their frustration, attempt to do this because they don't fully realize the effectiveness of the mind control that is controlling their family member. Scientology, through the use of the hypnotic Training Routing Zero and the repetitiveness of many of the auditing processes, has the member under a hypnotic trance as well as brainwashed, and it is not possible in most situations to use a rational approach to get them out of Scientology. It's like this: if a person is hypnotized to see a black dog in the middle of the room -- they can pet the dog, hear him bark, etc. -- telling him there is no dog in the room probably won't work. It's much the same as telling a committed Scientologist that Scientology is wrong. Instead of trying to reason directly with the person, you must use indirect methods. Trying to reach the person emotionally is one way of doing this.

   

• DO tell the person that you love them and let them know that your home is always open to them should they want to get away from the cult. There are many people in Scientology who are deeply unhappy and many who even want to leave, but who stay because they think they have no place to go.

   

• DON'T use a confrontational or condescending approach with the Scientologist. Never start or become engaged in an argument with him about Scientology. Even though you know you are right, understand that the Scientolgist also believes himself to be right about Scientology. An argument will only drive the person further away.

   

• DO keep your cool and try to control your emotional reactions, especially anger. If you can think of a time when someone was angry with you, you can understand that anger only increases feelings of defensiveness in the other person. Don't get angry at the cult member. As Steve Hassan says, it isn't his fault!!!

   

• DO try to appeal to the person's emotions, and don't be too upset if the person becomes angry. Sometimes parents become anxious during an exit counseling when the cult member becomes angry, when in fact the anger may be a good sign. The person is experiencing an honest emotion, possibly for the first time in a long time, and it may be the anger that helps to jump start the thinking processes. When talking or writing to the cult member, talk about current family happenings, talk about the friends the cult member had before joining the cult, try to stimulate old memories, do anything to appeal to the precult identity of the person. Send frequent letters, and have other family members and friends of the cult member send letters too. Send photographs -- this can be very effective. Make frequent phone calls and don't worry about the phone bill. It is also important to visit the Scientologist whenever possible. A personal visit will help to counter the cult propaganda that you are a Suppressive Person, or a Potential Trouble Source. When you visit, and the cult member finds himself happy to see you, it may cause the member to feel some confusion, but the confusion is a good thing as it will challenge the cult propaganda.

   

• DO get the cult member to come home for a visit whenever possible. Get a solid commitment from him as to the date. Invite the family member home for family functions, for holidays, even for a funeral. Keep the contact with the person alive in any way possible.

   

• DON'T ever tell the cult member that his views are ridiculous, absurd or wrong. Don't use the words "cult" or "deprogram" with the cult member as these will immediately identify you to him as a Suppressive Person.

   

• DO learn to practice active listening techniques with the cult member. Train yourself to listen to everything he has to say. Listen respectfully, ask questions which will cause the person to clarify or explain what was just said, especially when the person has just spouted some rote cult propaganda. Whenever possible, try to stimulate the thinking processes of the cult member. Encourage the cult member to talk about his or her experiences in the cult. Whenever possible, try to relate experiences from your past which are similar. Let the person know that you are trying to understand.

   

• DO become educated about the group. Read anything you can find about Scientology. Read books, magazines, newspapers. Take notes. Contact the anti-cult organizations for information. Even collect some of the cult propaganda. When you are educated, talk to other family members or former friends of the Scientologist to let them know what's happening. Supply them with facts and information to help them understand the situation.

   

• DO learn some of the key Scientology words such as: "clear," "reality," "auditor," "ethics" or "ethical," etc. and avoid using these words in conversation with the Scientologist. Using these words will have the effect of pulling the Scientology training and propaganda in on him and make it more difficult for you to achieve closeness in the relationship.

   

• DON'T send unsolicited critical articles in the mail to the Scientologist. He she won't read them, and will again identify you as a Suppressive Person (the enemy), making it harder for you to establish a relationship in the future. If there is an article you wish to share with the person, wait until you are alone with him and have more control over the situation. I do not know of any instance in which showing the Scientologist a critical article helped to get him out of Scientology; usually it has the opposite effect.

   

• DO be prepared, however, with information that you have collected. The person may come home at any time. Life in Scientology is not easy; some members do walk away from the organization because the conditions inside the cult became unbearable. This does not mean they are "out" of Scientology. But if they do come home and are disillusioned, it may be a time to very gently start to show them the other side of the story regarding Scientology.

   

• DON'T try, however, to get the person out of Scientology by yourself, if there is an alternative. You and the cult member are too emotionally involved for you to be effective in counseling the person out of Scientology. If the Scientologist does come home for any reason try to find an ex-Scientologist or an ex-member from another cult who is familiar with Scientology to talk to your family member. If the Scientologist has to admit that he is wrong, it will be much easier for him to do with a neutral person than with a parent.

   

• DO ask the Scientologist still in the cult about his personal needs. Is he getting enough sleep? Is he eating enough? Are they getting medical care? Does he need a care package? If so, send one at once, or, better yet, take one to him. Small gifts of food, clothes, toiletries, etc. are usually much needed by the Scientologist.

   

• DON'T ever send cash or money, however, as it will immediately go to the cult, especially large amounts. Send small gifts instead. If the member wants to come home, send the plane ticket, not the cash. Most Scientologists are eager to do their "next level" in Scientology, and if you send money, that's where it will go. Especially avoid sending inheritance money. It would be better to keep that money set aside for the Scientologist until he or she comes out of the cult, when the money will be much needed for recovery.

   

• DON'T pay large amounts of money for deprogrammers or for legal aid until you have thoroughly checked out the credentials of the person in question. With exit counselors or deprogrammers, ask for the phone numbers of three or more familes who have used them, and call the families to ask about their experiences with the person.

   

• DON'T, if your child leaves Scientology, attempt to replace the cult experience with another religion, no matter how strong your own personal beliefs are. Don't try to witness to the Scientologist or the newly exited Scientologist. Show your love through what you do instead. Try to understand that the exiting cult member has had an extremely traumatic experience. He might not be ready for religion in any form for a long time. It's very similar to a person who has been through a traumatic divorce. The person might not want to date or remarry for a long time after the divorce, and it is the same in most cases with the ex-cult member and religion.

   

• DO get professional help for the ex-Scientologist, if possible with a counselor who has had some experience with former cult members and their special problems. Try to locate other ex-Scientologists in your area who can spend some time with your family member. Like any person who has gone through a painful experience, the ex-Scientologist may have a compulsive need to talk about the cult experience with someone outside the family.

   

• DON'T feel excessive guilt or shame about your family member's experience with the cult; these feelings only hinder effective action and are non-productive.

   

• DO find a support group of other families in your area who have had experiences similar to yours. The two organizations listed at the end of this chapter are the best resources available at this time to help you locate this support. There is no reason for you to feel alone. Thousands of families of all religious, economic and family backgrounds have been through what you are going through now.

   

• DON'T neglect your own needs or those of other family members. Even though you have a family member in Scientology, life must go on. Let the other children in the family know that even though you are concerned for the family member in Scientology, they are just as important to you.

   

• DO file written complaints with all the public officials you can find. In any way you can, take action against the cult. If you are aggressive against Scientology, they may decide it's not worth it to them, and they may send your family member home, hoping that will cause you to cease your actions against them. There is some disagreement with this, as your actions against Scientology may also alienate your family member who is in the cult. The best advice might be to check out anything you plan to do with someone else who knows Scientology. Certainly don't do anything rash or illegal.

   

• DON'T ever give up. You never know when your family member might come home. In my case it was after twelve long years that I arrived home with no warning. You must remember that no matter how strong or effective the mind control of the cult, it can never completely erase the years of love, nurturing, heredity, training and home environment the person had before Scientology. There is always hope.

For further information and referrals, feel free to contact

 

1. Cult Awareness Network
   2421 W. Pratt Blvd. Suite #1173
   Chicago, Illinois 60645 (312) 267-7777
   [WARNING!: The Cult Awareness Network was taken over by Scientology in a bankruptcy auction in October, 1996. Do not contact them for help with cults! -- Editor]

    

2. The American Family Foundation
   P.O. Box 2265
   Bonita Springs, Florida 33959 (212)249-7693

Conclusion

Coming Out of Scientology:
The Nightmare Ends, The Nightmare Begins

For me, by far the most difficult part of my Scientology experience was in leaving the cult. Being a Scientologist was not always easy -- the work was hard, the hours long, and the pay almost nonexistent. For the most part we had to be satisfied with the intangible rewards of knowing we were helping to rescue the planet and save mankind.

There were some good things about being a Scientologist. One has the pleasure of working with a group of similarly committed friends toward a goal which seems at the time to be worthwhile. There is always plenty to do, and one has the satisfaction of working hard and completing challenging tasks. Because of the communal lifestyle, there are always people to be with and to talk to. In Scientology, as in many cults, it is hard to be lonely.

I worked over a twelve year period at many different jobs in the organization. I traveled up the "Grade Chart" through the various Scientology Levels and completed three of the secret "upper levels," or "OT levels," to a point where I was supposed to have regained some of my magical, long lost "OT abilities," such as the ability to travel outside my body at will and the ability to be "at cause" over physical objects.

My personal demise within Scientology came at the exact point that I began to utter the one thing a good Scientologist must never say -- a simple three-word phrase that is guaranteed to get one excommunicated from Scientology: "It doesn't work."

I was at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, Scientology's "mecca of technical perfection" where celebrities and the well-to-do from home and abroad casually write out hundred thousand dollar checks as they pursue the elusive promises of "the Tech."

My auditing, paid for by a sixteen thousand dollar inheritance from my grandmother, was not going well. Nothing was happening. Where were the magical "gains" I had been promised?

I had become a problem, a liability, to the organization. I was complaining a bit too publicly. The emperor had no clothes, but as long as no one said so, the game could go on. I was trying to spoil all the fun.

For several weeks I was confined to a room on the second floor of the hotel. Meals were brought to my room. One evening I was told to pack. The next morning I was escorted to the airport in Tampa where I was told to pick any place out of the state of Florida, and to go there. I was being given a one-way ticket.

I was in shock. I knew what this meant. I was being "offloaded" (Scientology's form of exile). I was no longer welcome in Scientology, which had been my world for twelve years.

I flew back to Wisconsin, where my parents were living. My father met me at the airport. Soon I was sitting in the living room of my parents' home, staring at the snow drifting outside the window, trying to assemble my fractured sense of reality into some kind of coherent and workable mental order.

For the first week, all I could do was work a huge jigsaw puzzle of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. Slowly fitting the pieces together seemed to correspond to an internal process taking place in my mind. I was still unable to think.

I noticed that when my father turned on the television, there were periods of time when I would stare at the screen, yet the words of the announcer were in a foreign language. I knew that was strange, because my father was understanding it just fine.

My relationship to reality was tenuous for a long time. I had periods of "floating" when I experienced a strange feeling of being disconnected from everything around me, and felt blissfully apart from it all.

The bliss was short-lived. Feelings of terror soon emerged as I began to deal with my predicament. I had been exiled from Scientology and would probably be declared "SP" (Suppressive Person), a death sentence not just for this short lifetime, but for trillions of years to come. It was a scary thought.

For the first few weeks, I couldn't go anywhere by myself. I felt too fragile. Even walking around the block by myself became a major challenge. The sudden and unexpected rejection by the cult had caused a complete loss of psychic cohesion that would take months to rebuild. I was, to be blunt, a "basket case."

Even though I had been a computer programmer while in the cult, the only work I could do now was to work as a waitress. It didn't require any complex thought. The physical work was actually therapeutic; concentrating on menial tasks helped me to pull my mind back together.

It wasn't until eighteen months later that I went through my post-cult "crisis." I began to feel an unfamiliar emotion boiling up inside me -- anger. I had given them everything for twelve years: my time, energy, any money I had, my inheritance. How could they just throw me out?

The more the anger brewed, the more I was forced to search for an outlet. I began to have dangerous thoughts, suppressive thoughts. One night, I picked up the phone and called a lawyer, one I knew to be anti-Scientology. This was a clearly suppressive act, and I was terrified.

The lawyer asked me some questions and promised to send me some information to read. The knowledge that I had committed a suppressive act threw me into a suicidal crisis. I was tormented with guilt for what I had done. I got in my father's car and drove through the town, trying to decide what to do. Finally, I stopped at a phone booth and looked through the yellow pages. I called the local hospital and explained to the person at the other end of the line that I was in trouble.

A man's voice came on the line, and he gave me directions to the hospital. I was surprised to find that he was a priest. He took me to the cafeteria and asked me questions about Scientology. Later he took me to the house of a couple who had a son in the Moonies. I stayed there for the weekend and with their help began to recover my balance.

After that, I made progress. I began to read books about other cults, thinking maybe that would not be quite as "suppressive" as reading anti-Scientology books. Seeing the similarities between the other cults and Scientology was what finally helped me to snap out of Scientology.

I visited a religious bookstore in search of books about cults, and happened to pick up a book about Christianity, which was my religion before the cult. One night, while reading all these books, I was struck with a startling realization. All these cult leaders were saying they were God -- but there could only be one God. Which one was it?

In an instant, I realized that Hubbard was not God. And at the exact instant I had that thought, I experienced something miraculous. I snapped out of Scientology. I jolted awake as if an invisible hypnotist had snapped his fingers. A light went on in my mind. Hubbard was wrong, Scientology was wrong. And I was free. That was my turning point.

Soon after that, I returned to Florida to begin my long legal battle with the cult. I had to do something to channel the anger I felt toward the cult or the anger would destroy me.

People do not understand how long it can take to recover from the experience of a destructive cult. Just as veterans from the battlefield go through an extended period of post-traumatic stress disorder, so do refugees from a cult.

It is ironic to me that I spent twelve years in the cult, and it has taken me another twelve years to fully recover from the experience. It has been an expensive lesson.

Margaret Singer, the American Family Foundation and others have written about some of the problems facing the former cult member. I will relate these to my own experience.

The one problem shared by almost all former members of any cult is depression. There is a loss of friends left behind, the loss of years wasted, and the loss of innocence and self-esteem. Dr. John Clark of Harvard University writes:

A person who comes out of a cult has been plunged into a grief state. He has lost something, and it can't be returned. These feelings must be dealt with by the therapist as though he were dealing with the real elements of grief. There is a real loss. Something has died. The person cannot go back. He has a right to grieve and mourn. (1)

Another big problem for many former cult members is loneliness. During my twelve years in Scientology, I was hardly ever alone. The loneliness I felt when I was out of the cult was devastating. The cult provides a natural support network that can only be acquired with time and effort outside the cult.

Margaret Singer writes:

Leaving a cult also means leaving many friends, a brotherhood with common interests, and the intimacy of sharing a very significant experience. It means having to look for new friends in an uncomprehending or suspicious world. (2)

Another problem that was difficult for me was making decisions. Especially small decisions. What to order from a menu. What to wear. What to do with free time. Which station to watch on television. Which way to walk when taking a walk. Many times I was afraid to make a decision out of fear that I would make the wrong decision, even when there was no wrong decision.

Learning to waste time is still a problem for me after living for so many years in the time-structured world of Scientology, where we had to graph our production every hour of the day. It is still hard for me to waste time, watch television, read a book for pleasure, go to the mall, go to a movie. There is still a feeling of guilt, but it is diminishing all the time.

Trying not to think or speak in Scientologese was another hurdle in recovery. There are still some words that have no suitable English equivalent, like "ARC break," or "comm lag." Every once in a while I revert to a word in the cult language, but this habit also seems to be diminishing with time.

My confidence was shaken by my experience with Scientology. After all, if I could be that wrong once, why couldn't it happen again? I am much more conservative about my beliefs now than I was while in the cult, and much less likely to share them with others.

Scientology threatened my life when I first decided to initiate a lawsuit, and there is always the fear of retribution. I cannot take my personal safety for granted, and I frequently have dreams -- nightmares -- about the cult.

It is very hard to explain my experience in the cult to people who ask me things like, "You're so smart. How could you ever have gotten involved with a group like that?" Trying to explain the complexities of mind control in Scientology to someone who has had no equivalent experience is difficult, if not impossible.

I had to deal with guilt feelings after I found out for myself that Scientology was wrong, because while in the cult I had persuaded several other people to become involved, including one who signed a billion year contract to work for the Sea Org.

There were other problems. When I came out of Scientology, I was twelve years behind my peers in terms of finances and career. I had the equivalent of a Ph.D. in Scientology. After I had snapped out of Scientology, I burned all my Scientology certificates. Starting back in school with much younger classmates intensified my feelings of alienation and failure.

There is also the syndrome of being "elite no more." In Scientology, as in many other cults, we believed we were the elite of the planet. Coming back to reality was a humbling experience. I had also believed in Scientology that I would be immune from diseases and from a normal death (I believed that on the "OT levels" I would gain the ability to leave my body at will at death). Becoming an ordinary, vulnerable, mortal human being was also an adjustment.

And there is the dilemma of what to put on job resumes for the years spent in the cult. It is not something one can tell most employers.

When I snapped out of Scientology, my problems were by no means over. I had to deal with a tremendous amount of anger toward the cult. I also found that in many ways I was, emotionally, right where I had been when I joined the cult. All those adolescent problems were right there where they had been twelve years ago -- family problems, identity problems. Emotionally, the years in the cult were a period of arrested growth.

Most cult members face a spiritual and ideological void when exiting the cult. The cult provided answers for a great many questions. After as spiritually intense an experience as Scientology, it becomes necessary to fill the void with something else, a process that can take some time.

I think what made recovery from my cult experience the hardest was the fact that so few people, and especially professionals, were able to understand what I was going through I am sure it is not too different from the feelings of a veteran returning from Vietnam, or the victim of a rape. The people who were best able to understand and to be supportive were other former cult members.

When I first came out of Scientology, I thought it was an experience I would never be able to live with. I thought that my life had been irreparably destroyed. The real victory for me now is that my experience with Scientology has become an integrated part of my life. It no longer dominates my life or my thinking. It has become an accepted part of my past.

There are other victories. Sometimes when I am in the bookstore in the mall, I see someone picking up a copy of the Dianetics book. I go up to them and tell them, "You don't want to read that book. That book is about Scientology, a destructive and satanic cult. I know. I was in it for twelve years. I don't want you to go through the nightmare I've been through."

Usually they are happy for the advice, and they put the book back on the shelf.

In the few cases where they don't, I see them walk out of the store with the book, and I know that just as my nightmare ends, theirs is about to begin.

But the greatest victory of all for me is that no matter how tough life gets or what kind of battle I am having to fight -- I know it could always be worse.

I could still be in Scientology.

Notes

1. Appel, p. 158
2. Article by Dr. Margaret Singer, "Coming Out of the Cults, " in Psychology Today, January 1979, p. 76

Bibliography

 

Appel, Willa.

1983. Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Atack, Jon.

1990. A Piece of Blue Sky. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group.

Burrell, Maurice.

1982. The Challenge of the Cults. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House.

Conway, Flo, and Siegelman, Jim.

1978. Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change. Philadelphia and New York: J.B. Lippincott Company.

Cooper, Paulette.

1971. The Scandal of Scientology. New York: Tower Publications, Inc.

Corydon, Bent.

1987. L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman. Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart.

Enroth, Ronald.

1977. Youth, Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.

Estabrooks, G.H.

1943. Hypnotism. New York: E.P. Dutton.

Heller, R.K.

1982. Deprogramming for Do-It-Yourselfers. Medina, Ohio: The Gentle Press.

Hoffer, Eric.

1951. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. New York: Harper Publishers.

Hyde, Douglas.

1966. Dedication and Leadership. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.

Jacobsen, Jeff.

1990. From Out of the Blue? Debunking a Dianetics Claim. Unpublished article.

Kaufman, Robert.

1972. Inside Scientology: How I Joined Scientology and Became Superhuman. New York: Olympia Press.

King, Francis.

1970. Ritual Magic in England. London: Neville Spearman, Ltd.

Lamont, Stewart.

1986. Religion, Inc.: The Church of Scientology. London: Harrap, Ltd.

Lifton, Robert J.

1961. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Malko, George.

1970. Scientology: The Now Religion. New York: Delacorte Press.

Meerloo, Joost, M.D.

1956. The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide and Brainwashing. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company.

Miller, Russell.

1987. Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. London: Penguin Books, Ltd.

Pignotti, Monica.

My Nine Lives in Scientology. Unpublished manuscript.

Rudin, Marcia and James.

1980. Prison or Paradise: The New Religious Cults. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Sargent, Wllllam.

1957. Battle for the Mind. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Schwartz, Ford.

Stage One: The Communication Course. Unpublished article.

Verdler, Paul A.

1977. Brainwashing and the Cults. Los Angeles: Wildfire Book Company.
 

The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

-- Judge Breckenridge, U.S.

Closing Quotations

---

Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious ... it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based upon lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for Mr. Hubbard.... It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly and to those who criticize or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, and to indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others.

-- Justice Latey, ruling in the High Court of London, 1984

---

The Government is satisfied ... that scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it; its authoritarian principles and practice are a potential menace to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become its followers; above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them....

There is no power under existing law to prohibit the practice of scientology; but the Government has concluded that it is so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps within its power to curb its growth.

-- Kenneth Robinson, British Minister of Health

---

Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill.... [Scientology is] the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental

-- Justice Andersen, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia

---

Incredulity of our data and validity. This is our finest asset and gives us more protection than any other single asset. If certain parties thought we were real we would have infinitely more trouble.... Without a public incredulity we never would have gotten as far as we have. And now it's too late to be stopped. The protection was accidental but it serves us very well indeed. Remember that next time the ignorant

-- L. Ron Hubbard, [quoted in] The Scandal of Scientology

---

Falsehood must become exposed -- and truth, though fought, always in the end prevails.

-- L. Ron Hubbard, My Philosophy, 1965.

Scientology Auditing and Its Offshoots

by Robert Kaufman

L. Ron Hubbard raised Scientology from Dianetics' ashes with the aid of a device that tracks electrical resistance on skin surfaces of the "auditee's" hands during sessions. Hubbard claimed that E-meter "reads" confirmed his notions about events, images and words making up a destructive mind he called the "bank." In the auditing procedure, the readings are supposed to signify the presence and dispersal of "charge" present in the events and other "bank" material. The meter not only keeps the processing on course but also verifies the results.

Hubbard framed his theories and method in terms that thwart comparison with the rest of the world. However, we find ready comparison between the E-meter -- a biofeedback device, the tangible element in a wash of intangibility -- and the assortment of biofeedback devices used outside Scientology to monitor physiologic functions such as brainwave frequency, pulse rate and finger temperature. The readings of the non-Scientology instruments are interpreted only to the extent that their signals (dial needle, flashing light or humming tone) are deemed to indicate moment-to-moment change in a favorable or unfavorable direction.

No doubt the auditee gets "passing" and "non-passing" readings. These reflect the rise and fall of tension, and the underlying composite of mental, physical and emotional forces. A person hypothetically "wearing" biofeedback equipment through the day would get a similar variety of readings, including the equivalents of "baseline," "rising needles," "blowdowns," and "free," "floating" and "clean needles." The readings would reflect, in part, his reaction to being on the device, i.e., to situation.

Incentive, a sense of positive purpose, tends to generate the positive type of emotion that produces favorable physiologic change and improved readings. This is precisely the working principle of biofeedback training, where the trainee's object might be to slow brainwave frequency to alpha, or raise finger temperature, for health or meditation purposes. His incentive directs him to the desired result.

Incentive, of course, is also the major part of learning to pass a lie-detector test. The lie-detector is an array of biofeedback devices that supply simultaneous readings. Clearly, the very principle that makes biofeedback training possible, and useful, makes lie-detector test results inadmissible as evidence in court proceedings: One may beat the machine.

No special magic makes Scientology biofeedback different from "wog" (non-Scientology) biofeedback. Human emotion doesn't take a holiday during an auditing session. The auditee brings his hopes and dreams to the session. His prime incentive, to succeed at auditing, is channeled through the inculcation of "stable data," "R-factor," and his own auditing experience. The regimen instills how auditing is supposed to go, what should happen, and what is expected of him. He is deluged with suggestion, and may even glean the nature of his forthcoming insights from descriptions in Hubbard's writings and the "Bridge" chart, or simply from the name of the process.

The auditee begins to associate his success with the indoctrination; following the program becomes his prime incentive. When he does as Hubbard tells him he feels positive. Compliance is then reward in itself.

The auditee's motivation to get favorable readings is tremendous. With each floating needle he is closer to his shining goal. He is probably unaware that he can control the meter. In any case he wouldn't want to, for that would defeat the assumed purpose of auditing. Here emerges one of Scientology's strange contradictions: The auditee, following his natural instincts once he's on the machine, controls it anyway -- and neither he nor the auditor knows he's doing it.

To begin with, the auditee has access to the running supply of machine-generated information that constitutes biofeedback -- directly, if he is self-auditing, otherwise in the form of cues given him by his auditor. His intellect may not register this information, but his body does. He soon learns to identify a certain special feeling with end of "cycle" or process. His inner sense learns what produces a floating needle. Also what doesn't -- as when the auditor merely acknowledges and repeats the question or instruction. At some point he experiences a subtle sense of prediction about floating needles. Again, this is not his wish to influence or control the needle, but out of a feeling of accomplishment (Certainty On The Data) wedded to compliance, as well as what body-mind physiology has learned about biofeedback.

Meeting Hubbard more than halfway and complying with the program creates another conflict, strange, too, in that it contradicts Hubbard's avowed focal intention: bring to awareness and confront. The auditing situation induces non-confrontation. Avoiding more than cursory probing of his real-life trouble spots is the auditee's most efficient tactic to get him through the process to success. Repression (what Hubbard may have meant by "non-confront," "overwhelm," "unawareness," "lack of responsibility") is, of course, an unconscious mechanism. When a loaded area looms threateningly near, the auditee's inner antennae start to twitch (in psychotherapy called "defenses" or "resistance"). He may easily evade confrontation by a diversionary maneuver such as "going to an earlier incident," preferably a "past life" -- which he probably knows he is expected to deal with at some point, if not actually directed to. The auditee thus favors Hubbard, while giving short shrift to his own material, his true access to valuable discovery.

He is rewarded for this evasion. At the very least he will be acknowledged. If he has an insight, it is not discussed or questioned, but assumed automatically true and beneficial (and, again, he may have "selected" the insight from foreknowledge). If he "cleans the needle," a substantial reward is imminent, end of process and a new grade. This is likely. His defenses proved successful; his relief at manipulating the situation, and the auditor, conduces to a "clean." The machine is still God, and God is on his side. Wog emotion blows off a ton of charge with Good Indicators In.

Constant small rewards that "free up" the needle include, besides acknowledgment, non-judgmental attention and strong eye contact -- especially from an attractive auditor. Earthly incentives -- status in the group, and less cash outlay for auditing time, for example -- make quick progress through the process additionally compelling, and nudge the needle in the right direction. The auditee also has added incentive to "clean" when he is tired, bored, feels he has done enough or covered the material before, or runs out of responses. "Certainty" and a predictable floating needle get him on to the next episode -- rewardingly.

The stylized auditing communication ensures that the auditee avoids confrontation, cuts corners and hastens through the process. The communication is new and different. The "comm cycle" exchange is worlds apart from conversation or discussion; his responses are "computations," little more than meter readings, unquestioned, unchallenged and unanalyzed. The auditee operates in a vacuum. Essentially he talks to himself.

He is only doing what he is supposed to do: tense up a bit on new material, then relax ("restim/destim"). The auditor has no way of testing the auditee's decision to "clean"; he cannot read minds with his machine, and must not "evaluate" or "invalidate" by asking, for instance, "Could that floating needle merely indicate your eagerness to pass the grade?"

Nothing, then, prevents the auditee from responding to questions, and "reading" and "cleaning," as his inner sense mandates -- as long as he "meets Hubbard" and gets through the process. He has the information, the opportunity and the inducement to rapidly ascend the various stages, methodically skirting pertinent inner data, while receiving plaudits for unearned abilities and achievements. This transaction revolves not around the "bank" but around the auditee's feelings about his situation, a situation that happens to include a presumed "bank." The "charge" is not bank, but about bank.

Hubbard said: "The E-meter is never wrong. It sees all, knows all." In the real world, auditor and auditee sit to either side of the machine -- arbiter, overseer, dispenser of judgments and gifts -- neither aware that the session phenomena and effects demonstrate not Scientology but human psychology, that Hubbard's truth is not necessarily the auditee's truth, and that they are playing a game of let's pretend -- in Hubbard's language, a "mockup."

Dianetics -- whence it all began -- was Hubbard's distortion of abreaction ("reliving") therapy, which had helped war casualties, and whose proponents made no universal claims. Disbelievers in Dianetics found numerous flaws. Hubbard's mind model adheres to the ancient morality play, Good versus Evil (Hubbard focused on "bad mind," and said next to nothing about "good mind"). The book Dianetics is a flamboyant assertion of truth on word of authority (in later years, self-proclaimed "Source"), written in a self-enclosing language, for example, "clear" used as a noun and meaningful only in Hubbard's context of other self-enclosing terms. The Dianetics theory makes no allowance for vast realms of mental-emotional phenomena. The method had no lasting success, and proved dangerous for certain individuals.

Dianetics auditing produced no "clears" worthy of the name, and its inventor had financial and organizational troubles with the Dianetics movement. The unstoppable Hubbard solved the problem by creating Scientology, an exclusive enterprise he styled a religion, through which he maintained absolute control over funds, facilities, personnel and procedures; claimed church tax deductions; distracted from the failed Dianetics with metaphysics, the paranormal, and a method that now dealt with past lifetimes, damaging word patterns, and space dramas of "entities" and "implants"; declared "reliving" unnecessary with the advent of a device that refereed the struggle with "bad mind."

In short, Scientology was Hubbard's way to capitalize on Dianetics. The E-meter was instrumental (pun intended) in the transition, since it could be "scientifically" linked with concept, method, and the spirit, or "thetan."

The E-meter was, and is, an innocent victim. Hubbard's basic confusion was his identification of a machine with his already-shaky Dianetics mind-model. Meter readings are equated with solid and persisting "bank." Subjective thought content -- meaning, significance, connection, value -- is reduced to "quantities" of objective mental content -- electricity, or "charge" -- which in turn is equated with a bounded, finite quantity of "bank" content. In other words,

where each "content" is in fact something quite different in nature from the other "contents" -- a case of equating apples, oranges and pears. Premised on these faulty relationships, favorable E-meter readings are then identified with truth, existence, reality, abilities and achievements, and spiritual revelation.

Ironically, Alfred Korzybski, whom Hubbard cited as one of his intellectual mentors, devoted his lifework in General Semantics to uprooting spurious identifications. If Korzybski had known Hubbard's particular equation, and had had reason to believe (as I think he would have) that its elements, most notably the "bank," were wishfully imagined as well as falsely linked, he might have coined his own word for Hubbard's kind of reasoning.

Scientology, like much other dogma, seeks to fit everything into its system, relying upon its followers' perceiving the world within a contrived context. Common properties are interpreted as Scientologic phenomena.

The auditee is programmed to identify his experience with Hubbard's drama, and arm-twisted ("What gains?") into attributing his positive states to auditing and to nothing else -- when in fact he never lacked native ability to achieve his goals without auditing. Hubbard's glittering promises -- communication, awareness, higher states of being -- are the auditee's rightful possession, and always were. During processing, the glittering promises manifest as imitations of a constructive life process. Imitations, suggestions, rewards and hidden incentives deceive the auditee into thinking that Scientology reveals to him his own truth.

The repeated questions and acknowledgments provoke the auditee's borderline-of-consciousness thoughts, and movement and flow in his responses. Awareness of thoughts as "things" enhances movement of thought. In this respect, auditing is a listing, or itemizing, of the auditee's thoughts. Objectification of thought is, in itself, a constructive pattern; awareness of thought movement allows detachment from "items" in the mental stream.

The problem is auditing's straight-jacketing format. The objectification is not really "objective," since thought is erroneously reduced to the common denominator of "charge." Moreover, movement of thought is valuable when it is freely expressed, not stopped by floating needles or other rewards, and when it is augmented by the very elements that Scientology rejects for a "quantitative" approach: the individual's meanings, emotions, connections, comparisons, observations of his own "process" and formulation of his own principles.

Insight also becomes an imitation: "cognition." In the English language, cognition is the act, process or faculty of knowing or perceiving. In "Scientologese," it is not "cognition" but "a cognition," again a quantity or thing. Insight is not an end in itself, but an increment in a creative thought-stream, while "a cognition" is a reward, a stopping point. The auditee begins to view his insights as a Scientology property, and express them in Hubbard's terminology.

Cognition stoppage is well illustrated by the service facsimile. The auditee attains his "release" with a sentence or two, and leaves session believing that in the space of a few hours he has unearthed and left far behind a deep-seated mechanism. If the service facsimile is a truly "serviceable" idea, the arrived-at statement is an invitation to self-discovery -- an invitation, however, that the rewarded and "stopped" auditee never receives.

A cognition may be delusory. The auditee feels gratified that he has resolved a problem and gained an ability -- but this was merely suggestion confirmed by the meter. The problem resolved may never have existed for him, and the ability gained he may always have possessed.

Ex-members have observed, accurately, that auditing gives the auditee biofeedback training. In legitimate training, prompting favorable readings is regarded as a knack, not a science. The knack has been described as "letting go of thought and effort." This is exactly what the auditee does -- for whatever reason -- but he is not aware of his skill, let alone of its plausible consequences.

A confluence of forces signals the moment that everything comes together for the auditee. Something gives him a pleasurable reading. His linkage of physical and mental effect compounds the pleasure, and he gets a "high" that he attributes to Hubbard's "tech." This "confirmation" intensifies the feeling. He may experience such moments in session or afterwards. They are really the auditee's worst moments, for he then relinquishes his reality to others, and may remain convinced that he owes his beautiful moments to Scientology and will only recapture them through further auditing.

The cognitive scramble embodying "the moment" is the gateway to a topsy-turvy world where reward is self-knowledge, stoppage is flow, automaticity is communication, judgement is non-evaluation, passivity is responsibility, and slavery is freedom.

The guru dreams up something insidious, then promises to make it vanish -- usually at cost. Hubbard revealed his contempt for his followers most explicitly in his Brave New World bulletins and money-grubbing advertisements. He also gave it away in "jokes": "thetan," which sounds like "satan" with a swish; the planet "Arcelysus," in a confidential bulletin, pronounced "arse lickers." Sinister clues appear in the advanced stages. The big cognition on Power Processing is "I am (a) source." But Hubbard is "Source." Subsuming others in one's own personality is a black magic goal, and Hubbard's twist may have been inspired by the whimsical English black magician Alistair Crowley, a Hubbard role-model in the 1940s. The theme develops on the Clearing Course, where "the preclear spots the thetan." To the conditioned follower, steeped in "as-ising something away," spotting the thetan is self-erasure.

Hubbard created Dianetics/Scientology only for his own advancement. His method for eradicating the world's ills is a conditioning system that herds members through a never-ending, increasingly-expensive series of tension/relaxation rituals, with results signifying only the auditee's belief in Scientology, and of little meaning in the outside world. Hubbard's script is foreordaining and self-confirming. The auditee is prodded to rather effortlessly win a succession of prizes, the greatest one always somewhere in the offing. The system is rigged to hook him and keep him on "maintenance," waiting for his next "fix."

Scientology auditing has also been likened to hypnotism. The auditor's eyelock and repetitious pronouncements are hypnotic. "Start," "End of process," and "That's it" forcibly separate the auditee from his other life, and demark his impressionable, or altered, state. On the Clearing Course, "spotting the light" is trance-inducing, like the hypnotist's candle.

Contradictions such as I've described above, and an abusive organization, explain Scientology's high attrition rate. The defector must have wondered at some point, What does this have to do with my life? Seemingly minor discrepancies did not go unnoticed by the then-member, and may have been his first glimmer of light. Former members have mentioned their bemusement at "false," or "session," reads. It was one thing to stretch, shuffle feet or get sweaty palms, but if all one had to do to "read" or "clean" was let one's mind wander, the fabric began to show its patches. Scientologists would not agree that anomalies or defects in the meters may influence the session. Yet members have heard of, or themselves experienced, mock horror stories of an undercharged machine holding the auditee in limbo for hours.

Older material comes back with reads; "bypassed charge" must be eliminated; there is much concern about "Keeping In Gains" -- for gains may be lost. Reason: No "quantity" of charge was ever dispersed. The gains were illusory. The ex-member again faces the unwanted emotions that Scientology claimed to free him of. Only in the group was he able to have "gains" -- by submerging his problems (it is a truism that the follower may replace all his old problems with one enormous new one). When odd reads occurred, he needed a Good Auditor.

The Good Auditor is warm, sympathetic and "validating," with a flair beyond the regimented auditing communication -- hardly the impartial recorder of computations; rather, a Certainty-bolstering personality especially desired for review sessions. The Good Auditor is yet another contributor to floating needles, and another contradiction of Hubbard's auditing method.

Will Rogers said: "It ain't what don't know but what we know that ain't so that gives us trouble." To which eminent therapist Milton Erickson added: "The things that we know but don't know we know give us even more trouble."

The auditee makes a pact with himself, and with his auditor, not to ask too many questions. He blunts his reasoning faculties so he will not know what he might know if he ever looked. When things stop going well, he squelches his doubts about Hubbard, Scientology and auditing. This holds severe penalties, for he must continue to seek solution in Scientology, where his identification with "case" smacks of hypochondria. His fate hinges on "finding the right item" in review sessions or further processing.

Perception of the world in Scientology terms may stay with the member after he leaves the group. He is tied to the experience by invisible threads (in Arthur Lokos' words), and harbors lingering seeds of concept and terminology, say, of "bank," "keying in," "blowing charge." He is not aware of how this may be affecting his life.

Many ex-members blame the organization for everything wrong with Scientology, and continue to extol "Tech." They have yet to deal conclusively with the cognitive scramble. Deeper understanding will enable them to break cleanly at last.

Understanding will also help towards an assessment of the various offshoots of Hubbard's procedure.

Splinter group and "squirrel" practices have been a tradition almost from the moment Hubbard entered the mental-spiritual marketplace. The practitioners have vested emotional and financial interest in auditing -- or by whatever name. Some of them would still be in Scientology if they hadn't suffered a "purge" several years ago.

"Squirrels" simply repeat the auditing exercise away from the stifling organization. Splinter practitioners, similarly, regard Hubbard as a great benefactor who at some point took the wrong turning. They entertain theories as to where the breech occurred, and alter "Tech" in aid of finding the right path.

Splinterers may de-emphasize the "bank" or Hubbard's science fiction incidents of duress. Or they may adopt a sophisticated approach: Hubbard's creations are not taken literally, but represent disparate aspects of the psyche. The value of the procedure would be in enhancing the auditee's ability to "move mental masses," whether real or imaginary, mocking them up and releasing them -- in line with New Age as well as Hubbardian doctrine: "Things are as you consider them to be. You create your own universe."

The splinterer may refer to past lives as "karma," a bow to Eastern philosophy. Or he may pinpoint the client's "belief system," using the E-meter as a divining rod.

Whatever ties the splinter practice to Scientology -- and by definition there is something that does -- perpetuates error. Hubbard's old habits are contagious. The splinterer's thrust remains Hubbard's thrust: Get the client to have blowdowns and completed process. The danger lies in disjointed cause-and-effect. If the client feels good about something and has a blowdown, it's because of the method. To question this connection risks undermining the practice.

Splinterers who employ the meter are hard put to avoid the situations mentioned earlier. Meter performance dominated their Scientology experience, and will dominate their clients' experience to the extent that the readings are interpreted. But how can they not be interpreted in a Hubbard-derived system -- for example, through division of the procedure into a "curriculum" of stages or levels that impose a structure of interpretation on the client? (Scientologists, when apprised of the resemblance between the lie-detector and the E-meter as used in "sec checking," have called the meter a "truth-detector." However, the "truth-detecting," whether in or out of Scientology, is not, after all, done by the device but by those who "interpret" it.)

The most pervasive element, the core of "Tech," is the process itself, a set of specific steps towards a specific end result. No doubt what attracts people to Scientology -- and, likely, to splinter practices also -- is the notion that by sitting at a table, gripping a tin can in each hand and responding to prepared lists of questions, they will gain great, or transcendent, benefit.

Hubbard's Technology of Mind and Spirit is a travesty on spiritual endeavor. Putting it more charitably to those who would improve on Hubbard, it is far from the best we are capable of.

The splinter group may specialize in speeding the recovery of ex-Scientologists. A noble motive. However, the client might recover more fully through an understanding of processing and the E-meter than through further exposure.

Martin Gardner wrote in 1952, in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science: "Of all the defenses which can be made of Dianetics, the defense that `it works' is the most irrelevant ... because in the curing of neurotic symptoms anything in which a patient has faith will work. Such cures are a dime a dozen. The case histories of Dianetics are not one whit more impressive than the hundreds of testimonials to be found in Young Perkins' book on the curative power of his father's metallic tractors. They prove that Dianetics can operate on some patients as a form of faith healing. They prove nothing more."

Hubbard talked little about "faith" and "belief." He used the words "Knowingness" and "Certainty." They all mean the same.

It scarcely matters whether Hubbard's ideas were totally wrong or touched upon truth. He used them as snares. His was the common game of wealth, power, manipulation -- "for the good of humanity."

Hubbard undeniably had great talent; some would call it genius. He led an extremely active life, and met his goals except for one, emotional comfort -- for which his wealth and power could only substitute. Dianetics/Scientology was to be his cure, but it didn't work. He fell victim to the delusions he fostered in others, and it is known that, right up to his demise or shortly before, he audited himself, or was audited, on his pack of "creatures." Perhaps he, and "they," should be put to rest.

Robert Kaufman wrote the first published disclosure of Scientology's "secret processes," Inside Scientology (Olympia Press, 1972).

A New Face of Evil

Essays by Bob Penny

Scientology represents itself publicly as a dedicated group of people trying to do something effective to improve the world. It may seem to be just another self-help or community action group, or perhaps just another bunch of nuts. None of these images is accurate.

Scientology is an unusual and dangerous kind of money-making machine. It represents L. Ron Hubbard's best efforts to find a social niche where his machine's uniquely predatory activities could be hidden from public view. That is why this money-making enterprise was set up as a "religion." Scientology has also tried to elude governmental jurisdictions by operating at sea and more recently on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma. The operation is divided into compartments so that even loyal members will not know the nature of activities carried out elsewhere in the organization. Much that was revealed in the June, 1990 Los Angeles Times, for example, was a shock to many Scientologists who truly knew nothing about the deceptive, coercive and illegal activities which are and always have been an integral part of their "church."

For whatever reasons, many people in our world are desperate to believe in something. Common sense can easily take a back seat to hopeful desire and wishful thinking; there is nothing new about a fool and his money being parted. That is not news.

What is new, is the emergence of large-scale organizations, using modern social science and business management methods, at least partially hidden from public accountability, designed to systematically exploit the weaknesses of troubled people and profit from them financially.

The prevalence of psychics, "channeling," and countless other "New Age" scams suggests that Americans have a large budget for fraud and are quite willing to spend money on unrequited hope. So this is not just a question of money. The problem, rather, is that Scientology is actively harmful to its participants, their families, and to the society at large.

To achieve large-scale recruitment and exploitation, and to enable continuance of such activity, the cult must avoid a public outcry. The victims must be silenced. The new wholesale-exploitation organizations accomplish this by manipulating their victims (with what has been called "mind control") so they acquire complicity in their own exploitation and become supportive of the exploiter.

At first glance this may sound unlikely or outrageous. But recall that battered women are notoriously loyal to their abusers, and often cling desperately to the hope that everything will change and come out for the best. A primary task of battered woman shelters and support groups is to break through this denial and help the woman face the fact that the abuser is in fact doing what he is doing. From there, recovery is possible.

The same psychological mechanisms that create loyalty in a battered woman, deliberately instilled, can make a cult victim loyal to the cult. Psychological manipulation at that level has evolved in recent decades, based on postWar research in social psychology, communist experiments in coercive "re-education," plus America's good old "Elmer Gantry" tradition. Your typical college freshman hasn't got a chance. With the victim thus made into a smiling captive, his exploitation can continue indefinitely.

The result of this transformation is a person psychologically unable to face basic facts of his or her own life. To evade unwanted truth, the person must seek refuge ever more deeply and exclusively in the exploitive group -- the only place where the shared lies and actual degradation will go unquestioned.

To preserve this vampirish relationship, fortunes are squandered, careers destroyed, educations abandoned, families torn apart, medical or psychological help neglected -- and the person deprived of the true rewards of life which are his or her just due.

There is no automatic or foolproof way out of this trap. The diverse life experience which ordinarily leads us from one situation to another is shut off or devalued in the one-dimensional cult environment.

"Psychological kidnapping" is not yet recognized as a crime by our legal system; it is instead the desperate parent who spirits away an adult child who may be judged guilty of a crime. The person imprisoned by "psychological kidnapping" -- like the battered woman -- may remain imprisoned for life.

This is harmful.

Not a familiar situation to most Americans -- like AIDS or child abuse, it is not pleasant to look at. We would rather not see such things or admit that our peaceful world contains them. But today, Scientology is running ads (for Dianetics) on nationwide TV and full-page public relations ads in USA Today. Derivative front groups such as Sterling Management are recruiting for Scientology with a nationwide "management training" come-on. Another Scientology front, called "Narconon," nearly got state accreditation to operate a "drug rehabilitation" facility in Oklahoma -- until exposed by the Cult Awareness Network, the National Commission Against Health Fraud, the Newkirk Herald Journal, and others.

Drug rehab is big business. If the Narconon facility had slipped through and received government funding, it might have become a major source of money for the cult and a nucleus for further growth based on the "legitimacy" of state accreditation. The fate of its victims would remain concealed behind cult-induced self-deception, as already occurs in Scientology "processing."

In drug rehab, an actual result is expected, not just public relations hype and "success stories." Despite Scientology's desperate efforts to evade scrutiny -- including personal harassment of Newkirk citizens and state officials -- the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health spent a year evaluating the actual results of the $21,000-per-patient (for the initial three-month program) "LRH Tech" at Narconon Chilocco and reached this conclusion: "The Board determines that the Narconon Program is not effective in the treatment of chemical dependency.... The Board concludes that the program offered by Narconon-Chilocco is not medically safe.... Certification is denied."

On the other hand, there is nothing so threatening to Scientology as an obviously successful psychiatric procedure. The cult's self-serving war against the psychiatric profession led, in 1991, to a public smear campaign against the anti-depressant medication, Prozac. From the April 19, 1991 Wall Street Journal:

"The public's fear of Prozac as a result of this campaign has itself become a potentially serious public health problem as people stay away from treatment," says Jerold Rosenbaum, a Harvard psychiatry professor.

Prozac was determined to be safe and effective by the FDA.

In management training or self-improvement, the "tech" is still the same bag of tricks -- but there is no FDA or Oklahoma Board of Mental Health.

We rely on caveat emptor ("street smarts") and the courts to police fraud. But it is hard to prove fraud when nothing concrete was promised in the first place, when the only substance was hard sell and elusive social pressures. And it is virtually impossible to recover damages from a wealthy and litigious "religion" whose modus operandi is to sue at the drop of a hat, intimidate dissent, and "trick, sue, lie to and destroy" anyone who antagonizes them.

Individual Scientologists rarely intend harm. But harm occurs because the fate of victims, and their actual needs, literally have no meaning within the shell of group-think. The "raw meat" is getting "LRH Tech" and that is good and sufficient -- by definition, without question or thought.

The problem is not bad people, but a powerful and insane group environment which uses deceptive and manipulative methods to induce people to do and believe things which they otherwise would not do or believe.

There are groups specialized to prey upon your hope, courage, loyalty, and desire for betterment. They get your attention any way they can. They create a social milieu which gradually and covertly seduces good people into agreeing among themselves on self-deceptions, so they come to believe themselves an elite in unique possession of all the right answers. The real result is dependence on the group and vulnerability to its control and exploitation.

That is what we mean by "cult." Further information is available from numerous books and from groups such as the Cult Awareness Network. This subject, which was a mystery to many in the early 1970s, is no mystery today. Information is widely and publicly available.

Margery Wakefield's book provides a basic description of Scientology. I will add here some explicitly personal opinions and interpretations, based on my thirteen years in that cult.

What Scientology Is: Clue #1

Many persons reading this book will trying to make sense of strange and unfamiliar behavior by friends or family members. They may feel -- since they have been told so -- that they "don't understand" and that they are doing something wrong.

So let me begin with a reassurance. If you know someone who has become associated with Scientology, it is not your imagination if you think you are seeing incredibly unthinking, uncaring, uninformed, belligerent, arrogant behavior from people you have good reason to believe know better.

A convenient symbol for this problem, one that you may have seen, is bumperstickers with slogans such as "DON'T LET THEM DRUG YOUR CHILDREN" and "PSYCHIATRY KILLS." Psychiatry certainly is not beyond reproach, but this is uninformed follow-the-leader behavior, attacking a large and heterogeneous group of people (as if they were all the same) merely because many of them are in a position to knowledgeably expose the cult's false and inflated claims. The point of such obviously mindless display is to force group members to isolate themselves from ordinary discourse and commit to a highly visible and belligerent stand with the group. Its audience is the group member more than the public.

This is one example of how Scientologists come to accept and act out the thought process exemplified by L. Ron Hubbard in his instructions on how to handle persons or groups, particularly the media, who disagree with or do not buy Scientology's hype -- who, characteristically, are labelled "enemies" in Scientology's private language.

Hubbard's instructions include:

... find or manufacture enough threat against them to sue for peace.... Originate a black PR campaign to destroy the person's repute and discredit them.... Be very alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage.... The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win.... Don't ever defend. Always attack.... [Enemies] may be tricked, sued, lied to, or destroyed.... If possible, destroy them utterly....

The books, articles and court cases on Scientology are replete with examples of how this advice has been followed. That is not our subject here. But Scientology's response to critical examination always has been to distract attention away from the issues and instead to smear and discredit opponents.

In other words, the arrogance, belligerence, and disregard for evidence that you observe are part of what Scientology is. They are part of how the individual is isolated from his past and made captive to the group. Those are not accidental failings or errors of lone individuals.

What Scientology Is: Clue #2

Now, let's connect the dots. What kind thought process do you suppose is required of the followers of Tom Metzger and his White Aryan Resistance (WAR) group, for them to be able to believe the myths of white supremacy -- which are no more ridiculous than Hubbard's statement that:

Psychs ... have been on the track a long time and are the sole cause of decline in this universe....

-- HCOB 12 August 1982

As neo-Nazis stir up hate against jews and blacks, Scientology advertises:

Get the standard Tech on how you can help obliterate Psychiatry.

-- from an ad for a CCHR conference on board a Scientology-owned ship, March 5-11, 1992

In both cases we see group-think producing an arrogant and unthinking disregard for evidence and facts, a diminution of individual judgment and responsibility -- which makes the group's propensity for belligerent attack all the more dangerous.

In 1950, in Dianetics, Hubbard wrote:

Perhaps at some distant date only the unaberrated person [i.e., Scientologist] will be granted civil rights before law.

Since early 1974, Scientology has had "concentration camps" for its internal dissidents -- euphemistically called the "Rehabilitation Project Force" or "RPF." Thus far, fortunately, the cult has lacked sufficient political power to enforce its "ethics" on a larger scale.

The pathetic irrelevance of this cult does not adequately indicate the danger it represents; it is not sufficient just to mutter something about "a fool and his money," and then go our own way. Scientology is one manifestation of a much larger wave of irrationality and influenced judgment.

German society, in the immediate pre-Nazi period, was obsessed with the occult. A prominent general promoted the worship of Odin. Heinrich Himmler, founder of the SS, thought of that group as an elite "religious brotherhood" of racial Aryans, intent on regaining the occult powers (OT abilities) of their ancestors. Today we have psychics, "channeling," Scientology (and other derivatives of satanism), the White Aryan Resistance, etc. -- a wide spectrum of abdicated reason, a reservoir of adrift irrationality ready to be mobilized by the next Fuhrer.

Remember that the Nazis too thought they were being loyal to their friends and family, and were building a better world. They too built their philosophy on a pseudoscience which could not be questioned and which justified atrocities. They did not "fear to hurt another in a just cause."

Persons adrift, anchored only to the group and its irrationality, are the actual product of Scientology.

What Scientology Is: Clue #3

In growing to be an adult, one learns not to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. One acquires "street smarts" and at least a street version of the legal concept of "due diligence." "Due diligence" is a basic level of adult responsibility; it means not being a sucker -- i.e., that you have exercised at least the most basic means of finding out if what you intend to do will have a satisfactory outcome. Checking a babysitter's references is an example of "due diligence." Failing to do so, for example by leaving your kid with a stranger at the airport, could be considered "negligence."

Subjective perception is notoriously unreliable. We all know that witnesses to an automobile accident often have different stories. We have heard the phrase "mob psychology." Many of us are at least passingly familiar with studies of perception and the effects of group influence.

Because subjective perception is susceptible to a such a variety of influences, "due diligence" is especially important when one's life, fortune and sacred honor will be critically affected by decisions based on subjective perception.

But how many people have sold or mortgaged their homes to give money to Scientology? How many have "disconnected" or withdrawn from friends or family because the other person was not sufficiently dedicated to the group? How many children have been short-changed because "clearing the planet" was a higher priority?

What level of adult responsibility, what "due diligence," stood behind those critical life decisions?

If a "Clear" had total recall and other abilities claimed by the Dianetics book, that fact would not be hard to prove to any skeptical observer. Every Scientologist in the world has had to learn to ignore the vast discrepancy between results claimed and what we actually can observe. The group-think offers the rationalization that Scientology is beneficial, even if not as claimed. But the obvious discrepancies and the facile group-think rationalizations are prima facie evidence that the substance of Scientology consists largely of mere group influence rather than effective procedures. Those things are suspicious and all the more cause for extraordinary "due diligence."

Do we observe such diligence among Scientologists? Quite the reverse -- and the fanaticism with which Scientology discourages due diligence should raise further suspicion, in the conscientious person, of a fraudulent and predatory nature of that group.

In Scientology, as in other cults, group pressures overwhelm the individual's desire and ability to exercise due diligence. Not only will cult members not explore the group's references and bona fides, but they will shut out and refuse to listen to information that is prepared and presented to them. Very few Scientologists know any of the books or other materials about Scientology that have appeared over the past two decades.

Scientology brands dissenting material with the generic label "entheta" which means, in reality, "something you will have to confess that you read" (on a security check in auditing). That can lead to lengthy and expensive corrective actions and loss of status in the group. To avoid such discomforts, one learns habits of self-censorship -- and that is the end of "due diligence."

When "entheta" is encountered, in newspapers, magazines, or in conversation, the group member learns mechanisms for shutting it out by myriad tricks of looking elsewhere or blanking the mind -- for example, by discrediting the source of information because "they don't have the tech," i.e., they don't know the fairy-tale "secrets of the universe" that are taught on OT III.

My personal favorite definition of a Scientologist is "someone who can no longer tell the difference," i.e., a person comfortably habituated to the lies, whose personal defenses against non-group ideas are in order, who can sell the cult line with a straight face.

Let me say this differently: a Scientologist is one who has learned to be negligent (an acquired ignorance) in his or her application of due diligence as regards the group affiliation.

The result is families, fortunes and lives squandered "negligently" by people who should know better.

What Scientology Is: Clue #4

I remember a time not long before I graduated from high school, in the days when I was reading The Organization Man, Theory of the Leisure Class, The True Believers and such books. I remember writing myself a note, sort of a "time capsule," to check at intervals throughout my life. The intention was that I identify and compare the changing social influences in my life, and assess how their influence had changed since the last "checkpoint." The idea was to stay aware of my position vis-a-vis such influences, and not unconsciously drift away from my own values and purposes.

Of course that paper has long since vanished. I remember it, though, as an early and valid expression of a central value in my life: to see clearly. My attitude was and is that our challenge is to gain the greatest possible understanding of life's situation in the time available and that delusion does not further this goal.

In other words, I am not temperamentally suited to be a cult member. It took an extraordinary situation in my life to get me attached to Scientology in the first place, and there was no way I could survive as myself for very long in that sea of hype and false promises. Within the cult, there is no way to see clearly. It is not possible. The noise level (suggestions, evaluations, flattery, hard sell, etc.) deliberately make it impossible because one who sees clearly would not remain captive to the group.

I am trying to describe a kind of religious experience or desire. I have never described this before and I am not good at it. Words such as "centered" hint at it. It requires quiet. The best description I know comes from a quite different context.

In the 1930s, James Agee, a New York intellectual, and photographer Walker Evans, were sent to do a magazine story on sharecroppers in the south. Agee went to Alabama and was totally out of place. He seemed not to know where he was or why. The resulting book, called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, became a somewhat self-conscious and tedious examination of his process of observing where he was and why.

But Agee was a writer, and the book contains this remarkable description of something that occurred along the way. He was staying in a sharecropper's dirt-floor shack, it was late at night and he couldn't sleep. He got up and sat at the bare-board table.

 

The light in this room is of a lamp. Its flame in the glass is of the dry, silent and famished delicateness of the latest lateness of the night, and of such ultimate, such holiness of silence and peace that all on earth and within extremest remembrance seems suspended upon it in perfection as upon reflective water: and I feel that if I can by utter quietness succeed in not disturbing this silence, in not so much as touching this plain of water, I can tell you anything within realm of God, whatsoever it my be, that I wish to tell you, and that what so ever it may be, you will not be able to help but understand it.

-- Houghton Mifflin paperback edition, 1980, p. 51

That is what Scientology prevents.

Whatever spiritual growth may mean, Scientology distracts from it and misdirects the person's aspirations into unknowing complicity with its own predatory and satanic purposes -- which perhaps are best described in Hubbard's own "affirmations": "Men are your slaves," and "You can be merciless whenever your will is crossed and you have the right to be merciless."

Scientologists were to be Hubbard's golem. A term more often used today is "Rondroid."

The product of Scientology is disruption of quiet and replacement of the person's "center" with group pressure and a babble of hype designed to go in endless circles that lead only back into the group. There is no "tech." There are only acceptable and salable concepts, such as looking up words in a dictionary, which are given a false source and made to be part of the trap. Life is captured and sold back to the person as an expensive group-sponsored imitation of life. For example, the reality of shared emotion is misdirected by cult definition to give an illusion of substance to a group-owned imitation of spiritual growth. The real thing is thereby displaced and prevented. (The subject of "imitation" is also discussed by Robert Kaufman elsewhere in this volume.)

Loss of one's "center," of one's life, of real personal growth, is the most intimate personal cost of cult servitude, more so even than the trashed families and other costs which are easier to identify and describe.

Former Scientologist Roxanne Friend, though diagnosed with a terminal cancer which went untreated while in Scientology, said on the Sally Jessy Raphael show:

I can honestly tell you my life is happier now. I feel more joy. I have a life now, and I did not have a life for thirteen years.

What Scientology Is: Clue #5

One of the most painful moments in my life was watching a person I knew well, and cared for, dissected and manipulated by a team of Scientology registrars (salesmen trained in "hard sell").

It was a pretty easy sell, no particular challenge for the registrars. My friend was not in a very stable position, unresolved personal issues having been evaded for several years by flight into Scientology with its promised "way out" and convenient excuses for avoiding actual confrontation of mental health issues.

My own position was untenable, no angel myself, with personal and family connections binding me to the hope that Scientology would provide common ground for communication. I was still willing to try and therefore not positioned to make an clean break. I was easy to neutralize.

The encounter began with routine discussion of various topics during which the registrars assessed the situation and reached the conclusions I just described. (I say they reached those conclusions because they acted on them.) Clearly, my friend was the target, not me. I just had to be kept out of the way.

They used the most obvious tricks: gross flattery, "love bombing," unsubstantiated assertions and asserted agreements -- which my friend could not question without upsetting the flattery-relation. It was like watching an automobile accident in slow motion, each detail so clear and seemingly so inevitable. She offered no resistance; in retrospect the event suggests a battered woman's loyalty to the perpetrator of violence or a kidnap victim's desperate identification with the power figure. This was the first time I had witnessed such blatant contempt for another person's integrity; the registrars flaunted their control of my friend, with little sneers to indicate they understood my helplessness.

I do not understand how one human being can take such crass and blatant advantage of another, but then I've led a sheltered life. The performance was without shame except my own. I was ashamed that anyone would see my friend in such a degraded condition, much more exposed and helpless than if she were naked. I was ashamed to have witnessed it myself. I was ashamed to be in any way associated with people who would do such a thing. I was witnessing a rape, with my friend as captive, smiling, robotic "participant," helpfully insisting that everything was her own free decision. I do not know what depth of past pain made this seem an acceptable alternative in her life. I could do or say nothing; she was responding to each ploy predictably and obediently as though programmed in advance. I had watched the programming.

And that was only the beginning.

I was not yet sufficiently neutralized. There remained a possibility that I might later disrupt this corruption of a human person which the registrars had accomplished. They would not stay to defend their handiwork so she would have to do it for them.

The solution was simply to get my friend so closely identified with the evening's events that I could not challenge those events without seeming to attack my friend -- a typical Scientology misdirection, seemingly second nature to the registrars, who showed no hesitation. Also, there were Scientology "reinforcements" available locally to attack me directly if I stepped out of line.

Here's how it was done. My friend had wanted to do something for me, so the registrars told her what "I needed." Without questioning their assertions, she heroically rose to the challenge of accomplishing what "I needed." That commitment bound her to the event. The registrars told her over and over how heroic and noble she was for doing this wonderful thing "for me."

The situation was designed to shut me up. I could do nothing but agree without inviting retribution and casting myself in the role of ungrateful cad. That would have accomplished nothing. There was no way she could have listened.

Now in fact, my friend had known me for years. The lack of benefit from any previous Scientology actions, and my increasing discomfort, were there for anyone to see. No one who knew me well could be unaware that Scientology and I were a marriage made in Hell. What I desperately needed was help getting out of the cult and back in touch with my own life. At a much later time this same friend observed, but without understanding the cause, that I was "dead." And she was right. My inability to face the truth and act effectively, on that occasion, was a personal failure of major proportion which left a deep guilt that I carried for years. I was near to being able to face the truth, but not quite; I did not understand the tricks of mind control.

For my friend to believe that what was being done was "for me" required eliminating any perception or understanding of who I was. That was understood quite well by the registrars, and accomplished with an authoritative, straight-in-the-eyes hypnotic command to my friend that the "real" me wanted what they said, and that whatever I said was not really me but just my "case." Once that shift of perception was implanted by Hard Sell, I became effectively invisible to my friend. In one sense, that was a murder, it made me into a non-person.

Such interrupted human contact is central to Scientology's mind control. Just as jews were "subhuman" to the Nazis, their human concerns invisible and irrelevant, so "case" served the same purpose here. The group's asserted reality replaced the actual human reality. The person to whom this was done (my friend) thereby became in fact unable to face the actual person (me) and -- the other side of the same coin -- unable to face what she actually had done. She then had nowhere to go but deeper into the group. She became all the more captive, forced to defend the mutual self-deceptions which maintained the cult relationship, as if her very identity depended on it -- which, of course, it did.

Although I did not know it then, that misdirection was effectively to end our friendship. Real human contact was impossible thereafter, in either direction.

This is the level on which Scientology's manipulation operates. It is not the sort of thing we like to talk about, and probably not very pleasant to read. The unspeakably personal pain of such events shields the cult from public exposure of its real nature and activity. No one wants to admit they've seen such things, much less talk about them.

But the shell of silence is crumbling. As with survivors of sexual abuse, a fast-growing number of people are becoming willing to speak out about Scientology, to tell what they have seen, making it more possible for these things to be known and understood. I am standing on the shoulders of many such people.

What To Do About It

It is hard to imagine how Germans could have remained unaware of what was happening in their country in the 1930s, but familiarity with cult phenomena makes it more believable that they were, in fact, literally unaware. The necessary information was available -- but unseen. The cult model -- human reality made invisible, subordinate to the endless greed of an insane group -- shows clearly how the same sort of thing could happen again. But we can defend ourselves and those we love.

Attacking the neo-Nazis, Scientology, and other cults is not the answer -- though this can be greatly beneficial as an educational endeavor. An irrationality suppressed just goes underground and spreads. And our own freedoms require that the cults be unfettered, because we can not abridge their freedoms of speech and association without endangering our own.

What we can do is exercise our own freedom of speech. We can fight Scientology's attempts to use intimidation and harassment to silence us. We can expose their crimes and deceptions -- in the courts, in the media and in our communities.

But that is only the start of an answer, because Scientology is only a symptom of the problem. Why do people who would not buy the Brooklyn Bridge buy Scientology? Or any other cult? Or any of the white supremacist-neo-Nazi groups? Or the suicidal loyalties of street gangs? What is missing from our basic "street smarts?"

What is missing, is a basic understanding of the social world in which we live, its basic geography and survival skills. Cult recruitment should be as transparent to any streetwise high school kid as any other con game that seeks to manipulate his loyalty, to exploit his person, labor, or money.

We study "American Government" in high school, but we neglect social psychology, the role of groups in our lives, and their effects. We study "General Science," but how many of us acquired a good understanding of what science is, the scientific method, how to lie with statistics, or how to recognize nonsense? Perhaps the most important thing we can do is encourage and promote such education.

We can educate ourselves. What are cults? How do they operate? What else (such as the White Aryan Resistance) operates in a similar manner? How can "cognitive dissonance" affect our perceptions? What is wrong with anecdotal evidence, or "scientific discoveries" that can be known or applied only within the confines of a single group?

We can speak. Loudly. We can work with our schools and churches to strengthen our "street smarts" and bring about an awareness of these vital matters -- and to find better, more real, answers to the genuine human needs which cults exploit.

A moment ago I used a polemical phrase, "an insane group." That phrase does mean something; we have numerous examples. Some studies of management have made a start, but we really do not have yet, in the social sciences, a proper definition or theory to encompass this portion of the social reality that we experience. That work is yet to be done.

Most immediately, we must recognize the reality of "undue influence" or whatever you want to call it, and work within the legal system to find fair and humane ways to offer alternatives to those who are "stuck in a sticky group." It will not do just to blame the victim, saying that it was his fault or weakness or decision. People do not ask to be raped or choose to join destructive cults.

Let's not just let the rape go on, and later say that in ignorance we did not know what was happening.

Bob Penny was in Scientology for 13 years. He wrote Social Control in Scientology: A look at the methods of entrapment, which was published in the same volume with Margery Wakefield's The Road to Xenu.